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“Sounds good. I’ll call Thea.”
She kissed me and slid off my lap. I resisted the urge to follow her inside like a lost puppy.
The berry farm was nestled in a valley near Summer Lake. Fields lined both sides of the road leading up to an older but well-maintained farmhouse. I glanced over at Santino, who was driving. He’d been undeterred and refused to let me go on my own.
And if this was a front for some other business, I might need the reinforcements.
We parked in front of the shop, next to an old tractor that was covered in cobwebs. The building looked like it used to be a barn, the outside painted blue with big white letters above the door identifying it as the Hills View Berries shop.
“Worst-case scenario, we come back with berries,” I muttered.
Santino ignored my comment and opened his door. He was wearing sunglasses, so I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. He wasn’t happy we were here, but tough luck. I had to do this.
Shelves filled with jams, boxes of berries and other farm produce lined every available shop space. It was a big room, but we had to duck and wind our way to the register where a woman about my age stood. Her features look familiar, but I couldn’t think of a place I could have possibly seen her before.
“Welcome to Hills View Berries. Anything I can help you with?”
Santino stayed behind me like an ever-present shadow, but I’d given up telling him to relax. He didn’t agree with me going off without a plan. But we were on a berry farm, for heaven’s sake.
“Do you have any special offers today?” I asked, glancing around the store. It resembled any other shop, though maybe a little messier.
The woman came out from behind the counter and walked up to a table off to the side. “We have a ‘buy one, get two’ honey pot offer. We also give a discount when you buy more than a pint of berries. Or if you’re looking for cakes, you get a 20 percent discount if you buy the entire cake.”
The girls would love all of it. Since I hated wasting my time, I got one of each. Most expensive berries and honey I’d ever purchased since they came with a plane ticket.
She wrapped it all up for me, watching Santino out of the corner of her eye. We couldn’t bring our guns on the plane, so at least he wasn’t flashing his piece at her, making her even more nervous than she already was. But driving would have taken too long.
I paid, and she handed me two bags. “You look familiar. Have we met?”
“I don’t think so. I’ve never been here before.”
She shrugged. “Maybe you have one of those faces.”
I gave her a noncommittal shrug. “Maybe. Have a good day.”
“You too.”
We left the shop, and it was hard to hold the disappointment at bay. I’d not only wasted a day away from Everleigh and Sofie, but I’d gotten no closer to finding out what was going on.
I put my sunglasses on, glancing back at the shop. “Maybe we should leave it be. They’re just selling berries, not trafficking guns.”
We’d never know for sure what they were doing unless we went inside all the other buildings. But short of breaking in, that wouldn’t happen.
Santino opened the trunk. “Want to stay the night? I can come back once it’s dark and have a look around.”
It was a tempting offer. But was I getting too paranoid? Their grounds were well maintained. The few animals I’d spotted looked well fed. And the berries were a legitimate business. Maybe I’d never find out what was going on.
I needed to let this rest and concentrate on what mattered: finding a job and convincing Everleigh to marry me. I wanted to make her mine completely. There would never be another for me. This I knew with absolute certainty. And it was time to make it official.
A chicken squawked, and then something dropped to the ground. “Dios mio,” a voice called out.
I looked up at an older woman, her hands clutched to her chest, broken eggs all around her. She was staring at me with wide eyes, trying to say something but no words coming out. I stilled, my heart twisting. She looked so much like mom, I knew she must be a relative.
The woman from the shop rushed past me. “¿Qué pasó?”
They had a whispered conversation, and then the younger woman’s head snapped up.
Santino shifted from foot to foot, his eyes flitting around the grounds as if he expected someone to jump out from behind the goat.
