But she couldn’t blame him. It’s not like she told him to wait. Or even said goodbye. He had every right to move on. And from the look of it, he had fun doing it.
She sighed as she threw her laptop on the other bed and climbed under the covers for a long night of tossing and turning.
At five in the morning, she finally gave up and climbed into the shower, hoping the hot water would wash away the images she saw on her laptop last night. It didn’t work, however.
She had barely finished dressing when a knock came at her door.
“You’re early, Roman,” she called as she slipped into her heels and crossed the floor to the door. “And you better have brought coffee.”
However, when she opened it, Roman wasn’t the one standing there.
She felt her brow pinch. “Deke?” Panic gripped her. “What’s wrong? Are my parents all right? Anna?”
“They’re fine.” He gestured behind her, a hopeful look on his face.
She nodded and stepped aside, letting him into her room. “You don’t ever just visit. So what’s wrong?” It was true. Deke would text, sometimes even call to make sure she was all right, but that was it. A visit in person only meant trouble.
“We got an alert. Someone ran a search on Julia Moretti yesterday morning.”
She stood there, hands on her hips, as she stared at him. “Don’t people do searches on my family all the time, hoping something slips up?”
He shook his head. “No. No one’s ran a search on your old names in forever. Perhaps your mother, when some college kid studying law is looking to write a report, but nothing on the rest of your family. But that’s not all.”
She was afraid to ask, so she didn’t. She simply stood there and waited.
“They also did a deep dive on Delaney Mae Rhodes. Graduation. College. Current employment. Even asked if you had pets or what your favorite color is. Any idea what that’s about?”
She sighed.Shit.“I might have a clue.”
She closed the door and moved back into the room, turning back to the U.S. Marshal, who stood there, hands stuffed into his jeans, wearing a dark blazer over a beige button-down shirt, badge and Glock at his hip, barely noticeable. He wore well-worn leather boots and looked like all he was missing was a cowboy hat to finish the ensemble. His hazel-green eyes penetrated her, like he was bracing for the worst.
And she had it for him. God, did she have it for him.
She wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing her upper arms. “I ran into Bobby yesterday.”
He blew out a slow whistle. “Son-of-a-bitch.” He shook his head, dropping his gaze to the floor. “Well, there’s a name I haven’t heard you mention in a decade or more.” He looked back up at her. “And you didn’t think to call me?”
“To be honest, I was a little shaken at the time, and then busy as hell here.”
“And you didn’t know he’d be here?”
She shook her head. “Nope. I haven’t kept tabs on him because you drilled it into me how dangerous it would be. I’ve known nothing about him until I looked him up last night.”
Marshal Ashland ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “I knew letting you take this job was a bad idea. You were better off staying in your offices back in Oregon. He ran both your names, almost back to back. If someone was monitoring you to see if someone did an internet search on Julia Moretti,they could very well figure out the same person did one on Delaney Rhodes.”
She growled. “Do you know how fucking weird it is to keep talking about me as if I’m two different people.”
“For all points and purposes, you are,” he told her. “And now there’s someone who can put the two of you together. How did you handle it?”
She shrugged. “I told him it wasn’t me and walked off.”
Deke barked out a laugh, turning around in a circle. “You told a former Navy SEAL you weren’t who he knew you were, and you just walked off. Only you would think that worked.”
“I didn’t know what else to do. And I didn’t know he was a former SEAL at the time. I thought he was simply Bobby Jenkins, the man I fell in love with in high school and was ready to marry.”
“Well, you can’t stay here,” the marshal said. “We need to get you out of here before anyone else puts it together. We need to move your entire family.”
“What? Why the hell would we do that?” There was no way she was giving up everything she had worked so damn hard for. She had lost everything once. She refused to suffer that loss again.
