Chapter 4 #2
Grant got out and opened Everly’s door, then the door to the back seat.
“Let’s get you two unloaded, then I’ll bring in the groceries.
” He grabbed her suitcase in one hand and Posie’s carrier in the other.
She hissed at him through the small wire door.
“Easy, girl. You’re almost free, I promise,” he murmured, seemingly unfazed by the cat’s attitude.
Everly followed him up the steps and onto the porch, the well-worn wood protesting under their weight.
Once they were inside, she freed Posie, who immediately darted out and ran under the couch.
“Make yourself at home. I’ll be back in a minute,” Grant told her.
The door clicked shut behind him as he returned to the truck, and Everly wrapped her arms around herself, surveying her new surroundings.
As she’d guessed from the outside, the cabin was small, but clean and well-kept.
The living room and kitchen were open to each other, with a large fireplace on one wall and a TV above it.
Large windows at the rear of the house overlooked a sweeping mountain view.
She stepped through the back door and onto a screened porch.
A ceiling fan turned slightly in the breeze, and Everly inhaled more of that clean mountain air smell she’d noticed earlier.
It was the scent of damp earth and new leaves and blossoms opening in the sun.
She opened her eyes and surveyed the softly rounded mountains that rose above the treeline in the distance.
There’d be no fighting through city traffic here.
No dealing with pushy salesmen or anyone else ringing her doorbell.
Everly let go of the breath she’d been holding, and as she exhaled, she felt a jagged corner in her mind smooth over.
She was safe here; she could relax here and just… breathe for awhile.
The door creaked open, and she felt the warmth of Grant’s body at her back as he stopped behind her. “This view is what sold me on the place.”
“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “Feels like we’re a thousand miles from the city.” She turned to find herself standing toe-to-toe with him and swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. “Thank you,” she told him. “For bringing me here. For pausing your life to help me figure this out.”
He studied her for a long moment, and his voice was rough when he spoke, his breath sending whispers of air through her hair. “I’d do anything to protect you, Ev. Jeremy was my brother—I owe it to him to keep you safe.”
Everly looked into those clear blue eyes that always held calm and reassurance and knew it was true.
Grant would move these mountains for her if that’s what it took.
She suddenly wanted nothing more than to take one more step forward, to lay her head against his chest and feel his arms tighten around her.
But she summoned every bit of her willpower and stepped to the side and away from him.
“You don’t owe him a thing. But I’m grateful all the same. ”
◆◆◆
Everly surveyed the bedroom before her as Grant strode in and placed her suitcase on the enormous four poster bed that took up most of the space.
She followed him in and sat down on the mattress, the wooden frame creaking as she shifted.
An antique-style dresser and mirror sat along one wall.
“Wow,” she commented, running her hand over the faded patchwork quilt that covered the bed.
“I expected a mattress on the floor with some unwashed sheets.”
Grant laughed. “Glad you like it. I furnished this place secondhand. So I took what was available close by. Except for the mattress, I bought that new.” He nodded toward the bed. “That quilt was my housewarming gift from Abel. His wife made it for their bed when they got married.”
She looked at the quilt with renewed admiration and noticed the innumerable tiny hand stitches, the mismatched little squares where holes had been patched over the years.
“That’s the best housewarming gift I’ve ever heard of.
He gave you a family heirloom.” Everly looked up to find Grant looking at her, his expression unreadable.
Something passed between them, and she was acutely aware of the way he towered over her as she sat.
He cleared his throat and stepped away, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms over that broad chest.
“He grew up in this house,” he told her. “When he and Ruth married, he built a house down the road. It’s back in the woods where he met us earlier.” He pushed off the wall. “Anyway, you can take the bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“You don’t have a second bedroom?” she asked.
He shook his head. “It’s just storage space for right now. No guests, remember?”
“Right.” She gave him a weak smile and followed him down the short hallway and back out to the kitchen.
Grant sat down at the table and pulled a familiar laptop from the bag of cat supplies. Everly’s eyes widened. “Is that Jeremy’s computer?”
“It is,” he admitted. “I grabbed it while we were packing earlier. Thought it might help us figure out what’s going on.”
“How so?” she asked, sliding into the chair next to him. She flipped her hair over one shoulder and and propped her chin on her hand.
He switched on the laptop and then a portable WiFi hotspot. “There might be a file in here that contains a name or other information about who was trying to extort money from you. And who broke into your house.”
Everly frowned. “I’m not sure I follow.”
