She’d let down her guard and come out into the open. Had the killer been waiting for her?

She shuddered and, to her horror, Caleb noticed.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” He reached out his hand and touched her arm. For a moment, she wondered what it would be like to be wrapped in his arms. It had been too long since anyone had offered her comfort or reassurance and she needed it.

But she couldn’t give in to it. Not when her daughter’s life was at stake. “I’m fine, but I really need to go.” She walked to the SUV and loaded Missy into the car seat. They had to get out of here.

“I’ll call you if I need anything else,” Caleb said.

She nodded, then slipped behind the steering wheel. Getting home was her top priority. Getting Missy to safety.

She quickly started the engine and drove away before Chief of Police Caleb Harmon could ask her any more questions or stretch her reserve any further.

The incident at the grocery store was still bothering Caleb a short while later when he made it back to the police station.

Seeing a pretty lady in town shouldn’t send up red flags but it had. Jessup wasn’t exactly a mecca of tourism. They were just a small town that got few visitors. She wasn’t the first out-of-towner he’d come across, but her demeanor had piqued his interest. He could see something was out of the ordinary the moment she’d flashed him a terrified smile as he’d passed her by on his way into Walker’s.

Then the car nearly running her down. Red flag number two.

Something just seemed off about the whole situation, though he struggled to put his finger on what had him uneasy. Maybe it was the fact that Penny Anderson hadn’t showed the appropriate outrage at nearly being hit by a car and nearly having her daughter hit too. Most people would have been calling for the driver’s head, but her main concern had been to get out of there.

He rubbed his jaw. He was probably overthinking it. She’d had a trauma, and everyone responded to that differently. She’d seemed worried about her daughter, which was natural enough. Maybe she just wasn’t the confrontational type and had been more focused on getting the girl safely home. There wasn’t anything suspicious about that—on the surface, anyway. But fourteen years of law enforcement and his gut told him something was off about the whole situation.

He checked in with Hansen, the officer on duty. “Anything pressing?”

“No, it’s a quiet day except for your call. What happened there?”

“A woman and her daughter were crossing the street when a car nearly ran them down. Didn’t look like he slowed down at all either. The guy was probably on his phone and not paying attention.” At least he was hoping that the explanation was that innocent, but Penny Anderson’s reaction screamed at him that something more was going on. “Any movement on the BOLO?”

“Nothing so far.”

“What about the license plate numbers I gave you?” He hadn’t been able to help himself. He’d jotted down her plate number along with that of the sedan and texted them to Hansen after she’d left the scene.

Hansen turned to the computer and pulled up a report. “One came back to a Charles Morton. Forty-three. No tickets or citations on file.”

“And the other?”

He pressed a button and another report appeared on screen. “Penny Jackson. Twenty-nine. A Lexington, Kentucky address.”

His heart sank. Just as he’d suspected. She’d been lying to him. “She told me her name was Penny Anderson.”

The fact that she’d given him a false name along with her odd behavior sent a third red flag up for him. He knew a woman who was running when he saw one. “Did you check for criminal backgrounds?”

“Nothing on Mr. Morton. He’s clean. Looks like she’s wanted for questioning by the FBI in connection to a string of bank robberies.”

Bank robberies?

If she was a wanted woman, it would explain her squirrelly behavior and her rush to get away from him. But instead of feeling like he finally had the answer, he was just left with more questions. He generally trusted his instincts and they were lit up now, letting him know that something about this woman wasn’t adding up. While her behavior at the scene had seemed inappropriate to the situation, she certainly hadn’t seemed like a bank robber. She’d almost seemed more scared than angry. Was someone after her? Was she hiding from someone? Even if she was a thief, maybe she’d been pressured or coerced into it—perhaps by the person she was now running from.

“You want me to respond to the BOLO, Chief?”

“No, I’ll take care of it.” Hansen handed him a sticky note with the FBI contact info written on it. “See if you can find out more about that BOLO,” he instructed Hansen. “I want to know what exactly her involvement is.”

He walked into his office and shut the door. He placed his cowboy hat on the desk and fell into his chair, still struggling to get a handle on the woman he couldn’t seem to get out of his head.

Obviously, she was on the run from something but, despite the BOLO, he doubted she was a bank robber. She just didn’t strike him as the type. A girlfriend of one of them maybe or a material witness.

He rubbed his face as the plight of this mom and her child got under his skin.

He stared at the sticky note with the FBI information. He wanted to know more about what was going on with her.

