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“I’ll come as far as the front door,” Shelby said. “Someone has to have your back.”
He chuckled. “How are you going to have my back when you don’t even have a gun?”
She frowned. “I need to fix that. I have my personal handgun in a gun safe in my house. I’ll get it out as soon as I get home and start carrying it. For now, though, at least I can warn you if someone comes up on you from behind.”
“True. My lookout.” He reached for her hand, gripped it tightly and pulled her up onto the dock.
She leaned into him until she got her balance, still a little shaky. Shelby hated being weak.
As a law enforcement female, she’d worked hard to be in top physical condition. Her training in the police academy had given her some self-defense skills, which she’d built on and improved by taking additional self-defense classes. She liked to think she could hold her own against a male attacker, even one who was stronger and outweighed her by a hundred pounds.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to defend herself when she’d been in a coma. She studied the man in front of her, admitting, if only to herself, that she was glad he’d come all the way from Montana to protect her.
Remy eased up to the window, his hand slipping beneath his jacket to the handgun tucked in the holster. He glanced through the dirty glass into the hut. “It’s too dark inside to see anything from out here.” He wrapped his hand around the doorknob and turned it.
The door opened inward.
“Apparently, J.D. doesn’t lock his fishing hut,” Shelby said.
“It’s not breaking and entering if the door is unlocked, is it?” Remy said with a wink.
“You’re walking a very gray line,” Shelby said.
“I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.” Remy stepped through the door, disappearing into the dark interior of the tiny hut.
He appeared in the doorway. “Are you coming in?”
“Against my better judgment,” she muttered and stepped past him. For a long moment, she stood just inside the door, allowing her vision to adjust to the limited light making it through the dingy window.
“Now that you’re inside, does anything look familiar?” Remy spoke softly. He stood so close she could feel the warmth of his breath stirring the hair by her temple.
A shiver of awareness skimmed across her skin. She moved deeper into the hut. Away from Remy and the way he made her body tingle.
She stood in the middle of the one-room shack, turning slowly, her gaze taking in the tiny table, a chair, a bed in the corner, and the thin mattress folded in half. A shadowy image faded in and out of her memory so quickly, it didn’t take form and reveal itself. “I feel like, maybe, I might have been here.” She stopped turning when she faced Remy, a frown pulling at her forehead. “It’s like little ghosts teasing me with fleeting manifestations. Then they’re gone.”
Remy met her gaze, his eyes narrowed, jaw tight. “What kind of manifestation?”
“Nothing solid. Just movement.”
Remy’s blue eyes flared. “Movement like another person in the hut with you?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. Again, nothing I could define.” Once more, her gaze swept the small room. “I don’t see any evidence that this hut has been used as a drug trafficking drop.”
“Agreed.” Remy gave the hut one last glance and sighed. “It’s basic and unrefined, but I can see its charm. And for all its weathered wood, it’s sturdy. I bet it holds up well in a storm.” He shot a glance toward her.
Shelby nodded. “It must hold up well. It looks like it’s been here for a long time.”
Again, Remy sighed. “Ready?”
Shelby nodded though she wasn’t sure just how ready she was to see the place she’d almost been killed. Would she have a visceral reaction to seeing her boat lying upside down in the water?
The only way to find out was to face the inevitable and get it over with. The longer they took to get there, the more wound up she’d be. The anticipation was terrible.
Remy stepped to the side to allow her to pass.
Her shoulder brushed against him, sending a jolt of electricity through her. At that moment, another ghost of a memory flitted through her mind. Not so much like a picture. More like a feeling, as if being held in someone’s arms. She stopped moving, closed her eyes and waited, hoping for more.
But as quickly as it had surfaced, it dove back behind the wall in her mind.
