Her Christmas Protector. Geri Krotow

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СКАЧАТЬ Trail Hikers’ findings on her neighbors appeared.

      “That’s fast work.”

      “It’s what we get paid for.” Claudia handed the tablet to Zora and leaned back. “Robert Blumenthal, the Trail Hiker you met during your initial read-in, did the work.”

      “It’s impeccable.” She’d expect no less from the agent who had, in two days, briefed her into the Trail Hikers and taught her their history, mission and capabilities. On top of that Rob had certified that she was proficient in a variety of weapons as well as hand-to-hand combat.

      The Trail Hikers had to be dependable. It was part of what made Zora agree to sign on for a five-year stint. The other part had been that she knew she was going to miss the navy in terms of being operationally relevant. As much as she loved counseling and the people she helped, nothing compared to helping local and national LEA take down the bad guys in the most expeditious manner possible.

      “Looks as if my neighbors are all trustworthy, thank God.”

      “Which leaves the shooter on the loose.”

      * * *

      “Sit down with your father and eat your borscht, Zora.” Anna motioned at the spot near her father, Adam. Zora’s Ukrainian immigrant parents had given her a love for authentic Ukrainian cuisine as well a new name when they adopted her. They were as American as anyone but when it came to food, no one made a meaner borscht than Anna.

      “I can’t thank you enough for setting up the tree for me, you two. I don’t know when I’d have gotten it off the back porch.” They’d cut down two trees last weekend and Zora had brought the smaller noble fir to her home, leaving it on the back porch to settle in a bucket of water.

      Adam and Anna had set it up while she napped, and they had all decorated it together. It lit up the front room, its glow visible from the table where they ate.

      “Your mother tells me you’re involved with more of your detective work, Zora.” Adam’s gravelly voice was in stark contrast to his fit form. Seen from behind, he looked thirty years younger than his true age.

      “It’s not my work, Dad, it’s with a private agency. They were looking for someone with my background for some local work.” She’d given them minimal information on her work with the Trail Hikers and they hadn’t pressed it, accepting that it was similar to the type of work she’d done in the navy. She hadn’t been able to talk about that, either.

      “Counseling’s not enough?” Anna slid into the chair opposite Zora, next to Adam.

      “Yes, it’s more than enough. But it’s good for me to still give back in some way.”

      “You owe nothing to no one.” Adam spooned the hot red broth and appeared calm but Zora knew better. Under his steady exterior was a bear that, once disturbed, could be formidable. And when it came to his only child, Adam was overprotective and immovable.

      “Dad, it’s not as if anyone is forcing me to do this. I want to. And I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

      “We’re talking about it because we love you, Zora.” Anna spoke quietly from her seat, her bright blue eyes reflecting her concern.

      And the same stubborn attitude as her husband.

      “I know, Mom, and I appreciate that. I wouldn’t be here without either of you.”

      “You’d be here, lubovichka, just with another family. We’re blessed that we got the pick of the litter.” Adam laughed at the family inside joke. They’d done all they could to draw Zora from the hardened shell she’d arrived with when the social worker had dropped her off in Silver Valley. Zora didn’t remember those days clearly, only that she’d taken months to learn to cry again, to allow her heart to open and pour forth incredible sorrow and grief over what she’d experienced in the True Believers cult. The trauma and emotional abuse she’d been subject to with the cooperation of her biological mother...

      She shuddered.

      “What? What did I say, Zora?” Adam’s bushy silver brows meshed into one.

      “Nothing, Dad. I’m just thinking of how grateful I am that you both took me in.”

      “We didn’t take you in like you were some bum off the streets. We adopted you.” Anna’s voice wrapped around Zora’s heart like a hand-knit alpaca throw.

      “We would have taken her in if she were a bum, too. Enough of this.” Adam pointed a salad fork at Zora. “You need to relax. You did your navy time, and you don’t have to do anything that’s so dangerous anymore.”

      Working for the Trail Hikers was far more dangerous on a day-to-day basis than her navy job had been, but she wasn’t going to volunteer that to her parents. They’d been through enough, worried plenty about her over the years. Not to mention their own struggles before and after they immigrated to America.

      “Dad, I’m not doing anything I don’t want to do. And my counseling is starting to take off.”

      “Until your client was murdered.” Anna spoke as simply as if she’d said it was getting chilly outside. Zora loved the practicality of her parents, who had escaped the former Soviet Union as soon as the Berlin Wall’s collapse had allowed them to. They, too, had seen a lot in their lifetimes when they were still so young. Learning to speak English without much of an accent was the least of their accomplishments.

      Zora didn’t believe in coincidence, and the fact that Adam and Anna had become her adoptive parents remained a miracle in her estimation.

      “Have they found this Female Preacher Killer, Zora?” Adam buttered a piece of the bread Anna had baked.

      “No, not that I know of.” Her parents didn’t know she was working the very same case.

      “We’re worried, Zora, that maybe who shot you is somehow connected to what you left behind in New York all those years ago.”

      “New York is a crazy place!” Anna chimed in.

      “It’s a very large state, Mom. And the city is only part of it. I never lived anywhere near the city.” She turned back to her dad. “No one from that cult knows where I went. My name, my entire identity, was changed. You know that, Dad. How could they find me? Besides, so many of them are gone, either dead or in prison.”

      “Some of their prison sentences are up.” Anna voiced the concern she’d mentioned yesterday in front of Bryce.

      “I know—you pointed that out yesterday in front of an SVPD detective who knows nothing about it, Mom.”

      “Don’t give me that stern tone, Zora. I’m your mother. And Bryce is like my own son. I certainly fed him as much as you while you were growing up.”

      “He’s a detective now and he doesn’t know anything about my past. He doesn’t need to.”

      “How was I supposed to know you never told him?”

      “Mom, I was in the Witness Security Program. None of us were supposed to talk about what we’d been through, ever. You know that. You never mentioned it to his mother, did you?”

      “No, СКАЧАТЬ