Run, Hide - By Carol Ericson Page 0,24
one long finger above a dollop of cream. “Can I have some?”
Gavin pointed to the smallest dab of whipped cream. “You can have that one.”
“Thanks.” Cade dipped the tip of his finger into the white puff and sucked it into his mouth. “Yum.”
Gavin attacked his stack of pancakes as if he hadn’t eaten in days, and Cade sliced into his burrito with equal gusto.
Jenna watched them, her fork suspended over her omelet. Even though he hadn’t started life with his father, Gavin shared so many characteristics with Cade—the tilt of his head, the quick smile, the way they both had her wrapped around their fingers.
She sniffed and plunged her fork into her eggs. She’d have to keep her head on straight with these two, but no more blaming Cade for the way fate had played out in their marriage. Their separation had hurt her and she’d wanted to retaliate against Cade, force him to feel her pain. But that wasn’t necessary.
He didn’t need her to leash him to his pain. He felt it all on his own with no prompting from her. He felt it on a deep, visceral level that she’d never contemplated.
Cade had never wanted to be like his father, and now he felt as if he’d made the same mistakes as the man who had left his family when Cade was just ten years old.
She’d have to do better. They’d all suffered, and somehow they’d find a way out—together.
She did a fair amount of justice to her own breakfast and pushed her plate to the center of the table. “You said you had a plan. Care to share it with me?”
“Sure.” Cade picked up a crayon and colored inside the lines of a balloon on the paper. “There’s a Prospero outpost in Arizona. It serves to monitor people crossing the U.S.–Mexican border, keeping an eye out for known terrorists.”
Jenna cleared her throat. “A-are we going to get some help there?”
“They can help you and Gavin.”
Her muscles tensed. “Me and Gavin?”
“They can settle you in a safe location.”
Jenna gripped Cade’s wrist and leaned in close, gritting her teeth. “No.”
Chapter Seven
Jenna’s nails dug into his wrist, but Cade didn’t flinch. He expected resistance, anger even, from Jenna. But he had to be strong enough to think with his brain, not his heart.
She cupped her hand around her mouth to shield her words from Gavin. “You are not dumping us off at some outpost. Even the name is offensive. Outpost. Out of your life. Out of your mind.”
He twisted his wrist from her grasp and smothered both of her hands with his. “That’s not possible. You and Gavin are on my mind twenty-four seven.”
“What are they going to do with us? Stick us in some kind of witness protection program?”
“That’s pretty much what you’ve been in, anyway, Jenna. New town, different identity, Prospero watching over you. Me watching over you. Only this time it will be official and professional and safer than anything you could do on your own.”
“It’s no way to live, Cade. It’s no way for Gavin to live.”
The quaver in her voice just about did him in. Squeezing her hands, he said, “It’s not going to be forever.”
“How close are you to catching Zendaris?”
His eye twitched, and she withdrew her hands from his. “Exactly.”
“He’s going to find out sooner or later that I don’t have those plans and once he does, he’ll back off.”
“Why would he do that? He’s had a vendetta against you for three years. Even if he finds out you don’t have the plans, that doesn’t wipe out his other grievance. He was after me before you took the plans, and he’ll be after me after he finds out you don’t have them.”
“You missed one.” Cade leaned over Gavin’s coloring masterpiece and pointed to a flower. When Gavin turned his attention to picking out a crayon for the blank flower, Cade hunched forward, his nose almost touching Jenna’s. “Let’s just get you safe and settled.”
Jenna took a deep breath, held it for a moment and then released it through parted lips. “Okay. We’ll go to this outpost. I—I’m not blaming you, Cade. It is what it is.”
He managed to prevent his jaw from hitting the table, but he couldn’t control his eyebrows, which jumped up to his hairline. Since when was she not blaming him? He’d take it for now.
“Then let’s do a little shopping while we’re here, at least pick up a few changes of underwear and a couple of shirts. I need