months, Alex had become the adult in the house. Cleaning, cooking, and paying bills that had been neglected for quite some time. Eventually, things began to run more smoothly . . . until Willow started talking about some crazy book with aliens, demons, and angels.
Then came the meetings. Alex was instructed to lock herself in her room, forbidden to come out until Willow’s Circle guests left.
Alex realized she was digging her nails into the armrests. Her fingers hurt as she straightened them. She reminded herself that there was no other way to find a copy of The Book and attempt to get ahead of a man who may have the power to kill thousands if not millions of people. She had no choice but to approach her aunt.
The plane landed at the airport. When she’d left Wichita, it was called Mid-Continent Airport, but in 2014 it was renamed the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. As she peered out the small window next to her, she noticed the main building had been given a needed facelift. She wondered what else had changed, but she didn’t plan to stay around long enough to find out. She had to get that book and get out. It needed to go to the lab at Quantico so they could look for fingerprints—although there wasn’t much chance they’d find any but her aunt’s.
Alex and her team were convinced they weren’t looking for an unknown subject now. They were confident Adam Walker was behind both the train killings and the virus threat. And Monty had been right—trying to stop a potential mass murderer was different from looking for a serial killer.
Alex was grateful her colleagues weren’t treating her strangely. After sharing her past, she’d been afraid they would see her as weird—and different from them. She’d fought hard to free herself of the odd little girl she used to be. The fears that had controlled her. The nightmares that struck terror into her heart. She could feel the beginnings of a panic attack, so she concentrated on her breathing. In, out. In, out. It had been years since she’d had to deal with one of these attacks. She couldn’t allow them to come back now.
“Kansas City won’t give us long to get that book,” Logan said as they waited for their pilot to tell them they could disembark.
“I know.”
The cabin door opened, and Special Agent Keith Corbin came out. Keith was not only a pilot but a member of the FBI’s Emergency Response Team, working out of the Washington field office. Well respected throughout the FBI, he was called upon when agents needed to get somewhere fast or if evidence needed to be delivered to Quantico. Keith was a handsome man with prematurely gray hair and an easy smile.
“You can disembark now,” he said as he lowered the outside stairs. “I’ve been told to wait here for you. Must be an important assignment.”
Alex and Logan rose from their seats and grabbed their go bags.
When they reached the door, Logan shook Keith’s hand. “They’re all important, I guess, aren’t they?”
Keith grinned. “The perfect response. Well, whatever’s going on, I’m praying for your success.”
“Thanks, brother,” Logan said.
Alex nodded at Keith and mumbled her thanks before they headed down the stairs to the tarmac. Was Keith a Christian too? It felt as if Logan and Keith were part of a club she wasn’t a member of.
She and Logan had just entered the terminal when they heard someone call out their names. They both turned to see a man approaching them. They stopped as he came near them with his hand extended.
“Special Agents Donovan and Hart?”
“Special Agent Monroe, I assume,” Logan said. “Nice to meet you.” They shook hands, and then Agent Monroe approached Alex, who shook his hand as well.
“You look so familiar,” she said. “Do I know you?”
Monroe laughed. “You certainly do. In fact, you’re the reason I joined the FBI.”
Alex frowned at him. She never forgot a face. Why was she having trouble with this one? In just seconds, as if a rotten wooden door sealed for years broke open, she remembered. She felt dizzy and fought hard to steady herself.
“You used to call me Googly,” he said with a big smile. “It’s me, Mike. We lived down the street from each other for years. Rode the bus to school together.”
Alex tried to speak, but no words would come out. The past was scratching and clawing its way into her carefully constructed life. No matter what she had