jaw. Coburn didn’t get it. To him, Noelle was just another piece in a puzzle. Another suspicious person on the way to snagging Zendaris.
But to him— What was she to him?
“J.D.?” Coburn’s voice sliced through his thoughts.
He had to protect Noelle. She didn’t deserve any of this. He cleared his throat. “The subject would be safer if she knew and understood the threat facing her.”
“The subject might be safer, but what about you? If she’s involved and you tell her your interest in Zendaris, you’ve just overplayed your hand, putting yourself and this entire mission in jeopardy.”
“She’s not involved, Jack. I don’t know why she hasn’t told me about Abby, but it’s not because she was Abby’s accomplice.” He thumped his chest. “I feel it.”
“Feelings will get you in trouble.”
“Better not let Lola hear you say that.”
Coburn grunted. “I keep my feelings for my wife separate from the job.”
“Wasn’t always that way.” Jack Coburn had met his wife when he’d been on the most important mission of his life—recovering his memory. And once the mission ended and he’d claimed Lola for his own, he’d never looked back and never had any regrets.
“I don’t recommend it. The feelings I developed for Lola on that mission almost got me killed once or twice.” Coburn sucked in a breath. “You’re not developing feelings for the subject, are you?”
Of course I am. He’d lost it the minute she’d turned those violet eyes on him.
“I’m not here just to track down any leads on Zendaris. I’m here to protect the subject, and I think she’d be safer knowing the truth.”
“Unless that truth compromises your cover and our goal.”
“I can’t believe you’d sacrifice someone to reach Zendaris. That’s not Prospero training.”
“We don’t have to throw Ms. Dupree to the wolves. You can protect her even if she doesn’t know the truth—that’s Prospero training.”
“I’m doing my best, but I’m just the ranch hand. She’s going to start getting suspicious once my mad spy skills become apparent.”
“You’ll figure it out, J.D. You always do.”
“So the order to stay undercover still stands?”
“Until you can determine she’s not part of Abby Warren’s plot.”
“That’s exactly what I’m gonna do, boss.”
Coburn ended the call, and J.D. checked the clock on the dash. He figured Noelle would be done with her errands before he was. He’d practically cleaned out the hardware store and checked out of his hotel.
He turned on the radio and tapped the steering wheel with his thumbs. He scanned the street for a white parka with a fur-trimmed hood. They were surprisingly popular, but none of the faces beneath the hoods were Noelle’s—that combination of wariness and vulnerability.
Maybe he saw the vulnerability because he knew her past.
He grabbed the cell phone in the console and punched the button for his contacts, realizing the moment he saw the empty list that he’d grabbed his secure Prospero phone.
He’d left the other phone in his coat pocket. He reached between the two front seats for his duster in the back. Pulling it into the front passenger seat, he fumbled for the pocket.
The phone fell on the floor of the truck, and he swore. Scooping it up, he glanced at the display. Noelle had texted him.
Took the shuttle to the mountain to meet Ted. You can leave or wait in town.
Dread thudded against his temples. He’d let her out of his sight, and she’d taken off to meet her brother. Hadn’t he just proclaimed to Jack that his priority was protecting the subject?
He’d failed.
With thumbs suddenly too big for his phone’s keyboard, he texted her back, asking why she’d gone to meet Ted.
He stared at the little display until his eyes burned and his mouth felt like sandpaper. When her response flashed on the screen, relief flooded his body, loosening the muscles he hadn’t realized he’d been tensing.
He hurt himself snowboarding.
J.D. growled in the back of his throat. Why didn’t Ted man up and stop running to his half sister every time he stubbed his toe?
Tired of the back-and-forth of little abbreviated words, J.D. punched the button to call Noelle’s number.
She answered on the first ring and started talking. “You can go back to the house if you want. In case you didn’t notice, I put a few purchases under the blue tarp in the back of your truck while you were still at the hardware store.”
“I didn’t notice, but you don’t plan to get a ride to the house on the back of Ted’s bike, do you? Is he in any condition to