outbound, or are we going to have to pay one-way fares?…Thanks, that would be great.”
She hung up the phone. “He flew to Missoula International Airport on an early morning flight, but he didn’t book a return flight.”
The location was too much of a coincidence, being the closest airport to the GPS location for her laptop. “He knows the group that blew up his school and tried to kill him.”
“And where their headquarters are evidently. He’s gone to face them alone. Why didn’t he call us?”
He liked the way she subconsciously linked them together as a unit, but he didn’t agree her dad had gone off on a Lone Ranger mission. “More likely he’s doing a recon.”
“Alone,” she said disgustedly. “What happens if he’s caught gathering information?”
Daniel couldn’t believe she’d asked that. “Josie, this is your dad we’re talking about. He was LLRP in Nam and has been training other mercs ever since. He may be past his prime in age, but no one is going to see him unless he wants them to.”
“So, do we follow him to Montana?”
“We’d be better off waiting for him to come back here.”
“He didn’t book a return flight.”
“Not as Andrew Taylor, but it’s possible he booked one under another alias as an extra level of security. It’s the kind of thing your dad would do.”
“Right. Let’s call Hotwire and see if he can find out.”
“Can’t you look? You brought your new laptop with you.” He wasn’t as jealous of Hotwire since Josie had said she didn’t want him and shown Daniel how much she did want him, even after he said tactless and sometimes stupid things.
However, it still bothered him that his friend’s computer savvy gave him a role in Josie’s life that excluded Daniel.
“Hotwire is a lot faster at this stuff than I am.”
“Does he have the list of names you compiled from the journals?”
“Yes, and he’s continuing to search on those names as well as Andrew Taylor. I hope he has better luck turning something up on the others than I did.”
Josie made the call, and an hour later, Daniel’s guess was proved right. A flight had been booked for the day after tomorrow from Missoula International to Reno under the name of Yancy Carpenter, another name off Josie’s list.
“So, we just wait for him here?” she asked after hanging up the phone, clearly not thrilled with the idea.
“It’s our best chance at crossing paths with him.”
“We could fly to Missoula.”
“And do what? We know the general area to look, but we have no way of knowing which direction your dad chose for his reconnaissance.”
“So, we wait.”
Daniel shrugged.
“What if he decides to fly back to Oregon instead?”
“Hotwire’s at your house in case he goes there, and Tyler has my cell phone number memorized.”
“If he remembers it.”
“He remembered this place and enough to figure out who is trying to kill him. I doubt his memory is as impaired as you and the doctor thought.”
Josie went to the sink and poured herself a glass of water from the tap filter. “You think he was faking me out?”
“Yes. Probably for your own protection.”
She took a long drink and then licked her lips in a move guaranteed to spark libidinous thoughts. “Why? I could have helped him.”
Daniel decided he could use his own glass of cooling water. “He may have raised you to be a soldier, but that doesn’t mean he wants you risking your life for him.”
“I’ve risked my life plenty of times.”
That wasn’t something Daniel needed to think about. “From what Tyler told me, he didn’t like you going into the mercenary business. He wanted you to teach other soldiers how to fight.”
She leaned back against the counter, her clingy pink tank top an invitation to sin. “He liked my move into computers even less.”
Daniel did his best to drink his water and ignore the invitation. “He’s worried you won’t fit in, and he feels like it’s his fault.”
She shrugged, and her top lifted to expose a slim band of silky skin above the waistband of her shorts. “He taught me how to be a soldier, but I’m learning how to be a woman now.”
“I don’t think you’ve got much to learn.” He reached out and brushed his finger along the bare patch of skin. “You seem to come by it pretty naturally.”
“Thanks.” She smiled, as if his opinion really mattered.
After the way he’d screwed up with her more than once, that surprised him.
She looked around the small kitchen. “I guess we can stay here.”
“No way. Did you see your dad’s bed?” It was an extra-long twin, not a bed meant for two people to share, and Daniel planned to share Josie’s bed every chance he got.
“If we leave, we might miss him.”
“We can meet his flight and leave him a note here just in case. Until then, I say we check in to a decent hotel.”
“Are you going to fill the room up with roses again?”
“Do you want me to?”
She shook her head, her eyes filled with soft green lights. “As long as you’re in it, I don’t care what else is there.”
They found a room in a two-story Spanish-style hotel in a small town about fifteen miles from Tyler’s safe house. Daniel checked them in to one of the hotel’s two suites, available because the hotel was almost empty during the off season. Its courtyard boasted an outdoor pool and Jacuzzi.
Josie wanted to go swimming, and Daniel was more than willing to indulge her, but first they had to go shopping for swimsuits. Daniel insisted she try them on before buying.
First she came out of the dressing room wearing a dark blue one-piece with a white racing stripe down both sides.
Daniel shook his head. “I want to see more of you.”
Josie could feel the blush crawl up from her toes as the sales clerk smirked, giving Daniel the once-over. Her expression said she’d be more than happy to try on two Band-Aids and a thong if that’s what he wanted.
He didn’t even spare her a glance, his hot, dark gaze fixed on Josie’s figure under the demure swimsuit. “Please?”
“Okay.”
Next, she tried a solid white bikini with a lift bra in the top that made her look as though she actually had a little bit of cleavage. The bottoms were styled like low-rider shorts, being slightly more modest than regular bikini bottoms. She liked the suit a lot and went out to Daniel with a smile on her face.
He made no effort to hide his obvious arousal at the sight of her, but shook his head. “Try on the green one.”
He’d grabbed it off the rack, saying it was the same color as her eyes. It wasn’t anything special, though, just a very basic string bikini. The small triangles that comprised the top did nothing to enhance her meager curves, and the bottoms made her feel almost naked in their briefness.
However, when she walked out of the dressing room, Daniel’s approval was instantaneous. He looked ready to eat her like ice cream, and his hard-on was pressing against his jeans zipper in a definable ridge.
“It’s perfect.”
She looked down at herself. Okay, so the thin fabric of the top revealed her rapidly hardening nipples, and she could see that might be a turn-on for him, but did he realize how small the bottoms were? They barely covered her
