Love Inspired Suspense January 2014 Read Free Page A

she?” he asked. “A couple of days ago, she said my name. Clear as day.”
    He was trying to distract her. A new move for Hunter. He usually stuck to facts and figures and orders. Maybe he sensed how close to the edge of panic she was.
    Her parents had told her not to testify.
    They’d begged her to move to a new town, stay away from St. Louis and forget what she’d seen. They’d been afraid that if she agreed to testify, she’d end up like Joe. At the time, Annie had thought that Joe had been an innocent bystander, a guy who’d gotten in the way of a robbery and been killed because of it. She’d wanted nothing more than to see his killers thrown in jail, so she’d refused her parents’ advice.
    She’d received a lot of new information since then, but she still wanted the men who’d killed her husband to pay for their crimes.
    â€œSomeone found me at the safe house, Hunter,” she finally said. “Talking about Sophia won’t change that.”
    â€œI know, but I thought it might help you relax.” He glanced into the rearview mirror, offering a rare smile. It changed his face, made him less austere and more approachable.
    â€œIt’s hard to relax when someone wants me dead.”
    â€œWe don’t know that there’s a price on your head.”
    â€œBut you think that Saunders and Fiske want to keep me from testifying against them. You told me that if they killed Joe, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.” She’d believed him because she’d seen the look in Luke Saunders’s eyes after he’d shot Joe. Triumph. Excitement. Just thinking about it made her stomach churn.
    â€œUnless they’ve been able to arrange for the hit from their prison cells, what happened tonight could just be—”
    â€œI saw the person at the back fence. I know something was tossed into the yard. Don’t try to tell me that it was some New Year’s reveler. I’m not going to believe it.”
    â€œI wouldn’t lie to you, Annie,” he said quietly, and she thought that he probably meant it.
    But Joe had said the same thing so many times, she’d almost stopped hearing it. He’d said it when checks bounced or electricity bills weren’t paid. He’d said it when she’d asked why he was home late from work or why their money always seemed to disappear.
    She’d believed every lie he’d told her.
    She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Not with anyone. Even a guy who seemed to be honorable.
    â€œEveryone lies sometimes,” she responded. “And you getting me to relax isn’t a solution to our problem.”
    â€œTrust me, I know that. I’m taking this situation very seriously. The whole team is. We’ll figure out how you were found, and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
    She wanted to believe him, but nothing had happened the way it was supposed to in the past year. She blinked back tears. She’d cried an ocean of them since Joe’s death. Every time she thought she was cried out, more tears came.
    Not this time, though.
    A new year. A new beginning. No more tears over things she couldn’t change. She was going to take control, make her life what she wanted it to be. What she thought God wanted it to be.
    Hunter turned down a well-lit street lined with tall apartment buildings. Not as quiet as the street the safe house had been on. Lights shone from most of the apartment windows and a few people milled around in a small courtyard between two buildings.
    Hunter bypassed the taller apartment complexes and pulled into the parking garage of a four-story building that sat on a small corner lot. Several cars filled spaces in the dark enclave. He parked near a door, shifting in his seat and looking straight into Annie’s eyes.
    He had the darkest eyes she’d ever seen, his eyelashes thick and just as dark. She didn’t know why she was