Page 24 of Snowbound Threat

The man grinned, flashing pearly white teeth. “Tell me where the envelope is and I won’t pay that pretty lady a visit.”

“I don’t know what envelope you’re talking about.”

“That’s a shame. I guess she and I will have a nice visit. I’ll be the one showing her how a real man treats a girl like that.”

Gross. “You’re not going to get anywhere near her.”

He grinned again. “I guess we’ll see who gets what they want. After you toss those weapons aside and we figure this out like men should.”

“You go first.”

He laughed, raised his gun?—

Caleb squeezed the trigger of the rifle but missed. The other man’s gun fired. Caleb felt the impact of the shot in the center of his vest. He landed on the ground, blinking at the sky.

Didn’t let go of his rifle.

Caleb lifted his head and shoulders off the ground, far enough he could see the other man coming over.

Caleb squeezed the trigger and the man dropped.

Now the problem was taken care of.

Chapter Ten

Tessa closed the hospital room door behind her, keeping the click as quiet she could. But her father was awake and looking better than he had the last time she saw him. “Hey.”

“Hey, baby girl.” He had a bandage over his left eye, and they had wrapped his wrist. Who knew what other bumps and bruises he had suffered at the hands of those men intent on killing him just for information.

Her thoughts drifted back again to that cabin as she crossed the room and pulled a chair up to the side of her father’s bed. She hadn’t done much, but those few moments when her life had been a split second from ending were some of the most harrowing she’d ever experienced. While she stood there, Caleb had snuck around in the bushes. Each of the men holding her father had been gunned down with a single shot.

Only someone with serious skill and training could have possibly done that. Caleb Rourke was a deadly man. But he didn’t scare her. He had used those skills to protect her and save her father’s life, effectively resolving the problem. At least for them. Given this was connected to his case, maybe there was more for him to do.

That might be why he hadn’t shown up in the hospital.

She had so many questions to ask her father, and Caleb should probably be here to hear all the information. But he still wasn’t. Hopefully he was okay.

“Everything all right?”

She shrugged and looked at her phone before tucking it under her leg on the seat. No new messages from Caleb. She said a quick prayer that he was okay, then said, “Not really. Since you were kidnapped and I discovered you’re keeping secrets from me.”

His eyes flared.

Okay, so maybe she shouldn’t have said it quite like that. “Sorry.”

“You thought I wasn’t keeping anything from you, ever?” His words were measured. The tone even.

She didn’t quite know what to make of it.

“I guess I’m naïve, because it was quite a surprise that you had a secret safe behind the painting in your office.”

“I figured you would have found it when you were dusting sometime. But you never said anything to me.”

“So not saying anything was fine, because you figured I probably know about it?” Tessa blew out a breath. “I don’t want to argue about this. But your secrets got you kidnapped.”

If he had told her, that probably would’ve only put her in danger as well. But how could she think anything other than that his secrets nearly got him killed?

“I don’t want to argue about this either. My head is pounding.”