Twisted Shadows by Patricia; Potter Page A

sister—but she’d been out of town. Calls to her children only elicited the fact they all believed their aunt to be dead.
    If he’d had more time …
    But how to find a needle in a haystack, when all they had was a quick cell call from Colorado? All the conversations had been too brief to track the location any closer. No names. No descriptions. No leads.
    If Tracy Merritta was indeed alive, she had dropped off the face of the earth, and to do that, he knew, she’d needed professional help.…
    The woman who’d so distracted him had blue eyes and dark hair. She started across the gate area, the man beside her. Nate studied her again. Her eyes were blue, and her hair not quite as dark as Nick Merritt’s, but there was something about her …
    Then another woman deplaned alone. She had the same basic coloring, and he stepped up to her, only to discover she was a physician returning to Boston. There were no other likely prospects.
    A fool’s errand, he thought to himself. It had been a long shot from the beginning. He started to use his cell phone to call Gray when he saw the first woman stumble. Their eyes met again, and the man who had been accompanying her left her.
    Adrenaline suddenly flowed through him. Perhaps he’d hesitated earlier because of the intense gaze they’d exchanged. It had hit him like a sledgehammer. He’d quickly dismissed any thought she could be Merritta’s daughter. No way. None at all.
    But now …
    She was alone. She had Nick Merritta’s coloring, even his tall, slim figure.
    Damn it.
    He mumbled something to Gray on the cell phone, turning to go after her, when the airline employee blocked him, saying all passengers had debarked. When he looked up again, she was gone. He trotted down the concourse looking for her, even as he swore all the way.
    He saw her just as she entered the baggage area, and he increased his pace. Almost as if she knew he was there, he saw her turn, a startled expression on her face. Then she paled as two men walked toward her. He knew one of them. A paid killer. A freelancer.
    They moved toward her, nothing welcoming or protective about them. He acted instinctively, cutting one of them off, giving the woman a chance to get away.
    Through the corner of his left eye, he saw she was aware of the danger, and she started running. He wanted to go after her, but the man he’d blocked had a knife in his hand. Someone shouted, and people started running for doors.
    He ducked then swiveled to avoid the blade. The other thug tripped him and shouted something to his companion. They took off and a uniformed guard stood over him, a gun in his hand.
    It took several minutes for her panic to subside as the cab maneuvered out of the terminal area.
    â€œWhere to, lady?” the cabbie said.
    She had no idea. She certainly wasn’t going to the hotel where she’d made a reservation.
    That was the only thing she knew. She didn’t know who those two men were. Or why they had filled her with such a sense of being menaced. Nor did she know why the first man she’d seen at the gate had not provoked that same sense of imminent danger. In his own way, he’d looked as hard as the other two men. But not threatening.
    Go to the police, her mind shouted. But she couldn’t stop remembering her mother’s face when Sam had proposed that very thing. No. The answer had been unequivocal.
    Her mother feared the law as much as she feared her former husband’s family. But why?
    Sam looked at her watch. Nearly midnight. It was only ten in Colorado, but she felt emotionally and physically drained. Who was the sandy-haired man with all his intensity? And what did he want with her?
    And who were the other two men? Paul Merritta’s employees?
    â€œLady, where to?” the cabbie asked again in an impatient voice.
    â€œKnow of a good reasonable hotel?”
    â€œNo reservation?”
    She hesitated long enough to