She reached up on tiptoes and pressed her lips oh so softly to his. “Thank you, Daniel. That means so much to me.”
His arms locked around her, and the kiss they shared was both passionate and full of commitment. It was a confirmation of their value to each other, of feelings that went beyond sexual gratification, of a connection that reached into the spiritual. If only he would let himself see it.
“Uh, should we come back later?”
The sound of Hotwire’s voice broke through the intimacy of the kiss, and Josie reluctantly allowed Daniel to pull away.
He turned with one arm still locked around her, effectively turning her, too. “If I say yes, will you go away?”
“Actually, I was going to suggest we all go away.”
“What do you mean?” Claire asked, standing on the other side of Hotwire.
He smiled at her and then at Josie and Daniel. “Josie’s a fantastic cook, no doubt about it, but maybe if we leave, go get some dinner, the straggler reporters will take off, too.”
She liked Daniel’s idea better, that everyone else leave and she and Daniel get some time alone, but didn’t think they’d get away with it. “What if someone tries to break in again?”
“Already taken care of.” Hotwire held up an independent motion detector device. “If it detects motion, it releases an odorless sleeping agent while alerting the remote unit of the compromised perimeter.”
“That could be dangerous around pets.” Claire was looking at the small device in Hotwire’s hand with distinct wariness.
“You and Josie don’t have any pets.”
“True, but how sensitive is it? I mean, if I stay in my room, will it go off? What if I have to go to the bathroom?”
Hotwire looked bemused, and it was such an interesting, not to mention uncommon, expression on his face that Josie had to stifle a laugh.
“We’re not going to have the units armed when you’re home, Claire,” he said.
“Oh.” She didn’t look appreciably relieved. “Okay.” She turned to leave the room.
“Where are you going?” Hotwire’s Georgian charm was obvious by its absence, but he didn’t sound angry, just confused.
Claire looked back over her shoulder, her eyes saying she couldn’t quite figure out why he was asking that. “To get a snack and then I’m going to study. Did you need something?”
“You’re going to dinner with us.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Why do you think you aren’t going?”
“I wasn’t invited, and even if I had been, I’ve got studying to do.”
“Your studying can wait until you’ve eaten. You admitted in the car you’d had nothing since your almost nonexistent breakfast this morning.”
Hotwire had quizzed Claire on what she’d eaten that day?
“Don’t worry about me. I’m used to skipping a meal or two when I need to.”
“Your brain can’t function at optimum potential when you don’t feed your body the fuel it needs.”
Claire was still looking as though she didn’t understand why Hotwire was asking her about something that had nothing to do with him. Josie was almost as bemused as Claire. Hotwire was all southern charm with women. Only he always kept a certain distance, but he was ignoring his self-imposed boundaries with Claire. From the look on Claire’s face, he was ignoring hers, too.
“If you stay, the reporters will think there’s still a chance of getting something worth printing and stick around,” Daniel said.
The look of gratitude Hotwire sent him shocked Josie so much she didn’t think to add her voice to Daniel’s in convincing Claire to come to dinner.
But the other woman’s face creased in a worried frown. “I hadn’t thought about the reporters.”
“But you did think about the bad guys coming back, didn’t you?” Hotwire asked, almost as an accusation.
“Well, yes…”
Hotwire sighed. “Claire, I wouldn’t leave you to face people who have already tried to kill once.”
“You wouldn’t?” she asked, her emphasis on you echoed in Josie’s mind.
“None of us would,” Daniel inserted before Hotwire had a chance to answer.
“Right,” Josie finally had the wherewithal to say. “You need to come with us, honey.”
Claire didn’t need much convincing after that, but she did politely decline Hotwire’s offer to help her with her studies. Josie wondered if Claire wasn’t going to wind up with Hotwire in her room going over program code, all the while not sure how he’d gotten there.
Josie told the others over dinner about the leads she’d uncovered on her dad’s possible whereabouts. Both Hotwire and Daniel thought she was on to something, and Claire made a couple of suggestions on avenues Josie hadn’t thought to research.
The motion sensor units did not go off during dinner, and the discussion progressed from Josie’s dad’s possible whereabouts to what to do if he really was in Nevada.
When they got back to the house, the front lawn was empty, as was the sidewalk, and no suspect cars or vans were parked along the street. Josie’s relief was short-lived when a sedan pulled up just as they were getting out of Daniel’s SUV.
A man jumped out of the passenger door, and a second later a powerful camera flash went off.
“Miss McCall, would you care to comment on the rumor that ELF was behind the explosion at your father’s compound two nights ago.”
She spun around at the sound of the reporter’s strident voice. He was standing on the sidewalk, but that didn’t keep his photographer from snapping more pictures of her and the others.
She marched up to the two men. “Just where exactly did you hear this rumor?” she demanded.
“Are you saying it’s not true?” the reporter asked while the photographer took yet another picture.
She grabbed his wrist with a snakelike movement her father had taught her when she was fifteen. Pressing with two fingers on a vulnerable spot, she watched in satisfaction as the man lost his hold on the camera and it fell with a clunk to the pavement. She released him, and he scrambled backward, kicking his camera as he did so and causing further damage to the expensive piece of equipment.
“You should be more careful with your things,” she said sweetly.
“You did that. You broke my wrist, you bitch.” He was holding it cradled limply against his chest, but she knew feeling would return in less than a minute.
“No. I didn’t.”
“But if you call her another name, I will,” Daniel said from beside her. “Pick up your camera and get back in the car.”
“Hey, you can’t tell me what to do. This is public property.”
Daniel took a step toward the photographer. “Yes. It is. Which means I can stay out here as long as I want.”
“You can’t do anything to me. I’ll call the cops.”
Daniel’s smile was chilling. “How long do you think it would take them to get here?”
“Are you threatening me?”
“No. A soldier learns early not to waste time or words warning his enemy of his intentions.”
The photographer’s nerve broke, and he grabbed his camera before heading back across the street to his car. “Come on, Dooley, it’s not worth it. This story is old news already anyway.”
“Stop being such a wuss,” Dooley said.
The other man made a crude, but dismissive gesture with his hand and got back in the car.
“I told you, I have no comment, and that isn’t going to change.” Josie turned to go.
“There’s something going on here, Miss McCall, and I’m going to figure out what it is.”
“Be my guest,” she said over her shoulder. “When you do, make sure you share your findings with the Forest
