Chapter Forty-Eight

Robert sat behind the service counter, putting together a household goods order. It had been more than a month since Norma died and he still couldn’t accept that he wouldn’t hear her footsteps in the back room at any minute and be able to put the customer service aspect of this benighted job into her capable hands. As exasperating as she could be at times, she had been the one that held this place together. Even now, Fernanda was daydreaming as she totaled Ms. DeLeon’s order, no doubt ringing up incorrect prices for black beans and lentils, and applying the wrong sales tax. Off in Aisle 6’s endcap, Jose was probably stacking juice boxes in just such a way that Robert would think they looked fine, only to hear them collapse half an hour later. He sighed. It was no wonder Arthur had entrusted Norma with all his secrets. There was no way to run this place without her.

Nevertheless, he would have to find a solution soon. A letter had come from Santa Fe just last week, thanking him for his most recent recommendations but also saying that they couldn’t wait much longer. They needed a full-time communications expert and if he didn’t want the job, they would offer it to someone else.

But what about the risk to his life and maybe to Sophie’s as well? In those confused moments when Julio was on the rampage and Sophie was at home alone and vulnerable, he had realized that nothing was too great a burden to undertake if it would keep his daughter safe long enough to grow up. If Santa Fe couldn’t wait, he might just have to let this opportunity pass and hope that another would come his way when she was older.

He was thinking these thoughts, his head bent over the supply order form, when he heard the bells jingle as the front door opened. This usually didn’t draw his attention, but the sudden hush of his customers and Fernanda’s voice dying away as she stopped ringing up a customer made him look up in concern.

A man, broad-shouldered and determined, was walking up the aisle. He was heading straight toward the service counter and Robert had only an instant to register who it was. Although he had started bringing his Glock with him since the incident with Julio, this was all happening so fast that he had no time to reach for it.

Robert stared down the barrel of Will Channing’s gun and saw his life entire. This was the man who had loved Diana from childhood and who had expected her to love him back as if it was his birthright. He had coerced her into marriage and gone rogue when she left him. ‘Dangerously Unstable’ was how Unitas had described him, and it had been Robert’s job to notify his unit that he had been demoted. But Will had never cared about fame and glory. The only thing he wanted was the one woman he couldn’t have.

Faced now with his imminent death, Robert thought of Diana, who would have sacrificed herself a thousand times to prevent this day from coming. And he thought of Sophie who would be stuck in Castaño forever if Will succeeded in his mission. But there was little remedy for it now. He looked into Will’s cold gray eyes and drew himself up tall so his daughter could at least say that he had died without fear. “Diana loved us both,” he said. “But go ahead and shoot me, if that’s what you think will fix it. It just means I’ll get to see her in heaven before you do.”

“No. She’s in heaven, I’m sure of it,” Will said. “But you’re going to hell.”

“Then I’ll be waiting for you. And I’ll be ready.”

The door from the back room suddenly opened and Sophie stepped out. It was an innocent act, without any foreboding of danger, and it took her a moment to understand what she was seeing.

Will saw her, the image of her mother at that age, and the color drained out of his face. Before he could react, Sophie sized up what was happening and grabbed the nearest weapon she could find. She rushed the counter. “Go away! Leave my father alone!”

To Robert’s shock, Will staggered back. For a long moment he only stared while Sophie shrieked and waved her mop handle. Then Will took another step back and holstered his gun. He refused to look at Robert, but to Sophie he said, “Put that away and stop yelling, little girl.” His next words came out slow and rough, like his throat was full of pebbles. “Please stop shouting. I would never hurt Diana’s child.” He took several deep breaths as if he had run a long way and could only now stop and rest. “You and your father are safe. I give you my word.”

Then he turned and walked out the door.

Robert hadn’t even realized he had been holding his breath until Sophie flung her arms around him with such force she knocked the air out of him. And in that moment, he thought, of all things, of Santa Fe. Without the threat of assassination hanging over him, all options were open. They might now be able to not just live, but have a life.