“We need to put a few of these dishes in the refrigerator, since they are mayonnaise based,” she said. She started to transfer the dishes to the fridge, and then turned as Chase came into the room.
“I brought beer,” he said as he held up two six packs. “I thought it would go great with the steaks.”
They all agreed. Dawson arrived a little later with a large folder of papers. Ethan and Dylan started to cook, and they all sat outside and waited for Dawson to lay out his findings. He handed them all several sheets of paper, showing a driver’s license print out of Kate Hubert. Chase refused to take one.
“Plausible deniability,” he said. “If this blows up in our faces, I can honestly say I didn’t see any evidence of this woman being involved, or of you guys breaking the law to find her.”
“Fair enough,” Dawson said. “There are blog posts that she wrote. It was hard to find, because she used a different name. The only way I found it was some guy said something to her about it on Facebook. She told him to go to Hell.”
Cecily lifted the sheet with the driver’s license photo and saw printed words under it.
“This is one pissed off woman,” Dawson said. “You can read the blog post if you want, but it’s really awful. She basically says she wants to emasculate Ethan for leading her sister into his nasty world, and the best way to do it is to kill the ones he loves and leave him in pain. She was going to kill your parents, but she studied you first, and realized they didn’t—um, um…”
“They didn’t mean that much to me,” Ethan said. “You can say it, Dawson.”
“Yeah, you just did.” Dawson cleared his throat again. “That’s when she decided on another plan.”
Chase picked up the papers and flicked past the opening page. “Does it actually say she planned on killing Leah Pratt?”
“Not out and out,” Dawson said. “But it implies it.”
Cecily pushed the papers away from her, and turned her attention to Ethan. He had his back to the table and was turning steaks. She wondered if he was even listening.
“We’re almost done,” he said. “Medium rare for everyone okay? Because that’s how I’m doing them. If you want it a little more done speak now.”
No one spoke up, and Cecily stood. “I’ll get the sides.”
Hero, and Amanda helped her carry out food, and then they all sat down and filled their plates. They ate in silence, until Dylan brought up the house. It was almost, Cecily thought, as if no one wanted to address the elephant in the room, the real reason they were all there.
They ate as Ethan described the house, asking Marcus if he knew people who could help them with the renovations. Marcus said he did, and Chase said he knew someone, too.
Cecily turned her attention to Dawson, who ate, and ignored the house talk.
“Do you have an address for her?” she finally asked him. “I mean for Kate.”
The table grew quiet, and everyone stopped eating.
“There is the address on her license, but I drove by there earlier and it’s empty.”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Chase said. “This is one crazy woman. She is dangerous. You should let the police handle it now.”
“Right,” Dawson said, his tone indicating he would do no such thing.
Most everyone started to eat again. Cecily picked up her papers and read the first part of the blog post. Her heart tightened with each word,
“He killed my sister. He took the sweetest woman in the world and turned her into a whore, and then he dumped her as if she were yesterday’s garbage. He is responsible for her death, and he needs to be punished. He may not have wielded the knife, but he is the one who led her down the path. And yet he is smiling, laughing, living his life while she is cold and in the ground.”
Cecily shivered.
“What’s wrong?” Ethan said.
“She’s obsessed,” Cecily said. “And she’s calling the shots. That needs to change. We’ve stayed away from Silver Creek because of her. We’ve imposed on Dylan and Amanda. We need to take our lives back.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Ethan said. He pointed his fork in her direction. “I mean it, Cee. I. Don’t. Like. It.”
“Neither do I,” Chase said.
“You don’t even know what I’m thinking,” she said.
“Whatever you’re thinking, Cecily, forget it.” Ethan glared at her as the words left his mouth.
She hated the idea that he was treating her as if she were a child, as if she couldn’t have opinions of her own. It made her angry. But she needed to keep hold of her emotions, or she would lose the argument before it even began. “I won’t forget it,” she said. “We need to set a trap, to bring her out in the open.”
“A trap?” Chase asked.
“We need to draw her out, so you can arrest her, Chase.” Cecily took a deep breath, because she knew her next words were going to set off a firestorm. “We need to set a trap. With me as the bait.”
Chapter 14
“I won’t allow it!” Ethan slammed his hand on the deck table, and everyone around it looked startled, except Cecily. She stared at him and balled her hands into fists.
“You won’t allow it?” He was sitting next to her and she leaned so that their faces were almost touching. “Excuse me, but I thought we were partners in this. I thought I had a say in it. This isn’t our sex life. This is our lives, period.” She punctuated the words by doing the same thing he’d done—she slammed her fist against the table.
“I have to agree with Ethan on this,” Chase said. “It’s far too dangerous.”
“So what are we supposed to do, sit around and twiddle our thumbs until she’s successful?” Cecily glanced between all the people sitting around the table. “It’s a simple enough plan. Ethan goes back to Silver Creek, and I follow a few hours later. She follows me and runs me off the road. What she doesn’t know is Chase, or Marcus, is in the back seat, ready to take charge.”
