The Baby's Bodyguard. Alice Sharpe

had dressed for work in a black jacket and trim skirt. As soon as Mimi saw her, she got to her feet and laid claim to her great-granddaughter, transferring the baby and blanket in an effortless manner, but Hannah noticed the sideways glance at Jack and the nod of her head.

      “What’s going on?” Hannah asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

      “Nothing,” Mimi said quickly.

      Jack cleared his throat. “Well, actually—”

      “My poker ladies are all due in half an hour,” Mimi said while rocking Aubrielle in her arms. “It’s way too early for pretzels and beer. I’ll make tea. Are there cookies in the freezer?”

      “I don’t know,” Hannah said. “Since when does your poker group meet on a Tuesday morning?” Looking from Mimi to Jack, she added, “Okay, you two, what’s up?”

      “Nothing. Barb and the others are coming over to keep me and Aubrielle company while you and Jack go do your reconnoitering. Did you call the glass people yet, dear?”

      Hannah took a sip of coffee brewed twice as strong, no, three times as strong, as her grandmother made it. Didn’t take a genius to figure out who started the coffee maker that morning. “They’ll be here at ten o’clock. What do you mean, ‘reconnoiter'?”

      “I want to see foundation headquarters,” Jack said.

      “I don’t think that’s such a great idea,” she said.

      “Plus, I figure you probably need to take care of some kind of insurance thing with the garage concerning your car and I have to check out of the hotel by 10:00 a.m. We could take my Harley but it’s a little on the conspicuous side. Mimi has generously offered us the use of her car.”

      “And the poker crew?”

      “I don’t want anyone to be alone in this house until we figure out what’s going on. Alone anywhere, for that matter.”

      “So five ladies over seventy are going to keep my baby safe? I thought you were Aubrielle’s bodyguard.”

      “I think the best way to keep Aubrielle safe is to figure out why someone wants to scare her mother half to death. For this particular morning, this is the plan. It’ll give us a chance to talk and begin cementing our new pact. We’re a team, remember?”

      There was no need to ask what he wanted to talk about. Again she thought of the front window and the rock and what it could portend. What was the point of trying to protect David? Besides, if Jack got to the bottom of this, he’d leave and that was a good thing. “Okay,” she said, then, looking at each of them in turn, added, “No more making sneaky plans behind my back.”

      “Of course, dear,” Mimi said. “Don’t forget to stop by the store and get something for dinner. I made another list. It’s there by the door.”

      “And you’ll call my cell if there’s any sign of trouble?”

      “Don’t you worry about a thing.”

      Jack pushed himself to his feet. “Mimi, I know you’re familiar with the rifle, so we’ll take the shotgun. That okay with you?”

      “Damn tootin',” she said. “No one will get close to Aubrielle with me and the poker ladies here.”

      Hannah did her best not to shudder.

      CHECKING IN AT THE GARAGE TOOK no time at all and soon they were on their way to Fort Bragg. The road traveled up the hills out of Allota, following the coastline south. Jack drove Mimi’s small white car expertly, manipulating it around the hair-raising curves with ease.

      “The road reminds me of some of those in Tierra Montañosa,” he said.

      “Curvy and steep,” she said, agreeing.

      They stopped at Jack’s motel first and she waited in the car while he collected his things and settled the bill. When he walked back across the parking lot, he carried just a leather backpack slung over one broad shoulder and a leather jacket looped through his arm. The wind was blowing again—it just about always blew in the late spring—whipping his long, dark hair around his face. He’d changed into a clean dark shirt and black jeans and as his gaze swept the parking lot for who knew what, she thought he looked dangerous.

      He was dangerous.

      As he got back into the car, she whispered, “How did you escape the GTM?”

      “It’s not a pretty story,” he said, glancing at her and away. “Nothing you want to hear.”

      “Yes, I do,” she said. “Of course I do.”

      He kind of grunted a response.

      “Jack, please. I want to know.”

      He took a deep breath and stared out the windshield. Just when she’d about given up expecting a response, he started talking, his voice intense. “I realized one night they’d made camp relatively close to civilization.” A knot appeared and disappeared in his jaw. “I’d buddied up to one of the guards. He’d grown kind of careless around me, so that night when he came to take away the food bowl, I took advantage of that situation and turned his weapon on him.” Again he fell into silence.

      Hannah took a deep breath. It was obvious that using the guard’s trust to overthrow him had been hard for Jack, that it had struck him as a dishonorable thing to do and that surprised her.

      Before she could respond, he slid her a piercing look, daring her to comment. She held her tongue. What did she know of these kinds of decisions?

      He finally said, “I killed anyone who tried to stop me. I don’t know how many men died, it all happened in a blur.” Again he glanced at her as he added, “It was either me or them.” His eyes didn’t look as though he believed his own words.

      “Jack, you don’t have to continue—”

      “I spent days hiding so close to them they almost tripped over me. Eventually they gave up and moved on. I was lucky enough to find an old man who had lost a son to the GTM. Through him, I managed to contact a friend who helped me get out of Tierra Montañosa into Ecuador without alerting the government. I didn’t want anyone to know I was coming. I wanted everyone to think I was dead.

      “Anyway, it’s over now, I can’t change the way things happened, I just have to live with it.”

      She heard pain in his voice. Regrets. Her fingers flexed in her lap. She wanted to touch him but she didn’t.

      “So, that’s the story. It’s over and done with. We’d better get going.”

      She stared at him a second. It was clear nothing he’d experienced in the last year was really over and done with, but if he wanted to change the subject, she understood.

      “What are you going to do while I go into work?” she asked him.

      “I’m pretty self-sufficient, Hannah. Is it located here in town?”

      “No, it’s about five miles inland. Turn at the second light you come to and go straight. I’ll tell you when to turn again.”

      Traffic was minimal. Jack turned at the light and then followed the twists and turns of the shortcut Hannah used each day to get through town the fastest way.

      “Tell me about the foundation,” he said as they rumbled over the train tracks.

      She brushed her hair away from her eyes. “Santi Correa was born in Peru but spent his youth in several South American countries, including Tierra Montañosa. After college in the States, he taught at a university for a while, got tired of being poor and took a job in the private sector where he was amazingly successful. When he got tired of making money, he started a nonprofit organization to develop schools all through South America.”

      “You’re giving me the stuff in the foundation brochure,” Jack said as he pulled the car over on a wide spot. From that vantage point, the