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“Wow. That’s a lot for a young teenager to deal with. I can see why that makes you work twice as hard to track down your leads. It made you a great reporter. But at what cost?”

Exactly her sentiment. “It cost me time. Time with family, friends, building relationships. It’s lonely always having to work for that number-one spot. And then maintain it. There’s always someone younger and more skilled coming right up behind you. It’s exhausting.”

She closed her eyes, relishing the quiet Alaskan air, allowing the memories to flow. “My dad eventually left my mom, and I rarely speak to him. Yet I’m still trying to live up to his expectations.”

Grizz cleared his throat, obviously not used to dealing with emotions—his or other people’s. “We need to look at that SIM card. I didn’t push you earlier because I wanted to give you time to grieve the loss of your friend, but tell me more about your source. You said you trusted the person?”

She opened her eyes and burrowed deeper into the blanket. “I do trust them.” He probably knew Rio, since Grizz worked with Skye, but Dani had always kept confidentiality sacred and wasn’t about to reveal who had brought her here.

A memory hit her like a bolt of lightning. “There’s a building with a smokestack and white smoke puffing out of it. I—I must have seen their lab in the woods at that compound. There were armed men dragging someone into it. That has to be the location.”

Grizz nodded. “I saw that building in the middle of the compound. It stood out from the rest of them. Do you have the SIM card?”

“I left it on the nightstand. I’ll get it if you have a computer. Hopefully, seeing the images will jog my memories. Because I want to get to the bottom of what happened on that mountain.”

* * *

Grizz dug under his kitchen cabinet for his laptop, trying to shake the image of a sobbing Dani from his mind. The woman had been put through the wringer.

Would looking at these pictures help or hurt?

And when had Dani blown through the security checkpoint that guarded his heart? It scared him how much he cared.

But he’d do anything to take this pain away from her.

He set up the laptop on his kitchen table, and Dani returned with the SIM card. She dug the camera out of the backpack. “Do you have a USB cable? We can read the chip off the camera.”

“Maybe.” He dug around in the cabinet and pulled out a spider web of tangled cords. One of these had to be the right one.

She stood with her hands on her hips. “Just give me whatever cables you have.”

She huffed and muttered something under her breath to the effect of “At least you’re good-looking.”

Had he heard her correctly?

He mentally filed that comment away for later.

She pulled out a cable for the laptop and plugged it in while wiping six layers of dust off the machine with her sweatshirt sleeve.

“This computer belongs in a museum. I’m not even sure it will turn on.

” She continued to untangle the cords. “Bingo.” She pulled a thin black cable out of the pile.

“This is what we need to connect the camera. Assuming this dinosaur cooperates.”

He dished out more venison stew into their bowls and brought them over, sliding into a seat across the corner from her. She downed her second bowl.

She hit the power button, and the laptop chugged to life. Dani eyed him. “Why are you living like a hermit in the woods? No Wi-Fi. No television. Ancient technology. Why?”

She had to go there. He shrugged. “There’s no story here, Dani. It’s just my life. Sorry it doesn’t live up to your high standards.” He checked his phone. Still no cell signal. All he had was his closed-circuit cameras and security system that weren’t online.

She cocked her head. “Do I look like I give up that easily?”

If only she looked a little deeper, she’d realize there was more to Grizz than some loner living in the woods. How would she feel about him if she found out the truth? His friend Kyle had died because Grizz had trusted the wrong person.

He bit back a growl. “Just get that camera working.”

Boy, this reporter went after stories with no signs of backing down. Nothing was off-limits as far as she was concerned. The woman had a way of taking the most innocent situations and turning them into a therapy session. She seemed sure she’d find a way to get him to talk.

But Grizz wasn’t going to let her crack him, even if his admiration for her had inched up a few notches. She had zero wilderness survival skills, but she had a brand of fierceness that he couldn’t match, even if he had survived basic training in the Army.

At least she wasn’t afraid of him at the moment.

