“In case what?” My voice squeaked.
He shook his head. “I almost lost you. What did you think I was going to do? Leave that to chance? Fuck that, Syd. We were supposed to be in this together. How could you pull something like this? After everything. After the kidnapping.”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry. It wasn’t about you. It was about finding my mom.”
He shrugged his shoulders and sighed. “Isn’t it always?”
“That’s not fair.”
“It’s not?” He strolled toward me, his footsteps heavy on the floorboards. “You’ve got to find a way to deal with this right now that doesn’t put your life in danger. I think you need to stop looking for her.”
I glared at him. “I’m not going to do that.”
“It doesn’t have to be permanent. But until we get a handle on what happened with the airplane hijacking, with the man following you, with Project Compass—you can’t search for your mom like this. It’s not safe.”
I leapt up from the swing. “You don’t know what I might have found here. What if this is her house? What if she needs me? She could have been here. Maybe she was, and I’m just too late. We don’t know that. What if she’s the one in danger?”
He grabbed me by the shoulders. His strong fingers dug into my flesh. “Let her go for now. This is dangerous. This house probably has nothing to do with the woman who is your birth mother. It’s nothing. It’s meaningless. It was a ploy to distract you—nothing more.”
“You don’t know that.” I was grasping at anything I could. This lead felt like the only thing I had. I couldn’t bear to have him take that hope away from me.
“Who sent you the text?” he pressed.
I didn’t want to try to explain, but I knew there wasn’t an easy way out of it.
“A man named Ethan Howard. I met him on the Texas trip last weekend.”
“And you blindly followed it?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. I realized how naïve it sounded to admit that the text felt like a lifeline.
“Ethan wasn’t like that.” I tried to explain why I had believed him when we spoke. “What possible angle could he have had?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t trust him. Look around us. I need to know everything about him. Because he got you to drive all the way from D.C. to Louisiana. This house has been abandoned. We should get out of here. Do you have cell reception? Because I don’t.”
I shook my head. “No, I lost it a few miles before I made it onto the turn.” He finally let go of my shoulders. I felt the warmth of where his hands had been.
He looked out on the horizon. We both saw how black the sky was. The thunder rumbled in the distance.
“Why don’t I follow you in your car into the nearest town? I don’t know that this is the best place to leave a car overnight. We’ll get some coffee and figure this thing out,” he suggested. “I think we’re going to need to stay overnight to get the details sorted. There is a lot of shit going on, Syd. You can’t pull this kind of crap right now.” He ran his hand through his dark hair. “You know Beechum is out there? Jelly Bean Jack? And whoever else was in the marketplace. This isn’t safe. You can’t go out on your own. We’ll head to D.C. in the morning and you’re going under full FBI protection. Immediately.” His eyes bore into mine.
“I haven’t changed my mind. I still don’t want to have anything to do with Project Compass. Or FBI protection. Unless that’s you. You know that,” I protested.
“One thing at a time. Let’s find some coffee and a room for tonight. Ok? We’ll talk about Project Compass once we’re dry and out of the storm.”
I nodded. The exhaustion had started to hit me and my wet clothes stuck to my skin. I hoped AJ realized we weren’t staying in a random motel. As soon as we had reception, I’d book something at the highest star rating I could find.
“All right. Let’s go.”
He guided me off the porch and we made a run for it as the rain started to come down in sheets.
I pulled open the driver side and slid into the seat, coating the soft leather interior with water. I winced at the mess I had made. I turned the key in the ignition, and nothing happened. It was silent. I cranked it again. I looked over at AJ in his car.
I saw the confused look on his face. Neither car would start.
He stepped out of the car and jogged over to me.
“Get out of the car!” he shouted through the window.