Priceless

there.” He nodded and sank back into his chair, his hands going to the keyboard, listless with his fear. If O’Shea saw Kyle, he’d know there was more to this than what I was going to tell him. I took a deep breath and strode across to the door, Ms. Francine Bouvier’s Interesting facts clutched in my arms. One last deep breath and I opened the door, smiling up into O’Shea’s glowering face. “Well hello, Agent O’Shea, fancy meeting you here.”
    I leaned against the doorframe, paper bundle held loosely in my arms, as if it were not important at all. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were following me.” I looked up at him from under my eyelashes. “In fact, I’m beginning to think you want a repeat of this morning.” I ran my tongue over my bottom lip.
    His face coloured under his olive complexion. Oh yeah, he hadn’t forgotten. If only I’d tried this trick of Milly’s years ago. He regained his composure quickly, though I did detect a smirk on his partner’s face. No doubt Mini-Me had been razzing O’Shea relentlessly about kissing a person of interest.
    “What are you doing here, Adamson?” O’Shea growled at me.
    I blinked up at him. “Me? I’m visiting a friend. He has a printer.” I shifted the bundle of papers to get his attention. “I don’t have any high tech stuff like computers. Prefer to have things on hard copy. I don’t think that’s against the law now, is it?”
    Mini-Me piped up. “Of course not, miss. We’re just doing our duty, following up on leads.” His voice trailed off as O’Shea turned his glare on his partner.
    I continued to smile as O’Shea’s glare returned to me, letting the laughter fill my eyes. His dark eyes narrowed. I started to chuckle. Couldn’t help it. I fanned my face and took some deep, gulping, over-exaggerated breaths. “Oh man, you two are way too much fun! Do you hire out, or do you only do your act for friends and persons of interest?”
    They were both frowning at me now, and O’Shea reached out and snagged the bundle of papers. I heard a squeak from inside the house and silently prayed for Kyle to hold it together for a few more minutes.
    O’Shea glanced over the heading of the bundle of paper and flipped through a few pages. “You catching up on some light reading?”
    I shrugged. “I’ll read anything. Especially when I have nothing better to do.” I gave him my best innocent eyes, keeping them wide and batting my lashes. An exaggeration for sure, but we both knew I was lying; he just couldn’t prove it.
    He snorted and handed the papers back to me. We also both knew he didn’t have a warrant for anything, so unless they traced the hacker here already, which I didn’t think they had, there wasn’t any reason for him to continue harassing me.
    “Are we about done?” I asked.
    “Not by a long shot, Adamson. Not by a very long shot.” He turned on his heel and strode away, Mini-Me following in his wake.
    Kyle shuffled up behind me. “You know those guys?”
    “The big guy has been following me around for nearly ten years. You get kinda used to it.”
    “But they’re FBI. Why would they follow you around?” Kyle’s voice trailed off and I looked over my shoulder at him. He was just a kid—brilliant, dorky, and so naive it almost hurt to look at him. I told him the truth though; he deserved that much from me.
    “They think I did a very bad thing, that I killed my sister. And some days, I think they’re right. I could have stopped those who took her, if I’d been trained then.”
    I stepped into the bright sunlight, the cold cut of the wind going right through me.

~8~
    I drove for an hour, heading west before I pulled off the interstate and into a gas station, just as the autumn sun began to set. I was too far from home to make it before I’d just have to get up and leave again in the morning. It was better to get a good night’s sleep and start fresh in the morning—that’s what Giselle always said.
    There was a motel across the street, half decent, clean and close to the highway. I’d stayed there before when I hadn’t wanted to make the three-hour trek from Bismarck all the way home. All fuelled up, I pulled a u-turn and crossed the street, glad I always kept an overnight bag in my Jeep alongside an array of weapons and equipment not so easily found at a corner drug store. A girl can never be too prepared.
    North Dakota is known for its farming, badlands, and good people. Not so much for its