Page 123 of Coff

Well,it isn’t what I expected, but as long as we’re safe, that’s what matters. When Harding said she had a place for us to hide out, I assumed it would be a safe house or apartment.

Nope. We are staying in the bunkhouse of a rancher friend of hers in Northern California. An unused bunkhouse and I can see why. There are four sets of bunk beds, all in one room, one bathroom, and a kitchenette. I guess the good thing is we don’t have to fight for who gets top or bottom bunk.

I’m curious how she knows of this place since she’s based out of Seattle, and this appears so far in the middle of nowhere that I can’t imagine she had an assignment near here.

Ozzie volunteered to stay with us, and Reed agreed. And as much as I wish I had some private time with Delaney, I know that won’t happen with Brian and Ozzie here, too.

Hell, sleep might be hard to come by if last night is any indication. My brother snored so loud, but then it could be due to the fact that his nose was broken by Ruiz.

After getting checked out by a doctor in that building Harding had us in, it was confirmed he had one broken rib, a broken nose, and was lucky not to have internal bleeding. I’m not sure how they determined the last one, but hell, maybe they have an MRI stashed in their offices somewhere.

Ozzie’s bed creaks as he gets up. “Holy shit, it’s cold in here.” He goes to the wood-burning stove and shoves in a log.

That’s another thing. That stove is our only heat source, and since no one woke in the middle of the night to fuel it, we’re now freezing our asses off. We’ve only been here one night, and I shouldn’t complain since I’ve stayed in worse.

“Why is it so cold?” Delaney asks, the shivering coming through her voice.

I grab my blanket and go to her bed. She scoots over and allows me to crawl in with her. I wrap my arms around her and pull her up against me. I would have shared a bed with her last night, but these are twin beds, and the odds of one of us getting pushed off the bed were high.

“Because no one put wood in here last night,” Ozzie says as he puts in another log. Then he runs back to his bed and wraps himself in his blanket. “Give it a few minutes and it will be toasty in here again.

Brian snores through our entire conversation. The guy probably needs his sleep to heal.

“You think we’ll hear something today?” Ozzie asks.

“It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours,” I respond.

Ozzie sighs. “I wonder if they have any games here.”

We arrived here late last night and went straight to bed after we got the heat going. I glance around the small space from Delaney’s bed.

“I don’t see any, but maybe they have a deck of cards in a drawer.”

Ozzie holds up his phone. “The guys want to FaceTime. You up for it?”

“It’s early.”

He laughs. “Not in New York.”

I don’t want to move from this spot next to Delaney. “We never FaceTime on assignments unless it’s important.”

Ozzie laughs. “Guess you’re forgetting about that time in Texas.”

I groan. I had forgotten about it. We got trapped in a small office building for a week. The place was closed for the holidays, thankfully. But we got so bored we finally began chatting with the guys just for entertainment.

“Fine, but tell them in five minutes. We need heat first.”

“Will do.”

I pull Delaney closer, and she wraps her leg around mine. “If we get out of here—”

“When,” I correct her.

She nods. “Whenwe get out of here, I don’t want to work for Manzia Construction anymore. After Nelson died, Duke said we needed to keep up appearances for a while, but I can’t go back. Not to that house or that job.”

I sit up and look her in the eyes. “What are you saying? Are you willing to move to New York?”

I shrug. “I’m not sure I’m ready for that yet.” Her hands go to my chest. “I’m just trying to figure out what to do next.”

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