Page 32 of Dragon Detective

“Do you have any plywood for the windows?”

“There are a few sheets in the shed. I’ll call Shriek & Nail, and they’ll deliver more.” She tugged her phone from her pocket and stared down at it, her shoulders curling forward. “This is overwhelming. How many sheets should I order? I think I have four in the shed.”

Four for the front porch and three for the left side of the building. “Three should do it.”

“I’ll order a few extra just in case.” She took the chair I’d just vacated and started making calls.

I went to the shed and hauled out the plywood, finding a box of screws and a drill I could use to secure them. Before she’d finished her call with Shriek & Nail, I’d covered the windows on the front porch and had started to vacuum up the glass with her shop vac.

“I don’t dare go inside to see what else they might’ve done,” she said after I’d finished with the porch. It wouldn’t take me long to do the walkway, though the glass in the flower beds would take time to remove. “The insurance company said they’d send an adjuster over tomorrow.”

“Good.” She looked so lost and sad, I wanted to hold her again, but I could tell by the flint in her gaze that she’d shoved aside her mourning, and that anger was about to take over. “Damn them,” she said to punctuate my assumption. “We need to find out who’s doing this and make Detective Carter arrest them.”

And we needed to find out why they were doing it. Just because I believed someone was trying to sabotage her renovation project to drive her away didn’t mean there wasn’t another motive here we hadn’t yet thought of.

What other reasons might someone have for destroying her property?

With a sigh, Hannah started toward the front door. She turned back in the opening. “You should add Victor Drake to your list. He owns the only other B&B in town, and when I saw him at the library, he was not only snarly, but he was reading a book about how to destroy your competition.”

“Suspicious.” And obvious, but it was rare for anyone except a seasoned criminal to be clever about something like this. Although, with the Internet, anyone could research ways to harm someone else before they acted. “We’re going to take care of this.”

Her eyes watering, she went inside.

Chapter 17

Hannah

“Ifeel like I’m going backwards,” I said as we sat in the living room on the opposite side of the building that evening after dinner. “I was so happy to have another bathroom finished this morning, and now I’m ordering new windows when I already replaced the ones on this level. Since they’re old, I’m replacing them as I renovate each room. The first floor was close to being ready to receive guests. The rest? Well, you’ve seen it.”

I wanted to snarl. And cry. So I did neither. I had a pad of paper on my lap, and I was making a list of all the things I had to do to fix this latest issue. The only way to get through this was by moving forward.

Reylor sat on the sofa beside me, his arm across my shoulders. While I was happy to stand on my own two feet, and if I was alone, I would’ve found a way to mentally deal with my grief, it was nice to have him sitting beside me, offering comfort.

Max lounged across the low table in front of the sofa, snoozing and looking unruffled from his rat closet and window shattering experience. If only cats could talk. Then he might be able to tell me who’d done this.

“What else?” Reylor asked, studying my list. “When I was in the office this morning laying out my schedule, I told Katar I’d be working with you full time until we’d solved this case. So I’m yours for the foreseeable future, either to provide bodyguard services or to install toilets and paint. Direct me, and I’ll do it.”

This was going to cost me a fortune, but what could I do? Without him here, I’d still be trying to hang plywood. I didn’t have the same upper body strength as a dragon shifter even though I would’ve figured out a way to do it.

“My dad would’ve come from Boston to help, but he’s out of town at a convention.” I’d called him earlier to chat. Okay, to hear his reassuring voice. Kids needed their parents at times like this even if they were thirty years old. “I didn’t tell him about the sabotage.”

“Why not?”

“Because he would insist I move back home. I’m not an eighteen-year-old freshman at college. I need to handle this myself.”

“No, you don’t, because I’m here with you.” He turned to face me and gently cupped my cheeks. “Remember that, sweetheart. I’m here for you from now on. And don’t think about the cost, which I suspect is haunting you right now.”

How could he know?

“I’m not leaving you to handle this by yourself,” he said.

“I can’t ask you to do any of this.” If I’d learned nothing else from my break-up, it was to rely solely on myself.

“I won’t make you take my help,” he said. “But I’m offering it. I want to help you for many reasons.”

I tilted my head, watching his face. “What’s on your agenda?”

“First, I’m going to install security cameras outside tomorrow. Shriek & Nail has some new systems arriving in the morning, and I only want the best.”

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