Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) by Karen Rose

            But they didn’t know about Sunnyside, so it was the safest place for him at the moment. He’d changed vehicles four times after fleeing from the strip mall. He’d dumped the Civic for the minivan, then stolen a laundry truck before trading it for an old pickup.

            The pickup had been too old to have GPS, but it was in bad shape and might not make it up the mountain when he got ready to return to Eden. But while driving it, he’d noticed an older Ford Explorer that looked rugged enough to handle the steep, curvy inclines. The Explorer had wandered in and out of its lane, its driver clearly drunk.

            Finally, it had pulled behind a small church not too far from Sunnyside Oaks. The church’s windows were dark, its parking lot deserted.

            Curious, DJ had followed. And hit pay dirt. The driver had stumbled out of the vehicle, unzipping his pants and peeing on the grass at the edge of the parking lot. He’d stumbled again, slipped on the puddle of his own urine, and hit the pavement, passed out cold.

            It had been entertaining, to say the least. And also the opportunity DJ had been waiting for. He’d disabled the Explorer’s GPS, dragged the passed-out drunk into the woods behind the church, and rolled him into a creek, where he’d landed facedown.

            Then he’d changed out the plates on the Explorer before driving it to a shopping center three and a half miles away. He’d parked behind an empty store up for lease, figuring that he’d come back for the vehicle when he was ready to drive to the mountain.

            Then he’d called Innes, who’d told him he’d have to wait for the ambulance to be available.

            He’d spent the entire hour that he’d waited cursing—first the Feds for finding him, then himself for being so complacent. He’d cursed Pastor for being so stingy with the access codes and Kowalski for trying to kill him. He’d cursed Mercy for being so well protected, Daisy Dawson for broadcasting remotely.

            And he cursed the woman in the eye doctor’s office, the one who’d spied him on the rooftop and told the other Fed. If it hadn’t been for her, he would have had the perfect shot. I should have just shot her.

            “Where will you go when you leave here?” Nurse Innes asked. “Back to your home?”

            “Most likely, yes.” No. Because Mercy and Gideon weren’t dead yet. “When my father is ready to be discharged, will you transport him to a safe place where I can pick him up?”

            “Of course. We’ve done that in the past. You can stay here tonight, but tomorrow you’ll have to make other arrangements.” She walked away, making notes on her cell phone.

            DJ dropped his bags on the floor of Pastor’s suite, next to the sofa in the sitting room. The couch was nowhere near as soft as the bed in Smythe’s spare bedroom, but it wasn’t awful. He figured that Coleen was either with Pastor or asleep. Either way, he’d deal with her later.

            He was almost asleep when he heard a gasp. Bolting upright, his eyes narrowed when he saw Coleen standing in the door to her room.

            “What are you doing here?” she asked him.

            “I came to visit Pastor,” he lied. “How is he?”

            “Better. But his blood pressure is really high, so don’t make him mad.”

            DJ rolled his eyes. “Why would I make him mad?”

            “Because you’re supposed to be in Eden.”

            “I was,” he lied smoothly. “I left Brother Joshua in charge because the community wanted an update on Pastor’s condition. I just got here.”

            She studied him for a long moment that became uncomfortable. “I saw you on the news. You’ve been here all day. You’ve been here all weekend. They say that you’ve killed people.”

            Fucking bitch. DJ’s hands fisted. “I was protecting our investments.”

            She paled but was unconvinced. “Did you kill people?”

            “Did Edward? Did Ephraim?”

            Her lips thinned. “I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about you.”

            He suddenly realized he didn’t know how she’d come to Eden. He knew when she’d joined—she’d been one of the original members. But he didn’t know how or why. All the founders had been running from something. Pastor and Marcia had been running from fraud and embezzlement charges. Edward and Ephraim, bank robbery and a triple homicide.