12. Charlotte
CHAPTER TWELVE
Charlotte
“This is it. Be it ever so humble. And in need of new tires.” Hodge switched on his flashlight with one hand while he unlocked the RV door with the other. “It’s not much, but it should keep you warm and cozy for the night.”
“This is perfect, man.” River pulled his friend in for a hug. “I won’t forget it.”
“Trust me, I won’t let you.”
We had walked across Hodge’s property with no flashlights so we didn’t attract the attention of his neighbors. They weren’t close, but they might have seen the activity and gotten curious. The moonlight had been enough so I didn’t run into anything solid, yet I’d still had to grab onto River several times to avoid tripping. He never seemed to have any trouble. His night vision was as good as my cat’s.
“And you, Ms. McKinley.” Hodge took my hand in both of his. “You sure there’s nothing else I can do for you? Sounds like I might not be seeing you in the morning, so this is your chance.”
“You’ve already done way too much. I owe you.”
“Just stay safe. That’s all I need.” He nodded toward River, who was gazing off into the darkness like he couldn’t care less what we were saying. “Stick with this guy, and you’ll be in good shape.”
With that, Hodge jogged back toward his house, not even bothering to use his flashlight. Was that a Navy SEAL thing? Probably.
River held open the door to the RV. “After you.”
I mounted the steps and went inside.
River followed with the flashlight. We would be keeping the power off in the camper overnight, but Hodge was right. It was cozy. Warm enough from the sun shining on it during the day. There was a small kitchen area with a table, which Hodge had explained on the walk over would convert into a sofa. Then a tiny bathroom and a bedroom at the back.
“Bed’s yours.” River dumped his bag on the small table.
I unlaced my boots and tugged them off. “If you expect me to refuse comfort and demand the sofa instead, you’ll be disappointed.”
“Disappointed you won’t argue with me? No. Maybe surprised. I thought you’d argue over just about anything.”
I pursed my lips. But I knew what he was getting at, and it was fair. “Sorry for being grumpy about the trunk. You were keeping me safe. You saved my life multiple times tonight.”
River sank onto the seat, hands in his pockets, legs sprawled. “I’m sorry about the almost-kiss. And the groping.”
I couldn’t help snickering at the matter-of-fact way he’d said that.
“All part of the life saving,” I said. “I get it. Though I’m not sure I’d call it groping. You were a little more gentlemanly than that.”
“No, there was definitely groping. Wildly inappropriate. I’m appalled at myself.” He blinked a few times, totally deadpan. “But you enjoyed it, right? ”
Now I was laughing. How did River always manage to do that to me in the most ridiculous ways?
“You are the worst.”
He smiled. “I try. At least you got that I was joking. When we were younger, I don’t think you would have.”
“I had a sense of humor. Maybe it’s your delivery that’s improved.”
“Maybe.”
I sat across the table from him. I’d pulled my damp hair back into a ponytail, and I was wearing a University of Denver hoodie and sweatpants that belonged to Hodge’s sister. Inside his home, I’d felt like I could let down my guard. But only now, laughing with River, did I truly feel like the danger was over. For the moment anyway.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“It’s been a difficult few hours. You should rest.”
“I don’t feel like resting. Don’t tell me it’s the adrenaline. I haven’t been to war, but I’ve dealt with stressful shit. Politics is cutthroat too. I won’t be coddled.”
He tilted his head. Assessing me. “Okay. Do what you want. As long as it’s inside the RV.”
River had showered after me at Hodge’s place, and he’d done little more than finger-comb his hair into riotous waves. Only a hint of stubble showed on his jawline. He’d brought his own change of clothes in the duffel and his laptop too, which he took out and set on the table. He’d charged it up at Hodge’s house.
And now here we were, just the two of us.
“Could I send some messages?” I asked. “There are people I have to contact. My office. Brynn. My parents. They have to know that I’m okay.”
“I’ll see what I can do. But you cannot use your phones. They’ll be tracked in an instant. That’s how it has to be for now. ”
My work and personal cells were still in my clutch, which was tucked along with my gown into a plastic bag. I gritted my teeth at the thought that I couldn’t check my messages. How long did he mean by for now ?