“What you mean is I’m in the back seat,” Ethan said.
“That won’t work,” Cecily said, working to keep her tone calm. “She has to know you left for Silver Creek. That’s the only way this works.”
“No,” Ethan said. “Marcus can put on a dark wig and drive my car to Silver Creek, but I’m not letting you serve yourself up as bait. I will be with you the whole time if we do this.”
No one in the room said a word. They stared at each other. Cecily noticed there were a lot of shrugs, and even one, from Marcus, nod of approval.
Finally, after what seemed forever, Chase said, “It might work. There’s a stretch of road there that’s deader than cemetery residents. I could wait there, hidden by that one billboard telling people to stop at Hollis Creek. I could sit there and see if you’re being followed.”
“Lots of people use that road,” Cecily said. “You’d be wasting your time.”
“Not if I capture license plates with a camera posted on the billboard and then run the plates.”
“Seems to me as if you’d be violating the rights of travelers,” Cecily said.
“Don’t start.” Ethan pointed a finger in her face, and then he stood and started to pace around the table. She knew the idea of her being in danger made him think of Leah, who had been dead all these years.
“Nothing’s going to happen to me,” she said. “Please, Ethan, you have to see that this is the best thing to do. We can’t sit around here forever, and we can’t risk opening the club here and having her sabotage it and hurt someone besides me, or you. We have to take charge of the situation. Now. We have to take it away from her.”
“She has a point there,” Chase said. “So far she’s calling the shots. If we do this, we set it up like we want it.”
“I will be in the back seat,” Ethan said. “No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I’m not letting you out of my sight while you’re on that road.”
Cecily opened her mouth to argue, but she looked up at her future husband. He stood behind Marcus, his e
xpression set in stone. “Okay, okay,” she said. “But no one says anything to anyone about our plan outside this room.”
“We have to tell Shawn what’s happening,” Randy said. “We still haven’t ruled out any of the new workers at Silver Creek. He needs to be in the loop.”
“I agree,” Ethan said. “So far nothing has happened there except for someone trying to break into the computers.” He looked at Dawson, who had so far been very quiet. “Have you figured out who broke into our system?”
“Someone who knows what they’re doing,” Dawson said. “The IP address pinged all over the place and then died. I’m still running my program to see if it can come up with something. Whoever he, or she is, they’re good.”
“What about growly guy?” Cecily asked.
Dawson laughed. “He’s harmless, for the most part. From what I’ve been able to find there is no connection between him and Kate. He visits a lot of the clubs, though, and picks on the newbies.”
“He’s a wannabe,” Ethan said. “If he tries to come into Silver Creek II he won’t be allowed. I’m going to talk to Lady Samms about him.”
“Let me do it,” Randy said. “Remember, she and I have been friends for years. She’ll take it better coming from me.”
For a moment, Cecily thought Ethan would put up a fight about it. Instead he said, “Fine.”
“When do we want to do this?” Chase asked.
“In a few days,” Cecily replied. “She has the ability to check our text messages, and emails. Ethan and I will exchange a terse bout of texts that say I’m sick of sitting around, that I’m ready to go home to Silver Creek and start planning the wedding with Hero, so she knows what we’re doing.” She took a deep breath. “Ethan needs to act pissed, which won’t be hard because he is mad. Then he needs to leave, or Marcus wearing a wig and driving Ethan’s car, needs to leave.”
“What are you going to drive, then?” Ethan asked.
“We have a rental,” she said. “I think we should drive it somewhere tomorrow and let her put a tracker on it.”
“We can look at the commercial sites Nicki has found,” Ethan said. “I’m sure we can find a place for Silver Creek II, hopefully tomorrow.” He turned to Randy. “Has Shawn come around to the idea of a club here in town?”
“He has,” Randy said. “As a matter of fact, he wishes he’d thought about it, or that’s what he said to me the other day.”
Cecily was happy to hear Ethan chuckle. “The three of us need to look at the best site together.”
“See a few first, then narrow it down before that happens,” Randy said. “We trust your judgment before then.”
“I’ll text her for a time,” Cecily said. “We didn’t really settle on one. We should invite my parents to come. Dad would enjoy it I think,
“No way,” Marcus said. “It’s bad enough that Dad knows about Silver Creek. I don’t want Mom to know, too.”
“It’s nice to have parental units who care,” Ethan said. “It might be interesting to see what they say.”
Her eyes widened at his comments. He’d never really talked about his parents, and she wondered if it was something they should discuss at some point. But she wasn’t sure she wanted to bring it up now, when he was already agitated about the plan.
Cecily exchanged looks with her brother, who narrowed his eyes as if to pose a ‘What’s that about’ question. She just shook her head ever so gently to tell him she wasn’t really sure.
“I’ll text Nicki now,” Cecily said. She stood and started walking toward the kitchen. She made a slight detour and kissed Ethan on the cheek.
