Page 76 of North

“A summer camp in the North Cascades of Washington State. I just needed…a time-out, I guess. Just a place to…um…”

“Be away from me.” Aw, he didn’t know why he said it, especially since he’d just offered not to talk about Mariposa, but…“Sorry. Maybe that wasn’t⁠—”

“You’re right.” She glanced over at him, wearing a pained expression. “Sorry, but yes. I needed a place without any chaos or trauma or…violence.”

He nodded. “I get that.”

She studied him for a second. “I don’t know. You seem to handle it better than I do.”

He frowned. “This from the woman who’s lived in multiple war-torn zones?”

“Yes, but always to help people. I wasn’t fighting the war.”

“But the war was being fought around you. And you can’t escape that.” Oh, maybe he was being too blunt. But, “The world isn’t safe, Selah. You know that.”

She gave a harsh laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.” She shook her head. “I feel like Jonah, running away from his problems only to be swept back up…Okay, maybe this isn’t quite the same, but…I sure didn’t get far.” Her voice trembled a little.

He wanted to reach out, take her hand. Instead: “You’re safe now.”

She swallowed, put her arms around herself, nodded, although it wasn’t convincing.

“I won’t let this Alan Martin hurt you.” And now he did touch her—put his hand on her arm and squeezed. She seemed cold, and a little frail.

“I think that’s…that was the problem, North.”

He let go of her, something about her tone. “What?”

She sighed. “First, I know who you are. I’ve known it…well, since Nigeria, when you showed up and saved me.”

He frowned. “Who am I?”

“A dangerous man.”

The words hit him, ripped through him. And yes, all true, but the way she said it…

“A man who kills people.”

Oh. And now he felt slugged, the bile rising in his throat. “Selah⁠—”

“No, I get it. I mean, I don’t think I did, but…” She looked at him then, and tears glistened in her eyes. “When you showed up in the village and you killed that kid⁠—”

“Man. He was a man. And he was going to kill you, Selah.” And no, they should not be talking about this in front of the kids, in the quiet of the Winnebago.

A glance in his rearview mirror showed RJ sitting with her arms folded, one eyebrow arched.

“Ix-nay on the illing-kay,” he said softly. “We’ll talk about this later.”

She glanced back, then to him. “Sorry. Yeah.”

“You should know that’s why it took me so long to get back to Minnesota. The Mariposa police investigated the incident and cleared me. But I had to stay there until the investigation was finished.” This he said loud enough for RJ to hear. Just in case.

Now they could stop talking about it.

“You were in the right,” she said softly. “I know that. I knew it even then.” She glanced at him. “And I know that I really scared you.”

Oh. He swallowed.

“I do sometimes…get in over my head.”