Page 83 of Storm Warning

“What are we doing?” she whispered.

“Someone was looking at our ride.”

“What?”

“I recognized him.”

Remi had been too preoccupied to notice. “John’s security detail?”

“I assumed he was. I saw him talking to two men standing outside John’s door, including Banks. But I could have gotten it all wrong.”

“What do you think he was doing?”

“If he’s with John’s team, then he could have been trying to make sure it was safe and no one had bothered it.”

“Or if he wasn’t with John’s team, he could have tampered with it.” She wouldn’t say the wordbomb.

John wanted her alive for the intelligence he suspected was hidden away in her brain. But someoneelsewanted her silenced for that same reason. Her pulse kicked into overdrive. “What are we going to do?”

“I’ll look it over.”

After making sure the guy was gone and no one else was lurking and watching, they rushed forward to the vehicle. Hawk checked beneath it—looking for a bomb or a tracker? She wasn’t sure. He gave her a thumbs-up.

What did that mean? He found something or he hadn’t found anything?

But when he opened the door for her, she knew it was all clear. She climbed in and Hawk shut the door. While he moved around to the driver’s side, she glanced at her cell to read a text that had just come through. Earlier, she’d texted Jo the burner phone number. Jo would receive it whenever she got a bar. Hawk wouldn’t be happy, but Remi couldn’t remain unreachable to her staff. She managed the lodge, after all. They hadn’t prepared for her sudden disappearance during the height of storm-watching season. So, she’d asked Jo to give her updates, and finally Remi got one. She quickly read the text.

What could it mean?

Hawk opened the door and climbed into the driver’s seat. “I sent Gordo a text letting him know we’re on our way.”

He started the vehicle and adjusted the temperature,then just stared at the rearview mirror. No shifting gears into reverse. No backing up.

“What are we waiting for?”

“I’m thinking.”

And he was watching. What would she do if she didn’t have Hawk with her in this? She shuddered to think of going through this alone. But she’d been followed before and had disappeared on her own, or so she had thought. Maybe being alone would make it easier to go completely off-grid. Then again, she would not choose that for herself. Besides, she really liked Hawk more than she should, and maybe she was getting much too close to him for her own good. But this involved his brother. She owed it to him to let him make that decision, that call, for them to go their separate ways whenever that needed to happen.

With the thought, she realized how much time she’d given up and the relationships she’d avoided. She’d avoided romance, declined invitations to dinner because she couldn’t afford to get too involved. Her proximity to Hawk screamed that reminder every day she was with him. And she’d given up much more than relationships all because she’d taken a picture of Sergei.

That her need to see the world and expand her horizons—write a travel blog—had landed her in Hidden Bay, hiding from the world, was pure irony.

But if she had to hide, she couldn’t think of a better place.

The one thing she had going for her was that no one except Hawk knew what she knew, but evidently it was enough tosuspectshe held on to those secrets. Still, she could keep playing dumb about the events until the time was right to share.

She stared out of the parking garage at the constant rain.

Finally, Hawk backed out of the slot and steered slowly through the busy garage. Hospital staff both exited andentered the facility. Afternoon shift-change time. Patients and their caregivers walked slowly to their cars or entered the hospital. Had he simply been waiting for the activity in the garage to pick up before they exited? Behind a line of departing cars, Hawk turned out of the parking garage onto the street, went through a light, and then merged onto the freeway choked with heavy traffic. They hadn’t discussed where they would go so she could be safe while waiting to hear from John, but she had an idea.

He swerved out of the way of a vehicle switching lanes. “I never liked the traffic here.”

“How about we get lost in the rainforest?” She chuckled.I sound hysterical.

“Funny. I think I’ve had enough of traipsing through the cold woods during this storm system. Let’s not do it again.”

Yeah, she didn’t want to land there either. She was so tired of running and hiding. “Hawk, I know what to do.”

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