Page 14 of Mountain Hero

“It’s okay, Patrick.” Officer Nelson turns to her partner. “I’m sure Winter wants to talk to her aunt right away.” Then she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a phone. Holding it out to me, she says, “I know how much you must need to hear a friendly voice right now. You can use my phone.”

For a moment, I just gape at her, too shocked to speak.

“I believe you, Winter.” Her dark brown eyes hold mine, not just sympathy in them, but understanding. “You need to talk to your aunt. Now you don’t have to wait. I’ll be right outside the room, so you can let me know when you’re done.”

Swallowing against tears, I take the phone from her. “Thank you. So much. I won’t do anything else. Just call her. But… thank you.”

The faint embers of optimism kindle again.

First Enzo. Now this lovely officer who doesn’t just believe me, she trusts me.

Maybe things still can work out.

I hope.

CHAPTER 4

ENZO

There are a lot of things I should be focusing on, but my mind keeps coming back to one.

Not one thing, but one person, really.

I should be at the store right now, cleaning up the mess the burglar left behind. I should be doing an inventory and putting together an order to replace the stock that was stolen.

I should call around to the other outdoor goods stores in the area, asking them to keep an eye out for any suspicious returns—one of the Garmin satellite communicators or Leatherman multi-tools that were taken.

I should be watching Alec’s crew as they install a complete security system at the store. A perk of knowing the owner of the company, he bumped my job to the top of the list and had his guys out there before daylight this morning.

If I were really on top of things, I’d be checking back in with the insurance company, making sure they’re expediting my claim.

What am I doing instead?

I’m standing out on my porch, staring out at the woods, but not really seeing them.

Winter’s face keeps coming back to me—scared, crying, in pain, but so determined to keep me safe. To keep the store safe. To do the right thing.

I can’t forget her panicked expression when she thought I was still in danger. She wasn’t worried about herself at that moment. Her only concern was for me.

Me. We’ve only met twice, and while I really liked her, I still have a hard time wrapping my head around how she risked her life for me.

Even if I don’t know the entire story, I caught enough to know she’s terrified of the man who was in the store with her. Even if they were partners, which I sincerely doubt, he hurt her. Badly. Left her behind to take the rap.

But I don’t believe she was involved. Not like that. It just doesn’t make sense. Why would she call 911 if she was intending to rob me?

Unless she didn’t know about the arson part of it until later. It’s possible; she could have been fine helping with the robbery, but drew the line at setting the store on fire. She could have argued with the man who hit her—Thomas, she said—and called the police in a last-ditch attempt to stop him.

She could be a criminal instead of the innocent my gut keeps telling me she is.

If I hadn’t relied on my gut so many times in the past, I’d be less likely to believe it. But my gut has saved me more times than I can count.

Like when we were in Iraq and I just had a feeling about the building we were supposed to infiltrate, like somehow the intel we got was wrong even though there was no reason to doubt it. When I told my team to hold, they didn’t hesitate. And I was right. The building was rigged to explode the second anyone entered it.

And when we were searching for the piece of garbage who betrayed Cole’s split team, I just had a gut feeling about where he was hiding. We’d eliminated the location initially as being too obvious, but once we got close, I just knew.

I’ve never been more thankful to have trained as a sniper than that day; when I took down the monster who hurt my friends so badly.

I relied on my gut then, and I don’t think it’s wrong now, which is why I’m out here thinking about Winter instead of doing any of the practical things that will help get the store reopened as soon as possible.

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