She was at a dead end. Without the death certificate she couldn’t investigate further. DC Vital Records Division had sent her an automated email confirming that they’d received her request for Thomas’s death certificate, but it was anybody’s guess how long it would take before she received it.

  The USB stick she’d found in Thomas’ room had been of no help either. It contained no data.

  Lilly stared out of the window. Due to Delta Labs’ location far from downtown Bethesda there were pitifully few choices when it came to restaurants. In the plaza below, it was getting busy. Lilly’s stomach growled involuntarily. Time to take a break and eat something before the line at the only two food trucks grew too long. A taco from the popular taco truck in the plaza was just what she needed now.

  She grabbed her handbag, shoved her cell phone into it and walked through the lab.

  “Going down to grab lunch,” she announced to the lab staff. “Does anybody want anything from the taco truck?”

  Several ‘noes’ echoed in the lab.

  “Andrew? How about you?” she asked, since he hadn’t replied.

  He looked up from his work. “No, thanks, Lilly, I’m fasting today.”

  “Good for you,” Lilly said and headed outside.

  Instead of taking the elevator down, Lilly opted for the stairs. She needed a little exercise. She was still getting over the news that her cousin had been a CIA agent. And there she’d thought he was in the military, fighting foreign wars for his country. In truth, he’d served his country in a different way. Why had he never told her what he really did? After all, they’d been so close.

  “What can I get you?” the guy in the taco truck asked.

  Lilly hadn’t even looked at the menu posted on the outside of the truck. She always ordered the same. “Three beef tacos.”

  “Name?”

  “Lilly.”

  She handed him her credit card, and he swiped it, then made her sign the receipt. She stepped aside to let the person behind her order. A few yards away was an empty bench. A short distance behind it stood a large sculpture made of different colored glass. It depicted a heart.

  Lilly walked to the bench and sat down. She allowed the rays of sunshine to kiss her face and took a deep breath. Her mind went back to Thomas. She still couldn’t believe that he’d been a CIA agent. And clearly a good one, because not even she had suspected that he kept a secret from her. What exactly had he done in the CIA?

  The ringing of her cell phone pulled her out of her thoughts. She looked at the display, but it only said Unknown Caller. Was Henry Sheppard finally calling her back?

  “Hello?”

  There was static in the line, a garbled voice, but she couldn’t understand what the person said.

  “Hello?” she repeated, but the static in the line was getting worse.

  She shrugged, and disconnected the call, before putting the cell phone back in her handbag.

  Just then, somebody from the food truck called out her name. “Lilly, three beef tacos.”

  7

  “Fuck!” Jack cursed, while jumping out of the car.

  He’d figured out where Lilly’s would-be assassination would take place by calling the number for Jose’s Enormes Tacos and asking them where their truck was parked today. He’d raced there breaking all kinds of traffic laws, unsure what time the event would take place, although judging by the lunch crowd in his premonition it would be around midday.

  While in the car, he’d tried Lilly’s cell phone number, the one she’d given him seven years earlier. It was still in service, but it had gone straight to voicemail. He hadn’t bothered leaving a message, because if he didn’t reach Lilly in time, she’d never get it. He continued calling her, until he finally got through.

  He heard a voice, but the static in the line prevented him from being able to understand what Lilly said.

  “Lilly, run back into the building!” he warned her, hoping that she could hear him over the static. “Somebody is trying to shoot you.”

  “Hello?” he heard through the static, confirming that she hadn’t heard him.

  “Shit, shit, shit!”

  Jack already spotted Lilly sitting on the bench and sprinted toward her. Just a few more yards. He nearly collided with a teenager listening to something on his earphones but avoided him at the last second. Jack raced past him, then saw in horror that Lilly stood up from the bench. Somebody from the taco truck had called her name. He only had seconds now.

  Jack was three yards away from her, when he saw the red dot on her forehead. His heart stopped, but his body didn’t. He lunged toward her, tackling her to the ground, when he heard the sound of something hitting glass and breaking it. He glanced up. The bullet had struck a glass sculpture several yards past the bench.

  “Active shooter!” Jack yelled out to the people milling about the plaza.

  The shattering of the glass sculpture had alerted everybody, and people screamed and ran for cover. Beneath him, Lilly groaned.

  “We’ve gotta get out of here,” Jack said, lifting himself off Lilly, while he glanced back. Since the bullet had hit the sculpture behind the bench, it was easy to guess where the assassin was shooting from. “Stay low.”

  Lilly seemed dazed, but he didn’t have time to check if the fall had injured her, because the shooter was still up there somewhere in the parking garage, aiming at them. Jack grabbed Lilly and pulled her with him, when another shot rang out, but Jack had already pushed Lilly behind the taco truck and out of the line of fire. Behind it, he took a breath and ran his eyes over Lilly. She looked disheveled, and her knees were bruised, but other than that she seemed unhurt.

  “Oh my God! What’s happening?” Lilly asked, her breathing choppy, her voice laced with panic.

  “I’m gonna get you outta here. Take off your lab coat.”

  “Why?” She cast him a confused look.

