Love Inspired Suspense January 2014 Read Free

prosecuting attorneys. Long rides out into the country and back, circuitous routes through the heart of downtown—all of it designed to throw off a tail or to spot one.
    There’d been no indication that they’d been followed, but the safe house had been compromised. Logical reason dictated that someone had leaked the information, but Hunter wanted to think anything other than that.
    Too bad he couldn’t.
    He rubbed the back of his neck, glad that Annie was keeping her thoughts to herself. It was probably tempting to throw accusations. After all, she was doing the feds a favor by testifying. She’d been promised a lot of things that had made Hunter cringe. Things that could never really be promised—a new life, a new home, a chance to put the past behind her and to put her husband’s killers in jail.
    All Hunter had promised was that he’d keep her safe.
    He intended to do that.
    Nothing and no one was going to keep that from happening.

TWO
    O ne hour and five minutes.
    That was how long Annie had been sitting silently in the back of Hunter’s SUV. Sophia had drifted off to sleep minutes after the ride began. Annie wished she could fall asleep as easily. She was exhausted, but too wound up and scared to close her eyes.
    Hunter had said everything would be okay, but it didn’t feel okay. It felt as if she was running away again, killers on her trail.
    An image flashed through her head—blood on old linoleum. Joe gasping for breath. She thought she could smell the sharp scent of gunfire in the air.
    â€œWhere are we going?” she asked. Anything to stop the memories.
    â€œAnother safe house,” Hunter responded tersely. He’d been on his radio twice since they’d left the safe house. Neither conversation had made him happy. Not enough information to go on. That was what he’d told her when she’d asked for an update on what had been thrown into the safe-house yard.
    That hadn’t surprised her. In the time that she’d known him, he’d proved to be a man of few words. Usually that didn’t bother her. Live and let live. That was the way her parents had raised her. Be kind, be patient, show love. Those had been the tenets of their faith, and they were the keystones of Annie’s, too.
    Right at that moment, though, she was out of patience with Hunter. “Can you be a little more specific?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œIt’s better if you don’t know the address.”
    That seemed to be his argument for everything. It’s better if you stay inside. It’s better if you don’t call your family. It’s better if you sit in the back of my car and be quiet and let me figure everything out.
    â€œIt’s not like I’m going to tell anyone where we’re going.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œThen tell me. I’m an adult. I have a child. I think I have the right to know.”
    â€œYou picked a bad night to assert yourself, Annie.”
    â€œThe way I see it, I should have asserted myself a long time ago,” she replied. She’d spent a year going by a new name, living as a different person and doing absolutely everything Hunter had told her to do. She hadn’t questioned him because she’d wanted to protect Sophia.
    The baby. Don’t let anything happen to the baby.
    Joe had gasped those words with his last breath. Late at night, when it was quiet and dark, they’d echo in Annie’s head until she had to get up and touch Sophia’s cheek, make sure that she was okay.
    â€œOnly you can decide that,” he said calmly. “But for the record, I’m following protocol. That’s what’s kept you safe for a year.”
    â€œYou’re not the only one who wants to keep me safe, Hunter. I have a vested interest in it, too. I have a baby who needs me. I have to make sure I’m around for her.”
    â€œShe’s not really a baby anymore, is