What the hell was Bree’s car doing in the small, secluded parking lot of the Risk Peak’s library?
His immediate inclination was to swerve in there and confront her, but he forced himself to keep driving so she wouldn’t notice him.His Bronco was an official vehicle, but unmarked.Anybody around town would know it was him immediately, but maybe not her.
Was she meeting someone?
He circled around the back of the library, turning off his lights and killing the engine in the grocery store parking lot across the street.She wouldn’t spot him unless she turned around and really looked.
He grabbed the binoculars in the back seat and looked through them to get a better view.It was definitely Bree in the car, and no one was with her.
Yet.
She was working on a laptop.Why the hell would she be sitting in her car outside the damn library at one o’clock in the morning working on a computer?
He stayed in his car, watching and waiting, for hours.She never got out, and nobody ever came to her.Just stared at the computer.
Finally, around 4:00 a.m., she turned her car back on and drove off.Tanner followed from behind, lights still off in his own vehicle, thankful he knew the roads well enough to drive this way.
But all she did was go back to her apartment.
Tanner stayed in his vehicle, lights still off, as she went inside.He was tempted to confront her right at this second, but he knew she wouldn’t tell him anything.
She hadn’t broken any laws, so he had no grounds to officially question her anyway.The best he would have was loitering.
He wanted to pull on his hair.Why, on the one night in particular when she was supposed to get as much sleep as possible, would she spend half the night sitting in her car outside the library working on a computer?
Not meeting anyone.Not talking on that phone of hers.
There were too many things about her that didn’t make sense.
Was this what his father had felt before the teenager he’d been trying to help fifteen years ago had ultimately turned on him and killed him?Dad had gone to pick up the kid in Denver, trying to get him out of a dire situation.Tanner’s parents had sat Tanner and his siblings down the day before and told them the kid might be staying with them for a while.That sometimes helping a stranger was the right thing to do.
Then the kid had shot his dad, point-blank, when Dad showed up to help him.Trying to gain a foothold into the local gang.
The kid himself had been killed two days later in a shootout with the police when they’d come to arrest him.
Had Dad had any inclination that the kid was going to turn on him?Had he felt the storm brewing but decided to ignore it?Up until the second a Glock 17 was pressed against his forehead, had Dad thought everything was going to work out?
Tanner wasn’t going to need a Glock against his own skin before he recognized the danger in front of him.He already saw it.
Bree Daniels might be spotless on paper, but she was damn well trouble in flesh and blood.Deadly, wrapped in big green eyes and a fragile appearance.
One Dempsey man had died because he’d refused to see the truth.
Tanner wouldn’t be the second.
Chapter Seven
Bree knew Cheryl and Dan were disappointed in her the next morning when she arrived for work, eyes gritty with exhaustion like they’d been every day before.
She’d hoped to be able to get so much more accomplished last night while the twins had been with Cheryl and Dan.But she’d just been so tired.
She should’ve known better.The Organization discovered many years ago that sleep deprivation didn’t work on her.It affected her mental facilities too much for her to be able to do delicate hacking work.
Ten years later it was still the same, even if she was the one depriving herself.
“Oh, honey,” Cheryl crooned.Bree stood stiffly as the older woman hugged her.“What happened?You still look so tired.Maybe you should take the day off.”
Dan patted her back, not nearly as outwardly affectionate as his wife, although Bree knew he also cared.“Could you still not sleep?”he asked.
