Page 33 of Scent of Peril

The woman asked for their names. Before Logan could say anything, she spoke up. “I’m Claire Martinson, and this is my husband, Dan.”

Logan’s face flushed when she alleged they were married, but he didn’t say anything to correct her. He simply passed a portion of the cash Craig Benton had given him across the desk.

“Thank you.” The clerk took the money and handed over two room keys. “You’re in room 126.”

“Thanks,” Logan said, avoiding the clerk’s gaze. Jess hid a smile as she followed him down the hall toward their room.

“This is nice.” She glanced around the room with the rustic western motif.

“I was afraid to ask how much a suite would cost.” Logan shrugged out of his backpack, dropping it onto the floor near the bed farthest from the bathroom. “Besides, I thought that would be suspicious considering we claimed to have lost our credit cards.”

“We’ll be fine.” Oddly, much like the suite, this room also seemed more intimate than sharing the tent. She dropped her backpack down with a sense of relief. Then she took off her coat and hat. She ran her fingers through her long blond hair, wishing again that she had toiletries to take a shower. “I’ll need to call Chase soon. Knowing the grapevine around here, he may have heard about the shooting incident at the park.”

Logan removed his winter gear, then bent to pull their new phones from his pack. “Okay. It won’t take too long to get these ready to go.”

She sat on the edge of the bed, watching as Teddy sniffed the room with interest. He spent so much time sniffing the table between the two beds that she feared he’d alert on the scent of drugs. But he soon lost interest and returned to stretch out at her feet.

“Good boy.” She stroked his fur as Logan worked on the phones. “You did a good job today.”

Teddy’s tail thumped against the carpet.

“Okay, these are being charged up now.” Logan sat on the edge of the bed. “Your brother is not going to be happy that we were found at the Elk Lodge.”

“True.” She sighed. “I don’t know how we could have anticipated Benton had the ability to track our phones.”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” Logan turned on the edge of the bed to face her. “Whatever Benton is doing up on themountain must be something big. A massive drug operation of some sort to justify these attempts to find and kill us.”

She nodded slowly. “You’re probably right. This can’t be just a simple drug handoff between willing participants. They’re doing something up on that mountain that they don’t want anyone to know about.”

“Exactly.” Logan scrubbed his hands over his bearded chin. “The more I consider the options, the less I like the idea of you and Teddy being involved in searching for Benton or his drugs.”

“There’s no other way to find them.” Deep down, she wasn’t thrilled with the idea of putting her dog in harm’s way either. “I can’t imagine the site will be easy to find without Teddy’s keen nose.”

“We have no idea how many people are involved in this.” Logan scowled. “Benton, sure, but there could easily be several others.”

It was hard to argue his point. She gestured to the phones. “Is there enough of a charge for a quick call?”

He arched a brow. “You really think calling your brother will be quick? He’s going to grill you for information.”

“He will, but it’s not like we know very much. Other than the guy used nine-millimeter ammo.” She truly wasn’t looking forward to the conversation with Chase and was anxious to get it over with.

“Okay, here.” He pulled one phone off the charger. “It’s halfway charged.”

“Thanks.” She punched in Chase’s number. Good thing Chase had insisted they memorize each other’s numbers. On search and rescue missions, they often had to borrow satellite phones to get through to the rest of the team. And there was no way to preprogram them with their individual numbers. No surprise her call from a strange number went straight to her brother’s voice mail. She left a brief message. “Chase, this isJess, using a different phone. We’re fine, not hurt, but there was another incident of gunfire, so we had to go on the move. And get new phones. Call me when you can at this number. Thanks.”

Logan winced. “He’s going to freak when he hears that.”

“I told him we were fine.” She stared at the device in her hand. Less than ten seconds later, the phone rang. “Hi, Chase.”

“What happened?” her brother demanded.

She quickly filled him in on the recent event. “We’re fine. Teddy alerted us to the danger in time. Then he also found the nine-millimeter shell casing. We moved to a new location and ditched our phones as an extra precaution.”

“This isn’t good, Jess,” Chase said somberly. “I don’t like leaving you and Logan hanging in the wind.”

“We walked here cutting through streets to stay off the main roads and used cash for the room. That reminds me. Please let Shane know his SUV is at the Elk Lodge.”

“The SUV is the least of our worries. And that could be how you were found at the hotel.” Chase’s tone was grim. “The shooter at Logan’s place may have used his rifle scope to get the license plate.”

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