Constant Risk. Janie Crouch

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СКАЧАТЬ he is,” Cassandra called out when he and Noah entered. “And he brought my other favorite brother.” Cass stepped closer to Bree and nudged her with her shoulder. “Probably because Tanner felt like he needed backup.”

      Cass and Noah immediately started joking with each other but Tanner ignored them. All he could see was Bree and her soft smile. He walked over to her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

      “Hey,” he whispered. Had it really just been a few hours since he’d seen her last? Noah was right. He did have it bad.

      “Hey, yourself.” She pressed closer. “I missed you.”

      “Cass is right though. I did bring Noah as backup. You never know what sort of craziness is going to result when Cass announces she has news.”

      Bree smiled. “This is pretty good news.”

      “Okay, lovebirds, keep it in your pants until you get home,” Cass called out.

      Tanner rolled his eyes, but stepped away—slightly—from Bree. “Mom didn’t discipline you enough as a kid.”

      Cass hooked a hand on her hip. “That’s because she was too busy chasing around after you two hooligans. Besides, I was an angel.”

      Everybody broke out in laughter at that.

      “All right, so what is the big expansion surprise?” Tanner asked.

      “This is,” Bree said, stepping away from him and spinning around with one arm out.

      “Are you guys going to open an office?” Noah asked.

      Cass smiled. “No, even better. We’ve gotten a grant and approval to renovate this building and use it as a long-term women’s shelter.”

      Tanner stepped away from her, looking around, trying to picture it. It wasn’t difficult. Tear out some of the walls, add more bathrooms... The place was already in great structural shape overall.

      But doing this would be a much-bigger commitment for Bree and Cassandra than the shelter. He looked over at Bree. “So someone will need to be living here full-time?”

      Was that what she wanted? She seemed to love the ranch, but maybe it was too isolated for her. For the first time in her life she was starting to make friends. Maybe she didn’t want to be thirty minutes away from the town and the people here.

      “We’re still working out the details of that,” Cass said. “But the point is, we’re going to be able to help a lot more women.”

      He wanted to argue, to ask for details, demand how this was going to fit into the life he’d been envisioning, but realized how unreasonable that would be. Especially given the excitement on both Bree’s and Cassandra’s faces.

      Teaching these classes and helping these women was important to Bree. She knew what it was like to live in fear and not have many options.

      Far be it from Tanner to try to limit her empowerment by stopping her from empowering others.

      “I think it will work great,” he finally said.

      “Really?” Bree studied him, obviously picking up on some of his initial hesitation. “I think it could really be amazing.”

      “Absolutely.” He gave her a nod.

      “See? I told you.” Cass said, turning to Noah and Tanner. “Bree didn’t want to make any decisions until after Tanner had seen the building.”

      Tanner walked back over to Bree, feeling the engagement ring in his pocket as he reached to put his arm around her. If this was really what she wanted, maybe engagement was going to have to wait.

      Maybe a long time.

      Damn it. That wasn’t what he wanted.

      “What?” she whispered up to him as Cassandra started showing Noah how the space would be utilized. “What aren’t you telling me? Do you think this is a bad idea?”

      He hated the look of worry on her face. She’d already carried so many burdens and so much pain. He’d be damned if he was going to add to it.

      “I promise I think this is a fantastic idea. I would tell you if I didn’t.”

      She relaxed. After what they’d been through, she knew he wasn’t going to start keeping the truth from her now.

      And it was the truth. He did think this place was a fantastic idea. What Bree and Cassandra could create here would be amazing.

      “I know you’ve got to get back to work,” she whispered. “But I couldn’t wait to show you this.”

      He wrapped his arm tightly around her waist. “And I’m so glad you did. You and Cass have a lot of decisions to make.”

      He did too. Just different ones than he’d been expecting.

       Chapter Three

      “When I was eight years old, I was invited to participate in a computer coding class provided for free by the charity Communication For All. My father died when I was just a baby and my mother worked really hard just to make ends meet. There were no finances for tutoring or extra lessons. Everyone, including my elementary school teachers, knew I needed to be challenged, but no one knew how to do it. By eight years old I had already figured out more than what most of them had learned in their computer science degrees.”

      Bree ran a hand over her eyes, then stared at the laptop screen in front of her on the kitchen table at Tanner’s ranch house.

      Gregory Lightfoot, one of the federal prosecuting attorneys for Michael Jeter’s case, had been working with her two or three times a week for the past month on her witness statement for the prosecution.

      Gregory was located in Dallas, where the federal trial against Jeter would take place. Eventually Bree would have to go there, but for right now they were working via teleconferencing. Her testimony in Jeter’s trial in a couple months would play an important role. The case against the members of the Organization was very complicated and intertwined.

      Bree wanted to help ensure the conviction of Michael Jeter, but this part wasn’t the way she wanted to go about it.

      She let out a sigh. “I just don’t understand why I have to go back so far into my personal Bethany Ragan history. Why can’t we just focus on me talking about the crimes I can prove Jeter and the Organization committed, and how I brought them down?”

      As far as she was concerned, Bethany had ceased to exist once she’d gotten away from the Organization.

      Gregory’s face filled her screen. “Because what they did to you and your mother will be the nail in the coffin. Terrorist activities can sometimes be vague in a jury’s mind. But picturing little eleven-year-old Bethany being tortured in order to get her to cooperate? That’s the sort of thing that will guarantee a conviction.”

      “Right.”

      But СКАЧАТЬ