Lisa Phillips - Star Witness

Aaron glanced at her and then took a corner so fast they almost went up on two wheels. “You want to talk about this now? Fine. I’m guessing they don’t want you harmed. They don’t get paid for delivering damaged goods.”

“Carosa wants to kill me himself. I know. He yelled it across the courtroom the day I testified against his brother.” She took a deep breath and pushed it out slowly as they raced down the street. “This isn’t about Hector’s brother now. Maybe someone hired him just like they hired these guys.”

“Good thing for us Carosa seems to only know semicompetent thugs.”

Every few streets she glanced back until finally she said, “They’re not there anymore.”

“They must have backed off.” He pulled into a gas station and out the other side, cutting off a Buick. “That means they’re confident they’ll get another shot.”

FIVE

Aaron drove for the sake of driving, not worrying about where he was going. He reached over and squeezed Mackenzie’s hand. “You okay?”

Mackenzie’s fingers were chilled, as though the courage had been drained out of her. He let her hand go, wondering what he was supposed to say now that all of this was officially a whole lot bigger than just someone with a grudge against the center. Carosa had sent men for her.

Aaron pulled up at a stoplight. Mackenzie’s big eyes made her look more like a scared girl than a woman who dressed like a grandma librarian—except for the black high-heeled boots that started directly under her knee-length skirt. Her hair was still pulled tight in that ugly bun she’d been wearing all day. It was as if it was some kind of uniform she used to protect her identity. Had she been a recognizable person before? He looked at her again, trying to think if there was someone she resembled.

Eric should have pressed the local P.D. harder. Clearly Mackenzie’s name had been leaked somehow, given that it had taken no time at all for hired mercenaries to find her. And for what? Aaron didn’t even want to think about what Carosa would have done with her. Or how her current identity had been connected to the person she used to be.

Mackenzie looked out the side window. Her fingers gripped the straps of the backpack that sat between her knees. They were on the run from Carosa, but Aaron had no idea what the deal was. What had happened to her?

Ignorance wasn’t bliss—it got you killed.

When the danger was hypothetical, that was fine. He’d had the time to wait for her to share. But now that it was real, he didn’t like not knowing the people involved, or the fact Eric couldn’t give him all the information about Mackenzie and the guy after her without breaking WITSEC rules.

Some favor.

He needed to get Mackenzie someplace safe until Eric called to say it was all clear for her to come home...probably only to be relocated again. Who knew what the fallout from this mess would be? Especially when the Marshals Service realized Mackenzie had disappeared.

He studied her while the light was red, trying to guess who this woman really was and why she was hiding.

“I need to know.” He clenched his jaw, willing her to talk to him. “Do you know any of the men who tried to stop us?”

“I’ve never seen them before.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry, I had to ask.”

“Now you’re in danger, too. Because of me.”

And that seemed to concern her a great deal. Why, he had no idea. She didn’t know him from any guy on the street, just like she’d said of him. Mackenzie cared way too much about a bunch of kids most people would write off—even him, before he’d seen how they opened up to her.

Aaron squeezed her fingers again. “It makes no difference if I’m in their sights, too—the play is still the same. We stick together.” He followed the line of cars that clogged the city’s streets. “My shoulder’s still healing. Eric didn’t know who else he could trust, and we’d already met.”

“What are you healing from?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I’m perfectly capable of keeping you safe until we meet up with Eric and get the next move all figured out.” He hung a right, one eye on the traffic behind them, watching for a tail.

“Are you sure you’re okay with being involved? I mean, drop me at the next corner if you want. I won’t be responsible for dragging someone else down with me.” She glanced away, out the window. “Not again.”

Now, why did she have to go and say that? “I might not be a hero, but at least I’m not a jerk. I’m in this with you, and I have no intention of ditching just because things got hot. The threat is real now.”

“I know.”

“Mackenzie, you don’t have to worry. I’m going to stick with you until we know you’re safe. Either Eric will figure out what’s going on or we’ll get you a place to stay. Then you can go back to your life.”

Back to the Downtown Performing Arts Center, a building filled with kids and laughter from the moment school got out until well after dark. Music had permeated the whole place today—everything from the most somber classical piece to the latest radio hit song. What was it about Mackenzie that she could take a broken-down building and a bunch of kids everyone had written off and infuse them with so much life?

Aaron needed to know more about why Carosa was after her so he could wrap up this favor and get back to his life. But first he had to lose any possible pursuers, just in case there was someone behind them he hadn’t seen.

“Why now?”

Aaron didn’t know if she was talking to him, or if she had even heard what he said. He took a sharp right down an alley and hit the gas. They came out the far side onto another busy main street, and he flipped a quick U-turn to the sound of multiple beeping horns.

It was as if she didn’t even notice.

“Why couldn’t this have happened years ago, before I made a life for myself? He shouldn’t have been able to find me. This shouldn’t be happening.”

Aaron’s chest got tight. “I get that this is a shock, Mackenzie, but it can’t be unprecedented. Can it?”

She finally looked at him. “Being ready for what is a remote possibility is one thing. Thinking you’re actually going to have to leave the life you love because a group of soldiers is trying to abduct you is something entirely different. I’m done, I won’t ever be safe. He found me this time, he’ll find me again.”

“So that’s it? You’re going to give yourself up to die?”

She huffed. “What do you expect me to do? I’m going up against a man who’ll kill me without a second thought. What do I do in the face of that? Hit him with a guitar? Sing him to death?”

Aaron made a turn onto a major street lined with stores and restaurants. “As entertaining as that would be, you don’t have to worry. It’s why I’m here.”

“And I get to be the helpless female while the big strong man protects me? Sorry, that doesn’t work for me.”

He pulled up behind a sky-blue Cadillac at a stoplight. The air conditioning took that moment to stop working, and hot Arizona air filled the cab instead. Great.

He turned to her. “If you’re going to fight me all the way, maybe you should get out at the next corner. Or you could trust me and I can teach you how to survive.”

“Like how to shoot a gun?” She shuddered. “I don’t think so.”

“Then you seriously need my help. Eric wouldn’t have asked me to stick around if he thought you should just give up and die.”

“It’s his job to make sure I’m safe.”

The light was still red. Aaron studied her profile, folded in and wound tight again. “You don’t have to be scared.”

“I’m not worried about dying, but I’m also too much of a realist. Survival is pretty much a pipe dream at this point. This guy will never, ever give up.”