Her Christmas Protector. Geri Krotow

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      Bryce waited until they heard the guest bedroom door click shut before he looked at Zora again.

      “Last chance,” he said. “Want to give me a clue as to who you think wants you dead?”

      * * *

      He knew he was pressing it to expect Zora to spill her guts so soon after the shooting. But a killer was on the loose—Zora’s aching chest had to take a backseat.

      “How can we be sure it wasn’t the same guy I saw at the football game?”

      “We can’t. But neither you nor I saw anyone tailing you back here. The fact that you were shot, when you live here as Zora and not Chaplain Hammermill, tells me it could be more personal.” He knew not to ask her who she worked for and why she’d been the one sent to pose as a female minister. Superintendent Todd had been explicit in his orders for Bryce to mind his own business.

      “No one wants to kill me. The only work I’ve ever done has been with the navy, and that’s nothing that would bring a killer to Silver Valley.”

      “What about your work downrange, during the war?”

      She shook her head and opened her mouth to reply, then winced.

      “Sorry. I keep forgetting that I need to breathe shallowly.”

      “No, you need to take deep breaths so that you don’t get pneumonia.”

      “What, are you a medical professional, too? My tours to Iraq and Afghanistan had me mostly behind the scenes, providing intelligence.”

      He tried not to glare at her.

      Not that she wasn’t beautiful to watch. If he hadn’t known her before, he would have described her as a redheaded Sofia Vergara, although even slimmer. But he saw beyond her physical features to the sharp intelligence behind her eyes, the keen wit that had drawn him to her during his own nerd days. They’d been perfect as friends. Neither of them had particularly cared about hanging out with other teenagers, not when the talk revolved around the opposite sex, booze and, too often, drugs. They were both academics at heart. He’d studied biology with a vengeance, convinced he was going to discover a cure for cancer. The same cancer that had taken his little sister when she was a toddler and left his family forever changed.

      Zora had mirrored his studious nature. She was passionate to the point of obsession about anything that had to do with science, particularly astronomy and physics.

      “I didn’t go into medicine, in case you haven’t figured that out yet,” he said.

      “What made you change your mind? I thought you’d be a top research doctor by now.”

      “I didn’t have the brains for the chemistry. Organic chemistry was a killer. But I loved the lab work that parlayed into forensics. I majored in criminal justice.”

      She nodded.

      “That makes sense.”

      “What about you, Zora? You were going to be an astronomer like Jodie Foster’s character in Contact.” They’d watched the movie together one autumn night, forgoing their homecoming dance. He’d imagined being her best friend for life. More, if she’d let him.

      Instead, they had barely made it through senior year.

      “I wanted to go far away. The navy made sense to me. I found out about the academy at the last minute—I didn’t get in right away, remember? I was put on a wait list.”

      “You left two days after you found out. That’s what your mother told me.”

      “About that...I’m sorry, Bryce. We were kids, and I realize you probably don’t even remember much about it, but the way I left—it was chicken shit.”

      “Yes, it was. And no apology necessary. You’re right. We’re different people now. Certified grown-ups. That was a lifetime ago.”

      * * *

      Zora thought that living back in town for two years meant she’d dealt with all of her memories arriving in Silver Valley as a little girl. At first coming back home to where she’d found shelter after leaving the cult had stirred up all kinds of memories, and she’d been able to utilize her counseling classes and training to work through them. Even her memories of Bryce—she hadn’t needed to see him to exorcise his ghost from her mind.

      Yet since last night, it was as though he’d never left her life. As if they could go back to being friends again.

      “I’m taking too much of your time, Bryce. You’re free to go, you know.”

      “Showing me the door already?” His grin was easy but it didn’t reach his eyes, which looked wary.

      “I’m safe, Bryce. Buttercup is the best security system out there. And as you know, I’m armed.”

      “And on pain meds, nursing bruised ribs and sore muscles.”

      “There’s that.”

      “We’re going to place surveillance on your house starting when I leave today.”

      “That’s not necessary.”

      “Superintendent Todd and I beg to differ.”

      “You don’t think the shooter will come back here, do you?”

      “Actually, no, I don’t. If it was the man you saw at the game, he’ll be too afraid to get caught. He’ll see the patrol car—we’re not going to do anything covert here. And if he still wants to target female ministers, he’ll do anything to stay out of jail.”

      “I should have taken him out last night.”

      “At the game? Get real. You never saw a weapon.”

      “No, but you have to trust me—I saw him ready to pull it on me. But it was as if he was testing, to see...”

      “To see if you were for real.” Bryce ran his fingers over his chin. “I think we messed up with that op, Zora. It was too coincidental for the holiday festival to have an invocation that was publicly announced and advertised for the entire week before. We were too obvious.”

      “I agree. When I heard the local rock station announce the prayer and moment of silence was going to be dedicated to the two slain ministers, I hoped the killer was stupid.”

      “He—or she—obviously isn’t.”

      “No.”

      “I hate to put you on the spot again, Zora, but I’d really like to know what you were doing in the patrol car last night. Why you, why now?”

      “I’ve told you—I can’t tell you.”

      She hated not being able to open up to him, especially in light of how shabbily she’d treated him in the past. No matter what his words said, she felt his judgment with each glance he shot her.

      And she found her attraction to him was real and adult. СКАЧАТЬ