Julian took a wide step back to allow her to leave. She reached her hand up as if she was going to touch him, but then dropped her arm by her side. “You’re not like any other man, Julian.”
And then he was alone in the mudroom where just seconds ago he would have given anything to make love to Georgie. He stayed in the mudroom for a few minutes until he heard the water running upstairs. He listened to the bedroom door shut and only then did he make his way upstairs to his bedroom.
As tired as he should be, Julian had a feeling he wouldn’t get much sleep. He wanted Georgie tonight. And if she’d been willing, he would have made love to her right on the kitchen floor. It was the first time in his career that he’d been willing to compromise his integrity on the job for a woman. He hadn’t even given it a second thought.
No, she was the one who deserved better than him.
* * *
They hadn’t spoken much at breakfast. Georgie ignored the glances Joan gave her and Julian as they each ate a plate of scrambled eggs and ham. The wedding was later in the day. Everyone was scrambling to get things done and everyone had a job to do except for Georgie. She was truly the outsider. But what did she expect? She wasn’t family.
She’d managed to get through the day and get dressed for the wedding without shedding a tear. Her time in South Dakota was coming to an end. In a few days, she and Julian would head back to Texas. Or maybe not. Maybe she’d be heading somewhere alone and he would move on to another job without her.
She was just slipping into her black pumps when her cell phone rang. Georgie glanced down at her cell phone and cringed. Eduardo always had lousy timing. They were leaving for the Center in a few minutes. If she didn’t answer the call, Eduardo would have questions for her that she didn’t have answers to. Up until now, he’d only called her a few times.
“Hello?” she said after pressing the answer button on her cell phone.
“Is that it?” he said, clearly annoyed with her.
“I wasn’t expecting your call,” she said.
“Obviously. You aren’t where you said you’d be.”
How would he know this unless he’d been checking on her. Had someone gone to her apartment in Texas? She’d been careful to make sure it looked like she was still there. But obviously, Eduardo knew. She bit her bottom lip and looked at the bedroom door. Julian was in his room putting his tuxedo on. He was only a few short feet away from her. She was safe.
“I’m with a friend.”
“Friend? Who is this…friend?”
She tried to keep her voice light. Up until now, she’d been able to ward off his advances and keep his attention on her to a minimum. She did it only for Angela. Until she knew Angela was out of the compound, she wouldn’t risk making Eduardo suspicious.
“No one you know. Besides, doesn’t a woman have a right to have a few friends?”
Silence.
“I promised your mother I would take care of you,” he said. “You should have never left Colombia like that. I have been worried.”
Her heart pounded as she fought for control. “I’m fine.”
She could almost feel his outrage through the phone line.
“I’m…out of town. An old friend is getting married. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.”
“Really? Why didn’t you ask me if I wanted to attend with you as your guest?”
He seemed completely clueless that being with him was the last thing she’d ever want to do. Forcing a smile on her face and hoping it showed in her voice, she said, “It’s very cold here. Not like the balmy weather in Colombia. You would hate it.”
“Where are you?”
He was grilling her just as Angela warned he would do. He wanted information that she wasn’t about to give him. It wasn’t safe.
“My friend Abby is from Vermont. Great skiing.”
“Skiing in Vermont?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
“Save me a piece of wedding cake and we’ll share it when you get back to Colombia.”
Julian caught her staring at him from across the room and was now making a beeline toward her.
“What about your wife?”
“She’ll be busy with other things. We have a new daughter. A beautiful baby girl.”
“Really. Congratulations,” she said. She frantically tried to think of a way to get information so it would all be over. “I didn’t know that Ava was pregnant.”
Silence.
“I’ll have to pick out a pretty dress to bring back to Colombia with me when I return in a few days.”
There was a light knock at the door. Julian didn’t wait for her to answer before opening it further. Relief flowed through her.
“You’ll have to wait until I get back,” Eduardo said.
Her gaze locked with Julian’s “Get back? Are you and Ava planning a trip?”
Julian nodded to her. Her heart pounded.
“Not Ava and the baby. They’ll be staying back at the house. But I’ll be going to my house in the east.”
“A house in the east? The hills. That must be beautiful.”
“It is. I will take you there some time when you return.”
Her skin crawled just thinking about it. Tears filled her eyes as she fought to remain calm. “Have a good time.”
“And you as well,” Eduardo said. “I want to see you soon, my girl.”
My girl.
Had he said those things to her mother? Had she put up with Eduardo and his attention just for Georgie?
“Goodbye.”
The phone call disconnected and she felt her whole body collapse.
“You’re okay,” Julian said. “That was good.”
“Good? He didn’t give me a location. A house in the east? The hills?”
“It narrows things down a lot for us. It’s a direction we didn’t have ten minutes ago.”
His cell phone rang and he answered it quickly.
“Kelly, yes.” He listened for a few seconds and nodded. Then he hung up the phone.
“You did good. Kelly is pleased. He’s putting together a team to go to Colombia now.”
“All from that phone call?”
“That’s all we needed.”
She nodded and looked at the phone in her hand.
Julian came into the room and sat down next to her. “You should be happy about this. It’s progress. In a few days, it should all be over.”
And when it was, she’d be leaving South Dakota for who knows where. And she’d be alone again.
