“Tell the fairy I said thank you, Cassie.” She looked between the seats, smiling at her little girl. “But Momma needs to make sure. Adults don’t have fairies to guide them.”
Cassie looked up over at her with amazing sobriety. “You can use my fairy, Momma. I’ll tell you what she thinks.”
And how did she answer that one? Cassie never failed to surprise her.
“Thank you, honey, but Momma needs more than just the fairy’s word right now. Okay?” She kept her voice gentle. She didn’t want to hurt Cassie’s feelings. Didn’t want her to sense that her mother had lost her belief in fairies long ago.
“I understand, Momma.” Cassie settled back in her seat, her smile flashing in the darkness. “You can
talk to Dash all you like about it then. I know it’s going to be okay.”
Elizabeth’s fists clenched as she turned back and faced forward. Snow still fell, though not as thick as before. The roads were deserted, the country lane blending into the surrounding landscape until only the faintest hint that it was actually a road remained.
She hated not knowing. Not being certain. She didn’t know this rancher, this ex-C.I.A. agent Dash was taking them to. She didn’t know Dash. Yet she was being expected to trust merely because she had no other choice.
“Why are you trusting me, Elizabeth, even this far?” he finally asked her. “You could have left the motel while I showered. You could have made any attempt to escape me. And you would have if you felt the need. Why didn’t you?”
Dash’s voice was gentle. It was dark and demanding, but the underlying softness soothed the ragged edges of her nerves.
She pushed her fingers restlessly through her hair. He hadn’t hurt her when he had the chance. He had killed a man for her. He had followed her through a blizzard and taken her farther away from the men searching for Cassie. He had haggled with Cassie over chocolate bars and carried a tote of clothes for months, picking up more here and there because he knew theirs were being destroyed.
He had bought her daughter a bicycle. Had sent her a robe. He had done so many things, even before he found them, to make Cassie’s life, and hers, easier. How could she not take the chance?
“You made your point.” She laced her fingers together tightly. “But I still don’t know this man. I can’t trust like this, Dash. Not after all this time.”
“Then trust me,” he suggested. “You can, Elizabeth. You know you can.”
She stared out at the steadily falling snow, trying to maintain her control as he turned carefully from the road and drove beneath a sign announcing the Bar T Ranch. They were within only a few miles of this potentially dangerous situation. She braced herself for it, knowing she had no choice now but to trust Dash.
The dashboard clock was lit at nearly nine o’ clock. The normally hour-long drive had taken over three hours, counting the stop for Cassie’s pizza. Pizza that now sat like a lump in her stomach.
“Put on your coat, Cassie.” She kept her voice even. If they had to run, she didn’t want her daughter without some protection.
She tensed as Dash reached down between his seat and door, his body shifting, moving carefully. When he pulled the holstered gun from the cavity and handed it to her, she stared back at him in shock.
“I wouldn’t take a chance with your life,” he told her quietly. “I need your trust, Elizabeth. Here is mine in return.”
She stared down at the weapon before raising her eyes to his once again.
“Would you expect another soldier to follow you blindly?” she finally asked him somberly. “Would you ask him, with no explanations, without outlining whatever plan I pray you have, to just follow?”
He was silent for long moments as he laid the revolver on the console between their seats and gripped the steering wheel with both hands as he maneuvered through more than a foot of snow.
“There’s a chance that I can arrange a place of safety for you and Cassie. One that Grange can’t infiltrate or access in any way. A place where Cassie will be as safe as gold in Fort Knox.”
Elizabeth took a deep breath. She had been praying for nothing more. Nothing less. But the tone of his voice warned her that she might not like the answer.
“Where is this place?”
He glanced at her. “I’d rather not say until I can be certain, Elizabeth. This requires a place without little ears and more time than we have in this Hummer. Another soldier would understand this. Just as he would understand that I have those I trust. That even if he doesn’t know them, he understands that the contacts are important. Another soldier would understand that a commander knows what the hell he’s doing, and he will explain the full plan and discuss it when he knows it’s a plan.”
Elizabeth grit her teeth. Tight. Damn him.
She bit back the curse that wanted to sizzle to her lips as she turned away from him, staring outside the Hummer resentfully. He was right. But she damned well didn’t have to like it.
“Ohhh, Momma. Dash is good…” Cassie’s awed voice was filled with respect for how easily Dash had managed to turn the tables on a mother she had never managed to outwit. And never will, Elizabeth thought with affection, though she was still a little irked at Dash.
Elizabeth snorted. “Remember the phrase ‘getting too big for your britches’, Cassie?” she asked her daughter, using a firm tone of voice. “Dash could be in danger here.”