get to know him again. “Did you like being in the army?”
“Don’t think I can say I liked it, but I didn’t hate it, either. Everything—the training, the friends I made, the places I went—all helped build me into the kind of person I wanted to be. I left Midnight a kid; the army made me a man.”
“You saw a lot of combat, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. More than I wanted. But there were days when we weren’t being shot at or hunting down terrorists. Those weren’t too bad.”
“Lamont said you were awarded a Purple Heart.” She rose up on an elbow to look at him. “You were injured?”
“Got some shrapnel in my right side and leg. I was lucky. So many weren’t. So many never came home.”
Breaking her pledge not to touch him, Savannah ran her hand down his arm in a comforting caress. “I’m glad you made it home.”
Smiling, he rolled over and propped himself up on his elbow to face her. “Tell me about being an assistant district attorney. You want to be the DA someday?”
Two weeks ago her answer would have been a definitive “Of course.” But right here, right now, she hesitated giving a definite answer to anything about the future.
“Maybe … I don’t know. I like the challenge of what I do, and when we win, it’s a great feeling.”
“But?”
She shook her head. How could she articulate what she wasn’t sure of herself? She only knew that, for whatever reason, she hadn’t missed work the way she had thought she would. “That seems like a million miles away from the here and now. Let’s talk about something else.”
“Like what?”
“What’s your plan to catch Henson and Dayton in the act?”
He shrugged. “I’ll just be waiting for them. As soon as they enter, I’ll walk in.”
“Without backup?”
“Their weapons are spray paint and misspelled swearwords. I think I’ll survive it.”
Savannah sat up and glared at him. “You don’t know that, Zach. Just because they only write bad graffiti doesn’t mean they don’t come armed.”
“You’re right. Point taken. But I’ll be fine.”
She wanted to argue more but could see she would get nowhere. When he changed the subject to something less controversial, she went along with it, but that didn’t stop her from being concerned. Ralph Henson had almost beat Zach to death once before. If given the chance, would he try again or do something worse?
Damned if she would let that happen.
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
The night was dark and moonless. The only light came from the lamppost at the end of the street. Zach stood beneath one of the giant moss-covered elm trees that lined many of the streets of downtown Midnight. He was across the road and three doors down from the dry cleaners. Wearing his old camo pants, a black T-shirt, and a black ball cap, he blended into the night. In the army, he’d earned the reputation of being able to disappear and reappear at will. If Henson hadn’t been so old and Dayton so out of shape, he would’ve liked to go full army on them. He wouldn’t. Scaring the shit out of them was one thing; giving them a heart attack wasn’t exactly his plan.
According to Lindsay, her brother Clark and Ralph Henson would be hitting the building tonight. This morning, while the two Dayton men had been out of the house, Zach had loaded Lindsay’s little Chevy with all of her belongings and watched her drive away.
When she had told him about overhearing the conversation between Clark and Henson, she had insinuated she wanted something other than money in exchange for the information. Though Zach wanted the information, he’d definitely not been interested in her payment method. Instead he’d taken the opportunity to encourage her to leave town and start out fresh somewhere else.
There was something about Lindsay that reminded him of his mother—a desperate neediness. But she had something his mother had never possessed—someone who believed she could do better. The stern talk he had given her might not have been what she had wanted, but once she realized he was serious, she had backed off and listened.
Now Lindsay was headed to Charleston, South Carolina, with two thousand dollars in her purse and an interview with one of his old army buddies who’d recently opened a gym. Learning that Lindsay had an accounting background gave him hope that she could get a job and start a new life. At the very least, maybe she could get away from the influence and abuse of her father