LAY AWAKE AND STARED at the blinking red light on the smoke detector. With each double blink, she repeated Tex-as, Tex-as, Tex-as.
Would the Lone Star State be their refuge? They needed a refuge. They needed to slow down, live their lives, stop running. But she couldn’t imagine Cade ever being satisfied with that kind of life.
Beth had mentioned getting jobs in their new location. Jenna missed her job as a flight attendant, but she’d take any job to support Gavin and keep him safe. Would Cade?
Had he worked so hard all those years to get into the Naval Academy, to get through Navy SEAL training, to become a member of Prospero only to throw it all away for some other job that could never satisfy him? Would he come to resent her and Gavin for tying him to an ordinary life?
Maybe they should go on like before. She and Gavin could live in hiding, and Cade could go back to his life as a Prospero agent.
If they’d take him.
What was the meaning of the silence on their end? Cade had explained to her that his contact with Prospero did not include lengthy conversations on the phone. Rather, that cell phone functioned as a vehicle for coded communications.
Coded or not, Cade hadn’t been receiving much in the way of communications from Prospero. And now Beth seemed to be cut off, as well.
Jenna sighed and tugged Gavin’s body across hers and onto the other side of her, so she could snuggle up against Cade. She wrapped one arm and one leg around his strong frame and kissed his sleeping face.
Beth echoed her sigh from the other bed and Jenna froze. Was someone else having trouble sleeping this night? She whispered. “Beth?”
Silence.
Nope, it would appear that she was the only restless sleeper in this room. She rolled to her other side and spooned against Cade while tugging Gavin’s back against her. There. Between her two favorite guys in the world, she had to fall asleep.
The following morning, Jenna woke up to someone tapping her nose. She opened one eye and met a pair of brown eyes, fringed with stubby dark lashes.
“Mommy, there’s a lady in our room.”
She pinched Gavin’s nose. “I know that. She’s a friend and she needed a place to stay last night. She’s going to come with us today to a new place.”
“Is she bleeding?”
Jenna’s stomach lurched. Gavin hadn’t forgotten Sonia’s body at the Arizona outpost. “No, she’s fine.”
That wasn’t quite true. Beth probably still had a bloody bandage stuck to her head.
The mattress dipped behind her, and Cade scratched her cheek with his beard. “What are you two planning?”
Gavin scrambled over Jenna and wormed his way between her and Cade into his rightful place. He cupped his little hand over Cade’s ear and said, “There’s a lady over there.”
“That’s Beth. Do you remember when we, uh, picked her up last night?”
“I was sleeping in the car.”
“That’s right, you were. She hit her head last night, so we picked her up and brought her here.”
Gavin wrinkled his nose. “She’s bleeding?”
“A little. She’s okay.” Cade raised his brows at Jenna over Gavin’s head.
“Like the lady in the bed. Like Marti.” Gavin turned so suddenly that he bumped Jenna’s chin with the top of his head. “Where’s Marti?”
“She’s back in Lovett Peak.” Jenna held up her hand to play patty-cake, and Gavin smacked her palm with his own. “She lives in Lovett Peak.”
“Are we going to Lovett Peak today?”
“Nope, no Lovett Peak for us. We’re going to Texas.”
“Can we swim in Texas?”
“Absolutely.” Cade grabbed Gavin under the arms and lifted him in the air and jiggled him around until giggles spilled from his lips.
Jenna pinched Gavin’s toes. “Shh, Beth is still sleeping.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Sorry.”
“No problem.” She executed a noisy yawn. “What time is it, anyway? I can’t see the alarm clock.”
Jenna peeked over Cade’s body. “It’s seven o’clock.”
“Ooh, that’s late. Even if we get out of here by eight, we won’t make it to Grenfield until around eleven o’clock tonight.”
Cade stopped hoisting Gavin up and down. “Grenfield?”
“It’s between San Antonio and Austin. Nice, midsize town—you can blend in but not get overwhelmed.”
“You’re the expert. Why wasn’t Grenfield your number one pick over the place in Oregon?”
“The Oregon town was on the coast. I thought you might like that better.”
Jenna slipped out of bed. “How are you feeling, Beth?”
“Much better.” She touched her bandage. “I think I can get rid of this today.”
“Unless you need stitches.” Jenna folded her arms over her cotton