“No.”
“What do you mean?” I repeated the same words I’d said to Crash.
“I have to do this, Buck. You said it yourself. It isn’t just me who needs to know what evidence Barb had. Every day that goes by, is another day that someone could die. I can’t live with that.”
“We’ll fly to Colorado, I’ll set foot on the ranch, and we’ll turn around and come right back.”
“It won’t be that simple, Buck,” said Crash. “The airfield might not open right away, and when it does, it may take a day or two to get a flight plan approved.”
“I’ll go to the bank, empty the safe-deposit box, head back to the airport, and catch the next flight I can, even if it’s to Denver.”
“No.”
Stella’s eyes met mine. “With all due respect, Buck, this isn’t your decision.”
I looked up at Rock and Ink, who were listening to the conversation.
“We’ll keep her safe, Buck,” said Rock. “You trusted me before to watch over her.”
“Give us a minute,” Stella said to the guys gathered around our seats. When they walked away, she looked into my eyes. “I’m not asking your permission, Buck, but I would like your blessing.”
“If anything happens to you—”
“Rock and Ink will make sure nothing does. You know that.”
“My gut is telling me not to let you do this.”
Stella shook her head. “My gut is telling me I have to.”
“You’re armed, correct?”
“I’m never not armed, Buck.”
“Never?”
Her cheeks flushed pink, and I winked.
Five minutes and that
many heart-wrenching, soul-crushing, I’ll-love-you-forever, deep kisses later, I watched Rock and Ink escort Stella off the plane.
The hardest thing I’d ever done was ignore the war waging inside me that said to stop her from leaving. Stella said her gut was telling her she had to, and that, I had to respect.
34
Stella
I wasn’t exactly honest with Buck. My gut was screaming at me, but not that I should do this without him. Instead, it was that I needed him beside me, now and every minute for the rest of my life.
I had to ignore it, though. I’d lived on my own a long damn time, fending for myself, doing what needed to be done to get the story. I’d put myself in danger more times than I could count. Taking a cab to a bank, walking into a vault, and peering into a safe-deposit box, no matter what it held, wasn’t scary. Taking a cab back to the airport and catching a commercial flight to Colorado wasn’t scary either.
I looked behind me. “Hey, Rock?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you and Ink still considered commissioned law enforcement officers?”
“Absolutely. Why?”