Page 22 of Edge of Danger

She was used to being on her feet all day, waiting tables and cleaning houses and doing anything else she could to make ends meet. Walker was still at the stage where he slept a lot, giving her time to check off her daily tasks without a problem.

“So, what’s for dinner?” he asked.

“It’s a surprise,” she teased. “So don’t be late.”

“I love surprises. See you at six fifteen on the dot,” he promised before hanging up.

She clutched the handset to her chest with a grin as she remembered how surprised Brax had been that first night she’d scrounged around the kitchen looking for dinner ingredients, hoping for inspiration. He’d gotten used to a lot of frozen meals and takeout, evidenced by the number of packages in the freezer and containers in the fridge. The aroma of a home-cooked dinner had practically sent him drooling.

It was a pleasure for her to watch him as he enjoyed her cooking. She knew she was a good cook thanks to the time in the kitchen bonding with her mother once she was tall enough to reach the stove. It felt good knowing she could provide a little something for him after he’d given her so much.

He would never know how much he’d given her. Hecouldn’tknow.

The knowledge that this wasn’t real always sat at the back of her mind. He could find out about her at any time. It was why her heart leapt every time the phone mounted on the kitchen wall rang.

He could be calling to say hello, or he could be calling to say goodbye, to tell her to get her things together and get out.

As it was, he’d been suspicious when she’d suggested he pay her in cash every week. “I don’t like paying the check and direct deposit fees at the bank.” She’d shrugged. “Every penny counts.”

He’d let it go without questions, though it had been clear from his frown that he thought it was strange. How many more strange things could she say or do without him demanding answers? Soon he would want to know why he hadn’t heard anything from the agency about paperwork.

Which was why she’d keep her head down and save every cent she could. Eventually, she’d have enough money to hire somebody who could clear her name—ironically, San Antonio Security was exactly the sort of business to do something like that.

It was impossible. She couldn’t even hint at needing their help. They would take Walker away. She couldn’t lose him again.

But she couldn’t fool Brax forever. The sooner she had enough money saved, the better. What if Robert decided to come back all of a sudden? That would be the end of everything.

And it could happen at any time. The sense of an anvil hanging over her head followed her wherever she went. It could drop whenever, wherever.

Walker’s soft cries from his crib filtered through the monitor. It was like he felt her thoughts sometimes. He had a way of breaking in before she went really dark and depressed herself.

After changing him, she picked up a blanket and walked him downstairs. “Let’s go outside and get some fresh air and sunshine.” That was what she needed, a way of recharging her spirits.

It was their late afternoon ritual. He’d wake up from his nap, and they’d lie out on the blanket for a while basking in the sunshine. It was the only sort of life she wanted to live. Lazy afternoons with her son enjoying the last of the sun’s rays before getting dinner started.

And saying hello to the man of the house when he got home.

Tessa flinched when the hair along the back of her neck stood straight up. She raised a hand to the area, rubbing like that would help ward off the sudden chill.

Walker continued gazing up at the clouds and babbling while she sat up, her head on a swivel. There was nobody out there. No neighbors near enough to make out their houses in the distance. No passing or parked cars.

Why did it feel like there was somebody watching her?

She hadn’t felt this way since Eagle Pass. Her instincts had been dead-on then, and those same instincts were screaming at her now. But Eagle Pass was more than two weeks behind her. There hadn’t been any trouble since the night she’d spent at the office when those two men had come looking for her.

“I’m letting my imagination run away with me,” she murmured to Walker, still scanning the horizon in all directions. “Come on. Let’s go back into the house.”

Even if it was nothing more than her overactive imagination—and it had to be—she rushed Walker inside and locked the door behind them.

Chapter Nine

“Nothing all day. Movement and shadows mostly but nothing verifiable. Nobody in or out.”

Brax groaned, rolling his head around on his stiff neck. “I never knew sitting still and watching an apartment could leave me aching the way it does.”

“You don’t get up and move around enough. I warned you about that.” Weston would know, having performed his fair share of stakeouts when he’d been with the police department.

“I can’t shake the feeling that the second I look away for anything more than an emergency, I’ll miss something important.”

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