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Both he and Hank had attended the one she’d been a guest at. He was in awe of her ability to keep up with all their enthusiastic questions and the way she handled herself when a few less than friendly “readers” had shown up. They hadn’t attacked her outright but it seemed clear to him and Hank that their purpose in attending had been to create a little chaos in the chat room, filling it with unrelated chatter and repeatedly getting Veronica off subject. What’d pissed him off most were the personal questions. Veronica had handled it professionally, with a sense of humor, doing her best to be kind to all the attendees, but he knew that it had been stressful for her. It’d been hard to keep his mouth shut about the chat since she didn’t know they had planned to check it out. He didn’t want her to be self-conscious about interacting with her fans or distracted.
“You think that jackass, BookAddictedWhore, has some kind of agenda? Two or three of the others seemed to follow her lead—assuming it’s really a woman.”
Hank grimaced and shook his head. “I wish I had the resources to turn this over to the department, but the funds just aren’t there for an investigation that could lead nowhere. Ace and Kemp, and Duke and Gage, can work their voodoo faster anyway. I also need to show them that card Kate brought home with her from the coffee shop. Tabitha Lester is going to get herself into a mess if she’s not careful with the blogging and website, and those meetings.”
“Yeah, people have a right to express their opinions but she needs to do some research on slander and libel.”
Hank sipped his coffee as they talked quietly about the day’s agenda.
A little later, Travis followed him back to the bedroom and stood there watching her sleep for a minute. She’d intended to get up and spend a few hours writing while they slept but she’d fallen deeply asleep between them. That was fine by him.
Hank went to the side of the bed she’d scooted over to, with her arms wrapped around the pillow he’d slept on, and kissed her on her forehead. He whispered to her and she smiled and whispered back and kept right on sleeping. Judging by his expression as he turned away, this was a morning he’d prefer to stay in with them, but duty called.
Travis sat on the front porch, enjoying the brisk morning air, and had just walked back in the house for a coffee refill when Veronica’s phone started ringing on her work desk. He grabbed it off the table and was trying to figure out how to mute it so it wouldn’t disturb her sleep when he accidentally hit the wrong key and answered it instead. He could hear a male voice and cursed at himself as he put it to his ear and quietly said, “Hello?”
There was a long pause and a deep voice on the other end said, “This is Cord Benedict. Is Veronica available?”
Thinking this might be a golden opportunity, Travis stepped out onto the front porch with his fresh cup of coffee and said, “She’s not available at the moment.”
“Bullshit. She’s always awake at this time. Who is this?”
Travis could hear another male voice in the background before he said, “My name is Travis McDaniel, Cord. Veronica has mentioned you and your brother to us.”
“Us? Us who?”
Fuck!
“The us I’m referring to is me and the Divine County Sheriff, Hank Stinson.”
“What the fuck? Is she in jail? Holy shit, Jackson, call Henry! We’ve got to get to Divine. Veronica—”
Travis cut him off. “She is not in any trouble. We’re friends.”
Cord scoffed. “Friends who have access to her phone while she is sleeping at a time when she is usually wide awake. How did you meet?”
“Well, I knew her about eleven years ago but we were reintroduced through Grace Warner when Veronica and your Grandma Kate came to a wedding we attended.”
“Wait. You call her Grandma Kate?”
“She told us we should when we talked with her at the reception.”
Cord’s deep laughter rumbled over the phone and he repeated what Travis had said to Jackson and presumably whoever else was within hearing. “Did she give you the ‘What are your intentions?’ speech?”
“As a matter of fact she did.”
