What the hell? “You think you might go insane?”

“No.” Finally, she smiled. “But you won’t find many people who’ve been categorized as a genius who haven’t thought about it.”

Her smile was natural and pure. She was correct that she brought out a protectiveness in him he thought he’d abandoned after leaving the service. But he’d seen her survive a car crash and jump out into the snow to fire at her attacker. She had an impressive strength. “What’s your IQ, anyway?” Was it rude to ask?

“I don’t know the number.” She hunched her shoulders. “I was tested when I was young, and my mother always destroyed the results, figuring that my knowing the number would influence my decisions. Looking back, she was correct. I don’t think an IQ can be truly measured, and a number would just be arbitrary. While I’m curious about many things, an indiscriminate number that’s supposed to define me is not one of them.”

“Genius must be inheritable, right? Considering you and your half sister are both prodigies.”

She stiffened. “I suppose so, but I’ve never met our biological father, so I can’t say.”

“Are you still searching for him?”

“Yes.” Her chin firmed and her eyes sparked. Her father had been the preacher at a local church, but he’d disappeared on a walkabout a few years ago. “The FBI has an active file on him since the current preacher filed a missing person’s report.”

This was none of Huck’s business, unless the man had met with foul play. “Do you think he’s alive?”

She reached forward and turned down the heat. “I don’t know if he’s alive or not. I do know that he met with my half sister when she returned to town and then left shortly afterward. If she feels anything toward him like I do, I’m not certain she’d let him live.”

Huck swallowed. “I didn’t know you had bad feelings.”

“I do. Very.” She paused as if trying to decide how much detail a friend should be given. “He raped my mom when she was seventeen, and she had me. My uncle Carl fought him and sustained a head injury that still plagues him to this day.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “Me, too. In the span of one month, I discovered the identity of my father, who needs to be held accountable for his crimes, and the existence of a half sister who’s at least as intelligent as I am, if not more.”