He answered them with practiced ease.
They were two hikers whose GPS had failed and then they had gotten caught in a freak storm. No mention of a train crash at all. When Natalie glanced over to the side and saw the young man with the sandwich who had hit on her on the train, still very much alive, she realized the extent of what was going on.
It had all been a setup. From the very beginning. The moment she’d set foot in the bus station. She couldn’t even fathom the resources it had taken to fool her to such a degree.
Ren answered more questions as Natalie glanced the other way and saw Brandon and Andrea, the Omega Sector agents who’d come to her house, standing in a darkened corner. Andrea smiled gently at Natalie, an obvious attempt at some sort ofapology for what was happening, but Natalie just ignored it. They were all working together. Every single event and action of the past week had been in careful deliberation to get them right here in front of dozens of news cameras.
Where Damien would be sure to see her.
Ren, or Warren Thompson, as he’d been introduced, was great with the reporters. Charming. Handsome. So photogenic that every producer in the country probably couldn’t wait to get this happy-ending story in front of as many viewers as possible. Ratings through the roof.
“A mountain lion, not behaving normally because it had been injured, became aggressive and attacked me. If it hadn’t been for Natalie...”
The reporters launched into more questions that he answered.
“Natalie pulled me out of the river.
“Natalie amazingly managed to get my unconscious half-frozen carcass to the hunter’s cabin.
“Natalie was able to stitch me up.
“Natalie is very definitely the reason I’m still alive and we’re both here.”
She realized he was saying her name over and over for a reason: to draw attention to it. So that any soundbites that were used had a better chance of including her name.
“Natalie and I are truly touched by the onslaught of support and thankful to be alive. But I’m sure you can appreciate how tired we are and our need to be more thoroughly checked out by medical professionals, but we will definitely be here for at least three or four more days, until we’re cleared to travel. On behalf of both Natalie and me, thank you.”
Her name again. They were throwing her in Damien’s face.
She was bait.
And she had no doubt at all that Ren had just signed her death warrant.
Chapter Eighteen
Natalie was alive.
After talking to the people who’d owned the Santa Barbara house had proved to be a dead end, Damien had been forced to wait, wondering if it was all true. Until he could see her with his own eyes, he wouldn’t be able to believe it.
Waiting for another call to come in concerning her on the tapped phone had been agonizing. And even when it had come, the information hadn’t quite made sense. But it had gotten him the information he needed: something was happening in Riverton and it concerned Natalie.
He’d had to keep a very low profile since this tiny little town had been crawling with Omega agents for the last day and a half. He’d seen Brandon and Andrea Han, not to mention SWAT team members Lillian Muir and Ashton Fitzgerald. All people he’d battled in the past.
It would’ve been so easy to take them out one by one. But that would’ve cost him his chance to see Natalie. To see if it was really Natalie they were so convinced was alive.
He had no doubts now.
He could feel rage crashing through his system. It was all he could do to remain behind the large video camera in the high school auditorium, careful to keep his face hidden, rather than run up onto the stage, grab her and escape.
Natalie was alive.
Not only that, she was fully aware of who she was and what she was doing. Which meant only one thing: she had deliberately run from him six years ago. Deceived him.
Defied him.
His fingers clenched around the edge of the camera until he felt pieces of plastic break off in his hands. He forced himself to breathe in and out deeply, to get his rage under control.
There would be plenty of time to correct Natalie’s behavior. To punish her. To teach her that her conduct was unacceptable.
