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Aidyn stared at him for a few moments then nodded. “Same eyes.”
Tate nodded. That was the déjà vu he’d felt. He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know why I didn’t put that together, I just had this hunch.”
“You’re too close to it.”
Tate’s heart raced. He took deep breaths to settle it down and get his emotions under control. He’d chided himself when Spencer got hurt that he’d focused too much on Lara. He was doing it again.
“Right.” Tate looked at the wire and the dirt where it had been disrupted and then put it back and stamped down. “My parents are coming today and bringing more cameras and software we can use to kill the worm the BRR installed in apps.”
He looked at the construction crew in the basement of the main building, installing the elevator shaft. “Someone knows they’ve patched into the electrical system and agreed to seal it up saying nothing. The pipe was repaired, and the wires quietly connected.”
Tate rubbed the back of his neck with his fingers. “Yep. But, it’s easy for the BRR to find people and get them to help. They watch everything that goes on down here. Blackmail can turn the strongest of allies.” He looked at Aidyn. “Great job, Aidyn. You’ve done a fantastic job out here.”
“Thanks. What are our next steps?”
Tate glanced around and weighed the advantages and disadvantages against turning in one of the crew. At this point, it didn’t matter. There’d be another person taking their place sooner rather than later.
Chapter40
Lara spent the day baking. Business was slower today than it had been. The people in town had done their best by helping her out of a tough spot, but they’d gone on to their daily lives now.
It gave her time to catch up. Spencer and Henry had finished with the generator and her doorbell now rang again. It comforted her that no one would sneak in. Plus, Tate insisted she carry, so she had her trusty sidekick with her.
She decorated her second batch of cookies for home tonight. She’d made the operatives at Tate’s a batch of cookies because they seemed to like them. These were cute. She’d made guns, targets, handcuffs, and computers out of round cookies. It was a great exercise in her art skills.
For her house tonight and Tate’s parents, she made a goldenrod flower, which was Kentucky’s state flower. A cardinal on a white cookie, which was their state bird and cookies with all of their names on them in different colors.
She had fresh bread in the oven right now, which would come out soon, and she’d pull together a nice supper for them tonight. And Paxton’s was due to deliver groceries soon.
The doorbell sounded, and she set her frosting tube on the counter and pulled a towel from the edge of the sink. Wiping her hands as she walked out to the bakery, she froze when she saw an older lady standing in the middle of the room. Her clothing spoke of the women up on the hill; flour-sack dresses were common up there. They made most of their own clothes and weren’t up on the latest fashion trends.
“May I help you?” Lara asked tentatively. She walked behind the counter, feeling safer keeping the counter between them.
The woman was older, maybe about her mother’s age. She seemed nervous and her eyes roamed around the room, taking everything in. Her graying hair was tied back into a bun. Lara allowed her the time she needed, or wanted, and focused on looking confident.
“I came down to warn you, miss. Please.” Her bottom lip shook. “Please tell your father to honor his word.”
“I don’t understand. What word? What did he promise?”
The woman backed toward the door, her face a mask of forced pleasantry. “Please. Tell him.”
The woman slipped through the open door and disappeared. Lara rushed to the front of the bakery and scoured the parking lot, but the woman had gone.
The oven timer sounded, yet Lara hesitated. She scanned up and down the road to see if the woman might drive by; she saw no one. It was eerily quiet outside.
She locked the door and turned the sign for her lunch hour and hurried to the kitchen to pull her bread from the oven. Her hands shook as she set the loaves on the stove to cool. Laying her hot pads alongside, she clasped her hands together and took some deep breaths. To her knowledge, no one from Hickory Hills had ever come down here into her bakery. Now it had been twice in a week.
She pulled her phone out and dialed her dad. The phone went instantly to voicemail. She didn’t leave one. Frankly, she didn’t want to give him a heads-up and time to think of a lie. She shook her head and pocketed her phone.
A knock on her back door made her jump and squeak. She took a deep breath to get herself under control. Padding to the back door, afraid to make a sound, she pressed her ear to the door at the same time the knocking sounded again and she jumped.
Her voice shook. “Yes.”
“It’s Alan with Paxton’s Grocery with your order, Lara.”
She managed to unlock the door, though it was a struggle, the way she shook. The young man holding the crates with her groceries smiled at her. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“No. No.” She took a deep breath. “It’s fine. My imagination has gotten the better of me today.”
