Page 20 of Shadow of Hope
“I won’t run.” She fled the area, hurrying down the path to her tent. She ripped up the zipper and dropped onto her sleeping bag. Pulling up her legs, she wrapped her arms around them. This man terrified her, yet at the same time, his strength and convictions exhilarated her.
No matter her feelings about him, her future was in his hands.
He would do the right thing in the end, she suspected. Meaning this could be her last few hours of freedom.
Micha shifted on his sleeping bag. The sun filtered a reddish light at the horizon. Forecasters predicted a beautiful day, but would it be? He still didn’t know yet. Didn’t know what he planned to do about that woman just on the other side of a thin nylon wall, his thoughts fixed on her for hours.
He hadn’t slept the rest of the night and was tired. Maybe cranky. He’d been more tired in the past, and he would try not to let his fatigue factor into his decision making. But this monumental decision was weighing on him. Heavy. A woman’s potential freedom depended on him.
He also couldn’t let his attraction to her factor in the decision, but how did he pull that out of the equation? He liked her. More than that. Would like to get to know her. He thought she liked him, too. Ditto on getting to know him if she wasn’t running from the law.
“Hah!” How had his life come to the point where he was considering dating a woman who was wanted by the law? Plain craziness. He was as straight as the proverbial arrow when it came to the law. He’d worked too many years upholding and enforcing it to suddenly change, hadn’t he?
But he believed her story. Believed the cookie dough wasn’t meant to kill but to bring joy to a dying woman. Maybe a badly misplaced idea, but one done out of love.
Still, accidental death or not, he could see charges being brought for involuntary manslaughter, and she would not only serve time, she would never practice as a nurse again.
And if she ran? She couldn’t practice as a nurse then either. So at least he wouldn’t be ruining that part of her life.
Movement sounded from inside her tent, and the zipper came up, the ripping sound ringing through the morning quiet. She stepped out carrying a toiletry bag.
She flashed her gaze to him.
The vulnerability he saw there cut him to the core. He couldn’t be responsible for sending her to prison for something she’d intended for this woman’s good. But what if the dough hadn’t killed this woman? What if someone wanted to murder her? Her son, maybe. He didn’t know if the police would look into things or just assume she was guilty, and he couldn’t let a woman’s potential murder go unsolved either.
He stood. Looked her in the eye. “If you promise to stick by my side, I won’t turn you in.”
“You won’t?” Tears glistened in her eyes.
“No, but you stay with me so I can make sure you’re safe. And we get my team involved in investigating Holly’s death to see if it might’ve been the cookie dough or if someone else wanted to end her life.”
She swiped her free hand over her eyes. “You think they’ll agree to that?”
“I can convince them to help. But if we do our very best and don’t turn up another viable explanation for her death, then you’ll agree to turn yourself in.”
She nibbled on her lip. A very kissable lip.
Stop thinking that way. Will only get yourself in trouble, especially if this thing goes south.
He held out his hand. “I think of a handshake as a verbal contract, so shake on it.”
She clasped his hand. He expected touching her to set fire to his emotions. It did, but not in the way he expected. The icy cold fingers spoke to her fear, and the touch raised a chill instead.
“We should find a secluded place to talk about our next investigative steps, and I can get my team working on it.”
“But we’ll stay out here at the campsite?”
“For now. I don’t like it, but I have an obligation to finish the class. That said, I’ll see if one of the other guys can take over for me.”
“Thank you, Micha.” She rested a hand on his forearm. “I mean it. You can’t imagine how relieved I am.”
“Since we’re both up early, we should take advantage of the time alone and plan.”
“Okay.” She dropped her bag into her tent and grabbed a down vest. “I guess I can clean up afterward.”
Did she really think cleaning up was more important than staying free? Surely not. Maybe he was placing too much emphasis on the disappointment expressed in herI guesspart.
He glanced at his tent. “I need to grab something. Come with me and then we can go look at that catapult to see if we can get a lead on who might’ve placed it there.”
