Riley snapped out of the memory—the daymare—and offered JD a tight-lipped smile. She laced her fingers and gripped her hands tightly, watching the lighted numbers on the elevator door click on and off until they reached the ground floor. Only then was Riley able to breathe.
“OK,” JD said when they stepped out of the elevator. “Where to?”
Riley opened her mouth and then closed it quickly. She squinted through the glass double doors of the hospital. Heat pricked at the back of her neck.
Deputy Hempstead was cutting a direct line to the front desk, something pinched between his forefinger and thumb.
Riley’s heart dropped into her shoes when the light caught it. He was carrying her sophomore picture, now jabbing at it as he barked at the woman at the desk.
Riley’s hand clamped around JD’s. She gave him a hard yank back, the pair disappearing down a hall.
JD paled. “Was that the guy from the train station? Ry, what the hell is going on?”
“Something bad, JD.”
“Then we need to call the police. And I should take you home, right now.”
Riley just wagged her head, unable to answer.
“You didn’t call your parents, did you? Look, Riley, usually I’m all for ditching out and everything, but this guy has been following you for a week. And from a different town. He could be dangerous. Do your parents know?”
Riley bit hard on her lip. “They don’t care about me. They want me to move smack dab in the middle of my junior year. What kind of parents would do that?”
“Riley—”
“JD, if I go back home—or to the police—something bad is going to happen.”
“You just said something bad is happening.”
“I won’t be here anymore. We’ll have to leave.”
JD frowned. “What do you mean, leave?”
“I can’t really explain right now. Look, I get it if you don’t want to be a part of this. Just do me a favor and don’t tell anyone you saw me.” She spun on her heel and speed-walked halfway down a hall before she felt JD’s hand on her arm.
“Where are you going to go?”
She hadn’t thought past avoiding a new life and a new identity. “I’m not sure yet.”
“All right. Stay here.” He guided her into a shadowed doorway at the end of the hall. “I’ll go get the car and pull up at this exit. Just make sure no one sees you.”
It seemed like hours passed while Riley waited for JD. When his car screeched up, she was finally able to breathe. JD barely waited for Riley to belt herself in before sinking his foot on the gas and glancing at her.
“I’m not even going to ask, Ry. You have to tell me what’s going on.”
“You’re not going to believe it.”
JD worked the muscle in his jaw. “Try me.”
“I just don’t want to get you in trouble.”
JD’s nostrils flared. “You probably should have told me that back in the bus bathroom.”
Riley sucked on her teeth. “I’m not Riley Spencer.”
“Who are you—007?”
It was a lame attempt at humor, and it died in the stolid air between them.
“I’m Jane Elizabeth O’Leary. That guy, the guy from Granite Cay? His name is Gavin Hempstead. He’s a deputy U.S. Marshal.”
JD seemed to push the car a little faster. “So you—were you kidnapped?”
“No.” Riley shook her head and smiled at the thought—how much easier it would have been if that were the case. She’d never have to tell anyone; she could stay in her house, continue to be Riley Spencer. She cleared her throat and thought about how much to tell JD. But one look at his profile, one thought back to the way he showed up to take her to Shelby, and Riley started talking.
“My parents and I are part of the Witness Protection Program. I didn’t even know until—” She tried to think back to that moment when her parents sat her down. It could have been two minutes or two months ago—her mind was in such a hazy fog. “I just found out.”
“Are you serious?”
The phrase serious as a heart attack flopped in Riley’s mind, but she stamped it down. Things were much more serious now. “Yeah. I didn’t know—when I was looking up the birth certificate, trying to find information on the O’Leary family? I didn’t know that was me—us.”
“So then, do you normally have U.S. Marshals following you?”
There was a hard edge in JD’s tone, and it struck Riley. “Are you mad at me? I didn’t know—”
JD blew out a long sigh then was silent for a beat. “No, Riley, I’m not. I’m just”—he raked a hand through his dark hair—“I just didn’t expect this—any of this.”
She sank back against the bucket seat. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”
“So, what happens now?”
Riley leaned her forehead against the cool window glass. “I have no idea. I think”—her throat was tight—“I think we have to disappear. Change our names again. My family and me, I mean.”
“So that’s what you meant by leave.”
A sob choked in Riley’s throat and she nodded.
“Do you have time for that bite?” What he didn’t say hung in the air between them: before they take you away.
Riley rested her hand on her belly. “My stomach is in knots. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat again.”