“Let me get my keys,” he said instead. Nina nodded. She was still standing there when he came back out. This time she was staring off toward the fields behind the house. The very same piece of scenery he had been getting ready to enjoy. Tall grass waved lazily in the breeze as if waving hello. Unaware that something was wrong.
“I’ll follow you back to your office,” he said, breaking the spell she’d fallen under. Her expression was impassive now, yet her question was nothing but troubling.
“Caleb, if you didn’t take that picture, who did?”
Chapter Three
Caleb completely forgot about Overlook Pass burning as soon as he saw the email that had been sent to Nina. Not only did the caption make his blood boil, the location from which the picture had been taken had him itching for answers.
“That was right next to where I was when I first saw you.” He pointed to the left corner of the picture. Caleb pictured the woods he had grown up knowing like the back of his hand. “Whoever took this was crouched down.”
Nina leaned over the back of the office chair to take another look. A few strands of hair escaped her braid. The unmistakable smell of lavender invaded his senses. It caught him off guard.
“It was obviously taken before you showed up,” she said, voice calculating and focused. “And not long after I’d first gone in. I had just wanted to cool down. I probably was only in the water for two to three minutes before I heard you. Are you sure you didn’t see or hear anything on your way to the stream?”
“No. Though I wasn’t actively trying to catalog my surroundings,” he admitted. An idea Caleb didn’t like pushed into his thoughts. He had to voice it. “I left the stream the way I came and you went out through there.” He pointed toward the tree line closer to the stream that led back out to the trail’s path. “There’s a good chance our photographer was still there when we left.”
Stress pulsed out from Nina like an electrical surge of energy. Suddenly Caleb was hyperaware of more than just her scent. The warmth of her skin radiated out to him, as if she was the flame of a candle. Licking out and taking the air around it. She tilted her chin down a fraction to run her eyes over the picture again. It brought her cheek even closer to his. In the fluorescent light her freckles took on a harsher contrast with her tanned skin. He suspected then that she had, at least in part, inherited her complexion and dark hair from a Hispanic parent. Her tan was too even, too rich, to be just from living in the sun. It made the shine of her lip gloss even more pronounced in contrast.
Caleb wondered how shiny felt before reality doused out the sudden curiosity.
“Whoever they were, they followed me.”
Nina’s voice had hollowed. Those shiny lips were downturned, sunken. Caleb returned his focus to the computer monitor.
She was right. Someone had either followed her to the trail or had already been on it before following her to the stream.
“There’s also the possibility that they were already at the stream when you showed up and took advantage when you didn’t see them,” he said without much enthusiasm. “That would be one heck of a coincidence, I’ll admit, but ruling out something just because it’s unlikely isn’t good practice either.”
It sounded scripted because it was. Caleb had had the misfortune of being partnered with Neil Stewart before Jazz had moved to Overlook. He was a man who thought so squarely inside the box that, to him, even attempting to think outside of it was criminal. Caleb had told him over and over again to look from all angles and not just one. Neil hated the advice. To say the least, he and Caleb hadn’t had the best of partnerships. The several complaints Neil had had filed against him for “conduct issues” had put a definite strain on them before Neil had finally transferred out of Overlook.
“But they sent an email to me,” Nina said. “If they took the picture because of opportunity then they sure committed to making it personal really quickly.” She pointed to the timestamp of the email. “I wasn’t even back for an hour when it came in.”
“There is that,” he conceded. It didn’t feel like a random, spur-of-the-moment thing. Still, that didn’t mean it wasn’t.
“It could have been a prank, too,” he had to say. Nina scowled and he held up his hand to stop her from attacking. “I’m not saying it’s a good one or one that should be taken lightly. But, as pretty as Overlook is, it’s dreadfully boring for the younger demographic. One time Jesse Langford stole a surveyor’s reel and a garden roller from the local hardware store and made crop circles out near the county line in Dresser’s fields. Because, as he claimed, there wasn’t anything to do in town that got his blood pumping.”
Nina stood tall, leaving only the smell of her shampoo to linger, and went around to the front of the desk. She balled her fists on the top of her hips.
“That email reads a lot more sinister than crop circles made by a bored teenager, don’t you think?”
Caleb stood, still trying to show he wasn’t trying to offend her or make light of the situation.
“I just meant that we don’t know what this is yet.” He grabbed his cowboy hat and held it against his chest. “But I promise you I’ll find out. Okay?” Nina considered him a moment before nodding. “Now, I’m going to head out to the trail and see if our photographer isn’t still out there. Are you doing anything in town today or hanging out here for a while?”
“I can stay here for now,” she decided quickly.
Caleb nodded and put on his hat. He asked for her phone number and immediately called it. Nina saved his number.
“Call if you get another email or anything else happens that seems out of the ordinary. I’ll come back by when I’m through.”
Nina thanked him but before he could clear the doorway she called his name. Her eyes bore into his with a new intensity. Caleb was caught off guard once again.
