Page 66 of Hunted in Hope Town

With her free hand, she reached out and gripped his sweater. They would separate now, and she didn’t want to panic, but… “Please, don’t take any unnecessary risks.” As much as she wanted to push this, to end this, actually separating left her feeling sick to her stomach. “We didn’t come this far to lose each other now.”

He brushed his thumb across her cheekbone, then pressed his mouth to hers briefly. “I love you,” he said.

But he didn’t promise.

“Do what Boyd says, okay?”

Kirsten nodded. She trusted Boyd almost as much as she trusted Ellis. She would follow instructions. Anything to get through this and come out on the other side knowing everyone was safe.

Boyd and Ellis were good at what they did. They’d survived every mission this far. She was too clear on the risks, yes, but she also knew that there was a real chance the end was near.

She’d hold on to that chance.

So, all bundled up against the cold, she followed Boyd out into a bright, frigid winter day. Her boots crunched in the snow.

“Showtime,” Boyd muttered. Then pulled a phone out of his pocket. “Hey, yeah, I need a doctor or a nurse or someone, to meet me down where you’ve got those lookouts. Kirsten isn’t feeling well.”

She leaned a little against Boyd to add to the sickly of it all. She wanted to look back at the cabin, at Ellis, but she couldn’t.

She just had to move forward.

Chapter Twenty-One

Ellis was an old pro at waiting. He kept reminding himself of this. How long he’d waited for Kirsten to remember. To be okay.

What was a few interminable hours laying a trap while his wife and best friend potentially walked into a different dangerous situation?

He paced. He looked out the window. He talked himself out of calling Boyd, of following them, of demanding Zach send a brigade of cops up here.

Zach had a few guys waiting close by with the kind of vehicles that could make it up the mountains in all this snow, but they hadn’t wanted anything that might be obvious. This was essentially a sting operation. And they had mitigated every risk, but it didn’t make it easy to relax.

He wanted anyone and everyone involved arrested, questioned. He wanted to end this damn hell he’d been in for two years.

When the motion detector ping went off on his phone, Ellis gave himself a moment to pause, to settle. It wouldn’t be Boyd and Kirsten. It was going to be someone after him, because how could this not stem from his undercover work with the Carusos?

He pulled on his coat, turned the safety off his gun, then carefully eased the front door open, ready for anything. The world was bright—the sun bouncing off the packed snow. The sky blue enough to make his eyes burn.

But there was no one out here in the front that he could see. Since the one access point was covered by Zach’s lookout, and Boyd had gotten around that himself, Ellis moved carefully around the cabin, figuring he’d find whatever intruder or intruders had followed Boyd’s same path.

If they were FBI too, or the Carusos had found more agents to turn, they would likely behave the same way Boyd had. The same training often led to the same decision-making.

Ellis moved carefully, silently, his breathing carefully regulated so he could hear every sound around him. When he got to the corner, he stopped, angled so he could see into the back. At first, he didn’t see anyone, and then out across the backyard, hunched behind the outbuilding, he saw the hint of a boot.

He readjusted his grip on the gun, surveyed the world around him. He couldn’t assume there was just one person. He had to watch his back. And hope Boyd and Kirsten were watching theirs.

Once he was fairly certain no eyes were on him, he began to creep forward. He took his time. He used every year of FBI training and work to make the right choices. No rushing. No knee-jerk reactions. No letting his mind fixate on could bes or would bes. Just careful, rational, measured steps forward.

He didn’t necessarily recognize the figure from the back, since the person was wearing a hood and crouched down, but it was clearly a woman, which meant it had to be Colleen.

“Stand up, Colleen,” he ordered, gun aimed and ready to shoot if she whirled.

She froze. For a moment, it was just that. Her standing there kind of crouched, not moving and not responding. She’d been looking at some kind of screen she had balanced on a tree stump.

Ellis kept his gun trained on her and his ears on high alert, waiting to see if anyone else popped out. But, at least for the moment, it seemed to just be her.

Which worried him. There had to be others. Had they followed Boyd and Kirsten? Were the two people he cared most about in the world in danger even as he stood here dealing with Colleen?

But everything was fine. He hadn’t heard a gunshot. He hadn’t heard anything, and sound could carry out here. He’d know. He had to stick to the plan, or everything crumbled.