“I would do anything for her. And you.”
“Y’all are gonna have to get a room,” Will says.
Hammond is back with more info to share. “Agent Parker and Thomas have known each other for years. Her older brother was a friend of his growing up. They’re all from some little town in South Texas near the border.”
“But she didn’t get on our detail until Natchitoches. How did she know all that stuff?” I ask.
Hammond shrugs, “They’ll have to look into all of that when they’re done here. But Agent Williams said she was in the main office—almost everything went across her desk. She was in the perfect position to tell Thomas whatever he wanted to know about any case the Marshals had. He feels guilty since he always assumed it was one of the field agents.”
“Did she say what his real name was?”
He laughs. “She did. John Diaz.”
John Diaz. I don’t know what I was expecting, but that wasn’t it. It’s very…anticlimactic.
I stare at the convent windows on the third floor and try to wrap my brain around everything.
Agent Williams walks over and stops in front of us. “Anna, Ethan—I can’t tell you how sorry I am about what happened.” Then he looks directly at me and says, “Noah said you and your sister were really nice to him. That means more to me than you’ll ever know.”
“I’m just glad he’s okay.”
“Me too. Our guys just got back from that house you all were in and it was rigged to blow. Not the whole thing, just the kitchen.”
Will looks confused “Why would he have done that?”
Agent Williams shrugs. And I remember what Thomas said the night he was talking to Mateo.
We’ll meet back here when it’s done and settle up. The door off the kitchen will be open. You can wait in there if you beat me back.
“It was for Mateo.”
Will gets up and says, “This is some crazy shit. I’m gonna walk over and get a Coke. Anybody want one?”
“No,” I answer. “But I won’t turn down some regular clothes.” The white dress is a disaster—stained and torn—and I would give anything to get out of it.
When Ethan and I are finally alone, he puts his good arm around me and I burrow into his side.
“I know you saw both of them get shot. Do you want to talk about it?” Ethan asks.
“When I was in that moment and I knew it was them or me…I was really glad it was them.”
He squeezes me and says, “I’m really glad it was them, too.”
“When I talked to Dad, I asked him if we could stop in Baton Rouge on our way home to see Mom. Are you good with that?”
“Of course. We can do whatever you want.”
“Well, I know you love New Orleans, but I don’t know if I ever want come back down here again.”
He chuckles softly. “You may feel differently later on. We’ll give it some time.”
And then I think about what that means. Time. We have all the time in the world now, and I can’t help but smile thinking about it.
the count of three, we’re jumping!”
I’m so excited and terrified that I can hardly stand it. “Are you sure it’s going to be okay?” I scream my question over the roar of the waterfall.
“Yes! You can do this.”
