Monday. If you testify to the murder you witnessed, along with the other stuff we have, we can put him away for good.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she could unsee the pictures he’d just shown her.
“Please, Zoey. For the children. For all the people he has hurt.”
Her eyes flashed open, and she thought of her mother’s dying wish for her and her brother. Do the right thing in your lives, no matter what.
“Please, just say you’ll testify.” He gestured to Sean. “He’ll take you to a beach resort for the week, where you’ll be posing as a married couple. You’ll relax. Hopefully have fun and be completely concealed.”
Her face heated up, and she placed a hand over the center of her chest. “We cannot pose as a married couple.”
Agent Anderson’s lips pinched into a straight line. “Do it for your brother.”
“Do. Not. Mention. My brother.” Hysteria threatened to overcome her. “My brother always told me to never trust you. Or anyone. In fact, my brother never wanted us involved in any of this. And he would never want me to testify. He never did.”
Agent Anderson didn’t speak for a moment. Then he shrugged, the fight apparently going out of him. “Are you willing to let the man go free?”
She cringed, hating her conscience. Time seemed to freeze. She wished her brother was still alive to help her decide. Clearly, he would say no, but he would also know what to do next. Her fingers brushed her necklace again. She needed to figure out what exactly was on the chip. She needed time.
If Rafael’s men were after her, maybe this was the best possible thing for her to do: take time to figure out her next move. Of course, she knew Sean was trustworthy. If she could trust anyone, it would be him. “Fine,” she growled. “I’ll testify.”
Someone banged on the door behind her. “Sir,” a man called, “I think we might have been followed. We have incoming activity.”
Sean turned to Agent Anderson. “Time for us to go.” He picked up a file on the desk. “You can text me anything that’s not in the file. Otherwise, see you at the trial on Monday.”
Agent Anderson frowned at him. “You ready?”
Zoey wanted to say something, anything, but she didn’t know what to say. Clearly, Sean wasn’t in a talking mood.
Sean turned to her and gave her a hard look. “Ms. Fletcher, am I going to have to cuff you to keep you by my side?”
She almost recoiled at his cold, clipped indifference. It was strange: she was talking to a man she thought she knew so well, but he treated her as if he didn’t know her. As if she was no one to him.
“Well?”
“You don’t need to cuff me,” she said. Her spine straightened in response to the hard expression on his face.
He nodded to the door. “Let’s go.”
Luckily, she and Sean were able to get out of there before Rafael’s men showed up. Agent Anderson had let them know that everyone had evacuated and now they were safe.
Completely safe. Right. Pardon her for being unconvinced.
Zoey was nervous and jittery. Sean hadn’t spoken to her during the whole drive. He’d stopped once and asked if she needed to use the bathroom. She had asked to talk to Charlotte. He’d only shaken his head.
He had purchased a couple of burner phones from the gas station, which was smart. She needed access to one of them. Then he just drove, jaw set, eyes on the road.
At one point, he turned on the radio and tuned it to a news channel. She was surprised to hear such dry, factual voices in the static. In all of the time she’d spent with Sean Hardman, if the radio had been on, country was blaring through the speakers.
She turned off the radio and tried to talk to him. “Sean.”
He only turned the radio back on and said, “Agent Hardman, please.”
So that was how this would be. She settled back into her seat and let the drive continue in silence.
Two hours later, they arrived at a place called the Royal Palm. Their black Mercedes lurched to a stop at the resort gate’s guard shack, as if tired from the long drive from Charleston to Myrtle Beach.
Sean rolled down the window to smile at the older gentleman. “Hello, sir. Mr. and Mrs. Baxter here to check in.”
The older gentleman nodded and turned to a list. Then he leaned out, handed some keys to Sean, and pointed down the