Page 101 of Second Chance Savior

I shook my head slowly, taking this in. “That bastard. He has access to that kind of information, and he’s been hiding it? He wasstilltrying to hide it.”

“Probably hoped to get a payday from it. Not anymore. Now, he’s just trying to stay alive.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What exactly were you doing to him in there? Do I want to know?”

“I let him think I was planning to kill him and bury him in the woods. I was very convincing.” His trademark smirk reappeared, and I was glad to see it. I lifted my hand to run my thumb over his lower lip.

“You are very persuasive. Where is this list? Does Jud have it with him?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Your friend’s arrival interrupted me. Jud is nice and secure in the garage, and I need to get back to him. “

“If we can get our hands on that list?—”

“Yeah. It’s exactly the blow against Stillwater we’ve been hoping for. Between Jud’s confession and this, we won’t have to hide anymore. The good guys in the government will root out the bad apples, and we won’t have to be constantly unsure of which is which. For this round, anyway.”

I knew what he meant. There would always be some evildoers who masqueraded as heroes. Giving the others a bad name. “But why didn’t you want to discuss this in front of Brynn?”

“Because we can’t afford to let her know. It’s way too sensitive.”

“You still don’t trust her? I get that she was giving you a hard time out there, but she’s proven that she’s with us.”

“The minute she finds out about this list, she’ll be obligated to get her hands on it on behalf of the FBI. Once she does that, who knows who might try to discredit it. Or make that list disappear. I want us to be in control of the information until we are ready to release it. We’ll do it in the right way so that it can’t be discounted.”

I nodded once. “Fair enough. I won’t mention it to her.”

“Don’t share the location of my cabin either. Nobody knows about that place except me and you.”

I wrinkled my nose. “I’m not the town gossip. I wasn’t going to share all your secrets. And I’m certainly not going to tell her we’re sleeping together, because I don’t need that lecture.”

He snorted. “That’s wise. I promise as soon as we’re able, you can tell her everything you feel like sharing. No matter how much Brynn antagonizes me.”

“And you don’t contribute to that at all.”

“Hey, I’m making every effort to behave myself.” He leaned in and pressed his mouth to mine. A quick kiss, but enough to get my heart thumping again. Also a reminder thatI really wanted some more alone time with him before we had to part ways.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said. Squeezing my hand one last time. Then his gaze moved past me, over my shoulder. “Oops.”

I spun around, and Brynn stood in the open doorway to the house. From the indignant expression on her face, I assumed she’d seen us kiss.

Oops was right.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Charlotte

River walked toward the garage,nodding at Brynn as he passed. She watched him go without a word. Then strode over to me.

“Really, Charlotte?”

I groaned. “Can you forget you just saw that?”

“Nice try. We need to have a friendly chat.”

“Yet your tone is far more judgmental than friendly.”

Brynn rolled her tongue around her mouth. Choosing her words carefully, I expected. “Your parents have an archery range here somewhere, don’t they? I remember you telling me about it.”

“Nice subject change.”

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