She turned and marched back to the stairs inset in the earth. “Why didn’t my key work?”

“It’s not the original door. We had replacements made, special design so the team can simulate blowing locks without damaging your precious historic structure.” He was baiting her again and wanted to bash his head against the nonhistoric door for being an ass. The doors had been changed to match very specific parameters, and there wouldn’t be explosives used at all.

Plus, the lodge was old, and it was cool. He didn’t want to see it harmed any more than she did. After all, he’d spent one of the most entertaining nights of his life here with an incredibly sexy woman who now glared at him with earned loathing in those beautiful hazel eyes. “Listen, you’ve got about ten minutes to show me your cameras are down, and then you need to get the hell out of this area.”

“Jae’s meeting me at the site. I need to wait for him,” she said.

Jae had introduced Xavier to Audrey that fateful night. He’d known Jae-jin Son forever; the Korean-American park ranger was one of his oldest and closest friends. And his old friend knew the training was starting today, which meant Audrey was, in fact, lying. Was she here to stop the training after all?

“No way is Jae coming. I spoke to him this morning. About the training.”

“He told the dispatcher he’d meet me at the gate.”

Relief settled in. So she might not be lying. He didn’t want her to be a liar. “Yeah, probably because he planned to tell you that you couldn’t come up this way. Meeting at the gate and meeting at the site are two different things. He couldn’t exactly tell the dispatcher to announce on the radio to stay away from this area because a top-secret training is starting at sunset.”

Her lips formed a regretful O. “Shit.”

“Why didn’t you wait for him at the gate like a good girl?”

“I can’t believe I didn’t realize what a condescending ass you are the first time we met.”

That was fair. He was trying to make her feel in the wrong. Because right now that real estate was all his, and he didn’t like it. “I’ll rephrase. Why didn’t you wait for Jae at the gate as he requested?”

“He was out at Mora dealing with unruly campers. The nearest law enforcement ranger after Jae is even farther away—out at Shi Shi Beach. Daylight is dwindling, and a storm is forecast for tonight. If the site’s been looted again, I have a narrow window to collect evidence before the rain washes everything away. And I need to check on George.”

“George?”