Chapter Eighteen
PATSY
It killed me to turn away from Wes when all I wanted to do was pull him into my arms and kiss him deeply to seal my heartfelt vow. “We’ll continue this after I’ve collected the Bible for fingerprints,” I said, reluctantly dropping my hand from his cheek and the warm whiskers caressing my palm. I dreaded entering the tent to see what had been done to our gear, but I turned back and bent to pull up the zipper, wishing I didn’t have to destroy the fingerprints on the tab. They’d be lost now, so here was hoping on the Bible.
I listened for signs of any movement inside for half a minute and then pulled up the zipper, shining my mobile’s torch up to look around before stepping inside. Remarkably, nothing looked as though it had been disturbed. I stepped inside and pulled out neoprene gloves and an unused Ziplock bag. Wes stood waiting for me, and I squatted to lift the small Bible, slipping it inside the bag and sealing it. I stood up and nodded to him.
“Come in.”
He ducked his head and stooped as he walked in, sitting down on his sleeping bag before pulling off his boots and leaving them near the door. Zipping the tent shut, he moved over to me. I sat cross-legged on my sleeping bag, examining the Bible. It was small.
“It was my mother’s,” Wes explained. “My father gave it to her on their wedding day and she always kept it on her bedside table. She somehow managed to keep it for more than fourdecades so it has significant sentimental value. I always carry it wherever I go. I’d forgotten it was even in the backpack, to be honest.”
I nodded then looked around. “Would ya look through the bag and see if anythin’ else is missin’?”
“Sure. What do you think he was looking for?” Wes asked.
I set down the Bible in its bag and pulled off my boots. “Somethin’ to steal and when we showed up, he dropped this.”
“Why would anyone choose to steal a forty-year-old Bible and why in the hell would anyone think that’s something worth keeping…other than me?”
I smiled at him. “Who knows what motivated him. But he’s surely not our killer.”
Wes cocked his head to the side and waited for me to explain further. “How can you be so sure? He could have been. We don’t know.”
“Because I just know, Wes. Call it instinct or somethin’ else, but Dr. Reeves profiled a guy who’s hidin’ out. Do ya think breakin’ into a tent where anyone can catch him only to take somethin’ like this, is the kind of guy who wants to draw attention to himself? No, I think this guy just saw a new tent erected on previously unoccupied real estate and decided to search for somethin’ worth stealin’.”
He grinned at me and shook his head. “A battered old Bible? I mean, it was sentimental to me because it gave her a great deal of comfort after my sister died, but to a thief? That doesn’t sound like something worth stealing.”
“To him it was.” I nodded to his backpack. “Please look and see if he took anythin’ else while I go through mine.”
We both started digging through our bags. Fortunately, I’d taken my FBI creds with me, and though Wes only had his temporary paper driver’s license, he’d still taken it with him before leaving the tent. Other than a couple of spare torches and a battery-operated camping light, nothing else of any value other than our clothing was in our bags and all of it was accounted for. We’d intentionally traveled light.
I picked up my mobile and called Candy to check in. After reporting our findings, he’d said we’d meet up with the team in the morning to hand off the Bible so they could process it and then wished us both good night. We climbed into long underwear and armed ourselves against the cold by layering our feet with heavy socks before I zipped our sleeping bags together so we could share warmth and cuddle at the same time. I thought about that for a moment. Before meeting Wes, I’d never been interested in cuddling with any of my hookups but his big body with the pelt of hair on his chest was perfect for doing just that. It was like sleeping with a large bear. I felt safe.
I rolled against Wes as he wrapped his long arms around me, trying to ignore the rocky ground that was hard under the sleeping bags. I didn’t really care where I was, as long as he never decided to let me go. I turned my face up to his and kissed him soundly. His beard was so soft against my face. I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of being this close to him, a man who held me so gently and kissed me so tenderly. I was supposed to be the badass federal agent, but it was Wes who’d made me feel like I was protected and cherished from the moment we’d first met. I wanted nothing more than to stay in his orbit for the rest of my life.
“I meant what I said, you know.” Wes’ rumbling confession when he finally broke our kiss and came up for air, made me flush with happiness. I could barely see him in the dark butmanaged to catch a glimpse of his smile. He reached up to cup my cheek. “I’m in love with you, Patsy. The fact is, I probably fell in love with you the moment you sought me out after being shot.”
I grinned at him. “I love ya too, Wes.” I was quiet for a minute as I replayed the last, crazy week we’d spent together, marveling at how nuts it was to have fallen in love with the man after such a short period of time. A thought occurred to me. “Would ya want to know when it happened for me?”
He nodded. “When?”
“The first time ya tried to squish yerself into my little, wee car.”
He let out a rumbling laugh that came from somewhere deep inside his chest. The vibrations against my body made me feel warm inside and out. He was such a merry soul which was some kind of a miracle considering everything he’d gone through over the past year. I couldn’t wait until the mystery of why those men were chasing him was solved. I didn’t want the man I loved to live in fear anymore. I wanted it to be over…for both of us.
Now, though, all I wanted to do was find something that would lead us to the serial killer Lincoln was chasing, though finding him here it was a fecking longshot.
I snuggled closer to him, listening to his steady heartbeat beneath my ear and at some point, realized his breathing had evened out and he was softly snoring. I lay there for several minutes, listening to the noises I’d become accustomed to in the camp around us, eventually realizing they’d softened as people settled down for the night. There were no more sounds of crying children or the low voices of their mothers and no more footsteps crunching gravel under foot as they moved by the tent in the world outside our little cocoon.
I shifted to my back and squinted to make out the swaying shadows of the barren trees barely visible through the tent. Eventually my eyelids grew heavy, and I closed them, slowly slipping into slumber beside the man I loved.
I woke and rolled toward Wes before opening my eyes. When I finally blinked and opened them, I realized it was still dark outside. I groaned, feeling stiff and sore from sleeping on the hard ground. Though I’d spent most of my military career bivouacking on the most uncomfortable terrain anyone could, I was ten years older now, and way out of practice. I ignored the feeling of being out of touch and snuggled against the warm man sleeping beside me.
I’d just settled down when I heard footsteps outside the tent. I waited, hoping it was just another early riser passing by on their way to the latrines when the footsteps abruptly stopped right outside. I held my breath, lifting my head out of the sleeping bag only far enough to see leg shadows standing in front of the entrance. I frowned, wondering what the hell could be going on and promised meself to ask Wes if weird shit like this always went on in homeless camps.
I stayed absolutely still, not wanting to alert the person that someone inside was awake, cursing myself for the lack of a weapon. When the shadow bent and the zipper pull rattled and began to roll up, I moved.
