Chapter 7

Chloe refused to let Trevor touch his iPad. She had a feeling that her suspicion that the FBI was using it to find him was more than likely true, how else could they have tracked him here? She’d taken it away from him earlier and he’d been trying to take it back all afternoon. Now she glared at him across the kitchen as he sat on one of the stools at the little breakfast bar.

“Come on Chloe; please just let me have it for a few minutes.”

“No, do you want them to find you?” He was giving her this whole sad little boy face that while adorably endearing, wasn’t going to get her to give him the tablet. She was determined to keep him safe.

“But if I turn off the Wi-Fi signal it should be safe.”

“Not good enough for me. Sorry. They could have put a tracking device in it for all you know. It’s better off dead. Deal with it. Now eat your dinner like a good boy so we can get some rest and get out of here when it gets dark. I’ve got a few things to finish up before tonight.”

She could feel his eyes on here as she stalked across the room, stopped and snatched up the iPad on her way to the door. “Just so you don’t get tempted.”

She exited the cabin with the iPad held under her arm. She hated that she felt like she was taking a favored toy away from a child, but she honestly felt the thing was better off dead at the moment. Sighing, she pulled open the doors to the workshop and went inside, set the iPad aside and went to where the parts for the cradle were set aside.

It would only take her a couple of hours to finish the cradle, well before dark, and then she could grab an hour or two of sleep before they had to leave. She shot a glance back at the cabin, shook her head, and then got to work.

As the sun made its final slow trek across the western horizon, Chloe smiled at the finished cradle. She was proud of it and she hoped Carl would be proud to present it to Ellie for his grandchild. Carefully, she closed the doors to the workshop and headed back into the cabin.

Trevor was sprawled on the couch, snoring softly, and sound asleep, Slate was curled on the end of the couch covering his feet. His head lifted when she came in, but he made no move to jump down off the couch, despite the fact that he knew he wasn’t allowed on the furniture.

“Traitor!” she whispered at him as she crossed the room over to the curtain and slipped into her room. Sitting on the end of her bed, she undid the laces on her boots, yanked them off and stretched out, fully clothed on the bed. She was too tired to care at the moment.

It seemed as if she’d just closed her eyes when Trevor was there, giving her shoulder a small shake to wake her. “Chloe, come on wake up.”

“No, go away.”

He chuckled. “Sorry, I can’t. If you don’t get up, I’ll touch the iPad.”

With a groan, she sat up and glared at him. “Fine, I’m awake. You fight dirty.”

“That I do. Bathroom is all yours.” He left her alone. All she wanted to do was curl back up and go back to sleep, but she knew they had to get moving. This had been her plan after all. Cursing her stupid idea, she hauled her butt out of the bed, gathered the clothes she’d laid out earlier, and headed for the bathroom.

Half an hour later, she emerged, showered, dressed, and set to go.

“Wow that was quick.”

She stuck her tongue out at him. “Shut up you!”

“I didn’t know a female could get ready that fast,” he said with a smirk.

“I know how to use a gun; you might want to remember that smarty pants.”

He held his hands up in surrender. “Okay you win.”

Chloe snorted at him as she moved around the room piling things near the door. “You need to listen to me, you understand? When I say keep quiet, you keep quiet, got it?”

He gave her a nod and rose from where he had been sitting on the couch, came across the room, and stood beside her. “I’m not useless, Chloe. Don’t count me out, okay?”

She stopped what she had been doing and looked up into those forest green eyes of his. After a moment, she gave him a nod. “Okay, here take this backpack.” She slung another backpack onto her own back and put a pack onto Slate’s back.

“He seriously carries that? Where did you even get a backpack for a dog?”

“Mail order catalog. People do hike with their dogs, they make these special for dogs. I take him with when I got hunting,” she responded.

“That’s actually kind of cool. I don’t think I ever had a dog, I kind of want one now.”

She laughed and shook her head at him. “They are a pain in the butt, trust me, but worth every minute. Let’s go.”

He turned and went to pull open the door, stood back so that she could go first. Slate rushed out before both of them. They grinned at each other before following the dog out the door.

Slate was running about the clearing like a puppy. Acting as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Chloe chuckled. “He’s acting like we’re going on a holiday.”

“I suppose to him it is a holiday. How often do you two actually go anywhere?”

“Uhhh, never actually,” she told him with a wide grin. “I mean other than hunting trips.”

