Page 22 of The Scenic Route
“Yeah.” His voice was low but it was endlessly reassuring to hear. “You dropping warned me.”
“Glad to…” Her breath caught as a particularly sharp twinge bit into her ankle. “Glad to be of assistance,” she managed to get out.
“Need me to carry you?”
“No.” The thought of being slung over Bennett’s broadshoulder as he hauled her to safety was both horrifying and weirdly tempting. “No.” The secondnowas more for the weak part of her brain rather than for him.
“Let me know if you change your mind.” He didn’t have any doubt in his tone, which braced her. If he thought she could make it under her own power to the car, then she would make it. His belief in her lent her confidence.
Despite her bolstered faith in herself, her ankle still really hurt. The remaining trek back to the car seemed endless. When she saw the small flashes of light appear in front of her, her clenched jaw eased slightly. The fireflies distracted her a little from her pain and fear.
They were almost on top of the car before it appeared out of the darkness, and Felicity couldn’t hold back the tiniest sob of relief. Without asking, she headed for the passenger seat.
Once they were both in the car, Bennett started the engine.
“You don’t mind driving, do you?” she asked belatedly. After everything that’d just happened, she could see herself driving the pair of them right into a ditch.
“No.” He sent a quick but searching look her way. “How’s the ankle?”
“Painful.” She didn’t see any reason to lie.
In the glow of the dashboard lights, she saw Bennett wince at her answer. His face was definitely relaxing since the first time she’d met him. Maybe he was starting to feel comfortable around her. Maybe he was starting to like her. Maybe—
Reining in her stampeding thoughts, she forced herself to focus on the main issue at hand. “Did someone shoot at us?”
His nod was short and grim.
“From where? The roof?” She ran through the scene in her mind. The compound was a single-story building, and everything around it had been flat. It was dark, but the bullet had hit the ground by her feet. Her skin went clammy as she realized just how close she’d come to getting really hurt—or even killed. “Thanks for getting me out of there.”
His nod was a bit stiffer than usual, and she found his awkwardness endearing. Immediately, she pushed the thought from her mind. Now was not the time—if there was a good time—for getting all mushy about her former stalker. Well, now herlifesavingstalker, but still.
He turned off the narrow gravel track onto a slightly wider county road.
“The roof wouldn’t have been high enough,” she said, answering her own question as she thought about the maps and photos of the area she’d gone over earlier. “Oh!” She blamed her still-present shock for her taking so long to make the connection. “They’ve turned that old fire lookout into a watchtower.”
Bennett dipped his chin in a nod.
“I figured that thing would be halfway to falling down.” She was a little disgruntled that she hadn’t thought of the fire tower immediately. Of course the militia would have someone standing watch. “It hasn’t been used in fifty years.”
She took his grunt as agreement.
With a sigh, she accepted that she’d been careless and moved on. “My phone lit up right before that first shot. I hadit silenced, but they must’ve spotted the light from the screen. Sorry for almost getting us killed.”
“Not your fault.” He seemed to be taking their brush with death quite calmly. “Could’ve just as easily been my phone.”
She wondered who’d be calling him. His client wanting an update on his hunt for the necklace? A friend wondering where he’d disappeared to? A girlfriend? A wife? She swallowed through a suddenly tight throat and once again forced her thoughts into a different direction. Pulling out the culprit of her almost death, she saw she’d missed a call from Charlie.
Needing a bit of normalcy—well, as much normalcy as Charlie could offer—she called her sister back.
“How’re the mountains?” Charlie answered in her usual way, diving right in as if they were just continuing a conversation from another day.
Felicity tried to think of a concise way to describe the utterly wild day she’d just had. “Interesting.”
“Hmm…” Charlie hummed. “Interesting in a near-death kind of way?”
With a blink, Felicity glanced at her phone screen before returning it to her ear. “Are you psychic?”
“No, but Iamglad you’re alive. Any injuries?”
