Of course Jericho had followed her. Now she couldn’t shake the guy.
She hit the stairwell door, her thoughts careening, the events of the past few days crashing around her, from getting shot, to Gabe’s reappearance, to the search for Daniel, to...
Jericho.“Iwas afraid I’d fail.”
She’d taken the first flight of stairs down, rounded to the second flight, but for a second, Jericho’s words from the cabin struck her.
Sure, he said he’d been afraid he’d fail the resort—but, yeah.
She knew him.
“You’re going to get in over your head,and Iwon’t be able to save you!”And maybe it was being back here, in the place where it all started, but as she reached the landing and plunged out into the back hallway of the hospital, she found herself standing in the very place where her world had exploded so many years earlier.
Her entire body shook with the memory of their argument. She’d been blinded by the brutal blow on her pride.
But he was right. She’d driven him away.
She’d driven all of them away, really.
“Harley!”
She’d escaped out the side door, outside, into the cleared path of the hospital, nearly running toward the parking lot. But she had no idea where she might be going.
And then a dog barked and ran up to her, nearly blocking her path—big surprise there because, of course, Orlando would track her. She stopped, right at the edge of the sidewalk, under the bright floodlight of the lot.
Jericho ran up, breathing a little hard. “Where do you think you’re going?”
And he probably didn’t mean it like it came out, but she snapped back, “I don’t know, okay?”
He exhaled a shaky breath, looked around, something stricken in his expression.Wait—
“Let’s get out of here,” Jericho said. He jerked his head toward his Silverado, Orlando on his heels.
She stared after him, his broad back. Probably a good idea.
Except when she got in the passenger seat, he sat, icy, his jaw tightened.
“Why do I get the feeling that every time we get in this truck, you’re angry with me.”
He sighed, then emitted a deep huff and turned on the engine. “It’s fine.”
She frowned at him as he pulled out of the parking lot. “What are you talking about? Nothing is fine! My brother lied to me, and you clearly think—and I do too—that Mars sent someone to kill Daniel, and clearly I’m in his sights too—”
“And you’re going to get yourself and the rest of us killed.”
He could have swung at her with less effect. Her mouth opened. “What?”
He’d pulled out onto the main road, toward the Bowie Resort, where she’d parked her Jeep. He could break molars with the clench of his jaw.
Yeah, well, her too. She folded her arms, looked away.
“Fine,” he said, his voice softer now. “You scared me.”
She stilled, glanced back at him.
He swallowed, his face illuminated in the dash light. “First, you stand up to some guy in the woods who’s holding a .308—probably fully loaded—and then you just ... you just ran into that barn.” He winced, just a little, and then, very softly, “Mars could have been waiting inside.”
Oh.
