Page 74 of Peace Under Fire

While his voice was casual, even non-confrontational, his eyes had narrowed. Like he didn’t believe it, even though he’d been the one to note that there were no footprints out in the snow. Mandy frowned. She was missing something. What had Crusher picked up on?

JoAnn paused, then smirked. “Sure. I mean you just said there’s no footprints out in the snow, right?” The taunt was obvious in JoAnn’s question. “So, you’d know if I went anywhere.”

“Maybe. Maybe not,” Crusher drawled, his gaze sharp and knowing.

Mandy frowned, her gaze bouncing back and forth between JoAnn’s gloating expression and Crusher’s knowing one. What the heck was she missing?

“What about cameras? Any new ones?” Jacob asked. From his scowl, he didn’t have a clue what was going on between her sister and Crusher either.

“I haven’t noticed any.” JoAnn paused to smirk again. “But then we’ve already established that I’ve been stuck in here since the last snowfall. I suppose they could have strung some up since then.”

Crusher’s eyebrows were playing with his hairline. He looked amused, too, like he was finding Jo’s snark entertaining.

What the heck was going on between those two? Mandy glanced at Jacob, whose scowl had darkened to thunder.

“You two want to share the joke with the rest of us?” Jacob snarled.

Nope, he was not amused.

Jo’s smirk broadened. “No idea what you’re talking about.”

At least she had the decency to avoid Mandy’s eyes, so she wasn’t lying directly to her face.

“I think it’s safe to say that our little pink kitten is capable of more than healing with her hands,” Crusher drawled, with that knowing glimmer sparkling in his eyes.

The smirk on JoAnn’s face collapsed. She stared at Crusher for a moment, shock clear in her eyes, and then her spine went stiff and straight, adding maybe a quarter of an inch to her diminutive frame. “Don’t call me that!”

Jacob shook his head, studying Jo like the secondary talent Crusher had alluded to must be stamped across her face. “We already know she can kill with her hands.”

“Yeah.” Crusher shrugged. “Not talking about that, brother.” Before anyone had a chance to demand an explanation, he turned back to JoAnn. “What about drones? Any of those hanging around overhead…kitten?”

Scowling, she wagged her chin at him. “I am not a kitten.”

Crusher raised his eyebrows. “The drones?”

Mandy kept her face straight, holding her surprise at bay. It was downright unnerving how fast Crusher had located JoAnn’s pain points. Her sister hated her lack of size and substance. She thought her shortness and slightness made her look weak and defenseless. That’s why she spent so much time in the gym working out, trying to bulk up. She detested, absolutely loathed, when people underestimated her. To Jo, a kitten was a cute, cuddly—defenseless—creature. She’d hate being compared to one.

“The drones?” Crusher asked again, his tone patient.

JoAnn glared at him. “If I answer your stupid question, will you stop calling me that repulsive nickname?”

Crusher arched a dark eyebrow. “Maybe.”

“Fine!” The word emerged in a hiss. “Yes, there have been drones.”

Crusher nodded, unsurprised. “How often?”

“I don’t know, a couple of times a day,” she shrugged. “Often enough to notice them. They fly low enough that I can hear them from inside.”

Jacob was following all of this with narrowed eyes and a suspicious face. “How did you avoid the search team when they returned to look for you?”

JoAnn didn’t look at him. She continued glaring at Crusher instead, a look of audaciousness on her face—like she was just daring him to contradict her. “I hid. Just lucky nobody bothered to check my hiding places, I guess.”

“Sure,” Crusher drawled.

And there it was again, his dryness and doubt, like he knew her secret. Something Mandy didn’t even know. Which wasn’t possible. Jo had no secrets from her.

Did she?

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