contents to know it contained the essentials. His precaution didn’t surprise her. Men like him were never caught unprepared.
She walked to the opposite rear door and opened it, grabbed her leather jacket and tote, seeing he’d also grabbed the laptop. Slinging the tote over one shoulder and draping the jacket over the other, she started walking up the road. Jag caught up to her in two or three easy strides.
“You think Friese killed that man?” she asked.
“Looks that way to me.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t hear a gunshot.”
“He could have used a silencer.”
“And then punctured our brake line?” Unless someone else had gotten there ahead of Friese, that’s what had likely happened.
“We’ll go with that for now.”
She nodded. “But let’s not discount other possibilities. Friese would have had to have killed that man really fast.”
“Gone in and pulled the trigger. Yep.”
It hadn’t looked as if the man had struggled. Shot in the back of the head.
She looked to her side at the darkening forest, where rhododendron and mountain laurel spread beneath the canopy, and then ahead at the dirt road that curved into the trees and disappeared. Her father had been killed on a road like that.
Now that the excitement of the afternoon had passed, and all he had to occupy his mind was a long walk in the dark with Odie, Jag couldn’t stop his thoughts from wandering back to that kiss. He still couldn’t figure out what had made him do it. It hadn’t even mattered that they were in a busy restaurant, either. She refused to tell him everything she knew about her father’s murder and that made her seem shady. He didn’t think she was keeping anything from him about Friese, but if she did learn something he doubted she’d share it without him prying it out of her.
Though he couldn’t deny his growing attraction to her, he had to consider the worst. If what she was hiding was related to Hersch, it wouldn’t paint her in very favor able light. Had her father been involved in something unscrupulous before he was killed? Or had he discovered something bigger than he could handle? The way Odie was behaving, he’d go with the former. But would she hinder a TES investigation for personal reasons? He had a hard time imagining her willing to do such a thing. But then, it might be her father’s reputation on the line. How far would she go to protect it?
He checked Odie to see how she was holding up. They’d walked about ten miles so far. She didn’t seem bothered. And then he felt silly for thinking she couldn’t keep up with him. He had to admit, that part about her appealed to him. He’d never met anyone like her. She was tough and capable, and then there was a softer side he doubted very few people ever saw.
“Are you going to tell me why you don’t carry a gun?” he asked. It was a good way to lead into other questions he had for her.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want to.”
She was like a guy that way. Brief and to the point. Very little emotion. Always logical and on the mark. Not that every guy was like that, but those who worked for TES were. “Do you have any guns at your house?”
“No.”
“Keep any at TES headquarters?”
“Nope.”
He turned to see her. She kept her profile to him and her face void of reaction. “Is it because your husband was killed in action?”
Abruptly, she stopped. He was slower to do the same. Bingo.
“How do you do that?” she asked.
“Do what?”
“Guess everything.”
He shrugged. “Common sense.”
“It’s annoying.”
He smiled, unable to help it. Other than the loss of her husband, she said whatever was on her mind and didn’t waste much time tiptoeing around feelings. He didn’t realize how much he liked that in a woman until now. If only that extended to the connection between Hersch and her father.
She started walking again and he fell in step beside her.
“How long ago did he die?”
“Your common sense is
Patricia Haley and Gracie Hill