“You know you can admit it,” Ford said, zipping his pants next to her.
“Admit what?” she asked, cocking her head to the side as she looked at him.
“Admit that you like me. You don’t need to run off like that.”
“I told you . . . I don’t want anyone to see me—”
As she stood from her crouched position, Ford pulled her into his arms and planted a kiss on her lips. And in an instant, Corrie’s body turned into goo. She let him take her. Take all of her. Giving in to his kiss.
She melted into his arms, completely lacking any ability to pull away. She didn’t need to say the words—her actions told him everything he needed to know. She liked him. A lot. If each passing minute didn’t increase the odds that they’d get caught, she would have pushed him back on that bed and torn off the clothes she’d spent so much time searching for.
Their lips pulled apart, and he stared at her with a smarmy grin.
“I hate you,” she said, her lips pursed into a smile.
“I know you do.” He planted another quick kiss on her lips and sat back on the edge of the bed to put on his shoes. “You’d better get going before someone sees you,” he said, giving her a light tap on the ass.
Corrie couldn’t help but smile. But as she turned to leave, a rapping came from the outside of the tent.
“Ford? Ford, are you awake?”
Ford and Corrie froze at the sound of Ethan’s voice. They glanced at each other, assessing the situation. Both had on clothes. And it wasn’t super obvious what Corrie was doing there. So she shrugged, giving him unspoken approval to answer.
“Yeah, come on in, Ethan,” Ford called out.
Corrie braced herself for the inevitable confusion on Ethan’s face. Three, two, one . . .
“Hey . . .” he said, wrinkling his brow at the sight of the two of them together so early in the morning and halting in place. “What’s going on?”
Ford finished tying his boot and popped up from the bed. “Corrie came by to discuss today’s plan.”
“Never took you for much of a morning person,” Ethan said to her. The skepticism in Ethan’s voice couldn’t be missed.
“I’d like to finish this dig before Christmas, that’s all,” Corrie retorted. If there was one thing that couldn’t be questioned, it was Corrie’s sass.
“What is it, Ethan?” Ford cut in, clearly trying to draw attention from Corrie’s presence in his tent in the wee morning hour.
Ethan’s eyes lingered on Corrie for another second, clearly not buying their act, but a moment later he turned his attention back toward Ford. “We’ve got a problem.”
“What sort of problem?”
“You might want to come with me.” He didn’t wait before exiting the tent, leaving Corrie and Ford to exchange glances. Even though he’d only come for Ford, they both followed.
What on earth could be so important this early in the morning?
The camp had only started to stir for the day, and those who were awake were paying little attention to Ford, Corrie, and Ethan trudging through the camp. Past the tents. Past the bathrooms. And straight for the storage facilities.
They stopped in front of the structure on the outskirts of the camp, not a problem to be seen. Perhaps this was all a ruse. Perhaps Ethan had known she was in Ford’s tent and was simply wanting to confront them.
Though that made no sense. Sure, they had a history and probably shouldn’t be sleeping together for many reasons. But sex on digs wasn’t an anomaly. Given Corrie’s attitude toward sex and relationships, frankly, she was surprised that last night was the first time she’d ever done it on a job.
“Okay, Ethan, what’s the problem?” Ford asked.
“See anything unusual?”
Corrie scanned the structure—everything seemed to be in order. No holes in the siding. Lock secure. Roof attached.
“Everything looks normal to me,” Ford responded.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. But look here . . .” Ethan said, pointing at the lock, “Someone’s been tampering with this.”
Corrie and Ford moved in closer, peering at the metal latch for the lock. The screws were stripped and there were gouges in the siding around it, as if someone had tried to remove the entire hinge rather than cut off the lock. What the . . . ?
“Sunny and I got up early today to catalog some of the smaller items we found yesterday,” Ethan continued as they inspected the structure. “I didn’t notice it at first, but the hinge had a distinct jiggle when I opened it. A jiggle that’s never been there before.”
“Was anything taken from inside?” Ford asked.
Ethan shook his head. “Not that I could see. I went through the entire list. But someone was clearly trying to get in.”
“Robbers, you think?”
“Who can say? Someone might have found out what we were doing here. Followed the supply truck, perhaps.”
“We might have to put someone on security watch.”
“Guys,” Corrie chimed in, “what if it was someone on the inside? Someone already here in camp?”
“What? No way!” Ford protested. “I personally vetted most of these people, and the others are employees of our investor. He wouldn’t select someone who might be a thief.”
“We don’t know that. People do strange things when money is involved,” Corrie said, and noticed a slight awkward shift in Ford’s stance. “It could be anyone in this camp.”
“Yeah, but except for the three of us, since we have our own tents, you’d think someone might notice if one of their tentmates took off in the middle of the night,” Ethan said.
Ford’s hand brushed against Corrie’s, signaling how Ethan had no clue what had been going on in Ford’s tent last night. But now wasn’t the time for flirting.
“People get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Clearly, whoever did this didn’t succeed. They might have realized they were taking too long and went back to their bunk. For now,” Corrie pointed out.
“Okay. Then what are you saying? Since we can’t trust anyone except maybe the three of us, we send everyone else home and start fresh with a new crew?” Ethan asked.
Ford quickly snatched his hand away as he straightened up. “What? No! That would take months. We don’t have months.”
Corrie eyed Ford curiously. Sure, no one wanted to be out here longer than necessary, but starting over with a new crew really would be the only way they could guarantee that the source of the attempted theft didn’t come from within, and something about the way Ford protested seemed off.
Like he had a different timeline than everyone else.
“Okay, then, what do you think we should do?” Corrie asked.
Ford glanced between the three of them and the structure, then paced while stroking his chin. “We keep this to ourselves for now. Just the three of us. We don’t let anyone else know there might be a thief among us. But we keep watch. Note anything fishy. And if we discover the knife or any remains, we figure out a plan to keep them guarded at all times. If that means one of us sleeps with that damn knife under our bed, then so be it.”