Page 90 of Ambush

She unlatched the harness and turned around. He tottered on his feet. How was she going to get him down the steps to safety? She hugged him to her. “You’re okay, you’re okay.”

His closed eyes fluttered and managed to open. “I always knew waking up to Paradise would be a good thing,” he muttered.

Chapter 43

Blake was finally warm as dawn pinked the sky outside the window in Savannah’s living room. She had invited them all to stay with her for the next few days while the floodwaters went down. Her house was full to bursting with all of them. The boys had a blast “camping out” with their sleeping bags in the spare room with their mother. The boys hadn’t made an appearance yet this morning, but it was only six fifteen, and his mother sat in a chair with her hands wrapped around a coffee mug.

Blake sipped his hot cup of coffee.Bliss. Even more like heaven was the wonderful woman curled up beside him on the sofa, who’d braved storm and flood along with tigers and hyenas to rescue him.

Clark snored in the chair across from them. The road to his house had flooded out, and he had nowhere to go, so he’d parked his truck outside and had slept in it for a few hours before coming in for coffee—and promptly falling back asleep.

There were more people in the kitchen—Jane Dixon, Savannah, and Hez banged around fixing breakfast while talking over theevents. Last night Jane, Rod, and Nora had gone over the interrogations with Hez and figured out what had happened. Blake had been too exhausted to care then, but he cared now, though not enough to disturb the sleeping beauty beside him. All the whys and wherefores could wait while his gaze traced the sweet curve of her lips and jaw.

They had challenges yet to face. He couldn’t picture leaving his mom and the boys on their own just yet, but one obstacle was out of the way. Still, last night had proven Paradise was the sticking kind. He could have died last night—she could have too. Yet here they were, safe and sound. And warm. Warmth was something he’d never take for granted again.

Jane entered with Hez trailing her. “Breakfast is almost ready, but I wanted to hear again what happened. You were in severe hypothermia last night and weren’t making much sense.”

They’d tried to make him stay at the hospital, but the rooms were all full so they’d opted to bring him here. “I’m a lot more clearheaded now.”

Paradise stirred and sat up. “Is it morning?”

“Sure is.” He pulled her against him. “But you can go back to sleep.”

She shook her head. “I want to hear what Jane found out.”

Jane dropped into a chair. “It’s a long story. Owen’s in financial trouble. He invested his savings in some stocks that tanked, and he started gambling over in Mississippi to try to hit it big. He was siphoning off funds to pay his gambling debts instead of making his business payments. When he went on vacation, Hank poked through the books and found the discrepancies. He confronted Owen about it and told him he was going to report it. Owen begged for a chance to put the money back, and Hank gave him three months.”

Blake’s mother put her mug on the table beside her. “Owen has skipped most of the payments since Hank died. I haven’t bugged him about the business payments because I’ve been concentrating on making things work at The Sanctuary.”

“You should have told me,” Blake said. “I could have talked to him.”

“You had enough to worry about without that. Finish what you’ve learned, Jane.”

Jane took a sip of her coffee. “Hank sent him a message and said he was going to file charges, so Owen went to see him to plead for more time. He found Hank in the barn, and they argued. Hank refused to give him more time, and Owen shoved him. Hank stumbled and hit the railing in the haymow at the right spot and toppled over.

“Though he hadn’t intended to kill Hank, Owen thought he was home free and no one knew about his embezzlement or his involvement in Hank’s death. But his money woes were far from over, and a loan shark started hassling him to pay the money he lost gambling. He lived a lavish lifestyle, but no one knew what he was doing to fund it. When Lacey was working for him, they began a relationship, and she saw his money as a way of getting out of her own financial problems. She’s raising a niece and is struggling.”

“She told me about that,” Blake said.

“Lacey had a friend who worked for one of the gas companies in the area. He told her there were some valuable gas deposits on the property here. She told Owen about it, and he convinced the loan shark that he could force Jenna to sell and would cut him in on the profit from the gas deposits. He gave him six months to get it done, and time was running out.”

Blake absorbed the news. “What about Danielle Mason’s death? Was it related?”

“The Mason woman was Owen’s cousin, and he enlisted her help with the blockade and media attacks. She wanted a bigger cut of the pie when it came, and they argued about the terms. Danielle slapped Lacey and called her a tramp and said she wasn’t good enough for Owen. Danielle was holding the knife, and the two women fought over it. Lacey got control of it, and Danielle was ‘accidentally’ stabbed.” Jane made quotation marks with her fingers. “Not sure how you accidentally stab someone to death.”

“So they continued on with the sabotage without her?” Paradise asked.

“Lacey did. She had access to everything, and she sabotaged the enclosures to harass the family even more. She arranged for activists to shoot at the bear enclosure. They were running out of time.” Jane hesitated. “One more thing—they claim to know nothing about the break-ins. There were three, right?”

Blake nodded. Could they be lying? “Why try to shoot me tonight?”

Jane lifted a brow. “‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’ Lacey was furious with you, and she convinced Owen that without your help here, Jenna wouldhaveto sell.”

“She wasn’t wrong,” his mother said.

Blake pulled Paradise closer to his side. This all could have gone wrong in so many ways.

“What happens to the veterinary business?”

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