  He motioned to where he’d parked his car. “We’ve gotta run to safety. And without your lab coat the shooter won’t immediately recognize you.” He was already tugging on her coat and helping her out of it. He took her arm and pulled her up behind the safety of the taco truck.

  “My handbag,” she said and reached down to the ground.

  Jack grabbed it and handed it to her. Then he looked in the direction of his car, making himself familiar with anything that could provide cover: a few smaller trees, trashcans, and a few cars.

  “My car is the red Toyota.” He pointed to it. “Do you see it?”

  “Yes.”

  “We need to run there as fast as we can.”

  Lots of people were already running away from the plaza, screaming. He hoped that the chaos in the plaza made it harder for the shooter to find his target.

  “Ready?”

  She nodded.

  Holding Lilly’s hand, he took off running, taking advantage of the trees between the taco truck and his car. A few yards away from where he’d stopped the car, he gave Lilly another instruction.

  “Get in on the passenger side. The door is unlocked. Then duck.”

  She didn’t say another word, but continued running. Jack let go of her hand and ran toward the driver’s side. From the corner of his eye, he saw Lilly sprint toward the passenger side door and rip it open.

  Jack reached the driver’s side, and by the time he was inside the car, Lilly had already slammed the passenger door shut and was ducking down in her seat. Jack started the car and put it in reverse.

  “Hold on to something.”

  Lilly braced herself on the dashboard, her head between her legs, while Jack did a three-way turn so fast the tires were smoking. Seconds later, he was in the street barely avoiding a crash with a taxi as he drove down the wrong direction on the one-way street. But he didn’t care. They had to put enough distance between them and the shooter, before he could worry about anything else.

  But first he had to make sure nobody could track them. “Do you have your phone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Give it to me.”

  She dug her phone out of her handbag. “Should I call 9-1-1?”

  “No, hand it to me.”

  She handed it to him, and he tossed it out of the car.

  “What the hell?” she cursed. “Why did you do that?”

  “So we can’t be tracked.”

  At the next side street, he turned. This wasn’t a one-way street, and finally, he could take a breath. He gave her a sideways glance.

  “Lilly? Are you alright?” he asked again, orienting himself to find the best route to take them to a safe place.

  Stunned, she stared at him. “Who are you, and how do you know my name?”

  “I’m Jack. Jack Porter. I was Thomas’s friend.”

  “Jack?”

  From the corner of his eye, he noticed that she shook her head.

  “I knew Jack Porter. And you’re not him. Stop the car and let me out.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  8

  Lilly’s heart beat into her throat. She’d been kidnapped!

  She was still panicked about the shooting in the plaza. She would have gotten killed if it hadn’t been for the man who’d pushed her out of the line of fire. That much she believed. But had it all been staged, the shooting, the panic at the plaza, so he could abduct her without her putting up a fight? And the gall of the man to claim he was Thomas’s friend Jack Porter! As if she didn’t know what Jack looked like!

  “Stop the car now! Or I’ll mace you!” she bluffed and reached into her handbag.

  “If you really had mace on you, you would have already used it. Nice try though,” he said.

  Was that a smirk on his face? How dare he!

  Clearly the man wasn’t easily fooled. She glanced outside, gaging the speed of the car.

  “I wouldn’t do that. You could get hurt.”

  “Do what?” she spat.

  “Try and jump out of the moving car.” He gave her a sideways glance and pointed to her legs. “You’ve already got bruises on your legs from earlier.”

  She looked at her knees, and only now saw the abrasions and the blood on them. She hadn’t even felt the pain until now, too much adrenaline pumping through her.

  “Why are you doing this? What do you want? A ransom? I have to disappoint you. I’ve got a mountain of student loans, and no savings.”

  “If I’d left you back there at the plaza, you’d be dead now.”

  “Can’t you at least slow down?” she asked. She pointed through the windshield. “That light’s already yellow.”

  But he raced through the next intersection with the light turning red, killing her hope that she could escape while the car was waiting at a red light.

  “Lilly, take a breath. I’ve gotta get us to a safe place before they can catch up with us.”

  “Catch up? The shooter is back there at the plaza. You make it sound like I was the only target. I heard several shots.”

  He looked at her, and for the first time she noticed the deep blue of his eyes. Jack had had eyes like that. They’d drawn her to him that day at the Reed family BBQ.

  “Yes, and had the first one hit you, there wouldn’t have been any others. It was a sniper, and he had you in the crosshairs. I saw the laser on your forehead.”

  “That’s ludicrous.” Though the knowledge that somebody had aimed at her made her shiver. “No… no… why would…” Then the events of the last few days sank in. What if it had something to do with Thomas’s death?

  “Who are you really?” she finally asked and looked at him again. Had Henry Sheppard sent him?

  He was handsome. She had to give him that. Tall, muscular, with dark blond hair, a straight nose and high cheekbones, a strong chin. Not a single ounce of fat on his frame.

  “Like I said, I’m Jack Porter.” He suddenly unleashed a smile on her. “And you’ve grown even more beautiful in the last seven years.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. Seven years. That’s how long it had been since she’d seen the real Jack Porter, the man in whose arms she’d spent a passionate night, only to wake up alone.

