Page 63 of Hunted in Hope Town

“Unstable people do unreasonable, unstable things.” Boyd shrugged. “Maybe that’s all this is. A little revenge for thwarting her dating life.”

“Give me a break,” Ellis muttered.

“People have done worse for less.”

It was an incredibly uncomfortable thought. Boyd was right, but that didn’t mean Ellis had to believe something that felt so…silly.

“What about your last year of teaching?” He ushered Kirsten into his seat, then went to pour her a coffee. “Do you remember that at all?”

Kirsten inhaled, looking down at her phone like she couldn’t just set Dr. Leigh’s email aside.

“I guess. More or less. I had five periods, three world lit and two American lit.”

“Did you piss any parents off?”

“Oh, plenty.” She thanked Ellis for the coffee when he brought it to her. “But that’s hardly unusual. Or reason for someone to threaten me.”

“Let’s put a list together. Just to see if we can find any connections.”

“I could do that,” she said cautiously. “But I think I have a better idea.”

Ellis already knew he wasn’t going to like it.

“I think Ellis should call Colleen.”

Ellis was standing behind Kirsten, so he couldn’t see her face, but he could see Boyd’s. And how hard he was trying not to laugh.

“And why would I do that?” Ellis managed to grind out.

“I’ve been dead for two years—that’s what everyone thinks. Maybe with me out of the way, you’re interested. Haven’t been able to stop thinking about her. Whatever works.”

Now Boyd wasn’t trying to hold back his laughter at all. He was letting it loose. He even punctuated it with a knee slap.

Ellis glared. Then tried to keep his tone equitable as he spoke. “She knows you’re not dead, as we’ve established.”

“Which is why she might be intrigued. Intrigued enough to meet you somewhere…isolated.” Kirsten gestured to the cabin around them. “Maybe even with whoever she’s working with or for.”

KIRSTEN WASN’T SURPRISED he didn’t like the idea, but she did think he would have relented once he knew he got to be the bait—not her. He was never going to let her put herself in danger, but he’d put himself.

And she knew Boyd would protect Ellis in whatever ways he could, so it wasn’t too big a risk. Calculated.

“She’s fishing. She wants something. Let’s give it to her.” Kirsten picked up the phone with the offensive email. “You didn’t want me to be the bait. You’re the FBI agent. You can be the bait. And then this stops.” And they could get their lives back. Whatever that looked like. Good or bad.

It was better than this weightless in-between of hope tangled with fear.

“She’s got you there, Sutty,” Boyd said. It surprised her a little that he’d take her side, but only a little.

Boyd was the kind of man who liked to act, regardless of consequences, because he didn’t have the kind of responsibilities that Ellis did.

“And where, pray tell, will the two of you be?” Ellis asked. His jaw tight, but his tone even enough.

Kirsten knew him well enough to know he was livid under that careful facade. He wouldn’t let it out. He would work through it.

No wonder she loved him as much as she did. And because she loved him, she didn’t want to risk him, but she’d lived the life of the spouse of an FBI agent. She was already old hat at worrying about his safety. What was one more assignment?

“Well, you and Boyd can figure out the rest of the plan, can’t you? Tactically or whatever.” She waved offhandedly, in a way she knew would irritate Ellis, and she didn’t want to irritate him exactly, but she wanted him to…act. To risk.

“Let’s at least lay it out,” Boyd said. “See what we can come up with. And if we don’t come up with a good way to go about it, we nix the plan. No harm, no foul.”