They rounded the backside of the cabin. Chloe frowned at the small stable. “Damn. Poco.”

“Poco?”

“My horse.”

“You have a horse named Poco?” He was smirking at her.

She glared at him. “Yes, now drop it! Shoot, I can’t just leave him here. One small detour.” She marched into the stable and made quick work of saddling the horse, before leading him out.

“Okay, hop on up.”

“Hop on up?” he asked her skeptically, looking at the horse.

“Fine, I’ll go first.” She quickly mounted the horse and looked down at him. “Well?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever done this before.”

Chloe rolled her eyes at him and held her hand out to him. “Come on city boy.”

He grasped her hand and stuck a foot in the stirrup she pulled her foot out of, he threw his body up and forward. He landed in the saddle behind her. “Okay, that wasn’t as hard as it looked.”

“Wait until we get going, until you learn how to move, it’s hard on your butt. We aren’t going far though. Hang on.” She kicked her heels into the horse’s side and used the reins to guide him.

“Are you sure going into town is a good idea?” he asked her sometime later as they made their way toward a small house on the outskirts of town.

“Ellie already said that she won’t turn me in. And I know she’ll look after Poco.” She led the horse up to a small stable at the rear of the house and they dismounted. Chloe took the horse inside got him settled and came back out. “All set. Let’s go.”

“You aren’t going to tell her?”

“She’ll see him in the morning when she goes to take care of the rest of her horses.” She led him toward the trees.

They walked in silence for a long while. Slate running ahead of them and then back as if he were checking to make sure they were still following along. Every once in a while he’d run up with a pine cone clamped in his teeth and wait for one of them to toss it so that he could play fetch with it, that is until he clamped down on it too hard and crushed it.

Chloe felt comfortable walking beside Trevor, which struck her as odd since she’d spent her life alone. To feel comfortable with this man that she barely knew. So weird. A lot about this entire situation was weird, she supposed.

After all, she was leaving her home simply to keep him safe. She gave her head a shake at herself.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Trevor said.

“They aren’t all that interesting,” she replied.

“Hmm, you sure about that? The look on your face says something different.”

She stopped walking and turned to look up at him. “I ran away from home when I was twelve and I’ve lived by myself up on that mountain ever since simply because I couldn’t stand the fact that no one wanted me because of what I could do to electronics. I don’t get close to people; I don’t tell them about my curse, I don’t make close friends. This entire situation is just … weird. Not like bad weird, just strange weird.”

“How is it strange?”

“Because, I don’t mind being with you. It isn’t uncomfortable; I don’t mind that you know about my curse, you don’t look at me strangely or treat me differently because of it. It’s almost like I’m normal for the first time in my life. And that is how it’s weird.”

A smile tilted up the corners of his lips. “I think you are the only person in the world who could possibly describe being treated like a normal person as being weird.” The thing about it, the thing that hit him, was that somewhere inside him, it struck a chord with him and somehow he knew what she was talking about on some level.

He reached out and brushed the fingertips of one hand lightly down her cheek, a small smile touched his lips when he felt that little jolt of electricity. That jolt slipped beneath his skin, touched something inside him, pulled hard at his soul. Before he realized what he was doing, he’d stepped forward, his hand slipping from her cheek to tangle in her hair and tilt her head back so that she was looking up at him.

He lowered his head and brushed his lips lightly over hers. When she didn’t pull away, he pressed his lips against hers more firmly and felt her hands settle against his shoulders, and when they did he would have deepened the kiss, but Slate chose that moment to come running up and smash into his legs.

“Slate!” Chloe yelled at the dog as she jerked back from him. The dog lowered his head, immediately looking contrite. “Sorry,” she apologized.

Trevor smiled down at her, kissed her on the tip of her nose, and stepped back. “Don’t worry about it; we should get moving again anyway. This isn’t exactly the spot for, well, this isn’t the spot.”

She nodded, turned away, and began walking again. A little confused by what had just happened. She’d never been kissed before. It had been, nice. Well, more than simply nice. She wanted to do it again, actually. She wished Slate hadn’t interrupted them. As they walked, she watched Trevor from beneath her lashes.

She wasn’t experienced about relationships. God she hoped Trevor was as honest as she felt he was. If he wasn’t then she had a feeling she was quite possibly in for a broken heart. Because, her heart was already becoming quite involved with this man. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, she honestly couldn’t say for certain.