Cold Pursuit - Carla Neggers [41]
“Is that supposed to make me shake in my boots?” Her reaction wasn’t at all what he’d expected. She walked down to him. “Because it doesn’t. I appreciate your military service, Elijah, and I’m sorry you got shot, and I’m sorry your father died—and I’m sorry he left me the lakefront property instead of you all. But you don’t scare me.”
“Damn, Jo, you’re a pain. No wonder Charlie Neal arranged to have you shot in the ass. For the record, you scare the hell out of me.”
“Will you stop?”
“No, I’m serious. When you were fifteen…holy hell. You were scary even then. I can see those turquoise eyes of yours flashing at me when you wanted to stop me dead in my tracks. By the time you were eighteen, how was I supposed to resist?”
“You didn’t even try, as I recall. You pursued me like there was no tomorrow.”
“Fun, wasn’t it?”
“Memorable.” She shivered against a sudden gust of wind and looked out at the view through the bare trees. “Eighteen didn’t feel as young then as it does now.” She glanced sideways at him and smiled. “No wonder my father looked for ways to arrest you. I’ve often thought it was just as well your father was the one who discovered us.”
“Were you rebelling, falling for me?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Not even a little.” But her federal-agent discipline kicked in as she started back down the trail. “Maybe Devin decided to forget Nora and go home. He could be taking another trail off the mountain. He still lives with his sister, doesn’t he?”
“A.J. lets him stay at the lodge.”
“You mean Lauren does.”
“That would be another way of putting it, yes.”
“Maybe we should knock on his door.”
Elijah nodded. “Fine. We’ll knock on his door.”
Eleven
The wind cut through Jo’s jeans as she crossed the open field and the quiet road to the lodge, picturesque under the lavender-streaked graying sky. It was late afternoon, but already getting dark. She was tempted to head for the stone fireplace and warm up, but Elijah had gone ahead of her and didn’t even pause at the lodge entrance. Without so much as a glance back at her, he walked straight down to the shop, located in a small building tucked among evergreens.
Jo caught up with him. “What if I’d tripped in the field and broken a leg?”
He still didn’t look back at her. “I’d know.”
“Ah. Eyes behind your head. Keen situational awareness. The experienced soldier—”
“Nope.” Now he glanced behind him, his eyes almost navy in the fast-fading light. “I just know you’re not one to go quietly.”
They came to the shop. It was closed, but a sign in the window directed customers to the lodge. An arrangement of cornstalks, pumpkins and vibrant yellow, white and rust-colored mums cheered its front door—undoubtedly Lauren’s doing, Jo thought. Pre-Lauren, A.J. had left the spot bare.
Elijah reached into the mums and produced a key.
“The first place I’d look is the mums,” Jo said behind him.
“Tell A.J.”
He unlocked the door and pushed it open. Some of his intensity had abated since she’d intercepted him on the mountain, but he was still a man with a mission. She could just leave him to it, but she knew she wouldn’t. Her gut as well as the facts told her that whatever was going on between Devin Shay and the Cameron brothers was mixed up somehow with Nora Asher’s sudden decision to bolt for the mountains. She might have been planning a camping trip, and her stepfather’s death might have triggered her decision to leave when she did, but Jo remembered Nora’s tearful departure from the café that morning, Devin following helplessly behind her. Thomas hadn’t reached her at that point to tell her about Alex Bruni’s death.
Something was up, and Jo wanted to know what.
But she didn’t fool herself. She wanted to know because of Elijah, too.
She followed him into the tidy one-room shop. It offered a limited but carefully selected range of outdoor equipment and gear, from the brightly colored