Page 12 of Deception

“I have friends in Natchez, so like you, I’ll combine this with getting together with them. Terri, an old Delta Force buddy, is driving up from the coast and should arrive sometime this afternoon. We haven’t seen each other in a long time. We’re having breakfast tomorrow.”

“You never hear much about women being in Delta Force.”

“I know, even though they’ve been in since the nineties when they were recruited to engage the female population in Afghanistan. She’s G squadron instead of a regular D operator, and we served on several missions together. I wish you two could meet.”

“Who knows, maybe we will.” The woman sounded interesting.

“Like me, she’s retired,” he said. “Lives near the Alabama line on the coast. I offered to drive down, but she had business in Natchez to see about.” He picked up the dessert menu. “Want anything?”

Madison held up her hand. “I’m full. So what have you been doing since you left the army?”

“Right now I’m taking care of Dad. Trying to put things in order for him.”

“And I’m one of those things.”

His face turned somber. “Yes, you are.”

7

Darkness was falling as soft murmurs of conversation filled the Mediterranean restaurant in downtown Natchez. Dani Parker set her fork down. A tingly sensation spread down the back of her neck. Nonchalantly, she blotted her lips with the linen napkin and lifted her gaze.

Across from her, the teenager with five stainless-steel studs in each ear and John 3:16 tattooed on her wrist laid her fork on the table as well. “You feel it too,” the girl said, looking around.

Dani barely nodded. She’d purposely chosen a corner table at the Guest House Restaurant, a habit of hers so she could keep the entire room in view. It’d been especially important tonight since she was delivering Briana Reed, or Bri as she preferred to be called, to a safe house in Jackson.

“Do you see anyone you recognize?”

Bri scanned the room as though she were looking for the waitress, then shook her head before she picked up her fork again and dove into her dessert. “I doubt anyone I know would be having dinner at a place like this,” she said between bites.

Dani continued to survey the room. Two men sat to her left, both watching a basketball game on the screen. Past them, a man she assumed to be a father focused on his daughter’s animated dialogue while the mother picked up her purse and stood. Earlier,Dani had looked his way and caught him staring at her, but not in a way that would give her this eerie feeling. Three tables over, a lone woman sat engrossed in a book. Evidently feeling Dani’s gaze, she looked up and frowned.

Dani smiled and received a cold stare back. Dismissing the woman, she studied the other people sitting at tables in the restaurant. Another lone woman, older than the book reader, a family with two kids, two men engrossed in conversation ... None of them seemed to be paying attention to her and Bri. Maybe she’d been wrong and it was simply her anxiety playing tricks on her. When Bri finished her last bite of chocolate pie, Dani attempted to get the waitress’s eye. “Be right back,” she said to the girl and caught the waitress before she left the room.

“Could we take care of my bill?” she asked, taking her credit card from her bag. “I need to get on the road.”

“It’s been taken care of,” the waitress said with a smile.

“What do you mean?” Anxiety raced through her body.

“That gentleman just leaving—he said you’d understand.”

She jerked her head toward the door as the girl and her mother walked out into the courtyard. The man made eye contact with Dani and winked before he turned and joined his family.

Dani had never seen the man before in her life. Could it have been meant for Briana...? No, he’d winked ather, and told the waitress she’d understand. It was like he knew her, but she’d never been to Natchez before. Uneasiness slid down her spine.

Maybe it was simply a random act of kindness. She’d read about that lately, where someone pays for another person’s meal. But that usually happened in a drive-thru. Perhaps she could catch them before they got out of sight. She stuffed her wallet in her bag and hurried back to the teenager. “Do you need to stop by the restroom before we leave?”

“I’m good,” she replied. “But that was quick.”

“Evidently the man with his wife and little girl paid for us.”

“You’re kidding.” Bri gave her a sidelong glance. “People don’tdo that ... unless they want something in return, and isn’t he, like, married?”

It broke her heart that circumstances had made Bri so cynical. Dani buried her own suspicions. “Maybe it was the wife’s idea. Besides, there are some good people in the world,” she said softly and hoped this was one of those times.

By the time they reached the street, the family had disappeared into the March night. She pulled her jacket close against the cold west wind as they hurried to where she’d parked her Honda Civic. She wished she could have at least thanked them. Another instance of being too late.

Dani had been disappointed when she’d called the Natchez Trace district supervisor’s office in Jackson earlier in the day and learned Madison Thorn had left Jackson. The person she talked to wouldn’t give any details of where she’d gone. Maybe if she dropped by the district office in the morning and talked to the supervisor in person, he would help her connect with Madison.

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