“Then why are you using your laptop? Isn’t that equally problematic?”
“This device is secure. I’m going to contact my friends in Hartley. Both to inform them about what’s happened, and to ask for whatever aid they can provide.”
“Then why can’t I use the laptop to contact people too?”
“I said, I’d see what I can do. I meant it. Just give me a few minutes.”
I sat back and crossed my arms. “You think these Protectors can help us?”
“I do. I trust them more than any other team I’ve been a part of, and that’s saying a hell of a lot given the units I’ve served with. With the Protectors, I trust their hearts.”
I’d rarely heard River speak so sincerely. With passion. In my experience, most things he said were tinged with cynicism or sarcasm.
At least, that was what I remembered of the man I’d known before.
But he was different. Wasn’t he? He’d left me behind too many times in the past. But not tonight. Maybe River had changed more than I’d realized, and maybe these Protectors were part of the reason why.
“Okay,” I said. “What else do you need to do?”
“Contact a hacker who goes by the name Cerberus. He’s involved in our investigation of Stillwater, and he’s worked with Genevieve Blake in the past. He was her source. Cerberus is who told me about the threat against you.”
“Then I need to thank him.”
“I’ll pass that on, but he doesn’t do it for gratitude. He’s a kind of warrior, in his own way. ”
“And you trust him too?”
“Completely, and he trusts me. We have some of the same kinds of skills. Though mine cross over into the real world more often than his.”
My brow wrinkled. “Hodge called you Rubicon.”
“That was my call sign in the SEALs. Now I use it online for certain purposes, depending on my goals. For some ventures, I use dozens of different accounts, different handles. Different personalities, even. I can be a ghost. But when I want to rely upon my reputation as a hacker, I go by Rubicon.”
Wow. River was kind of amazing. And scary smart. I’d suspected as much when we were kids, but he’d lived up to that potential.
I wasn’t about to share that opinion though. He had a big enough ego already.
“But you don’t work for the CIA anymore? You were honest about that?”
“Yes, Charlie. I’ve been completely honest with you. I might not have shared everything yet, but what I’ve said has been accurate.”
I didn’t comment on the nickname. Or his claim of sincerity. “Why do you need to contact Cerberus?”
“See if he’s got any updates from his end.”
“We have to find out why Stillwater wants to kidnap me.”
His gaze was intense. “Yes. Three more days until the deadline they set for that bounty. Stillwater’s people won’t give up. I know that’s hard to hear.”
“Don’t look at me like you’re expecting me to break, River. I won’t. I saw terrible things tonight, and I won’t forget it anytime soon. But I’ve never caved when things got hard, and I don’t plan to start now.” I leaned my elbows on the table. “When you showed up last night, you promised you’d explain what’s really happening. You started, but you didn’t come close to finishing.” I gestured at the RV living space. “We’re stuck together with nowhere else to be. As soon as you’ve contacted your friends, I want to know everything .”
I sat beside River as he worked, and he didn’t object to me reading over his shoulder. Not that I could follow very well.
He’d opened a window with a black background and started typing in code. More code appeared. Now River’s fingers flew over the keyboard, though from my perspective, it looked like he was typing in another language. I supposed he was.
Why was that so…sexy?
Maybe I had a thing for nerd chic. Smart guys did it for me. But I’d never been able to account for how intriguing River was.
When I was sixteen, I had been attracted to him. Wildly attracted, if I was being honest. Later, I had denied and ignored that attraction for years.
Now, it was back. Making my blood pump as I watched him in hacker mode.
River started getting responses from Cerberus right away. Apparently the guy had been waiting in front of his computer, but if he was a high-level hacker and he’d been keeping an eye on the news, then he’d probably been anxious to hear from Rubicon.
“He doesn’t have much for me yet,” River said. “Stillwater’s leadership has gone quiet again. No new orders. They’re letting the lieutenants battle it out to find you.”
“Does Stillwater know you’re helping me yet?”
“Cerberus is watching for that. No indications so far. He’s watching police and FBI communications as well, but this stuff takes time. You and I need to get out of Denver before a BOLO is issued on my vehicle. New plates will help. I’ve got some with me.”
