by Dale Mayer
Just then, Sammy reached a hand across, grabbed his wrist. “I know where Joe lives,” she said, “I’ll show you the way.”
He looked at her and frowned, but her gaze was indomitable. “Okay, Joe. Sammy is here with me. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
He heard the relief in the man’s voice, as he said, “Okay, I’ll expect you then.”
Just as Joe started to hang up, Eton said, “Joe?”
Joe answered, “Yes?”
“Stay away from the windows,” and then he hung up. He looked at her and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t plan on this being a date-slash-meeting, complete with field trip.”
“Joe is a good guy,” she said. “I don’t want anything to happen to him.”
He nodded and said, “Let’s go.” He tossed back the last of his coffee, stood, and motioned at hers. “Are you bringing that?”
She popped the last bite in her mouth and washed it down with her coffee. “Come on,” she said. “Joe is only a few minutes away. I’ll take you there.”
“Why don’t you just tell me how to get there?” he said. “I don’t want to put you in any danger.”
“No,” she said, “that won’t happen. I don’t want you to scare Joe, and he is clearly already terrified, or he wouldn’t have called you. So we’ll go together.”
He glared at her.
But she stood toe-to-toe with him and glared back. “Look. I’m not a wuss,” she said, “and these are my friends and family you’re talking about here. We are all family in this village. So, if some assholes are involved in murdering people, I want to make sure that you take them out of here, but we need to protect everybody here in the meantime.”
“I get that,” he said.
But she reached up, placed a finger against his lips. “Apparently you don’t because you’re still talking.”
He threw up his hands. “You’ll have to follow my orders.”
“Right,” she said sarcastically. “I’m not sure I’ve ever done that in my life.”
As they walked toward his car, he said, “Are you always this difficult?”
“Absolutely,” she said, laughing. “This is nothing.”
He just shook his head.
“Bet you didn’t know what you were getting into,” she said, still laughing.
“Apparently, but it’s all good,” he said, with a smile.
She looked at his car and asked, “By the way, why are you in a different vehicle?”
“Do you want the very believable story I can tell you, or would you prefer the truth?”
“Always the truth,” she said.
“Because the other one might have been seen by the wrong person.”
She stopped, stared at him, then opened her mouth and closed it again. “Okay, I asked for the truth,” she said, “so I guess I deserve that for an answer.”
“And that’s the truth,” he said, with a smile.
Chapter 7
Heading to the passenger side of Eton’s car, Sammy wondered at his answer. The thing was, if he spoke the truth, then it was a reasonable answer. A part of her hoped he was joshing with her, but, from the set look on his face, she doubted it. She quickly gave him directions to where Joe lived.
“He’s not far out of town, is he?” Eton murmured.
“None of us are,” she said. “It’s another reason we love living here. We are a very close-knit community. Except for this guy apparently.” She thought this over for a while. “You said a couple towns over, right?” Frowning, she continued. “We pretty well know everybody within a certain vicinity, so it will be distressing if it’s anybody I know.”
“It’s hard to say,” he said. “We’ve got question marks for certain people, but we’re not exactly sure who and what their involvement is, if any.”
“Who?”
He hesitated.
“I’ve lived here all my life, Eton,” she said. “If I can help you sort out the characters in this scenario, I’d be happy to.”
He quickly mentioned the playboy with the sports car.
She snorted at that. “Ugh. He’s an idiot,” she said. “He might take money to do a job, but it would have to be a simple position because he really can’t do anything more complicated.”
“Okay,” he said. “How simple?”
“Very. He could do the most basic of tasks. His focus is really on what’s between his legs,” she said dismissively.
“But, if he got into trouble, would he do something bigger in order to get out of it?”
She tilted her head and said, “He would do something bigger, if it meant elevating his lifestyle. He is really chafing at the bit because his parents cut back on his allowance.”
“And he’s got big car payments,” Eton said.
She looked at him. “Is that thing not paid for?”
He shook his head.
“Well, in that case, he might do something stupid,” she said. “Who else?”
“The owner of the security company.”
“Yeah, well, that’s another guy who is overly focused on his genitals.”
“Did either of these guys come on to you?”
“Both,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “Not my type.”
“And just what is your type?” he asked.
“Not babies and not men who don’t know how to handle themselves,” she said.
He nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
“Meaning?”
“I don’t think anybody would put me in those categories,” he said.
She smiled and said, “I agree. You are the last one I would think of along those lines.”
“Thanks,” he said, “that’s a compliment.”
“Well, if those two are the competition, the bar isn’t all that high. Just sayin’.”
He cracked up laughing, loving the spunk in this girl.
As he rounded a corner, she said, “That driveway up there leads to Joe’s place.”
Eton immediately shut off the lights and drove past the driveway. After they were well past, he turned around near the top of an incline, slowly drifting the vehicle downward.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’ll park, then get out and walk,” he said. “Text Joe, and tell him we are outside, taking a look around.”
