Page 25 of Wintering with George

“You’re driving to Coos Bay, which is lovely, by the way. It’s a cliché, but there’s literally a cabin in the woods, and that’s where you’ll be staying until the people who are after you are dealt with.”

Had I heard her right? My head snapped up, and I met her gaze. “What?”

She rolled her eyes like I was getting on her last nerve.

“I can do my own protecting and killing.”

“Oh really? Can you? Just you alone with kids and parents and the man you love?”

I groaned because why the hell did she have to add that last part when I hadn’t sacked up enough to say the words to Kurt?

“I don’t think that’s a really great idea, Captain, do you?”

So much disdain and sarcasm along with the use of my title.

“We’re talking about your family, are we not?” she pressed.

They were Kurt’s family, not mine.

“Hunt?”

But really, since he was mine, weren’t they mine too? Didn’t that follow? We’d been together two years, and though this was the first time I’d met them, we’d basically been connected the entire time. I had to stop being on the fence, make a decision, and maybe it started with something ridiculously stupid like claiming the people in the car.

“Yes. My family,” I told her.

“Well, then.” She shrugged. “Yeah. We’re going to take care of things while you fall off the grid with your family.”

I was stunned.

“Why do you look like that? You know this is how it works.”

And I did know because I’d done it for others. Been there for others in their time of need. Sometimes one had to be the hand of God in situations, in the nick of time, the guy standing between the heartbreak of losing those you loved and salvation. At this moment, I was the defenseless one, and someone else was going to step up and kill people so we would live. It was hard to wrap my brain around because it was so unexpected.

I never considered that Chris would get me help. I knew he would get me—us—out of Portland, but I couldn’t have imagined he’d do more.

“I had no idea you and Mancuso were so tight,” she said, passing me a satellite phone. “I missed that in Thailand.”

“We were all a bit busy.”

She nodded. “True.”

“Why do I need a satellite phone?”

Her grimace nearly killed me. “I didn’t know you could call Chris long distance in Barcelona on a local burner.”

God.

“Or is there something I don’t know?”

“Sorry, can you let it go?”

She shrugged.

“I don’t remember you being this much of a jerk the last time I saw you.”

“Yes, but we’re friends now,” she said sarcastically with a little cackle at the end.

I cleared my throat. “Not that I doubt your skill set, but I didn’t have any idea you could take care of⁠—”