Penny prepared chicken nuggets and apple slices for Missy for supper. It wasn’t as nutritious a meal as she would have preferred but Missy enjoyed it and cleared her plate for a change. Her appetite hadn’t been the best since the incident so Penny had tried to cater to what she would eat. It was bad enough that the girl had retreated into a shell and wasn’t speaking. She couldn’t handle Missy not eating too.

She watched her daughter on the floor, coloring a picture, and her heart ached to go back to their lives before that day at the bank, before they’d been caught up in a robbery. She would never forgive herself for being in that place at the wrong time. Ever since, she’d spent hours trying to figure out what she’d done wrong, how she could make sure something like that never happened again. Of course she hadn’t been able to find any solutions. There was nothing she could have done. She hadn’t known about the robbery or what would happen. But now she had to live with its aftermath—and so did her daughter. Missy had watched it all unfold, her childhood innocence lost in the blink of eye.

All the bank robbers had been wearing masks but from her vantage point, Missy had been able to see two of their faces without them realizing it. She’d picked them out from their mug shots to the police, showing incredible courage despite struggling with her own fears. Afterward, when everyone realized Missy could identify the men who’d robbed the bank, the threatening notes and harassing phone calls had begun.

Penny had hoped that making it clear that her daughter was not testifying would mean that the threats would end, but they’d only escalated until their FBI protection detail had been murdered in the hotel where they were hiding. After that, Penny had made the decision to slip past their guards and disappear. She’d gotten into her car and driven from Lexington, not even knowing where she was heading but determined to get out of town as fast as possible, away from the men who were targeting them—and also from the police and FBI trying to bully her daughter into testifying no matter the cost. That had been two months ago. Sixty-seven days of peace from the threats and harassment.

She’d done what she had to do to keep her daughter safe.

She only wished she’d been able to get Missy the emotional help she needed.

She sighed. No use fretting over that. There was nothing she could do to change the situation. They’d had no choice but to run. She was determined to get Missy counseling just as soon as it was safe enough to go out in public again. If today had proved anything to her, it was that laying low for now was their safest option.

She helped Missy clean up her colors and papers before bedtime. The current drawing she was working on showed images of people lying on the ground, blood spatter everywhere and an angry man with a gun. Penny shuddered and folded it. Another one for the collection. Missy’s drawings since that day at the bank had gotten darker and darker.

She put Missy to bed, kissed her good-night, then walked back into the small living room of their rental. She fell onto the couch and let the tears flow. She needed the release. They were in way over their heads already. Piling the stress of the incident today on top of that was almost too much to comprehend. Part of her had been so fearful that they’d been discovered that she’d wanted to keep driving away from Jessup the moment she’d left the grocery store, but she’d calmed down and convinced herself that it had been nothing more than what the chief had said. A reckless driver who hadn’t been paying attention.

She clung to that notion. Carelessness, she could deal with. The thought of it being deliberate malice—the same cruelty that had dogged their footsteps before—was more than she could take.

God, I can’t do this anymore. I need to keep Missy safe but I’m afraid.

She hadn’t meant to invoke God’s name in her anguished cry. God used to be her comfort and her guide, but ever since she’d found herself a single mom, God had seemed so distant. Her husband, Devon, had been killed in a bar fight. He and another man had fought over money and drugs, and the fight had turned lethal. She’d been aware of Devon’s issues and she’d done her best to help him pay the bills and be supportive, but the lying and the late nights and the drinking had all taken their toll. He’d proved to her that not everyone was who they seemed. If she couldn’t even trust her own husband, then who could she trust? In the time since then, she’d learned to rely solely on herself. That attitude had given her independence...but it had also left her lonely. And now, when she really needed someone on her and Missy’s side, she had no one to turn to.

Especially not God, who seemed to have turned His back on them.

She got up and dragged herself to her bed, shut off the light and did her best to get some sleep. Being always on guard was exhausting.

A noise pulled her awake. She had no idea how long she’d been asleep but it was still dark outside.

She jerked up in bed, straining to hear again whatever it was that had awakened her.

She pushed back the blanket and slipped into her shoes, which she kept ready and waiting beside the bed. She slipped her cell phone into her purse and slid the strap over her head. Being ready to move at the drop of a hat was a necessity she’d gotten used to.

Her heart kicked up a notch as she heard something else. It sounded like voices outside.

She darted from her bed and ran into her daughter’s room. She pulled back the blankets, thankful for once for Missy’s lack of speaking. She groaned and clung to Penny but she didn’t cry out. “Baby, we’ve got to go,” Penny whispered to her.