“I’m a big boy. Besides, I’m faster than he is. He’d have to catch me.”
Hannah chuckled softly. “How quickly could you set it up?” Time was too short as it was.
“I can call him right now.” Jack pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “You want to do it?”
She nibbled her lip, doubts creeping in now that the moment of decision was at hand. Was Riley’s idea the better choice? Should she grab the next flight out of Wyoming and return home to the safety of her family, even if it meant turning her back on the best chance to catch Emily’s killer that might ever come Riley’s way?
The thought of Riley Patterson spending the rest of his life entrapped by his need for justice made the decision for her. “Let’s do it,” she said, meeting Jack’s questioning eyes. “Call your friend.”
“YOU’RE NOT SAYING YOU THINK she’s right, are you?” Riley whipped around and gave his friend a look of disbelief.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying.” Joe held his hands up defensively. “At least, not exactly.”
Riley slumped into the armchair, frustrated. If it were anyone but Hannah, would he be trying to stop her? On the merits, her idea was solid. The killer
But the thought of letting that bastard near Hannah, even if it made him a sitting duck, made his blood run cold.
Losing Emily had almost killed him. If Hannah died, too…
“How about a compromise?” Joe asked. “No making her a target-but she sticks around for the rest of her vacation.”
“She’s too easy to trace to me.”
“So take her out of town. She wanted to see Grand Teton-I’ll get Jim Tanner to book you a couple of rooms in Jackson Hole and you can do the tourist thing. Maybe she can relax a little, remember something new-”
“That just puts her closer to the killer’s hunting grounds.”
“Are you in love with her?”
Riley looked up sharply. “What kind of question is that?”
“It’s not a crime to fall in love again.” The gentleness in Joe’s voice only made Riley angrier.
“Hannah Cooper is here only because I hoped she would remember something else about the attack on her,” Riley said with a firmness he didn’t feel. “I think she’s remembered all she can, so it’s time for her to go home.”
“Good to know,” Hannah said quietly from the doorway to the den. She met Riley’s startled gaze with moist green eyes.
“Hannah-”
She turned and walked down the hall toward her room.
The look Joe gave Riley was as hard as a punch. “Who are you trying to impress with your loner act, Riley? Emily?” Joe stood and paced angrily to the doorway, turning to deliver one last shot. “Emily would hate what you’re becoming.” He walked out without another word.
Riley leaned forward in the armchair, resting his aching head in his hands. He hadn’t cried since Emily’s funeral, but hot tears gathered in his eyes right now, stinging painfully. He blinked them back, refusing to give in to the weakness. Anger, not grief, was what kept him upright these days. He couldn’t afford to fall apart.
Not now, when he was closer than he’d ever been to finally catching the man who’d stolen the best part of his life.
“HE DIDN’T MEAN IT LIKE it sounded.” Jack took the shirt out of Hannah’s suitcase and put it back on the bed with the other shirts stacked there. “I’ve known him longer than you have. I know when he cares about someone. He cares about you.”
She snatched the shirt back from the stack and shoved it into the suitcase. “I know he cares about me. But not enough to keep me here.”
“Are you in love with him?”
She glared at Jack. “I’m not stupid.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Yes, it is.” She punctuated the statement by slamming a pair of socks into the suitcase.
“It’s not stupid to love someone.”
She slumped to the bed. “It is if that someone is in love with someone else.”
Jack cocked his head, his eyes narrowing. “We’re not talking about Riley anymore, are we?”
“Not entirely,” she admitted.
Jack leaned back on the bed, propping himself up with his elbows. “So tell Dr. Jack all about it.”
She rolled her eyes at him, not wanting to be amused. But his humor was contagious, and her lips crooked slightly in response. “A week ago, this was all just a pitiful memory I was mostly over,” she started. “I mean, it was four years ago, and it ended the way it was supposed to end-”
“With some other woman getting the guy?”
“He was always hers. She was his first love, and neither of them really got over it. I thought I loved him enough for both of us.” She buried her face in her hands, mortified by the memory of her foolishness. “I was such an idiot.”
“I’ve seen bigger idiots, trust me.” Jack looked at her with sympathy. “How far did it get?”
She flushed with embarrassment. “The bachelor party.”
Jack winced. “That far, huh?”
She lifted her chin, finding the steel at her center even though her heart was breaking a little. “I know Riley’s not going to suddenly get over Emily just because he met me. I’m not going to fool myself into thinking otherwise. Does that answer your question?”
“No,” he said with a smile. “But, that’s not even the most important question anymore. Are you going back home?”
She shook her head. “I have three more days of vacation left, and I have an interview with a reporter.”
“That’s the spirit.”
“But I am leaving here,” she added, reaching for the stack of shirts again.
“I don’t think you should.”
“Riley’s decided I should leave.”
“I’m asking you to stay,” he countered stubbornly. “You can stay as my guest.”
“It’s Riley’s house.”
“He’ll cool down and see reason,” Jack said confidently. “As long as you don’t tell him about the press interview.”
“You think I should lie to him?”
“I think you should just not tell him.” Jack reached into the suitcase and started removing the clothing she’d already packed. “Mark Archibald’s meeting us at Kent’s Steakhouse at five. I’ll tell Riley you need time to cool off and I’m taking you out for dinner. That’s not a lie, right?”
Hannah had to smile a little at that, remembering how Riley had tried to keep the lies they were telling Jack as close to the truth as possible. They were more like brothers than either of them realized. “No, it’s not a lie,” she agreed. “We are going to dinner and I do need time to cool off.”
And maybe, once the plan was in action, Riley would see why it was the only real choice she’d had.
THE INTERVIEW WITH THE reporter went as well as she could have hoped. Mark Archibald was friendly, funny and sympathetic. He asked good questions, which she answered as honestly as she could, while keeping a few of the details to herself, like the silver belt buckle and the fact that the killer had worn latex gloves when he attacked. She knew the police liked to keep some things back, in case they got a call from someone claiming to be the killer.
She made it clear, however, that there was more she remembered that she wasn’t telling. She hoped Mark would make that fact just as clear in his article. She had to make herself as tempting to the killer as possible.
“It’ll be in the paper tomorrow morning,” Jack said on the drive back. He seemed jittery and energized, as if the cloak and dagger game they were playing had brought him to life. That definitely wasn’t how Riley had reacted to lying, she remembered. Maybe he and Jack weren’t so alike, after all.
“You need to calm down or Riley will know something’s up,” she suggested.
He grinned. “I know. I just-I think it’s going to work. I think it’s going to smoke this freak out and get a little
