that exact moment Garner’s cell phone buzzed. He glanced down at the caller ID, his brows pulling together. “Sorry, I have to take this. If you have any questions, you can call me at the number on the front of that card.” He pushed to his feet and walked out of the building, pressing the phone to his ear.
After tossing back the last of his coffee, Ghost pulled a couple of bills from his wallet and laid them on the table. He took the card and left, passing Garner on his way to his truck.
The DHS man was deep in conversation, turned completely away from Ghost.
Ghost shrugged. He’d had enough time off that he was feeling next to useless and antsy. But he could handle one more week. He might even get in some fly-fishing.
He slid behind the wheel of his pickup and glanced down at the address. Old Orva Davis couldn’t possibly still be alive, could she? If not her, who was the woman who’d felt threatened in this backwater town? Probably some nervous Nellie.
He’d find out soon enough.
And then...one week.
Charlie had nodded off once or twice during the night, waking with a jerk every time. Thankfully, she hadn’t pulled the trigger and blown a hole in the door, her leg or her foot.
She was up and doing laundry when Lolly padded barefoot out of her bedroom, dragging her giant teddy bear. “I’m hungry.”
“Waffles or cereal?” Charlie asked, forcing a cheerful smile to her tired face.
“Waffles,” Lolly said. “With blueberry syrup.”
“I’ll start cooking, while you get dressed.” Charlie plugged in her waffle iron, mixed the batter and had a waffle cooking in no time. She cleaned off the small dinette table that looked like a throwback to the fifties, with its speckled Formica top and chrome legs. In actuality, the table did date back to the fifties. It was one of the items of furniture that had come with the house when she’d bought it. She’d been fortunate enough to find the bright red vinyl fabric to recover the seats, making them look like new.
On a tight budget, with only one income-producing person in the family, a car payment and student loans to pay, she couldn’t afford to be extravagant.
She was rinsing fresh blueberries in the sink when a dark figure suddenly appeared in the window in front of her. Charlie jumped, her heart knocking against her ribs. She laughed when she realized it was Shadow, the stray she and Lolly had fed through the winter. Charlie was far too jumpy that morning. The messages from the night before were probably all bluster, no substance, and she’d wasted a night she could have been sleeping, worrying about nothing.
The cat rubbed her fur against the window screen. When that didn’t get enough attention, she stretched out her claws and sank them into the screen netting.
“Hey! Get down.” Charlie tapped her knuckles against the glass and the cat jumped down from the ledge. “Lolly! Shadow’s hungry and my hands are full.”
Lolly entered the room dressed in jeans, a pink T-shirt and the pink cowboy boots she loved so much. The boots had been a great find on one of their rare trips to the thrift shop in Bozeman, Montana. “I’ll get the bowl.” She started for the back door.
I’ll find you.
The message echoed in Charlie’s head and she dropped the strainer of blueberries into the sink and hurried toward her daughter. “Wait, Lolly. I’ll get the cat bowl. Tell you what, you grab a brush, and we’ll braid your hair this morning.”
Charlie waited until her daughter had left the kitchen, then she unlocked the dead bolt and glanced out at the fresh green landscape of early summer in the Rockies. The sun rose in the east and a few puffy clouds skittered across the sky. Snow still capped the higher peaks in stunning contrast to the lush greenery. How could anything be wrong on such a beautiful day?
A loud ringing made her jump and then grab for the telephone mounted on the wall beside her.
“Hello,” she said, her voice cracking, her body trembling from being startled.
“Charlie, it’s me, Kevin.”
“Thank goodness.” She laughed, the sound even shakier than her knees.
“Any more trouble last night?”
She shook her head and then remembered he couldn’t see her. “No. I’m beginning to think I’m paranoid.”
“Not at all. In fact, I’m sending someone over to check things out. He should be there in a few minutes.”
“Oh. Okay. Thanks, Kevin.”
“The guy I’m sending is one hundred percent trustworthy. I’d only send the best to you and Lolly.” He broke off suddenly. “Sorry. I have an incoming call. We’ll talk later.”
“Thanks, Kevin.” Feeling only slightly better, Charlie returned the phone to its charger and stepped out onto the porch.
Shadow rubbed against her legs and trotted to the empty bowl on the back porch steps.
“Impatient, are we?” Charlie walked out onto the porch, shaking off the feeling of being watched, calling herself all kinds of a fool for being so paranoid. She dropped to her haunches to rub the cat behind the ears.
Shadow nipped at her fingers, preferring food to fondling. Charlie smiled. “Greedy thing.” She bent to grab the dish. When she rose, she caught movement in the corner of her eyes and then there were jean-clad legs standing in front of her.
She gasped and backed up so fast, she forgot she was still squatting and fell on her bottom. A scream lodged in her throat and she couldn’t get a sound to emerge.
The man looming over her was huge. He stood with his back to the sun, his face in the shadows, and he had hands big enough to snap her bones like twigs. He extended one of those hands.
Charlie slapped it away and crab-walked backward toward the door. “Wh-who are you? What do you want?” she whispered, her gaze darting to the left and the right, searching for anything she could use as a weapon.
“Geez, Charlie, you’d think you’d remember me.” He climbed the steps and, for the second time, reached for her hand. Before she could jerk hers away, he yanked her to her feet. A little harder than either of them expected.
Charlie slammed against a wall of muscle, the air knocked from her chest. Or had her lungs seized at his words? She knew that voice. Her pulse pounded against her eardrums, making it difficult for her to hear. “Jon?”
He brushed a strand of her hair from her face. “Hey, Charlie, I didn’t know you were my assignment.” He chuckled, that low, sexy sound that made her knees melt like butter.
Her heart burst with joy. He’d come back. Then as quickly as her joy spread, anger and fear followed. She flattened her palms against his chest and pushed herself far enough way, Jon was forced to drop his hands from around her waist. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“I’m
