Witness Protection Unraveled (Protected Identities Book 3) Read online

  Witness Protection gave him a new start—and a family.

  But now his past is calling him back...

  Living in witness protection won’t stop Travis Stone from shielding two orphaned children whose grandmother was just attacked. But when his former partner, Detective Jessica Eddington, asks him to help bring down the group that sent him into hiding, agreeing could put them all at risk. Can he watch Jessica’s back and protect the children?

  A Protected Identities Novel

  A bang sounded from somewhere to her right. Jessica grabbed another door handle and threw it open.

  And for the first time in years, laid eyes on Travis.

  Her heart caught in her throat. Her former partner had his back up against the wall, with a handgun pointed to the side of his head. His attacker wore a bulky orange reflective jumpsuit and a creepy bug-like silver respirator mask.

  Travis’s dark brown eyes met hers over his attacker’s shoulder, somehow looking so achingly familiar and yet completely new in ways she didn’t have time to process.

  Somehow she knew exactly what he wanted from her.

  Not rescue, but a distraction.

  She nodded. I got it.

  “Hey, you! Stop!” She yanked her weapon from her ankle holster. “Right now! Drop your gun!”

  The figure glanced toward her and Travis struck, knocking him sideways. The figure stumbled toward her. Then came the light—sharp, bright and blinding. A fist struck out.

  “Jess!” She heard Travis’s voice calling her name.

  But she couldn’t see where he was. She couldn’t see anything at all.

  Maggie K. Black is an award-winning journalist and romantic suspense author with an insatiable love of traveling the world. She has lived in the American South, Europe and the Middle East. She now makes her home in Canada with her history-teacher husband, their two beautiful girls and a small but mighty dog. Maggie enjoys connecting with her readers at maggiekblack.com.

  Books by Maggie K. Black

  Love Inspired Suspense

  Protected Identities

  Christmas Witness Protection

  Runaway Witness

  Witness Protection Unraveled

  True North Heroes

  Undercover Holiday Fiancée

  The Littlest Target

  Rescuing His Secret Child

  Cold Case Secrets

  Amish Witness Protection

  Amish Hideout

  Military K-9 Unit

  Standing Fast

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Witness Protection Unraveled

  Maggie K. Black

  Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

  —Luke 12:6–7

  To all the found family who are now in my life and all those who I have yet to find.

  Especially my brother-friend-colleague George Luke and his HEA, Karen.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Dear Reader

  Excerpt from Undercover Threat by Sharon Dunn

  ONE

  Travis Stone sprinted down Main Street in the small town of Kilpatrick, Ontario, ignoring the fact that Detective Jessica Eddington, the one and only woman his damaged heart had ever really cared about, was now relentlessly calling his cell phone.

  The late June evening was warm around him. The air was thick with the threat of rain. He was fifteen minutes late to pick up the two most amazing little kids in the world, and their grandmother, Patricia, needed him to take them so she could close up her store for the night and rush off to her book club. Right now, that was what mattered.

  When he’d gotten them from Patricia’s and dropped them off at school in the morning, five-year-old Willow had told him she’d had a nightmare about a “shiny man” with a flashlight standing outside her bedroom window. Travis figured it was probably just part of her dealing with the tragic death of her police officer parents six months ago, shortly after Willow’s baby brother was born. They’d both been killed when a drunk driver had panicked and accidentally careened through the impaired driving checkpoint they’d been manning. Still, not giving Willow or her grandmother any reason to worry mattered more right now than stopping long enough to take Jess’s call.

  Even if, after four long years hiding in witness protection, he still missed Jess so much that even just seeing his former partner’s name on the screen made his chest ache to breathe.

  Travis and Jess had worked over fifty cases together and, according to her message, Jess was calling to get his advice about one more for “old times’ sake.” Considering the dangerously unhealthy workaholic he’d once been, he didn’t want to risk getting sucked back into the career that had almost destroyed him. Not one case. Not one call. Even though hearing her voice on his voice mail a few days ago had almost been enough to make him call her back to say he’d help with the case.

  Lord, help me be strong enough to not get mixed up in whatever case Jess wants my help on and to put my life as a detective behind me forever.

  The final operation he and Jess had worked together—taking down an international crime lord known only as “the Chimera”—had led to a disastrous personal failure that had forced Travis into witness protection for his own safety. It had felt like the death of everything he’d cared about but had led instead to his slow and painful rebirth as a new man in this close-knit Ontario community. He was now a better man. One who showed up for the people who mattered. One who didn’t toss back coffee and caffeine drinks to stay awake all day and then pour obsessively over files or pace crime scenes at night like an irritable and jittery insomniac. He no longer laughed off belief in God or snapped at anyone who irritated him.

  He was now a man people cared about and relied on. He couldn’t give that up.

