anything.” An emotion that Chase completely understood.
He should have made sure Jax wasn’t being followed. Should have done more to protect his brother. But Chase had had so many things on his mind that he hadn’t taken more precautions. That couldn’t happen again. Because the next time, Jax or someone else could be killed.
April came even closer to him, glancing back at the baby. Probably to make sure their whispered conversation wasn’t disturbing her. It wasn’t. Now that Bailey had had a bottle, she was sleeping, well, like a baby. However, Chase was betting April and he wouldn’t be getting much sleep, if any, tonight.
“I’m sorry,” April said.
Not especially something Chase wanted to hear. Or feel. But he felt something all right.
Sympathy.
And he’d learned the hard way, that was never a good thing to feel when it came to April. Best to keep this conversation on a more business level. Easy to do since they had plenty of nonpersonal things to discuss.
Well, one huge thing anyway.
There was something he should probably tell her. Eventually. Something that was indeed personal. But it would have to wait.
“Someone did hack into WITSEC files,” Chase confirmed. “We won’t know the extent of what was compromised for a while, but it’s obvious the hacker was able to find you.”
“And my brother?” she asked.
“The marshals went to his house, but Quentin wasn’t there. The place had been ransacked and there were signs of a struggle.” Chase paused, trying to brace himself for how she was going to react to the next thing he had to tell her. “There was blood on the floor.”
That caused her breath to shudder, and she staggered back. Maybe would have fallen if Chase hadn’t caught her. He hooked his arm around her waist, putting them body to body again. Also giving him feelings he didn’t want to have.
Lust.
Not an especially good time for it, but it always seemed to happen with April. Chase cursed it and wished there was some way in hell he could make himself immune to her.
Rather than stand there with her in his arms, Chase led her across the room and had her sit in one of the chairs at the dining table.
She shook her head. “Quentin doesn’t even know how to get in touch with me if he needs help.”
“No, but he knows how to contact me. If it’s a real emergency, he’d call me.”
April looked up at him, blinked. “You don’t think the blood they found is real?”
Chase was 1,000 percent sure she wasn’t going to like this. “I think it’s real all right, but Quentin could have planted it so it would look as if he’d been injured. And he could have done that so we wouldn’t believe he had any part in kidnapping Bailey.”
There were holes in that particular theory, but Chase knew that Quentin was very good at doing criminal things.
“You think Quentin could have had Bailey kidnapped for ransom money,” April said. She didn’t exactly jump to deny that though it was no doubt what she wanted to do.
“It’s possible. You have to admit your brother has been involved in some illegal moneymaking schemes before.”
She didn’t deny that, either. Couldn’t. Because it’d been Quentin’s dirty dealings with Crossman that had set this entire mess in motion.
“I don’t think Quentin would work with Crossman,” April said. “Not again. Not after what happened the last time.”
And what’d happened the last time was murder. Specifically, the murder of a cop, Tina Murdock. Tina had gone to question Quentin, had found Crossman instead, and some kind of argument had ensued. Crossman had shot and killed her.
“You trust your brother a lot more than I do,” Chase reminded her.
“I know. And I also know you don’t trust me. That’s all right. I deserve it.”
She did. But there was no need for him to spell that out to her. April had known about her brother’s illegal activity. If she had reported it sooner instead of trying to get Quentin out of hot water, Tina wouldn’t have walked into the bar where she’d been murdered.
Of course, April hadn’t mentioned anything about knowing of Tina’s visit or her brother’s criminal activity when she’d gone to Chase that night. Even though Chase hadn’t known it at the time, she’d been looking for a shoulder to cry on because she was about to turn in her brother. And during the consoling, they’d landed in bed. Only afterward did Chase learn the truth, and he was still dealing with it.
“I need some good news,” she said, groaning. “Any good news.”
“The safe house will be ready soon. I didn’t go through the marshals for it, just in case. Dexter Conway and one of the other deputies are setting up a place in the local area. They’re stocking it now and making sure there’s plenty of security. After we’re settled there, I can work on getting you a new identity.”
Just thinking about that put a knot in his gut. A knot that’d been there since he’d known April was pregnant with his child.
Basically, as long as Crossman was a threat, April and Bailey would have to live in hiding. And if he wanted to be part of his baby’s life—which he absolutely did—Chase would have to go in hiding with them. It’d mean giving up everything he knew. His family. His job. His life.
But that’s exactly what was going to happen.
Of course, Chase had thought he’d have a few more days to come to terms with it. However, the little girl sleeping on the cot was the ultimate reminder that his time as a marshal was nearly up.
And that crushed him.
Since April looked very tuned in to his thoughts and appeared to be on the verge of another apology, Chase nipped it in the bud and continued giving her the update on their situation.
“Teddy hasn’t found any cameras or anything else suspicious at my place, but he’ll keep looking,” Chase explained. “And the marshals haven’t discovered anyone in the office who could be a mole.”
April kept staring at him. “You don’t sound as if you think they’ll actually find anything.”
Chase shrugged. “Deanne could have been wrong.”
“Maybe.” April took a deep breath and repeated her noncommittal response. “But she believed she was right. Believed it enough to risk her life to help me find Bailey.”
That put some tears back in her eyes, and this time April didn’t succeed in blinking them away. “God, Chase, I got Deanne killed. That’s more blood on my hands.”
The tears came faster. Sobs, too. And he would have had to be a heartless jerk to just stand there and watch her fall apart. Chase sank down in the chair next to her and pulled her into his arms.
“You
