by Jill Sanders
Since then, Raven had made it a habit to stay at his place each night. He figured it was because she was scared to be alone. Whatever the reason, he was happy to have her in his bed each night.
Today, he was at Jay’s Groceries certifying their fire extinguishers when he overheard a young woman, whom he vaguely remembered seeing in town before, talking about Raven.
“Can you believe the bitch fired me? Everyone knows it’s because she was jealous of me. I mean, there’s only so much this town can take of that woman. Am I right?” she asked. The woman she was talking with nodded and looked bored. “We all know she started that fire years ago.”
“What were you? Ten?” the other woman asked.
The first woman looked shocked and annoyed. “Does it really matter? I suffered just the same.” She sounded annoyed. Then her eyes moved around, and he could tell instantly that she’d spotted him. “Speaking of suffering.” Her tone changed. “I hear she’s torturing everyone who works at the resort because she’s crazy. My cousin who lives in San Diego heard that she spent almost ten years in therapy because of guilt from murdering more than thirty people all those years ago. Including her boyfriend, whom it’s widely known that she cheated on.” The girl giggled as her eyes narrowed at him. “With multiple people. Something tells me Raven Brooks is a bigger slut than Heather Craft.”
Just then the sound of a shattering glass bottle echoed throughout the store, a deep voice cried out as in pain and someone immediately said over the loudspeaker. “Clean up on aisle ten.”
The two women glanced in his direction and giggled as they continued down the aisleway. He’d steamed about it the entire time he was working at the store. What was he saying? He was angry about it for the rest of the night. That was until Raven distracted him by rubbing her naked body up against his own.
“You seemed distracted tonight,” she said once they were lying in each other’s arms, their bodies cooling off.
“Me?” He tried to shake the statement off.
“During dinner, you were very quiet.” She leaned up and looked down at him. “Is something wrong?”
He thought about keeping what he overheard from her and then figured she’d handled a lot worse over the years and told her everything.
To his happy surprise, she shrugged and dismissed the conversation.
“It was probably Kim. I fired her earlier this week when I overheard her and Max, a dishwasher I fired as well, gossiping about me in the kitchen.” She shrugged. “I’m the boss. I can hire and fire anyone I want,” she added with a smile.
“Remind me never to work for you.” He chuckled. “Or piss you off.” He kissed her. “How’s my mom doing, by the way?”
“She’s really saving my butt.” She relaxed back down against his chest. “She’s wonderful with the employees. Did you know she has a type A personality? She has everything more organized than Rachelle or I ever did.” She shook her head. “Have you heard anything new from your uncle?”
“Other than the fact that he’s been dating my mother for a few years now?” Cade said a little sarcastically.
“About the murders,” Raven clarified softly.
“No,” he replied after a low sigh that rumbled his chest. For the past few days, he and everyone else in town had been living under the cloud of knowing that there was a murderer walking among them.
Someone they knew, talked to, walked by, or trusted had killed someone. Possibly even two somebodies, if he listened to rumors that were going around town.
Sean believed that the murders were unrelated. Joseph Ramsey had been lured to his death, attacked, and hit over the head with a sharp object that was yet to be determined or found. After he was dead, he’d been half-stuffed into a broken elevator. The moment Raven had hit the button to send the car to the main floor, he’d been sheared in two. Rachelle Braun, on the other hand, had been poisoned with common pesticides in her evening tea. What she’d been doing on the top floor was still a mystery. The woman lived alone in a small rental. Joseph’s death was described by his uncle as a crime of passion because of the apparent last-minute antics, while Rachelle’s had been more carefully planned out. Where had the pesticides come from? It wasn’t as if they were just lying around.
To Cade, the murders were related in only one major area. They’d both happened under Raven’s roof. He couldn’t shake the dread that whoever was behind both murders was out to frame Raven. Either that or they were out to destroy her by taking away the one last thread holding her to this town—the resort.
By causing controversy surrounding the place, they could kick up enough rumors and gossip to keep the rooms empty after the grand reopening. Then again, he could remember staying at a few choice hotels in New Orleans that boasted several murders and even claimed to be haunted.
Besides, this idea was just comical. What was the assailant going to do? Murder enough people to cause guests to fear for their lives? Surely his uncle was a good enough cop to catch the killer before too long.
He realized Raven had fallen asleep on him when he heard her soft level breathing. Shifting slightly, he reached over and flipped off the lamp by the bed. He noticed a new message flash on her screen. He didn’t want to wake her but happened to catch sight of the image that popped up.
Frowning at her uncle’s face, he took up her phone and swiped the image he’d sent her.
The photo was grainy and old, like an old print that had been digitized, but he could clearly make out Joseph Ramsey’s face. The man was much younger in the picture than the last time Cade had seen him before his death. Squinting, he realized that Joseph was naked from the waist down. His back was slightly turned towards the camera, and he looked over his shoulder. There appeared to be a woman kneeling in front of him. He couldn’t make out the face of the woman, but he guessed instantly what she was doing to the guy. It was obvious now that Joseph had just been caught literally with his pants down.