“Do I want to ask where you got those?”
“Probably not.” His long fingers continued to move over the keyboard like a musician with an instrument. “I’m sending messages to the Protectors now through our secure server. Owen is the sheriff. He’ll need to be ready for law-enforcement inquiries. Just a matter of time until someone calls him about me.”
“What will he say?”
“The truth. A part of it. That I took off, and he doesn’t know exactly what I was doing or where I went. I left it vague on purpose. Deniability. I didn’t want to pull my friends in until I was ready.”
“But you said the Protectors have been investigating Stillwater for months with the help of Genevieve Blake.”
“We have. We’ve already won a significant battle against them. The other guys have partners, though. Families. And we have our mission at Last Refuge. People to take care of. I can’t forget that.”
“But you came for me.”
“Of course I did. The moment I heard you were in danger, there was no other option.”
I remembered what he’d said this morning, when we’d been at Brynn’s house. Felt like a week ago instead of a matter of hours.
You matter to me. You have always mattered to me .
I shifted on the uncomfortable bench seat. My arm brushed against his. “So the other Protectors have families. What about you? Do you have someone special in Hartley that you have to look out for?”
He kept his eyes on the screen. “A girlfriend or a wife? Nah, nobody’s ever stuck. Domesticity isn’t for me. I prefer being the uncle who teaches my friends’ kids the stuff they shouldn’t know. What about you?”
“Someone special? No. I’ve made some bad choices when it comes to relationships. I’m taking a break.”
“Bad choices, like Jud Hale?”
“Shut up.” I elbowed him. “You must’ve made some poor decisions when it comes to women.”
He hummed. “I can think of one or two. Yeah.”
This felt like the moment to mention my ill-fated relationship with River’s brother. I had no idea where things stood with them now. Ross and I were friendly, though we hadn’t spoken in a long time. He was happily married. My engagement to him felt like a lifetime ago.
As Brynn had pointed out, all my unresolved feelings concerned my ex’s older brother.
Instead I said, “Tell me what else you know about Stillwater.”
He closed the lid of his laptop. “That’ll take a while.”
“Do I have to repeat myself?”
His mouth quirked. “Right. You want to know everything . But to get the full story, I need to start with Aiden and Jessi. This was last year. Before I arrived in Hartley.”
We talked for hours in the near-darkness. About how Aiden had helped Jessi when she’d been in trouble, and how Jessi’s brother Trace had done the same for Scarlett. The creation of the Protectors. River’s own arrival in town.
And all the while, Stillwater’s machinations in the background, unbeknownst to any of them until Genevieve came to Hartley to investigate Sheriff Owen.
“You read Genevieve’s article. She revealed how Stillwater provides logistical support and consulting to smaller bad actors. As a result, Stillwater has its hands in illicit drug routes, human trafficking, other kinds of organized crime. Including those incidents involving my friends in Hartley. ”
“So this is personal for Aiden and Trace and their partners,” I said.
“It is. And for Owen too. Until Genevieve, none of us had ever heard of Stillwater. But she provided evidence that a public official tied to Hart County was accepting bribes from Stillwater. Cerberus and his hacking group had come across offshore bank accounts showing the transactions. They couldn’t discover the person’s identity. We’ve been trying to uncover that official ever since.”
Suddenly starving, I got up and checked the cabinets for food. “You mentioned the corrupt official before.” I returned to the table and passed over a packet of beef jerky and a water bottle. I tore into a chocolate-chip protein bar. “But that wasn’t in the article Genevieve published.”
“No, we kept that info back. Gen and Owen have been working with me on a list of suspects.” River paused. “About a week ago, Genevieve added you to that list of suspects.”
I nearly choked on the protein bar. “ Me ? Why?”
“Several reasons, but mainly because you dated Jud Hale. And he’s been on our watch list as a potential Stillwater mole for months.”
I took a swig of water, then set the bottle on the table with a thump. “You think Jud’s been taking bribes?”
River nodded. His expression had turned sardonic. If he made another quip about my questionable choice of boyfriends…
But amazingly, he didn’t crack a joke.