She did, and, as soon as that was done, he pulled off onto the shoulder and said, “This is about as good of a hiding place as we’ll get,” he said.
“Yeah, and it’s not much of one,” she said.
“No, it sure isn’t, but that’s all there is.”
“Okay,” she said. “Now what?”
“Now we’ll get out and walk,” he said, “and this is when you have to pay attention to me and stay at my side. Otherwise, I’m leaving you here in the vehicle, and you’ll have to lie down and hide.”
She just stared at him.
“Right, so I guess you’re staying with me,” he said. “We’ll quietly walk up the road and come across the property up at the highest elevation and then down to Joe’s place. Did Joe answer you?”
She pulled out her phone and nodded. “Yeah, he sent me a thumbs-up.”
“Good,” he said. “Let’s go take a look.”
Just then her phone buzzed again. “Joe says the guy is up the hill.”
“Perfect,” he said. “Let’s see if we can flush him out.”
She hesitated, then he looked at her and said, “Your choices are to go into Joe’s house, stay in the car, or come with me.”
She frowned.
“Otherwise I’ll make the choice for you.”
“What would you prefer?”
“I would prefer you go into Joe’s,” he said.
“That’s not a bad idea. He is pretty unnerved, isn’t he?”
“He is, indeed, and with good reason.”
“Okay.” She hopped out and walked up the driveway, while Eton watched. He’d gotten out the same side of the vehicle, so he only had to open and to close one door, in c
ase anybody was listening. Once outside, he smiled, as she walked up to Joe’s door and knocked. Joe let her in, and, after she was safely inside, Eton raced up the road and around the corner.
Inside, Joe looked at her and asked, “Where is Eton?”
“He’s checking out the hill up above.”
Joe nodded with relief. “Good,” he said. “I don’t like a whole lot about this.”
“Tell me what’s going on,” she said, and he filled her in on the strangeness going on during his overnight shift up at the townhome site. “Interesting,” she murmured. “And how did you meet Eton?”
He told her, and she wasn’t at all surprised because she’d seen Eton as that kind of guy. Although it might have been a business deal, more for information than anything, but she didn’t tell Joe that. Besides, it still came from the same place, which was from Eton’s heart.
“Well, let him check it out,” she said. “Then we should be good to go.”
“You’re sure he is safe?”
“No,” she said, “but I’m betting my life on it.”
“Exactly,” he said. “I guess that’s why I called.”
*
Eton slipped out into the darkness, away from the house to take a good look around. No reason for anybody to be here bothering Joe, but that didn’t mean that assholes didn’t unite for a cause and usually the wrong one. With Sammy safely inside with Joe, Eton quickly swept around the outside area, checking the trees, looking all around the area to see if anybody was keeping an eye on him. Sammy had mentioned a stranger outside her house last night as well. But why?
Was that related to Annie’s husband or was that something else completely? Because no doubt things could get confused when multiple issues arose. That Joe was here and that he’d received a threat and didn’t want to go to work tonight was obvious. But, if he didn’t go, that would also send off some alarms. They needed to avoid that as well.
Things were coming to a crunch, but Eton wasn’t sure if any of the issues were connected to his case. That was a frustrating thing when you had a lot of different seemingly unconnected threats happening. Like now. But he felt a kinship with Joe, who was just trying to help out his family. He seems to have gotten caught in something that was particularly ugly.
Seeing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary outside, Eton made his way to the house and knocked on the door. It was opened immediately, and Joe stood there, shuffling from one foot to the other.
Eton gave him a reassuring smile. “Nothing that I saw out there.”
A whisper of relief crossed his face, and his shoulders stiffened. “Didn’t figure it was,” he said. “Doesn’t mean there isn’t anything at the jobsite.”
Eton nodded. “I’m still thinking about that.”
“I have a suggestion,” he said. “Why don’t I come up with you tonight, and I’ll take a look around myself.”
“Oh, I can’t ask you to do that,” Joe protested.
“Yes, you can,” Sammy said from the background. Joe turned to look at her, and she nodded encouragingly. “This is what he does,” she said. “Let him see if he finds any issues or signs of anything funny.”
Joe asked, “Could he also tell if anybody is using it for a safe drop or if it’s a telecommunication center?”
She gazed at Eton, with a challenging look.
He nodded. “Yes, I probably could,” he said, “but I’d have to ask why?”
“The boss’s son is into that kind of stuff,” Joe muttered.
“Of course he is. Give me five minutes to check out the rest of your house.”
At that, Joe frowned. He looked at Sammy again.
She stepped forward and asked, “Why?”
“Because I want to make sure nobody unexpected entered the house,” Eton said in exasperation. “I would have done it first. But I wanted to check out who was outside.”
“Do you really think it’s possible for somebody to have gotten in without him knowing?”
“Happens all the time,” he said. “Do we want to argue about it or fix it?”
“If somebody is here or has been here, we need to know,” she said. She turned to Joe, and, instead of trying to explain it to him in English, she gave it to him in his own language.
