from having a backup plan. He waited long enough for Sara to say the good-nights she’d told him she had to say and then called her back. He watched for her as he did so, on the street outside the thrift shop. Would she be walking or in a vehicle?
“It hasn’t been half an hour yet,” she answered on the first ring.
“I know. I just wanted to let you know that I’m not home, either, so if I’m a minute or two late, don’t think I’m standing you up.” Translation—“I want to know when you’re at your car so I can try to figure out where you’re coming from.”
“I don’t take you for a man who’d call and then not show. I’d have waited.” There was a chuckle in her tone that got to him. He shifted in his seat, pretending not to notice.
“It’s late,” he said. “I didn’t want you out in the dark alone, putting yourself at risk on my count.” Probably a stupid statement based on her understanding of what was transpiring. But not stupid at all. An armed and dangerous woman was on the loose. Because he’d spooked her.
And she knew Sara.
“No need to worry, Michael. I’m used to taking care of myself.”
But how often did she deal with women who’d kill to get their way?
She’d called him Michael. Only Shelley had ever done that. And then she’d stopped. He’d become Mike. Just like he was to everyone else he’d ever known. Mike. Just Mike. Simply Mike...
He’d told Sara his name was Michael.
“So have you left work yet?” He was doing a job. And had to do it to the best of his ability. And when he saw no one in his rearview mirror, he turned in his seat, doing a visual three-sixty.
“Not yet. I’m just getting to my car.”
There were a few cars parked on the street. Vacant cars. Most of the businesses were shut down. An occasional cop drove by. A convenience store on the next block hogged what little traffic there was.
She wasn’t on his street. He didn’t hear any cars starting.
And then he did.
Michael started his SUV. Drove to the corner, keeping an eye in his rearview mirror, as well. He could cover, at most, four streets. Thinking that his range wasn’t going to be good enough, Michael saw a car turn the corner onto a main street one block to his left.
The streetlight showed him a glimpse of light hair that wasn’t blond. The color of honey. Bingo.
Waiting long enough to not become conspicuous on the mostly deserted road, Michael told her he’d see her soon and slowly pulled out. He didn’t follow her, though. He didn’t have to. He knew where she lived.
What he needed to know was where she’d come from.
HER CONDO WAS in a gated community. They had twenty-four-hour security. And Sara swam at night regularly enough to be comfortable walking off from her balcony over the small piece of manicured grass to the shrubbery that lined the enclosed pool area. One of the reasons she’d chosen the condo over a single-family home was because it had been poolside.
The comforts of home without the responsibility and maintenance.
She wasn’t disappointed—or surprised—to find that she’d beaten Michael to the pool. He hadn’t said whether he’d intended to swim. But she was in the black one-piece suit she wore at night when she didn’t have to worry about tan lines.
And wondering if he’d been out on a date. Or to dinner with friends. She shook her head. Absolutely none of her business.
Tonight was about taking care of her so that she’d be ready and able to take care of others in the morning. To take care of Nicole. Pray to God she got that chance.
She couldn’t think about Nicole right now. She was off work. Had to have downtime if she was going to be any good to those who relied so heavily upon her.
She knew the drill. Just as she knew it was going to take something pretty substantial to keep her mind off the hunted woman. The new mother whose husband had ripped her child away from her.
Yes, she saw the connection. Knew that she was, in a small way, relating to Nicole heart-to-heart.
Which was another reason she’d come home. Draping her thin black cover-up and towel over a chair near the hot tub, Sara turned on the jets and slowly stepped down into the small steaming pool. The water stung her skin as the heat sent delicious chills over her body.
She was separating herself from the job. From the victims. She wasn’t one of them. Their journeys were not hers. Hers was to be present to help them whenever she could and then to come home and live a full and rewarding life of her own.
Theoretically.
Lila didn’t. Neither did Lynn, for that matter. The nurse practitioner lived right at the Stand with her husband and four-year-old daughter and infant son. And her husband’s mentally disabled brother who was married to Maddie.
Maddie had had a baby the previous January. And Lynn’s son had been born in April.
She worked as many hours as Sara did.
But she had a full and rewarding life...
The gate clicked.
Sara ducked down, sliding her butt onto a cement seat so that she was covered by water up to her neck.
It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen her nearly naked before. The black tank she had on was far less revealing than the bikini she’d worn that afternoon.
Still, it was night. Late. And she was worried about Nicole. Needing to forget for a little while...
* * *
GETTING PAST THE security at Sara’s condo complex hadn’t been as hard as Michael would have liked. He’d simply waited around the corner for someone to turn in and then followed right behind them through the electronically operated gate. Sure, he was on a surveillance camera, but what reason would anyone have for searching the tape?
He was there for a good cause. Hopefully, after he was done here, Sara would vouch for him.
Nodding at a security guard riding quietly through the complex on a golf cart, he stepped inside the pool area. The suit he’d just changed into in the front seat of his vehicle was a little musty smelling, probably from being sweated in and then locked up in a hot SUV all afternoon. He’d forgotten to provide himself with the luxury of a towel when he’d grabbed the suit out of the laundry that morning.
He heard the rumble of the hot-tub jets before he saw her. Pulling off the short-sleeved shirt he’d worn to scramble under bushes that evening, he dropped it to a chair and sauntered up to the tub, lowering himself to the first step.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” She gave him a glance, almost shyly, like a woman who was entertaining the idea of getting to know a man better. And