“When Jud was a state legislator, he had the power to pull strings for Stillwater,” River said. “He also got extremely interested in a murder investigation Owen was doing, an investigation that led directly to Stillwater.”
“Wait, which murder?”
“I told you this is a long story. ”
River kept filling me in on the twisted tale. But as I listened, I tried to make sense of his suspicions of Jud.
I had issues with my ex. There was no question about that. He’d done some things that raised red flags for me. But this? Taking money from a criminal organization like Stillwater? Was it possible Jud could have gotten mixed up with them without realizing who they really were?
But he would’ve known he was taking bribes in secret. And I wasn’t ready to believe that of him. I hadn’t been in love with the man, but he’d been an important part of my life for years when we were both legislators.
No, I couldn’t believe it.
But there was something I needed to tell River. He was sharing everything I wanted to know, so I shouldn’t keep back any detail from him. Not if it could possibly be relevant.
I held up my hand, interrupting him. “On my way to the fundraiser, Jud tried to call me. It was the first time I’ve heard from him in months. Then during the event, he called and texted several more times. I really don’t think he could be working for Stillwater, but I don’t know how to explain that timing either.”
River frowned, gaze sharpening. He opened his laptop. “You didn’t look at his messages? You don’t know what they said?”
I shook my head. “But they must still be on my phone. Same with the voicemail he left. My phone automatically downloads voice messages.” I went to dig my personal cell out of the bag it was in, but River stopped me.
“We can’t turn it on. Not yet.”
“But you told me to put it in airplane mode. It won’t connect with any cell towers, right?”
“I don’t want to take the risk. Not until I’ve confirmed there are no other trackers present. In the meantime, I need to let Cerberus know. Make sure he’s not taking his eye off of Jud’s movements and communications.”
“Could Jud have known about the threat against me? Do you think he was trying to warn me?”
“That’s a possibility.”
I pushed aside the other half of the protein bar. My stomach was no longer cooperating. “This is a mess.”
Everything, everything , about my life had exploded in the last several hours.
“It’s a lot,” River said. “But we’re in a better position than we were a day ago.”
“How do you figure that?”
I was running from people who wanted to kidnap me, hurt me in unknown ways for reasons I didn’t understand. And I couldn’t trust anyone completely except for the man sitting next to me.
A man I had far too much history with.
“Before now, we had no idea when the strike would come,” he said. “We were just reacting to the new information as it appeared.”
“And I wasn’t reacting well,” I admitted.
“Can’t really blame you. Sometimes the wait is worse than the actual battle. Now, the attack is behind you.”
“The first attack, you mean.”
His smile was grim. “I wish I could promise you the hardest part was over, but you told me not to coddle you. At least you’re not out in the open anymore.”
“So what’s our next move? You said we’re just staying here for the night.”
“Tomorrow we’ll head toward Hartley. Join up with the other Protectors. But I’ve been living there openly. Stillwater will look for me there as soon as they realize I’m involved. So we won’t make it easy. For Stillwater to get to you, they’ll have to find you first. And then they’ll have to go through me and my friends.”
“Thank you, River. The words don’t do this justice. Especially after certain accusations I might have made about you earlier.”
“Like how I was a shitty friend?” he asked.
“Hey, those words did not leave my mouth.”
“But that was the gist of it. And I deserved it. My fault that I let so many years go by without getting in touch. I’m truly sorry.”
I nodded, my throat swelling with unexpected emotion.
Okay . Time for bed. Before I dredged up something else awkward from the past that neither of us wanted to talk about.
“I’m going to use the bathroom and wash my face. The day is catching up to me now.”
“Sure.” He turned back to his computer. “I need to take care of a few more things.”
River had the blue glow of the laptop to see by. But maneuvering in the bathroom without a light was nearly impossible, so I took the flashlight. Once I was ready for bed, I went back to the kitchen area.
River glanced up. “I checked the news reports. They mentioned FBI agents had been injured, but they’re in stable condition.”
“Okay. Good.”
“The story broke that you attended the fundraiser and now you’re missing.”
