Valley of Shadows

Maybe she should make a break for it, run into the convenience store and ask for help. She doubted Hawke would try to stop her. Unfortunately, the same instincts that told Miranda that Hawke wouldn’t hurt her, told her that she was better off with him than without. She needed answers before she could return home. Without them, she risked putting her brother and sister in harm’s way—and staying with Hawke seemed the only sure way to get those answers.

She pulled open the car door, saw that Hawke had moved into the passenger seat, and did her best to act confident and unperturbed. “Where to?”

“I’ll mark the route on the map. Then we’ll drive straight there. No stops for anything. We’ve already lost enough time. We can’t afford to waste any more.” He met her gaze, his expression unreadable, his anger concealed as he opened the glove compartment and pulled out a pack of highlighters.

“All right. Let’s do it.”

It took less than a minute for Hawke to highlight a yellow path from their location to a small town near a lake. When he finished, he highlighted a second route in blue. “The yellow route is the quickest. The blue uses the most back roads. We’ll try yellow first. If there’s too much police traffic, we’ll switch to blue.”

“Okay.” Miranda’s hands were moist against the steering wheel, the reality of what she was about to do pulsing through her veins. Until now, she’d felt more like a victim than an active participant in Hawke’s escape, but she could no longer deny the role she was taking. Running from the police, aiding an accused killer.

If they were caught…

“You’re doing this because you have to, Miranda Sheldon.” Hawke’s voice broke into her thoughts; his words offering assurance before she’d even voiced her doubts.

“Do I?” She whispered the question, not expecting an answer.

“If you don’t, we’ll both die.”

“That’s a worse-case scenario.”

“If you really believed that, you would have run into the store and called for help instead of getting back into the car with me.”

“I need answers so that I can go home. It’s the only way to make sure my family is safe.”

“You’ll get the answers you need. We’ll get them. And once we do, you’ll have no worries about those you love.” He rubbed at the back of his head, his hand coming away bloody again.

“You need to keep applying pressure to that.”

“I need to get to Lakeview.”

Miranda took the hint and started the engine, pulling out of the parking lot, following Hawke’s directions back to the highway. It was late, traffic sparse, what few cars there were passing in flashes of light. Miranda should have been lulled by the darkness that stretched out before them, by the quiet hum of the car engine and by Hawke’s silence.

Instead, she felt wired, her body trembling with adrenaline, everything in her begging for action. Finally, she could stand the quiet no longer. “What exactly is going to happen when we get to Lakeview? Are we taking another car? A train? A plane?”

“It would be difficult to take a train or car to Thailand.” His words were so matter-of-fact they almost didn’t register.

When they did, Miranda cast a quick glance in Hawke’s direction, saw that he was watching her with a dark, intense gaze.

“You don’t mean Thailand as in the country?”

“Do you know of another Thailand?”

“No, but I’m hoping there is one, because there is no way in the world I can go to Southeast Asia.”

“Sure you can. Everything is taken care of. We’ll have a passport and paperwork waiting for you.”

“That’s great, but I won’t be needing them. I can’t go. When you said out of the country I was thinking Mexico or Canada, not halfway around the world.” Miranda’s hands were shaking on the wheel.

“I told you that the person who betrayed me to Green has to be in Thailand. No one here knew who I was or what I was doing.”

“There must be people in Thailand who can investigate.”

“I also told you, I don’t trust anyone.”

“You go, then. I’ll stay in Lakeview.”

“And what? The police know who you are. They’ve already issued an APB. It’s only a matter of time before they find you.”

“I thought….” She shook her head, knowing that she hadn’t thought. If she had, she would have known exactly what Hawke meant when he talked about leaving the country.

“What did you think?” His words were quiet, his tone more kind than Miranda expected.

“Nothing. I guess I just hoped this would all be over by tomorrow.”

“There’s no way that’s going to happen, babe. We’ve got real trouble and real trouble takes time to resolve.” There was sympathy in his voice, the first he’d shown her, and Miranda’s throat tightened in response.

She swallowed back tears and tried to keep her voice even. “My nephew’s funeral is tomorrow. I need to be there. My sister is counting on it.”

“I’m sorry for your loss. Sorry you can’t be there for your sister.” He shifted beside her, his palm sliding against her cheek, capturing a tear she hadn’t known was falling. “But allowing yourself to get arrested will only cause your family more sorrow.”

“I know.” She refused to let more tears fall, refused to allow herself to lean into Hawke’s touch. He was a stranger, after all. A stranger who had more hardness in him than sympathy.

“Is your nephew the reason you were at the funeral home tonight?”

“It seems silly now.” She stared out the windshield, the dark night and nearly empty road stretching out before her.

“Why?”

“It’s not like Justin needed me there. I just…didn’t want to let him go.”

“You were close?”

“I’ve raised him since he was two.” He’d been a son to her, though saying as much would have made her feel disloyal to her sister.

“His parents are dead?”

“No. I’m not sure who his father was. My sister is a model. She traveled too much to be his caregiver.”

“Your sister is a model?” He tensed, and Miranda felt her own muscles tighten.

“Yes. Why?”

“Someone the general public is familiar with?”

“She’s not a supermodel, if that’s what you mean, but she’s been on her fair share of magazine covers. She also does runway modeling.”

“So, not only do the police know who you are, but the world knows your sister. This isn’t good, babe.”