Page 93 of Jack

A beat. “That can’t be right. He was a SEAL.”

“People change. But . . . I think he knows who I am.”

“You need to leave, Ember. What if?—”

“No.” She cut her voice low. “I need to get into that wedding. Get the phone. Stop Stone. It’s more important than . . .”

“Than your life.”

“If it comes to that.”

“Because you can’t see me, let me say that I’m raising my hand to disagree.”

“Just get me into the wedding. And then get me to Florida. I need a beach.”

She hung up. Finished her coffee.

And then she picked up her phone and went shopping.

TEN

“Why doyou have to be so stubborn?” Jack glanced at Harper now as they drove to the Duck Lake Motor Lodge.

Aw,it shouldn’t have come out like that, but?—

“Why do you have to be so bossy?” She arched a pious eyebrow.

“It’s just like . . .”

“What?”

“Nothing. It just . . . you don’t . . . you don’t give up. And then?—”

She turned to him. “Wait one second. Are you talking about what happenedten years ago?”

“No.”Yes. Maybe.

She had followed him out to his car again, with Conrad and Steinbeck in hers, and he’d had the terrible urge to lock the door and leave her standing in the Echoes parking lot.Or not. Because the other urge was to keep her Velcroed to himself, make sure that whatever game Penelope’s kidnapper might be playing, it didn’t end up with Harper shot or in a coma or?—

“Breathe.” She touched his arm, shaking him out of himself, and he swallowed. “Everything is going to be fine. I’m not in any danger.”

His mouth pursed. He didn’t know what to trust, his gut or his head. But Occam’s razor said that the simplest theory was probably right. And the simplest theory in this case said that someone was trying to eliminate Penelope and anyone associated with her, and that included Harper.

Thankfully, before he said anything stupid, his phone rang. He went to pick it up, but Harper held up her hand. “You’re driving.” She answered it, turned it on speaker, and held it up between them.

He glanced at her. Then, “Jack here.”

“It’s Coco. I got into his phone. And I mapped his route.”

Jack wished his chest would loosen at that news. “And?”

“No airport trips. But he did get a call from your friend Penelope and pick her up on Tuesday in Duck Lake.”

“At a place called Echoes?”

“Huh. You might not need my help.”

“I do. Keep going.”