She half expected him to snap in outrage, but he turned and stared at her for a long moment. Then he nodded slowly. “I think that’s it.”
“What? That your dad witnessed a crime?”
“Yeah.” Dom scrubbed his hands over his face. “I think my dad was originally from the East Coast.”
She pulled up a chair to sit beside him. “What makes you say that?”
“Back when I was twelve or so, a family moved to Montana from New Jersey. I invited my new friend Toby to my house after school. I told my dad he had a funny accent. My dad told me not to tease him, that it’s not his fault he grew up in another state. But within an hour of Toby being there, my dad started talking with an East Coast accent. I thought he was teasing Toby, but when I mentioned it, he turned pale and immediately stopped talking.” He shook his head. “It never occurred to me that he may have once lived in New Jersey. When I had to do a family tree for school, he told me we always lived in Montana. That my grandparents on both sides of the family were dead and that we had no cousins, aunts, or uncles.” Dom let out a harsh laugh. “Even my teacher thought it was strange we didn’t have any extended family.”
She stared at him. “You think your dad was placed in witness protection?”
He spread his hands. “I honestly don’t know. But it makes sense, don’t you think?” Dom turned and pulled up the website for the US Marshals Service. “Maybe I need to call them to find out.”
“It’s too late to do that tonight.” For some reason, she didn’t like the idea of making the call. Granted, their phones couldn’t be easily traced, but giving away their location seemed counterintuitive. “My sister-in-law Raine used to work for the marshals. We can reach out to her if you’d like.”
“If she’s not a marshal now, I’m not sure that will help. I’ll leave a message.” Dom picked up the phone and dialed the number. She could hear a canned voice mail response on the other end of the line. “This is Dominic Lakeland, my father was Gary Lakeland, he died in a plane crash six years ago. A gunman has taken several shots at me in the past few hours. I need to know if I’m in trouble because of whatever my father might have witnessed at some point. Please call me back at this number. Thanks.” He lowered the phone. “That should get someone’s attention. I bet we hear back from them first thing in the morning.”
“Yeah.” She forced a smile. “It would be nice to get some answers.”
Dom stared up at the ceiling for a long moment. “I wonder why my dad never mentioned being a witness to a crime. I was twenty-two when he died. I can see keeping a secret when I was a kid, but once I was an adult, he should have come clean.”
“Honestly, Dom, let’s not jump to conclusions.” She reached over to touch his arm. “We don’t know for sure he was in witness protection. Maybe this is more related to a charter he did at one point or another. My brother-in-law Logan ended up transporting drugs in his plane, something he never would have done willingly. My sister Jess helped him uncover the truth, but they were both in danger because of a crime that he’d unwittingly participated in.”
Dom frowned. “I hadn’t thought of that. My dad could have chartered a criminal who thought my dad knew more than he should.”
“Exactly.” She managed a reassuring smile. “Let’s keep digging into Stuart Ramsey’s background. He’s the one who committed the crime.”
“That makes sense.” Dom’s expression turned sheepish. “Sorry to go off the deep end.”
“Don’t worry about it. The worst that can happen is that someone from the US Marshals office calls back to say you’re crazy.” She offered a teasing smile.
Dom turned back to the computer and began a deep dive into Stuart Ramsey. “I’m surprised Helen gave me his date of birth.”
“Confidentiality rules don’t matter once a person is dead.” Her brother Trevor, who was an EMT, had often explained that he couldn’t talk about patients because of confidentiality. In this case, she’d give Helen the benefit of the doubt.
Dom nodded, but his attention was on the screen. After a few minutes, he turned to look at her. “Guess who worked in Jackson Hole as a plane mechanic?”
“Stuart? Really?” She leaned in to see the screen. “I wonder why he wasn’t questioned about the crash.”
“Stuart Ramsey didn’t live or work in Montana, so he wouldn’t have been on anyone’s radar.” Dom frowned. “Not sure how the man who paid him stumbled across him.”
“Lots of wealthy people vacation in Jackson, maybe the guy who paid him chartered a plane and met him at the hangar.” She was about to say more when Smoky abruptly lifted her head and pricked her ears forward. The K9 stared at the door, then slowly stood and began to growl low in her throat.
A sliver of unease snaked down Kendra’s spine. “What is it, girl?”
“Get down.” Dom grabbed her .38 as she bent to drag Smoky beneath the table seconds before a barrage of bullets slammed into the hotel room door.
4
It had been years since Dom fired a gun, but he didn’t hesitate to return fire at whoever was on the other side of the hotel room door. He fired several rounds, which must have caught the shooter by surprise because the gunfire abruptly stopped. Dom glanced at Kendra, and whispered, “Get into the bedroom.”
“You too. We’re getting out of here.” She grabbed the computer off the table, snagged the backpack with her other hand, and bolted across the room. As the shooting had stopped, Dom figured she was right about getting out of there. He followed Smoky into the bedroom where Kendra was wrenching the window open.
He gave her credit for thinking on her feet. She straddled the window frame and ducked through. When she was standing on the ground outside, she looked at her K9. “Come.”
The dog gracefully leaped through the opening. Dominic could see Kendra’s SUV; she’d parked in the back of the lot, which happened to be closer to the windows of their suite than the front lobby. Then he threw his leg over the windowsill. The opening was small, making it difficult for him to get through, but he managed. By the time he was outside, Kendra was halfway to the SUV, using the key fob to open the back hatch.
Without needing to be told, Smoky jumped into the crate area. Kendra tossed the backpack in beside her K9. Dominic hurried to the passenger side of the car as Kendra slid in behind the wheel, dropping the laptop on the floor at Dom’s feet. Seconds later, they were driving out of the parking lot.
