seemed to give up. “Okay, well go and dispose of the body. We need to break camp and get moving.”
Lacey stood, grabbed the spade they’d used to dig their latrines and used it to scoop up the carcass in one smooth move.
“Jen, want to come with me to get rid of this thing?”
Jen wrinkled her nose and held up her mug. “Not on your life and certainly not before I’ve finished my coffee.”
Victor looked around and realized that while Lacey had been getting scolded, the others had wandered off to fix breakfast.
“I’ll come.” He’d been about to feed the thing. He might as well help bury it.
“Fine. Let’s go so I can have some coffee before it’s all gone.” Holding the shovel in front of her, Lacey dove into the nearest woods, her confident steps weaving through trees and over logs.
“How far do we have to go?”
“Not far. A wolf or coyote will find it tonight. You just don’t want it to be too close to the campsite.”
“So um,” Victor cleared his throat. “What kind of gun is that?”
“It’s a Glock. A G19 semiautomatic handgun, if you’d like to be exact.” Lacey hopped up onto a log and down the other side. Now Victor looked, he could see a slight change in one pant leg where it crested over the holster. But someone would have to be looking for it to even suspect.
“Do you always carry a gun?” Lacey O’Connor did not fit the mental image he’d had in his head of someone who walked around with a loaded weapon. But given what had just happened, it looked like he was going to have to redraw that image.
The side of her mouth lifted. “Not all the time.”
Great. So he only had to worry about it some of the time. But presumably all of the time during this particular part of Meredith’s little sorting of the wheat from the chaff.
“Can I hold it?” He immediately regretted that question as she and her dead raccoon swung around and stared at him.
“No, you can’t hold it. It’s not a toy. It’s a lethal weapon, and we are in the middle of nowhere, not on a supervised gun range.”
“So why do you have it?”
Lacey sucked in a breath. “Because I have a permit from the great state of Minnesota that says that I can. And you should be grateful I do and that I was up. If it wasn’t for me, you would have fed breakfast to a rabies-riddled rodent. And if it had bitten you, you’d have required a medical airlift to get you to a hospital.” She stopped. “This should be far enough.” Flipping her shovel, she dumped the animal on the ground.
“I’m surprised you didn’t let it bite me then.”
“Why would I do that?” Lacey tucked the shovel back under her arm.
“C’mon. It never crossed your mind to let me fall victim to my own stupidity? It would have meant one less person to compete with.”
Lacey turned and started walking back the way they had come in. Everything looked the same to him. Trees, bushes, dirt, but she strode on confidently, seeing some path he didn’t. “It might have occurred to me if you were an actual threat. But you aren’t. What are you going for? Middle management?”
“Senior management.” He immediately regretted his admission—something he seemed to be having a streak of today. He shouldn’t have said anything. Should have let her think he was going for a more junior position.
Lacey laughed as if he had said something hilarious. His pride prickled. Don’t say anything. Just let her believe whatever she wants.
It wasn’t the first time he had been underestimated, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. It would make success that much sweeter and defeat … Well, if he failed, at least she wouldn’t know he had ever tried.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
If Lacey had thought she was in pain after the first day of canoeing, by the end of the second day, she was pretty sure even her eyelashes were yelling at her.
She wasn’t the only one. As the day progressed, everyone had gotten shorter with each other. By the end of dinner, most people had disintegrated into grunts and wincing movements. The minute dinner had been cleaned up, and the sun had disappeared over the horizon, people disappeared into their tents like rabbits into a warren.
“So,” Jen whispered from across the small distance between their bed mats. “How’s it going, Team Captain?”
“Everything hurts.” Lacey muffled a groan.
“The rest of us mortals