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“What kind of threats?” Tucker pressed.
“Someone said they were going to shoot us,” Martin said matter-of-factly.
Wynona gave him a withering look.
“Sorry.” Martin looked down and kicked at the dirt.
“Why is it a secret?” Tucker asked.
“It’s not,” Wynona said quickly. “I just don’t want to give them any more energy than I have to.”
Tucker looked at Gunner, and they communicated without speaking. He couldn’t leave her here. “Okay, then. Let’s go for a hike.”
Chapter 34
Wynona didn’t eventry to keep up with Tucker this time. He was obviously annoyed with her, and she couldn’t blame him. She’d had no idea that the decision was going to go that way, and she didn’t know why it had. She had asked Sarah after the press conference, but her boss had dodged the question. This was baffling to Wynona. While there was no such thing as a perfect organization, she had never known hers to keep secrets. It didn’t make sense. She wasn’t in the CIA. This made her think of Wolfgang, and she missed him sorely. A small smile appeared on her face, but she had an ache in her heart.
Martin glanced over his shoulder to make sure that she was still there.
She was. Just barely.
She knew it didn’t do any good to be discouraged, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t like looking like a fool. Even more, she didn’t like looking like a liar. No, she had never promised Tucker that hunting season might open on time, but she had certainly let him believe that, because she herself had believed that. Had she been led to believe that?
A new thought occurred to her, twisting her gut into a knot. Had this been the plan all along? If so, had Sarah brought her in as some sort of scapegoat? A buffer between her and the people? Someone the people could get angry at? If Craig had been in charge, things would be even worse. Maybe one of those threats would have been realized, so Sarah had brought in the pleasant, pretty, native girl from away because she was less likely to attract the locals’ ire. And then when it all blew up, that girl could go back to Nebraska, and life could go on.
Of course Wynona had no reason to believe that this was what had happened, but the fact that it was possible was enough to make her feel ill.
Sundance squirted out of the woods to her right, startling her a little, but then she smiled down at him, grateful for his friendship. She was surprised that Tucker had stayed with them and thought probably he wouldn’t have if he hadn’t heard about the threats. Maybe this would be her last night with Tucker. If so, it would be her last night with Sundance, and this thought felt like a crack in her heart. A lump formed in her throat. She knew it was silly to be this attached to someone else’s dog, but this was no ordinary dog, and the way he looked at her, like he had eyes for no one else but her, it turned her heart to pleasantly warm goo.
She was tired, but she was also growing used to being tired. It wasn’t necessarily resilience so much as a surrender to the weariness. She was more emotionally tired than she was physically, so the burning in her legs and lungs seemed small compared to the ache in her heart.
Nevertheless, she was grateful – and surprised — when Tucker stopped at the site before the one they’d used the night before. He looked through the small crowd and looked right at her. “Do you want to set up in the same spot as we did last night?”
She didn’t understand, and it must have shown.
“If you want to use the same site,” he said slowly, and patronizingly, “then we can drop the other team here.”
