Proof of Innocence. Lenora Worth

bounced together in the deep pocket of the old jeans she’d been wearing for days now. She had a little cash left and she had her research notebook. She sure didn’t want to lose that since it had all her memories and all of her questions and, maybe, a few answers. Erin had to get somewhere safe before morning. Another hotel with a front and back entry, so she wouldn’t be cornered, more attempts to search online for information and clues, news articles and tips.

      This was her life now, a never-ending nightmare of always looking over her shoulder with an ingrained fear that might not ever leave her. She was pretty sure she’d finally outrun her pursuer, so she planned to hike out of the woods.

      Searching for any sign of the lights toward the town, she shifted in the gray moonlight and slid behind a big tree. What was that sound? Was someone running toward her again?

      Footsteps echoed out over the woods and the swish of bushes being shoved aside followed. Someone was still after her.

      Holding her breath, Erin closed her eyes and prayed for guidance. She would survive this. She’d heard the news reports regarding the vast array of corruption charges being brought up against Congressman Jeffries. Now he’d been indicted for some of his crimes. But surprise—he’d fled like the coward he was. At least she wouldn’t have to be the one to prove he was corrupt. But she still had to prove she hadn’t killed Michael. She knew the truth and she intended to tell that truth once she...once she what?

      Turned herself in and tried to reason with the police?

      Or maybe gave a long statement over the airwaves and screamed to the world that she was on the right side of the law?

      Or maybe she could call her powerful father and hope that the scandal of having a fugitive daughter hadn’t ruined his position in the Senate or severed his strong ties with the Washington elite. But she’d been careful about not having contact with her father so she couldn’t start now. He’d have to report hearing from her. Knowing that being involved in such a scandal could indeed ruin her father’s career right along with any thoughts she had of her life going back to normal, Erin didn’t know where to turn next.

      She dropped her head and stood there, defeated and exhausted. When she heard pounding footsteps coming toward her, she knew she had no choice. She had to run as fast as she could.

      But a thought occurred to her. In the cover of darkness, she could at least try to stop the gunman in his tracks before she took off. She’d trip him up and try to hit him over the head, maybe use some of the self-defense maneuvers her father had his security team teach her. That had worked when the congressman’s aide Leon Ridge had tried to kill her the night of the murder. Maybe she could find the strength to fight off this latest assailant.

      Erin crouched behind a huge live oak’s aged trunk, a broken limb her only means of protection. She waited, holding her breath, her mind whirling with the vision of her hitting her stalker over the head, tripping him with one foot while she hit at him with all her might. Then she’d run. As fast as she could.

      But when she turned to put her foot out, a dog’s woof caused her to stumble. Right into two waiting hands.

      Erin started fighting, kicking and screaming as she tried to gain a foothold.

      The dog started barking but stood back in a frenzied dance.

      And the man holding her did something that surprised her and caused her whole world to tilt.

      He shouted “Heel” at the big dog, and then he called her by her name. “Erin? Erin? It’s me. It’s Chase.”

      Erin stopped fighting, her fists relaxing against his solid chest, her gaze halting on the face she remembered so well. Her voice cracked and she blinked to clear her head. “Chase?”

      “It’s okay,” he said on a whisper. “You’re safe now, understand? You’re with me now and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

      “Chase.” She said his name on the wings of a prayer and thanked God for sending her a hero. Chase Zachary. A hero who had once been the love of her life, her high school sweetheart.

      A man who’d also been after her for over five months.

      Should she try to run from him, too?

      She hadn’t asked for this and she wasn’t prepared for what seeing Chase now could mean, but for a few brief seconds, she was so very glad to see him again. “Chase? Is it really you?”

      “Yes.” His fingers gentled on her skin. “Relax, okay?”

      Then he pulled her into his arms and held her close while she cried. Somewhere in the back of her frayed mind, she heard the big dog woof again. But this time the sound only reinforced how relieved she felt. Relieved and safe—unless he planned to take her into custody.

      “Where are you taking me?”

      Erin couldn’t quite wrap her brain around Chase finding her in these lonely, isolated woods. But when she glanced ahead at the dog leading them through the overgrown bramble and tangled vines, she understood. He’d had a little help from a friend. She could try to run again, but the dog would track her down. A weight of fatigue pulled at her like a heavy, stifling blanket. The enormity of Chase finding her caught up with her until panic set in. She had to run. These people would kill her and Chase, too.

      Did she really want to go back out there alone? No. So she asked again, “Chase, where are we going?”

      “Away from this place,” he said, his words just above a growl.

      Earlier when she’d explained someone had been after her, Chase had quickly checked the woods before moving on, and then he’d made sure he and the dog guarded her at all times. They’d zigzagged back and forth, the dog stopping here and there to sniff the wind and the ground, but never alerting. Chase hadn’t made any small talk. He was intent on doing his job—which she figured now meant keeping her alive until he could get her under lock and key. Maybe the gunman who’d stalked her was gone. But she knew others would keep coming.

      She thanked God the dog had led Chase to her at a time when she’d been out of options. But that joy was short-lived. “You tracked me.”

      He nodded, his hand still on her arm. But then he stopped and tugged something out from under his shirt and shoved it at her. “I believe this belongs to you.”

      Erin took the soft white-tinged bundle, but it was hard to see what it was in the dark. The material glistened in the moonlight and she let out a gasp. “My elephant scarf. How did you—”

      “You dropped it the last time we talked.”

      Erin swallowed back the emotional agony that scraped across her frazzled nerve endings. Their chance meeting so many months ago had stayed with her all this time. They’d had a brief argument that night just hours before Michael had died. Chase had made a sarcastic remark about seeing her at a White House dinner with Michael. He’d accused her of never being able to stand up to her formidable daddy. And he had been right. She was such a coward, she’d been afraid to tell anyone what had happened later that same night—the night she’d watched the congressman shoot Michael.

      She’d been afraid to contact her father, afraid the congressman would make good on his threats to kill her father or ruin his career. And she’d been afraid to reach out to the one man who could have possibly helped her. The man now guiding her out of the dark woods.

      And yet Chase had kept her scarf. “You’ve had this all this time?”

      “Yep. I asked your father if I could hold on to it—to help track you.”

      Chase had gone to her father? Of course they’d have to cooperate with each other regarding her whereabouts. She wondered how many times the authorities had questioned the senator. She could never be sure of her father’s true motives, but she loved him dearly and since her mother had died, Erin had tried to be the good daughter everyone expected her to be. She wanted to believe the senator would tell the truth no matter what. He’d taught her that much at least. Erin had managed to stay away from her