“That’s my work email for the Retreat. I’ve only used it for, and given it out to, shop owners and a few people around the ranch. It’s not even on the website yet.”
She didn’t say anything more. Caleb didn’t respond. They both already knew what that could mean.
Nina had already met whoever had taken her picture.
* * *
THE OFFICE DOOR remained shut and locked. Not that it made much of a difference if it were unlocked or even wide open. From the two large windows that sat behind her desk, she could see if any cars approached. Still, she felt better for throwing the deadbolt as soon as Caleb had left. The mysterious photographer hadn’t had a car outside of the trail that she’d seen when she’d first arrived. He hadn’t needed it to do what he’d done.
To spy on her, to take advantage of what she would have sworn was a private moment.
The email stayed open on her computer but she didn’t want to use it. Not until this person was caught. Instead, she spent the time between Caleb’s departure and when she could see his truck kicking up dirt along the road when he returned trying to stay on task. She double-checked events the town had going on through the next half year as well as notes for suggested events for the Retreat. They were already booked through the first month but she didn’t want a slump in reservations soon after.
The need to succeed pulled at the center of her gut.
She wanted to help put the Wild Iris Retreat on the map. Even if she’d rather spend her life beneath that same radar.
Caleb parked out front and took a second to finish up the call he was on. He leaned against his truck, cowboy hat in line with the angle of his head tilt, brow drawn in and a frown darkening his expression.
He was a relative stranger to Nina. She’d caught him at the stream. He’d admitted to knowing the area and the trail by heart. Knowing where she worked and getting access to her email address would have been easy and more than plausible.
And yet...
Nina had believed him.
He wasn’t the person
who had taken her picture and, what’s more, he’d been just as surprised at the email as she had been. Angry, too.
She bit the bottom of her lip in thought, watching his concern through the window. Caleb had certainly been a different kind of surprise, that was for sure.
He was handsome. There was no doubt about that. A cowboy who wore the title of detective well. Imagining him sitting behind a computer or sleuthing through a crime scene with a gun at his hip and a badge at his belt was as easy as picturing him out in the fields with the horses or down at the docks with a fishing pole. It was an interesting dynamic Nina hadn’t thought to put together.
Though it certainly fit the attractive, strong-jawed man currently concentrating on a conversation she couldn’t hear.
It was almost a pity when he finished it and headed to the Retreat’s front door, ending the small show he’d unwittingly been giving her.
“I didn’t find any clues other than some footprints and broken twigs and disturbed ground near the stream.” He greeted her as she opened the office door wide. Caleb had already pulled his hat off and had it tucked against the side of his leg. “Whoever they were, once they got back onto the main trail I lost them.”
Nina rolled her bottom lip over her teeth. She didn’t know which she preferred, no clues at all or inconclusive ones.
“Don’t worry,” he continued. “I’m not going to just let this go away. Do you mind if I get on your computer to look up the IP address of the email that was sent?”
Nina didn’t mind in the least. She waved him toward the desk and stepped aside. Beads of sweat ran along his neck. It seemed like morning had turned into late afternoon in the blink of an eye. A hot one, too, by the looks of it.
“Could you also make a list of everyone you’ve given your email address to?”
“I’m not the greatest with names yet,” she admitted, a bit of heat pooling in her cheeks. “But those I can’t remember I’m sure I could point out.”
He fell into the office chair, eyes already narrowing in on the email.
“That works out fine. I can just fill in the blanks,” he said offhandedly. “Overlook is a small town. Everyone knows everyone.”
Nina decided to hold her tongue about the likelihood that someone he knew had no problem spying on women and got to work. It was a tedious task trying to remember the many faces she’d smiled politely at and hands she’d shaken. If only she had been more detail oriented—or, at the very least, invested in creating more than just business relationships—she wouldn’t have had so many question marks in lieu of first names and surnames.
But she did. Something she apologized about when, after he was done with the computer, Caleb finally finished his second call outside the office.
“You do know you’re in customer service, right?” he asked, eyebrow raised and a small smirk turning up the corners of his lips. “Usually that means remembering names.”
Nina resisted the urge to place her hands on her hips.
“Our introductions were brief,” she defended herself. “I just needed to know the basics and say hello. Then, at the grand opening party, I was going to spend more time getting to know everyone. I just didn’t have the time to do that yet.” It wasn’t that much of a lie. Nina knew she’d have to play nice at the grand opening event Dorothy was throwing for the locals and the employees on the ranch.
Caleb snorted but didn’t press. He folded the paper and put it in his pocket.
“Well, I’ll look into the few names you have here and tomorrow we can try to hit up the rest in person. I have a buddy looking into where the email came from until then. He said he can give me an answer tonight or early tomorrow. Does that work for you?”
Nina nodded.
The sky outside of the window was darkening. A feeling of unease started to clench at her chest. Caleb’s expression softened.
