Page 60 of Point of Contact

The light turned green and Reed maneuvered the RV along the nasty roads. The drive had gotten increasingly stressful as they'd hit colder, snowier climates, but he was wickedly good at navigating them. Probably because he’d spent his whole life in Alaska.

But the treacherous conditions brought up another thing she was worrying about. "I’m guessing I’ll have to learn to drive in the snow, huh?"

"If you want to go anywhere you will." Reed shot her a quick glance, his eyes moving over her face before going back to the road. "But don't worry about that either. I'll teach you."

It sounded good in theory, but more and more of her future was dependent on him. Right now she was completely at his and Alaskan Security's mercy. She talked a good game back in Miami—claiming she was more than capable of starting over—but now that it was happening, the logistics of it were much more daunting.

She had no job. No car. Nowhere to live. No friends. No family. Hell, she didn't even really have an identity at this point unless she wanted to lead the assholes who tried to blow her up right to her new front door.

And the thought of that was terrifying, especially since the door technically didn’t belong to her.

So she was back to balancing on a double-edged sword, this one colder and snowier than the last, but just as intimidating.

Her stomach clenched as they pulled up to the gates of Alaskan Security, pausing long enough for Reed to punch in a code. He waited, but nothing happened. Instead, the box beside his window let out a long, angry sounding beep.

A second later a static sound came out of the small speaker next to the keypad. "Go ahead with your order when you're ready."

Reed didn't laugh, but the set of his jaw softened a little. "Did you change the code?"

"Things have been exciting while you've been on your sightseeing journey across the United States." The female voice on the other end paused. "The code to the gate changes every morning and sometimes at lunchtime now." The box beeped again, but this time the gate lifted. "Please pull to the next window for your order."

Reed rolled up his window, all the tension he'd had from before coming back in an instant. Plus some.

"What's wrong?" His reaction made her uneasy. Made her worry that Fairbanks wasn't going to be as safe as she hoped.

Reed turned her way. "Just work stuff. Nothing you need to worry about."

Courtney sat with his response for a minute before deciding to do exactly as he said. She had enough of her own shit to worry about, there was no way she was going to add Alaskan Security's problems to the list.

The narrow road leading back to the main campus was flanked by trees, making it feel more isolated than it was from the commercial office park at the edge of the property. By the time the trees parted and the massive campus came into view, it almost felt like they were somewhere different. An isolated city of its own.

Reed pulled alongside the collection of buildings instead of parking right in front where she’d entered last time she was here. Courtney took in the massive expanse of the place as they drove alongside it and turned up the back. She'd been here before, but only to the main entrance. And even then, she'd only made it to Pierce's office before being whisked away and hidden in a cabin outside of town. It felt strange to be seeing this side of it. Like she was no longer a client.

Technically she wasn't since she didn't have the money to be a client. A twist of worry tightened in her gut at that thought, forcing her to take a deep breath to try to make it relax.

A tall garage door lifted as they approached and Reed went right in, pulling the RV up to a glass vestibule where a man stood wiping his hands on a rag. They were in some sort of parking garage, filled with SUVs and cars and even a few vans. A number of random model vehicles sat apart from the more uniform black of the SUVs.

Reed shut off the engine and climbed out but didn't say what she should do. Was she supposed to follow him? Stay there and wait until he came back? Right now everything felt so uncertain and it made her uncertain. Uncertain and anxious. And she wasn't on her best behavior when she was uncertain and anxious.

Courtney was just about to get out of the RV, primarily because her nerves made it impossible to sit still, when Reed came back from the vestibule, rounded the front of Bernadette and opened her door, extending one hand her way. "We’re all set."

She turned back to where the man in the vestibule was hanging the keys to the RV on a line of hooks just outside the door. "Are we just leaving Bernadette here?"

"For now. Artie's going to look her over. Fix everything that needs fixed and make sure her engine is the best it can be." He stopped waiting for her to take his hand and instead took hers, using the hold to pull her out. "Once he's finished, she'll go to an RV shop to be updated and overhauled."

Courtney turned to look over the camper. It initially served as nothing more than a means of escape, but over the past week it had turned into a sanctuary of sorts. Somewhere she felt safe. And the first place she ever felt appreciated.

She reached out to rest one hand on the filthy metal side. "How long will that take?"

"I don't expect it to be a quick process. I want some pretty major changes, so we probably won't get her back for at least three or four months."

Why did that make her feel so emotional? It was ridiculous. She didn't even get this upset over her house and car being blown up, but here she was considering crying over an RV being gone for a few months. "I guess we can't really take her out right now anyway." She took a deep breath, trying to rationalize her oddly out of control thoughts.

"Exactly. She’s going to be sitting in storage here anyway, so I figured we might as well put the time to good use so she’ll be ready to go when the weather breaks."

She didn’t miss how Reed continued sayingwe. Like she was included in his better weather plans.

Oddly enough, that didn't surprise her. Sure, this whole situation with him had been completely different from any interactions she'd had with men in the past. Not just because of how it started, but because they'd been in very close quarters for days and days and hadn't even come close to having sex. Yes, they'd done just about everything except that, but in her experience, most men went straight for penetration.

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