Free The Marshal's Witness by Lena Diaz

again.”
    Her face wasalarmingly pale. And in spite of her fiercely uttered words, it was all bravado. She was shaking, and she looked so lost, so vulnerable, that Ryan had the sudden urge to pull her close, to wrap his arms around her and hold her until the color returned to her cheeks and the fear left her eyes.
    He doubted she’d appreciate that gesture, since he’d just accused her of sleeping with a scumbaglike DeGaullo. The fact that he even wanted to hold her didn’t make sense. His lack of sleep must be clouding his judgment.
    He clasped his hands together to keep from reaching for her, and reminded himself of what she’d done. She’d helped a crime lord launder money. She’d covered his tracks so he could spew drugs and violence into the streets of New York. That knowledge helped ease Ryan’sinsane urge to comfort her, if only a little.
    “Are you sure there’s a leak in WitSec?” she asked, squeezing her arms around her middle. “Maybe that jogger recognized me from the papers. Maybe he called a reporter, and—”
    “That jogger was a contract killer. You couldn’t see his face because it was turned away, but he was one of the men lying on the floor of my bathroom.” He hated the wayher eyes widened in fear, but he didn’t have time to coddle her. If he’d misjudged the length of time it would take for a phone trace, Alex could have men zeroing in on his location right now. And the men who’d shot at him and Jessica could be following their trail, too.
    “Higgins knew I was a marshal,” Ryan continued. “And he knew who you were. You haven’t been into town since you moved in.So unless you called someone—”
    “I didn’t.”
    “Then the only way anyone could know where you were was if they got that information from inside WitSec.”
    She took a minute to process that, her throat working as she swallowed. All her earlier bravado was gone. “What are we going to do?”
    The desolation in her words had him gritting his teeth. He glanced at his watch again and stood.“You have to make a choice.”
    Jessica shoved herself up from the crate and stared up at him, her doe eyes big and round. “What choice?” she whispered.
    Ryan shoved his hands in his pockets. It was either that or grab her and try to wipe that frightened look off her face. He didn’t see how the jury had let DeGaullo go when they’d seen Jessica on the stand. She had him half believing herand he was the last person to trust someone like her.
    “First option,” he said, forcing a coldness into his voice that he was, unfortunately, far from feeling, “you go back into protective custody and hope the marshals assigned to you aren’t on DeGaullo’s payroll.”
    She winced. “What’s the second option?”
    “Stay in the mountains with me. Let me protect you.”
    She swallowed andblinked several times. “Why would you do that?”
    Because, for some inexplicable reason, he couldn’t quite reconcile her notorious past with the forlorn woman in front of him. Right now, she seemed so innocent, so fragile. She needed him, and he couldn’t stomach the thought of turning her over to someone else without knowing if he could trust them to keep her safe.
    Not that he’d admitthat to her. She wouldn’t believe him, anyway, not after enduring all his city girl comments. He chose a half-truth instead. “It’s my job.”
    Her quick nod of acceptance, acknowledging that he would only protect her because it was his job, had him clenching his jaw.
    “How would you protect me?” she asked.
    “We’d head deeper into the mountains and hide for a few days. Stuart, the guyI mentioned earlier, opened a private investigation and security firm after he got out of the army. He’s been investigating something for me already. He won’t mind looking into this as well. He has a lot of powerful contacts he groomed while still in the service, plenty of strings to pull, favors to call in. He might not be able to figure out who the mole is,