She rubbed her cheek against the sweat-slick skin of his chest, and words came she did not plan, but had no desire to hold back. “I love you, Daniel.”
The silence of his response did not surprise her, nor did it diminish in any way the feelings engulfing her.
Love did not have to be returned to be as deeply embedded in her heart as the roots of an ancient oak in the soil under it.
Chapter 17
Josie stood beside Daniel at the airport’s security exit and watched for her father. Daniel had been quiet since she’d told him of her love, but not distant, so she had hope. He wasn’t pushing her away for bringing emotion into the equation of their mutual obsession.
He wasn’t embracing those emotions, though, either.
She didn’t blame him. He’d said all along his feelings for her were not rooted in sentiment, but physical desire. Whether or not he could change his attitude remained to be seen, but she certainly wasn’t giving up on him because he hadn’t made any declarations.
Several passengers came through the exit as they waited, but none of them were Tyler McCall, and she grew antsy.
“Do you think he missed the flight?” she asked.
Daniel’s hand settled on her shoulder, giving the comfort of his touch. “Don’t worry about it. Hotwire confirmed Tyler checked in for his seat assignment.”
“It could have been a smoke screen.” Her dad was tricky like that.
“He’ll be here, sweetheart.” The hand on her shoulder squeezed and then fell away. “Relax.”
A dapper older gentleman, wearing a conservative gray suit and carrying a briefcase, came toward them, and it was only as her dad got within ten feet that Josie recognized him. His military haircut was hidden under what had to have been a wig. It looked like a very real head of graying hair, cut in a typical businessman’s style.
He smiled as he reached them, his eyes warm with approval behind the silver-rimmed glasses he wore. “I knew you’d figure the journals out.”
With better than perfect eyesight, he’d never worn glasses, but they complemented his alter ego rather well. While one part of her admired his ability to camouflage in any environment, she was pretty frustrated by the whole cloak-and-dagger thing at this point. He could have been hurt while she was busy trying to figure out the clues in his diaries, and she’d spent a lot of unnecessary time in a state of anxiety.
She did not appreciate the added stress. “Why didn’t you just call?”
“Could have had a bug on your phone. Didn’t need the enemy realizing I had lived through their little explosion sooner than they had to.”
“I’ve been worried sick about you.”
He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Why?”
“Someone tried to kill you,” she reminded him with exasperation. “Why did you leave the hospital?”
Her dad’s eyes dimmed. “I’m not sure. I was a little confused. Couldn’t remember why I had to get away, just knew that I did. I was halfway here before I remembered why I was headed to Nevada and what had happened. By then, I figured you’d find me through the journals, and like I said, I didn’t want to risk your phone being bugged.”
He started walking, even his gait that of a businessman, not a soldier. “Come on. I’ve got a checked bag.”
It took several minutes to get his single piece of luggage, and when she asked him why he checked it, he told her it went with the cover.
He picked up the medium-sized suitcase. “Did you bring a car?”
“Yes.” Daniel put his arm around Josie’s waist and began to lead the way outside.
She raised a startled gaze to him, but he was looking at her dad and asking how the recon mission went. Her father’s reply confirmed Daniel had been right in assuming reconnaissance had been her father’s objective.
“They’ve got fifteen soldiers, nine wives and eleven kids in the compound. Four of the soldiers have been through my training camp in the last year. Little pricks thought they could get rid of me after a six-week training course when I’ve been a soldier longer than most of them have been alive.”
They’d reached the car, and Daniel opened the trunk for her dad to drop in his bag. Josie climbed into the backseat and waited for the men to get in.
Once they did, she asked, “Did you get any names?”
“No more than the ones I’ve already got. I didn’t want to risk going in through security until I’d scouted the whole area. When I did go in, I didn’t have time to do anything but get some details on the internal structure of the compound I hadn’t been able to achieve via long distance observation.”
“How’s security?” Daniel asked.
“It’s all right. Nothing like what you and your friends would have set up. We’ll get past it pretty easily.”
She’d been afraid of this. “Get past it for what?”
“Not to blow them to kingdom come, if that’s what’s worrying you, Josie-girl. I don’t kill innocent women and children.”
“I know that.” It was her turn to look at him as if his brains had leaked out through his ears during the flight from Missoula. “However, that doesn’t mean whatever else you’ve got planned won’t get you into trouble.”
He rolled his eyes and looked at Daniel. “She been worrying like this the whole time?”
“Not all of it,” Daniel said noncommittally.
Her dad grimaced. “I guess the feds are already involved?”
“Yes.”
“Would be a hell of a lot easier if they weren’t, but I figured they would be, what with the Homeland Security Act and the area surrounding my property being national forest.”
“They thought you’d set the explosion yourself at first,” Josie said, still unable to comprehend what kind of logic had worked that scenario out.
“Idiots.”
“Josie’s also a suspect. The extremists took out a life insurance policy in your name and named her as beneficiary. Then told the press about it.”
She hadn’t wanted him to tell her dad that. He was bound to be angry enough as it was.
“They spread the blame around. The press also acted like they’d received tips indicating the responsible parties belonged to ELF,” she said by way of getting his attention focused on something else.
“And caused reporters and cameramen to park themselves in Josette’s front yard and harass her through the door or in person whenever she went outside.”
“You are not helping,” she said as her dad slammed his fist against the dashboard.
“Those sons of bitches!”
“My feelings exactly.” Daniel sounded only slightly more controlled in his fury than her dad, and it occurred to her that he’d been hiding from her a lot of his reaction to what had happened.
They couldn’t afford to dwell on their anger. “The important issue is what you’re planning to do about it.”
“Take them down.”
“How?”
“Break in to their compound, dispose of their armory and weapons, find their records and turn the sons of bitches over to the feds for disposal. If my investigator’s research is accurate, and there’s no reason to believe it’s not, getting documentation of the group’s activities to the feds will have several members facing arrest and long- term prison sentences.”
“Not to mention the ones responsible for your attempted murder.” She wasn’t sure how practical his idea of neutralizing their armory and weapons was, but his objectives were way better than she had been expecting. “I assume you have an idea of how to go about doing all this.”
“I do, but I’ll want some time to put it into mission-briefing form before I present it to you and Daniel. I spent
