Page 61 of Hunted in Hope Town

“I don’t want to. I think I need to.”

It was all he could do not to pound his head against the wall. “You never need to use yourself as bait. That’s law enforcement 101.”

“Don’t pretend like you’ve never taken a risk that put you in danger.”

“Yes, but that—”

“Don’t say it was your job. You know what my job is? Staying alive. Having a life. You and I both know we can’t hide up here forever. At some point, if we don’t have answers, Zach is going to tell us it’s time to give up.”

“He’s not going to tell us that.”

She fixed him with a hard look. “This isn’t even his cabin, Ellis.”

Ellis didn’t have any quick response to that. He’d been on assignments he had to give up before because the mission had run out of money or information or whatever. And this was Zach’s partner’s family’s cabin in some roundabout way, so they’d likely want and need it back at some point.

But that didn’t mean he had to risk his wife’s life. Again. It also didn’t mean there weren’t other cabins, other places to hide.

But it wasn’t a life—that he knew.

“We’ll sleep on it,” he said instead. “You’re exhausted, and one night doesn’t change anything. If someone’s out there, they’ll have to hunker down against the elements.” He turned her toward the bed, nudged her into a sitting position. “We’ll face everything in the morning rested and renewed with fresh eyes.”

She looked up at him, and there were a million emotions in her gaze, her expression, in her. He wished there was some way to wipe it away for her. So he knelt in front of her. “Kirsten, I get where Boyd is coming from with his theory, but…it just doesn’t add up. What could you have known? I was the one undercover, and we all know that they went at you as a punishment for me infiltrating them.”

“You said it yourself, before Boyd crashed the party. You said I couldn’t go around thinking I remembered everything.”

“You know that’s different.”

He could tell she did not know that, but she didn’t argue with him. “I’m only sleeping on this if you’re sleeping on this, so if you plan to placate me until I fall asleep, then sneak out there and make plans with Boyd without me, you’ll be sorely disappointed.”

He smiled in spite of himself, in spite of the situation, because this was the woman he’d loved since almost that first moment. And since he was learning or growing or something, he said it.

“I love you.”

He could tell the words took her off guard, even though he’d been saying them. Even though they had to be written all over his face every time he looked at her.

Her smile was soft and warm. “I love you too, Ellis.” She cupped his face and pressed her mouth to his. “Now let’s get some sleep.”

He didn’t know how he could, but apparently in a warm bed with his wife in his arms it wasn’t so hard. He woke up before she did, while the world was still dark, but it was morning. He heard Boyd moving around out in the main room, so he slipped out of bed.

Hopefully they could get a little conversation in before Kirsten woke up. So he could tell Boyd to lay off the idea that Kirsten didn’t remember something important.

Ellis didn’t think she did. He didn’t, but the what-if nagged him, because nothing about this whole situation fully added up.

Boyd was in the kitchen, poking at the coffee machine with the occasional irritated grunt.

“Never could work an analog machine,” Ellis said in a quiet voice, elbowing Boyd out of the way so he could handle it.

“I do just fine,” Boyd replied, keeping his voice low while Ellis finished up and got the coffee brewing.

Then they stood in what might have been a companionable silence, waiting for coffee, if there weren’t a few big-ass elephants sitting in the room.

“I need you to go easy on her. Especially about her memory. She’s been traumatized in so many different ways. We don’t need to add to it.”

“Is it adding to it if I’m right and just unearthing a trauma that’s already happened?”

Ellis wasn’t sure he had a great answer for that. He didn’t like any of the answers. Because it was traumatic to remember awful things. He’d seen her reaction to remembering him shot, remembering being tossed from the balcony. It was just heartbreaking.

But if something was there…it was there either way.