Concealed. Part 8

"Even if I wanted to, which I don't," Sydney threw up her hands in frustration, "I don't know how."

Cara patted her on the shoulder. "We've got a long drive home. I'll give you some pointers that worked for me when I was trying to catch Pete."

"Oh, Lord!"

With a wink Cara replied, "Oh, Lord is right!"

They laughed and gathered up their bags. It took Sydney a minute to find Faith, but then the little girl came running right over. Once her hand slipped into Sydney's, she calmed down. Everything was fine. They were safe.

For now.

The day had been exactly what they needed to clear their heads, but now it was time to get back to Elton and so many things Sydney was trying to forget.

"I LOVE MY NEW shoes," Faith sang from the backseat as she had been for the last twenty minutes. Cara had bought her a new doll which was snuggled up beside the little girl; however, the s.h.i.+ny new shoes were definitely her favorite. She couldn't stop talking about them as her feet kicked up and down. "They are so pretty and nice and awesome... I love them."

"I'm glad." The songs had been cracking Cara and Sydney up but Cara still managed to get in her tips and lessons for Sydney about how to flirt. She even suggested that Syd try some of them out the next time she saw Wade at the diner.

It seemed as though Cara had picked up right where Melissa had left off.

The drive was relaxing, a combination of highway and back roads that weren't that heavily traveled so it made for an easy trip. Sydney, as usual, kept herself aware of her surroundings at all times and, after a few miles and a number of turns, she noticed a black car was following behind them; at a distance, but definitely following them. She made a turn in error then looped back around when Cara pointed it out, and the car mirrored her actions.

They were getting closer to Elton so Sydney stepped on the gas, wanting to put more distance between them in the hopes that she might be able to lose them on the next turn. If Cara noticed her increased speed she didn't say anything. She was busy chatting with Faith about the book she bought her at the store.

Ahead, the road veered to the left and then they were going to take a quick right to head straight to Elton. There was a slight dip in the road and Sydney felt like this might be her last chance to get rid of this car so she sped up and whizzed around the curve and took the right hand turn a lot faster than she should have. As soon as she straightened the wheel she glanced in the mirror to see if the black car would follow, but her view was blocked by the flas.h.i.+ng lights of a police car that had appeared out of nowhere.

"s.h.i.+t," Sydney hissed under her breath.

"Mommy, that's a bad word!" Faith gasped, covering her ears. Then the flas.h.i.+ng must have caught her attention. "Oh, look at the pretty lights."

Cara mumbled something about being a speed demon, so apparently she had noticed the fast pace Sydney had been keeping for the last few miles. Either way, the black car was the least of her worries. She'd never been pulled over by the police and never had to show her ID.

Time to see if it was worth all that money, Sydney thought as she reached for her purse with a shaking hand. She held her breath and waited for the officer to come to the window. When she heard Cara laugh, her stomach dropped.

Please don't let it be him.

"License and registration, please." Wade's deep voice rumbled through the open window sending Sydney into a tizzy.

"What are the odds?" Cara snickered in the seat beside her.

"Um, sure yeah. Here's my license." She stuck her hand out the window but the card fell from her trembling fingers landing on the ground. "I'll just get the registration." She leaned over toward Cara to yank the papers from the glove compartment.

"Jesus, Wade, do you have to be so intimidating? How about a friendly 'h.e.l.lo, Sydney?' or maybe a h.e.l.lo to Faith and I before you throw her mother in the slammer?"

"You can't arrest my mommy!" Faith freed herself from her seatbelt and leaned between the front seats, glaring at Wade. "Do you have a search warrant?"

"Faith!" Sydney gasped as she pulled the registration from the compartment, sticking it out the window to Wade. "You apologize to Sheriff Jenkins right now! And put your seatbelt back on before I get another ticket."

"No, he has to tell you about your My Anna rights. If not, he gets in trouble." Her little face lit up in a smug grin.

"Faith, what are you talking about?" Sydney spun around and saw Wade crouched down, looking through the window trying to keep a straight face.

"Mrs. Whittman told me all about the police and how they have to tell people their My Anna rights. Oh, and don't talk to Sheriff Wade. Choose to remain silent! That was the other thing she said." Faith reached around the seat and tried to clamp her tiny hand over Sydney's mouth to prevent her from incriminating herself, apparently.

