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To put her in that one meant that she had to cancel guests. Guaranteed.
“Thank you,” I said gruffly. “I appreciate it.”
Cannel waved it away. “It’s nothing. That’s what family is for. Also, that cat you gave the girls. Holy hell, it’s wild. But it’s so cute. They named it Snuffleupagus.”
A few years ago, when Cannel had told us she wanted to start fixing up the dilapidated cottages by the lake, we’d all thought she was quite nuts. Even before her parents had stopped running the campground, they’d needed some work.
After sitting vacant for fifteen years while the property fell into abandon, they’d gone from ‘needs work’ to ‘not fit to live.’
But Cannel had made something out of nothing, and now, with the help of her brothers and husband—and sometimes me if I ever had the spare time—they were quickly beginning to be little nuggets of gold in our heavily congested town.
I rubbed the back of my neck with my hand, pinching the tight muscles between my fingers before sighing and dropping my hand.
There was no amount of massaging that could fix this shit.
Finally, the man I’d been waiting on to show up did, and Easton walked right up to us and said, “I lost him.”
“Of course you did,” I grumbled.
Because not one fuckin’ thing could go my way lately.
It started with me being a complete dumbass last week and backing off of Gracelynn after an encounter with my ex-wife reminded me why women were so horrible.
And, after treating her like the plague all week, the hotel thing with my massage therapist happened, followed by her going out of her way to avoid me like I’d done her for the next five days.
Literally, today had been my breaking point.
After seeing that bullet nearly take her out—God, had she not dropped her keys…
Anyway, needless to say, I wasn’t in the best of places.
And hearing that Easton had lost him was the cherry on top of my goddammit sundae.
Taking a deep, likely not calming at all breath, I crossed my arms over my chest and jerked my chin at Easton.
“Tell me exactly what you think happened,” I ordered. “That wasn’t aimed at Gracie?”
I had my suspicions, but my eyes weren’t as good as they used to be. And not because I was getting old, but because I had fuckin’ tunnel vision when it came to Gracie. I loved the goddamn woman, and I was quickly realizing that my eyes had trouble looking at anything else when she was around.
God, I fuckin’ loved her.
That wasn’t going to be good.
Easton shook his head. “No. That was aimed at Erich. It missed him by a hair, and embedded itself in Gracie’s truck door, right where her pelvis was before she bent down to get her keys.”
Relief like I’d never felt before hit me like a physical blow to the heart.
“I thought so,” I admitted. “But I thought I’d get your view on things.”
Easton shrugged. “I don’t have the best judgment here since my vantage point was shit. But that bullet tore right past Erich and straight into the lower middle of where Gracie was standing. If someone’s going to aim to kill someone, they’re not going to aim for their lower body. They’re going to aim center mass.”
That was my thought, too.
“What do you think’s going on?”
Haggard.
I looked at my eldest nephew, who was closer in age to me than my own brother was, and said, “I don’t know. I have a feeling that we need to look into what Erich’s gotten himself into, though. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
I’d bailed Erich out of jail three times, and his own father had pulled him out of more situations with his money than I could count.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the damn kid had fallen down the rabbit hole again.
“I’ll look into it.” Easton rubbed his hands together gleefully. “I have a couple of newbies that I’ve been interested in trying out. This seems like a good one for them to sink their teeth into.”
Easton had started a company that, at first, had specialized in cybercrimes and detective work.
He’d slowly branched out until he’d practically had two different offices, each office consisting of a cybercrimes, and a physical crimes, unit. They were like PIs—private investigators—on steroids.
“That’d be fuckin’ great,” I admitted. “What do you need from me?”
“Permission,” he answered quickly.
“You have it,” I gave just as fast. “And now, I have to go deal with a very pissed off woman.”
There was a chuckle from Haggard and Easton.
Bram gave me a sympathetic look.
And for once, Shine didn’t say a damn word.
Tide and Price waved me off from where they were standing near the blazing bonfire.
Cannel gave a wiggle of her fingers.
I trudged through the woods toward the small cabin Cannel had shown Gracie to and sighed when I came up to find the door locked.