The screen lit up, and so did Dani’s face.

“Well, we don’t have internet on this relic, but at least we have a screen.

Let me see if I can get the card to connect.

” She fiddled with the wires and laptop.

“It looks like Josh has some videos on the camera too. Let’s look at the pictures.

Hopefully, the images will jog my memories. ”

Grizz moved to the table to look at the screen, but he stopped short of touching her shoulder. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want. We don’t know what’s in these pictures. I can look at them to make sure they aren’t too…intense.”

Dani’s eyes widened. “I appreciate the concern. But I have to know what I saw that night. I’m prepared for the consequences of seeing the truth.”

She couldn’t shoot a longbow, but the woman could stare death in the face and not flinch.

The laptop dinged and Dani clicked a few times. A square with an image popped up.

Grizz leaned over Dani far enough to smell a rather masculine-scented shampoo. His shampoo. Of course, he had nothing froufrou for her to use. But he didn’t hate the smell on her.

Josh had taken photos and videos. Dani opened the first video, which gave a bird’s-eye view of the area. Grizz figured they had to have been up on the ridge looking down on the area.

She brought up the next video, which zoomed in on the building with the smokestack.

“It’s just like I remembered,” Dani whispered. “The white smoke pouring out of the chimney.”

The video continued, and they watched an older man being dragged through the compound, flanked by two men. The camera shot got a close-up of faces.

One man had a tattoo across his neck. Dani paused the video, and Grizz sucked in a breath. The man in the still frame wore a scowl and had a gun trained on the hostage’s temple. Grizz knew he’d seen the gunman before. But where?

He racked his brain. The FBI notice. “He’s bad news, Dani.

I remember now. Rio Parker sent out an alert.

I think his name is Jeremiah Redding. He’s on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. He managed to escape when everything went down at the SOR base camp, so Rio sent out his description, including that snake tattoo. ”

Dani wasn’t listening. She pointed at the screen to the man standing behind Redding. “It can’t be. How?”

“That man looks a lot like?—”

“Senator Geoff Deville. But why would he be in the compound in the woods?” There was no mistaking the tall man’s silver hair that stood out in the black-and-white footage. Not to mention Josh had zoomed in on his face.

“Could the senator be involved? I mean, this group is well-funded and well-connected. I still don’t understand how they’ve stayed hidden for so long.”

If the senator was involved, they were sitting on a gold mine of evidence the FBI would want.

This could take down a dirty politician.

But the reality of their find meant Grizz had to get Dani and the evidence off this mountain.

If these men knew the camera footage existed, they’d be on Grizz’s front doorstep in a second.

Dani was the lynchpin to taking down this entire operation.

Tears dripped down Dani’s cheek. “I—I remember. I had the camera rolling. When they shot Josh.”

He pulled a chair up next to her and held her hand. “Don’t watch it, Dani. You did a great job getting this evidence. I’m going to make sure this gets to the authorities.”

He closed the laptop screen with the hand that wasn’t clutching hers. She didn’t need to see any more.

“Josh’s death isn’t on you, Dani. I know what it’s like to lose someone and feel the burden of failure. It’s not your fault. Sometimes things are out of your control.”

“I don’t deal well with being out of control. It’s why I work so hard to control the things I can.” She stood, renewed determination flashing in her eyes. “How are we going to expose the truth? We need to get this evidence to the authorities. For Josh.”

He checked his phone for the hundredth time. Still no signal. What was happening on the mountain that had knocked out all communications?

The storms? Or these men in the compound?

“We’ll get these guys. But whatever happens, we’re in this together. Don’t go rogue on me now, Dani.”

A snapping sound stopped his heart. Even though he was low tech, he had plenty of security features built around his cabin. And someone had just set off one of his booby traps.

He put a finger up to his lips. “We’re not alone,” he whispered.

In order to save her and get her evidence to town, Grizz would have to show Dani a side of himself he never showed anyone.

“Time to make our way to the outhouse.”