* * *
The wedding had been beautiful and the reception was filled with all the playfulness and love that Georgie had seen many times over the past week while she was here in South Dakota. The McKinnons had partied long into the night. The next day, they’d all slept late trying to recover from their celebration.
Georgie had gotten up early while the rest of the house was still asleep. She pulled on her red jacket and boots and sat in a bench on the back porch looking at the snow and the tracks she and Julian had made that day when they’d gone tobogganing.
She heard the kitchen door open and she turned, thinking it was Joan ready to yell at her for sitting out in the cold too long. But it wasn’t Joan. It was Julian.
“You’re up early,” he said.
“So are you.”
“I got a call from Kelly.”
“You did? Were they able to get the baby out?” Georgie said.
“Ellie? Not yet.”
“Ellie. That’s pretty name.”
Julian sat down next to her on the wood bench. “Seems Manuel Turgis had stolen the baby from Cash and his wife as payment for an old family debt. Cash came to Colombia to find the baby and they captured him. They know where he is. There is a plan in place to rescue him and to take the baby and Angela out of the compound. Your cousin won’t be alone in this. I promise you. We have specialized people who are trained in getting people out of…difficult situations.”
She sighed. “I won’t see her anymore, will I?”
“I can’t say that for sure. Angela will be assigned a case worker and she will be advised about the best way to proceed for her and her kids. So will you.”
“A case worker?”
“Someone who checks in from time to time. If things stay quiet, your contact with the case worker will become less and less as time goes on until you’ll be so entrenched in your new life that you won’t even think about it anymore. And if by chance you’re able to meet each other down the road—under your new identities—then you’ll see each other again. But that might not be for a while.”
“Do you know where they’re going?”
“I heard something about Iowa. But that’s not set in stone.”
“Will you tell me?”
He sat down next to Georgie and put his hand over hers. “I’m not sure they’ll tell me.
She glanced down at her hands in her lap. “Iowa is big. But it isn’t that far.”
“No, it’s not. But that all depends on whether or not they choose witness protection. Angela will have a target on her back for a long time because of her involvement in helping the FBI find Cash and the baby.”
“So will I.”
“Probably.”
“Will you know where I am?”
“That all depends.”
She glanced over at Julian, unable to keep the tears that threatened her from welling up in her eyes. “On what?”
“On where we go from here?”
“I thought I didn’t have a choice.”
He shook his head. “You do. It’s your life. No one is forcing you to go into witness protection. I’m not going to lie. It’s the smart route to go. It ensures Eduardo Sanchez won’t find you. But as far as he’s concerned, you went to Vermont. You were never in South Dakota. All he knows is someone named Abby got married. For all he knows she’s a friend of yours from college.”
Georgie’s heart skipped a beat and then sped up to a point where she wanted to jump off the bench and into Julian’s arms. But she held back, afraid to believe and to hope that things would be different this time. “Where will you be?”
“Here for now.”
“For now? You’re not staying?”
“If I stay with the FBI in my current capacity, I won’t be around much. I move around a lot. But I’ve been thinking…”
“Yes?”
“There’s not much for me to do for the FBI here in Rudolph, Georgie. Sure, I’d have my family here, but not my profession. I could work at MW Oil like Gray and Grace. But like Luke and Ian, that was never something I wanted.”
“What do you want?”
“You.”
He was serious. It had only been little over a month that they’d known each other but she could tell the difference between Julian’s teasing and when he was serious. The way he gazed directly in to her eyes, she knew that he was.
“I don’t know how we could make this work. Or even if you want to,” he said. His chest expanded with his deep intake of air and then he let the breath out slowly. “I want you to feel safe. And in witness protection, you have the best chance of feeling safe again. What do you want?”
This was a moment for truth, but she couldn’t find the words. She had no right to voice what she truly felt inside. But Julian was looking at her, his eyes pleading with her for that same truth.
“I want a normal life.”
He nodded, somehow disappointed by what she’d revealed.
“I’ve always wanted a normal life because I never really had one.”
“Well, then, this can be a fresh start for you. You can go anywhere you want to go. You’ll get a new identity. New name. New past. Something that Eduardo hopefully won’t be able to trace. And then you can start fresh.” His voice was quiet and it occurred to her that her words had come out wrong.
“I want this, Julian. This normal.”
He frowned. “What? Like my family?”
She nodded.
“You think
my
family is normal?”
Georgie chuckled softly at his shocked expression. “It’s more normal than anything I’ve ever known. You all love each other. You’re there for each other. Why would I want to leave someplace like this? I’ve never felt more at home than I have being here. And this isn’t even my home!”
Her heart pounded in her chest as she laughed. Julian hadn’t asked her to stay. He hadn’t asked her for anything. Even when he’d held her in his arms and kissed her until she was breathless, he never asked. They’d both known that eventually she’d be moving on when he got the information he needed and Angela and her family were safe. They were almost there. He had his information. And soon, her cousin would be on her way out of Colombia.
“Forget I said anything,” she said quickly, snatching her hand away from his.
But as much as she desperately tried to retreat, Julian wouldn’t let her get away. He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her so she was facing him on the bench.
“That’s the last thing I’m going to do, Georgie.”
Bending his head, he brushed his lips against hers and let them linger for a moment, telling her how he felt. He kissed her like he meant it. She didn’t need the words. And she believed him.