Leclair would not move yet. He stood with his arms crossed as the tow truck driver glanced over at the girl and quietly said, “Let’s go.”
She’d stopped crying and watched Leclair as if he had sprouted avenging angel wings. Probably no one had intervened to protect her from her father until now.
Leclair gave her an understanding nod. She got into the truck cab and kept her eyes locked on him until the truck drove out of the lot.
Hallene had been falling asleep until that. Her body buzzed with anger and ... admiration.
When Leclair turned to her, he paused.
Was he waiting on her to criticize him for drawing attention to them? No one had come around the building. Even if someone had, she still would never condemn him for what he’d given that girl.
She asked, “Do you want the turkey or ham sandwich? I got both.”
The harsh lines on his face relaxed along with him letting his arms fall. “Ham.” He walked over, waited for her to turn, and fell into step with her.
Who was this man? She was just realizing how much she did not know about him, but she respected the part he’d just revealed. Her insides flipped and churned in confusion.
She wanted to hug him for what he’d just done, but she couldn’t allow herself to lower her guard. She had to keep this businesslike so he would respect her ability to see it through.
He tapped the key to unlock the doors and lifted the sandwiches to hand her. Then he grabbed the coffee and sipped it. “Perfect.”
Once he had them on the interstate heading south again, she opened his sandwich and set it up on the console with extra napkins.
Before taking a bite, he said, “You’re quiet.”
Spending all day on the road alone had given her too much time to think. Guilt pounded her at forcing him to do this, but she could not back down now.
“I’m just tired.” She opened her sandwich and took a bite.
He said, “Not going to ask me if I went into the store to call my team?”
She hadn’t expected that question, but no point in lying. “I thought about it.”
He ate more and sipped his coffee. “There is no point in me calling my people when I have nothing to tell them. I want to find our person as much as you want to find yours. If we can do that and return me to Clercville by Monday night, I might be able to talk my way around doing this without authorization.”
More guilt. Would he be penalized for leaving with her?
She’d thought he was on leave of some sort. “My plan is to return you by Sunday. Will your team be mad at you if we find your missing person?”
For a guy who hadn’t said a word in hours, he was on a roll. “I can’t expose what is decided within the realm of my team. They’re terrific. We work like a fine piece of machinery with everyone doing their part. The only way a team succeeds is if everyone is on the same page. Everyone trusts that the other members are going to do their part without question.”
“Where are you going with this?” She hadn’t meant to sound irritable, but she was. She hadn’t even told him the plan yet. Was he questioning her skills?
He drove with one hand on the wheel, relaxed, but his gaze continually tracked around them.
“My point is that you and I have never worked together yet you think we’re just going to mesh perfectly in a dangerous situation. I would prefer to survive this and get both packages out aliveifyou can really find them. That won’t happen if you’re unwilling to tell me what the hell you expect us to do.”
She couldn’t argue with his words. “We could reach our destination today, but we’d be exhausted and can’t act until I receive a final piece of intel. We’re headed south to get into the vicinity of where the kidnapper may be holding the captives. That location is loaded into the map system. My resource got me into the mansion in South America and located you, so his intel is solid. But as your team discovered, there is always the unknown factor. For that reason, I’d rather not say more until I have this next part confirmed.”
He turned to her briefly, eyes taking stock of her.
Would he treat her as an equal or dismiss her as not being from an elite team like his?
Midnight Ferret had not found out who Sam worked for, but from her experience, she recognized that this man appeared to walk the walk of an operator like Coop.
Leclair nodded. “I can work with that.”
She did a double take at him, surprised he did not continue to argue. He kept his attention on the road where the traffic had been reasonable all day except for when she’d driven through Boston.
