She hesitated, then brought up the coordinates. “This is the mining claim.”
“And the cave you discovered?”
“It’s in the same vicinity,” she said vaguely.
“Did you find anything else?”
“Nothing exciting.”
Although she tried to sound confident, she was clearly lying and he frowned at Cass.
“We could go back and take more samples,” she suggested.
“No!” Alina immediately blushed and waved her hand. “I mean I have plenty of samples for now.”
“But—”
“Please, Cass. I just need a little more time.”
Cass studied her friend, then looked over at him. He shrugged, silently agreeing not to press the issue for now.
“All right,” she agreed.
Alina gave a relieved sigh, then smiled at them.
“Now,” she said, “tell me everything that happened while you were at Station 12.”
He let Cass tell the story, watching her as Roland climbed up onto his lap. The two women were soon exchanging theories, both faces alight with the excitement of new discoveries—discoveries and mysteries still to be solved. He still had a feeling that Alina was concealing something important, but he decided it didn’t matter. Whatever it was, he would be at Cass’s side to love her and protect her.
Always.
