Page 78 of Storm Warning

It was their best next step, unless they wanted to retrieve the device themselves, but she wouldn’t touch that with the proverbial ten-foot pole. That would be foolish and dangerous. Knowing the location was already too much. She appreciated that Hawk had never pressured her aboutwherethe device had been hidden.

Over the next hour, she finished up her laundry but stayed in the sweats. She found Hawk at the table on his laptop, his expression dark as he worked.

“Anything from John?” she asked.

He looked up from the laptop and shook his head.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to take a nap.”

“I think that’s a good idea. Honestly, I don’t think we’ll hear anything from John or find anything out today. It’s too soon. We’ll plan on staying here for the night. Get some rest. Eat leftover lasagna for dinner.” He grinned.

And she smiled in return, then headed for bed, hoping she could put the events of the day, and her memories, out of her mind and get some rest.

Lord, please let this be over soon.

She was beyond done with this metaphorical storm and ready to get to the lodge she called home. At Cedar Trails, her only concern was for her guests, and she found hope and inspiration in the beauty of God’s creation and the power of the waves during the storms. She longed for the calm that came after.

Because right now, her mind was spinning with catastrophic images and morbid memories.

A helicopter crash.

Sergei Petrov dead.

The special forces team dead.

Murdered?

All Remi could think about was ridding herself of this burden. In her job in the Army, she worked to take pictures and present a positive image of the good guys doing their jobs.

Why had Sergei shared so much? Why had she let him? Now in her head she carried around military secrets that dangerous men wanted and that could pose a national threat. Inside, she was screaming. She should have known better than to get involved with a stranger on the run from gunmen, but she had. There was no returning from that decision. And she’d needed to know what kind of trouble she was in by helping a stranger. The gunmencould have been sent to make sure that Sergei didn’t defect with his country’s most important military secrets. From his government’s point of view, Sergei was a bad guy. A traitor. She wasn’t sure if they had been informed of his death.

She hadn’t realized the knowledge would end up putting her in so much danger even two years later. Then again, the information in the right hands could save people. She had a responsibility to deliver it.

After an entire hour of trying to fall asleep—because her body said she needed it, but her mind refused—she crawled out of bed. Remi found Hawk still sitting at the table.

He looked up from his laptop. “Did you get some rest?”

“No.” Remi sank into the comfy sofa. No wonder Hawk wanted her to sleep on the bed. The sofa was better.

And the next thing Remi knew, she woke up ... on the sofa. She laid her arm over her eyes. She got the distinct impression she’d taken a very long nap, when she hadn’t meant to fall asleep at all. She peeked out from under her arm when she sensed that Hawk stood over her.

“What ... is dinner ready?”

“You missed it. We’re eating leftover lasagna for breakfast. That okay?”

“What?” She sat up. “I slept through the night?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I tried.”

“You didn’t try hard enough.”

“Well, full disclosure, I didn’t try at all. I let you sleep. You needed it.”

“Did you take the bed, then?”

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