“Thank you.” The woman hopped up and grabbed the bag.
“You better be planning to share that with us,” a younger guy said.
“’Course I’ll share.” She sat and started handing out containers.
The older man looked at Ava. “Don’t understand why you did this, but it’ll be nice to get a hot meal with this weather. So, thank you.”
“You’re all welcome.” She smiled. “God bless.”
She turned to leave, and Micha slung his arm around her shoulders, then hugged her to him. “You are a very nice person, Ava Weston, and I’m proud to know you.”
She blushed in the light of the fire. “It’s nothing.”
“No, not nothing. I would’ve likely been too focused on my mission at hand, walked by and done nothing.”
She gazed up at him, her eyes warm and loving. “I probably would on a normal day, too, but your team’s kindness is motivating me to do more for others. You all don’t want or expect repayment. Even if I found a way to do it, I doubt you would accept. But this way I can pay it forward.”
He squeezed her shoulders and let go. “Still a very nice thing to do in the middle of your own crisis. But we need to forget that and focus on our surroundings as we head to the SUV.”
Her soft expression disappeared, and she set her jaw. “I don’t like it, but I know that’s what we have to do.”
He took a long look around. Saw nothing but rain and the wind battering the moisture at them. “Ready?”
She nodded.
Together, they bolted toward the SUV and got in just as a gust of wind hit the vehicle and rocked it.
“It’ll take us forever to get to the cabin in this weather,” Colin said.
“We can pick up our other vehicle at the motel and caravan,” Dev said. “That way we can spell each other in the driving and won’t burn out.”
Micha agreed. “Sounds like a plan. But first, we grill Layne, if he’s home.”
Colin got out his phone. “Let me check on his vehicle location again.”
He tapped the screen and studied his phone, then frowned. “Oh, man. He’s not home anymore. Looks like he went to the movies.”
“Seriously?” Ava asked. “I’m trying to stay alive, and he goes to the movies?”
“He might not be seeing a movie.” Colin looked over the seat at her. “But his vehicle is parked at a mega movie complex. Twelve theaters.”
Micha looked at Colin, “So if heisin a theater, there’s no way to tell which movie he’s seeing, and we can’t grab him there. But if he comes home, the tracker will let us know when.”
“Exactly.” Colin pocketed his phone. “Looks like grilling will have to wait, unless you want to hang out in Portland until or if he comes home.”
“I don’t suggest it.” Dev held up his phone. “Just checked the weather. The drive will already be a bear, and radar says it’s only going to get worse.”
“I know we should head back,” Ava said. “But why not take advantage of him being away from home to search his place like we did with Buck? We might turn something up that could help.”
“She has a point,” Colin said.
“Yeah, a good one, and it wouldn’t take us that long to do,” Dev said. “And then we can get on the road.”
“Then the search is on,” Micha said. “The next best thing to grilling Layne is digging into his personal space.”
Ava sat in the SUV’s back seat and scoped out Layne’s ranch-style home through the steady downpour pelting the area. If the front spotlight on Layne’s house wasn’t on, she wouldn’t even be able to see the place. But it was, and she took a good look at the white paint that had faded to a sickly gray and the shingles on the roof that had discolored and curled. Couple that with the weather-beaten door and overgrown landscape, and it all made for a dismal-looking property compared to the neatly manicured and well-kept homes nearby.
Ava couldn’t believe Micha agreed to let her come here. He even seemed to embrace her request, saying Colin could keep an eye on Layne’s movements, and she would be fine. He also believed her knowledge of the man might let her see something that he would overlook.
