Page 17 of Shadow of Doubt
Her words were filled with such emotion it almost closed his throat, and he couldn’t speak. He couldn’t let this moment get to him. He would have many more times like this to get through without breaking down, and he had to practice being strong for her in a way he’d never had to experience before.
His best bet was cracking a joke. “Hard not to be an awesome son when I’m overall awesome.”
She swatted a hand at him and chuckled.
He left her laughing and wished he could do that more often. He silently closed the door to the main bedroom that had an attached bathroom. No question that she would have the main suite while he and Dev shared the hallway bathroom. Now they would be sharing it with Brooklyn too. Hopefully, they could make that work.
He stepped into the family room with a wall-to-wall stone fireplace and a large taxidermy salmon mounted above a thick wooden mantle. All the rooms held the fishing décor of days gone by, when the cabin was rented out as part of the familyresort run by Barbie and Hank Maddox. Russ had lived here after the resort closed and never bothered to update the place other than the mattresses and living room furniture.
Brooklyn stood at the large picture window overlooking the lake. He approached.
She spun, and her eyes were wild before she connected gazes with him. Holding her phone to her ear, she let out a low breath. “Hold on, Nick. I have to finish this call in the bedroom.”
She looked at Colin. “Can you tell me where I’ll be bunking?”
“Down the hall, second door on the left.”
“Thank you.” She gave him a wobbly smile. “I’ll just finish up my call and be right back, if that’s okay with you.”
“Fine,” he said, not taking his eyes off her. “Just know that when you return, we’re going to have a long talk about what’s bothering you. And before you even consider it, don’t think I’ll let you get away without telling me what it is.”
5
Brooklyn stared out the bedroom window over a small clearing of lush grass to a forest of evergreen trees. She pressed her phone to her ear with Nick on the line. “And you’re sure it was Kane who put the bounty out on me?”
“He didn’t bother to hide it.” Nick’s disgust for Kane flowed through his words. “Seems like he’s losing patience and willing to take more risks to find you.”
The sun swept behind clouds, the dark sky ominous, maybe foretelling of Kane’s advances, and she shuddered. “Not good for me, but maybe he’ll get sloppy, and it’ll help me find him.”
“True, but what good will that do when we haven’t connected him to any crime? For you to be safe, we need him to be locked up.”
He had a point. If they couldn’t get Kane arrested, then did they really want to find him? Maybe. “I guess if we located him, we would know where he was at all times. Good for my safety, but also gives us a better chance at catching him doing something illegal.”
“True.” Nick dragged the word out, and she knew abutwas coming. “But then what? We can’t keep eyes on him twenty-four/seven for the rest of your life.”
She released the curtain and crossed the room. “Maybe we can somehow ferret out what he’s been up to.”
“How?”
Yeah, how? “Someone could go undercover and try to friend him, but he’s way too suspicious for anyone to succeed.”
“Agreed.”
“Maybe I need to let him find me. Tell him I’ve had a change of heart.”
“No! That’s not an option. Don’t even think it, much less do it. Promise me.”
She sighed but didn’t want to promise.
“Say it, Brooklyn, or I’ll drive back there and make you say it.”
“Fine, I promise.”
“And stay off the internet.”
“Easy for you to say. Try it sometime.”
He chuckled. “I’d rather not.”