Joe immediately nodded his head and stepped back. They followed Eton as he went from room to room, and, although he didn’t see anything, Eton found a window that had been tampered with.
He pointed it out to Joe, whose expression immediately changed to one of fear. He looked at Sammy.
Joe obviously trusted Sammy more than he did Eton. Which was understandable. “Is he sure he wants to go to that job tonight?” Eton asked.
“His grandson means a great deal to him,” she said quietly.
“I get that, but something hinky is going on, and surely he can get another job around here.”
“No, not really,” she said, “not without having to go into a larger town, and he can’t do that easily.”
Eton didn’t stop to worry about it because people said things all the time and yet found a way, but he saw Joe was pretty adamant about it.
“Okay then, I’m driving you home,” Eton said to Sammy, “and I’ll go with Joe up to the job.”
“If you say so,” she said, frowning.
“I’ll finish checking the rest of the house first,” Eton said, and, with that, he made a fast trip through the rest of Joe’s house. Everything else was fine, but Eton also needed to set a couple traps to see if anybody opened things up while Joe was gone to work. And so Eton set a couple hairs on the window, pointed it out to Joe, and explained that—if somebody opened the window, and it wasn’t Joe—he would know because that hair would be gone.
Joe immediately nodded his head, and then, with a look back at Sammy, Eton said, “Come on. Let’s go.”
“Joe will go on ahead of us,” she said, as they all three left at the same time, Joe already in his car.
Eton nodded. “In that case, I want to get to the jobsite as soon as possible.”
“You really think something’s wrong?” she asked, as she got into his vehicle.
“How freaked out was Joe to you?”
“Very,” she said quietly.
“Is he the kind who freaks out?”
“No,” she said, “not at all.”
“Exactly, so it is what it is.”
“It just seems so wrong,” she said.
“It does, but that doesn’t make it wrong,” he said. “Something is going on, and obviously somebody has gotten suspicious of Joe.”
“Good enough,” she said. “You can just drop me off at the driveway, and I’ll walk back up to my place.”
But he wouldn’t listen, and he quickly deposited her at her front door. “Go inside and lock your door,” he said. “I’ll call and check in with you later, as soon as I sort out what’s going on at Joe’s job.”
“Is it connected to what you’re up to?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “So far, we keep going on wild goose chases.”
She nodded and slammed the door shut, then he turned and headed out to the building site.
He parked just behind Joe, but so the other man could get out, if need be. As Eton walked in the adjoining building, he froze, then bolted into action. Joe was on the floor, blood pooling on the side of his skull from a head wound. Instincts firing, Eton quickly checked for a pulse, and, when he got that, he sent a message to Sammy to order an ambulance; then he sent a message to Garret, letting him know what was up. Eton hated to leave the old man as he was defenseless on the floor, but Eton gained absolutely no benefits by staying here with Joe if an intruder were still around.
Eton figured, when Joe arrived, he caught the intruder doing something. That pissed off Eton because he’d planned on getting here earlier too. Knowing that there would be chaos when the first responders arrived, he quickly searched the area, looking for an intruder. No vehicle had gone down the road because he’d been coming up the same road. H
e turned to look at the vehicles outside, wondering if the attacker had used one. So many of the buildings themselves were locked, so it was hard to get in. It would take precious time to get into most of them to check.
He stationed himself outside and quickly hit the hills, looking for anybody running away. Nobody could escape in the darkness quietly if they were in a hurry. The trouble was, it was quiet, as if somebody sat out there, hunkered down and waiting, knowing they would make too much noise and were holding off on making their escape. That worked for Eton because he had great nighttime vision, and, as far as he was concerned, this asshole was his. All Eton had to do was find him. As he searched through the darkness, he thought he heard a branch crack on the high-rise side. He slipped backward, circled around at a run, coming toward the spot to the west. Just as he was about to proceed on again, he thought he saw movement. He looked deeper, and, sure enough, a male was crouched among the brush.
He’d managed to stay hidden for a long time. Which also meant he probably had training and was most likely a pro. That would mean he was armed. Eton couldn’t guarantee just how Joe had been attacked, but it didn’t look like a bullet wound, unless it was just a graze. Either way, Joe was done here, and, after this, the company would have a hard time getting any security in place. Eton slipped a little bit lower into the underbrush, trying to stay as quiet as possible and under the radar. Finally the man stood and ever-so-slowly checked his watch, then turned as if to run away.
As he pivoted, he came up directly against Eton’s right fist.
Chapter 8
The sight of the text from Eton paralyzed Sammy. She immediately phoned for assistance for Joe, but then she got another text, this one from Garret, saying he’d already contacted the ambulance. She stood here, staring at her phone, when Annie called. Trying to shift gears, she answered the phone. “Hey, are you okay?”
“I am,” her friend said, “but you sound a bit rattled.”
“Yeah, I definitely am,” she said, “but it’s okay. How are you doing? Any contact with your ex?”
“Well, he phoned today. I asked him about the tires, and he sounded honestly shocked.”
“Do you believe him?”