  Not even for Jess. No matter how much her dazzling blue eyes and determined smile might still float at the edges of his mind some nights.

  The phone stopped ringing as he passed Harris’s Bakery. He waved a quick hand at the couple sitting on a bench by the front door. The new kindergarten teacher, Alvin Walker, had his arm around Harris Mitchell’s daughter Cleo. That was new, and likely to be the most exciting gossip Kilpatrick had seen in weeks, especially since Cleo’s last boyfriend, Braden, had been a particularly nasty piece of work.

  “Hey, where’s the fire?” Alvin shouted to him.

  Three years since Travis had joined Kilpatrick’s voluntary firefighter brigade and still the joke never got old.

  “Got to pick up Willow and Dominic for dinner so Patricia can close up the store,” Travis called without letting his footsteps falter. “And I’m running late!”

  Alvin laughed. “Well, you’d better hurry then.”

  He was. Travis reached Tatlow’s Used Books and Café with its tiny apartment on the second and third floor that Travis cal
led home. The red and white sign in the front window had already been flipped to Closed but the front door was still unlocked. He pushed the door open, as chimes jingled.

  “I’m here!” he called. “Sorry I’m late! Someone called the volunteer firefighters about a baby skunk caught in a smoothie cup. Took me forever to coax him out—”

  He froze. The store was empty. No gray-haired Patricia wagging an understanding finger at him from behind the front desk. No Willow leaping up from a spot on the multicolored carpet where she’d been “reading” her baby brother a picture book and then charging into his arms. And yet the lights were on. Stained-glass lamps cast a gentle glow over an array of mismatched furniture, well-worn shelves stacked high with books and the long side counter that sold flavored coffees and pastries. An unexpected chill ran down his spine. Where was everyone?

  “Patricia?” The front door swung shut behind him. “Willow?”

  Then he heard a crack, soft and muffled like a firecracker going off inside a blanket, followed by the faint clink of something metal hitting the floor. No matter how many years he spent in civilian life, he’d never forget those sounds. Somewhere inside Tatlow’s Used Books someone had fired a handgun with a silencer and the bullet casing had fallen to the floor.

  I don’t know what’s going on here, Lord. But I need Your backup right now.

  The undercover detective he’d once been knew without a doubt that if he didn’t proceed cautiously he could put himself in the line of fire. But the man he was now—part-time landscaper, unexpected babysitter and volunteer firefighter—knew that he’d gladly take a bullet for Patricia and her grandchildren.

  What had started out as a simple landlady and tenant situation when he’d first rented the apartment above the bookstore had found him unexpectedly blessed by a family. It had been Patricia’s son and daughter-in-law, Geoff and Amber who’d practically hauled him through the rough patch of starting his life all over again, even though he’d never been able to tell them why he’d come to town and that he’d once also worn a badge. When Geoff and Amber had then been struck and killed, leaving elderly Patricia alone in the world and orphaning the children, Travis had vowed he’d do whatever it took to keep them safe. He wasn’t about to break that promise now.

  “Willow?” he shouted, scanning the main room rapid-fire before moving into the next one. “Anyone there? Shout if you can hear me!”

  A crash sounded that seemed to shake the walls around him and his hand reached instinctively for the weapon he no longer carried. He made his way through the bookstore then pushed through a door into the back hallway. To his left was the staircase leading to his second-floor apartment. Straight ahead was the door that led outside. He turned right and ran into the back storeroom.

  And saw his landlady’s lavender-clad pant legs and sensible shoes sticking out from behind a pile of boxes.

  “Patricia!” He dropped down on the floor by her side. “Are you okay? What happened? Where are the kids? I heard a gunshot.”

  Sweat soaked her short white hair and her face was pale, but he didn’t see any obvious injuries or blood.

  “Travis...” Her eyes were open but as she tried to sit, pain flooded her face. “I saw a bright light...and I... I think I fell...off the ladder.”

  Had she? A rolling ladder lay just a few feet away and he knew how stubborn she was about doing things herself instead of waiting for help.

  “A light?” he repeated. “Like a gunshot or flashlight?”

  Like the “shiny man” from Willow’s nightmare? It had been just a nightmare, right? There hadn’t actually been someone outside Patricia’s remote farmhouse shining a light in the little girl’s window, had there?

  “It was like...” Patricia’s voice faltered. “Like a camera flash.”

  A portable video baby monitor lay on the floor by her side. The screen was shattered.

  “Where are the children?” he asked again.

  “Upstairs. Asleep.”

  He reached for his cell phone and dialed.

  “Nine-one-one. What’s your emergency?” The voice was male and crisp. Travis quickly gave him the address and the details. The dispatcher confirmed paramedics were on their way. His phone rang again but he ignored it as Patricia’s eyes fluttered closed.

  “The children are safe upstairs?” Travis repeated.

