“Come on, Cole. You’re in his county. Jo’s house was bombed. Raymond Dodge, a.k.a. Ransom Driscoll, lived here right under everyone’s nose. You’ll like the detective. He was a DSS agent. In case you’re not familiar, that’s Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service.”
I know what it is.That news perked Cole up. “Really? What in the world is he doing here, then, as a detective in an isolated place?”
“For that matter, what am I doing here? What are you doing here?” Hawk asked. “You didn’t think you’d end up here, did you?”
Hehadn’tended up here. Not yet. He was here right now for Jo. But he didn’t point that out to Hawk. “I just don’t know if we have the bandwidth to answer any questions and talk more about what’s going on.”
“I get that,” Hawk said. “Is all this as confusing to you as it is to me? My head is spinning, to be honest. And my head doesn’t usually spin.”
Cole gave him a smirk that said otherwise.
Hawk only frowned at him. “How’s she doing?”
“She’s traumatized. Who wouldn’t be? And she wants to go to Michigan.”
Cole got a text and tugged out his cell.
“What? Why?” Hawk asked. “How are you going to keep her safe if you do?”
“Let’s just say, while we’re here, this is a safe place. But for how long? The quicker we find out who is behind the attacks on her, the faster she’ll be safe. She won’t have to look over her shoulder again.”
“And then maybe you can figure out how to be with her. I see how you look at her. It’s obvious that—”
“What’s obvious?” Jo moved into the kitchen, Remi on her heels.
“That we need to know more about the reason behind your mother’s death,” Cole said.
“I’d like to know under what name she knew my father. How and when they met. Naomi said Mason knew my mother before. Before she came to Michigan? Before what?”
“I might have an answer to that.” Cole read throughAllison’s text. “Mason Hyde spent the last fifteen years working as an engineer at GMC in Detroit, but before that, he worked at Gemini Aerospace. Among other things, they build rocket boosters for space flight.”
He watched Jo’s reaction.
“So, my father, a mechanical engineer, visited Advanced Technologies, which is involved in various industries, including aerospace. Aerospace, meaning aviation and space flight. And Mason, the aerospace engineer, knew my mother ... ‘before.’ Could the past and the present finally be coming together, pointing us in a direction?”
24
So, had her father really worked as an engineer in aerospace? Given what Jo knew about him, things he’d said to her in the past, that would make sense. But they couldn’t know for sure. “We can at least look into it and rule it out, if nothing else.”
The very idea that her father was a completely different person than he’d let her get to know ... her mother too ... The room tilted. Jo pressed her palms against her eyes.
Strong hands gripped her arms.Cole’shands. “Are you okay?”
Cole’s voice. He was here with her now in this crazy moment. People she trusted were letting her down left and right. People she loved weren’t who they claimed to be.
The next thing she knew, she was sitting at the table. Cole had scooted close and looked at her with concern, but he didn’t repeat his question. Hawk and Remi waited in the kitchen, but she suspected they watched her too.
“I don’t know who my mother was. Scratch that. Yes, I do. She was a woman in hiding. And my biological father, he was hiding too. And whatever or whoever sent Mom intohiding also killed her. Now my life is also threatened, and maybe my sanity. So no, Cole, I am not okay.” She might never be okay.
I need air.
Jo bolted from the chair, and it crashed to the floor behind her. She raced to the sliding glass door and threw it open, stepping out into the cold, windy, rainy night. She was running away far too often for comfort. She couldn’t get enough air and sucked in the arctic blast. The cold rain bit into her skin like tiny knives.
God ...this makes me question everything about myself if I can’t even trust the most important people in my life.
Cole had followed her out and closed the door. He remained a few feet behind her as she leaned against the rail and looked out into the darkness, listening to the violence of waves crashing against rocks. She let the wind and rain batter her face.
Cole had given her space.
