Mountain Midwife by Cassie Miles

Author:Cassie Miles [Miles, Cassie]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue
Published: 2011-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

As hideouts went, the office in the back of Lily Belle’s Soda Fountain and Ice Cream Shop was okay. At least, Rachel thought so. She would have preferred staying in the house, but too many people knew Pearl was living there. Lily Belle’s was empty, closed for the season, and it had an alarm system.

She and Cole would stay here until nightfall. According to his FBI training, the first twenty-four hours were considered to be the most crucial in a manhunt. After that, the intensity would let up, and they’d make their move.

Rachel slipped off her parka and lowered herself onto the mint-green futon. After sending Pearl on her way with Goldie and the massive backpack filled with baby supplies, she felt unencumbered and a hundred times less tense. All she had to worry about was her own safety and Cole’s.

After closing the office door and placing their food supplies on the coffee table in front of the futon, he prowled around the windowless, peach-colored room. The top of the cream-painted desk was empty except for a day-by-day calendar, a pencil jar that looked like an ice cream cone and a couple of framed photographs of smiling, blue-eyed kids. Lily’s grandchildren, no doubt. A row of three-drawer cabinets in pastel colors lined the back wall. Bouquets of fake flowers in matching pastel vases sat atop them. A light coat of dust covered every surface. Otherwise, the office was clean. The lingering scent of vanilla and buttery cream hung in the air.

“Too cutesy,” he muttered.

“Like Willie Wonka. But with ice cream.”

He checked the thermostat. “Good thing we brought blankets. It’s set at fifty-two degrees.”

“Sounds about right. Warm enough to keep things from freezing but not wasteful. Nobody is supposed to be here until the summer season.”

He sank onto the futon beside her. “Take off your shoes.”

“Why?”

“We should explore this place, and I don’t want to leave wet footprints in case somebody looks through the front window.”

With a groan, she wiggled her butt deeper into the futon cushion and stretched her legs out in front of her. Her thigh muscles ached after their crack-of-dawn trek across Shadow Mountain Lake in snowshoes. “What’s the point of looking around? Nobody knows we’re here. We’re safe.”

“Are we?”

“Please let me pretend—just for a moment—that crazy people with guns aren’t trying to kill us.”

“That’s not your style,” he said. “You’re realistic. Practical. You don’t delude yourself.”

His snap analysis was pretty much on target, but she didn’t want him to get cocky. “What makes you think you know me?”

“I’m a trained observer.”

She supposed that was true. “In your undercover work, I guess you need to be able to figure out how people are going to act. To be thinking one step ahead.”

“That’s right.”

“But that’s on the surface. On a deeper level, you don’t know me at all.”

He dropped his boots onto the pink-and-green patterned area rug. “I’ve had a chance to observe your behavior in high-stress situations. I know how you’ll react.”

“But you don’t know why,” she said.

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