Out of Time. Shirlee McCoy

Now, go on home. You’ve been here long enough.”

      “I don’t mind staying.”

      “I know you don’t, but it’s not necessary.”

      “All right. I’ll check in with Ranger McDonall, and then I’ll be on my way. See you tomorrow.” She shoved the radio back into its place on her belt. She wanted to go home. She did. What she didn’t want to do was walk out of the compound, navigate the half mile to the parking lot where she’d left her Mustang. San Antonio was safe enough, and the parking lot where she’d left her car was well lit, but she felt like a walking bull’s-eye at night, a victim waiting to be preyed upon.

      She frowned, hurrying into the chapel and grabbing her purse from a locked file cabinet in the office.

      A victim?

      No. She was a survivor, and she wouldn’t let what she’d lived through change that. She would walk out of the Alamo, she would walk to her car, and she’d do it with ease. Just as she had before Aaron entered her life.

      She shoved the folder with the security details back in her desk and opened the office door, ready to find Levi, say good-night and be on her way. Chad was right. She’d been there plenty long enough, and the thick silence and hushed stillness of the place was eating at her, making her imagine things that weren’t there.

      She stepped out of the office and straight into a warm, hard chest.

      “Seems like we keep running into each other.” Levi cupped her arms, the heat of his palms seeping through her jacket and racing along her nerves.

      Her cheeks heated, but she didn’t jump back, didn’t try to move away. That would say too much about her state of mind, too much about how hard she had to try to keep from falling apart. “I was just coming to look for you.”

      “Yeah?” He slid his hands down her arms, his fingers lingering on her elbows for a moment before he let go and stepped back. Looked down into her face.

      “Chad is sending me home. I wanted to say good-night and finalize our plans for tomorrow. Did you find anything out there?”

      “Not even a jackrabbit jumping through the bushes.”

      “I guess finding a guy sitting on a bench holding a stolen key would have made things too easy.”

      “I wouldn’t mind a little bit of easy right about now.”

      “It’s been a hard couple of months for the Texas Rangers,” she said, more to keep the conversation away from her past and her problems than anything else.

      “That’s putting it lightly.”

      “I really am sorry about what happened to Captain Pike. I know your entire team must be desperate to find his killer.”

      “Desperate is also putting it lightly.” He offered a brief smile as he opened the chapel door and ushered her out of the compound. The air was crisp and cold, the night alive with the sounds of San Antonio. Cars. People. Life going on as it always did on Friday night. She needed to go on, too. She knew it. Knew she needed to move away from the past, move into the future, but she felt cemented to that night, cemented to Aaron’s grasping hands and fetid breath.

      Cemented to fear, unease, panic.

      “You have a witness, right?” She’d heard that on the news recently, had been following the story with interest just like most people in San Antonio. Violent crime wasn’t common there, and a Texas Ranger being murdered in his home had left the community uneasy.

      “He’s been in the hospital since the night of the attack. He’s still too weak to talk, but we’re hopeful he’ll be able to identify a suspect soon.”

      “So, in all these months, you’ve gotten nothing out of him?”

      “I wouldn’t say that. He’s been gesturing to a picture of the Alamo that’s on the wall of his hospital room. We believe he’s trying to warn us about a planned attack on the compound. The timing makes sense. The Alamo Planning Committee commissioned several high-ranking politicians to speak, and it would be the perfect time for the Lions of Texas to make a move.”

      “A move toward what?”

      “Political footing, maybe.” He shrugged, and Susannah could almost feel his frustration, could feel the tension that rolled off him.

      “You’ll find your answers, Levi.” She touched his arm just as she would have fourteen years ago, felt the same instant connection, the same certainty of herself and her place in the world that she’d felt when she’d been too young to realize that the childish love she’d had for Levi couldn’t last.

      That surprised her, and she let her hand drop away, rubbing her fingers against her jacket, trying to wipe away his warmth and her response to it.

      “I have no doubt about that, Susie. What I’m worried about is finding answers before the opening ceremony.”

      “We have over a week. That’s a good amount of time.”

      “It’s nothing compared to the months we’ve already spent searching for answers, but numbering our days isn’t going to help secure the Alamo. Do you have security cameras at the compound?”

      “Yes. I’m sure Chad will take a look at the tapes tonight. We’re going to meet at six in the morning to discuss what happened.”

      “Just you and Chad?”

      “The entire park Ranger team.”

      “Good. I’d like to meet your people, and I’d like to take a look at the security footage. Someone opened that gate, and, if we’re lucky, the tapes will show us who.”

      “I’ve never been real keen on luck,” Susannah said, stopping at the head of the alley that led to the parking lot and her Mustang.

      She needed to say goodbye.

      Let Levi go on his way.

      But the dark alley seemed to pulse with life, the shadows reeked of danger.

      She hated this part of her day. The shifting from busyness to quiet left her with too much time to think and too many memories waiting to drag her down into terror.

      “Just a turn of phrase, Susie. God provides the answers, He orchestrates the timing. I just wish He’d move a little more quickly on this.”

      “That’s the most difficult thing about faith. Holding on to it even when things don’t work out how we want or when we want. Waiting for answers to prayer? It’s killer.”

      “What answers are you waiting for?”

      “Healing. Peace,” she answered honestly.

      “They’ll come.” His knuckles skimmed down her cheek, the touch featherlight and barely there, but she felt it to the depth of her soul. That connection, that knowing. Her body responding to memories of better times and happier days.

      “I need to go.” She forced herself to move away.

      “Where are you parked?”

      “Just on the other side of the alley.”

      “I’ll walk you to your car.” He didn’t give her a chance to protest, just took her arm and started walking.

      Darkness pressed in as they moved deeper into the alley, and she shivered, her heart beating double-time. Could he feel her pounding pulse? Did he sense her terror?

      Susannah tried to still her frantic breathing, hold her panic in, but it bubbled out in tremors that shook her body.

      “It’s okay.” His words were as gentle as his touch had been, his voice washing over her and stealing away some of her fear.

      “I know.”

      “Then why are you shaking?”

      “Because I hate the dark. I hate what