Better Off Dead. Meryl Sawyer

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СКАЧАТЬ a Marine before joining the Federal Marshal’s group that ran the witness protection program. His training showed not only in his posture but in the way he talked and acted.

      What was he doing here now?

      Not that he ever announced his visits. In the beginning, he’d popped in to see her several times a week. As she became acclimated, he visited her each week. Lately she was lucky to see him once a month.

      Derek had appeared at her condo one night last week. It was much too soon for him to be here again. Wasn’t it? Maybe something had happened to her sister, Tina or her niece, Ariel. Her stomach cramping with apprehension, she braced herself for bad news as Derek opened Dreamcatcher’s door, but he greeted her with a smile.

      “Hey, Lindsey.”

      A thought suddenly hit her. Maybe a date had been set for the trial. Perhaps an end to this nightmare was in sight. Something in her chest felt lighter—almost hopeful.

      Derek’s eyes were on the open door leading into Romero’s gallery. “Close it.”

      Lindsey slipped over to the connecting door and saw Romero animatedly talking to a couple about a Kevin Red Star lithograph. Without a sound she shut the door.

      “I need to talk to you,” Derek said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Close the gallery. Let’s go to lunch.”

      “Okay, but let me tell Romero. He’ll watch the shop and take care of Zach.”

      It took her a minute to explain an old friend had dropped by and needed to talk to her. Since Romero couldn’t see Derek from where he was standing, she thought he would assume it was a woman. From his wink, she decided he believed she had a boyfriend.

      What a sweetie, she sighed inwardly. He genuinely cared about her. Too bad she couldn’t tell him how much his friendship meant to her.

      She left Zach in the gallery and walked outside with Derek. “What’s going on?”

      “I’ll tell you all about it.” He sounded happy. “I made lunch reservations at La Casa Sena.”

      “Really? Since when does WITSEC bankroll lunches at pricey restaurants? This must be good news.”

      “Good news and bad news.” Suddenly the air was fraught with tension and an undercurrent of expectation. “Which do you want first?”

      She’d been so battered down with bad news that she almost opted for the good first. No. This experience had taught her to face her fears and deal with them.

      “The bad.”

      His eyes shifted, a subtle movement most people would have missed, but she knew he was checking out the people around them because that’s what he’d taught her. Tourists, she decided, covertly skimming the clusters of people strolling through the area.

      “Headquarters intercepted an expert hacker who was attempting to access your file.”

      His words beat against her temples. Fear she’d been trying too long to ignore spread through her with a mind-numbing punch.

      “Don’t worry. We stopped them.”

      THE FRAGRANT YEASTY SCENT of warm sapodillas filled the air in La Casa Sena. Ordinarily Lindsey would have been ready to fill one of the hollow centered buns with honey and gobble it down, but her mind wasn’t on food. Derek had insisted on putting off telling her the good news until they had ordered lunch and wine had been served.

      “Okay, now for the good news.” Derek raised his glass of Pinot Noir to hers.

      Lindsey clinked her goblet against his, concealing her frustration with a manufactured smile. She still held out the hope that the good news was a date had been set for the trial.

      Derek grinned and took a swig of wine before, saying in a voice charged with excitement, “I’ve been promoted. I’m going back to headquarters in D.C.”

      He kept talking, but all she heard was a blur of words. This was the good news? Anger mushroomed inside her. What had begun as frustration morphed into something larger, darker.

      Derek was her lifeline, her contact with the people who had taken control of her destiny. They weren’t close—exactly—but there was an immeasurable, unseen bond between them. They’d talked for hours, particularly in those early days just after her arrival. He’d taught her how to start over, how to construct a new past, and how to protect herself.

      Since she’d come to Santa Fe, Derek had been the only person she dared trust. Now, he was leaving and to him this was an occasion to be celebrated. For her it was…she couldn’t quite put in words how she felt, what he’d become to her.

      With everyone and everything she’d known and loved taken from her—even a field contact whose job it was to guide her—was a special person. Allowing Derek Albright to gain such importance illustrated just how screwed-up her life had become.

      “Hey, Lindsey, what’s the matter?”

      “You jerk! This is the good news?”

      He shrugged and tried for a smile.

      “Am I supposed to be happy for you?”

      “No, not really.” A note of apology crept into his voice. “I thought I owed you an explanation.”

      “Really? I can’t imagine why.” Like a balloon inflating, anger was quickly becoming rage.

      “I know you expected me to stay with you until after the trial.” He furtively glanced around him to see if anyone was listening. No one was, but he lowered his voice and leaned even closer. “With all the pressure to increase Homeland Security, the Marshal’s pool of agents has been sucked dry. They need me in D.C. It’s an opportunity I can’t pass up. Hell, under normal circumstances, it would take me another five…ten years to get to that level.”

      When she’d been on the fast track at PowerTec, she had been just as ambitious. Maybe more so. She should give him a break, but she couldn’t. The head of WITSEC had assured her that her handler would be with her until the trial was over. Derek had sworn he would stay until the end.

      Well, what did she expect? Close enough for government work, her father used to say. They did whatever they damn well pleased—regardless of their promises.

      He waited for the server to put down their salads before saying, “My replacement will be here next week.”

      “When are you leaving?”

      “On the five o’clock flight this evening.”

      Now all she had was Romero, and the way he’d been acting, she might have to distance herself from him. What a hoot! Tyler had once accused her of being “too social.” Now she was alone in the world with just a dog.

      “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine. You’re the most self-sufficient witness I’ve ever protected. We just want you to be cautious. At about a year witnesses become careless. They think the danger has passed.”

      “That’s why Rutherford and Ames have waited until now to find me by trying to access my file. They think WITSEC СКАЧАТЬ