by Paula Graves
But they still hadn’t figured out how the men who’d accosted them had known to look for them in Bryson City at the Hunters’ place.
“I get the feeling something’s up with this interrogation,” Quinn said a few minutes later, breaking the tense silence and drawing her thoughts back to the present.
“Good or bad?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer, but she couldn’t go through life avoiding things that frightened her.
“I don’t know. I just can’t shake the sense something’s changed.”
She looked at him, trying to read his expression. A fool’s game—Quinn never gave anything away he didn’t want to. And sometimes when he wanted to, what he gave away was a lie he wanted you to believe.
Before she could ask another pointless question, the door to the office opened and Max Clanton entered, his sandy eyebrows lifting in surprise as he spotted them waiting in front of his desk. “Y’all know it’s nearly five a.m., right? Figured you’d have moseyed on home for the night.”
Olivia rose to face him. Max Clanton was a tall man, fit and trim, looking young for a man in his midforties, and from the handful of things she’d heard about his time on the Knoxville Police Force before he ran for Ridge County Sheriff, he was tough as a bull. But he must have seen something fierce in her expression when she turned to look at him, because his forward progress faltered and his expression shifted from affability to wariness.
“Where is Cade Landry?”
“I’m not sure.” Avoiding her gaze, Clanton continued to his desk and sat in his chair, making a show of straightening the files on the corner of his desk.
“You’re not sure?” she pressed, starting to grow alarmed. “An hour ago he was in your interview room down the hall, talking to the FBI. I thought that’s where you were, too.”
“I was called away on a different case,” Clanton said apologetically. “When I checked in again, the interview room was empty.”
“Empty?” Olivia took a step toward the sheriff’s desk.
Quinn rose and put his hand on her elbow, holding her in place. “Thank you for allowing us to wait in your office. If you have any further questions for Ms. Sharp or any of my employees, we’ll be happy to oblige.” He guided Olivia out the door and into the narrow corridor outside, shutting the door behind them.
“Where the hell is Landry?” she asked, keeping her voice down.
“My guess is, he’s been taken into custody by the FBI, at least temporarily.”
“And the Ridge County Sheriff’s Department just let them take him?”
“Technically, he’s committed no crimes in Ridge County that would give the sheriff primary jurisdiction.” Quinn nudged her down the hall and out into the main foyer. “I’ll make some calls, see if I can track down where he’s been taken.”
“That won’t be necessary.” A tall, dark-haired man with clear blue eyes and a Southern drawl stepped in front of them as they started toward the door. He handed Olivia a card.
It read “Will Cooper. Federal Bureau of Investigation.” She looked up at him, her eyes narrowing.
“Where’s Landry?”
“My guess is, he’s currently on the way to The Gates. The FBI has released him under his own recognizance while the details of his situation continue to be sorted out.” Cooper nodded at Quinn. “Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Quinn. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Will Cooper.”
“One of the Alabama Coopers, I assume?”
Will smiled. “My brother Caleb gave me a call because I’m on a multistate task force investigating and interdicting domestic terror incidents. I’ve just been assigned temporary duty in the Knoxville field office to review some recent undercover operations run out of that office as well as the Johnson City resident agency.”
“You got Landry released.”
“He’s got some details to work out, but unless different evidence arises, there aren’t likely to be any charges pending against him.” Will nodded toward the door. “I’d like to talk to you, Mr. Quinn, about your investigation into the Blue Ridge Infantry, if you’d be willing to discuss it with me.”
Quinn looked at Olivia. She nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll meet you there.” She peeled off toward her car in the visitor’s parking lot and pulled out her phone as she settled behind the steering wheel.
It was a long shot to think Landry would still have possession of the burner phone Quinn had given him. The cops had probably confiscated it as evidence. She’d just have to hope he was waiting for her.
When she arrived at The Gates, the agents’ bull pen was buzzing with activity, agents making up for lost time after the snow days. Olivia caught Ava Solano’s arm as the other woman edged past her in the doorway. Ava had worked with Landry briefly when they’d both been in the FBI’s Johnson City RA. “Ava, have you seen Cade Landry?”
Ava’s dark eyebrows lifted. “I thought he was at the sheriff’s office, being questioned still. Did they let him go?”
“Seems to be the case, at least for now. Have you been here for the past hour or so?”
Ava nodded. “I have tons of paperwork I’m catching up on. If I see him, I’ll tell him you’re looking for him.”
Olivia made herself slow down as she left the bull pen and headed for Quinn’s office to see if he and Will Cooper had arrived. Maybe Cooper had misunderstood and the FBI agents who’d come from Knoxville to interrogate Landry had simply taken him to Knoxville for more questioning.
As disheartening an idea as it was to think he was still in deep trouble with the Bureau, it was a better option than the panicky fear starting to take up room in the back of her mind.
Face it, Olivia. There’s always the chance he’s run again.
But how would he run? He no longer had the Tahoe to drive. When he’d shown up in her front yard a few days ago, his only means of transportation was a thrift-store bicycle.
