Page 60 of Lost in the Moonlight

We needed to think. We needed to take some sort of action so she didn’t have to hide in fear.

“We need a plan. If you call the Marshals and tell them about the note, and it ends up being just Poco, they may still insist on moving you. If we tell the local police about it, we still risk the Marshals finding out. But I can ask Hardy to come and get the note and have him run some tests on it. I’d already asked him to do some digging on Poco, so he won’t be surprised if I ask him to find out where he was when the note was left.”

She frowned at me, the dazed passion in her eyes slowly dissolving. “Who’s Hardy?”

Right. I had to remember she didn’t know everything about my life. Just like I knew so very little about hers—just the worst parts.

“Hardy is Secret Service. Former head of my detail, but he’s also a friend. He’ll keep this quiet.”

She hesitated. “I still need to call Deputy Marshal James, even if it’s just to make sure Aaron is still in Chicago and hasn’t found out where we are. I need to make sure my mom is protected.”

“Can you just say you’ve been worried since you found out about Roci?” Her brows pushed together, doubts running through her mind. I pushed at them, trying to shove them away, trying to hold on to more time with her until I could find a way to cross the chasm between us. “If we have even one inkling this is something more than Poco, we can explain everything to them.I want—” My breath caught. “I need you to be safe. Nothing will stop me from making sure you are.”

Could I sacrifice being with her if I knew it would ensure her safety? Abso-fucking-lutely. But I wouldn’t sacrifice her, us, if I didn’t need to. My conscience wiggled with thoughts of paparazzi. With thoughts of the many photos leaked in my lifetime where I hadn’t even known someone had taken them. We’d deal with that too. Somehow. But first, we had this to handle—an ugly note and a threat from a local thug.

“What would you tell Hardy?” she asked. “About me?”

“He might already know everything there is to know about you. He ran my neighbors.” I waved to the house on the opposite side of mine. “I guess the people next door are the Bristols.”

“He won’t know I’m in witness protection. The Marshals don’t share that information with any other law enforcement group.”

I wasn’t exactly sure it was true when it came to the president’s family. I wasn’t sure any secrets were kept, but maybe some were. She was right when she’d said the Marshals hadn’t lost a single person under active protection, so maybe they did keep secrets from even the president.

She pulled on the chain at her neck and the class ring there. After what I’d heard, I was even more convinced it was her dad’s. A way to keep him close. To remember him. What had she said about the people in the cemetery? About wanting someone to think of them so they weren’t forgotten? She couldn’t go visit her dad, so she visited others like she hoped someone was doing for him. It sliced through me, making me want to find a way for her to visit him, making me want to end both the Viceroys and Poco.

“If there’s a way to keep Mom safe and to keep us from having to give up our life here, I want that,” she said with a quietdetermination. “If it’s Poco who did this, and we can just end it before it gets further out of hand, then that’s what I’d like to see happen.”

Her strength awed me. The way she’d crumbled and then yanked herself back to stable ground was stunning. After Sienna and after Lyrica, I’d wallowed in self-pity, and remorse, and what-ifs. Maybe she had too, but what I saw before me now was a woman who didn’t let the knocks that came at her keep her down.

“Let me call Hardy while you call the Marshals and your mom.”

I reached for my phone and stepped toward the kitchen table. While I talked with my former Secret Service agent, she stepped out of the kitchen with her phone to her ear.

Hardy wasn’t thrilled things had escalated or that it was happening across the street with me tagging along for the ride, but he said he’d send a rookie to get the note this afternoon. He asked for the videos from Willow’s alarm system, and I told him I’d have Willow send them as soon as we hung up.

I was just shoving my phone in my pocket and heading to find her when she came back in, still talking. “I just want to make sure you are taking extra precautions. I just got off the phone with Deputy Marshal James and confirmed Aaron is still in Chicago.” She paused, listening to her mom. “I just… I don’t know, Mom. I didn’t tell her about the note because I’m pretty sure this is Poco, and I didn’t want her to overreact. He came into the café today and said some nasty things.” Another pause. “Hector didn’t know, or he would have kicked him out. Don’t say anything to him. I don’t want him getting into it with Tall Paul.” The quiet made me wish I could hear her mother’s side of the conversation. “No, I’m okay. I’m with Lincoln.” After a beat, her eyes went wide, and she put a hand to her forehead as shelied. “No. He didn’t hear me talk about the Marshals. He doesn’t know anything. He was in the other room. What? I don’t think—” She grimaced. “Hold on. Let me go get him.” She waited for a second, as if she’d really had to come find me, and then offered me her phone with a hand that shook. “She wants to talk to you.”

I reached for it without hesitation. “Hello?”

“Lincoln?”

“Yes.”

“My name is Erica, and we haven’t met, so pardon my directness, but who the hell are you, and why are you doing this?”

Even though I knew she was right to demand answers to those questions, it still irritated me. My voice was sharp as I replied, “You’re right, we haven’t met, and you don’t know me. So, let me put it simply. I’d never stand by while someone was accosted or hurt, but it’s much more than that now. As I’ve gotten to know your daughter over the last few days, I’ve been amazed by her strength and courage. I can easily say I’d do just about anything to make sure she remains unharmed.”

Willow inhaled sharply, but silence hummed over the line between her mom and me for a moment before Erica finally spoke again. “Willow has been through a lot in her short life. A lot. Things we can’t and won’t discuss. If you’re not okay with any of that, you need to step back right now.”

“I won’t push her to do or say anything she’s uncomfortable with,” I growled out.

A little huff of something close to laughter drifted over the line. “I see. You like my daughter quite a bit.”

“Like is putting it mildly.” Every word was spoken with a vehement truth.

Willow’s eyes grew wider, and the remnants of the desire we’d flamed sparked between us.

“Hmm. I’m quite happy with this development. What I’m not happy with is some local yokel thinking he can scare my daughter. I’m out of town for the weekend—not far, just in Richmond—and I can come home if I need to, but I think me changing my plans and leaving my students would upset her almost as much as Poco has.”

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