“We’re not done discussing this,” he whispered as he returned the kiss.
“I had a feeling about that,” she said. “But I’m not sure how much more my ass can take.”
“Who said anything about your ass?” His eyes were dark, and she knew he was angrier than she’d ever seen him before. “This has nothing to do with sex, and everything to do with you putting yourself in danger.”
“I’m already in danger,” she said. “At least this way we can control it.”
* * *
Cecily rolled onto her side and studied Ethan who stood, stark naked, in the open window that led to the balcony in the bedroom tree house.
“You’re angry with me,” she said.
“I was, earlier,” he said. “But that emotion has gone. Now I’m concerned about the whole thing. There is every chance you could get hurt, Cee.”
“So could you,” she said.
“Better me than you,” he countered,
“To you, maybe,” she said. “I don’t like the idea of you getting hurt any more than you like the idea of me getting hurt.”
He didn’t respond, but she knew he saw her logic.
“We haven’t looked at the report,” she blurted out. How many times had it come up in their thoughts, and conversations? But yet it sat, in the main room of the tree house, unopened. When he didn’t answer she said, “I can only imagine how hard it would be for you to read about the investigation into your wife’s death.”
“I don’t want to read their words that branded me as a killer,” he said.
“What if there is more information than that in there?” she asked.
“After all, they cleared you.”
“Eventually,” he said. He shut the door and came toward the bed, lying down so that he faced her. He wasn’t hard, so something told her they wouldn’t be having sex tonight. “Let’s change the subject.”
“We have four commercial sites to see tomorrow,” she said. “I called my parents and invited them, but they said they already had plans for tomorrow. Mom asked for the addresses, though so they could drive by after their appointment. I have no idea what they’re doing. She didn’t say.”
“They’re doing their stuff,” Ethan said. “And we’ll be doing ours.”
She wanted to ask him about his parents, to see what he’d meant about having parental units that cared, but she kept her mouth shut. He was already in a foul mood, and she didn’t want to add to it.
“Want me to go down on you?” she asked.
“Tempting, but what I really want is to just be near you,” he said. “I keep trying to think of a way to talk you out of this dubious idea of yours.”
“Dubious? Dubious? What does that even mean?” Then she giggled. “Is that one of those lawyer words?”
“Watch it, sly fox,” he said. “Despite the fact you’re still sporting welts from your whipping, you might get more tonight.”
Usually she would be happy with that idea, but not right now.
“What’s the plan for tomorrow?” he asked.
“Two buildings in the morning, and two in the afternoon,” she said. “Nicki said she’s saving the best for last.”
“She should show us the best first,” Ethan said.
“I think she wants us to see all the options,” Cecily said. “She said there weren’t that many buildings available with land. The one she’s showing us last just came on the market today.”
“It’s good timing,” he said. “Did she say where it was at?”
“No,” she said. “She didn’t give us any addresses, so I’ll have to shoot them to Mom after we’re done.”
He kissed her gently. “Let’s hope tomorrow brings us good news on the house front, that the owner accepted our offer. We sure need it.”
He kissed her again, and then pulled her close. Before long she heard the gentle rhythm of his breathing, which showed he was asleep. She closed her eyes and savored his warmth, right before she joined him.
* * *
Two days later, they’d found the commercial site they wanted, located south of town, not far from the home that would soon be theirs. When the owner had accepted their offer with no negotiation, Cecily had been shocked. Ethan was ecstatic. They’d done a final walk through, and then scheduled an inspection. The owner said the house came ‘as is’, and Ethan, she knew, was worried about plumbing and
wiring the most.
“That’s what is going to cost the most to fix,” he’d said. “If they can get it done in the next week or so we’ll know what’s underneath, and what we’ll have to deal with in that respect.”
That left the commercial site. Ethan had taken a great number of photos, and then they’d decided they would leave for Silver Creek the next day so they could lay the photos out for them all to look at.
“That puts a kink in my plan,” Cecily said. “Remember, I was supposed to go to Silver Creek by myself, giving Kate a chance to try and run me off the road.”
“This is safer,” Ethan said.
“But she’s not going to try anything if she knows you’re in the car,” she said. She hated the idea that she’d put so much thought into the idea, and they were not going to use it. “Ethan, please, we need to stick with my plan.”
“No,” he said. He was furiously texting, and she was sure it was to Shawn, or Randy. Randy and Hero had been gone for two days now. Chase was waiting for a text about when they were going to leave, or rather when Cecily was going to leave with Ethan in the backseat of the car.
“Please, Ethan.” She put her hand on the phone to block the screen. “We need to end this, and my plan is the only way.”
“We still don’t know who she’s working with,” Ethan said. “Dawson has not been able to trace the IP address of the person who tried to break into the system. There are too many unknowns, Cee. You and I will travel to Silver Creek together, and then we’ll figure out another plan. It’s been days since she’s bothered us.”
Ethan’s NaughtySubmissive: Silver Creek Resort Book Three Page 17
