filters he’d picked up at the store. He glanced across the street at the Black Bear Inn. In a little less than an hour, Jan, Ken and Bruce would be joining Leonard for a life-changing adventure.
Clarissa came out of the inn just then, glanced around and settled on a bench. Ezra waved at her, and she waved back. He went into his office, shaking his head and wondering why she looked so nervous.
* * *
Clarissa checked her watch for the third time in ten minutes. Sondra was late, and she wasn’t answering her phone. Clarissa tried to free herself of the awful sinking feeling that invaded her mind.
Sondra wasn’t going to show. She shouldn’t have depended on her. Clarissa jumped up from the bench and paced back and forth.
If Sondra didn’t show, she’d have to come up with a new plan to escape from Max. Though she hadn’t seen him yet today, she was sure Don was still lurking around somewhere, waiting to catch her. She sat back down on the bench, twisting the straps of her purse.
Sondra had been a friend. Clarissa couldn’t have read the signals wrong. She’d picked up on the concern in her voice when they’d spoken on the phone. Sondra wouldn’t let her down.
She leaned against the wall of the Black Bear Inn and stared at her phone. There were probably places in Wyoming with no cell phone service. Maybe Sondra had been delayed, but couldn’t call.
Clarissa checked her watch again. She’d wait twenty more minutes. She couldn’t stay out here much longer, where Max’s thug could easily spot her. A car rolled by slowly and pulled to the curb half a block away. Clarissa rose to her feet, expecting to see Sondra. Disappointment raged through her when an older man using a cane stepped to the curb.
Gazing across the street, she watched through the window of Ezra’s office as he picked up backpacks and sorted through a pile of items she couldn’t make out from this distance. An older man sat in a chair across from him, reading a piece of paper.
She slumped down on the bench again, clutching her purse to her chest. She had to come up with a new plan. Max’s hired muscle had tried to kill her last night. That was something she could report. She would swallow her distrust of law enforcement. Ezra had pointed up the street when he’d suggested she go to the police. She walked quite a while before the station came into view, a two-story brick structure with parking lots on three sides.
She took a breath and went over in her head what she would tell them as she made her way toward the steps. But when the door of the station swung open and a man stepped out, the sight of him made Clarissa’s breath hitch. She ducked behind a car. Max stood on the steps, shaking hands with a man dressed in a suit.
As she pressed herself against the back of the car, she pushed down the terror that threatened to paralyze her. That man was probably the police chief or some other law enforcement official.
Shielding herself from view by darting from car to car, Clarissa ran through the possibilities of what she could do. Max was here. And he clearly had fooled the police here just as he had in California. Any hopes that the law would actually listen to her disappeared. There was no one she could trust. She had to get out of this town and fast.
She needed time to figure out why Max wanted her dead, or she’d never be safe again. As she raced up the street, she realized she needed to hide somewhere Max would never find her, until she could work through all that had happened.
* * *
Ezra ran through a last-minute checklist of everything he needed for the survival school. He’d taken the van around to the back entrance. When he opened the door, Jan and Kenneth had already arrived to start loading their packs.
Ezra sat down at his desk and thumbed through the waivers he’d collected. With the addition of Leonard, he had four clients. Six would allow him to do more than pay the bills, but four—along with the clients Jack would be taking out—was enough to keep Jefferson Expeditions going until the next school.
The front door opened and Clarissa, his stowaway from last night, stepped in. “I’d like to go on your survival school,” she stated. He thought he detected fear in her voice.
She’d changed out of the gray suit and high heels she’d been wearing into a pair of jeans, hiking boots, a light blue button-down shirt and fleece jacket. The outfit looked as if she’d just pulled it off a store rack, and yet it showed off her curves almost as nicely as the suit had.
“Your friend didn’t show up, huh?”
She glanced toward the door as though she was expecting someone to burst through it. “Please, how much does the school cost? I can pay cash.”
Ezra thought for a moment. Another client would be nice, but he wasn’t so sure it should be Clarissa. Trouble seemed to be following her, and his survival class was challenging enough without exposing his clients to additional danger. And just what was she mixed up in anyway? She didn’t seem like the criminal type. In fact, there was an almost fragile china-doll quality to her. Maybe it was just her delicate features. He’d been deceived before by appearances.
When he’d done his tour of duty in Iraq, he had thought his fiancée, Emma, would be faithful to him. But she’d broken his heart when she’d made the excuse that she could never be married to a man who ran a wilderness survival school. Nothing was ever what it appeared to be on the surface.
Ezra straightened a pile of papers. “This is kind of last-minute.” He was torn between saying yes to her and turning her away.
The back door burst open, and Jan stepped inside. “Oh, Clarissa, so good to see you. I like your outfit.”
“Thanks, I just bought it this morning.” Clarissa cut a sideways glance toward Ezra.
Jan turned to face him. “It’s so nice to have another woman on the expedition.”
A smile brightened Clarissa’s face. “Yes, I’m sure it would be hard to be the only female.” She raised an eyebrow toward Ezra.
She had a point. Jan would be far less likely to give up and want to go home if she wasn’t the only woman. And if Jan asked for a refund, then Kenneth probably would, too.
“So are you all ready to go?” asked Jan.
Clarissa turned back toward Ezra, amusement coloring her voice as she said, “I was just settling my bill with Mr. Jefferson, wasn’t I?”
It was nice to see a playful side to her. She’d seemed so burdened by worry when he’d first met her. Whatever it was, the load she carried must be a heavy one. Would it weigh down their group? He couldn’t be sure.
Ezra sighed and shook his head. “Yes, she was just getting everything in order.” He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake.
Jan patted her shoulder. “Good. We’ll see you two in a minute. Everyone else is loaded into the van.” She pulled open the back door and disappeared.
Clarissa turned to face him, her blue eyes shining. “How much do I owe you?”
Ezra placed a hand on his hip. “Are we agreed that was a little manipulative?”
“You weren’t totally set on saying no to me.” Her voice had a coy quality.
“That’s
