“So, Wilder is the key to putting Mars away again.”
“Not just Wilder,” Deke said. “Gabe. He was in on the original arrest warrant years ago, after the sting. He gave the testimony that sent Brand Sorros away. He could still testify against Mars for his years of drug running.”
Silence hit the room then and Jericho glanced at Harley. Something wasn’t ... didn’t ... “I don’t understand,” he said. “How did Wilder see the execution?”
“I don’t know,” Harley said.
Jericho glanced up at her, words stirring ... “You know who might know...”
Her mouth opened. Closed. She nodded, her mouth pinched.
“Who?” said Sully.
Harley got up, walked to the kitchen, and set her cocoa mug in the sink. Returned to stand by the sofa. “What are we waiting for?”
He smiled and she met it.
We.
“Who!” Sully shouted.
Deke had put his hands into his pockets, his mouth a grim line. “They’re out at my parents’ place,” he said quietly. “It wasthe safest place to house them. I’ll get a BOLO out on that pickup you saw, Jericho. Let me know what you find out.”
Jericho had gotten up. “We’ll call if there’s trouble.”
Orlando followed him to the door.
“For the love. Who are you talking about?” Sully asked, now on his feet.
“Adam Waters, Sul.”
He followed Harley out to her Jeep and got in. Orlando jumped into the back seat and settled down.
The sky scattered stars across the blackness, and they twinkled down like magic as they pulled out of the Eagle’s Nest.
Honestly, the last place he wanted to go was some tucked-away “safe” house—aka, one of the traveler cabins on the Starr Air Service compound—so he could pry information out of Gabriel Tatum.
Harley looked over at him. “You sure you’re okay?”
“Hard to tell. I was nearly shot by the Sorros brothers, buried in an avalanche and frozen to death in the dark. And now ... I’m sitting next to...”
He took a breath, swallowed, then, why not?The woman I love—
She beat him to it. “The woman you can’t get rid of?”
He laughed and she grinned.
“Just try and get away from me, HT.I have anSAR dog.I’ll find you.”
She laughed, and it found his soul and he breathed it in, let it soak through his heart.
Funny, but it no longer held the broken nooks and crannies of rejection.
He even put a hand to his chest, waiting for the pinch of regret.
Nothing.
She hit the highway and headed back to the town of Copper Mountain, then past it, north. A couple miles from the airport,her lights carved out a trail through the snow, then through the woods until they finally pulled up to the open meadow of the Starr Air Service HQ. Three small cabins huddled in the shadow of the larger log home that overlooked the Copper Mountain Range.
