him. “I said you were busy with work.”
His chest heaved. “That’s not too bad. Now I’m not busy with work. You never showed him any pictures of me?”
“I have, but for obvious reasons I didn’t prominently display them anywhere we lived. Why do you doubt that I did?”
“He didn’t recognize me when I came on the scene.”
“He’s three, Cade. I wouldn’t expect him to recognize you from those pictures.”
He wheeled the car around the next corner and pulled into the parking lot of a big hotel. “We’re here, Mrs. Cramer.”
“I can be Mrs. Cramer.”
“Good because I have ID and credit cards as Robert Cramer. I think we can hang out here for a few days—sleep in real beds, eat real food.”
“Buy real clothes.” Between two fingers, she pinched the fabric of the cheap jeans she’d bought at the flea market.
“Anything you desire.” He patted the wallet he’d tossed onto the console. “Mr. Cramer is a man of means.”
Jenna nudged Gavin. “Time to wake up.”
Gavin woke with a start, his lids flying open. Jenna brushed the back of her hand against his cheek. What nightmares had disturbed his sleep? What nightmares lay ahead?
“Are you okay?”
He nodded, his eyes wide. “No snow.”
“That’s right, but it’s still chilly, so we’ll put our jackets on when we leave the car.”
Cade slung his bag over his body as he exited the car. “Sit tight. I’ll check in, and then we’ll park.”
Less than fifteen minutes later, Jenna was spinning around the sitting room of their suite, her arms out to her sides. “This is heaven. How did you score a suite?”
“It’s all they had left. Nobody has checked out yet for the day.” He crouched in front of the safe in the closet and waved to Gavin, who had the remote control gripped in one hand and was aiming it at the TV. “Are you ready for some breakfast, Gavin?”
Jenna dropped her arms and scooped up Gavin, remote and all. “He’s ready for a bath right now.”
“Yeah, I guess the Cramer family better clean up because we don’t want to attract any unwanted attention.”
Jenna hugged Gavin closer. “How long are we going to stay here?”
“Until we hear back from Prospero and they finish what they hopefully started and set you up in a secure location.” Cade walked on his knees from the safe, where he’d stashed most of the contents of his bag, to the mini bar. He held up a candy bar. “Do you want a three-dollar chocolate bar?”
She placed her hand over Gavin’s eyes and kneed Cade in the back. “No, but that little bottle of tequila looks inviting.”
“You could probably use about five of those after what you went through last night.” He rose to his feet and wrapped his arms around both her and Gavin. “It’s going to get better.”
She closed her eyes and breathed in his masculine scent from her nose squished against his chest. “Can’t get much worse.”
She scrubbed a couple of days’ dirt and grime from Gavin in the tub. If only she could scrub away his memories as easily. How much of this turmoil would stick with him in the years to come? He’d just seen his second dead body in as many days.
“Any more scrubbing and Gavin’s going to turn pink.”
Jenna jumped at the sound of Cade’s voice and dropped the washcloth into the soapy water. “Do you think all this is going to affect him?”
Cade perched on the edge of the tub and circled his fingers in the water. “You’re asking me? I’m no expert on childhood trauma.”
“How much of your father’s...indiscretions do you recall?”
His hand stilled in the water as the rings continued to expand. “That was different. We never knew what was going on. My father presented a different face to us. I was ten by the time he left, so of course, I remember all the drama surrounding that.”
“But it made you a stronger person.” She reached around him for Gavin’s towel. “Maybe this will do the same for Gavin.”
He grabbed the towel, gripping it between them, his knuckles almost as white as the terry cloth. “Gavin will be fine.”
She met his dark eyes, blazing with some inner emotion, and for that moment she believed him.
She left a sweet-smelling Gavin with Cade, watching morning cartoons while she took her turn in the shower.
Fifteen minutes later, with her hair wrapped in a towel, she wedged her shoulder against the bathroom door and listened to Gavin try to explain the characters in his favorite cartoon