If only he could erase that fear in her eyes when she looked at him. He wasn’t the bad guy.
He walked out the front door and toward the rear of the cabin. And ran smack into Dani rounding the corner of the house.
“Wh-what are you doing?” She took two steps back with the bow in her arms. She had an arrow in place and pulled on the string. Too bad the arrow was pointing the wrong way. He stifled a smile. She was cute and dangerous at the same time. She’d get them both killed if she ran off on her own. Because he’d follow her.
“I’ll shoot you. Don’t think I won’t.”
At her faux bravery, his heart thawed a little bit toward his unwanted guest. “If you do, you’ll shoot the tree behind you and hurt yourself.” He walked up to her and flipped the arrow around. “If you want to leave, I’m not stopping you. But you’ll need a weapon you can handle.”
She lowered the bow. “Like what?”
Evidently, the key to this woman was to keep her intrigued.
He pulled his switchblade out of his pocket and passed it to her. She turned it around in her palm. “Just don’t stab me in the back. But it might make you feel better to have a way to defend yourself.”
He went around the front and headed inside to grab two cups of coffee. He met her on the wraparound porch outside the front door.
She dropped the bow and watched him, still clutching the pocketknife. He passed her a cup of coffee and offered her a seat in one of the two rocking chairs that were his favorite spot on the mountainside.
She tucked the knife into her jeans pocket and sank into the chair. He took the one next to her.
“Fine.” Her breath came out in a huff. “The caffeine will wake me up for when we go look for Josh.”
“We will leave and search for Josh.” He set his mug on the tree stump that served as an end table and listened to the rain pelting the porch roof. “But it’s eleven p.m., and the sun is going to set in about fifty minutes. Trust me, we don’t want to be out in the darkness and rain. Sunrise is around four a.m., and we can head out then. If we still don’t have cell reception, I’d like to head back to the area where I found you, just in case Skye sends help that way.”
“Skye. That’s why we stopped at the hotshot camp. I wanted to find my friend.”
She stood and walked to the edge of the patio, placing her mug on the railing. She turned to him. “I remembered what you called me, by the way.Diva Dani. And you yelled at me.”
He flinched. Why was he always the villain? Her look of contempt pierced him harder than an arrow from his longbow.
He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry for the way we treated you. And we never should have let you and Josh go up the mountain alone.” Not with a handful of SOR members still roaming around.
She nodded, which he took to be an acknowledgment of his apology. Maybe they could strike up a friendship, or at least she could stop fearing for her life around him.
“Why can’t I remember anything? I have no idea what happened once I left your base. Other than something bad happened to Josh. I just don’t know what.”
He stood and leaned a hip against the porch railing. Progress. She didn’t flinch as he moved closer to her. “Would you tell me more about the story you were working on? You seemed pretty convinced that there was a secret compound hidden in the woods. You had some pencil-drawn map too.”
He wondered how much Dani knew about recent events. He’d been working when smokejumper JoJo Butcher had taken down the SOR camp, literally setting the place on fire. They’d even recovered a sample of the bioweapon the group had been testing. But did the reporter already have the inside scoop, or was she fishing for a story?
She felt around in her pockets and pulled out a crumpled paper. “I—I don’t remember this.” After she looked at it, she gave it to Grizz. “Did Josh and I find this place?”
Grizz looked at the map. He noted the trail and the area where he’d found her. She must have made it to the area marked by a big X on the crude map. “I think you and Josh stumbled onto something. I heard a gunshot. It wasn’t a hunter.” Her face paled, more from exhaustion than fear. “Look, why don’t you rest some more? You clearly know where my bedroom is, so please go lie down and get some sleep. I’ll stay up and keep watch, and I’ll pack us a few things so we can leave at sunrise.”
If he needed a nap, he could take one on the couch. Wouldn’t be the first time he fell asleep stretched out on it.
She shook her head. “No, we need to find Josh. He?—”
He put a hand on her arm, and she backed up. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I—” What could he say to win her trust?
He let out a low growl of frustration.
Well, that wouldn’t help make her comfortable. “I promise you, we will go look for Josh. And I’m not going to hurt you. Please get some rest. I think I have some clothes my sister Melanie left when she stayed with me, so you can get cleaned up. You might get more of your memories back once your mind has had some time to relax.”
“Yes, sleep might help. But I’m taking this with me.” She waved the knife at him and marched into the house.
At least she was a fighter. That, he could work with. He didn’t deal with the damsel-in-distress type so well. His last relationship had ended when his girlfriend had decided that Grizz’s best friend was better suited for her.
