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On the other hand, I’d hoped that was the reason why Cade and Boone had decided to stick around. Did that make me a hypocrite?
Maybe.
But it was sort of hard to care when I had Cade and Boone on either side of me, their biceps brushing against my arms and their thighs pressed against mine. It was hard to think about anything except the fact that there were way too many layers of clothing between the three of us.
Those kinds of thoughts would have to wait, though. I took a deep breath and reminded myself of the reason for this little road trip.
“I hope Derek can give us some information that we don’t already know,” I said. “I’d started to feel safe again over the past few days, but now…”
Boone reached over and took my hand. “You can still feel safe. We’re not going to let anything happen to you. We’ll find out who’s behind this and then—”
“Then we’ll take care of it,” Cade interrupted, his low voice sounding deadly serious. “Whoever this is has made a big mistake by messing with you, Janessa. We’re not going to let them get away with it.”
Just hearing how seriously they took the threat made me feel better and worse at the same time. Better because I completely trusted them. I knew they’d do everything they could to keep me and my ranch safe.
But I also knew they couldn’t be everywhere at once. Whoever was behind the poisonings had already struck twice, right under our noses. If they wanted to do something else, something worse, I wasn’t sure there was anything we could do to stop them.
Chapter 13
Janessa
I wrapped my hands around the steaming cup of coffee Derek Winslow had given me and listened as he told us about the poisoning and the fire that had thrown his whole ranch into chaos for the past couple of days.
“It sounds a lot like what we’ve been experiencing,” I said. “Except for the fire, of course. But I suspect it’s only a matter of time until we have to deal with something like that, too. Thank God nobody was hurt, though.”
“Yeah, we’re very thankful for that,” Derek said. “The barn can be replaced. But my family and the rest of the people who work here…” He shook his head. “I honestly don’t know what I’d do if something happened to them.”
“So far, we just know one thing for sure,” Cade said. “Whoever is behind all of this is getting more aggressive each time. They started by poisoning one horse, then came back to poison almost a dozen cows. Now, they’ve added arson to the mix.”
Hearing him list off the incidents and realizing that they were, in fact, escalating and getting more dangerous each time made a chill go down my spine. What would they try next? This time it was just a barn that had been burned down, but what if it was one of our houses next time?
“Do you have any idea who could be behind it?” Boone asked. “Is there someone you’ve argued with recently? Anyone who might be holding a grudge for some reason?”
Derek shook his head. “Sheriff Prescott asked me the same thing when I talked to him. He’s coming out here to take a statement a little later, but I don’t really have anything useful to tell him.” Derek looked at me. “Would you mind staying until the sheriff gets here to give him a statement of your own? I think it will probably be helpful at this point to give him as much information as possible. Maybe he can piece something together that we’ve missed.”
“Of course,” I said. “I think you’re right. And I hope he can help us figure out who is behind all of this. I’ll be honest—my first thought was that Nora Statler might have had something to do with it. She’s been pressuring me and Uncle Justin to sell our ranch for a while now, and she was pretty rude about it the last time we saw her. Then the first poisoning happened shortly after that.”
“I thought about that, too.” Boone nodded. “Doesn’t really seem like her style, though. Unless she got someone else to do her dirty work.”
“That would be awfully risky in a small town like Bliss,” Cade said. “Everyone knows everyone else’s business around town already. Could you imagine if word got out that Nora was poisoning animals at the biggest ranches in the county? She’d be ruined.”
Derek had frowned at the first mention of Nora’s name, and that frown had only deepened with Cade and Boone’s assessment of the situation.
“I hate to add fuel to the fire,” Derek said. “Especially when that person isn’t here to defend their reputation.” He paused, looking like he really was reluctant to bring it up. “But I did have dinner with Nora a couple of weeks ago…”
I felt my eyes go wide. “Really? You asked her out on a date? I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you and Nora had anything going on.”
The last thing I wanted was to offend Derek by talking about a woman he was interested in, but… Nora Statler? Really? I was genuinely curious as to what he could possibly see in her. Then again, she was always a lot nicer with the men in town than the women, so it wasn’t truly shocking that a man who had been single for as long as Derek might fall for her fake charms.
Derek grunted and gave me a wry grin. “Trust me, it’s nothing like that. She actually was the one who asked me out for dinner, and I honestly had never even thought about Nora in a romantic way, but… I figured what the hell, you know?”
I nodded, too intrigued to interrupt. Cade and Boone were also as silent as church mice. They were probably just as surprised as I had been about the thought of Derek and Nora together.
“Well, to make a long story short,” Derek continued, “I realized it wasn’t a normal date pretty quickly. She kept asking me questions about the ranch—not just the kinds of things that come up in polite conversation, but personal details about the business operations and the finances. It really kind of took me by surprise at first.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Cade said, wide-eyed. “That doesn’t sound like my idea of a fun date at all.”
I tried not to smile. I didn’t want to seem insensitive to Derek’s terrible date with the wicked witch of Montana, but it was hard to imagine that he and Cade were related at all. Granted, they were pretty distant cousins, but I was pretty sure Cade barely even talked business with Boone, let alone as first date material.