Which brought up another question. If he’d left the sheriff’s department the way Will Cooper said, how had he managed it? On foot? Called a cab? Hopped on a bus?
She settled down in the chair in front of Quinn’s desk and tried to think. Could he have caught a ride with another agent from The Gates? As far as she knew, she and Quinn had been the only ones there at the sheriff’s office this afternoon, but Dennison’s wife worked there as a deputy. She supposed Landry could have run into Dennison at the station and asked for a lift.
As she was dialing Dennison’s number, Quinn and Will Cooper entered the office, their pace faltering a little when she stood and took a step toward them.
“Cooper, you said Landry had left and you thought he was headed here, but he’s not here. Can you tell me how he left the sheriff’s department?”
Cooper looked momentarily nonplussed by the question, then apparently caught on to what she was asking. “One of the deputies going off duty offered him a ride.”
“Male? Female?”
“Female. Dark hair, dark eyes, midthirties—”
That could fit Sara Dennison. “Thanks.” She headed past them into the corridor and pulled out her phone. Sara’s number was saved somewhere in her call list, wasn’t it?
She found it as she was heading down the winding staircase to the first floor and made the call.
Sara answered on the second ring. “Dennison.”
“Sara, it’s Olivia. Did you give Cade Landry a ride this afternoon?”
“I did—he said he needed a lift to your place because he’d left a lot of his stuff there when y’all had to bug out. Frankly, he could do with a shower after sweating out an FBI interrogation, so I dropped him off at your cabin. I hope that was okay. I talked to Cain and he said you and Landry were friends.”
“It’s fine,” Olivia assured her, already out the back door to the employee parking lot.
* * *
Landry ran his hand over the cold steel handlebars and remembered the ride up the mountain to this place, the snowfall increasing with every mile. He’d been terrified he was making the worst decision of his life.
He should have known better. Being with Olivia was always the right choice. How could he have ever thought anything different?
For a moment the sound of a car engine approaching up the mountain road sent a little ripple of alarm darting through him. But he made himself remain calm, though he didn’t entirely relax his guard. He might not be stuck in fight-or-flight mode anymore, but there were still dangerous people out there who might be willing to take another shot at bringing him down.
The FBI hadn’t given him back the Kimber or the Kel-Tec P-11 he’d had on him when they’d taken him in. He supposed they wanted to hold them as evidence until they fully settled his case.
That was fine. He had nothing to hide now.
Fortunately, he’d stashed his extra weapon in the locked cabinet in the shed, along with some ammo. He located the key in the hidden spot Olivia had shown him and unlocked the cabinet to retrieve the compact Ruger and its holster. He clipped the holster to his belt and loaded the magazine into the grip as the approaching vehicle came to a stop nearby. The engine cut, and he heard a door open, then close with a slam.
Olivia’s voice rang out in the cold afternoon air. “Landry!”
He shoved the Ruger into the holster and edged through the shed door.
“Landry, are you here? Please say you’re here!” The anxiety in Olivia’s voice caught him by surprise, making him hurry as he rounded the side of the house toward her voice.
She was halfway up the porch steps when he reached the front yard.
“I’m here,” he said.
She whirled around to look at him, her blue eyes wide. “Landry.”
As he started to cross the yard, she came back down the porch steps and met him at the bottom. “Livvie.”
She reached out and touched the front of his jacket, her gaze settling somewhere around the middle of his throat. “I thought you’d gone.”
He put his hand over hers. Her fingers were cold and trembled a little beneath his touch. “You think I’d go without saying goodbye?”
She tugged her hand away and stepped back, her expression shuttering. “Is that why you’re here? To say goodbye?”
“Let’s go inside. Get a fire started and get warm.” He put his hand under her elbow and nudged her toward the steps. She seemed to resist for a second, then gave in and went upstairs and unlocked her front door.
She went straight to the wood bin by the fireplace and went about the job of building a fire in the hearth, her movements quick and efficient, like everything she did.
She was radically competent, brilliantly resourceful and marvelously self-sufficient. She was, in short, a magnificent woman, and he could spend the rest of his life trying to be worthy of her without getting anywhere near his goal.
But he had to try. Because the alternative was walking away from her again. And he knew now, with utter certainty, that he didn’t have it in him to do that again.
“I’m not sure my trouble with the FBI is over,” he said, breaking the tense silence that had risen between them.
She gave the fire one last poke and turned around to look at him. “I really didn’t expect them to let you go on your own recognizance, given that you’ve been a fugitive for so many months.”
“I’ve offered to testify in front of a Senate subcommittee on domestic terrorism, which seemed to mollify my interrogators a bit.” He moved closer, holding out his hands to warm them in front of the fire. “There was a new guy, Cooper—seemed to think I won’t be charged with anything given the circumstances of my disappearance.”
“That’s good.”
She still hadn’t looked at him since they’d entered the cabin. Her shoulders were tense, her chin set and a little on the belligerent side.
