SWNOVELS Chance: Chapter 39
It wasa long day at Griffin Research Labs, setting up new security protocols and training everyone to follow them religiously. Seth grumbled about the lack of information coming across his fancy hacker cables. Or, rather, there was plenty of information, but none of it was a smoking gun.
It was proprietary and important, what the engineers were working on, and it would take time to analyze the coding for flaws, but there weren’t obvious red flags pointing to any single person in the lab.
Yet.
Seth remained convinced that Caroline Crowell—Callie to her coworkers—was the most likely suspect. Chance didn’t disagree. The woman had spent time in Poland, spoke Polish and Russian, and had incentive to earn extra money. Maybe it was a stretch to think that she’d want to sell out her country to keep her sister in horses, but stranger things had certainly happened.
It was also possible they were barking up the wrong tree with the secure lab. There were others who had access to it even if they didn’t work inside it all day. Could be one of them instead of someone actively programming.
By the time they were finished at the lab and heading back to Sutton’s Creek, it was after seven. Chance texted Rory to let her know he’d be late. It took a few minutes, but she texted back that everything was fine, the Dawg was busy, and so was she. Then she texted a heart. Embarrassingly, he spent far more time than a grown man ought to spend trying to figure out what she meant by it.
He thought she felt more than she let on, but he couldn’t be sure. Sex between them had been hot the first time they’d been together. It was still hot, but it seemed to have an emotional component now that hadn’t been there before.
Or maybe it was just him reading too much into it. He certainly felt strong emotion when he was inside her, touching her, listening to the sounds she made and seeing the pleasure on her face. But what did she feel?
She said she liked him, a lot, and that was something. She also agreed that his stay with her was more than temporary. Yeah, he’d noticed that she’d added a caveat, but agreeing to it in the first place was huge for her.
Then there was the way she worried for his safety when he said he was heading to the farm tonight to check for the trespasser. Rory kept her feelings close, but she cracked them open from time to time. It was progress.
When he and the guys reached the range, Chance swung his bag into Clyde and fired him up. He wanted to go straight to town, park behind the Dawg, and walk inside to feast his eyes on his woman. The pull to do so was strong, but first he needed to head to the farm and poke around.
He decided to pull into the trees a little distant from the entrance and walk. Maybe he’d surprise somebody if they didn’t hear him coming. He slid on his kevlar vest, checked his weapons, and jumped the split-rail fence. The house was lit up, the lights coming on at dusk now. Rory had said everyone knew she wasn’t there, but he’d convinced her it was a good idea anyway. People who hadn’t lived in Sutton’s Creek their whole lives wouldn’t know if she was home or not. They wouldn’t know who was there, but they’d suspect someone was.
It was usually enough to deter opportunistic criminals anyway.
He slid through shadows, avoiding the motion sensor lights, and headed for the woods. There was no scent of spent gasoline in the air tonight. The woods were quiet, but he ranged deeper than he had last night, curious. The night birds stopped their noise when he passed beneath them, but the foragers only paused in their scraping of the forest floor.
There were black bears in this part of Alabama. Coyotes. Even now he could hear their yipping back and forth. There were bobcats and wild boars, too. And gators, but those were down in the wildlife refuge a good ten miles away.
None of them scared him. He knew how to avoid them, and how to get away if he needed to.
He found tracks from the ATV in an area where the ground was still wet after the last rain more than a week ago. The tracks were fresh, probably from last night. He followed the trail until he came to a place where they bent suddenly north. The trail was more obvious here, because there was a path through the woods that somebody would have likely rode at this point. They would have felt deep enough in the woods by now, and far enough away from Rory’s place, to no longer have to hide.
They should have, but they hadn’t because they’d thought they were safe by then. Idiot.
Chance followed the trail until it came out near a dirt road. He didn’t know whose land he was on anymore, but the dirt was still damp enough to show tracks that turned sharply east. Turton land was east. Whoever had been in the woods rode a huge circular path to try and obscure their direction.
He was pretty sure last night’s visitor was Jimmy. Maybe Jimmy’d been the one who’d destroyed the garden, too. If he’d done it, why had he done it? And was he the same man who’d crept up Rory’s driveway in a car and disappeared toward the barn?
