Page 20 of Shadow of Doubt
In the fading light of day, Colin turned onto Shadow Lake Survival’s heavily wooded driveway. He couldn’t wait to get home, eat dinner, and kick back until bedtime. The class participants had asked question after question, each a personal thing they needed to eliminate on the internet, and he’d put them off by promising to look into it and jotting down a note to remind himself to do so. Still, it took valuable time when he could actually be eliminating the items.
And he was going to have that talk with Brooklyn. He prayed he could be tactful and not scare her off before they got started. A few times during the drive, he’d considered not bringing it up, but his gut told him to do so and his gut never failed him.
He reached the end of the drive and slammed on his brakes.
Say what?A vehicle he didn’t recognize was parked at the gate, engine running. Colin eased his SUV closer. The driver’s door opened.
A man stepped out and marched, head down, toward Colin.
Colin reached for his sidearm. The man stepped into a bright headlight beam. The light washed over his face.
Nick.It was Nick.
Colin let out a breath and released his weapon to lower his window. “What are you doing here?”
He scowled. “Something important has come up, and I need to talk to Brooklyn.”
Colin didn’t like the sound of that. “Couldn’t you call?”
“It’s not a calling kind of thing.”
Colin eyed the guy. “What’s going on that you’re not telling me about?”
“Let’s head to the cabin, and we can discuss it there.”
Colin didn’t want to wait, but he would respect Nick’s wishes. “Step back, and I’ll get out to open the gate for you.”
Nick backed up a few steps. “Glad to hear you won’t share your passcode for the gate with me. Some guys might, and that’s how security fails.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you.” Colin pressed past him and hurried to the gate.
“You shouldn’t trust anyone when it comes to sharing passcodes or passwords.”
“I work in the same field, remember? So I get it.” Colin tapped in his code, and the gate swung open.
“Sorry. I’ll get off my soapbox now, but people don’t take this seriously enough. Or they use one password for everything. Odds are good one of their accounts has been compromised and their email and password for sale on the dark web. So they’re just asking for their other accounts to be hacked.”
“Trust me, I get it,” Colin said again, knowing at times he’d participated in a similar rant.
“See you at the cabin.” Nick climbed back into his SUV. He pulled through the gate.
Colin rushed back to his SUV so he could get onto the property before the gate closed.
He tailed Nick to the cabin and was out in a flash, then up to the door in front of Nick. No way was he going to miss a second of the conversation with Brooklyn. He stepped inside. She sat on the sofa alone, watching an old black and white movie on the television. Her head raised, and fear lit in her eyes.
“Colin. Oh. Good.” She clicked the remote for the TV, and the screen went black. “You scared me with the way you barreled in here.”
Nick stepped into the room.
“Nick.” She lurched to her feet. “What are you doing here?”
He stormed across the room to her. “I have urgent news.”
She looked at Colin. “Could we possibly talk alone?”
“No,” Colin said. “I want to know what you’re hiding from me.”
“I…” She peered at Nick.