“Livvie, I’m not leaving.”
Slowly, she looked up at him. “You say that now...”
“I will never leave you again. Not if I have a choice. As long as you want me to hang around, I’m in. No doubts.”
She raised one of her eyebrows a notch. “You? With no doubts?”
He caught her hands, tugged her around to look at him. In the firelight, she was a golden goddess, as beautiful and luminous a creature as he’d ever seen. His heart seemed to swell near bursting, so full of gratitude and love that he didn’t know what to do with all the emotion.
“I lost you because I was a stupid idiot. But somehow, when everything seemed hopeless, I closed my eyes and looked for an answer, and there you were. Like a light in my darkness. So I found you. Because you were my hope. You’re my home.”
Her eyes glowed like jewels as she met and held his gaze. “Landry.”
“I love you. I have loved you since almost the first day we met. There was never a point in time after that when I didn’t love you, and there never will be.” He touched her face, his thumb brushing against a sparkling tear that slid from one of her eyes. “So you tell me what you want.”
“You.” She slid her hand around his neck and pulled him to her. “I want you.”
He kissed her then, a long, slow, intimate exploration that left them both breathless. Olivia finally broke away just enough to whisper against his mouth, “Say it again.”
He didn’t have to ask what she meant. “I love you.”
Her answering smile was bright enough to light up the Eastern Seaboard. “Do you realize in all the time we were together, we never said those words to each other?”
He brushed her hair away from her cheek. “Technically, one of us still hasn’t said them.”
“I love you, idiot. If I didn’t love you, I’d have probably shot you that first day you showed up in my front yard with that stupid bike.”
“So let’s do it, then.”
She shot him a wicked look. “Do it? Here? Now?”
He laughed. “Well, yes, but I was actually thinking about getting hitched.”
She took a step back, looking surprised. “Hitched?”
“Yeah. You know, married. Blissfully wed. Fitted with the old ball and chain.”
“You were doing so well there for a minute.”
He laughed again. “Marry me, Livvie.” His smile faded as he realized she might not have experienced the same epiphany he had about trust and devotion. “Unless you’re still not sure you can trust me.”
“No, that’s not it.” She brushed her thumb against his lip. “I just never thought I’d marry. I thought I’d be like my mom, always looking but never finding.”
“Is that what you still think?”
She looked up at him, her gaze frank and open. “No, it’s not. I know what I’ve found. I know it’s worth keeping.”
“So is that a yes?”
Her slow, sexy smile warmed him to his core. “Yes,” she said and kissed him again.
Epilogue
The thin gold band on her left ring finger felt right, she decided after sneaking a peek for the sixth time in the past hour. It fit perfectly, neither loose nor constricting, as if it had been forged specifically for her alone.
“It’s just a wedding ring,” Landry murmured from his desk across from hers in the agents’ bull pen on the second floor of The Gates. “It’s not going to come alive and bite you.”
She looked up at him, flashing him a quick, sheepish smile. “I like the way it looks. And the way it fits.”
“I like the way it looks on you.” The grin he shot back at her came with a full display o
f dimples and a softness in his green eyes that was endearingly shy.
She looked pointedly at the thicker band on his own ring finger. “Right back at ya.”
“Oh, my God. Why didn’t y’all just go on a real honeymoon instead of inflicting all this newlywed bliss on the rest of us?” Seth Hammond perched on the edge of Olivia’s desk, shaking his head. “Have a little mercy on us, will ya?”
Sutton Calhoun thumped Hammond on the back of his head and dropped a file folder on Olivia’s desk blotter. “I seem to remember a couple of months of you on the phone babbling disgusting endearments to your own bride, Hammond. Leave the newlyweds alone.”
Calhoun waited for Hammond to wander back to his desk before he motioned Landry over. “Here’s everything we could find on Dallas Cole. Any chance he’s not a victim? Darryl Boyle hinted to Rigsby that he wasn’t the only one in the FBI who was a true believer, and so far, we’re just not finding any dirt on Philip Crandall.”
“We just don’t know,” Landry admitted. “Given my own recent history, I’m in no position to assume a man’s disappearance is evidence of his complicity in a crime. But Dallas Cole could have been trying to set us up so we wouldn’t go to Crandall for help. It might have been a ploy to slow us down until the BRI could get their assets in place.”
“Well, it’s a place to look,” Olivia pointed out. “If he is one of the bad guys, we need to find him.”
Calhoun’s slate blue eyes darkened. “And if he’s not one of the bad guys?”
“Then he’s in trouble and could use our help,” Landry answered. “If he’ll take it.”
Olivia reached out, putting her hand over her husband’s, her wedding band clinking quietly against his. His gaze flicked up to meet hers, and his dimples made a quick appearance.
A hint of amusement tinted Calhoun’s voice. “Either way, Quinn wants us to find Cole and bring him in before the BRI gets their hands on him. He wants you two in charge of the investigation, since you know the most about him.”