Cord considered him, relief in his dark eyes. “Unknown.”
In other words, indefinitely.
Stone turned away. Snatched off his Cattle Baron. Shoved a hand through his hair. Replaced the hat. He couldn’t do this. See her every day. The heated moments with her raced through his mind even now. “No.”
“Okay, then just a couple days, maybe a week.” Cord shuffled forward. “Two at the most. I don’t know what I’m going to be facing once I leave, but that should be more than enough time.”
“You realize how hard I’ve worked to get on my feet again? What it was like to start my entire life over?” His words bounced off the walls. “All because of her, and you want me to willingly let her back into my life.”
“Not your life, the lodge.”
“The lodge is my life!” He dropped back against the rock ledge. Scrubbed his beard as he growled. Two terrible words forced him to reconsider: human trafficking. Curse it all.
“I need her hidden until we can get her legend built and sort who’s at the top of that org chart above her captor.” Cord lifted his shoulder in a shrug. “You’re the last place they’d look for her after what happened.”
“Yeah, because only an idiot would let her back into their life!” While he might be angry and resent Brighton Buchanan, he wasn’t cold-hearted.
No. Maybe he was, because he couldn’t do this. “I’m sorry. I can’t …” It felt like that day he resigned all over again. The day he read that letter. Saw those pictures.
Yet … he knew more than enough about the skin trade. It repulsed him to know he’d been unwittingly caught up in it. Defying everything he believed in, fought for. “My whole career I hated the perverts who did this to people. But admitting even these slimeballs are smarter than me …”
They’d targeted him, shredded his life, and he’d never seen it coming.
Man, he felt sick. “This sucks.”
Cord started, his gaze lit with hope. “You’ll let her stay.”
“No, I didn’t …” Stone looked to his cabin, then to the lodge. If she didn’t come out of her room and he kept to his place or office, he could avoid her. “If she stays, you owe me?—big.”
Cord gave a relieved shake of his head. “Absolutely.”
“Who holds her leash?”
“Ladomer Horvath trafficked her to some high-ranking VIPs. He’s the tip of a very vicious, multi-headed org with branches all over the world that we’ve been trying to dismantle for over a year. It’s insane. We’ve made big headway in the last two months.”
“I want all intel on threats against her, or this ends here. And your promise it’ll be no longer than a week.”
“A week.” Cord nodded, but he hesitated.
“No more,” Stone warned. “Seven days, then she’s gone. I’ll drive her to Dulles myself, if I have to.”
“O-of course. Deal.”
He was really going to regret this.
Chapter
Six
Bexar-Wolfe Lodge, Northern Virginia
“We good?”
Cord locked the door, his head splitting like his lip. “Yeah. Bought us a week.”
“A week? That’s not—” Lowell frowned. “What happened to your mouth?”
“Stone happened.” He raked a hand through his hair. “And at least we have a week. It’s more than I thought we’d get out of him.” He glanced through the open door to the other room, where Brighton was curled up in an armchair, staring at the curtained windows.
