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“What are you looking at?” she murmured.
“Now isn’t the time.” He shifted in his seat and went back to looking out the window. “Where are we going, by the way?”
He hadn’t asked when they’d left. He’d just been determined not to sit on the sidelines of chaos for one fucking moment longer. And now, as she answered him, he found himself less interested in the words she was speaking, and more into how much he liked the way her mouth moved as she enunciated the syllables—
“You’re staring again.” She glanced away from the headlight-lit road. “Penny for your thoughts?”
Letting his head fall back on the rest, he muttered, “Knock knock.”
Lydia laughed in a short burst. “Who’s there?”
“Warrior.”
“Warrior who?”
“War’ya been all my life?” As she grinned like the joke had been any good at all, he shook his head. “I’m still not funny, and yet you giggle.”
“Ah, but you’re funny enough for me.” She hit the turn signal, then slowed them down. “And you know what I like about you?”
“Just one thing? I gotta do better.”
Lydia laughed some more. “See? You do have a sense of humor.”
“And you’re biased.”
“Completely biased.” Easing them off the county road and onto a long driveway, she glanced at him and got serious. “I like that you didn’t even ask where we’re going. You just jumped in right beside me.”
“Well, for one, your ideahasto be better than mine,” he muttered. He was never going to forgive himself for sending her on that fucking goose chase. “And as long as we’re together? I’m good. I’m sooooo good.”
“Me, too.”
They leaned in over the center console at the same time, their lips meeting briefly, and as he closed his eyes, he cursed the destiny or fate—or whatever the hell it was—that doled out the good and the bad. Surely there had been a mistake when it came to the pair of them.
Too much on the—
Reopening his lids, a farmhouse was in view, andwhen he recognized its modest lines, what she’d told him decoded, the reply finally resonating, her idea crystallizing for him.
“Eastwind,” he said.
“He’s more than a sheriff. He just pretends… he’s normal.”
Daniel nodded, even though he wasn’t sure what she meant—or whether this was such a great idea. One thing that was clear? The guy could keep up a property. Everything from the black shutters to the white siding and the wraparound porch was freshly painted, and the yard was free of downed branches and dead bushes, the detached garage a satellite that was similarly spick-and-span’d. Likewise, the barn and the fenced-in meadow in the back were ready for animals to graze, although there didn’t seem to be any around.
Lydia brought them to a halt and put the Suburban in park. “Do you want to come in with me?”
“Hold up a sec.” He put his hand on her shoulder as she reached for her door latch. “Let’s think this through. Do we really want law enforcement involved? What happens if we figure out who took Gus? Do you want whoever’s responsible to go through the human legal system? No, you don’t. You want proper revenge. If you head down this path with Eastwind, solving things on our own could get complicated.”
“I’m not here because he’s a sheriff.”
Daniel frowned. “Then why—”
“We just need to find Kurtis Joel. Then we can take care of it our way.” As she looked over, the predator in her was out and about, even as she stayed in her human skin. “I’m very familiar with operating outside of normal channels. And so are you.”
“Exactly. Tipping them off to the problem begs for trouble. You know this.”
Lydia turned her head toward the house. After a moment, she shook her head. “Eastwind’s not normal channels, either, Daniel. You gotta trust me on this—”
“If you mean that he’s a small-town lawman who bends rules here and there inside his jurisdiction? I’m sure that’s true. But if you tell him Gus is missing—and there was plenty of blood at the scene? He’ll be required to notify the Plattsburgh police, and probably the New York Staties. Maybe even the FBI if there’s a concern that Gus has been taken over state lines.”
