Page 22 of Owen

“Name’s Owen, and I’ve been working with Sophie,” he said. “I get that you’re nervous cuz you don’t know me. But just give me ten minutes. After that I’ll leave you alone.” Razor hesitated like he was thinking about it, so Owen went on. “Sophie told you I’m not a cop, and that’s the truth. I don’t care what you’ve done, man. I’m just after Wilson. And if you were smart, you’d want him out of the way, too.”

Owen let that hang, hoping the guy would see the logic in Owen’s argument.

“Fuck you!” the guy yelled and shoved hard on the door, trying to force Owen out.

Okay, so not smart. Big surprise. Owen held his ground, his temper spiking. This was the dumbass who had slashed his tires—all his tires—and put Sophie at risk. He might forgive him the tires but not the threat to Sophie.

“What’s happening?” Sophie asked.

Owen ignored her. “Listen, dickhead, you’re screwing with the wrong guy,” he said. “I’m a pissed off Navy SEAL. You slashed my tires and you’ve done nothing but yank Sophie’s chain and waste her time. That doesn’t sit right with me. So do the damn interview because I’m not coming back here again to talk to your sorry ass.”

“Sweet talk him,” Sophie pleaded. “You’re blowing this.”

“You better not come back, or I’ll carve your ass up.” The guy drew out a knife and pointed it at Owen through the crack in the door. Before Razor could slice Owen with the blade, he yanked his foot back, letting the door slam. This interview wasn’t worth getting cut over, especially when it was clear that the guy wasn’t going to tell him anything. With all his sense on alert for an attack, Owen made his way outside.

“Christ,” Owen muttered to himself, forgetting that Sophie was still on the line, as he stomped off to his truck.

“Is it over?” Sophie asked.

“Yeah. It’s over for good,” he said, knowing she was going to be ticked. “Consider this lead cold.”

The line went dead, which didn’t surprise him. He and Sophie would have to fight this out when he got back to the retreat. But no matter what she said or how mad she got, he wasn’t giving way. She was not meeting with that guy. Ever. No story was worth her life, and Razor’s behavior was dangerous.

Owen put his truck in gear and nosed into traffic. His thoughts pinged between two very different versions of Sophie. The pissed off one he expected to encounter when he returned to the cabin and the woman he’d held in his arms last night during their kiss.

He’d enjoyed their New Year’s Eve kiss three years ago, but it paled in comparison to what they’d shared in the main lodge. That kiss had been off the charts even more than he’d expected it would be.

And when she’d said that he was hers, it had gone straight through him like an arrow. It wouldn’t have taken much for him to act on that. She’d been the one to put on the brakes, and she was probably wise to do so. Knowing that didn’t change his desire for her, neither did knowing that she was going to blast him with her anger as soon as she saw him again.

Just as he expected, Sophie rounded on him as soon as he walked into their cabin. “How could you blow that so badly?”she demanded.

Her face was flushed, and her oversized sweatshirt had slipped from one shoulder, revealing the thin strap of a pink camisole. She looked annoyed, flummoxed, and gorgeous. Probably not the right time to mention that last one.

“Soph—”

“People like you,” she cut him off. “You can be charming so easily. You do itall the time. So why did you give up trying to win him over so quickly? You went straight to threatening him, and I can’t understand why. You had to know that you weren’t going to get him to open up that way.” Her hands were on her hips as she faced him.

“The guy’s a criminal. No amount of charm was going to get through to him or form a bond between us.” That had been obvious to Owen within seconds of meeting the drug lieutenant.

But Sophie didn’t seem willing to see the truth of that. “Maybe, but you didn’t even try. I wasn’t asking you to become his new best friend, just get some answers out of him. Hewaswilling to talk, or he wouldn’t have agreed to meet with me in the first place. There were things he wanted to say—he just needed you to meet him halfway. I’ve gotten some tough customers to tell me their secrets because they thought I was sympathetic to them. It can work. But you barely even tried.”

At that, he started to feel a little guilty. Yeah, the guy was a scumbag, but maybe he could have tried harder to get him to talk. He knew how much it meant to Sophie. And it would definitely be useful to get some new leads in the investigation. She wouldn’t be safe until they were able to find some real evidence to nail Wilson with.

“The guy’s been going back and forth on whether he’ll tell you anything for days now,” he argued back, trying to restore his confidence in his choice to blow the interview off. “And for all that he talks about you trying to trap him, I’m still not convinced that he wasn’t trying to trapyou. For all we know, he was pissed off at me because he was hoping to get his hands on you and turn you over to Wilson. It might not have made a difference what I said.”

She just shook her head. “Maybe so. But maybe not—and now we’ll never know for sure.”

Damn. She had him there. But arguing over whether or not the guy was a good source wouldn’t get them anywhere. For better or for worse, the door seemed shut on getting any info from Razor. His choices had landed him in hot water with Sophie, though. He didn’t like that, so he thought of the techniques they’d learned about communicating for your partner better. They weren’t a couple, but he figured it could work anyway.

“Let’s try some de-escalation strategy,” he suggested, which earned him an eyeroll.

“Just don’t. I’m too frustrated to have that conversation with you.” She walked to the cabin door and whipped it open. “I need a minute.”

He expected her to stalk off into the woods. If she did that, he’d have to follow her to make sure she was safe. She surprised him by taking a seat on the cabin’s small porch. He stood in the doorway, watching her as she closed her eyes and tipped her head back to rest against the rounded logs.

He’d never seen her so still. She was usually in motion, thinking and talking. But at the moment, the only movement on her was the changing expression on her face as she seemed to be reviewing it all in her head.

He went back inside, giving her time, mentally preparing himself to defend his choices again when she came back in. He kept himself busy by checking his email, hoping something valuable would come back from the background checks he had running. Nothing new showed, so he sent a text to Ethan to make sure that he and Helen were doing well.

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