“I’m the one who suggested lunch. You can get the next one.”
She plunged her hand into her purse and pulled out a wallet. “Let me get the tip.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be generous with the tip.” He added a few more bills to the pile and held it out to her. “Is this okay?”
“More than generous.”
“You’re kind of a control freak, aren’t you?”
“You could say that.” She stood up and pulled her jacket from the back of her chair. “Where are you staying?”
“The Greenvale Inn and Suites back by the congressman’s office, but I’m not going there right now.” He reached the front door of the restaurant before she did and held it open for her.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m following you back to your place. You said you were expecting a delivery of your brother’s possessions any day, and I’m going to hold you to your word.”
“All right.” She flicked up the collar of her jacket. “I want to show you something in that report, anyway. Have you read it?”
“I’ve seen bits and pieces of it, not the entire report.”
“The report is bits and pieces. There’s so much redaction, it’s hard to read.”
He could believe that. There would be secrecy surrounding an embassy outpost like that even without an attack. “Your address?”
“Just follow me. It’ll be easier.”
He did follow her, right to her truck, and opened the heavy door after she’d unlocked it.
She placed one boot on the running board and hopped into the driver’s seat. “It’s about a forty-minute drive.”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
He followed her out of town and along the two-lane highway. He hadn’t given too much thought to Lana’s housing situation, but didn’t expect her to live out in the boonies like this.
Farmland rolled past his window, and occasionally he got a whiff of fresh manure, a smell that reminded him of home.
After about forty minutes of driving, the right indicator on Lana’s truck flashed on and off and she slowed down. She turned and drove the truck between two posts onto a small paved road.
As Logan took his car through the posts, he tried to read the writing carved on the sides but it was too small. Lana lived on a ranch. Was it hers? Her husband’s?
The thought of a husband lurking beyond the gate up ahead socked him in the gut, but he brushed it aside. If Lana Moreno had a husband, she wouldn’t be running around on her own trying to get closure on Gil. And if she had a husband and he allowed her to do this on her own, the guy didn’t deserve her.
As Lana’s truck approached the main gate to the ranch, Logan threw his car into Park and jumped out. He jogged to the gate, unhitched it and swung it wide.
Lana waved as she drove through and then waited for him while he followed with his car. He pulled up behind her, left his car idling, closed the gate and slid back into his rental.
He kept after her as she wound up the road past a horse riding ring and a pasture. Her truck rattled past the big house that had a later-model truck than hers and a minivan parked in the front.
He didn’t take her for a minivan type, anyway. She kept driving toward a stand of trees and then curved around them, pulling alongside a much-smaller house than the one in front and hidden from the view of the road.
He left his rental car several feet behind her truck. When he got out, she was halfway to the porch.
“I think it’s here.” Her boots clattered on the wooden steps of the front porch.
By the time he joined her, she’d sunk beside a box by the front door and had slid a knife along the taped seam.
As she made a grab for one loose flap, he said, “Let me get it inside for you first.”
She scrambled to her feet, as he wrapped his arms around the box and hoisted it against his chest. With hands that could barely hold on to her key chain, she fumbled at the lock before he heard a click and the door swung open.
She stood to the side. “Put it in the middle of the floor.”
His boots clumped against the hardwood floor as he made his way to a throw rug in the middle of the room. Crouching, he allowed the box to slip from his grasp until it settled on the floor.
Lana fell to her knees beside it, knife clutched in her hand. She ran it along the other seam and peeled back the lid. She stopped, gripping either side of the box, her eyes closed.
“Are you all right?” Logan touched her hand. “Do you want to do this on your own? I can step outside.”
Her eyelids flew open and one tear glistened on the edge of her long lashes. “It’s okay. It’s the smell, you know? It came at me all at once—his smell.”
Logan inhaled deeply. Lana smelled her brother, but another scent hit him and resonated deep in his core. “It’s the smell of war.”
Hunching over the box, she buried both of her hands inside and pulled out some clothing. She placed a stack of clothes on the floor, smoothing her hands over the shirt folded on top. She dived in again and again, withdrawing toiletries, books and personal items.
As the pile of Gil’s things grew around her, her movements grew more and more frantic until she withdrew the final item from the box—Gil’s beret.
She collapsed against the base of the couch, clutching the hat to her chest, her eyes dark slits. “They stole it. Somebody took Gil’s journal.”
Lana kicked the empty box with her foot, flipping it over. She should’ve known someone would snatch Gil’s journal. Maybe if she hadn’t blabbed to anyone who would listen about what she knew and how, Gil’s journal wouldn’t have come under any scrutiny. She’d led them right to it—and the only proof she had that the attack on the outpost wasn’t random.
“You’re sure it’s not in one of these smaller pouches?” Logan poked at Gil’s stuff with his finger, toppling one of the piles.
“I looked in each one as I pulled it out, but you’re welcome to do it again.” She folded her arms over Gil’s beret and dipped her head, the scratchy wool tickling her chin. “I messed up. I shouldn’t have mentioned that journal to anyone.”
“Maybe there’s another box on its way. Maybe the mail person delivered the second box to the house in the front. Does that ever happen?” Logan righted the empty box and placed his hands inside, as if he thought there might be a false bottom.
“The mail person doesn’t make mistakes but my stuff does have a habit of winding up at the big house.” Lana clenched her teeth at the thought of Bruce pawing through Gil’s belongings.
Logan sprang to his feet and extended his hand to her. “Do you want to ask them?”
“You’re coming with me?”
He cocked his head. “If you want me to.”
She couldn’t wait to parade Captain Logan Hess in front of Bruce, even though she couldn’t pass off Logan as anything more than a friend, not even that, really, but she’d relish the expression on Bruce’s face when he got a look at Logan and his rippling muscles. Not that she could see those muscles under his shirt—but she could imagine