Page 10 of Mountain Defender

“What are you talking about?”

Rafe sighed. “I told you about this, man. When it gets to thirty-five degrees, that road’s impassible.”

“I thought you meant there’s a possibility of black ice.”

“Nope. Not a possibility. That road’sallice. The melting—we all learned about it in our training if you recall.”

His brain had glossed over that part.

“Nine hours. One way.”

Why the hell did Rafe sound so pleased with himself?

Tripp issued a curse. “One way? You’ve gotta be kidding.”

“You’re about to find out how serious I am. The temps have been above freezing all day, which means the snow is melting on every road on that mountain pass we always use as a shortcut. The water’s about to freeze in a few hours once the sun dips behind the range…then you’ve got the black ice.”

“I get it. Impassible. Okay.” His stare locked on Alexia striding back to her own car, the one he was intimately acquainted with now that he surely bore a huge bruise the shape of her bumper.

Nine hours? Each direction? With that insufferable woman driving? She couldn’t even maneuver in a parking lot without mowing someone—him—over.

If this was happening, he had to get behind the wheel.

“Don’t kill anybody, Tripp.”

He felt his jaw creak from clenching it so hard, which made it difficult to open and force words through. “I’ll do my best. Talk soon.”

He ended the call and sat there for a moment, watching Alexia. She’d stopped pacing and was leaning against her car again, her thumb and forefinger digging into her temples and her mouth moving a mile a minute as she spoke on the phone.

The last thing he wanted was an extended trip with a woman who disliked him enough to run over him with her car, but he had to find Kelsey’s killer. If this got him one step closer to that closure he’d spent an entire year searching for, then it was all going to be worth it.

Right?

Alexia lifted her head. Through the window, their gazes locked.

Yeah, she was smart. Probably savvy too.

Definitely pretty.

She raised her free hand and flipped him off.

Annnd she’s a mega-bitch.

Just like all the investigators, detectives and police officers he’d already spoken with time and again about the case. All those dead ends and unhelpful people had driven him into the mountains to a cabin decked out with all the technology he needed to dig into the case himself.

He’d spent hours and hours doing just that—with only a bottle of Scotch as companion.

Now he was about to spend most of an entire day in close proximity with a detective who clearly had something to prove to her colleagues, her boss…maybe even the world.

Alexia stuffed her phone in her coat pocket and pushed off the side of her car. Even the cold metal hadn’t done much to chill her out.

Ofcourseher partner she typically went out on these calls with took their boss’s side and didn’t think it was a good idea for Alexia to be alone in the car with Tripp. Not only had he brought up several disasters that could befall them on the road to the crime scene, but he’d mentioned a few places along the way where bodies had been found in the past.

Tripp dropped one booted foot to the slushy pavement and lurched out of his vehicle, grabbing his thigh as he did.

She arched a brow at him. Did he really think she was going to buy into his injured act? Weren’t SEALs trained to lie and get out of tough situations? She didn’t believe for a minute that he wasn’t totally capable of faking out every adversary he’d ever encountered in his career.

Her gaze skimmed over those muscled tree trunks he called legs up to a similarly stacked torso and then to his face. His forehead was puckered, but other than that, she didn’t see any sign of real pain.

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