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I was surprised to see a car in the driveway when we got back to the compound. "Were you expecting company?"
"Just an old friend stopping by," he said as he parked, and we walked up to the house. When we walked in Leif called out, "Hi, honey. We're home."
"Hi, Babe or should I call you Belle?" Chance said as he stepped into the hallway from the kitchen. I ran into his arms.
After he kissed me senseless, he took my hand and led me into the kitchen. "I thought I was meeting you in Dallas later," I said.
"I decided I couldn't wait that long to see you, so I changed to an earlier flight into Houston. We can catch up during our drive to Dallas."
Leif walked up and shook Chance's hand. "Good to see you. We've had a quite a week."
"I warned you about her," Chance said.
"You did, and I should have listened," Leif said.
We fixed coffee and tea and settled in at the table where Leif explained about Farraday's injury. "So, you took out a wild hog? Way to go, Babe." He held his hand up for a high five. "Why don't you go pack, while I catch up with Leif. We can all go to lunch before we hit the road."
When I stood up, Chance walked out of the kitchen with me. He pulled me in for another kiss. "I missed you a lot more than I expected."
"Good," I said. "I missed you too. We've got a lot to catch up on."
"We've got about four hours in the car. That'll be a good start." He let me go, and I headed for my room to pack up my gear. I knew he'd want to grill Leif about how I did. I was proud of what I learned, so I didn't care. When I was packed up, I made a final check to be sure I had the flash drive and Helen's note. I dropped my gear bag, purse, and laptop bag by the front door and went in search of the men. I followed voices until I found them in what I assumed was Leif's office. They were standing inside the door of what I suspected had once been a closet but was now an armory. The walls were covered with guns and knives. "This is the one she used here, but I think she'll adapt fine to whatever type you prefer. She's a natural at throwing. Make sure she keeps practicing."
"Hi, guys. Ready for lunch?"
"Sure, let's go," Chance said, taking my hand. Leif closed up the armory and followed us out. Chance picked up my bags and loaded them into the backseat of his rental SUV. The back was already full of his gear.
"Chance, I know we'll have more time to talk after lunch, but something happened that I think you need to know about before we leave here?"
"Something with Leif?"
"No. It has nothing to do with Leif.”
“Good."
"When we went to din... Wait, were you worried about something happening between me and Leif? Are you jealous?"
"You don't have a great track record for resisting men."
"Fair enough. While I think it's sweet that you're concerned, you don't need to be. I'm committed to us."
"Good, because I'm in love with you, Everly."
"I love you to, Chance, but I really need to tell you what happened when Leif and I went out to dinner."
He reached over and held my hand. "You and Leif went out to dinner. Not really helping ease my concern."
"I saw Helen. I'll give you the details when we have more time. She passed me a note and a flash drive and warned me again. I can't explain it, but this morning we learned there was a fatal car accident last night. I have a strange feeling that Helen was killed in that crash."
"I must be missing lots of detail here. If there was a fatality, it'll be released to the press unless the government squelches it. Maybe Leif can find out. I suspect he's tight with the local police."
"He is."
"Again, not helping."
"It's all innocent, I swear. I just don't have time to get into it before lunch, and I wanted you to know at least that much in case we needed to check on anything before we leave here."
"Did you tell Leif?"
"About Helen? No. I didn't see any way to ask him to find out without sounding crazy unless I was willing to get into the whole story of what's been going on in Wilkins' Gap."
"True. OK. I'll think about it over lunch."
We had a pleasant lunch with Leif. He and Chance caught up on their businesses and their lives. I listened and enjoyed my food. When we were finishing our meals, Leif asked, "So what's next for you two?"
"We're heading to northeast Texas," Chance said. "I've got a bigfoot hunt there. Everly's going along so she can start learning the business. I want her to be able to help so she can come with me when I travel. At least, until the we have kids at home to worry about."
It still caught me off guard when Chance talked so easily about our future together. It really was all settled in his head. It was settled in mine too, but I kept fighting it. It just seemed too fast.
Leif hugged me goodbye, and I got into the car. Chance and Leif talked a little longer, before Chance climbed behind the wheel, and we headed for Dallas.
"I asked Leif to find out the name of the fatality."
"Thanks. I thought about calling Jim and asking him to do it, but I'm just not comfortable trusting him with any more information until we can figure out what he's up to."
"I guess that's something else to add to your lists. Where do you want to start?"
"Why don't you tell me about your hunt? I get the feeling your week was more straight forward than mine."
After telling me about his clients and their success with the snake hunt, he said, "There was one interesting thing that came up. I heard about this guy who volunteered to hunt pythons for the National Park Service a few years back. He's quite a legend in the Everglades. He's a Cajun. The interesting part of the story is that he supposedly now works for some government organization that hunts cryptids."
"And you think maybe he works for BITES. Did you get a name?"
"Yep. John Robichau. I'm hoping we can track him down. I'm thinking maybe a cryptid hunter to cryptid hunter approach will yield better results than going through the bureaucracy."
"Good find. Another angle to work and more tasks for the lists. Should I pull those out now, or will we tackle those later?"
"Later. Let's just talk now. How did your week go?"
I filled him in on my new skills, and I went through the incident with Farraday in detail. I was just finishing up, when he pulled into a rest area off the highway. He came around to open my door and pulled me up into a hug. "I'm sorry you had another bad experience in the woods, but it sounds like you were prepared for this one. I'm proud of you, Babe." I couldn't believe how good it felt to have Chance's arms around me again. I really had missed him. Everything was just better when we were together. I was really looking forward to being part of his bigfoot hunt, but I was already starting to worry about going home to Wilkins' Gap without him. It wasn't going to be easy.