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Braced for a negative reaction, telling himself pushing her would only make matters worse, he quietly suggested handling this alone.
“Absolutely not.” She let out a big sigh. “It’s the jitters and I’m sorry about that. Just because I don’t want to see people partying while dogs tear into each other doesn’t mean you should go out there alone. I’m sure my imagination is making the whole scene worse than it really is.”
He let her hang on to the fantasy. Hell, maybe she was right, despite the contrary evidence of violence at the shelter. He wanted to thank her, but he bit back the words. Doing his job shouldn’t mean taking her into danger. And yet, doing his job without the normal support gave him no other operational choice.
“Thanks,” she said.
The gratitude from her startled him. “For what?”
“For not being serious about leaving me behind.”
“Sure thing,” he said, trying to smile.
“I won’t crack on you.”
“I believe you.” He slowed down, making the turn onto the highway that ran parallel to the coastline. “When we get there, I’ll check in with my credit card—”
“Which lets whoever may care know where we are.”
“Exactly. We’ll order room service and then go for a long walk on the beach.”
“Circling back to the car and heading out to the fight,” she said.
“It’s like you’ve done this before.”
“No. But I’ve thought long and hard about how to make a clean getaway.”
“Hmm. Let me guess, this train of thought resulted from your plans to crash a dogfight alone.”
“Pretty much,” she said. “I figured I could get in and out with some pictures, lay low for a week or two, then turn them in to the authorities.”
His mouth went dry at the idea of Lester’s men finding her. “I—” he cleared his throat. “I’m glad you didn’t do that.”
“I’ve only gone in afterward.”
“I beg your pardon? Gone in where?” He debated between driving on to keep her talking and stopping at the next low-budget place to have it out with her. “We are going to discuss this.”
“What’s the big deal?”
There were several, but he started with the obvious. “You didn’t tell me.”
“I have the pictures ready to go.”
“Where?”
“In a secure cloud storage,” she said. “It’s not like I had any assurance you’d take the files I gave you seriously. Don’t get mad,” she said. “You admitted that you didn’t at first.”
“I rushed it.” He bristled at her accusation. “Underestimating the number of people who would have noticed a problem within the park system is different from not taking you seriously.”
“Semantics.”
“Who put that big-ass chip on your shoulder?” And damned if he didn’t just pass the hotel he’d wanted to use. The woman got under his skin in ways that had no place during an investigation.
“It’s not a chip.”
He shot her a skeptical look while waiting at the next light to make a U-turn. “Boulder?”
She laughed and the tension filling the car burst like a bubble. “I’m strange and I know it,” she said. “I’m also capable of doing the hard stuff, despite being the baby of the family.”