"This isn't happening," Sydney mumbled as she freed herself and pressed her forehead against the steering wheel. She could hear Cara laughing beside her.

"See, Wade? If you just would have said h.e.l.lo, Miss Faith here wouldn't be all worked up and wondering about her mother's My Anna rights."

"h.e.l.lo, Sydney, Faith, and Cara. How are you ladies doing today?"

"Much better," Cara grumbled from the pa.s.senger's seat. Faith moved and stuck her head out the window to talk to Wade.

"Hi, Sheriff. Please don't arrest my mom."

"Wasn't planning on it, Faith. She was speeding, that's all."

Faith looked him up and down. "So no My Anna rights?"

"Not today." That seemed to satisfy her so she pulled her head back inside and buckled herself back into her seat.

"Give him the stuff, Mom, he's not going to arrest you. We talked about it.""

Thanks, honey." If Sydney could have curled up in a ball and died, she would have. The last thing she wanted to do was talk to Wade, but this made that kinda difficult. "Sorry about that. Here's the registration." This time it didn't flutter to the ground.

With a nod of his head, Wade accepted the paper and headed back to his car. The closer he got to the cruiser, the more Sydney wanted to throw up. For all she knew he was going to run her license and figure out it was a fake and she'd be in jail by dinnertime. Who would take care of Faith? She was lost in thought when Cara pinched her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Cara said incredulously.

"Ouch! What do you mean?"

"Use what your momma gave you to get out of this ticket!"

"Have you lost your mind?" Sydney hissed, glancing over her shoulder at Faith.

"No. Flirt with the man. Tell him he looks handsome. Offer to make him dinner. Oh, or a pie! He loves your pie! I bet he'd let you go with a warning if you made him another pie."

"I'm not flirting my way out of this."

"What does flirt mean, Mommy?" Faith asked with a tilt of her head.

"It's when girls act silly around a boy," Sydney snapped before Cara could give the child more information than she needed at five years old.

"Does it make your face turn red?"

"Sometimes," Sydney sighed, her nerves frayed as she glanced back in the rearview mirror and saw Wade coming back. His face, as always, was unreadable. With every step he took, her heart pounded faster at the realization this could be the end of everything.

"You know your face is red, mom."

"Thanks for the info, Faith." Sydney glared at a now cackling Cara. "You're not helping!"

"I'm sorry, Sydney, but you're flirting needs some work."

"For the last time, I'm not flirting with Wade!"

With impeccable timing, she heard in her ear, "Here's your license back, ma' am."

"Jesus, you need a bell around your neck!" Sydney spun around in her seat, too startled to be embarra.s.sed. Her look dared him to say something but instead he was kind, and all business.

"Everything seems to be in order." He pa.s.sed the papers to Sydney through the car window and she hoped and prayed he hadn't seen her huge sigh of relief. That relief was short lived however thanks to Faith.

"If mom makes you a pie can you not give her a ticket?"

Wade dipped his head down to Faith's window, ignoring Sydney's sputtering from the front seat. "Did Mrs. Whittman explain to you the repercussions of bribing an officer?"

When Faith's head shook from side to side she asked, "A repercussion? Is that like a drum?" Wade couldn't help but laugh at the innocent question.

"Oh, give me a break. It's not a bribe if a beautiful woman wants to cook for you, Wade. It's called your lucky day," Cara chimed, throwing in her two cents. Sydney swore she could hear Melissa half-way across the planet, laughing at all of it.

"Just give me the ticket, please. Or shoot me. A bullet might be less painful than this," Sydney mumbled through her hands which were covering her face.

Ignoring everyone, Faith kept right on talking. "So Sheriff, do we have a deal?" She thrust her crumb-covered hand out the window, nearly poking Wade in the eye. Someday the child was going to be a lawyer.

"A pie for no ticket?" He winked at Sydney who was now staring at him open mouthed through her window. "I think that can be arranged."

"That has to be illegal," Sydney said, angrily shoving her paperwork back in the glove compartment, "or at the very least coercion."

