We drove north out of Enchanted Rock, and turned onto a lonely country road somewhere about halfway to Yellow Rose. Matthew took us up the twisting, winding country road to the Frost Security cabin they’d converted into a safe house. Night had deepened during the drive, and we were pushing closer and closer to midnight.
“Even the road was re-built when we got this place,” he explained. “It’s the only way in before, but now it’s been redone so that it twists and turns and takes forever to get up. Anyone tries to sneak up this way without their headlights on is liable to hit a deer, or a tree. And if they do come up with their lights on, it takes them forever to get up the road.”
“Do you have use this place a lot?”
“Only a few times before. But it’s better to be prepared than not.”
With gravel crunching beneath the tires of the pickup, we pulled around the final turn. Ahead of us, the cabin was framed for a brief moment in the headlights like a singer performing her solo on stage, before we pulled off to the side and parked.
“Here we are,” Matthew said as he turned off the engine and climbed out of the pickup. I followed suit and went around to his side as he began to pull his duffel and my bag out of the back. He handed me my luggage, a simple box style one that held everything I would need.
Not knowing how long I’d be up here under security, I’d packed a whole week’s worth of clothing while he and Frank O’Dwyer, along with Deputy Glick, had gone over my house with a fine-toothed comb. They hadn’t found anything kind of clues as to the identity of the perpetrator—something which seemed to upset Frank and Matthew even more than it did the deputy.
“There should be something here,” Matthew had said quietly to Frank as the other man did something really curious: lifted his nose to the air and sniffed. “See what I mean?” Matthew had asked when he’d finished.
Frank just shrugged in response, then leaned in closer and whispered something.
“Maybe,” Matthew said, his voice still carrying more than I think he’d intended. I wasn’t sure what they didn’t want to tell me, but I knew for certain that they didn’t want me to hear their little interaction. “But I dunno, you’re probably right.”
And now we were here, up in the mountains on a little retreat.
Matthew led the way up onto the cabin’s porch and unlocked the front door, flicking on the lights as he stepped inside the spacious living room. “Everything should be stocked,” he said, heading past the couch that sat in front of a large TV. “Lately Peter’s been keeping a close eye on everything for whatever reason, so one of us has been up here every weekend to make sure all our supplies are good, and that the generator’s always running and has plenty of diesel.”
“Paranoid, much?” I asked him. “Your boss, I mean.”
He chuckled as he set his bag down at the mouth of the little hallway that was right where the living room seemed to blend into the small, but serviceable, kitchen. “Peter’s always been a little more focused on preparedness than your average person. Not like a crazy prepper or anything, but I think the military does that to you. We lived with surprise as part of our lives for so long, it’s hard to shake.”
“Rooms back that way?” I asked as I crossed the living room to him.
“Yeah,” he said as I brushed past him. “Yours is the first on the left and I’ll be taking one around the corner.”
I nodded, squeezing past him and into the hallway. I stopped as my front brushed against him, my breath short. I bit my lower lip as we locked eyes. All my thoughts of wanting to raise a family, of that first kiss with Lawrence, of how wonderful Matthew’s body had felt pressed against mine rushed through my mind at blinding speed. It was almost as if I could see the future unfolding in front of me, like a long highway that traveled out to the distant horizon. A stable family, a life beyond what I’d ever imagined with a good, kind, wonderful man. All I needed was to hop in the car and ride.
Deep in his eyes I saw something else, though, something beyond just a future for us. It was deeper, darker, more exciting.
My heart pitter-pattered a little faster, my breath coming more quickly, as I began to sink into them.
“I need to go walk the grounds,” he suddenly said, turning his face from mine as he stepped back into the living room, out of the tight confines of the hallway. “Make sure everything’s secure.”
Still a little breathless from our contact, I blinked slowly as I hitched my purse higher on my shoulder. I gave him a little nod as he looked back at me. “Sure, sounds great.”
“Going to be okay in here alone?”
“Yeah, of course. I’m just going to get settled in, that’s all.”
He nodded and headed out to the front door with his hand on the gun on his hip. The whole time he’d been at my house with Frank and Deputy Glick, he’d been armed. And during the ride up here he’d kept it within hand’s reach. Now, it looked like he’d be sleeping with it in his room, and have it holstered to him whenever he was walking the grounds.
I didn’t know how I felt about it. I knew he needed to be armed because of the situation we were in, and I knew he was trained to carry a handgun. Maybe what it boiled down to was that I was in a situation that required me to have an armed guard. Before, I’d just been a client who’d hired Frost Security to help out my uncle with his legal problems. But somehow along the way, those problems had somehow metastasized into this amorphous blob of unseen threats and instigators. Weeks ago, it had just been a set-up by some random person. Now? It was the Denver Mafia, with bullets flying and people breaking into my home to try and silence us through intimidation.
I went into the room he’d pointed out to me, the first on the left, and dropped my luggage and purse on the bed. It was a small room with a double bed, but the linen looked and smelled freshly laundered. A curtained window covered in blinds was cut into the wall over the head of the bed, and there was a closet off to one side, along with a chest of drawers and two nightstands. All in all, it was functional and nondescript.
Out in the living room, the front door opened and closed, the screen door banging shut against the frame, as Matthew stepped out into the dark woods.
God, I just wanted this to be over. I wanted my uncle out of prison, wanted my life somewhat back to normal.
But, as I closed my eyes and took a slow, deep breath, I realized why I really wanted this over.
Matthew Jones. Once this case was over, there wouldn’t be any protocol for him to worry about. A nice dinner together wouldn’t be a business meeting, or client relations. Instead, it would be just what it appeared to be: a nice dinner. A date.
I stifled a yawn as I opened my eyes and began to pull my nightclothes out of my bag. It was getting late, and we had to leave early tomorrow morning if we wanted to be on time for that meeting with Sheriff Peak.