If so, what had he been up to that night? It didn’t make a lot of sense, but maybe he’d decided to check things out before he came back to destroy the garden. He might have been casing the place, deciding. It was also possible he’d intended to do something then but lost his courage.
Chance wasn’t sure how the Davises figured in yet, but he was positive they did. There was no way those two slime-balls weren’t involved.
He growled in frustration as he stood on the dark road, looking in either direction, thinking about Jimmy Turton and the Davises. Then he spun around and headed through the forest, back to Clyde, back to town.
Back to Rory.
When he strode into the Dawg, she was behind the bar, pulling beers from the tap, laughing with customers, looking as beautiful as ever. Her blonde hair was in a ponytail, sleek and glossy, and she wore a black tank top beneath one of her plaid shirts with jeans and tennis shoes.
Rory was country, but country was perfect in his estimation. He hated that her ex had hurt her, but he was damned glad the man had stepped aside and left her for him to find.
He went over to the bar and waited. When she turned and saw him, the smile on her face lit him up inside. That feeling of home was there, stronger than ever. He wanted to walk around the bar, bend her over his arm, and kiss the fire out of her right there. Claim her in front of everyone. Leave no doubt who she belonged to.
“Hey, Chancey Pants,” she said as she walked over to him. “What’ll you have?”
He leaned toward her. “You, kitten.”
She blushed a little. He liked it. “I mean to drink, mister.”
“Oh, that. Gimme a Rebellion lager, please.”
“I can do that.” She grabbed a glass and put it under a tap. “How was work?”
“Good. I missed you.”
She smiled again. “I missed you a little bit whenever I thought of you. Every once in a while.”
He laughed. “Oh, that often, huh? I’m growing on you.”
“Like a fungus,” she said with a grin. “You want to order anything to eat? I can put it in for you.”
“I don’t think you have my first choice on the menu,” he said with a wink. “For my second choice, I’ll take a burger with fries. No cheese.”
Rory tapped his order into the system, her skin pinker than usual. “Got it, big boy. Here’s your beer. Now skedaddle so I can work.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He carried the beer over to One Shot’s usual table. Seth and Ethan were there. Ghost was playing pool with a hot brunette who seemed to be giggling a lot. Kane and Daphne were probably still looking at the car, and Blaze and Emma would probably be home doing whatever it was they did at this time of night.
“Find anything?” Seth asked when Chance dragged a chair out and sat.
“Tracks. They went west, then north, then finally east.”
“Toward the Turton’s farm.”
“Yep.” Chance sipped the beer. Damn but there were some mighty fine microbreweries in northern Alabama.
“We need to pay a visit to Jimmy?” Ethan looked as angry as Chance felt inside.
“Thinking about it. You hear anything more about Ronnie and Junior yet?” he asked Seth.
Seth shook his head. “Not yet. I can ping my contact again. I’ll do it tonight.”
“Thanks. Appreciate it. Think they can dig into Jimmy too?”
“I’ll ask. Can’t hurt.”
Chance nodded and took a sip of the beer. “Sooner the better. Think I’ll avoid Jimmy until then, unless he comes in here and makes another stink.”
“Probably a good idea,” Ethan replied, throwing a glance to where Ghost stood with pool cue in hand, concentrating on the table in front of him. “Don’t need you going ninja assassin on his ass and giving the boss a heart attack.”
Chance snorted. “Yeah, probably not.”
He studied the crowd inside the Dawg. A few people glanced over at him but most minded their own business. No doubt they were wondering about him and Rory. Or wondering where he’d trained to be a warrior monk ninja assassin.
He seriously couldn’t imagine what they were going to say when news of her pregnancy got out.
For now, it was a secret because Rory wanted it that way. The people who already knew—his team, Emma, Theo—wouldn’t talk until they were given permission.
She couldn’t hide it forever, but it was up to her when she wanted to tell the news. He wanted to put a ring on her finger before that happened, stake his claim publicly. Wasn’t going to be easy, because Rory was adamant she would never get engaged again after the last time.
Since he couldn’t actually plan a wedding yet, because of the mission, maybe she’d agree to a long engagement with no pressure to choose a date. And then, when Ghost Ops was done and he was free, he’d convince her that marrying him was the best decision she’d ever make.
One step at a time. That’s how you planned a battle. And how you won a scarred woman’s heart.