Page 54 of Hell or High Water

“You have a stalker, and this is what you want to discuss?”

He was deflecting. There was something he didn’t want me to know.

“Where is Ocala?” I asked then, trying to get this out of him another way.

“Florida.”

“Who is Blaise?”

He didn’t come back with an immediate answer, and I knew I was getting close to the center of this.

“Wealthy horse breeder who lives in Ocala. His family and Linc’s go back for generations. They might as well be related.”

That might be true, but it wasn’t explaining much.

“Who is Levi?”

“Linc’s son.”

“He lives in Ocala?”

Than nodded.

“Why?”

Than sighed. “Because he has lived there his entire life.”

“But Linc is here. Did he used to live there?”

“Yep. What’s with all the questions, Six?”

He was calling me Six again, and I hated it. But I had bigger issues than the insulting nickname he’d decided to stick on me. He hadn’t liked me one minute and made it clear he didn’t think I was attractive, but then he had sure put a lot of energy into stopping me when I tried to leave. I wanted to ask him why he cared so much, but I would wait to ask that.

“Because my life is being controlled by you, by Linc, by men in Ocala that I don’t know. And although you’re not related, he referred to the family more than once in his office. Saying that whoever was leaving the notes was attached to the family. That this makes it a family issue. What family was he referring to? And Jericho is the governor of Mississippi. Why do men in Florida care?”

Than ran his fingers through his hair. Frustration etched in his features. He didn’t like that I was asking any of this, but what did he and Linc think would happen after I sat there and listened to them decide what I was going to do?

“Are you all some undercover government organization? Is that it?” I asked him.

Because while I’d sat there, it was all I could come up with. Their secure lines and whoever this Blaise person was, who seemed to be the one in charge. I’d thought Linc was, but apparently, he answered to someone too.

The corner of Than’s mouth twitched, and his eyes lit with amusement. It seemed my guess was incorrect.

“Do I look like someone the government would hire? Does Linc?” he asked me.

No. Neither of them did, but I was at a loss as to what they were or how they were all connected. It couldn’t be friends if there was a chain of command and hierarchy. This was something else. I’d witnessed it in Linc’s office, and I wanted answers.

“Then what are you?” I demanded.

He studied me for a moment, then looked out the front window, his jaw flexed now as if he was clenching his teeth. Why was this a hard question to answer?

“I can’t tell you that,” he finally said.

“Why?” I shot back at him.

His eyes swung from the cabin to me. “Because I’ve not been told that I can.”

He’d not been told. There was a chain of command. I was right. But he had said they weren’t a government organization. What else could they be?

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