Page 13 of Ambush

“Coward.” A smile tugged his mom’s lips, but she reached for her phone on the counter and tapped out a message.

***

What on earth was she doing? Paradise walked along the brick pathway past the fields between her cottage and the main house. When Jenna’s text came through, Paradise’s stomach had rumbled with a reminder of how hungry it was and she’d agreed without thinking about the fact Blake would be there.

The truth was, she was lonely. She’d been okay with that for years, but being back here where things had once been so livelyand fun had reminded her of what friendship and camaraderie felt like. Oh, she’d had a couple of good friends here, but their letters had ceased when she moved away. Then she had no one she’d opened up to and told about her previous life.

Jenna and Blakeknewwhat she’d gone through. They had front-row seats to the fast demolition of the family she’d once had and the life she’d struggled to remake. They’d been part of the explosion that brought all of it down again.

Was the third time a charm and she’d find a place to call home permanently? She wasn’t that lucky.

The main house was not familiar to Paradise. She’d only ever been to the business end of the place in its previous incarnation as the Steerforth Ranch with a roadside zoo. It was a cute shotgun-style house, yellow with white trim and an inviting porch. Painted gray stairs led to the red door on the east side of the porch. There were additional quarters over a garage that made the entire structure appear a bit lopsided but in an interesting, welcoming way. She liked it the minute she laid eyes on it. She suspected Blake had the quarters over the garage.

The door opened before she had a chance to knock on the red door, and Blake stepped out of the way. “Glad you could join us. Mom made catfish and there’s way too much for us to eat.”

Was he making excuses for Jenna’s text? She lifted a brow and stepped inside. “It was kind of your mom to invite me.”

He shut the door and leaned against it. “Everything okay at your cottage? Nothing out of place?”

She examined his tense expression. “That’s an odd question. I haven’t found anything out of place.”

“Our place has been searched. Not sure what they were after, but I don’t see anything missing.”

She held her hand to her throat. “Did you call McShea?”

“I got routed to Greene. He wasn’t much interested since nothing was taken.”

“What’s going on here, Blake?”

He took her arm, and she jerked it away. They would never be friends, and he needed to remember that.

He dropped his hand back to his side. “Sorry. I’m worried, Paradise. Did Mom mention we don’t think Hank’s death was an accident?”

She absently rubbed her arm where his touch had seared her skin. “No, she didn’t talk about anything personal. She told me about the opening here and asked if I was interested. How did he die?”

“He fell out of the hayloft in the barn and broke his neck.”

“That sounds accidental.”

He nodded. “And I would agree if strange things hadn’t been happening before that. This isn’t our first break-in, and someone tried to run him off the road the week before his death.”

“Could it have been the activists?”

“That’s what we think. My cousin Hez is an attorney, and he poked around some, but without any real help from the police, he hasn’t turned up any evidence. At least Mom got Hank’s life insurance, which helped. It will give us a few months’ breathing room to keep things going.” He grimaced. “If we can get the activists out of our way long enough to draw people in here to see what we’re offering. I’m going to try to catch McShea out of the office at lunch tomorrow.”

Her heart stirred at the quandary his family was in. She’d taken a low salary because she had to come back here, and this job didn’t ask much of her. Her affection for his mom had played a role in that decision too, but she hadn’t realized the situation was so dire.

“So you think maybe someone tossed Hank over the edge of the loft?”

“Or broke his neck and staged it to make it seem like an accident.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Shy of a confession from some unknown person, I don’t know how we prove it though. We all have to be on guard here. Every one of us.”

“Did anyone else want to buy this place before Hank and your mom purchased it?”

“Sure. It’s 120 acres of prime land. Lots of hay grown here, good pastures for horses and cattle. Several farmers wanted it as well as a developer.”

“I’m surprised the developer didn’t buy it.”

“It got snarled in red tape, and Hank managed to swoop in and snag it. Once the funding for the developer came through, they sent a guy to offer to buy it for much more than Mom paid, but we said no, of course. It’s perfect for our needs.”

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