Page 49 of Hunted in Hope Town

She had her own plate and sat down next to him on the couch. It was all very domestic. All very before.

Except they were holed up in this tiny mountain cabin in Wyoming, isolated from the world. And a threat against them.

He had to remember the threat part. Even if she remembered and this suddenly felt like everything was okay. Even if she said she loved him, and it seemed to make everything else pale in importance. Even if they’d…shared a bed.

What had he been thinking?

Maybe that it’s been a long-ass time since you had a chance to touch your wife.

He sighed, took a bite out of his sandwich. “I’ll call Boyd in a few hours,” he told her.

“Why wait?”

“Because the man has a job?” Granted, FBI agents didn’t always work a nine to five, but still. He needed to…steady himself for essentially lying to his old friend.

Kirsten wrinkled her nose, just like she used to. “I guess that’s a good enough excuse to procrastinate.” She took a bite of her sandwich and chewed thoughtfully. “What about Colleen?”

He told her about the job and life in Raleigh. “I’ll need to dig deeper on that. See if it’s just a paper trail or if she’s really had a life there. But she left Chicago when we did. I don’t like that for coincidence.”

Kirsten stilled at that, tried to arrange her features in some sort of brave expression, but he knew her too well.

“She doesn’t know where we are, and we don’t know what her endgame is,” he reassured her. “While it’s hard to discount that she’s connected, we don’t know in what ways. If we untangle it, maybe we stop this before anything bad has to happen. It’s all going to be over soon enough. One clue leads to the next. You recognizing her was such a big clue.”

Kirsten nodded. She’d taken maybe two bites of her sandwich, but she set the plate aside like she was done. He frowned, worried that she wasn’t eating. At least she’d slept some, but she needed to take care of herself. She needed—

“Ellis.” She turned her gaze to him, her brows drawn together, concern in her gaze. “What happens when this is over?”

KIRSTEN KNEW SHE’D taken him off guard. Maybe she’d taken herself off guard. Something about remembering made the future feel more…real, more plannable. She’d always been someone who liked to map out where she was going.

Until she hadn’t remembered where she’d been, but now she did.

And she didn’t want to spend the rest of her life stuck up in this cabin waiting for someone else to solve a mystery. Even if the wait was short, there was a whole future out there ahead of her.

One where she remembered who she was.

And who she was married to.

“Maybe we need to figure this out first,” he said carefully. And he probably wasn’t wrong, but…

She stood, needing to move. He still had food on his plate, so she couldn’t clear dishes. She just had to pace.

“I like my life in Hope Town. I like working at the bookstore. I like…” She inhaled deeply, looking at him, trying to find some anchor to what was moving through her. “I don’t know how we go back to Chicago.”

“I’m sure you can stay,” Ellis reassured her. “It’s not a traditional witness protection program. I’ll talk to Zach for you. Once it’s safe, we’ll figure it all out. You don’t have to worry about it yet.”

She noted her we. His you. Oh sure, we’ll figure it out. But not we’ll stay. Just putting it off.

Maybe he didn’t like Hope Town. There was no doubt in her mind that not being an FBI agent anymore would be a struggle for him.

Which begged a few questions. He’d been in the fringes of her life for two years, always there, but she didn’t know much about what he’d been doing, even if he knew every inch of what she’d been doing.

“What about you? How have you been…earning a living?”

“Medical leave at first,” he said, pointing vaguely at his shoulder. “Then savings, for a while. I do some freelance work for Zach’s security company when I need to these days.”

It was hard to imagine that life for Ellis. He’d been so dedicated to his job. So driven by it. She had never actually believed desk work would suit him, but she’d hoped he could find a way to meet that driving need and not throw himself into undercover work once they had a family.

Now they had no family and he didn’t have the job he loved. He’d only been stuck in Wyoming to watch over her, and once this threat was gone, he wouldn’t need to. “You…you probably want to go back to the FBI.”