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“Why not? I was straight with you; I expect the same.” Really she didn’t. Hadn’t he proved what a jerk and liar he was once before? Why should she trust him now?
Because you don’t have much of a choice. You’re committed now, backed into a pretty tight corner. On top of all that, now Cooper Trent knows you’re lying. You have to trust him, Jules. You’d better get him to keep your secret!
“Damn,” she swore. If she’d thought things were bad before, she now knew how much worse they could get.
He stared straight ahead. “I’m being as straight with you as I can.”
“Sure.” She glanced out the window, wondering at the mountains she’d seen in the brochure, invisible tonight. Snow fell fast and hard, piling on the windshield before the wipers brushed it away.
“I can’t tell you anything else,” he said. “Really.”
“Then maybe I can help you fill in the gaps. I read about you working for some sheriff’s department in Montana.” Her eyes narrowed as she remembered Cheryl Conway indicating that sometimes it wasn’t enough to rely on the police to do their jobs; sometimes a person had “to do more.” Meaning what? “So are you working undercover? Is that it?”
“As far as you’re concerned, I’m a teacher here,” he said slowly as he cranked on the steering wheel. The Jeep rounded a sharp corner, tires shimmying on ruts from the winter’s storms. “And it would make what I’m trying to accomplish here so much easier if you’d refuse your position.”
“What?”
“Tell Hammersley and Lynch you changed your mind. No one would blame you.”
“I’m not backing down now!” she said.
“It’s dangerous.” A tic was working near his eye as he tried to hang on to the threads of his temper. She remembered that telltale sign from the past.
“So I should just abandon my sister?”
“You’re not abandoning her.”
“Damned straight. So don’t waste your breath trying to talk me out of it!” She was seething now, her blood pressure climbing. “Until Shaylee is out of this place, I’m on staff!”
His lips drew into a blade-thin line. “You always were stubborn.”
“So don’t try to talk me out of it, okay? It won’t work.”
“I don’t want you getting in my way.”
“Fine!” she said, years of anger roiling deep inside. “Then you stay the hell out of mine!”
“Jules …”
Her heart cracked a little at the sound of his voice saying her name, but she wasn’t going to let some long-forgotten, stupid, and oh-so-childish romantic fantasy deter her.
“I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Didn’t I just say I’d keep my distance?”
He winced a little at her harsh words, but she had to make him see she was serious and strong, not the weak, fragmented girl he’d known five years ago. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You got that right, Cowboy,” she vowed. No one had ever had the ability to wound her like Cooper Trent. She’d make damned sure it didn’t happen again.
“Look, I just don’t want to worry about you.”
“Easy solution: don’t.”
“Goddammit, Jules—”
“Julia. It’s Julia. Get it straight! There just may be a test tomorrow.” She arched an eyebrow, and as angry as he was, his lips twitched a bit.
“You’re impossible,” he said without a hint of admiration.
