Page 59 of Valor

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Heather kepther thoughts to herself as Allen took her back to the police station. In her coat pocket, she clutched the thumb drive. That was the only possible connection to her father she had, and she wasn’t about to give it up.

“We should go back to my house if that note is still there. I want a picture of what it says.”

Allen glanced over at her, the dashboard lights creating an eerie glow over his angled features. “It’s in evidence. I can get a picture of it. Why?”

She took a deep breath. They’d focused most of their attention on the threat in the note, not the other information. There had been numbers listed that looked like coordinates. “I want to look up what those numbers mean.”

“I have my men looking into all of that. They didn’t find anything yet.” He sounded a little put out that she would question him. Given how her father felt about him, she understood why.

“Look, I’m not trying to step on your toes or get in the way of your men. I want to find my father. End of story. Am I to a point where I trust you? Maybe. You saved my life when you could’ve shoved me toward the door with the thumb drive and no one would’ve known what happened to me. It’s not like we let anyone know where I would be.” She adjusted her watch back and forth until it felt more comfortable on her wrist.

“Your trust is appreciated, however begrudging. I know how hard that can be. I saw you carrying signs with your father, so I know you probably feel the same way he does. It doesn’t matter. You’re still under my jurisdiction, which means I don’t want anything to happen to you. Just so you know, two of my men knew where you’d be. I’ll give you their names if you want them. I don’t think either of them are a part of this, but if it makes you trust me more, I’ll do that.”

She wasn’t naïve enough to think that the offer to give up department information was common. He really wanted her trust. “Unless it happens again, I’ll assume these creeps somehow followed us. I don’t like the idea that someone on your team might be trying to kill me.” Not only did that give her a massively uneasy stomach, but it would also make hiding from them impossible unless she left the safety of Allen’s protection. So far, trust or not, she was safest with him.

He tapped the steering wheel as he drove down the deserted road. He’d left his father back at his house with one of the officers who was checking the damage and looking for evidence. His father hadn’t seemed concerned in the slightest about the broken window. He’d stumbled to the room she’d planned to use and closed the door before they’d left.

“I thought your dad rarely came by.” She’d heard her father and Oliver talking about Allen’s dad. He was a drunk, though apparently harmless. He knew to get rides from friends after he’d been drinking, but that was all she knew about the man.

“He shows up when he needs a place to stay for a day or two. We have the talk about how he should sober up and start coming to church. He grumbles at me, then leaves. It’s a pretty consistent cycle.”

Her dad had suffered after losing Mom and he’d turned to drinking for a very short time. She’d confronted him and his shame had forced him to throw the bottles away. That was different though, because her father had only been drinking for a brief time, not a lifetime.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“You sound like you didn’t know.” Allen pulled to a stop in front of the police department.

“I knew he drank because of what I’d heard, but I didn’t know anything else. I’m not up to date on my Wall gossip.” Heat burned her ears. He’d probably been trampled by the gossip train enough and here she was, bringing it back up.

“I’d assumed you were aware, given your feelings about my election.” He turned off the engine, then the headlights.

“I had no feelings on the matter. I was supporting my father, who feels deeply about drinking and fornication. He’s a good man. If he says I have reason to want someone else in that position, then I believe him.” Though that hadn’t gone as far as the actual voting booth. While Allen’s lack of a mother didn’t mean anything bad had happened, Dad had hinted that was the reason.

“You had no feelings on the matter. How could you not if you voted against me?”

She laughed, not that what he said was funny but because that’s how she dealt with confrontation. “I didn’t vote at all. After helping Dad with his campaign against you, I was run ragged, not to mention all the shoots I had during that time. I would never vote in an election where I couldn’t do my own research. Just because I helped hold signs doesn’t mean I hold enough of an opinion to vote that way.”

Control of every muscle made him look like a statue in the near darkness. “What if other people thought you did? What if you changed minds just because people trustyou?” He held completely still and stared ahead.

“I’m sorry for that. As of today, I’m glad you won.”

Allen snorted. “I’m sure Chase Brown would’ve helped you just as much. He was actually a pretty good cop. I wanted to win, but the county wouldn’t have done worse if he’d been elected.” Allen got out of the car and pushed the door closed.

Before he could come around, she got out and gathered her belongings from the back seat. She met him at the front and, without asking, he took the two heaviest bags from her, then headed for the keypad entrance. “Where will we go?” She shivered in the chilly breeze.

“I’m not sure yet. I’m going to check in with dispatch and see if anything else is going on. If not, then I’ll use an unmarked car to take us to one of the summer rentals around Wall. They shouldn’t be in use right now and the county will cover it so you can hide. Might be chilly though, they rarely have heat.”

Her chest tightened. “What about you?” They knew where he lived now. He shouldn’t assume they were only after her when they’d gone to his house and shot through his back window.

“I’ll be there with you. Dad will take care of Jasper while we’re gone. Without me there to pester him about his habits, he’ll probably stay. He might even fix the window if he gets a mind to.” Allen’s long stride made her rush to keep up.

“And the drive?” she whispered as she noticed the cameras along the hallway documenting their arrival.

“I’d like to know what’s on it too. I just hope that it won’t corrupt whatever computer we use. It might have a virus embedded on it. That’s how cyber threats spread, and secrets are kept. If there’s a virus, you’d have a few seconds to put in a code to disable the corruption before it hacks your computer.”

She certainly couldn’t afford a new one with what she made as a photographer. They’d already need to repair Dad’s, so she couldn’t take the risk of destroying her own. “What do you recommend?”

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