Cade stilled when he noticed the flash of bright red hair.
If this image had been taken when he thought it was, Raven would have been far too young. Sixteen or seventeen at the most. Joseph was easily in his fifties, since the man had been sixty-two when he’d died.
Sitting up quickly, he dislodged Raven from his side.
“Cade?” she asked sleepily. “What’s wrong?”
“What is this?” he asked, holding her phone out towards her.
Raven blinked a few times and then rubbed her eyes before taking her phone from his hands. Her frown was instant as she squinted at the image. The moment the scene registered in her mind, she dropped her phone.
“Why on earth would my uncle send me this?” she gasped.
“You tell me,” he said, trying to hold back his anger. “Is that you?”
She turned to him, her eyes going wide. “Seriously?” she said after a moment.
“It’s hard to tell, but you’d be, what? Sixteen? Seventeen?” he asked. She didn’t say anything, so he continued. “What was Joseph Ramsey? Fifty?”
Without a word, she tossed the covers off her and jumped out of the bed. She quickly pulled on the clothes that he’d peeled from her less than an hour earlier.
He waited until she was fully dressed before climbing out of the bed to block her from the doorway.
“Talk to me,” he demanded in a low tone.
“Go to hell,” she threw back at him. She tried to get past him by placing her hands on his shoulders and pushing. He didn’t budge and she grew more agitated. Her eyes, which had moments ago been sleepy, sexy, and sated, now shot metaphorical daggers at him as she glared at him.
“Raven,” he started, only to have her push his shoulders again.
“Let me go.” She practically screamed it.
“Not until we get to the bottom of this.” He reached out and took her shoulders in his hands to hold her steady.
“You want to get to the bottom of this?” She pulled out her cell phone from her pocket. “So do I.” She pulled up the image
again. “Why on earth would you think that this is me?”
He glanced at it again, this time with the help of the bedroom light Raven had turned on. Somehow, he could see more clearly.
“The red hair.” He motioned to the screen. “I thought…” He groaned. “God, I’m so stupid.” He reached for her, but she sidestepped away from him.
“Why do men always jump to that conclusion? Why are women more guilty than men?” She almost hissed the question.
“Raven, I was—” When her eyebrows arched up, he stopped and took a deep breath. “Stupid,” he finished.
“Yah think?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Apparently my uncle and aunt believe it’s me in that picture as well.” She paced towards the door, her shoulders hunched.
He walked over and wrapped his arms around her, feeling her tense at first and then relax against his chest.
“I was half asleep,” he defended. “I know it’s no excuse, but… I wasn’t fully thinking.”
“I never cheated on Reggie. He was my first.” She turned in his arms and looked up at him. “You were my second.”
He felt his heart skip and then jump in his chest as he bent his head and kissed her.
“Forgive me?” he asked when he pulled back.
“I’ll think about it.” She smiled up at him.
In one quick move, he hoisted her up into his arms and carried her back to the bed and then tossed her down on the mattress playfully. “The good thing about me is, I never make the same mistake twice.” He kissed her.
This time when he pulled her clothes from her body, there was a sense of urgency, of need, that hadn’t been there before. As if he needed to prove to her just how much this meant to him. How much she meant to him.
As if she felt the urgency along with him, she pulled and tugged at her own clothes, trying to remove them as quickly as she could.
Finally, when she was naked again, she ran her body slowly over his, her skin vibrating under his touch. When he entered her, he shook with the want and need. His body took over, knowing the moves, as easy as breathing. He knew what he had to do to please them both. Knew just how to fill her entire being with his own. There was too much riding on it not to experience every ounce of pleasure. Every iota of ecstasy.
This time when he emptied into her, he told her just what he felt for her and was thankful when she didn’t stiffen upon hearing his words. It was his turn to fall asleep after, holding her in his arms, tight against his chest, listening to her sporadic breathing, slow and shallow along with his own.
When he woke, his bed was empty and for a moment, only a few seconds, he wondered if he’d exposed too much. If he’d lost her.
Then he heard Blue barking, and Raven’s laughter coming from the backyard, and relaxed. He pulled on his pants and glanced out the window. He smiled down at Raven trying to get a stick from Blue’s mouth, who was playfully tugging on it.
He knew that she had to be at work soon and, since he had the day off, he planned to probe his uncle to see if he’d found out anything else, after his normal Sunday morning brunch.
He’d hoped that Raven would be able to join him, but since Rachelle’s death, Raven had been working overtime, along with his mother. Which meant that his Sunday morning brunch was just going to be him and his gran.
Still, he planned on spending as much time as he could with Raven before she had to head to work. When he stepped out on the back patio, Raven was sitting on a chair, sipping a cup of coffee, with Blue fast asleep at her feet. He’d poured himself his own cup before heading outside.
“Morning,” he said, sitting beside her.
“Morning.” She glanced over at him. “I didn’t want to wake you. I know you have brunch with your grandmother later.”
“I wanted to spend some time with you before you head to work.” He took her hand in his. “I hope we could have some time to talk.”
“About last night?” she asked, her eyes running over him.
