Page 91 of Samuel

“Thank you. For everything.”

“So, what’s going on?” Hank asked as he took a seat in the dining chair Sam had brought into the living room. Daisy sat next to him, while Sam had Evie tucked protectively into his side on the sofa, and John stood next to the armchair Abby had claimed.

“Do you want me to start?” Sam asked, pressing a kiss into her hair.

“No.” Evie already felt like her lungs were too tight in her chest. “This might not be safe. He said… he warned me not to tell anyone what happened. That he would know, and there would be consequences if I did.”

“You think someone bugged your apartment?” Daisy asked, shock written all over her face.

“I’m not really sure. If he did, I’m already in trouble. Jake came out to check on me yesterday after Sam found me like… well, like this.” She gestured to her face. “I told him more than I meant to. More than what I should have after the threats that were made.”

“Okay. Why don’t you start from the beginning, Evie, so we can get a better understanding of what happened.”

“The night we were all at the Broken Spoke… I came back to the apartment, and there was someone here.”

“Someone you know?”

She shook her head. “They were looking through some of the business ledgers I had brought up from the office. I think… I’m not sure if they expected me to be away longer, or what, but when I came back, they froze for a second before grabbing me. I should have tried to get away, but my feet wouldn’t move.”

“The flight, fight, or freeze response is really strong. Don’t blame yourself for not being able to break through that.” Johnsmiled softly at her. “What happened next?”

“He slapped me. I fell back against the sofa and tried to curl in on myself to protect the baby.”

“You did, sweetheart. You kept her safe.” Sam’s arm wrapped tighter around her shoulders and her stomach did a funny little swoop when his hand landed on her belly. She didn’t miss the way Daisy’s eyes were glued to Sam’s movement, a hidden smile crossing her lips at his protective action.

“What happened after that?”

“He climbed on top of me. There was a knife…” Evie swallowed roughly. “And he told me if I didn’t stop looking into the business accounts for the ranch, he would come back and cut the baby out of my belly and leave us both to die.”

Daisy and Abby both gasped.

“Oh my god, Evie! I’m so sorry. Who is this person?” Abby asked.

“You said they were looking at business ledgers?” Hank’s question trumped Abby’s, mainly because she didn’t know how to answer hers.

“Yes. I’m working on digitizing the last decade of the ranch’s invoices.”

“Evie’s found some discrepancies,” Sam offered.

Daisy and Abby both nodded their heads. That caught Hank’s attention.

“Did you both know about this?”

“Evie mentioned it to us when we were over one day. But we knew they were working on figuring it all out.” Daisy shrugged. “They didn’t want to alert anyone yet.”

“That’s right. Sam was protecting me. My former boss accused me of stealing from his business. It was leaked to the local news agencies.”

“I know it’s not you, Bluebell. No sense bringing it up to anyone before we had concrete evidence.”

“Except now, it seems like the person stealing from the ranch knows you are on to them.”

“Yeah.” Sam rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

“Evie, I wanted to tell you before I forget that Ryan Bowman is going back to Wisconsin.”

“What—”

Hank held up his hand to stop Sam. “There were multiple arrest warrants issued for him a week ago, including for embezzlement and fraud. We can continue processing the restraining order against him for you, but he’s looking at spending the next few decades behind bars.”

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