Cold Pursuit - Carla Neggers [86]
“It’s a lousy cover for searching my place, Elijah.”
“I’m on a roll. You didn’t bring much up with you from Washington.”
“That’s because I’m an optimist and plan to get back to work soon. Elijah, you can’t just walk into other people’s houses. Not that this is a house, but you know what I mean.”
“Then arrest me.”
She sighed. “Thank you for the new lock. You could have stayed for tea with the Whittakers, and we could have put the lock on together.”
“I don’t like tea. Turns my stomach to even think about it.”
She doubted much turned Elijah’s stomach.
“Get anything out of the Whittakers?” he asked casually.
“They think Thomas is overreacting about Nora’s camping trip on the one hand, but, on the other, that Devin could be obsessed with Nora.”
“Devin’s obsessed with being eighteen.”
Elijah stood back from the door, and Jo went past him inside, feeling the old floor sagging under her. And this was the good cabin. “It’s not worth it to put new locks on the rest of the cabins.” She blew out a breath and spun around. “You know I don’t have the slightest clue what to do with this place, don’t you? The property taxes on the thirty acres alone are a killer.”
“Pop got to you in April, didn’t he?”
“I’m sorry,” Jo said. “I’m being incredibly ungrateful. I’m glad he came to see me.”
Elijah stepped up into the cabin. “He didn’t think things through. What you’d do with thirty acres and a bunch of rundown cabins in Vermont.”
“I don’t know. Maybe he did think things through, and this is what he wanted.” She pictured him among the cherry blossoms, his fear and guilt and regret—and love—palpable. But it wasn’t an image she needed to share with Elijah, and she smiled, looking around at her one-room temporary home. “Remember when he found us here?”
“A good thing he didn’t come armed,” Elijah said dryly.
“If it’d been my father—”
“It wasn’t. It was mine. But it doesn’t matter. What I did after Pop kicked me out of the house was my choice. I didn’t discuss it with him or anyone else.”
“And you have no regrets,” she said.
His eyes held hers, unreadable under the brim of his cap, but he broke off and winked at her. “I’m having fun being around you again. I forgot how much pent-up energy you have. You’re like a top that keeps spinning at high speed.”
Jo went with his change of subject. She didn’t want to delve too deep into the past, either. Not now, not here. “What were you looking for?” she asked.
“Intruders.”
“Ah. I can take care of myself, you know.”
“You always could. Not the point. You’re used to working with a team and high-tech gadgetry. You’re alone up here.”
“Not that alone,” she said.
But he just gave her a teasing smile. “Relax. I didn’t go through your private things.” He picked up an ivory-colored petal that had fallen onto the table from one of the lilies Charlie Neal had sent her. “Anything else you’re up to, Jo, besides lying low?”
“No. I’m here because of Charlie and that video. I know my presence is provocative because of what I do, but Ambassador Bruni wasn’t under Secret Service protection—or any protection, for that matter. If I’d known anything about a threat against him that traced back here, I wouldn’t have been hanging out at the café and canoeing out on the lake.”
“You don’t own a canoe.”
“By the way, Beth and I borrowed yours the other day.”
“So I saw. Anytime. Happy to share. Lake’ll freeze soon, though.”
“Not before I’m back in Washington.” She ripped open her refrigerator, realizing he was right about her pent-up energy, even if he didn’t understand all the reasons for it. Neither did she. “I don’t know why I’m looking in here. I’m not even hungry.” She shut the door again. “I think I’ll go over and search your place.”
He shrugged. “Go ahead.”
She called his bluff and headed outside and up their shared road, paying no attention to how dark it was. Elijah followed at an easy pace, probably considering whether or not he had any illegal weaponry or pictures of girlfriends on his dresser.
She took the steps up to his