ticktock from the clock on the mantel echoes through the room, reminding me it won’t be long before the suits swoop back into my life. We’ve been waiting, just like this, for a few hours. Ethan is pacing and Teeny is asleep in a ball next to me on the couch. Dad’s holding down his chair in the corner.
“He should’ve been here by now,” Dad says.
And before he finishes his sentence, headlights flash across the room. They’re here.
Every other time the suits have shown up at our house, it’s been a team of at least four agents—I guess that’s how things roll in the Witness Protection Program. I can tell something’s different tonight. Agent Williams isn’t by himself, but there’s only one other agent with him. And it’s the one suit I hoped never to see again—the one who chopped my hair off just before we moved to Natchitoches—Agent Parker. She stands off to the side and I can’t quit staring at her. She’s prettier than I remember, but maybe that’s because I didn’t pay that much attention to her before.
Ethan drops down next to me, linking his hand with mine, and I cling to it like a lifeline.
Dad crosses the living room to shake Agent Williams’s hand, and then nods at Agent Parker. Ethan tries to do the same but I hold him by my side so he settles for an awkward wave. They both say hello to me and I just nod.
“Greg, thanks for coming so quickly,” Dad says.
“I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances.”
Agent Williams and Agent Parker both look toward me.
“It’s good to see you, Anna,” Agent Williams says.
I snort. Whatever.
“And you’ve gone back to your natural hair color,” Agent Parker adds. “That looks so much better on you than that darker shade did.”
My jaw drops open a little. As if she wasn’t the one who picked out that horrible dye and forced it on my head!
“Yeah, I’m sure I look fantastic,” I answer back. “What color are we going with next time…bright red?”
“Anna,” Dad whispers my name. I get the warning.
“Start from the beginning and tell me everything, Anna.” Agent Williams sits in a nearby chair and I push deeper into the couch, dragging Ethan with me. I think about waking Teeny—she’ll be pissed if she finds out we left her out—but her face is so peaceful that I let her sleep.
Agent Parker perches on the back of the couch. I can feel her hovering and it’s hard to resist the urge to knock her off.
I quickly run through the events—the bumped chair at Will’s, the journal and note left in my pocket.
“And there was something else in the journal—a single daisy,” I add.
I feel Ethan stiffen beside me. I hadn’t told him that earlier. It’s the creepiest part, and I hated to even think about that, much less talk about it.
“A daisy?” asks Agent Williams.
“Like the little one tattooed on her shoulder,” Ethan says, then jumps up from the couch and starts pacing the room.
“Did you see him, Anna? Or anyone suspicious?” Agent Parker asks.
“No. There were a lot of people there, but all of them were kids my age.”
Ethan adds, “I didn’t see anyone there who didn’t go to our school either.”
“And what about the break-in today?” Agent Williams asks.
Dad tells him what was missing or out of place, then Ethan explains having a similar incident with his truck.
Agent Williams turns to Ethan. “And your truck was parked outside your home all day?”
“Yes, sir.”
Dad leans forward in his chair and asks, “Greg, why is he doing this now? If he wanted to harm these kids, he had every opportunity in Arizona. It doesn’t make any sense that he’d risk showing up here knowing Anna and Ethan would recognize him.”
