Page 60 of Love At Peace

“I saw you kiss her. I saw you!” More spittle flew from his mouth, that was how hysterical he was. “I was walking toward her place again to tell her to come home. I was ready to show her that she would never be happy without me organizing her life for her. But no. I had to find you kissing what belongs to me.”

“She’s not property. She’s not a damn possession to call dibs on. She decides what she wants to do with her life, you asshole.”

“No. No. She’s mine. And if I have to kill you now and get you out of the way, I will.”

He finally found the gun after groping for it in the grass. As he lifted his hand, I heard the telltale hooves pounding on the earth. My horse had to be coming back now, and I refused to let an animal get hurt in the crossfire.

I gritted my teeth and lunged at him, shouldering to the side to knock that gun right back out of his hand.

He fired it though, and a loud cry of pain sounded behind me.

I whipped my head around and saw where the bullet had hit to have made that noise.

No!

Chapter 23

Heather

“There’s no supposing about it,” the man from the county office said. “Something fraudulent happened from your end.” He jabbed his finger in the air, pointing at me.

I shook my head.

“Don’t deny it. The IT specialists have determined the data was compromised at your end. I know you’ve been trying to find the source of this trouble.” He glanced at Janelle with disdain. “Despite you insisting that Heather is innocent in this and that there must be another explanation, there has been more activity—recent activity—that indicates she isn’t done yet.”

“Whoa. No.” I shook my head again and held up my hand.

“That’s not true,” Nance said in my defense. She was quick to act like a mama bear like this. “She hasn’t been on that laptop since this started.” She held her hand out, gesturing at Janelle, who nodded vigorously. “Heather’s been using a different laptop. She started over with new log-ins and everything. Our other employee, Fergus, co-authored the documents for the current toy drive and charity run numbers.”

“But someone is doing something,” the woman from the county said.

“Nevaeh.” I looked straight at Marty as I said it. “She got onto my old laptop.”

“I...remember.” He sighed heavily, then frowned at something that showed up on his phone. “I remember you saying that Nevaeh got onto your laptop unsupervised. Roarke mentioned that possibility too.”

“And there has been evidence from the IT team that hacking codes were utilized on her former laptop,” Janelle reminded the county officials.

“Nevaeh got onto my laptop,” I repeated, stepping closer to Marty. “And since I’ve learned that she’s been with David, I’ve been worried that he’s got her trying to get to me.”

“Oh, come on. What is this all about?” the man from the county exclaimed, annoyed. “Exes and new girlfriends and all this nonsense?”

“It’s not nonsense,” Marty said coolly, turning to face the older, disgruntled man. “I’ve been working on a case that so happens to be in conjunction with this matter. David Kenning isn’t just causing ‘nonsense’ with an ex.” He straightened, looking down his nose at the official. “He’s attacked her cousin. He’s harassed her. He’s stalked her. This is not ‘nonsense’ at all. I would urge you to be patient, like I told you on the way over here from the station. This is only one more angle of a determined man’s plan to make her suffer.”

“You can prove that David hurt Eric?” I asked. This was news to me. Good news—in that it would have to be easier to pin assault on him. I couldn’t be sure the charge would stick, but it was the principle of it.

“I apologize for the inconvenience, but I swear to you, I didn’t compromise anything. Like my coworker explained, I haven’t had access to the original version of those documents since it first looked like something happened. The woman who was in my home must have gone on my laptop when I wasn’t there.”

The woman crossed her arms. “That’s negligence on your part. Not securing your laptop and letting people like that in your house.”

I shook my head. “I used all the required security for that laptop. I followed the logging-in protocol. And I only let her in because she was ill and in need.”

Nevaeh would be in more need now, with this crime. David had gotten her to commit a crime for him. She would never be able to get out of this mess. Having been in her shoes, I hated that her young life would be ruined already.

“Heather is not the one we need to investigate,” Marty said. “David Kenning has given me a bad feeling ever since he came into town, and I’m seldom wrong about these things.”

“Then where is this man?” The county official flung his arms out, exasperated. “Why haven’t you questioned him?”

“Because he doesn’t stay put. Until this morning, I haven’t had a just cause—for a warrant, to bring him in for questioning, anything. Now, I have plenty of reason to bring him in for questioning. I have the means to seek assistance in tracking him down, as well.”