Shiver

just let him go, I thought somebody should check it out.”
    Hand withdrawing from beneath his jacket, Sanders looked at Marco with disgust. “That’s what you were yelling about?”
    Seeming unbothered by Sanders’s barely veiled antagonism, Marco shrugged. “Seemed smarter to check than not. And as the lady pointed out, I’m probably not the one to do it.”
    “Worried about catching a bullet in the head?” Sanders’s tone made it almost a sneer. Sam’s mouth tightened as she watched Tyler’s eyes widen, watched him cast a quick glance up at Marco. Sensitive Sanders was not. “What does the kid need to go out for, anyway?”
    “I don’t have to.” Looking abashed, Tyler sidled a little closer to Marco’s side.
    “Sure you do.” Marco looked down at him. “It’s a pretty day. I want to go out, too. No point in us staying locked up in thehouse.” He looked at Sanders. “You can check out the backyard or I will.” His voice had hardened just enough to be noticeable. His quick assumption of authority reminded Sam once again that he, too, had been a federal agent before he had betrayed everyone who had believed in him. That, she realized, was the guy she was attracted to. The other part of him—the weasel—well, she didn’t know that part. Or maybe she just wasn’t very good at recognizing it.
    Whatever, for now she and Marco were on the same side.
    “You’re supposed to be protecting us, aren’t you?” Sam’s eyes challenged Sanders before he could growl back at Marco, which she could see from his expression he was getting ready to do. So Marco was the bad guy, and Sanders was the good one. Much as it annoyed her to face the truth, she liked Marco more. “So protect already. Make sure the backyard’s safe.”
    Sanders’s face tightened as he looked at her. “I wouldn’t push it, if I were you, Ms. Jones. Left to me, you wouldn’t be here.”
    As he was already moving toward the door to do as she’d asked, Sam didn’t reply. Unlatching it, sliding it open, Sanders stepped outside, looked around, took a quick walk to the left out of sight, and came back.
    “Should be fine,” he said, stepping back into the kitchen. “Just stay in the yard and don’t unlock the gate.”
    “Yay! Come on, Mom.” Skittering around Sanders, Tyler darted out the door, with Sam a few steps behind him. As she slipped past Sanders, who was now closest to the door, Sanders said to Marco, “We’re here to keep you alive, not baby-sit a damned woman and her kid.”
    Even as Sam bristled, she heard Marco’s reply: “Kid’s part of the package now. So’s the woman. End of discussion.”
    “Fuck,” Sanders said bitterly. Then the door closed behind Sam, and there was no way to hear more.
    A few minutes later, the door opened again and Marco maneuvered through it, then swung across the patio toward her.
    After that first quick glance, prompted by the sound of the opening door, Sam didn’t look at him, except peripherally, which she couldn’t help. But still, by the brightness of unfiltered daylight she saw that the swelling in his face was definitely going down. His nose was almost normal size again. It was going to be straight and high-bridged, a handsomely masculine nose, when it had healed. Put him out of your mind, she told herself fiercely, and in the spirit of making sure that happened deliberately concentrated all her attention on her son. Tyler was already climbing onto the tire swing. Despite everything, his obvious enjoyment, coupled with the absolutely beautiful weather, made her feel a tad more cheerful. As in, a little more optimistic that maybe they would actually get out of this alive. Now that she had reminded herself of the danger, though, she darted apprehensive looks around, searching, she supposed, for places a would-be killer might lurk. Close at hand, the second story of the town house next door, the one in which the marshals had set up base, looked into their backyard, and next to that she could see the tops of two more, nearly identical town houses that all seemed to be connected. At the very back of the yard, appearing to be maybe a back alley or another backyard away, the black-shingled roof of what she thought must be a single-story housewas just visible. From the apparent absence of any residences on the other side, Sam deduced that the one she and Tyler and Marco were staying in must be the last town house in the row. Since she didn’t spot snipers on any of the roofs,