“I saw a man—”
“Do not leave the house. Make sure all the doors and windows are secured. Make sure the alarm is set. Get close to David.”
My skin crawled.
“Bo—”
He was gone.
Twenty-Four
As I Think We’ll Be
I was loitering at the back door.
David was loitering with me.
So we both caught it when Jess and Jace came into view, approaching then hopping up on my pier down below, just as Bohannan showed on my deck up above.
David didn’t leave my side (he’d gotten a text from Jess) even as I moved to the back door to unlock it.
Bohannan gave David a nod, and I looked to the brawny, ginger-haired man who was about two inches shorter than me who stood at my side. He nodded back to Bohannan, to me, then walked to the kitchen.
Yes.
I really liked David.
Bohannan took my hand and led me to the reading room.
He closed the door.
Well, hell.
“You’re scaring me,” I told him.
He led with, “Hawk didn’t come and get his equipment yet.”
This wasn’t scaring me any less.
“We agreed, just for a while, he keeps you on their radar,” he continued. “Not constant surveillance, but they’ve got cameras and they’re taping. I called. They pulled it up and did a rollback. He was in the frame of a camera they have down at the boathouse. They didn’t get a clear shot of him, and he moved out of frame quickly.”
“Who is he?”
“I don’t know. But I do know there isn’t anyone local who steps foot on this property. Not after my dad shot at trespassers for sixty years. My granddad did it before him. My great granddad did the same. And my great-great granddad just shot them. Also, we got sensors, a lot of them. I guess you can imagine how I’m not a fan of surprises.”
I could imagine that.
But I deflated.
“Shit, so this is about me?”
“You need ongoing surveillance, baby. The boys and me, we just don’t have time right now to set that up for you and monitor it.”
I never wanted them to do that.
I was Delphine to them. Delly.
Larue.
I wasn’t a client.
(At least, anymore.)
I grimaced at him then stormed away three dramatic steps in order that I could glare sullenly out the window.
“The boys are checking things,” he continued.
“I just don’t get this preoccupation with famous people,” I grumbled. “Okay, fine. Come to my table while I’m eating dinner at a restaurant. I’m out and about, and it’s not like I don’t live a really great life because you watched my TV show or read my books. So I can say hello and dash my name on a piece of paper for you. I’m happy to do that. But lurking on my property?”
“Hang on,” he said.
I turned and watched him take a call.
“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you. Pains were taken, Leland. Now, Delphine has some asshole wandering around her place. You’d have to have forensic skills and about three months to uncover she owns this property. What the fuck?”
Pause and…
“Why am I asking you? Because you and your deputies are the only people in town who know where she lives.”
Another pause and…
“Do not go there. It wasn’t one of my kids and it wasn’t David.”
Pause and, beginning to get irate (or more irate)…
“How do I know? Are you fucking with me?”
Another pause and…
“Yeah, my full weight, asshole. And you dick with him until that time, you’ll regret it.”
He then rang off.
“You think Sheriff Dern told someone where I live?” I asked.
His answer was wry.
“How’d you guess?”
There were situations where wry was a good call.
I didn’t feel this was one of them.
I shot him a look that communicated that.
“You know I kind of like you,” he bit off.
I thought so.
However, the absence of a kiss was another story.
I didn’t share that in his current mood.
“And I kinda want you to be happy, and settled, and enjoying the great northwest, getting to know my daughter, shoveling shit at my sons when I have certain things off my mind and the time I need to dedicate myself to all the things I’m gonna do to you.”
Oh.
Well then.
I silently lauded the invention of padded bras as I carefully watched him.
“So, fans crawling all over your place, flipping your shit, taking me and my boys off target is not conducive to any of that,” he concluded.
“I see.”
“And it’s pissing me off.”
“I understand that now.”
“I shouldn’t take that out on you, I know. But Dern’s behind this and that pisses me off even more.”
“I understand that too.”
He jerked up his chin.
“What are you throwing your full weight behind?” I asked.
“Harry Moran is running for sheriff against Dern next year. He’s already filed and got more than enough signatures. His campaign officially kicked off about two weeks before you moved here.”
I felt my eyes grow big. “Um…”
“Yeah,” he grunted.
“Were you public with your support for him?”
“Everyone’s public with their support for him. But yeah, I don’t have a sign out by the gate, but if asked, I don’t hold back.”
“Prior to Alice.”
Not even a beat passed before he confirmed, “Prior to Alice.”
I was horrified.
And furious.
“Dern wanted to bag that,” I whispered, the words trembling with negative emotion.
“He had Harry checking parking meters. We have five parking meters in this entire county. And Harry’s the best investigator they got.”
“Oh my God!”
Yes, I shouted it.
“He didn’t want Harry, or me, shining even a little when it came to Alice.”
“She was a little girl,” I hissed, my torso spiking toward him like a snake striking.
“And now you get why I was an ass to you, because Leland is pissing me off.”
“Is he interfering with your investigation now?”
“He isn’t helping it, but he also isn’t outright hindering it. He’s too busy with damage control.”
“But, say, I sit with you and your kids at the Double D. I’m grocery shopping with Celeste. Maybe he lets slip where I live, which lets slip your focus on Alice’s killer, because he knows where we are with each other.”
“You’re taking things further, baby,” he said low, with hints of pride.
I definitely felt the pride, my shoulders going back with it, and I decided to focus on that, rather than Dern, because there was nothing I could do about Dern.
But Bohannan could, and I knew he would.
“Maybe you can hire me,” I suggested.
“Not gonna happen.”
My eyes squinted.
“We need to discuss societal stamps and how pigeon-holing genders, races and cultures has likely led to us not having a cure for cancer yet,” I informed him.