Or it might be due to the fact that his parents had never once complained about all they’d sacrificed to rebuild his shoulder, never ceased thanking God that Gideon was alive. That was honor, he thought, the simple act of carrying on.
Mackenzie was headed for a terrible fall. Smart woman, gifted, charismatic, and completely oblivious.
Underneath the frustration, he felt a twinge of something he finally identified as admiration. Outside of a select few, he’d never met anyone with her level of drive and fearlessness. In her misguided way, she was as committed to her family as he was. And she had way more grit than her fair share.
A clap of thunder split the night, followed by a fresh roar of falling rain.
Would she be there in the morning? He wanted to stalk back out to the sofa and keep watch like the proverbial hawk.
But if she was going to sneak off again, there wasn’t much he could do about it. His body was shutting down, spiraling him toward the sleep demanded by his pounded flesh.
Since the kids had taken their pillows, he rolled his extra jacket into a bundle and covered up with the checkered blanket. Feet sticking over the edge of the mattress, he closed his eyes and prayed that Mackenzie would not disappear into the howling storm.
Six
Mackenzie dozed for a while,then woke with a jolt from a nightmare of rising waters and indescribable cold. For a moment, she didn’t recognize her surroundings and sat up with her heart thumping. Her aching bones quickly reminded her of the previous day’s trauma.
The quiet trailer still smelled of spaghetti and meatballs as she took it all in again. Gideon. Kevin’s trailer home. Her mission. The danger. The gold anniversary clock on the coffee table told her it was almost 4:00 a.m.
She hurt. Everywhere.
Gideon was no doubt asleep after the day he’d experienced. She wished she was too. Since Aaron died, she never slept well, and her mental gymnastics and aching body hadn’t lent her any deeper rest than she usually experienced.
Phone. First order of business was to retrieve it from Gideon’s pack. She got up, padded across the kitchen in socked feet, eased as slowly as she could down the hall to the kids’ room. She paused, listening to the snoring coming from behind Kevin’s door. No sound from Gideon’s temporary quarters.
Slowly, ever so slowly, she turned the knob, then paused in the doorway to let her eyes adjust. A meager gleam came from the dinosaur night-light plugged in the far wall. A quick look showed Gideon covered in a kid’s blanket. On the floor was a collection of neatly laid-out devices and charging cords. His backpack was open, drying nicely next to the heating vent.
Bingo.
She tiptoed over, darting a glance at Gideon. He lay on his back, one bruised arm thrown above his head. The sight momentarily stopped her. His face could have been sculpted of stone, and she could not ignore the fact that the man was simply beautiful with his chiseled features, dark wavy hair, and lips so prone to that sardonic smile. A less attractive mug would better match his pugnacious personality. Then again, maybe that side of him only came out when they were together.
She’d had a puppy-dog crush on him back in the day. Made excuses when her brother and Gideon hung around together to cross paths with the lanky, serious man-boy. His quiet self-confidence was startling, fascinating. If only she’d known how things would turn out.
The floor squeaked the tiniest bit under her foot and she froze, but he didn’t stir. She waited a full minute before she eased forward again. Her phone wasn’t there with Gideon’s cell and battery. Maybe he hadn’t looked at the very bottom of the pack. Uncharacteristic miss for a guy so thorough he carried spare shoelaces in his glove box, but he’d been through a lot since she drove off his wilderness client.
The notion to hide her phone in his backpack was thebest way to ensure she got it back. If not, she could acquire a new one at the nearest store, since most of her files were coded and stored to the cloud for recovery, but the way things had turned out, she needed it. Now.
She reached into his pack and felt around all the way to the bottom, below the flap where she’d secreted her cell. No phone. She turned the pack inside out and shoved her fingers into every crevice. Still no phone. As quietly as possible, she shook it.
“Missing something?”
Gideon’s whisper made her yelp and sit down hard.
He was still lying there; to all appearances he hadn’t even moved, but he now held up her phone in the plastic bag.
Mortifying, but she refused to be cowed. Awkwardly, she brushed her hair back. “Yes. Thanks,” she whispered, reaching for it.
He dangled it out of range. “Your birthday as your password? Weak, Zee. Thought you were a savvy crime podcaster.”
She fought to keep to a whisper. “You snooped on my phone?”
He shook his head. “Relax. I have better manners than that. Just wanted to be sure it was yours.” He arched a brow. “After all, some strange phone appears in my pack on the very same day I get mugged. Can’t be too careful, right?”
She clamped down on her retort. “May I have it now, please?”
He yawned and winced. “In the morning.”
“Now,” she insisted through gritted teeth.
