A Beautiful Funeral (The Maddox Brothers #5) - Jamie McGuire Page 0,37

where he said he’d be parked and waiting for me, I scanned the dark lot.

“It’s not like him to be late, is it?” Drew asked.

“No, it’s not.” I typed out a text to him and waited. After a few minutes and no reply, my body began to shake. Adrenaline was surging through my veins as my mind went over the worst scenarios.

A black car slowed to a spot where Trenton was supposed to be, and instinctively, I stretched my arm across Drew, moving him backward. “Go inside,” I hissed.

“Who is that?” Drew asked, moving to stand in front of me.

The window rolled down, revealing one of the agents from Jim’s. “We’re here to pick you up, Mrs. Maddox.”

I relaxed but hesitated. “Where’s Trenton? Why hasn’t he texted me back?”

“I’ll explain when you get in,” he said.

Drew held me back just as I stepped forward. “Do you know this guy?” he asked.

“Yes. It’s a long story.” I reached for the door handle, but Drew stopped me.

“She’s not going anywhere with you until she’s heard from her husband.”

“That will be difficult,” the agent said.

My stomach sank. “Why?”

“You need to get in the car, Mrs. Maddox. I can’t explain further in the presence of your current company.”

I grabbed Drew’s arm, and he looked down at me, pleading me with his eyes not to go. “He’s okay,” I said simply. “He’s a friend of Jim’s.”

“Trenton’s dad?” Drew asked, suspicious. When I nodded, Drew didn’t seem convinced. “I have a bad feeling, Cami. I think you should stay here until Trenton calls you.”

My gaze fell back to the agent. “I don’t think he’s going to.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

ABBY

TRAVIS SQUEEZED MY HAND, and I squeezed back, letting him know I understood how hard this was for him. Everyone was upset and exhausted, speculating what had happened to Thomas while also expressing anger at the agents for withholding information—which forced them to speculate. Now, he lay flat on his back in the center of the sunken-in, full-size mattress he’d had since the eighth grade, a hand-me-down from Thomas. Our twins were on pallets on the floor, both snoring softly.

We’d talked Shepley and America into coming over and even Jack and Deana. Even though it only raised more questions, it was safer to have everyone under one roof until Travis and the agents had more backup. For all we knew, the entire Carlisi crime family could be in Eakins at any moment.

Travis turned over on his side, burying his face in my neck. He’d just come to bed after doing a second sweep of the house for bugs. We couldn’t be too careful. “This fucking sucks. This makes me wish I still smoked.”

“Your emergency pack is at home, and you’re not leaving us, so forget it,” I said.

“I know, but this feels like an emergency.”

I turned over to meet his gaze and hooked my leg over his hip. It was the closest we could get with my belly between us. “The Maddox family is capable of almost anything. Actors they are not.”

“Maybe they could. We don’t know that.”

“They’re not trained like you are, Trav. Someone will make a mistake. You wouldn’t have agreed to this unless you knew for a fact this was the only way to keep everyone safe.”

He nodded, touching his forehead to mine. “You’re my favorite wife.”

“Just try to put it out of your head until Liis gets here tomorrow. Most of the burden is going to be hers.”

He sighed, looking up at the ceiling. He crossed his arms over his middle. “She just had a baby, Pidge. She’s alone. How can I make her do that?”

“She’s not alone. We can support her. We can help.”

He was quiet for a moment. “There has to be another way. Dad is going to have a heart attack. This is going to kill him.”

“He’s stronger than you think.”

“We can’t do this,” he said. The panic that had been just beneath the surface all evening was now evident in his voice.

I grabbed his face, forcing him to look me in the eyes. “We don’t have a choice. Think about what they did, Travis. They thought they were shooting at me. They thought they were running me off the road. Jessica and James could have been in the car. We could have been killed. Everyone could have been coming home for our funeral. If we don’t do this, it still could be our funeral—or Shep’s, or even Olive’s. As of yesterday, we know we all have targets on our backs. Even the