Paige had gone to her superior at the New York office, Special Agent in Charge Lewis, with the postcard. He’d asked if she’d sent the card to herself in another bid to gain attention. With nothing to prove that Thames was contacting her—and doing so from death row—she was on her own.
Now, Paige had received a second postcard.
Thames knew she was no longer in New York, knew exactly where she was in Denver, and soon, she believed, he would be released. Paige didn’t think his conviction would stand. Despite all he’d done, the law would set him free.
He hadn’t forgotten about Paige over the last year. Instead, he’d tracked her. How Thames had found her in Denver was a mystery and one that was keeping her awake at night. A drop of perspiration trickled down her neck. She increased her pace.
Paige’s van was parked in a handicap spot. Her fifteen-year-old sister, Ivy, sat in the back in her wheelchair and turned to face her as Paige got behind the steering wheel. Ivy’s blond hair fell to her shoulders, straight and glossy. Behind her glasses, Ivy narrowed her almond-shaped eyes, and her delicate features tightened into an expression sour enough to curdle milk.
“This is unfair,” Ivy said.
Paige had been hearing the same refrain ever since she’d told Ivy they would be moving. After Paige received the postcard in New York City, she uprooted Ivy from the house they’d grown up in and brought her to Denver, forcing Ivy to leave behind her friends and all that was familiar. And now, just one year later, they were moving again.
Guilt weighed on Paige’s chest. “I’m sorry Denver didn’t work out for us.”
“Why didn’t it work out? Where are we going? You still haven’t told me.”
To ensure that Ivy didn’t reveal their destination, Paige had kept that to herself. Ivy had protested the secrecy, but Paige had been adamant. She didn’t think Thames had an in with the one bookish girl Ivy had eventually befriended in Denver and could track her through that girl, but what wasn’t known couldn’t be told.
Paige hadn’t told anyone where they were moving. Not that many had asked. She was distant with her colleagues at work and with her neighbors at the apartment that had been their temporary home. The big city and the busy Bureau office had been the perfect place to become lost. Or so she’d thought. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. But Thames did not know she was leaving Denver. She thought about their new home, the safety of a fresh start, and slowly, deliberately, Paige eased her grip.
She pulled out of the parking lot and glanced at Ivy before returning her gaze to the road. “We’re going to Kirk County to the town of Caledon. There are two other towns in Kirk County, Haldonville and Linkdale. Kirk County is in South Carolina. I hear that South Carolina is really nice.”
“New York was really nice. Why can’t we go back there? Why can’t we go home? I want to go back home.”
Paige’s throat closed at the loss and grief she heard in Ivy’s voice, knowing she was the cause. Ivy deserved to live like a normal teenager, so Paige hadn’t told her the reason for the move from New York or why they were moving again. She hadn’t told Ivy about Thames.
Maybe if Paige had only had herself to think about, she wouldn’t have run; she would have stayed in New York, baited Thames, taken him down. Or maybe she was fooling herself, and she would have done exactly as she had.
Paige rubbed her arms against a sudden chill. She would do anything and everything to keep Ivy safe from Thames, but Paige’s one consolation was that Paige herself was Thames’s target. Ivy wasn’t Thames’s type. She was too young and she was blond.
Ivy was still looking at Paige, waiting for a response. Paige was fresh out of reasons—excuses—for leaving Denver. Feeling drained, she couldn’t come up with one more lie. Ivy turned away to gaze out the window, and there was no further conversation after that. With only brief stops to eat and sleep in motels that didn’t take them off their path, Paige drove largely straight through. Thames was still behind bars, but he had a reach Paige had never expected, and she found herself continuously checking her rearview mirror, looking for someone who might be following them. She pushed herself hard, wanting to get as far from Denver as she could, as quickly as she could. As long as she and Ivy were out in the open, Paige felt vulnerable.
They arrived in South Carolina ahead of schedule. Paige consulted the vehicle’s GPS and her own notes to find Kirk County. She drove by gas stations, miles of open land, and not much else before reaching what would be their new home. Kirk County was a distance from major highways and cities. Remote as the county was, it was not easy to find, and Paige released what felt like the first deep breath she’d taken since she’d received Thames’s latest postcard.