Page 15 of Counter Attack

“The ground is kind of rough. Can I walk with you?” he asked.

“I’d rather be alone.”

But before she could open the door, he hopped out and jogged around to her side of the truck. “At least let me help you get out.”

It was a long step to the ground. “Thanks.”

“The ground isn’t even, so I won’t use the step. We’ll try thisinstead,” he said, slipping his hands on either side of her waist to help her out of the truck.

Alex did not like it one bit the way her heart reacted. Again. Sure, she’d thought she was in love with Nathan Landry when they dated their senior year in high school. But that was then and this is now, and a romantic relationship wasn’t in her plans.

She turned toward the marker and wobbled as she took a step in the thick grass. Nathan steadied her before she could fall.

“Let me help you to the gravesite, and then I’ll come back to the truck. You can wave when you’re ready.”

She glanced up at him. When had he gotten so ... so intuitive? Alex smiled her thanks and leaned on his arm as they made their way to Rebecca’s grave. Just like he promised, he left her at the site and returned to the truck.

She looked at the granite marker and blinked back tears. The day Becky was buried, Alex had stood in this very spot and vowed to find her killer. But now that she was here, she couldn’t find the words to tell her friend that the person who’d killed her would never hurt anyone else.

At least she had peace about where Becky was. Alex had told her about Jesus, and she’d accepted him in her heart. They’d even worked through a short Bible study together. It was one reason Alex had been so hurt when she learned Becky had returned to the streets.

She felt her pockets for a tissue and came up empty. She knuckled the tears away. Maybe if Alex had tried harder to find Becky after she left the shelter ...

Pain stabbed her side from the bullet wound. Time to go, and she patted the headstone again before turning and waving to Nathan. Seconds later he was at her side, pressing a tissue into her hand.

“Thank you.” She blotted her eyes and then leaned heavilyon his arm until they were at the truck. He helped her into the seat and reached for the seat belt. “I can get it,” she said.

“Sure.”

A few minutes later they were back in Chattanooga traffic. “Feel better?” he asked.

“Not really. I wanted to tell her I’d caught the scumbag who killed her, but I ... I don’t know why but I couldn’t.”

“You don’t think George Smith is the Queen’s Gambit Killer?”

“I don’t know what I think, just that something doesn’t feel right. I guess it could be the aftermath of getting shot.”

Alex swayed as Nathan made a sharp turn, and she glanced around. “You’re not taking 27?”

“They’re repaving it. This is longer but probably won’t take as long.”

“Understood.” The state was always working on the roads around here. She leaned back against the seat again. “Sorry I’m not good company.”

He chuckled. “If I’d been shot and left with a collapsed lung, I wouldn’t be good company either.”

She’d missed the sound of his chuckle and the way he always put a positive spin on everything.

Briefly Nathan shifted his gaze from the road to her. “Your folks will be glad to see you.”

“How many texts have you gotten from Gram?”

“Oh, maybe three or four.”

“Or five or six,” she said dryly. She glanced out the window as they left the rolling valley of Chattanooga behind and climbed a ridge of the Cumberland Mountains that would take them to Russell County.

It wasn’t long before they topped the ridge, and she looked across the valley below. It’d be another month before the maples and hickory changed colors, but the poplar trees stood outagainst the dense green foliage like yellow butterflies. “Wow! I need to get out of Chattanooga more often.”

She’d gotten so used to seeing the mountains surrounding Chattanooga, it took seeing them from a different perspective to realize how beautiful they were. “I didn’t know the trees were already turning.”

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