  “If you knew what Jack Porter did, you wouldn’t claim to be him.”

  He didn’t respond. Instead he took a few more hasty turns until he finally drove into an underground garage. There, he had to drive slower, and she eyed the handle of the car door again. The moment he slowed the car as he drove around a bend, she pulled on the handle.

  Nothing happened. The door didn’t open. She spun her head toward him.

  “You, you…”

  “It’s for your own good,” he claimed.

  A few seconds later, he pulled into an empty parking spot and jumped out of the car. He ran around the car and opened the passenger side door for her and pulled her out.

  He didn’t let go of her arm.

  “Please let me go,” she begged now. “I won’t go to the police. I won’t tell anybody about you kidnapping me.”

  But he dragged her to another car, a white van. “I’ll explain everything when we’re at the safe house. I promise you, Lilly.”

  Then he opened the side door of the van and forced her inside. It was dark inside.

  “Sit on the bench. And put the seatbelt on.”

  Then he closed the door, and she had no choice but to follow his order.

  Moments later, they were back on the streets again, though Lilly couldn’t see where they were heading. There was no window in the back of the van, and the separation between the driver’s cabin and the back only had a tiny window that allowed her to see the back of her kidnapper’s head.

  She slumped back on the bench, and a tiny sob tore loose from her throat.

  What would happen to her now? Would he rape and kill her? Dump her body in a ditch? Why? Why was this happening to her?

  She didn’t know how long they were driving, until the van finally stopped. Her abductor killed the engine. When the door to her prison opened, light streamed in. A hand reached for her.

  “Lilly, come out, we’re here.”

  She allowed him to help her out of the van and looked around. They were in a garage.

  He closed the van door behind her and ushered her to a door. It led into a house.

  “We’re safe here for now,” he said and closed the door to the garage behind them.

  Lilly walked farther into the house. There was a small living room, a kitchen with a dining area, and two other doors that were closed. She assumed one was a bedroom, the other a bathroom.

  “Take a seat,” he said and pointed to the couch. “I’ll get a first aid kit.”

  To her surprise, he left her alone in the living room and opened one of the other doors, which she’d rightly assumed was a bathroom. She heard him open and close cabinets and used the time to look around. There wasn’t much decoration in the small one-story house. As if nobody really lived here. She’d seen vacation rentals that had more character than this house.

  To get to the front door she would have to pass by the open bathroom door. Treading softly so as not to make a sound, she stalked toward it, but she didn’t reach it. Jack stepped out of the bathroom, blocking her escape route.

  He tilted his head a little to the side. “Please.” He motioned for her to return to the living room. He set the first aid kit on the coffee table.

  “I’m sorry that I had to push you so hard,” he said in a soft tone, “but a second later, and you would have had a bullet in your head. I wish I could have gotten there earlier, but the traffic…” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. A shaking hand.

  That surprised her. Why was his hand suddenly shaking? And something else in his statement didn’t make sense.

  “Are you saying you knew about the shooting in advance?”

  He met her eyes, and for a few seconds he said nothing. “First things first.” He pointed to her knees. “Let’s get you patched up.” He took a step toward her.

  “No!” She surprised herself with the firmness in her voice. “First you tell me who you really are.”

  “Fair enough.” He sat down on the armchair and pointed to the sofa. “You might want to sit down for this.”

  Reluctantly, she sat down on the sofa.

  “I am Jack Porter, and I was in the military with Thomas Reed, your cousin. And the reason you don’t recognize me is because I had plastic surgery.”

  She huffed. “Yeah, right! What baloney! You’re not Jack. I know Jack. I slept with Jack, so trust me when I tell you that I would recognize him. Sure, you’re the same height, the same build, and even the same eyes, but that’s where all similarities end, so don’t think you can con me into believing you’re him.”

  A slow smile spread over his face. “I get it. How much do you remember of that night seven years ago?”

  “Everything!” It was true. She’d relived every second of her night with Jack many times over.

  “Good. Then I guess you’ll remember this.” He stood up and put his hand on his jeans. He opened the button.

  She jumped up, ready to flee. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  “Showing you proof that I’m Jack.”

  He lowered the zipper and pushed his jeans down to mid-thigh. Then he hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his boxer briefs and pushed them down too.

  His cock jutted out, heavy but relaxed. She couldn’t rip her gaze from the sight. There was the proof.

  “Your birthmark.”

  Right there on his cock was a birthmark that looked like the state of Texas. She’d seen it the night of the Reed family BBQ, after she’d gone back to Jack’s hotel where they’d made love all night. It wasn’t something that could be faked, or that many people even knew about.

  She took a step toward him, but there was no doubt in her mind. This was Jack. The man who’d broken her heart.

  “Believe me now?” he asked.

  She lifted her head. “Yes, I believe you.”

  Then she balled her right hand into a fist and punched him in the face as hard as she could.

  His head whipped to the side, and he groaned.

  “Guess I had that coming for a long while.”

 

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