I groaned. “Then the police will have contacted my family. God, they must be terrified.”
River turned the laptop toward me. “You wanted to send them a message?”
“Can I? Right now?”
He nodded once. “I set it up. They’ll get a pop-up window, similar to what I used on your computer before. Untraceable, and they won’t be able to respond. But at least they’ll know you’re okay. They’ll be able to read it once, and the message will vanish.”
“How do you do that?” I sputtered.
“Really want me to talk you through it? Or do you want to send your message and get to bed?”
“Fair.” I probably wouldn’t be able to follow his weird hacker moves anyway. Not my area.
I sat down to type a quick note, saying I was currently safe but in hiding. No mention of River or Stillwater, though I included a few details that would prove it was me. I promised I would get in touch again soon. I wished I could speak to my loved ones on the phone, reassure them, but this would have to do for now.
“I need to send a message to Brynn too,” I said.
“That’s even easier. I already set up a back door to her home network when I was at her place.”
“She’s going to love that.”
As I drafted the note to Brynn, River sat beside me, watching what I wrote. Take care of yourself , I typed. We’re going to be laughing about all this someday . P.S., I put extra food for Cleo in your fridge. She especially likes it warmed up.
“You spoil your cat, don’t you?” he teased.
“Why shouldn’t I? It’s my choice to spoil her. I hate that I just left her.”
“I’m sure Brynn will watch over her. Or assign Cleo her very own FBI agent.”
“Ha. Ha.”
River took the laptop and did his computer-thing to send off the messages.
I asked about sending word to my office or the governor, but River said we’d stuck our necks out far enough. If my family wished, they could tell the governor that I’d contacted them and was safe. But we couldn’t risk leaving any remnants for someone to track.
While River worked more on the laptop, I kept eying the kitchen bench, which would convert into a sleeping area. But these cushions were hard. It wasn’t enough space either. River wasn’t huge like Hodge, but he was tall.
Ugh, was I really going to do this?
I had to. The man had saved my life more than once. And for a long time before that, we’d been…something. Far from strangers.
I sighed and said, “The couch out here will be really uncomfortable to sleep on. We can share the bed.”
“I’ll be fine out here, Charlie.”
“It’s not a big deal. It’s just me. We’ve known each other most of our lives.” I forced a laugh. “You’re the one who insists on calling me that childhood nickname.”
“It’s not a good idea.”
His voice had started to betray an edge of tension. Which got on my nerves even more.
“You can save my life, but you can’t sleep in a bed with me?”
He finally met my eyes. No smile. No trace of humor. “No. I can’t.”
This shouldn’t have infuriated me so much. But I had thought we’d made progress toward repairing our friendship. We were stuck together for the next few days, if not longer. Why was he being so weird about this?
“So, you can pretend to be enamored with me at the fundraiser, almost kiss me to throw off bad guys, and be overprotective as hell, but you balk at simply sharing a space? That’s too close for you? Too much like actually being friends?”
He rubbed his eyes. Then stood. River seemed to take up most of the RV’s living area, not so much his size but his presence.
“What makes you think I was pretending?”
“I—Hold on. What?”
“Go to bed, Charlie,” he said roughly. “We’ll need to leave before dawn. I’ll wake you when it’s time to go.”
“River.”
He started to walk past me, heading for the tiny bathroom, and I caught his hand. When his gaze met mine, it was alive with something I couldn’t understand. But what I saw made my heart speed and my breath stall in my chest.
The only light in the room came from his laptop screen, but River’s eyes burned .
Intensity and frustration. Heat and longing. Aimed directly at me. But we didn’t have an audience. No bad guys to deflect by pretending he wanted me.
Could he mean…No. That couldn’t be…was it?
My fingers slid against his palm. River’s tongue licked his lower lip, and his pinky finger curved to hook around mine. And I whimpered . Of all the ways we had touched since the night began, this was somehow the most intimate.
I flinched and pulled my hand away from his, unable to bear it another second.
What was that?
River coughed and turned away. “Goodnight Charlie,” he said again, and disappeared into the bathroom.
I stared at my open palm, wondering if I’d just imagined all of that.