Fatal Secrets - Desiree Holt Page 0,30
quite a drive ahead of you, so I’m guessing we won’t see you for dinner. Just promise to keep in touch.”
“Guaranteed,” Sean said.
“Word of honor,” Zoe spoke at the same time.
Hank actually chuckled. “Well, that was cute.”
Hank glanced at the clock on the dash. “Okay. I’ve got to get back to the ranch. I have cattle business and Brotherhood business I need to check on.”
“Thanks. Hank, I really do appreciate everything.”
Still, Zoe swallowed her irritation. She hated being without her own wheels. Sure, Sean was going to be glued to her butt and probably driving her everyplace she went in his truck. But there was something reassuring about having her own wheels, even if they sat in front of the big garage.
”Thank you for involving Alex,” she told Hank when they arrived back at the ranch. “I appreciate it.”
“I was going to talk to you about bringing him in anyway. Listening to you earlier today, I realized how much of this story doesn’t pass the smell test.” He pulled her in for a brotherly type hug. “You know my preference is to lock you up here until whoever did that crap to you is caught and we find out who’s behind it all.”
“But you also know that’s not happening. Right?”
He nodded. “But please don’t give Sean a hard time. I teamed him with you for a reason.”
“I hear you.” She wanted to add loud and clear, but all she did was step back. “Okay. We need to get going. Helena’s not just around the corner. By the way, who has the keys to my car?”
Hank grimaced. “I do. Why? You don’t need it. Sean will take you any place you want to go. Besides, I told you I’d send a couple of the guys to fetch it.”
“We have to go right past Bozeman. We can stop and pick it up on the way back. And Sean will be right on my tail while I’m driving it.”
She could tell he didn’t want to do it, but he dug the keys out of his pocket and slapped them into her palm.
“And no trying to drive off by yourself.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“I’ll call you if I get any updates from Alex.”
“Thanks.” She frowned. “You think he’ll find anything?”
“If there’s anything to find, Alex can do it. Especially with stuff like this, he’s like a dog with a bone.”
“Okay. You have our numbers.”
Sean opened the driver’s door, looked from one to the other, then reached beneath the seat and pulled out a gun and holster.
Hank lifted an eyebrow. “Glock .45.”
“My best friend. Never leave home without it.”
Zoe waited to see if Hank said anything else, but after a moment he dipped his head in a sharp nod.
“Be careful,” he told them. “Just…take care.”
“We will,” she snapped. “I have a great bodyguard, remember?”
“Got it covered,” Sean told him in his rusty-sounding voice.
He cranked the engine, but before, he backed up, he took his cell from his pocket and plugged it in. Then he shifted into reverse.
Zoe was both anxious and relieved when they headed down the long driveway. She’d been expecting Hank to hustle after them, say he’d changed his mind, and she’d have to do all her digging around on her laptop. But they made it onto the two-lane highway, and she let out the breath she’d been holding.
“Do you have the address of where we’re going?” Sean asked.
“Of course. Here in my notes, but I’ve also got it memorized.”
“I’ll bet you do. Okay, plug it into the GPS, would you?”
“Sean?”
“Uh huh.”
“Thanks for not giving me a hard time about this, like Hank is doing.”
He was silent for a long moment.
“No problem. I know what it’s like to lose a friend that way.”
The sound of his voice told her loud and clear he didn’t want to answer any questions about that, so she sat back in her seat. But the air around them crackled with so many emotions, she wondered the truck didn’t explode.
Chapter 6
The drive from the ranch to Helena was about two and a half hours, give or take. For more than the first hour they rode in silence. Sean figured she had as much running through her mind as he did racing through his. Every so often, he’d slide a glance over at her. She’d left her laptop at the ranch, but she’d had a tablet stashed in her purse, and now she was poring over it, swiping from one screen to the other.
Her hair with its fascinating mixture of brown and blonde