Page 26 of Valor

Troubling to consider they could be heading into a trap.

As if reading his mind, Emily whispered, “Maybe we sit inside the truck for a while.”

Checking his watch, he silently acknowledged that wasn’t a bad idea. It was two in the morning. A good two to three hours from dawn. They weren’t that far from the Elk Horn Lodge, yet if someone walked through the woods toward them, they stood a better chance of escaping via the vehicle. He could just start it up and bulldoze out of there.

“Okay, we’ll wait inside.” He stood and moved toward the passenger-side door. The interior dome light flashed on, but he gestured for Emily to bring Bear. Once she and the puppy were settled in the seat, he grabbed the bag of dog food and the doggy dish, setting them on the floor of the back seat. Then he slid in behind the wheel.

“I wish I still had my phone.” Emily sighed. “If that was Doug driving by, he could come back to pick us up.”

He hoped she meant her and Bear, not Owen. He grimaced. “I couldn’t take the risk the bad guys would find us again.”

“Okay, but I still don’t see how a bunch of drug dealers could track my cell phone. Especially since the signal isn’t that strong out here.” She looked exasperated. “I barely had two bars at the cabin.”

“I don’t know, Emily.” He didn’t like feeling defensive. “How else can we explain how the gunman was creeping toward your cabin? We weren’t followed. The guy had to have identified you as being there somehow.”

“Process of elimination?” She sighed and rested her head back against the seat. “None of this makes any sense. I’m no threat to these men.”

He looked away. She wasn’t a threat, but she could be used to get to him. If the guy he’d wounded outside the cabin had gotten to Emily, and she couldn’t help him, he suspected the response would have been to either hold her hostage until they could find him. Or kill her.

Likely both.

“You’re in this mess because of me. Because my team kidnapped you to care for my wound.” He dragged his hands over his stubbled cheeks. “But you won’t be in danger once I eliminate the guy in charge of the operation.”

“Eliminate how?”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me.” Emily grabbed his arm. “Killing in self-defense or in defending another person is one thing. Tracking a guy down to murder him in cold blood is very different.”

He didn’t answer. Slouching in his seat, he kept his gaze trained on the road. The lack of headlights from other vehicles should have been reassuring.

But it wasn’t.

How many bad guys did Hernandez or the possible law enforcement leak have out there looking for him? The way these guys were tracking down Emily first at her house then again here in the mountains convinced him either DEA Agent Colin Granger was dirty or the Denver cop Will Minor was. Unless Juan Sanchez and Domingo Hernandez had found a way to up their game.

She was right that it would take someone with juice to track her phone. Not to mention figuring out he’d recuperated at the Double D Ranch to eliminate the retired couple who were also no threat.

He clenched his jaw. The only man who should be dead is Hernandez and whoever was working with him. Not Doc and Dee.

And certainly not Emily.

“Please, Owen,” she whispered, breaking into his thoughts. “Please don’t do this. Let’s work with my brother. I know he’ll do everything in his power to help you.”

“Can he bring my brother Oliver back from the dead?” He turned to glare at her. “Yeah, I didn’t think so. I’m not turning myself in, Emily. So you can stop asking.”

“I didn’t know your brother died.” Her voice was soft. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

He let out a harsh laugh. “There’s a lot about me you don’t know.”

“Okay, so tell me.” Her voice held a pleading tone. “Help me understand how you got here.”

It was tempting to dump his life’s story in her lap. But what was the point? She would only use whatever he told her as ammunition to convince him to go straight.

As if that was really a possibility.

“It doesn’t matter how I got here.” He glanced at his watch again. “All that matters is that Hernandez killed my brother, and I’m not going to stop until I take him down.”

She was quiet for so long, he thought he’d finally convinced her to drop it. But she didn’t. “Revenge isn’t going to bring Oliver back. And somehow, I don’t for one minute believe your brother would want you to risk your soul by killing on his behalf.”

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