Page 8 of Black Bay Protector
It didn’t help that she’d already been exhausted when she’d fallen into bed before she’d been so abruptly awoken by Jace’s explosive entrance into her life. After work, she’d gone to her parent’s house for their weekly family dinner. Her father had met her at the door and Paige had known from a single glance at his face that her mother was having one of her rough nights.
When she’d gone inside, she’d found her mother sitting on the couch, weeping, surrounded by some of Grady’s things and several open photo albums. Paige had gone to her, and her mother’s quiet tears had turned to loud wails as she’d held tight to Paige and rocked her, crooning, “My baby,” over and over again.
Paige’s father had made himself scarce. Not surprising. Grady’s death had put a strain on their marriage. Grady may have been killed overseas on deployment, but Penny Carter blamed her husband for her son’s death.
“My son would have been a lawyer or a doctor if not for you! He never would have joined the Navy if he wasn’t so desperate to make you proud! You did this! You killed my boy!”
God, it was awful. The guilt she heaped on her husband’s broad shoulders. He took it stoically, letting her vent her spleen, then later, he’d retreat to his office where he sat alone and cleaned his guns. Those guns were now cleaned so often that they were probably the cleanest things in the house. Her poor dad…
The accusations were also wrong. The difference in both age and gender between the siblings meant they hadn’t been overly close growing up – Grady had been nine years her senior and had no interest in having tea parties with his baby sister when he could be out with his buddies, armed with a paintball gun in mock combat – but that didn’t mean Paige hadn’t paid attention. Her older brother had always wanted to be a soldier, had spoken openly about his desire without any encouragement from their father, and had enlisted the moment he was old enough. When he’d completed his BUD/S training had her father been proud? Yes. But they all had, including their mother. They were also all well aware of the risks.
By the time Paige had managed to get her mother settled into bed and had driven the almost ninety minutes home, it had been late and she’d been emotionally wrung dry. She’d fallen into her own bed, only to be awoken less than two hours later.
“We need to pull over.”
That announcement, after a span of silence, had Paige jerking in her seat. Had she dozed off? She blinked a few times, trying to get her bearings. They were on a long stretch of road with nothing much to see. Wait. Were they on the interstate? When had that happened? “Where are we?”
“Near the Pennsylvania border.”
Damn. Okay. She hadn’t expected their getaway route to take them so far. “Where are we going?” It was a question that should have been asked a while ago, and Paige could only blame stress and exhaustion for not thinking to ask sooner.
“Somewhere I know I can keep you safe,” was the completely unsatisfactory response as Jace pulled off the interstate via an exit that only had a number rather than any sort of indication they were heading into a town.
“Okay, but where?”
“Hold that thought,” he told her as he pulled the van into the darkness under an overpass and turned off the headlights. Leaving the vehicle running, he got out.
Enhanced vision must have been part of the super soldier package, because whatever he was doing out there, Paige couldn’t see anything. Then again, maybe he was peeing… and speaking of which, her bladder was feeling a bit overfull as well. Not that she was looking forward to going out into the thick darkness that surrounded them and squatting over God only knew what to relieve herself. What she wouldn’t give for a nice twenty-four-hour McDonald’s or convenience store.
Some quiet clanks at the front of the vehicle got her attention and Paige strained her eyes to see. She could just barely make out Jace’s shadowy outline before he moved away. The noise was repeated at the back, then the rear doors opened.
Turning in her seat, she watched him pull what looked like a large toolbox toward him. Unlocking it, he threw the lid open and tossed a set of plates inside before retrieving a new set.
“I’m sure we weren’t followed. Just need to change these out in case they got the plate number and put the word out though.”
Okay. Made sense. “Any chance we can find a bathroom someplace?”
“Sure. I need to get gas anyway. There’s a rest area not too much further. Can you hold it?”
As opposed to peeing in the dark? Yes. Yes, she could. She nodded, sure he could see it even without an interior light. That theory was proved right a moment later when he said, “Good.”
Within minutes, demonstrating he was experienced with this sort of thing, the new plates were on and they were back on the interstate, cruising down the road.
“So, our destination?” Paige prompted, picking up their earlier conversation.
“Virginia.”
Paige sputtered in disbelief. “That’s… that’s…”
“A long drive, so after the rest stop if you want to crawl in back and get some sleep, you can. There’s a sleeping bag back there.”
“I’m not going to Virginia. That’s crazy. I have a job, a life.”
Jace glanced over at her before returning his eyes to the road. “You also have a group of people after you who will go to great lengths to keep their secrets.”
“You said we weren’t being followed.”
“We aren’t. But that doesn’t mean they’re going to stop looking.”
