Ultimate Courage (True Heroes #2)(33)
Boom came forward to throw her arms around his neck for a hug. She was a smart girl and only ever rushed him when he wasn’t working with a dog. Sudden movement and approaching a handler too quickly could trigger a defensive response from the dog. He’d been careful to teach Boom to wait until he gave the signal the way he had—going on one knee and opening his arms to her in clear body language for both hers and the dog’s benefit. Once he did give her the signal, though, his daughter didn’t hold back on the affection, and he loved her for it.
After a moment, Boom straightened from the hug and gave Souze a thoughtful look. “I could go upstairs and take a nap now then work on my project later.”
Which was a major indicator of how tired his daughter was feeling. Normally, Boom fought going to bed at all, tooth and nail.
Elisa smiled as she approached. “I can leave these on the porch.”
Souze straightened almost imperceptibly as Elisa approached. Not eager and no welcoming signs. Just a sharpening of focus on the woman.
Rojas nodded. “Thanks. I’ll put Souze away and come back to take the stuff inside on my way back.”
“I’ll go wash up.” Boom jogged toward the house.
Before Elisa could follow, Rojas rose to his feet. “Anything you want to tell me?”
Souze’s attention had given her away. Elisa was very good at pulling all of her fear and any telltale signs of anxiety and hiding them away somewhere. But a human couldn’t hide that sort of state from a dog. Pheromones, modulation in tone of voice, minute twitches in body language communicated a human’s mental state to an alert dog. And Rojas had long ago learned to read a dog’s responses. It’d saved lives on missions overseas, including his. And soldiers who ignored the warnings died, plus got other people killed along with them.
Old memories reached up and hooked into him, trying to drag him into a continuous replay of missions long completed and in the past. Every one of them had been intense, none of them had been easy, and some of them had damaged him forever.
A whine cut into his train of thought and Souze’s shoulder bumped his leg. Rojas looked down into the dog’s eager gaze and gave his ears a scratch. Souze was becoming a lifeline.
Looking at Elisa, there wasn’t any doubt that she stood ready to run. And in the short time he’d come to know her, he decided he didn’t want her to.
“I have to go.” The words came out as a whisper, controlled and measured. “I thought I could give this a try, and I owe you and your friends a lot already. I’ll have to find some way to pay you someday. But I should leave as soon as possible.”
Rojas blinked. He’d been willing to give the woman some space, but hearing her sound so defeated made him want to tell her, show her, she didn’t have to be on her own. More importantly, Boom had been with her when whatever had happened to change her mind had hit. “Was my daughter in danger at any time?”
Elisa swallowed. She didn’t shake her head or immediately blurt out a denial. She thought about it and met his gaze directly. “I don’t think so. As soon as I realized there was an issue, we got in the car and I brought her back. Safe.”
Well, it might’ve made more sense not to come straight back, but it all depended on how much danger there had been to make Elisa add that last qualifier on the end of her statement.
He let out a slow breath, reining in his anger. “Start from the beginning. Tell me exactly what happened.”
She did.
For a nasty second, he wanted to rage at his own stupidity in entrusting his daughter to this woman and to shake Elisa for placing Boom in danger. But Elisa hadn’t. Under normal circumstances, the trip should’ve been fine. Hell, he’d known Elisa had been running from something and they’d had friends nearby just in case. Elisa and Serena should’ve been safe and Elisa shouldn’t be blamed for the persecution she was subject to. He needed to make sure the people he cared about remained protected. “I’ve respected your privacy up to now, but I do need to know if we should be expecting any unwanted company.”
“I hope not.”
He stared at her. “We’ll plan for the worst-case scenario.”
She bit her lip. “Which is also why I should leave. The stranger I saw didn’t seem to have noticed us. He was too busy looking over my car, under it. I got us back to your car while he was down there so I don’t think he saw us.”
“Take me through it one more time.” He needed to see if the details were consistent, if she was remembering clearly. And he wanted her to get some distance from what’d happened by thinking it through.
He’d warn Cruz to keep an extra close eye on the security feeds tonight, just in case. Gary and Greg had security cameras with line of sight to the first couple of rows of cars in front of their school, so he could also check into the identity of this guy. Could be someone who’d dropped something between cars and made Elisa jumpy. But Elisa had demonstrated a presence of mind and practicality thus far, so he was guessing she’d really seen what she thought she’d seen. He wasn’t going to doubt her until proof presented itself to say otherwise. And he had the means to verify what she’d told him.
His daughter was safely upstairs and about to take a nap, happy about the help and ideas Elisa had given her.
Elisa clasped her hands in front of her. “I’ll call a cab, get back to my car and head out. Hopefully he didn’t do anything to it and I can sell it in the next town I stop in.”