Page 6 of Silent Grave

"Sheila!" Gabriel called. "Go!"

She was already running after Tommy. Behind her, she heard Gabriel's steady voice: "Hands where I can see them, gentlemen. Nice and slow."

Tommy was fast, but Sheila had spent years training. She gained on him as they rounded the corner of the motel, past dumpsters and dead bushes. The desert stretched out ahead of them, empty and vast.

"Tommy!" she called. "Stop! They won't give up until they've killed you, so unless you want to spend the rest of your life on the run, I'm your best shot at living."

He glanced back, his face pale with fear and exhaustion. His foot caught on a piece of broken concrete, and he stumbled, going down hard on one knee. Sheila reached him before he could get up.

"You don't understand," he gasped as she grabbed his arm. "You have no idea what they'll do—"

"Then tell me," she said. "Tell me everything."

The sound of engines roaring to life came from the parking lot. Car doors slammed.

"They're leaving," Sheila said. "My father must have convinced them it wasn't worth it. Not here, not now." She tightened her grip on Tommy's arm. "But they'll be back. And next time..."

Tommy slumped, the fight going out of him. "I never wanted to hurt you," he whispered. "I tried to warn them that killing you would only make things worse. But they wouldn't listen."

"Who wouldn't listen, Tommy?"

He looked up at her, his eyes haunted. "The same people who killed your mother. The same people who've owned half the department for decades." He swallowed hard. "The same people who are going to kill me the second they get the chance."

CHAPTER THREE

Coldwater County Sheriff's Department looked different in the predawn light. Sheila sat at her desk, watching through the window as two deputies she trusted implicitly led Tommy Forster to booking.

"Walks like a man condemned to die," Gabriel said from the doorway.

Sheila turned to look at her father. "Did he say anything while I was sleeping? Anything at all?" She and her father had taken shifts driving the seven hours from New Mexico back to Utah. She would've liked to stay awake the entire time, but considering how little sleep she'd been getting lately, she'd dozed off.

She just hoped she hadn't missed anything important.

Gabriel shook his head. "Quiet as a church mouse."

"And I can trust that?"

He lowered his eyes and sighed, looking ashamed. "I'm sure that's not easy now, not after everything, but I have no reason to lie to you again. It won't protect you."

He stepped into the office and closed the door behind him. "As far as his safety here," he continued, sounding eager to change the subject, "you made a good choice asking Roberts and Baxter to watch him. They're solid, dependable. They won't let anyone close to Tommy without your say-so."

Sheila said nothing. Her mind was wandering.

"What do you think he's waiting for?" she asked. "Tommy, I mean. He seemed so eager to talk when I caught up with him. Then… nothing."

"Probably figuring out what lawyer he should hire. Or..." Gabriel sank into the chair across from her desk. "More likely, he's weighing his options. Trying to decide if we can really protect him."

Sheila thought of those fake federal agents, how smoothly professional they'd been. How ready to make Tommy disappear. "Can we?"

"As long as he's in our custody? Yes." Gabriel ran a hand through his silver hair. "But he can't stay in that cell forever."

"He wants a deal." Sheila drummed her fingers on her desk. "He'd be crazy not to. Protection in exchange for what he knows."

"The question is, who can we trust to make that deal?" Gabriel's eyes were tired. "The state? The feds? After what we saw in New Mexico..."

Sheila's phone buzzed. A text from Finn: You home yet?

Home. After everything that had happened, the word felt strange. Like something from another life.

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