Nichole pursed her lips. “And none of them gave you any feelings that something was off?”
“No. Working construction, I’ve been around weird guys, but I didn’t see any of that with the men I hired here. They were professional, some jokes but none of them bad. They worked hard, respected the work I did and took off at the end of the job. None of them tried to get me to date them, I didn’t catch them giving me weird looks, or watching me. I’ve been in situations where guys tried to watch me go to the bathroom or spilled drinks or food on me to get me to have to take off my shirt or something, this wasn’t like that.”
“Fuck. I hate that you’ve had to deal with that,” Griz said.
Danika rolled her eyes. “It’s called being a woman. We’ve all dealt with pieces of shit like that.”
All the men looked disgusted. They weren’t making any new discoveries standing out here. Whoever owned the camera wasn’t going to show up now. Maybe they didn’t know the camera had been removed, but they would soon enough.
Chapter 16
Griz worriedabout Elowen’s safety. She was a badass, no doubt, but being out here alone put her at risk. If something happened, no one would hear her scream. It wasn’t something he wanted to bring up, but before their vacation ended, he needed to talk to her about it.
Maybe she should get a dog. That was a lot of responsibility, and it would take time. Getting a dog she liked, in addition to getting one that was trained, was a lot. Plus, adding a dog into her house would be a lot of responsibility.
“Hey, what’s up?” Elowen asked as they walked back to her cabin.
“Sorry. Just worried about you.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’m sure you will. I just don’t like the idea of you being out here alone.”
“I’ve been alone for most of my life and I’ve been fine.”
He nodded, not wanting to discount her experience. He’d seen too much to believe that people who’d alwaysbeen fine would continue to be fine. Too many innocent people ended up in terrible situations because of the evil out there.
Elowen stopped walking, and he turned to face her. “What?”
His lips thinned. “I’ve just seen so much.”
She reached out and put her hand on his arm. “I’m sure you have. I just—I can’t live in fear.”
“I don’t expect you to. I just want to make sure you’re safe. Like you’ve got to lock your doors.”
“I know. I just got complacent living out here, not seeing people for days.”
He pulled her into a hug, wishing he could stay here and keep her safe. “I’m going to worry about you. I know you are smart and strong, but evil people don’t play by the rules. They do things that you, a rational person, wouldn’t even think of doing.”
She leaned back enough so their gazes met. “I get that. I will be smart. Maybe I can get an alarm system. That way I will know if someone goes into my house.”
Danika and Sharp had stopped walking and come back to them. “The thing about an alarm system is you have to set it,” Danika said.
“Is there anything that sets automatically? Like if I forget, it will arm itself?”
Sharp spoke up. “That’s called geofencing. I don’t know if there is one, but it wouldn’t help if you were at home. You’d have to remember to set it.”
Griz grunted. “You need something out here. I know it feels safe because you don’t see many people, but something is going on based on the fact there was a trail camera set up at the river.”
Shine had walked back to join them. “What about an auto lock?”
Elowen squinted at him. “A what?”
“A lock for the door so at fifteen seconds to a few minutes the lock activates.”
Her lips twisted up to the side. “But what if I forget to grab my keys?”
“They have codes you punch in like the lock on the rental cabin,” Rowan said.
