Razor shrugged. “Only a couple more days. The warmth and time to rest gave me strength enough to hunt for a blood Host in the nearest town. Afterward, I pushed on, eventually reconnecting with my Hunter brothers again.”
“What about Theo?” Willow prompted.
“Before I left, I told him I owed him a debt. I meant it. I never forgot what he’d done for me. I kept tabs on him after I’d joined up with my brothers in the States. Years later, I contacted Theo and reminded him of my promise—if he ever needed my help with anything at all, he would have it, no questions asked. So much time had passed since that conversation, I’d gotten to the point that I never expected I’d hear from him again.”
Willow nodded. “Until he called you a few days ago and asked you to come to Colorado and find my sister.”
She hadn’t phrased it as a question, and for reasons Razor didn’t want to examine, he didn’t offer to correct her. What would Willow think if she knew he’d been covertly watching her sister’s cabin for months? Or that in so doing, he’d become so familiar with Willow’s face and luscious curves that being next to her now was like seeing all his carnal fantasies come to life, yet being unable—or unwilling—to touch?
Part of him wanted to explain the whole situation to her now.
Another part of him was shocked by his own cowardice to admit that he’d been willfully invading the sisters’ privacy for months, and then failing both of them in the end when he arrived too late to save Laurel.
In a few more hours his lie of omission wouldn’t matter, anyway. Once they reached Chicago, they would go their separate ways and the odds were good he’d never set eyes on Willow Valcourt again.
In the silence that lingered between them, she solemnly gazed up at him. “I’m glad Theo helped you that day, Razor.”
His jaw tensed as he looked at her, so beautiful, so compassionate toward him even after the gruff way he’d been treating her for most of their time together. He still wasn’t comfortable with emotion or tender caring, despite that his brutal Hunter upbringing was decades behind him.
That it was coming from her was a torment all its own.
“For all the good his helping me did,” Razor muttered.
He stood up, feeling caged and twitchy in the close confines. If there had been room to pace he would have already worn a track on the floor. Instead, he moved to the closed doors of the container to peer through the small wedge between the metal panels. It was closing in on sundown, judging by the amount of light and shadows outside the moving train.
“How much longer until we reach Chicago, do you think?” Willow asked from behind him.
“Five or six hours, give or take.” Not soon enough for him, that was for damn sure.
He didn’t invite any further conversation, feigning full attention on the sliver of visibility outside and the endless rattle and hum of the train as the miles continued to spool away beneath the wheels.
When he finally turned around to look at her again, he found her holding the little penlight between her teeth as she flipped the pages of the opened book in her lap. She paused on one page in particular now, a frown creasing her brow.
“Ohm-uh-gah.” Her words were garbled around the obstruction in her mouth. She let the flashlight fall and glanced up at Razor in plain disbelief. “It’s a code.”
“What kind of code?” He crossed the short distance and dropped down to his haunches beside her.
“These underlined scientific names of the birds. Laurel left me a code.” She pointed to one of the notations on the page in front of her. The Latin name readEpidonax trailli. “Read the common name for this bird.”
“Willow flycatcher,” Razor replied. He looked at her and frowned. “What am I missing?”
“She’s telling me to pay attention to each of these underlined entries. I wasn’t sure until I saw this, but now I know. It’s as if she’s saying, ‘Willow, this is what I need you to do.’”
Razor wasn’t nearly as certain as she seemed to be, but he watched as Willow rummaged in her purse for a scrap of paper and something to write with. Retrieving a pen and a crumpled receipt, she started writing down each of the seven underlined scientific bird names.
Epidonax trailli.
Toxostoma rufum.
Nucifraga columbiana.
Spinus tristis.
Agelaius phoeniceus.
Sitta carolinensis.
Nyctidromus albicollis.
