“I can’t say I wasn’t thinking it,” Ryan said, “but it’s been a rough day and tensions are high. I don’t need to add anything inflammatory.”
She shifted to face him. These elevators could take an eternity. “I’m glad we’ve at least come to the place where we can laugh about our ridiculous...competition, I suppose—though that doesn’t seem like the right word.”
“We’re not competing,” he said. “We’re working together. I’m working closely with you, the person who knew Sarah the best, to find the answers, so my team and I can build a case and get this guy behind bars. But in less than a couple of days, you’ll have to return to work because your bereavement leave will be over. And I know you, Tori. You’ll go back.”
The way he grinned with his words, he was simply letting her know what he knew to be true, even if she didn’t feel she knew it herself yet.
She lightly punched his arm. Tori hadn’t officially left the feds, though it had been in her heart and mind. But she didn’t want to make such a drastic decision when she was grieving.
Finally the elevator doors opened.
“Tori.” He held her back. “Let me go first. We’ll meet a plainclothed deputy in the lobby and get into that vehicle. We’ll change to another vehicle a few miles down the road, just to be sure.”
His words took her aback. “Wow,” she said. “I’m impressed.”
“Believe it or not, impressing you wasn’t my goal.”
Oh, he was being funny again. She walked with him to join a deputy she hadn’t met yet and the three of them climbed into an unmarked SUV. Someone could follow them from the hospital, so the deputy drove around town for fifteen minutes until they were certain no one had followed, then they turned into a parking garage at the local bank building, where Tori changed into a wig and cap. Ryan simply wore a hat and different sunglasses for his disguise.
“You’ve thought of everything.” She climbed into the new vehicle.
From the driver’s seat, he glanced at her, dimples carving into his cheeks. “Were you expecting anything less?”
She couldn’t help smiling at him—gone was the animosity between them. He’d resented her for the longest time, believing she thought she was better than him because she was a federal agent. But while she’d wanted something different from the Maynor County Sheriff’s Department, she admired Ryan and his abilities. “No, Ryan. I wasn’t.”
That brought a satisfied grin to his face.
The easy camaraderie between them made it that much harder for her to keep to herself what she’d learned moments before the pipe bomb had been tossed through the bedroom window.
Ryan finally steered the vehicle up the winding drive to the home loaned to him by Jasper Simmons, who was away on vacation. Ryan had saved Jasper’s son from drowning when the boy had fallen into the Wind River and then been whisked away by the swift current during a fishing trip. Ryan, who had been on the river in a boat at the time, had been able to reach the ten-year-old boy before he went over the falls. Afterward, Jasper had told Ryan to call him if he ever needed anything, anytime. Day or night. Ryan had made that call and now Tori had a house in which she could be safe for the time being.
Tori sat up taller as the long drive continued to wind around and Mount Shasta came into view. White patches could still be seen on the peak in the summer—glaciers remained at the highest points and never melted. Up close and personal, the mountain was breathtaking.
“Would you look at this view.” She moved the visor so she could see better out the window. “Okay, now I really do think you’re trying to impress me.”
He parked the vehicle in front of the sprawling log cabin. “Now why would I want to do that?”
Tori said nothing to his question. It was only light banter, so she shouldn’t be offended. Impressing Tori hadn’t been his intention. All he’d wanted to do was to keep her safe.
Hopping out, he jogged around to open the door for her, but she had already climbed out.
Hands on her hips, she stared at the mountain as though she hadn’t grown up in the shadow of Mount Shasta. Still, unless you hiked to the summit or lived in a place like this, this view wasn’t something you saw every day.
“The Karuk tribe call it White Mountain,” she said. “Did you know that it’s the second highest peak in the whole Cascade range?” She turned to look at him and laughed.
“I didn’t realize you were so fascinated with it,” he replied.
“So there are still a few things you don’t know about me. I’m glad I can still surprise you.”
She was glad about that? He tried not to consider the implications.
“And now, I have a surprise for you.” He smiled.
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
He opened the back of the vehicle. “Your stuff’s in the back.”
Tori pressed a hand to her forehead. “I’m so relieved, Ryan. Thank you!”
She strode over to the back of the vehicle to stand next to him.
He handed off her laptop, a duffel bag of newly purchased clothes—since her others had been destroyed—and her purse that seemed to survive everything. “We’ve taken the liberty of going through your belongings in search of listening, visual or tracking devices.”
“Of course. I’m glad you did.” She shouldered her purse and held the laptop under her arm.
When she reached for her duffel bag, he snatched it. “I’ve got this.”
“Thanks.” She waited for him to shut the back. “Well, are you going to give me the grand tour of this place?”
“You and I will get the grand tour together. I don’t know my way around, either. We’ll have to go exploring. I hear it has two ponds and a creek. But, of course, I’ll need to make
