“What’s going on?”
“You’ll see,” Liam muttered as he led me into the living room.
They were all there. Liam, Michael, Jeff, Ben, Blake…but I had no idea why.
Ben stood, his large frame somehow more menacing than I’d ever seen him. The permanent scowl etched on his face was nothing like what I’d seen in the past. Yes, he was normally in a pissed-off mood due to the loss of the cattle on his ranch, but never as angry as this.
“I called you all here because things are getting out of hand, and we need to settle this before someone ends up dead,” Ben announced.
My eyes shifted to the others in the room. They all seemed to have some understanding of why we were here, but I had no fucking clue.
“Clara was poisoned. Tests confirmed that she had ingested Monkshood. Wolfbane.”
“What the hell is that?” Jeff asked.
“It’s a flower, but it’s poisonous if ingested,” Ben continued. “Clara doesn’t go out and pick flowers, and she definitely wouldn’t have eaten any.”
“Eat a deadly plant?” Jeff retorted. “Highly unlikely.”
Ben shot him a glare. “Until we know how she ingested it, I want every single item of food and drink removed from the house and tested. I think we can all guess who did this and why.”
He ground his teeth as he stared around the room. Someone had gone after his wife. The stakes were too high, and it seemed everyone here had something to lose.
Everyone but me.
“This is Austin. I know it in my gut,” he continued. “Until we find a way to get rid of that asshole, every one of you stay on guard. He’s coming after our family, and he’s coming hard.”
“Wait, shouldn’t Rob be here?” I asked, glancing around the room.
“He’s working on setting up additional security around the ranch,” Ben grunted. “He’s aware of the situation and is taking all the necessary precautions.”
Michael sighed, shoving his fingers through his hair. “I never thought I would say that Knight was right to install a killer robot in my house or machine guns in the eaves.”
“Now that we know Clara was poisoned, I want every scrap of food, every can of coffee, and all the contents from the fridge removed. You’d be wise to do the same in your houses. Until we figure out how she was poisoned, assume that anything you make at your house could have been tainted.”
Considering my house was on wheels and was constantly moved around, the likelihood of someone breaking in and poisoning something seemed greater than I cared to admit.
“How the hell are we going to test all the food?” Jeff asked. “We’re not set up for something like that, and we don’t have access to the equipment needed.”
Michael groaned as a shadow emerged from the back of the room. Introductions weren’t necessary. I’d met the scary fucker before, and I had hoped that would be the last time.
Knight emerged from the shadows with his wife in tow.
“Kate will be testing everything and helping us to figure out how Clara was poisoned,” Ben confirmed. “Sam, we need your house on wheels.”
“Sure,” I snorted, not all that sad about giving it up.
Jeff strode over, grinning as he slung an arm around my neck. “You can bunk with me, roomie. Well, not with me, but in my spare room.”
“Thrilling,” I muttered. I wasn’t sure what was worse. Sharing a house with Jeff or hearing Krista and Rob go at it constantly in the other room.
“I say we just take him out now,” Liam muttered.
“Let me be clear,” Ben’s voice boomed through the house. “No one is to touch Austin. Not yet. We need proof that he’s behind this. As much as I hate the fucker, if he were to gomissing, we’d be the primary suspects. You know this, so don’t be stupid.”
“Who the fuck cares?” he snapped. “So they suspect us. He tried to kill Bailey. He nearly killed me. And now he almost killed Ma? Burn the fucker!”
“Knight, you want to help me out?” Ben asked.
