Page 14 of Storm Warning
She sighed and turned to face him. “Yes. I explained that we might have a problem. I’ll call to report the attacker as soon as I get back to the lodge.”
He reached up to move the hair back away from the cut so he could get a better look, and this time she didn’t stop him. The blood had caked, even as raindrops beaded on her face. Living near a rainforest, standing out in the storm, a person had to just deal with it.
She was probably too exhausted to care that he was getting into her space. “You sure you don’t need to go back to town and stop at the urgent care clinic to get that looked at and cleaned up?”
“I can manage.” She peered at him.
He took that moment to try to decide on the color of her eyes, which seemed to change every time he looked.Hazel one second, then blue-gray or silver another. But he decided they were blue-gray for the most part.
“You love it, don’t you?” He had no business getting personal. “You love living here. Working here.”
“Yeah, I guess ... I haven’t really thought much about it.”
“I can hear it in your voice. See the way you care. Today has been stressful, but it’s nothing you didn’t handle well.” Except for maybe the rope incident. And the attacker ... who could know? This woman was tough, mysterious, and she intrigued him. Against his better judgment, he wanted to know more, and that could only lead to disaster.
Just back off, Beckett.
“You don’t need to get on my good side, okay?” She angled her head. “No need to butter me up.”
See? Even she was telling him to step away, except he’d already kind of stepped into this with her. He wasn’t one to turn his back on a situation involving a bad guy. From what he’d seen today, she’d attracted one. “You think that’s what I’m doing?”
“Isn’t it?” She shut the hatch and moved to get into her Bronco, and he followed her.
Not like a puppy, but he wasn’t finished with this conversation.
“No. I thought I was already on your good side.” He quirked a grin.
That elicited a small chuckle and the hint of a smile. He’d love to see that full-on smile.
“You want on my good side, or think you need to get there, because you want to hear what happened. Understand why it happened. The truth is, I’m still processing things. I’d rather just share it once, if that’s okay. You can be there when I do.”
That was fair. “I’d appreciate that.”
“You shouldn’t. I don’t know why you’d want to get involved.”
“Well, like you said before, I saw the rope, and it’s gone now. I mean, all of it. Even the ground stakes have been removed.” Before leaving Cedar Trails, he’d gone back to look at what remained of the rope ladder one more time and to take a picture. That’s when he discovered the stakes were gone. Someone had to have removed them. Someone with malicious intent was still around. “Then I saw you fighting a masked attacker. I can tell the deputy sheriff what I saw. I’m in this whether you like it or not.”
She swiped the hair out of her eyes, then once again looked away from him.
“I’m going now.” Remi got in and shut the door.
That’s all she had to say? He stood in the rain where she’d left him. He wasn’t getting anywhere with her, and he wasn’t sure what he was even doing here, honestly, because his reasons for coming to Cedar Trails had taken on a whole new purpose.
In his own truck, he turned around and followed Remi’s vehicle. With buffeting wind and lashing rain, getting back to the lodge and his rental cabin was best even though the thick forest of insanely tall trees protected against much of the storm. He turned up the windshield wipers and accelerated to follow Remi, causing his Ford to bounce even harder.
He had this habit—good or bad, depending on one’s perspective—of seeing something through all the way to the end. He never ignored the gnawing in his gut when something was wrong, and he wouldn’t ignore it now. He’d have to be blind not to see that trouble was brewing around Remi Grant.
He’d come here to take a break from his own troubles. Get some space between him and what happened—everything had gone wrong. Everything.
He needed some perspective on his own dark secrets—the treacherous self-imposed mission to find a rogue agent and assassin before it was too late—but shoot if he wasn’t inexplicably drawn to someone else’s trouble. Not just anyone either, but an intriguing auburn-haired beauty with blue-gray eyes.
5
Remi downed the mocha latte and closed the door to the small office. She felt exhausted to her bones. Like she was ten—no, maybe twenty or even thirty—years older than her twenty-nine years.
Behind her desk was a set of bookshelves, and then on the opposite wall, behind a couple of chairs that faced the desk, was a sleeper sofa. She stared at it now. Could she get away with a short nap? The county sheriff’s office was sending a deputy to take her statement. So, she wouldn’t take a catnap, but at the same time Remi wouldn’t hold her breath about their arrival or their ability to solve her problems that had suddenly come back into focus in just a few short hours.
If only things could be simple again like this time last year. A lesser storm had come in, but she’d enjoyed it. Sat in the lodge by the fire with the guests and sipped hot cocoa and watched the beauty and the fury of God’s creation.