  Patricia nodded faintly. “In your apartment. Dominic was napping and Willow fell asleep reading to him. I was watching them on the monitor.”

  “Okay,” Travis said. He’d set up a few baby monitor screens around his apartment and the store, so the adults could be in another room while the kids napped. “Paramedics are on their way. I’m going to run next door and get someone to come wait with you while I go check on the kids.”

  He turned to go, but felt Patricia grab his hand. He spun back.

  “Promise me you’ll take care of my grandbabies,” she said. There was a weight to her words he couldn’t grasp. “No matter what. Promise me.”

  “Of course,” he said. He squeezed her hand gently and let it go. “I promise.”

  Then he ran back outside as fast as he could push his legs to go. Seconds later, he was back with Alvin and Cleo, who’d immediately leaped to their feet and agreed to help. Once he was sure they were settled with Patricia, he pelted upstairs. He was almost at his apartment door when his phone rang again. This time he answered. “Hello?”

  “Hey Travis? It’s...Jess... Um, Detective Jessica Eddington.” Instantly her face swept into his mind, her long blond hair tied up in a bun at the nape of her neck and her perceptive blue eyes on his face. “I know this is unexpected but—”

  “Is this a secure line?” Travis cut her off before she could finish her sentence.

  “Yes—”

  “Has my witness protection file been compromised?” he asked.

  “No,” Jess said and he appreciated how direct her answer was.

  “Are you sure?” he persisted. “Is there any way the Chimera knows I’m still alive?”

  Known only by his alias, “the Chimera” was believed to be from Eastern Europe and had managed to amass a cruel and vicious international operation due to one simple principle: no one who’d ever seen his face or left his employ lived to talk about it. When Travis had gone undercover to take down his North American operation, with Jess as his behind-the-scenes partner, they’d successfully located and dismantled his cover business, arrested his entire team and freed every person he’d trafficked.

  But one thing had gone disastrously wrong. They hadn’t arrested the Chimera or successfully identified him. Yet Travis had seen his face. He’d even had the man set in his sights, but his hands had been shaking so hard from lack of sleep plus caffeine withdrawal, he’d failed to make the shot. No match had ever been made for the police sketch Travis had been able to supply. The Chimera had set a fifty-thousand-dollar bounty on his head, and the man Travis had once been had disappeared forever.

  “We’ve had absolutely no indication of any kind that your identity has been compromised,” Jess said.

  “The entire RCMP witness protection database was stolen by criminal hackers at Christmas,” Travis reminded her. “Over a dozen files were auctioned off.”

  “And your secret identity file wasn’t one of them.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Travis said. He’d fielded over half a dozen calls from RCMP officers in the months since then, both reassuring him of that fact and offering him a new identity if he wanted one. But he hadn’t been about to leave Kilpatrick.

  He reached the top of the stairs and unlocked his apartment door. “So you all say. But I’m dealing with a potential situation and I need to know if it could be connected to me, my past, my identity, criminals we took down together, the Chimera, any of it?”

  There was a short pause, as if Jess was confirming something before responding. From the backgrou
nd noise, it sounded like she was in a car. When her voice came back, she was all cop.

  “No,” she said, “there has been absolutely no suspicious activity anywhere online related to you.”

  He breathed a prayer of thanksgiving.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  Hopefully nothing.

  “My landlady fell,” he said. One of the two children he’d babysat might’ve seen a “shiny man” with a flashlight outside Patricia’s farmhouse and mistaken it for a nightmare. And he was still really sure he’d heard a gunshot even if he didn’t know where or how. “I gotta go. I’ll call you later.”

  He hung up before Jess could answer, his heart still reeling from having heard the sound of her voice, and ran through his front door, down the hallway and into his study. Dominic’s crib was empty as was the little cot beside it that Willow sometimes napped on. Warm June wind rushed through the open window that led out to the fire escape.

  The floor creaked behind him. Travis felt a blow, swift and hard on the back of his head. He fell forward, dropping his phone as it rang. The last thing he saw before being jumped from behind was Jess’s Caller ID.

  * * *

  Detective Jess Eddington stared down at her cell phone where it sat mounted on the dashboard of her car. Her hands shook as she tightened them on the steering wheel. Hearing Travis’s warm and deep voice down the phone line had unexpectedly stirred something inside her, like how hearing a snatch of a song could take her back to a place and a time she’d loved long ago. She glanced up at the blue-and-white sign welcoming her to the town of Kilpatrick. Travis still had no idea she was here.

  “Well, you tried to warn him we were coming.” The lackadaisical voice of hacker Seth Miles rose from the seat beside her. He had two laptops balanced on his long, skinny legs plus at least two cell phones. “I can’t believe he actually hung up on you. That’s gotta sting. Remind me again why we drove six hours across the province to recruit a man for an operation who clearly doesn’t want to talk to you?”