Delivering His Gifts (Mountain Men of Liberty #10)- K.C. Crowne Page 0,54

speaking slowly. He placed his hands on my shoulders as if to help me keep standing. I was thankful for that gesture, as my knees were beginning to tremble. “I’ll find you an alternate place to stay in the meantime. I’ll pick you and Skyler up later tonight.”

“But where can we go? I have the dogs, all the animals—”

“We’ll figure something out, don’t worry. And as soon as I know you and Skyler are safe, I’ll come back here and document and destroy all that equipment. I’ll keep it so you have physical evidence, just render it useless. It’s illegal for him to record you in your home without your knowledge. It’s invasion of privacy and you can use that against him in court.”

He gave my shoulders a squeeze, and when I met his gaze, I felt myself relax. He was telling me everything would be okay, and while I was never one to fully trust anyone but myself - I found myself trusting him.

“Well if that’s the case, can’t you just do that now and we won’t have to leave?”

Mason shook his head. “No, I don’t like the idea of you being in that house under constant surveillance for one minute more than you have to. Besides, once I start dismantling his system, Greg will know it. And I don’t want him coming here to confront you. I want you and Sky somewhere he can’t get to you.”

I thought over his words and nodded. It made the most sense.

“Let me take Calvin home,” he said. “And we can figure out the rest from there.”

I nodded, feeling like my eyes were going to explode with tears. I wasn’t sad, however. I was angry.

“Thank you, Mason.”

“It’s going to be okay, Danielle. Trust me.”

I did.

Mason

“Looks like you’re getting Oscar a little earlier than expected,” I told Calvin as we packed up to head home.

“He’s more than ready, and I’m just a phone call away if he becomes a problem,” Danielle said.

“Oh, he could never be a problem. Could you, big boy?” Calvin stroked the top of the Great Dane’s head. If dogs could smile, I would have bet my life on him grinning like a fool. His tongue was lazily hanging from his mouth as he stared up at Calvin with such love in his eyes.

Calvin took the leash from Danielle. I knew this moment was hard for her, but Oscar was ready and so was Calvin. There were still things they could work on, but she could do it with visits to his place. We’d decided this would be the best plan of action so we had one less giant dog to consider in getting her out of her house.

Calvin and I walked to the truck. I opened the door of the extended cab and patted the seat, and Oscar was able to hop right in. He seemed excited to be going for a car ride.

Calvin got in the front seat, and as soon as we were on the road, he asked me, “So what’s really going on back there?”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, son. I wasn’t born yesterday,” he scoffed. “There was no electrical issue; you were looking in the damned curtains and in the picture frames. You were clearly looking for something. And then the announcement that Oscar would come home with me earlier than expected? Something’s up, I can feel it in my bones.”

I glanced at the old man. I could trust him, though mostly I didn’t want to burden him with our issues.

“Danielle’s ex is a problem. We found cameras and bugs around the house and the property.” I glanced at him, noting his jaw clenched. “He’s been spying on her. We’re getting her out of there but needed to make everything look natural.”

“Damn. It’s a good thing she’s got you then.”

I frowned. I’d promised her I would figure something out. I was so confident back there because I’d had to be. I had to keep her calm. But the truth was, I had no idea what we were doing, and I had an hour to figure it out.

“I just hope I don’t let her down.”

“You won’t. It’s not in your DNA to let the people you love down.” I flinched, and Calvin picked up on what I was thinking. “Son, what happened with Katie was not your fault, as I’ve said a thousand times. You’re not psychic. You couldn’t have known that the base would be attacked.” he said sternly. “You didn’t even know Katie would