She peeked at him. He still gripped the wheel and was checking the surroundings as he drove. After the break-ins and the shooting, was he going to allow her to stay at the campground with Jada or would he make such a big deal of her safety that he ruined the week?
If he got it in his mind that it wasn’t safe, she doubted he would let either of them stay. But she wasn’t the wide-eyed, naïve teenager he used to know and who followed him around whenever possible. She was an adult now and could make her own decisions. October meant off-season at the campground, and she and Jada would be the only ones staying there. She was sure it would make it easier to spot anything out of the ordinary.
“You’re taking me to the campground, right?” She held his gaze. “Jada will be there waiting for me.”
“We’ll stop by there and let her know you’ll be staying with me at our compound instead.”
“Even if I agreed to go to the compound with you—which I’m not saying I will—I won’t leave Jada at the campground by herself.”
“Too bad one of our guest cabins isn’t available this week. You and Jada could have your reunion there and pretend it’s the Bluebird.”
“I appreciate your concern, but we’ll be fine at the campground. Besides, you just said there wasn’t an available cabin, so where would we stay? Before you suggest your cabin, you don’t have room. Jada told me that you only have three bedrooms.”
“No worries. I can bunk with Colin, and you two can share my room.”
She’d forgotten how persistent—stubborn—he could be when he wanted to get his way. “There’s no need to put yourself out like that. I’m fine at the campground, and that’s where I want to stay.”
He fired a testy look her way. “Even if someone wasn’t shooting at you, it might not be safe for you and Jada to stay there right now. Not with the recent break-ins.”
“We don’t even know that the shooter was shooting at me per se. He could’ve been firing at me because I was the only person in the parking lot. And you said you think kids broke into the cabins. They’re not going to hurt me.”
His fingers tightened on the wheel. “That could be true, but if the shooter wanted to fire at random people, he would’ve chosen a parking lot that wasn’t usually empty unless a special event was going on.”
“Maybe he thought a special event was being held today.”
He coasted to a stop at a four-way stop sign and took a hard look at her. “We can speculate all we want. All I know for sure is that the Shadow Lake compound is well secured. A while back someone tried to steal weapons, so Reid built a perimeter fence and a solid gate with a keypad lock. That would be the safest place for you right now.”
She didn’t want to talk about this anymore, but she also didn’t want to agree to it at this time. “Jada and I can discuss it, and we’ll make a decision together.”
“I love my sister, but she doesn’t always make the best decisions. You know as well as I do that she can be kind of flighty.”
At the thought of her impetuous friend, Kinsley smiled. Jada was usually up for an adventure that she hadn’t quite thought through before acting on. Kinsley was more a straightlaced, by-the-book kind of person and appreciated her friend’s imaginative personality.
She looked out the window to avoid his piercing intensity. “We’ll see. You can drop me off at the campground, and I’ll let you know.”
“No!” He revved the engine and peeled away from the stop sign. “I’ll take you to the campground, but I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay there until you make a decision. And if you decide to stay at the campground, I’ll be staying in the cabin next door. So if you really don’t want to put anyone out, then you should join us at the compound.”
Grr.He was making things extremely difficult. He clearly thought she was in danger, but she still wasn’t certain she was the target of those bullets, and if teenagers broke into the cabin, they wouldn’t come back when someone was staying there.
“I really don’t think anyone would be firing at me.”
He sucked in a short breath.
She glanced at him. “I can’t think of a single person who would want to kill me.”
“What about your job? You examine crucial failures to find criminal wrongdoing. I’m sure you’ve shut down projects where the person under investigation wanted to seek revenge for your part in sending them to prison. Surely, someone has threatened you.”
She didn’t want to admit to being threatened or even think about it, but he was right. A particularly nasty situation five years ago came to mind. Nico Huff, a building contractor, cut costs on concrete footings and other structural materials for a high-rise apartment building. He paid off the inspector and would’ve gotten away with it if his foreman hadn’t blown the whistle. If he’d completed the project, the building’s foundation most certainly would’ve failed and hundreds of people could’ve been injured or killed.
“Well?” His demanding tone set her teeth on edge. “Has anyone threatened you?”
Despite his insistent behavior, to which she didn’t want to answer, he wasn’t going to let it go until she did. “I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t happened.”
He pressed on the accelerator and turned south at the Boulder Lake turnoff. “Anything that sticks out in your mind?”
She told him about the situation with Huff. “But he couldn’t be shooting at me. He’s in prison.”
“Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a person on the outside doing his job for him. He could easily have paid someone to take you out.”