“You said last night that he had secret debts. Stuff you never knew about. Could be that he got tangled up with the wrong kind of lender.”
“Wish I would have thought of that,” she mumbled, staring at the screen.
“Might be a long shot.” The screen flashed, and then the password field popped up. Grant looked at her. “Any ideas?”
She gave him the password, relieved that she knew that much, and watched as he connected the laptop to the WiFi and then dialed Evan.
“McDowell. What’s shaking, baby?”
“Hey man. Just hanging here with Everly. I’ve got Holland’s computer online. Care to take a look and see what you can find?”
“Absolutely. What’s the IP address?”
Grant rattled off the numbers, and the screen flashed as Evan took control and the cursor moved across the screen. Folders opened one after the other as he sifted through the laptop’s contents.
A folder opened to reveal hundreds more folders, all with number sequences for names. “Do these file names mean anything to you, Mrs. Holland? Any of this look familiar?” Evan asked over the phone.
She squinted at the screen as he scrolled through endless columns of thumbnails. She shook her head, even though he couldn’t see her. “No, I’ve never seen any of these.”
He tried to click on one, and a password box appeared. Grant entered the same password he’d used for the laptop. Access denied , the pop-up box said.
Evan clicked on several more with the same results and groaned.
“Looks like this is going to take awhile,” he told them.
“I’ll start running an encryption breaker.
Best case scenario, it takes a few hours.
But if there are more folders nested inside these…
probably going to take a few days to look through all of them. I’ll be in touch.”
He and Grant spoke a few moments longer before disconnecting the call. Everly sank back with a slow exhale. “I can’t believe Colonel Lockhart is letting you guys spend time on this.”
Grant leaned back in his chair, hands laced behind his head. “Actually, this is off the record for now. Just me and Evan. And Noah.” He winked at her. “Rules about STAG resources and all that.”
She knew. Even though she'd never fully grasped the scope of what STAG did, she knew they operated within the US only under strict circumstances.
Circumstances like terrorists. Hostages.
Scary shit. The kind of stuff that got people killed.
She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself then stood, suddenly jumpy.
A quick glance out the window revealed the sun already sinking toward the horizon.
“You hungry?” Grant stood and stretched, then turned to rummage through the grocery bags on the counter.
Everly forced herself to keep her eyes on the floorboards, instead of letting them wander to the way his shirt shifted when he moved.
“Yeah, I could eat.” She swallowed. Her throat was dry, and her limbs suddenly felt heavy, like whatever adrenaline that had propelled her through the day had drained out all at once.
Her nerves were finally loosening, and in the absence of that tightness, so many feelings rushed in.
Fear. Gratitude. And something she wasn’t ready to name.
“You need any help?” she asked. She should have offered to make supper, to do something useful.
“Nah, I was thinking we could just eat sandwiches and chips if that’s all right with you—” he glanced over at her, and his voice faltered. “Ev?” He crossed the kitchen in three strides and stopped in front of her. “What’s wrong?”
Gentle hands settled on her shoulders, and Everly realized she was crying. “I’m sorry. It’s just…it hit me all at once. Someone was in my house, went through my things. And if Jeremy had anything to do with this…” She buried her face in her hands, ashamed for him to see her so afraid.
Grant guided her to the couch and draped a blanket over her shoulders, then pulled her against him and let her cry onto his chest. He didn’t rush her, or tell her to stop crying, just moved his hand in slow, calming strokes along her back.
“We’re gonna figure this shit out,” he murmured into her hair. “I’ll protect you for as long as it takes to stop these bastards. I promise.”
They sat like that for a long while, her head on his chest and his arms strong and reassuring around her, until her tears subsided and her breathing evened out again.
She dragged herself out of his arms and sat back against the cushions, swiping her fingers under her eyes.
She was bone-weary, like she’d been climbing a mountain all day, and suddenly wanted nothing more than to go to sleep and forget about everything that had happened.
“I need some sleep,” she told Grant. As she glanced towards the open door of the bedroom, the thought of being shut alone in an unfamiliar place caused her stomach to churn. “Do you think…could you sleep in there with me?”
He looked at her for a long moment. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Her cheeks burned. “I just thought—it would be nice to not be alone. We don’t have to get close or anything,” she added quickly. Hell, even just having him in the room with her would be reassuring. Maybe she should ask him to sleep on the floor.
“You won’t be alone,” he finally said. “I’ll be practically right outside the door. Nobody will bother us here tonight.”
Everly hoped he was right. She pushed down her disappointment and headed to the bedroom. Alone.