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"Me too," Liza said quickly, nodding like a bobblehead "Anything"

Adam felt Dell roll his eyes He was also pretty sure Holly snorted again, but when he looked at her, she was concentrating on Donald’s dogs

He got the class back to work He had thes were to sit

Holly was having trouble with this Her dad’s dogs kept getting tangled up in her legs

"They’re distracted," she said breathlessly, ar One was staring at the cute little white springer spaniel next to hiust "Just like aOne and the spaniel

Thing One’s gaze rolled up Adas to his face, and then he sat Adam looked at Holly "It’s your job to keep his mind on the task"

"Uh-huh," she said dryly "Is this where the… comes into play?"

He slid her a look that she uise of shifting the leashes back into her hands, he leaned in "Are you asking for a private lesson?"

"If I get to be the ave her his best wicked sets to master"

She bit into her lower lip and slid a look to the building, specifically the loft where he slept at night Playing with fire, he told hiet burned

Soh the rest of the class When it was over and his pupils had all headed to their cars, Brady stepped outside He intercepted Holly on the way to her Jeep

"Worried?" Dell asked Ada Brady and Holly from across the lot

"Why would I be worried?" Ada to your nosy brother, who’sall your secrets"

"She’s notin all his late-night fantasies…"And I don’t have any secrets"

"Uh-huh"

Okay, so he had plenty of secrets, and he was uneasy He’d been so since they’d gotten back Adam was a realist and always faced the facts head-on The facts here were simple He’d had some probleh counseling to know that his reactions to what he’d faced over there weren’t unexpected And he was better But he still wasn’t back in the ga a benchwarht appear that he was an active participant, but he wasn’t Not fully He wasn’t letting people in If he could let anyone in, it would be Holly, but he honestly wasn’t sure if he could

The cave incident was a perfect exa-time With an audience of one, no less It wasthat after all this time he was still so fucked-up

And now Holly knew it, too

He had no idea if she was going to keep his little--big--secret, and that wasHe headed toward her, complete with his shadow "I don’t need an escort," he said to Dell

Dell kept walking with hiht you said Brady was the nosy brother"

"It runs in the fas in the Jeep, and Brady was showing her so on his phone A picture, it turned out, of Brady and her dad on horseback Brady looked up as Adam approached "Hey Holly was just about to tell me why it took you three days to find Donald"

"Two days," Holly said, aze "It only took two days"

"I could have gotten from here to Timbuktu and back in two days," Brady said "Next time, you should take round to explore," Holly said

"Explore" Brady went brows up at this "Is that the line he gave you? Did he take advantage of you? Because if he did, I could beat hihed, then took in Ada his best to appear utterly uninterested "You could really beat hihed

Ada look but Brady wasn’t cowed "I could totally take him," he said

Yeah, over Adam’s dead body

Maybe

"We really did have a lot of places to look," Holly said "We hit Diale first, and then the Kaniksu Caves--"

"The caves?" Brady turned to Adaed to avoid any caves at all And perfect, now both brothers were looking at hiot inside the caves?" Brady asked

Jesus This got better and better "It’s not a big deal," he said before Holly could say that no, in fact, he hadn’t gotten all the way inside the caves before having a colossally fking huotten inside that cave It wasn’t like they’d been in eneuys already dead

"And then from there, ent to Fallen Lakes" Holly reached out to squeeze Adam’s hand "I’d never have found my dad without him"

Brady was clearly surprised, and so was Dell They were surprised because they’d been giving Adalove treatloves at all

"Huh," Brady said, looking iaze warmed considerably as he sht, and Adam rolled his eyes Brady had always had a ith the ladies But then Holly turned to Adam and the look on her face was all for hi happened His chest loosened fro

He could trust her, really trust her, the way he trusted Dell and Brady--when he didn’t want to kill thee wasn’t expected, but he wasn’t quite sure it elco hih he wanted that, too, wanted to bury hiain God, hoanted that, to put his hands on her and have her hands on him

But he also just wanted her close He wanted to hold her and not let go And daht Maybe he should sleep with her again, work on clearing up this confusion with some down-and-dirty sex