Page 13 of With You

He placed one large hand on the window frame and leaned down, giving us both an assessing glance, “I’ll call you.” Then he tapped the roof twice and stepped back with that uneven stride.

We’d made it back onto the main road before either of us said anything. Surprisingly it was me that broke the silence. “What do you think the odds are he’ll actually agree to talk to us?”

“Honestly? About a million to one. The sister even less. No one who escapes a hell like that wants to go back for a visit, even in their mind.”

When we pulled back into the hotel’s parking lot, I remembered our sleeping predicament and belatedly realized that we might be staying here much longer than we originally thought.

5

ROE

“We should check in,” Sam said as soon as the hotel door closed behind us.

She was right, Gray and Kane would want to know what Baz had to say. It was also a distraction, something for her to do so she wouldn’t think about that damn bed again. I’d caught her glaring at it twice already.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed the office, taking a seat at the small table in the corner while it rang. Sam joined me in the other chair and I put the call on speaker, setting the phone in the middle of the table so that we could both hear it.

“James,” our no-nonsense boss answered.

“Hola, boss man, it’s your favorite employee. Oh, and Sam’s here, too.” I smiled at her and now that glare was directed at me.

“Did you talk to him?” Guess we were skipping the pleasantries, then.

“We did,” Sam took over, which was probably for the best. Baz’s story was still tearing me up inside and I always handled the feeling of discomfort with inappropriate humor, something Gray wasn’t a fan of.

She recanted what we’d been told, ending with the fact that he expected us to wait in town to hear from him again.

“It’s a good sign that he’s even going to reach out to this friend. He wouldn’t even agree to talk to us until I assured him we wouldn’t give his name to the task force. Baz is a good man, a good Marine, but he doesn’t trust cops and I’d never want to put him in a situation where he felt threatened. Looks like you guys are going to be there a while. Roe, I’m assuming you have everything you need for you both to work remotely?”

“I can make it work,” I’d brought my best equipment for working in isolated areas. Satellites could be very useful when you knew what you were doing.

“Good. Sam, you need anything?”

Her gaze bounced to the bed again and I half-expected her to ask him to send Gage in her place. “Nope, we’ll check in with you when we have something else to report.”

“All right, don’t hesitate to call. Anything you need, we’re here.”

We said goodbye and then it was once again just the two of us in our hotel room.

Fuck, I hated this awkwardness between us and I hated that I was the reason she was feeling uncomfortable. Even if she was hiding it well, I knew her body language better than my own.

I glanced at my phone, noting the time. “Dinner,” I practically shouted.

“I could eat.” Shit, she was gorgeous when she smiled at me like that. Like she knew what I was doing and was grateful for it.

“There were a few restaurants when we passed through town.” I grabbed the keys and my phone as Sam made a beeline for the door. It seemed we were both eager to avoid this room for a little longer.

We ended up at a small drive-in that was incredibly busy due to it being Friday night and the options being limited in a town this size. After walking up to the window and placing our order of cheeseburgers, potato wedges and sodas, we squeezed through the crowd of locals and found an empty picnic table in the back.

“The entire town must be here,” Sam remarked as we looked at the people filling every inch of the parking lot.

Cars were parked in the streets and no one seemed to care. In fact, the local cops had their very own table a few over from ours, the surface covered with greasy wrappers and ketchup-filled paper trays. There was an old uniform factory across the street and we watched employees file out and walk right over to grab dinner.

Teenagers laughed as they made plans for the rest of the night at tables next to older couples that either smiled or glowered at their rowdiness. It seemed that we’d found one of the most popular gathering spots in this small town.

“Were we ever that young?” Sam gestured to the group of teens with her root beer.

“It feels like a million years ago,” I answered. “What was a high school Sam like?” Somehow, I doubted she was a perky cheerleader or first chair on the debate team.

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