“Yeah.” He nodded as he looked down at their joined hands. The more he thought about it, the more he realized she had remained quiet after his declaration of love. Did that mean she’d been freaked out? Was she feeling the same way?
How the hell had he gotten here so quickly, anyway? Especially after spending years believing she was the reason he’d lost Reggie. It had only taken one look at her to know that she was innocent.
Whatever people had said about her over the years, there, in her eyes, was all the proof he needed of her sincerity and innocence.
“I don’t know if I’m ready for…” Raven shook her head. “Cade, the only time I’ve ever had a relationship… Things didn’t work out well.”
“I get it,” he said with a sigh. “Losing my brother was…” She made a soft little sound that had him stopping and looking over at him. “What?” he asked after seeing the strange look she was giving him.
“I… Reggie…” She closed her eyes. “That night. I found out that he…”
His heart sank. Cade understood what Raven was getting at. It was written clearly on her face.
“He cheated?”
She nodded slightly. “I found out earlier that day.”
He rolled that information around in his head. Reggie had never really been a player. Still, he knew his brother had been… eager and young.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “For whatever happened between the two of you in those final days.”
She shook her head. “Everyone I’ve loved seems to disappear.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” He pulled her into his arms.
“Not by choice. My aunt and uncle will use everything they can against me.” She pulled back slightly to look up at him. “Like the picture last night.”
He held in a groan. Hadn’t he easily fallen for one of their tricks? What more were they going to throw at them? He understood that she feared he’d react like he had last night at whatever else they tossed their way.
“If I promise not to fall for their games again, do you think we can finish this discussion over dinner?” he asked. Blue woke up and looked up at them.
Raven smiled. “I’d enjoy that. I should get done with work around six.”
He thought about how he could make the night special for her. It was the least he could do after blurting out his feelings for her.
She leaned in and kissed him, then stood up. “I’d better head in. See you tonight.”
He sat there for a few moments, sipping his coffee while Blue lay at his feet.
After stopping off to get some fresh cut flowers for his grandmother, and having another bundle delivered to the resort with another apology for Raven, he pulled into the driveway and parked behind his uncle’s patrol car.
He’d sent a text to him asking for a few moments of his time today. He hadn’t planned on him joining them for brunch but figured that it would free up his time so he and Blue could possibly go on a hike later.
“Morning,” he called out as he walked into his grandmother’s home. The old place was a classic stone Queen Anne Victorian home that had been built in the late eighteen hundreds. It was one of the first buildings in Cannon Falls and one of the only that had survived the fire.
All the old hardwood floors squeaked, even after he’d spent half of his summer a few years back sanding and restaining all of it. Most of the doors in the place had had to be sanded down and repainted so they didn’t stick.
His grandmother had spent a fortune a few years back to have all the electricity and plumbing updated. The rest of the house his grandmother had cared for herself. Fresh paint, beautiful rugs, curtains, and furnishings. The home always looked pristine and cozy.
“Back here,” his grandmother called out.
When he walked into the kitchen, Janice Williams was sitting at the table sipping a cup of coffee from a bright blue coffee cup that he’d given her a few years back for grandparent’s day. Sean was sitting across from her, dressed in his uniform.
“Morning,”
he said, walking over to place a kiss on his grandmother’s head. He set the flowers down in front of her.
“Oh, how lovely.” She took up the bundle and lifted them to her face.
Cade noticed how her hands shook slightly with age. She’d damaged one of her knuckles gardening a few years back and now it was stuck at a permanent bend, locking her wedding ring on her finger forever.
The fact that she’d never removed it after his grandfather had died more than twenty years earlier was a testament to her love for the man.
“Morning,” he said to his uncle. He still didn’t know how he felt about Sean and his mother being together. It was strange being around them together, now that they knew that he knew about them.
“Morning.” Sean nodded.
“I’ll just put these in a vase and get the quiche out of the oven.” His grandmother stood up and moved into the kitchen.
“What’s the word?” Cade asked, sitting down across from his uncle.
Sean’s eyes moved past his shoulders to make sure his grandmother was out of earshot.
“Word on the street has Raven in the number-one spot as suspect,” Sean said in a low tone.
“That’s bull—” He stopped himself and glanced over his shoulder to make sure his grandmother hadn’t heard him.
“Yeah.” Sean nodded. “I agree. Her aunt and uncle are top of my list. The crazy thing is there’s a serious lack of evidence. No fingerprints on the teacup or tray. No witnesses saw her in the kitchen that evening.”
“She lives at the resort?” he asked. He’d wanted to ask Raven but had refrained from bringing up anything about the murders with her. He figured she’d dealt with them enough already.
“She did. She was single, no immediate family in the state. She has a brother in New York.” Sean glanced over his shoulder again. “Colin and Roslyn have become very outspoken about their niece in the past few days, telling anyone who will listen about her troubled past. Even going as far as claiming Raven had an affair with Ramsey back when she was sixteen and he was in his fifties.”
Cade thought of the image Raven’s uncle had sent her and felt his temper begin to boil.
