“Exactly. Now, if you’re still interested in that hot bath, I’m happy to carry you to the bathroom. The house has a tankless water heater, so you’ll have all the hot water you want.”
In answer, she raised her arms.
He gently lifted her as before and carried her to the bathroom. When he carefully set her on her feet, he waited until she was steady before stepping back.
“Towels are in the linen closet. There are robes in there too. Toiletries, including toothbrushes and toothpaste, brushes, combs, things like that, are in that cabinet under the sink. And like any good safe house, the closet and chest of drawers in the connecting bedroom have new, unworn clothing in varying sizes. Mostly it’s jeans, shorts and tops. And underwear is in the dresser—again brand-new, never worn. Hopefully you’ll find what you need, at least for tonight. I can get one of my…one of the officers to bring you anything else you might need tomorrow. I’ll actually update them tonight so they can get what you need ready for when they come up here, whichever officer ends up becoming our liaison. I’ll leave that detail to Collier to decide.”
“Sounds like you’ve thought of everything.”
“If not, we’ll rectify it later.”
“What about you? I mean, clothes. Is there something here for you too?”
“The bag I hauled up here on my back from my truck doesn’t just have extra weapons and ammo. It’s my version of a go bag, with clothing and other items I might need for a few days. I’ll shower once you’re done. In the meantime, I’m going to walk the perimeter of the property, as a precaution. I’ll check for signs of anyone sneaking around. But I don’t expect there will be. This place is remote and a tough, long hike to get here, as you’re aware. And about the only way to get through the rocks and boulders is that tunnel you and I used. Without the tunnel, someone coming up the mountain will eventually reach solidrock with no easy way around it. The hope is that they’ll give up and turn around.”
“Good to know.”
He started to turn away but she stopped him with a hand on his arm.
He arched a brow in question.
She shook her head. “Hard to believe we only met this morning. In that time we’ve survived two shootouts. I survived a brief stint in jail. And somehow I survived running a marathon straight up a mountain,” she continued.
“Exaggerate much?”
“Maybe a little. It’s certainly no stretch to say that you’ve saved my life today. Although I honestly never expected someone would dare shoot at me, if they know about my father. Then again, I never expected Esteban to be murdered either.”
He gently squeezed her hand as if to reassure her. “Shower, eat, rest. Tomorrow, we’re going to dig into our investigation and figure out what’s really going on.”
After she closed the bathroom door, she reached into the pocket of her shorts and pulled out the item she’d pilfered from Beau’s backpack when he’d been speaking to the motorcycle man.
A burner phone.
She slumped down to the floor and sat with her back against the wall, holding the phone and replaying everything in her mind that she’d seen. And heard. And felt. And she wondered…
When was Beau planning on telling her that her brother Esteban was alive?
Chapter Twelve
Beau set the last dish he’d dried in the cabinet, then raised the black-out blinds on the kitchen window over the sink, confirming what the time on his watch had indicated. The sun was coming up. Behind him, the sound of Sierra shifting in her chair at the table had him tossing the dishrag over the faucet and turning around.
“If you want more eggs, I can fire up the skillet again.”
She shook her head. “I’m stuffed. That was the best egg-only breakfast I’ve ever had. Actually, it’s the only egg-only breakfast I’ve ever had. But your expert seasoning made them delicious. I still can’t believe you raided a neighbor’s chicken coop to feed us. I’ll bet that’s the first law you’ve ever broken in your life.”
“If we don’t count the occasional speeding and foolish underage drinking in my misspent youth, you might be right. But I’ll figure out a way to reimburse them later rather than leave money in the coop that would advertise that we’re up here. Hopefully they’ll figure a bear or something else in the woods scared their hens and that’s why they don’t have as many eggs to gather this morning.” He motioned toward his laptop he’d set on the table earlier. “We don’t have internet. But you can still document what you remember about the investigation you’ve done so far. And I’ve got a flash drive I loaded up in my office before we left yesterday. It lists all the drownings, boating accidents and people who’ve gone missing in the past few years. A hard copy of your brother’s file is in my backpack too. We cancompare notes and figure out our next steps in the investigation into his death.”
“That would be hard to do since we both know he’s not dead.”
He stared at her in surprise. How long had she known? And why hadn’t she said something earlier? Suspicions about her true intentions in involving him in all of this began to rear themselves again, suspicions he’d thought were already settled. Apparently not. “Your brother is alive?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know. You recognized me from one of your law enforcement photographs after I told you my father’s name. I’m sure you recognized Esteban too on the road. I saw him lift his shield up on the top of his helmet when he had his back to me and was facing you. You knew it was him. But you didn’t tell me.”
He shrugged, no longer bothering to deny it. “I never had a chance to tell you. We were on the run, then both of us crashed from near exhaustion after reaching the cabin. I was going to tell you today, rather than hit you with it last night. But I hadn’t figured out how to tell you just yet. At this point, the real question is how long have you known? Hell, did you ever really think he was dead?”
“Seriously? I’ve been searching for his killer for months and you have the gall to ask me that?”
“Then, how did you know? You never saw his face on the road. He had his helmet on the whole time and his back turned to you when he lifted the face shield, as you said.”