“Hey, it’s been a weird day,” he said, voice light. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast and, well, we got off on a really strange foot. I’m going up to Mom’s for dinner. Why don’t you come along? That woman doesn’t make a meal you can’t take seconds and thirds worth of leftovers home with you, so there will be more than enough.”
He smiled. It made the handsome man even more so. Even his eyes, brilliantly blue, held an easy charm.
Her feeling of unease transformed into something else. An ache that was familiar yet just as raw as it had been the day, years ago, she realized her life would never be the same again. Like a switch had been flipped, Nina felt herself shutting down.
“I haven’t even been here for a week and I got caught basically skinny-dipping,” she said, voice hard. “I think it’s best I focus on my work, if your mother decides to keep me around after all of this. I’ve already lost most of the day.” When she wasn’t sure if he was getting the point she was trying to drive home, she added, “I’ll eat here. Alone.”
Caleb’s smile faded, but once again, he didn’t press.
“I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
Nina didn’t watch him go. Instead, she locked the door and walked up to her room. The familiar ache became a bellow in her chest. She sat on the edge of her bed and looked out of the window. In the distance the curve of the mountains held a beauty that did nothing to dissuade the memories about to overwhelm her.
Nina watched darkness veil the field and trees.
It would come for her heart next.
Chapter Four
The Wildman County Sheriff’s Department was in need of a paint job. For whatever reason, the previous sheriff had painted the once copper-and red-toned bricks light blue. Since then the weather had changed that to a worn and chipped muck gray. Forget a happy-looking place, the one-story building now looked like a depressed cloud. And that was on its good days.
Yet peeling paint couldn’t squelch the pride Caleb had in the department and the work he and his brother had done during their time there. He still felt it the next morning when he began his day. His metal desk with a perpetual stack of papers in the out tray, a framed candid picture of him and his siblings and the one empty coffee cup that always rested on a coaster felt as much of a home to him as the ranch.
Even on mornings where frustration clung to him like a second skin.
“Hodge said he’d call as soon as he was done talking to his boss,” Jazz reminded him from over the tops of their desks. The fronts were pushed together leaving no space between. It made working together easier than having to hunt each other down. She didn’t look up from the paperwork she was filling out as she continued. “I know patience isn’t always your strong suit but that’s what you’re going to have to wear until he calls.”
Caleb pulled out a stress ball Madeline had given him when he’d been promoted to detective. He squeezed it once, hard.
“Would you practice patience if some creep had sent that email to you?” He shook his head, answering for her. “You should have seen her, Jazz. It scared her and it happened on my land.”
Jazz paused, her pen midword. She sighed.
“Just because someone sleazy did a sleazy thing on the ranch doesn’t mean it’s your fault,” she said. “It’s the fault of the sleazy person. Plus, you’re trying to help catch that very same sleazy person. That counts for something.”
Caleb snorted.
“You just said sleazy four times.”
Jazz shrugged.
“If the shoe fits.”
She went back to the paperwork. Caleb glanced at the clock above the closed door of the sheriff’s office. Declan wasn’t in and probably wouldn’t be until they knew if there was an arsonist running through town. Caleb had decided to keep the incident with Nina under wraps for the time being. Partly because he could handle it, thanks to having no actively open cases, and partly because of Nina.
He had no doubt that his mother wouldn’t have given the woman any grief over what had
happened. Almost everyone at the ranch had, at one point or another, used one of the ponds or streams to cool down after a long day of work or exercise. That was nothing to be ashamed of, definitely not to be punished for. Yet the way Nina’s words had hardened as she declined his offer to eat at the main house the night before had made him feel oddly protective. Not just of her physically, either. With a start, Caleb realized he wanted to help alleviate the embarrassment and worry that had colored her cheeks rosy.
He wanted to keep her safe.
He wanted to make sure she felt it, too.
“What about that list of people she gave you yesterday?” Jazz continued, pen moving across her paper. “Did you finish going through it?”
Caleb put the stress ball down and eyed the list in question. There was an X next to each name.
“Yeah. I talked to everyone she could remember the names of already this morning. Everyone had a solid alibi.”
“Did you tell them what was going on with Nina or did you use that Nash family charm I keep hearing about to trick them into talking?”
Caleb chuckled. Jazz was trying to keep him busy, he knew, but she’d been giving him grief about the so-called Nash family charm since she’d moved to Overlook. She never saw it, she’d said time and time again. To be honest, neither did he, but that hadn’t stopped the women in town from bringing it up to each other.
“Since I view you as a brother, does that mean I’m a part of that family charm, too?” she’d asked one day.
Caleb had chuckled then, as well.
“You know how small towns work by now, Jazz,” he said. “All you have to do is say ‘yes ma’am’ and ‘no sir,’ and compliment their pecan squares.”
Jazz snorted but didn’t disagree. Caleb had gone back to squeezing his stress ball, distracting his hand from texting Hodge again, when his phone finally went off.
“Talk to me, Hodge,” Caleb greeted him.
Reining In Trouble (Winding Road Redemption Book 1) Page 3
