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She stepped back, took in the whole picture and realized how he’d carved out just enough space to make it look like she stayed with him occasionally. Trying to ignore the strange, warm sensation resulting from that daydream, she grabbed the shoes along with jeans, underwear, and a long-sleeved T-shirt and hurried upstairs to the guest bathroom.
Chapter 5
Dale backed the sedan out of the garage, wishing he could rewind this case and start over. What had looked simple at first was now complicated and convoluted. With each approaching intersection, he debated leaving Heather behind, but she was too stubborn to accept that graciously.
Barring extreme measures involving restraints and trumped-up charges, her resourcefulness and loyalty would get her to Haleswood with or without him.
Unless Anthony Lester got to her first.
She was unpredictable and possibly so focused on justice as to be borderline unstable—it was better to keep Heather close.
As they took the exit ramp off the interstate, he glanced at her. Her face was blank as she twisted the engagement ring round and round on her finger. “When we get there, what do you expect to do?”
“Help.”
He gave her points for monumental confidence. “It will be a crime scene and you’re not with law enforcement.”
“The dogs don’t care about my credentials. Only my heart.”
“Seriously? We’re risking the cover story I created to help the dogs?”
“We’re going to help Terry too,” she replied, hands fisted in her lap. “He shouldn’t have to deal with this alone.”
“I’m sure there are other people at the shelter to assist him.”
“He isn’t there,” she said, her voice low and tight. “Something is wrong.”
“Your brother can figure it out.” He didn’t want to take her any closer to Lester’s operation. This attack, assuming it was related to Lester, felt like a diversion, but she wasn’t ready to hear that yet. “You aren’t the only possible solution, Heather.”
“The shelter isn’t like the FBI,” she snapped. “We don’t have teams standing by for every situation. Volunteers make the whole system possible.”
That wasn’t what he meant, but it wasn’t worth the argument. He’d started to believe he’d never understand her thought process. Not that it mattered. They’d only be together for the next couple of days. He didn’t need to understand her any more than he needed her to understand him.
“It isn’t safe for you to stay too long.” Better if she accepted the facts and limits of both their time and his patience. “It might not even be related to—”
“Do not insult either of us by finishing that sentence.”
Fair enough. He returned to a safer argument. “We’re supposed to be going away for the weekend. To celebrate.”
“You might have noticed that Haleswood is away from Columbia. And the people responsible for whatever happened at the shelter struck when they knew I was out of town.”
“I noticed.” On both counts. The timing of the attack bothered him immensely. What was Lester trying to prove?
“Was last night some attempt to goad them into action?”
“No.” The goal had been to protect her. “I wanted people in Columbia to see us together so they’d assume my mistake was based on a conversation we might have had rather than hard intel.”
“A conversation we had as a couple?”
“Yes.” He made the last turn, the intermittent canopy of live oak trees blotting out the lightening sky. “As I’ve said, keeping you with me is the best way I know to keep you safe.”
“I know how to take care of myself.”
“What a relief.”
“You’re a jerk.”
It didn’t usually take people more than a few minutes to realize that. “I am trying to rectify a mistake. This isn’t about being friends or—”