Wade put his face right up to hers, his ma.s.sive shoulders easily filling the window. "Relax, I'm just kidding. No pie required. I'm letting you off with a warning. You were going pretty fast back there." Her heart fluttered when he reached in and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"T-Thanks."

"Be careful," Wade said as a goodbye with a tip of his hat to both Cara and Faith.

"He's so nice, Mommy!"

"Yeah, Mommy," Cara teased as Sydney started the car and slowly pulled back onto the road. There was no sign of the car that had been the cause of the whole situation to begin with, which was fine by Sydney. She had enough trouble on her own. She didn't need any ghosts from the past chasing her too.

"Sheriff Jenkins is very nice, Faith. If you ever need anything, he'll help you."

They drove in silence for a few minutes while Sydney tried to clear her head. Everything was fine. Wade didn't suspect anything, neither did Cara. Faith was happily kicking her feet and singing in the backseat. Everything was all right.

Except Sydney couldn't shake that feeling of dread that had been lingering for the last few weeks. The picture of Faith, the phone calls, the murders, and the mystery cars, all of that, looming large on Sydney's conscious. She felt the safest she ever had in Elton before all of that had happened. So would it be better to stay there and fight, if that's what it came to, or was it time to run? Even if it broke Faith's heart.

Her serious thoughts were interrupted when Cara erupted in a flurry of words.

"I've been biting my tongue so hard it's starting to bleed, so I'm just gonna say it because it's what Melissa would do. The two of you are making me worry myself gray." She took a deep breath and made sure Faith was occupied before she launched into her lecture. "You care about Wade and don't even try to tell me you don't. It's written all over your face. And that man cares for you, deeply. Even if you aren't in a relations.h.i.+p with him, I've seen the way he looks at you while you've been hiding from him. The way he took care of you after they found the girl at the diner." She shook her head. "He treated you like the most precious thing in the world. A man doesn't do that for someone he doesn't care about."

Tears began to fill Sydney's eyes. Cara was right. Sydney did care about Wade. More than she ever had cared for another man in her life. She could even picture herself sitting on the porch swing with him in the summertime as a hot breeze blew across the yard. And it killed her because she knew she could never have that.

"Cara," she tried to interrupt, but Cara's hand flew up to halt her words.

"Sweets, I know you have a secret and it must be a whopper from how closely you watch Faith." The tears were flowing freely now and Sydney didn't even try to hide them. "But Pete and I love you like you were one of our own. I swear, you deserve to be happy, to have a life, and maybe if you tell me about what it is you're hiding from, maybe I can help you."

The words were on the tip of Sydney's tongue, about to spill out. The whole ugly truth. She was ready to get the crus.h.i.+ng weight off her chest and be free of it once and for all. But then she thought about the way Cara might look at her if she knew. The disappointment, the terror, the disgust. When she left Elton, she wanted them to remember her as she was, not like a fleeing criminal. Somehow losing her and Pete, and Elton, would hurt worse than it ever had before. They were different. She was different.

She couldn't lose that.

"Cara, I'm fine. Really. This thing with Wade, I don't know. I think we're too different." When Cara started to protest, it was Sydney's turn to interrupt. "No, you're right. I have secrets. Ones that keep me up at night. And Wade deserves better than that. You all do." She turned onto a familiar road and counted the mailboxes until Cara's house. "If I was a better person, I'd pack up and go."

"Don't say that," Cara pleaded. Sydney had hit a nerve with Cara when she mentioned leaving. "Elton is your home."

Sydney gave her a sad smile. "I know. That's the problem. We love it here. You, Pete, and Melissa, you are our family. But it's selfish for me to stay. It would be better for all of you, and that includes Wade, if we left."

"Just tell me what it is, Sydney. I can help you." But Sydney was already shaking her head before Cara finished.

"No one can help me, Cara." The car came to a stop outside her house. Pete was still at the diner so the house was dark. "Thanks for coming with us. It really helped me clear my head, spending time with you today. You're the closest thing to a mom I've ever had." It was a small detail of her past, but it was all she could give the woman who meant so much to her.

"Nothing you tell me will ever change the way I look at you. You need to know that. If you ever want to share your burden with me, I'm here for you."

