Page 284 of These Tears

‘He might not return, Sindre. There are people who will do everything to hurt him. Kill him.’

His dark eyes turn darker. The arrogance is gone. ‘He’s fine. He’ll be back when he’s ready.’

We don’t move for a long second. The smirk is the first thing to go.

‘What do you know?’ he asks then.

I cross my arms and tilt my chin in response. If I’m sharing, he’s sharing.

It takes two beats of silence for the gravity of the moment to settle.

He then reaches beneath the counter and produces an unlabelled bottle and two tumblers.

‘We’ll need something stronger than what you’ll find outside. Lock the door. Flip the sign.’ He nods towards the exit and disappears behind the design room door.

Brute and I consider each other for a short intake of breath. But when I start after Sindre, he trots right ahead.

Good dog.

‘The cabin,’ I say before I am seated on a box of supplies. ‘How long have you been maintaining it?’

Sindre turns his glass slowly between tattooed fingers as he sets the bottle atop a makeshift table. ‘Since he built it many years ago.’

‘Did you help Elias build it along with the others?’

‘Jakob,’ he corrects with a sour face. ‘And yes.’

I press my teeth together at that. ‘Snowmobile,’ I push on, patience slipping faster than I can hold on to it.

‘Jakob’s money, my contacts.’

‘When Jakob arrived with an unconscious woman?’

He grins but says nothing.

And he doesn’t have to.

When he pours for the third time, I already know enough to understand the shape of their friendship. He had been helping Elias long before I became a problem with a pulse.

He had arranged the journey too. Made sure the timing was right and the story held together.

‘The Jakob Halvorsen identity was already real enough to survive ordinary questions about tax records and utility bills. I kept it alive while Elias was inside.’

‘Double identity.’

He lifts a shoulder and pours us another one.

To hell with the drinking limit, I guess.

‘Dyktig,’ I compliment him grudgingly.

‘Takk.’

The thanks leaves us staring at each other over the bottle.

I cross my arms. ‘Did you know he was going back?’

His expression changes by a fraction. ‘I knew the lawyer had found something. Jakob asked me to create a route into England and keep the cabin – and you – sorted.’