“Again, Grizz?” Ginny ran her hand up and down her husband’s arm.

They’d made love twenty minutes earlier, and were enjoying the rare solitude that came with having the house to themselves. They were completely nude, on top of the covers, and had the bedroom door wide open. Thunderclap Newman’s “Something in the Air” was softly playing from an iPod that was connected to a speaker on their nightstand.

“Are you asking or telling me, Kit?”

His voice was low and deep and the tone never failed to send a spiral of heat flowing through her blood. Mimi was at camp, Jason was on a hunting trip, and the twins were spending the night with cousins. It wasn’t very often they were minus children, but they were tonight, and were taking full advantage of it.

Ginny sat up, and gave him a wicked grin. “You’re the one who likes to hear me scream. And because there’s always someone in the house when we make love, I normally have to bite my knuckles off trying to shove my hand in my mouth so I don’t make so much noise. But not tonight.” She lightly caressed his muscled and heavily tattooed bicep.

Ginny recognized when his eyes turned from teasing and playful to intense and heated. Her gaze roamed down her husband’s hard chest and she shook her head with a smile as her eyes wandered lower. “It never ceases to amaze me how fast you get hard.” Ginny looked back at him and saw him swallow, his eyes never leaving hers as he guided her on top of him.

"I'll still be getting hard for you when I'm in my nineties." His voice held its low rumble. "Besides, I'm still in my fifties and I have a lot of lost time to make up for."

"You won't be in your fifties for long," she laughed. "Your birthday isn't that far off."

Disregarding her attempt to tease him, Grizz's voice was thick with need when he asked, "Kit, do you wanna scream for me again, or not?”

“Make me,” she challenged, her voice husky.

And he did.

Later, they were tangled together in bed talking when Ginny stifled a yawn.

“Go to sleep, baby,” Grizz said as he kissed the top of her head. She’d been twining his long hair around her finger, and when she didn’t object, he helped her untangle it.

She felt him pull away and she opened her eyes. “Aren’t you tired?”

“Nah,” came his reply as he stood up and stretched. “I’m gonna check my stocks, and maybe watch the news. Where’s your laptop?”

“I left it on the end table in the great room. It should be fully charged.”

He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. Pulling on his thermal long johns, he headed out to the great room, and found her computer where she said it would be. He sat in his recliner, opened up the laptop and then picked up the remote to turn on the television. He missed the eleven o’clock news, but knew they would rebroadcast it shortly.

When he first allowed himself to test the waters with the computer, his huge fingers were clumsy and awkward on the keyboard, but as he became more familiar with the act of typing, it got easier. He didn’t know how long he’d been staring at the computer screen, when he thought he heard the words “Camp Keowee” coming from the TV. Slowly closing the laptop and setting it aside, he reached for the remote and turned up the volume on the television. He wasn’t sure if what he was hearing was true, but he couldn’t take his eyes away from the screen. When the clip ended he raced into the bedroom and flipped on the light.

“What? What is it? What’s going on?” Ginny asked, alarmed. She sat straight up and watched Grizz jog to the safe hidden in their bedroom.

“I need to talk to Bill,” he huffed.

Grizz had a phone that he used only to communicate with Bill, and he rarely touched it. This was important, and Ginny could feel her heart racing as she climbed out of bed and ran to her husband.

“Tell me!” she cried when she got to him. “Tell me what’s wrong. Why do you need to talk to Bill right now? What’s so important?”

Ginny listened, stunned, as Grizz explained how he’d just seen a news broadcast about a man dying from a serious illness.

“The anchorman said he was a counselor at Camp Keowee, and the camp is under quarantine. That’s Mimi’s camp, right?” he asked.

Ginny nodded and quickly added, “I’ll check my phone to see if she texted. I’m sure she’ll be heading here. They can’t keep her there, can they?” She turned her back on him as she headed for her phone on her nightstand.

Grizz grabbed her arm and spun her around. “You don’t understand, Kit. They closed it down and wouldn’t let anybody in.”

Ginny breathed a sigh of relief, but something about the comment confused her. “Wait. What are you saying? They’re not letting anyone else in? Or they’re not letting the campers and counselors out?”

Grizz gently grabbed both of Ginny’s forearms. “Baby, they closed the camp and turned everyone away over a week ago. Mimi never got there. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

Ginny gasped as the significance of what Grizz was saying sunk in. “I need to call her. She must have her phone, right?”

“Don’t call her yet,” Grizz demanded. “Let me call Bill and have him activate the tracker on her car. If she’s back at school, then you can call her. Maybe she didn’t want to come home, and didn’t want to hurt our feelings.”

Ginny shook her head. “No. No. Mimi wouldn’t do that, Grizz.”

She could tell by his expression that he knew she was right. “Give me five minutes. Okay?” What he couldn’t say was that if Mimi not arriving at the camp had anything to do with his past, he wouldn’t want to alert whoever his daughter might be with. The person whose neck Grizz planned on snapping.

“Yeah, okay,” Ginny said as she wrapped her arms tightly around herself. It was then that she realized she was still nude. She made her way to her dresser and pulled out some clothes to occupy herself while Grizz opened the safe and made the call.

Less than twenty minutes later, they were in their truck and heading toward an address provided by Bill.

"Slow down, Grizz!" Ginny screamed. "You're going too fast on these roads. It's below freezing."

"We didn't get that much snow and what we did get melted off. The roads are fine," he answered, looking over at her. "Bill knows more than he's telling me," he growled.

"What makes you say that?" she asked, her eyes wide as she watched her husband's determined profile.

"It's just a feeling, Kit. And I don't have to tell you that it's not sitting well with me."

"Grizz, if Bill isn't telling you something, I think we can assume it's for your own good. Or Mimi's own good. He's been your most trusted ally since you were in prison." She swept her hand through the air. "He plays the most important role in keeping up the façade of your death. He's the only reason we can use a laptop." She sighed before adding, "I doubt we'd be able to go online if I didn't have the laptop Bill made especially for us. It's untraceable, no microphones or cameras. You know, all that computer stuff I don't understand."

Ginny noticed when her words started to sink in and she saw Grizz's jaw relax. "If Bill thought Mimi was in danger, he would've sent a helicopter to pick us up!" she added. Ginny knew her suggestion sounded outlandish, but not where Bill was concerned. Her words to Grizz were reassuring, and a calmness settled over her before she added, "Please don't speed, Grizz. The last thing we need is for you to get stopped for speeding in South Carolina."

He reached over and squeezed her thigh. "You've always been my voice of reason, baby."

She smiled and reached for his right hand which had found its way to her left knee. She started to grab it when he pulled it away.

"But not tonight, Kitten," he told her as he clutched the steering wheel with both hands and pressed the gas pedal to the floorboard.