“But we can at least admit that we have feelings for each other.” He leaned closer, his gaze heating up. “At least I have feelings for you. Which was obvious by the fact that I kissed you in the first place. I could be wrong, but since you didn’t stop me and participated quite enthusiastically…” He grinned at her, a sweet smile that sent her heart racing. “You have feelings for me too.”
“I do,” she admitted as she couldn’t lie to him. “But I’m not going to do anything about it.”
Dev leaned even further across the table, reaching out with his hands as if he hoped she would meet him halfway. Should she or would it be another mistake like the kiss?
A loud pounding sounded on the front door. Kinsley jumped and turned to see who might be arriving.
“Stay here.” Dev lurched to his feet, drew his sidearm, and bolted for the front door. He didn’t open it but pressed his ear against the aged wood. “Micha, is that you?”
Kinsley didn’t like Dev leaving her behind. She needed to be closer to him. She got up, her legs shaking as she traveled to the door to stand behind him.
“Hey, yeah, man.” Micha’s voice came through the solid wood. “There’s something you need to see, and you need to see it right now.”
Dev faced Kinsley, his jaw set and unyielding. “Stay here. Wait for my return. No matter what, do not go outside.”
She couldn’t find her words so she nodded.
Instead of leaving, he grabbed her up in a hug and held her against his solid body. A hug she craved, but not under these circumstances. He leaned back and kissed her forehead. His lips soft and gentle. His eyes filled with emotion. “I can’t lose you. Promise you’ll stay here unless I tell you to leave.”
For a flash of a second she forgot about the danger outside and reached up to touch her forehead still tingling from his kiss. A tiny little kiss that probably didn’t mean anything to him, maybe even sisterly like he might do with Jada, but Kinsley almost couldn’t think straight.
“I promise,” she managed to eke out.
He didn’t depart immediately, but flashed her a tight smile. His gaze drifted back and forth between her and the door as if waffling on what to do. Suddenly, he turned the knob and stepped outside.
He was gone. Good and truly gone. Walls and doors between them. Panic slithered over her, threatening to take her down.
No. That won’t help. Not at all.
She lifted her head in prayer.
Please, whatever danger Micha discovered, don’t let the threat hurt any one of us, much less end anyone’s life.
Dev stepped into the darkness on the porch. He’d hoped the fire had receded, but the heavy smoke told him otherwise. Even on a moonlit night, the porch kept the floorboards in shadows of darkness, but the cloudy haze tonight helped further conceal Micha’s location. His main job was to prevent an attack. Normally that would mean lights on as a deterrent, but he’d left the lights off to keep from drawing attention to himself.
In this instance, if their shooter arrived on site, Micha would still want to catch him and lights off could encourage him to step onto the porch so Micha could detain him. In either case, Micha wouldn’t make himself an available target, so even if the lights were on, he would stay out of sight as he was now, snugged against the siding in a deep shadow.
“Can you hear it?” He took a step forward.
Dev hadn’t been as focused on the sound as on the visual aspect of his search, but now he tilted his head and listened. A distant hum reverberated through the sky above.
He didn’t need to step off the porch and look up to know what he was listening to. “A drone. You get eyes on it yet?”
Micha shook his head. “Didn’t want to alert the operator to my position and make him fly off.”
“He’s flying pretty low,” Dev said.
“Could be the smoke is causing him to get closer for clear pictures.”
“Makes sense.”
“What’s your plan?” Micha asked.
Dev had lived in the cabin long enough to know the property well. He could slip off the porch and into the trees where he could get a look above while remaining undercover. “Stay here. I’ll take a look.”
He didn’t wait for agreement, but eased his way along the building to the far end and stepped off, hugging the cabin’s rough cedar siding until he reached the back where he duckwalked between aromatic shrubs to the massive evergreens. Planted long before the cabin was built, the trees towered toward the sky, and their lower branches were thick and wide.
He slipped between them, the rough branches brushing against his arms and snagging his shirt. He emerged on the far side of the long stand of trees planted as a windbreak from the lake. A good thing as the wind was brisk tonight, and not taking the time to put on a jacket, it chilled his body.