"You have no idea what that means to me." Sydney wiped the tears streaking her face and put on a brave smile like the chameleon she was. "Faith, say goodbye to Miss Cara."

"Thanks for the doll. I'll take good care of her."

Cara opened the backdoor of the car to get better access to Faith. She gave the little girl a kiss and welcomed the huge hug Faith wrapped her up in. "You be a good girl for Mommy. I can't wait to see you in those fancy shoes at your birthday party in a few days, sweets. I still can't believe you're going to be six!"

Sydney gave a wave as Cara made her way up the steps to her front door. She was a genuinely good person and she meant every word she said, but it was too dangerous to have her involved with the truth. Her past was a living, breathing ent.i.ty, set on her destruction. No way she'd let Cara and Pete get caught up in that.

Or Wade.

WADE DRANK THE LAST of the coffee in his mug and slipped a few dollars under the saucer for a tip. He had lingered at the diner as long as he dared. Sydney had been avoiding him since he pulled her over the day before, but if he looked back, the distance started the night of their date. She had definitely put up a wall between them and Wade found himself banging his head against it ever since.

He retreated to his cruiser and parked just around the corner from the diner. To kill time until her s.h.i.+ft ended, he ran through the list of things he knew about Sydney in his head, trying to figure out what he was missing. She hadn't existed until eighteen months ago so she was living under an a.s.sumed name. He was convinced someone was after them, or at least he knew Sydney believed someone was after them. Her erratic behavior and overprotective nature toward Faith said it all. The obsessive way she left work just to take her home from school and the conversation he overheard between Sydney and the princ.i.p.al all but confirmed it.

He had felt guilty lifting her fingerprints off her driver's license when he pulled her over, but the prints were the best way to get answers. If he came right out and asked her, he knew without a shadow of a doubt Sydney would stay silent and he'd never see her again.

The prints had come back as belonging to a Sydney Jackson who was born outside of Boise, Idaho. It took Wade calling in countless favors, but he finally made progress. Her grandmother's maiden name had been Ross. She hadn't lied about her age. She was twenty-four and had left home right after her high school graduation. The prints were on file for a juvenile arrest for petty theft; charges that were later dropped. As far as family went, her father hadn't been in the picture since she was an infant and her mother wasn't the greatest role model. A religious nut who Children's Services believed suffered from some mental illness. Sydney's life sounded like it was anything but stellar. When she took off late in her senior year she was pregnant, had been shunned by her mother, and was forced to live on her own.

Everything after that was a mystery.

Putting the pieces together wasn't easy, but a rough idea of her life started to form in his head. When she left home, she was pregnant. Odds were, if she was hiding from someone, it was probably Faith's father. Maybe he had been abusive. Just the thought of someone hitting Sydney made Wade livid. The other possibility was Faith's father had wanted custody of her, and maybe Sydney feared he might get it, so she took off running. Or maybe he simply wanted her. Neither scenario sat well with Wade. Either way, it seemed highly likely that another male was after Sydney and he might mean her harm. Jealousy and anger collided inside Wade.

Drama was never his thing, and Miss Sydney Ross was a walking drama department. If he was smart, he'd cut and run. There were plenty of women in the area who'd see to his needs when the occasion arose. He didn't need anything long term or exclusive. It hadn't worked out so well in the past. Why would he think this time would be any different with all the baggage Sydney was carrying?

Unfortunately he still found himself wanting Sydney. Even though it had disaster written all over it, he wanted her in his bed but even more frightening, in his life.

Wade glanced at his watch. It was almost time for Sydney to get off work. He didn't want her to notice him lurking outside the diner, so he found an empty parking lot and waited for her car to pa.s.s.

Fear and danger must have shaped her life and hiding was so engrained in who she was that Wade doubted she even realized she did things anymore. Sydney never drove home the same way. There were multiple routes she took and he could find no pattern to how she traveled. When she got out of her car, she was always aware of her surroundings which was why he had to be so careful to not be spotted. Anything out of the ordinary caught her eye.

By the time she drove past, he'd finished his coffee. When he saw her car turn left to take the long way home, he grabbed another cup of coffee from the gas station before making his way to her street. He was about a quarter mile away when his phone rang. The number that flashed brought with it another kind of drama.