What an odd question.“I don’t know.It wasn’t a huge secret.”Although she hadn’t wanted Jarod to know.“Why?”
Christian studied her face for a moment.“The storage building.What was the arrangement with it before you drafted a will?”
She scrunched up her face.“Oh.Huh.Wyland and I had an informal agreement that if one of us sold or died or something, that the other would get the building.Real estate hasn’t been worth much here until just recently.I’m sure he has a will now, too.Maybe?”
Christian stood suddenly, placing her back in his very warm chair.“Stay here with Damian.I’m going to talk to Wyland.”He strode across the room and opened the door just as Brock and the two Alaska state troopers walked in.
“We need to talk,” Brock said.
“Later.”Christian moved past him and out into the spring day.
Jeb removed his trooper hat and shook his head.“He gets odder every day.”He turned and zeroed in on Amka.“We’re here to investigate the second bombing of one of your properties, Ms.Amaruq.”
Just wonderful.
Chapter37
Christian drove the truck out of town.He was so off right now.Not the usual calm man they all knew.He couldn’t keep a thought.Was this what it was like to really care about a woman?Somebody wanted her dead, and that just pissed him off.
He hadn’t been able to find Sheldon Friday.Somehow the jackass had managed to take off between his leaving the tavern and Christian heading into the grocery store.It had taken Christian five minutes just to find Wyland in the back doing inventory, and another to figure out Sheldon had left.
Just how badly did Sheldon want that insurance money?
Beside him, Amka had the window cracked, her elbow resting on the ledge, dark hair caught by the wind.She hadn’t said much since they left town, just a quiet thanks when he handed her the to-go coffee Daisy had shoved into his hand.
Christian kept one hand on the wheel and the other resting loosely on his thigh.He’d borrowed Brock’s truck again, the beast rumbling reliably along the river road.Yeah, he should get his own rig once things calmed down.He wanted to go to Anchorage and choose, then he could drive it home.
Maybe Amka would come with him.
No.He had to stop thinking like that.Yeah, he wanted her.Probably loved her.And she was a sweetheart to sleep under the stars with him.But no woman would want that life for years.For decades.She deserved so much better.
She was quiet next to him.The kind of quiet he liked.Damn it.
The sky had finally opened into something close to blue, and the trees lining the bank shimmered in the sunlight, the new leaves catching every ounce of it.Spring had taken hold with green pushing up through the last brittle remnants of snow.It smelled like thawed earth and cold water and something alive.
He adjusted his grip on the steering wheel.“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.”He sounded like a dumbass.
Amka turned her head, one brow lifting just enough to be amused.“Which would be?”
He blew out a long breath.“You’re staying at my place, and I want that.But I also don’t want you thinking it means something I can’t give.I’m not good at whatever this is.”
She was quiet for a second.Then, “You mean relationships?”
He gave a tight nod.“Yeah.”The truck rolled along a bend, and the river glinted beside them, swollen, fast, and loud over the rocks.He kept his eyes ahead.“I care about you.That’s not the problem.”
“Then what is?”
He hesitated.“I’m not a settling-down type.You’ve seen how I live.And you deserve more than half a man who sleeps on a ridge because he doesn’t know what to do with four walls.”
Amka sipped her coffee, her tone remaining thoughtful.“You think I don’t already know that about you?”
He glanced at her.She didn’t look hurt.Just contemplative.“This is temporary.”
She added, “You think I want some guy who comes home at five every night and talks about tax brackets?I like you how you are.You don’t have to sell me a version of yourself that doesn’t exist.”
“I’m trying to let you down easy here.”He might have to be an actual jackass.
She snorted.“No.”
