Page 82 of Shiver

“I’m not sure yet. We haven’t been able to get hold of him.”

Her stomach flip-flopped like a flapjack on a hot griddle. She was used to being alone, she liked being alone, because she knew her dad was always there—her back-up, her protector, her confidant. Nothing could happen to him.

But it had.

She took a deep breath to squelch the panic rising within her. She couldn’t lose him, too. Not after her mother and Becca, and—Kyle.

“Trust me,” Cameron said. “We’re looking into it.”

Trust me? She almost laughed out loud.

She was the daughter of the ex-director of the most secretive agency in the U.S. Government. Lies and deception were the name of the game. She’d learned a long time ago that trust was not a word to bat around easily. Trust was something to be earned, to be valued.

To be lost.

Embrace who you are, but never reveal. Never trust. Her father’s words whispered through her mind, reminding her that by calling Cameron she’d made a rash decision based on emotion, and rash decisions could get her killed.

She didn’t trust Cameron. She didn’t trust anyone. Not after what had happened to her sister.

“You need to come in, Genie. Let us protect you,” Cameron said. “At least until we can get a handle on what’s happening.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I can protect myself.”

“That’s what your father thought and look where that has gotten him?”

“What aren’t you saying, Cameron?”

“Genie, don’t be stubborn.”

“That doesn’t sound like an answer.”

Silence filled the line.

She wasn’t going to get anywhere with him. She never had. “Just let me know if you hear something, okay?”

“Genie.” His voice hardened.

Out of the corner of her eye, out her bedroom window, she saw another dust cloud rising in the distance. She stopped dead in her tracks, spun to the window and grabbed the high-powered binoculars off the wall. “Cameron, someone’s coming and this time it’s not the UPS man.”

“What do you see?” he snapped.

“A convoy. Three black SUVs. Yours?” This time she hoped they were his.

“No. Hang tight. I’ll get you out of there.”

She stilled, her grip tightening on the binoculars. “How do you know where I am?”

“Kiddo, I’ve always known.” Her heart dropped. “We’re coming to get you. Kyle is already on his way. But, trust me, he’s not in a black SUV.”

Kyle?

“Something bad has happened to my dad,” she said as the vehicles sped closer and closer to her home. The home no one but her father was supposed to know about. The place she thought she was secure. Hidden.Safe. She’d been wrong. “But you already know that, don’t you?”

“We don’t know anything yet. Don’t jump to conclusions.”

“How else could they have found me?”

She hung up the phone, grabbed the extra Glock she kept in her nightstand, her ankle holster, two extra magazines and the Ka-Bar Bowie hidden in the railing of the staircase. She climbed the ladder up into the crow’s nest two rungs at a time. Pulling out her .50 caliber long-range rifle, she stuck the barrel through the slot in the bulletproof bubble that doubled for a roof and pointed it at the ground.

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