Caroline Burnes - Familiar Vows

“You didn’t mean for this to happen, but it has. Now the easiest thing for all of us is to deal with it. To figure out the safest thing for you and Lorry and make sure that happens.”

“My name is everything. If I have to change it, I won’t have a career or a way to make a living.”

Lucas sighed. “People adapt, Michelle. A different life is better than being tortured to death. That’s what will happen if the Maxims get their hands on you.”

“What if we can’t find Lorry?” As soon as the question was out of her mouth, the black cat sat up and put a paw on her lips.

“Listen to the cat,” Lucas said. “Don’t go there. Don’t even think that.”

“Shouldn’t you call in the feds?” she asked.

She knew it was the wrong question by the way his hands clenched the steering wheel. The truth was, it seemed that no question she asked was the right one. He’d made her feel like crap, and now he was acting like she was a nitwit.

“What? Did I say something wrong? Isn’t it normal to call in the FBI when a person is presumed to have been kidnapped and possibly tortured because she’s a witness in a murder case?”

“You can’t let it go, can you?” Lucas responded, his hands tightening on the wheel.

“No, I can’t. You’re telling me I have to reinvent myself, but you won’t answer a single question.”

“Here’s your answer then. Someone blew my brother’s cover. I can’t prove anything, but I don’t trust the FBI, the marshals or anyone else. Lorry is my responsibility, and like it or not, so are you. Lorry is in this because she wanted to help me achieve justice for my brother’s murder. She could have run away or ‘forgotten’ what she saw.” But she stood her ground and told the truth. Now, because of your photo, she could be killed. So I’ll find Lorry, and I’ll protect her. Once Antonio’s appeal is over, maybe we can put this behind us. Until then, I can’t risk putting my trust in anyone. Not the feds, not the marshals, not even my partner, who was like a brother to me.”

She remembered the way his hand had gone for a gun. “You’re a cop, too, aren’t you?”

“Not anymore.”

She could tell he didn’t want to talk about it, but so what? She didn’t want to be in the car with him. “What kind of cop?”

“A federal one. Not FBI.”

“So your brother worked for the Dallas police and you were with the U.S. marshals?”

He gave her a look that told her to shut up and back off.

“Is your dad in law enforcement?”

His sigh was long and loud. “My past is my business, Michelle. Drop it, okay?”

“So you’re the only one who can ask questions?”

“Ask questions about something else.”

“Like what? The weather? It isn’t as if we share a whole bunch of interests. What about golf? Is that a good topic?” She was deviling him now, and it was satisfying.

She felt the cat’s sharp claws dig into her thigh. “Ouch!”

Lucas laughed, and she saw what he might look like if he didn’t carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was a striking man.

“Are you married?” she asked.

“Man, you just go from bad to worse, don’t you?”

“Divorced, eh?” She felt a moment of strange kinship. “Must have been bad, too, from the way you’re acting.”

He drove in silence, and she looked out the window. They’d circled around and cut through the woods, so that they were cresting a high bluff that gave frequent glimpses of the bay flashing by. She was struck by a memory, and she spoke before she thought. “You know, when I was a kid, I came to Alabama to camp. A photography camp. That was the best summer of my life.”

She felt his gaze on her, but she kept her eyes focused out the window. The water was beautiful in the afternoon light. How was it possible that only a few weeks earlier, she’d crossed the same body of water on her way to photograph a wedding? Her world had been in order. She’d been dreaming of her gallery opening, something that she’d walked away from without even a phone call to Marco. Lucas hadn’t allowed her to contact anyone.

Her cell phone was in her purse, and she could call the gallery owner as soon as she got a moment alone, but Lucas had warned her that anyone she drew into her web of trouble could be hurt.

She wouldn’t put Marco or Kevin at risk. They would worry for her, but worry was better than being tortured or killed. And for whatever strange reason, she believed Lucas. He wasn’t the kind of man who exaggerated the danger that now surrounded her and Lorry.

“I know you didn’t mean for this to happen,” Lucas said.

She wanted to pretend to clean her ears, as if she hadn’t heard properly. Sarcasm had always been her best defense. Instead, she asked, “What if Lorry is hurt?”

“Think positive, but be on the alert for negative.”

“Is that the lawman’s code?” Her emotions shifted yet again, and she found tears welling in her eyes. She didn’t like to cry in front of people. Had never liked it. She’d been taught it was a weakness, and her parents detested weakness in any form.

“It’s my code. Look, I’m sorry I snapped at you and accused you of things.”

“It was the truth.”

Familiar stretched and licked her chin, giving her comfort she hadn’t realized she craved. He used his head to butt her cheek, and she felt her spirits lift a little.

“Truth is a strange thing, Michelle. You could never have known why I didn’t want Lorry’s picture taken. I couldn’t tell you. After I saw the photograph, I understood why you wanted a print for yourself.”

“It was meant only for me. It may be the best work I’ve ever done, but I would never deliberately have shown it without permission.”

He took a single-track lane deep into the beautiful woods.

“Let’s make a deal,” Lucas said. “We put the past behind us. We forget how all this began and simply do our best to bring it to the right conclusion.”

She wanted to nod, but something held her back. Guilt? Remorse? Stubbornness? She wasn’t certain. “I’m sorry you got dragged into this. You’ve had enough loss.”

“This was part of my job. I’m not a lawman anymore, so this time I’m not bound by the conduct that governs law officers.”

His voice was so cold and deadly that a chill slid over her. “What does that mean?”

“It means that as an officer of the law, I was sworn to bring Antonio in alive. Or at least to try to.”

“And now?”

“If Robert or any of his goons have harmed Lorry, I’ll do whatever I have to do.”

She swallowed. A question stuck in her throat. Sometimes it was best not to know. As they turned down a tree-shaded lane toward a lovely cottage, she realized that she’d just learned her first valuable lesson from Lucas.

EVER SINCE LUCAS GOT LORRY and Charles’s address from Eleanor, he’s been focused on getting to Spanish Fort. I didn’t see anything suspicious in the Mobile airport, but I had the sense that we were being followed at Kennedy. There were men outside Michelle’s apartment this morning. Lucas saw them. He did his best to give them the slip, getting the cab driver to head toward Brooklyn and then veer off to the airport. I’m not certain he was successful, though. This Maxim organization has a long reach.

Michelle is wallowing in guilt. Both of them have forgotten that a cat needs sustenance. The cream on the plane was a nice surprise, but let’s just say I’m not the type of cat who likes a liquid diet. The bipeds don’t understand that I need small, frequent meals. It’s part of my diet plan to maintain my svelte figure.

So here’s Lorry’s cottage. Cute as a button, and just exactly what I would have imagined. Big screened porch to watch the sunset over the bay, shady lawn with that lush green grass that folks around here call Centipede. It’s heavenly.