“Maybe. I need to get to Lil’s.”
“You swing by, pick up those pictures. Badge or not, I’m going to use you.”
This time when Coop arrived at Lil’s he wore his 9mm under his jacket. He carted his laptop, the files Willy had given him, and three spare clips into her cabin. After some debate, he shoved one of the clips into his pocket and stowed the other two in one of her dresser drawers.
And with an eyebrow cocked, drew out a short, silky black gown with very sheer lace in interesting places.
He wondered why she always seemed to wear flannel.
He poked at something red and virtually transparent, shook his head, and dropped the black number back into the drawer.
In the kitchen he set up his laptop on her table, dug a couple of bottles of water out of her supply, then went out to take a look at the progress on her security system.
He spent a little time with the head installer out of Rapid City, and made his escape after the man figured out he knew something about security-and before he could get roped into helping with the wiring.
The good weather brought people out, he noted. He counted three groups making the rounds of the habitat. And the big yellow school bus indicated there were more on the property. Education center, he surmised.
She was keeping busy, and that was good. It was also too bad, or so she might think. But there were only a few hours of daylight left-and they had an appointment.
He hooked her horse trailer to his truck, loaded the horse he’d sold her onto it. He chose the younger and larger of the horses left in the stable, then secured that one in the trailer.
It amused him that no one questioned him. Either he was too familiar or too forbidding, but the interns went about their business-and from across the compound, Tansy sent him a friendly wave.
A single question to a passing staff member gave him Lil’s location as her office. He drove the trailer over to the cabin, then went in to get her.
“Coop.” Mary gave him an absent nod of greeting from her desk. “She’s on the phone, but I think she’s wrapping it up.” She glanced toward the office, lowered her voice. “Have you heard about the murder? Do you know if it’s true?”
“Yeah, it’s true.”
“That poor man. His poor wife. Come out here for a little holiday, and go home a widow. Every time I think people are basically good and decent, something happens that convinces me too many of them are no damn good.”
“You’re right, both ways.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it? Oh, your friend-the alarm system man-he’s been in touch.”
“I talked to him. He should have you fully secured in another two days.”
“Glad to hear it, and that’s a shame, too. That we have to go to all this trouble and expense because some people are no damn good.”
“It’s the right investment.”
“Well. There, she’s off the line. Better get in there before she calls somebody else.”
“Mary, do you have any problem with me taking Lil off for a couple hours?”
“Not if it’s somewhere that doesn’t involve work and worry, which is all she’s been doing the last few weeks.”
“That’s a deal.”
“Don’t let her say no,” Mary ordered, as he walked to Lil’s office.
She sat angled toward her monitor, fingers on her keyboard.
He wondered if she had any idea how pale she was, or how shadowed her eyes.
“I’ve got a line on a tiger.”
“Not a sentence you hear every day.”
“Boris is lonely. Strip joint in Sioux City used a Bengal as part of an act.”
“Did she strip?”
“Ha ha. No, they kept her caged, or chained. Finally got shut down for animal abuse. She’s been declawed and drugged, and God knows. We’re going to take her.”
“Good, go get her.”
“I’m working on having her brought to us. A lot of red tape to wind through. I’m pushing for donations. She’s made some media outlets, and I can use it to beef things up. I just need to-”
“Come with me.”
He watched her tense. “Is something wrong? Something else?”
“For the next hour or two, no. The tiger can wait. Everything can wait. We’ve got daylight.”
“Cooper, I’m working. There’s a busload of middle-schoolers in the ed center, a bunch of people roaming around hooking up alarms. Matt just finished sewing up a fawn that got clipped by a car, and I’m working on getting Delilah here by early next week.”
“I assume Delilah’s the tiger, not one of the dancers. I’ve got work of my own, Lil, and it’ll be here when we get back. Let’s go.”
“Where? God, Coop, some poor man was killed and dumped in the Spearfish. I can’t think about taking a walk with you and discussing… whatever.”
“We’re not walking. And I guess we do this the hard way.” He came around the desk, pulled her up out of the chair, and boosted her over his shoulder.
“Oh, for God’s sake.” She gave his back a thump with her fist. “Cut it out. This is ridiculous. Don’t! Don’t you walk out of here with…”
He grabbed her hat on the way. “We’ll be a few hours, Mary.”
With her eyes laughing, Mary gave them a sober nod. “All right.”
“You okay to close up if we’re not back?”
“Not a problem.”
“Stop it. This is my place. You don’t tell my staff-Don’t you step outside this building. Cooper, you’re embarrassing both of us.”
“I’m not embarrassed.” He walked outside, continued toward the truck. “But you will be if you don’t sit where I put you, because I’ll just catch you and put you back again.”
“You’re just making me mad.”
“I can live with that.” He pulled open the passenger door, dumped her on the seat. “I mean it, Lil, I’ll just haul you back.” He reached across, hooked her seat belt, then dropped her hat in her lap. Ice-blue eyes met molten brown. “Stay where I put you.”
“Oh, I’ll stay. I’ll stay because we’re not having this out here. I’m not having more of a scene here.”
“Good enough.” He slammed the door, skirted the hood of the truck, then got behind the wheel. “We’re going riding. We’re not coming back until you’ve got some color back in your cheeks.” He glanced over. “I’m not talking pissed-off color.”
“Pissed-off is all you’re going to get.”
“We’ll see.” He headed down the road. “We’ll drive to Rimrock. We could consider that neutral ground.” And miles away from where Tyler’s body had been found.
“What’s the point of this?”
“The point is you need a break, and so do I. And Lil, we’ve put this off long enough.”
“I decide when I need a break. Damn it, Coop, I don’t know why you’d want to make me so mad. I’ve got enough going on without working in a fight with you-and we were fine. Just last night we were fine.”
“You were too worn-out to get into this last night. I’d rather have you mad than almost in tears with the idea of talking to me.”
“I’ve been talking to you plenty.” She leaned her head back, shut her eyes. “Jesus Christ, Cooper, a man is dead. Dead. And you’re pushing this? Talking about what? What’s over and done?”
“That’s right, a man’s dead. And the one who did it has you in the crosshairs. You need help, but you don’t trust me.”
With sharp, jerky movements, she plucked the hat off her lap, set it on her head. “That’s not true.”
“You trust me to help you protect your place. You trust me enough to sleep with me. But you don’t trust me down in the deep. We both know that.”
He parked at the campground. Together, in silence, they unloaded the horses. “We can take the lower loop from here. It’s shorter.”
“I don’t like being handled this way.”
“I don’t blame you. And I don’t care.”
She mounted, turned her horse toward the trailhead. “Maybe the women you got used to tolerate this kind of thing. I don’t. I won’t. You’ll get your two hours because you’re bigger and you’re stronger-and because I’m not having this out in front of my staff, my interns, my guests. Then that’s it, Cooper. That’s it between us.”