Page 16 of Forest Reed
That earned me the slowest, laziest smile I’d ever seen. “You didn’t complain.”
Because I’d been too busy doing other things that made complaining illegal. My cheeks went warm just remembering, and his smirk said he knew it.
I pushed against his chest and rolled out of bed, pulling his flannel tighter around me. “Coffee. Now, then shower.”
He followed me into the kitchen, barefoot, all broad shoulders and mountain calm. I fished the photo strip from my jacket pocket—the one from the pier photo booth—and slapped it on the counter while he poured coffee.
“Evidence,” I said. “Proof we’re both insane.”
He leaned over it, smirked at the last frame—where I’d kissed him like I was never letting go. “Best piece of evidence I’ve ever seen.”
Before I could fire back, his expression shifted, that careful, unreadable mask he wore when the soldier in him took over. He slid the burner phone across the counter to me.
Another message blinked on the screen.SEE YOU AT THE WATER. —N
“Mirror Lake,” he said.
My stomach dropped. I tried to joke. “Guess North’s a fan of scenic views.”
“Not scenic,” Forest said. “Strategic. There’s only one access road in. Three choke points around the shore. If he wants control, that’s where he’ll take it.”
I sipped the world’s strongest coffee, ignoring the tremor in my hands. “And if he wants leverage… he already knows my name.”
Forest’s gaze snapped to me. Steady. Intense. “You’re not leverage. You’re the reason we find him.”
Something in my chest ached at that, and I hated how much I wanted to believe him. “So what’s the play?”
“We don’t go alone,” he said.
I arched a brow. “Pretty sure that’s theonlything the guy asked us to do.”
Forest’s mouth curved, but there was no humor in it. “Then we give him exactly what he asked for—just not the way he expects.”
My pulse kicked. “That’s your plan? Out-crazy the crazy?”
“That’s always the plan,” he said, sliding me my mug. Then softer, like he couldn’t stop it: “And this time, you don’t go in first.”
I took a long sip, holding his gaze over the rim. “Forest Reed, if you think you’re benching me—”
“I’m not.” He stepped in close, tilting my chin up with one finger, heat in his eyes that had nothing to do with coffee. “I’m saying we walk into thistogether.”
The room went still, the mountain breathing around us. And I realized—for all my walls, all my independence, all my sharp edges—I wanted that more than I wanted to win the case, more than I wanted to be right.
“Fine,” I whispered, pulse hammering. “But if we die at Mirror Lake, I’m haunting you forever.”
He smiled, low and dangerous. “Deal.”
12
Forest
Preparation isn’t glamorous. It’s lists, checks, and the quiet weight of knowing what happens if you miss one thing.
Zoe, on the other hand, turned prepping into chaos.
She leaned over my gear table in the cabin, eyeing my laid-out equipment like it was a buffet. “Okay, what’s inthispouch?” she asked, poking the MOLLE straps on my vest.
“Tourniquet, chest seal, pressure bandage.”
