“Yes, sir.”
“And knock off that ‘sir’ shit. I thought we went through that already.”
“Okay, General.” He headed toward the Chevy.
“Jed.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not planning to kill you yet. And obviously my niece sees something in you, so try not to die.”
Jed grinned and flipped the keys around in his hand. “Will do, General.”
* * *
Elena paced the path in the living room, her eyes on Pete’s cell phone, which sat near him on the table.
It had been two hours. Nothing. It hadn’t rung once.
She hated standing around here doing nothing.
Pete had offered to play cards with her, but that would require sitting and she couldn’t sit. Pacing was much better.
He was reading a magazine. Reading! Calmly sitting there flipping pages when who knew what was going on with Jed and Grange.
“How can you sit there so calmly and just read?”
He lifted his gaze and peered at her over the top of the magazine. “What?”
“You. Reading. It’s driving me crazy.”
“My reading is driving you crazy?”
“Yes. No.” She dragged her fingers through her hair. “I’m sorry. I’m the one who’s crazy. It’s the not knowing anything. Shouldn’t they have called by now?”
His lips curved in a half smile. He laid the magazine on the table and put his phone in his pocket. “You wouldn’t enjoy surveillance duty.”
“What?”
“Patience. Missions take patience.”
She crossed her arms. “This isn’t a mission. It’s my mother.”
His smile died and he stood. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive. These things take time. They’ll call as soon as they have something to call about. Come on.”
She followed him outside. “Where are we going?”
“If standing around doing nothing is making you restless, I have something you can do to help me around here.”
“Anything to keep from watching the clock and your phone.”
He led her down the path past the pool and the main house. She hadn’t explored this area yet. It went through the woods and beyond the back of the house. There was another building back here.
“What’s this?”
“Storage. We’ll replenish supplies.”
“Okay, great.” Something physical would help to allay some of her stress.