Page 20 of Love Me Dangerous

“How did you end up working for Stu?” I ask when he still hasn’t replied.

“He offered me a job,” Zach says, still not looking at me.

Well, duh. “I haven’t told anyone that it was you at the lake.”

He adjusts his hat, which flashes his tattoo of what I see now are two snakes, one light, one dark. The idea of tracing them with my fingertips should not make my thighs tense.

“Good,” he says.

So I was right—he doesn’t want attention. “Why do you want it a secret?”

The chair rattles past another tower. We’ve entered the section cleared of trees where it’s cooler, and goosebumps prick down my arms. I’m not dressed for this.

“Who was that guy at the show?” he asks instead.

That he’s flipping this conversation around isn’t lost on me, but I’ll play if it’ll keep him talking. “Gabe Olson.”

Zach’s eyes widen like he’s surprised. “Any relation to Sheriff Olson?”

“His dad.”

The muscles in his neck tense.

“How do you know the sheriff?” I ask.

“Who says I know him?”

I give him a look.

“So you and Gabe…” I barely catch this over the hum of the cable and the stiff breeze now making me shiver.

“He’s friends with my brother Jesse.” It’s more complicated than this, but it’ll hold for now. “We all went to the show together.”

“Does he regularly treat you like that?”

My gut rolls inside out. “Not anymore.”

Zach’s gaze flicks to mine, and he releases a tight sigh.

We bump through another set of tower wheels. My ears pop. “Thank you for what you did.”

“You’re welcome.” He sits back, his eyes focused ahead.

Our ascent steepens past a jagged rock section popular with expert skiers in the winter. The idea that someone would throw themselves off a cliff while attached to two pointed blades of fiberglass is beyond me.

“How did you end up at the accident?” I ask.

“I saw the Jeep go off the road.”

The chair bounces through another tower.

I think about this answer. If he’s trying to stay out of trouble—whatever that means—he’s not doing a very good job of it.

“How long have you worked in the childcare center?” he asks before I can fire off another question.

“Two years.”

“You like working with kids?”

---