She moved from his soft grip and walked back to the kitchen.She had to get the sexy deputy out of her mind.She needed to ask Dan and Cheryl to watch the kids, then get to Denver and meet her cousin.
And pray it wasn’t a trap.
Chapter Eight
An hour and a half later, dressed in as much of a disguise as she could manage, which basically consisted of stuffing her long brown hair in a ball cap and sunglasses that covered a lot of her face, Bree sat in a bookstore across from the church where she was supposed to meet Melissa.She’d already been in the highest floors of the surrounding buildings that she could get to without raising suspicion, trying to do as much short-term recon as she could manage.
Everything about the city made her want to panic.Denver, for all the natural beauty of the surrounding mountains, was also a hub for technology.The public face of the Organization had an office here.
And the message from Melissa—the more Bree considered it, the worse it seemed.No doubt the phone was being tracked.Otherwise, how would Melissa know Bree could even make it to Denver in two hours?
If it was Melissa at all.
Hopefully, the Organization still thought she was dead and completely off their radar.Because the Organization’s radar was a deadly place to be—particularly for her.
But Bree saw no sign of them now.Even after searching for over thirty minutes, Bree found no evidence of a trap.She stayed where she was at the bookstore until she finally spotted Melissa going into the church right on time for their meeting.Her cousin didn’t look around, didn’t draw attention to herself in any way.Just did the smart thing and went straight in.
Bree stood at the window, coffee cup in hand, waiting to see if there would be further movement.She watched for light reflecting from the roofs of the surrounding buildings, a sign of a sniper.She looked for any hint that someone was surveilling the scene rather than performing their task at hand: turning pages too slowly or too quickly, or staring at a display stand for too long.
But...nothing.Nothing suspicious or out of place.
Bree finally went around to the alley so she could enter through the side door of the church.Still keeping an eye out for any problems, she moved silently through it, finding Melissa sitting in an empty, darkened corner near two possible exits.It was exactly where Bree would’ve chosen if she had gotten here first.
Since she was already in a church, Bree sent up a prayer that this wasn’t a trap and walked up to her cousin.
“Hi, Mellie.”
Melissa spun toward her, pure joy on her face.But it quickly faded.“You didn’t bring them.”
The twins.Of course she would want to see them.“It wasn’t safe.I wasn’t sure of the situation.I can’t move quickly enough with the two of them.”
Melissa wiped quickly at her eyes.“I know.That was smart, and the right thing to do.I’m just being emotional.But, God, Bree, I miss them so much.”
Bree could definitely understand that.Those two little humans had a way of entrenching themselves into anybody’s life.“They’re getting so big.They’re beautiful.”Bree winced when Melissa’s face fell even more—Bree was just making things worse.Meeting other people’s emotional needs wasn’t her forte.She tried to think of what might make her cousin feel better.“They’re healthy, Mel.Happy.”
“They’re safe?”
Safewas definitely a relative term.She thought of the eyes she’d felt on her in Risk Peak.And the possibility that the Organization could be ready to move in on them even now.
Bree shrugged.“As safe as they can possibly be, given how you and I live.The older couple watching Beth and Christian love them.If something happened to me, they would take care of them to the best of their ability.”
If Bree was better at personal stuff, she would probably pull her cousin in for a hug.But it would just be awkward for them both, so Bree quelled the urge.
Melissa wiped at tears again.“Thank you for taking them.I never planned to leave them alone with you—I thought I would be coming, too.I hope you’ve been all right.”
She thought of all the sleepless nights.The running out of money.The sheer exhaustion and despair that had seemed like a constant companion for the past two months.Telling Melissa about how hard it had been wouldn’t change anything.“We’ve managed.”
“I just wish I could see pictures of them, you know?That you and I could be like any two other relatives in the world, where you pull out your phone and show me pictures of the kids.”
They both knew that looking at pictures snapped on a smartphone would’ve been the worst possible thing they could do.It would lead the Organization right to them.
“Don’t worry, I know it’s impossible,” Melissa continued.“I would never want you to put them in danger like that.To put yourself in danger like that.”
“Is the Organization still capable of doing everything they were before?”It had been bad enough ten years ago when she’d escaped.
Melissa rubbed her forehead.“Worse and growing.They now have unfettered access to the pictures and sounds recorded on millions of phones.They’ve gotten smarter in the last ten years.Nobody suspects software that seems to make phonesbetter.”
Most people accepted that Big Brother might possibly be listening when they called or video chatted with someone.But they never considered that their phone’s cameras and audio could still be transmitting even when they were in off mode.
