Hidden Threat

by Connie Mann

  Bella, Sasha’s golden Labrador retriever, pranced up and rubbed against Eve, licking her hand, tail waving with joy, then came up to Cole and gave a cursory sniff.

  “What’s happened to Mama?” Eve demanded, panic in her voice.

  Sasha stepped out of the shadows, Jesse beside her. “Mama’s still in the hospital. What happened, Eve?”

  “What? I thought something was wrong with Mama. Why are you all here in the middle of the night?”

  Blaze stalked over and poked Eve hard enough to move her back a step. “You snuck out of the house, and then the storm came and you didn’t come back.”

  “How do you know I snuck out?” Eve demanded; then her eyes widened. “You were worried about me.”

  Blaze just scowled. “After somebody threatened you, I figured we should be worried.”

  “Who threatened her? When?” This from Jesse, before he turned and shot Cole a look. “What are you doing here this time of night?”

  Cole took a step in the other man’s direction, then stopped. In his place, he’d be asking the same questions. He held up his hands. “Eve had a bit of car trouble, so I gave her a ride home.”

  Sasha looked from him to Eve and back again. “What was she doing at your place to begin with?”

  Eve glanced his way, and he took a step back. This wasn’t his story to tell.

  Jesse glanced at Sasha, then back at Eve. “The threat, Eve. What happened?”

  She shrugged and said, “I found a note on my windshield that said, ‘Curiosity killed the cat,’ along with a stuffed kitty with a noose around its neck.” At Sasha’s indrawn breath she added, “And before you ask, yes, I called the police. Nick said he’s looking into it.”

  “Has he figured out who did it?” Sasha’s eyes were wide as she eased closer to Jesse. If Cole remembered correctly, there’d been several threats when Sasha and Jesse had first come back to Safe Harbor.

  “Not yet. But I’m sure he will.”

  Blaze narrowed her eyes. “So where did you go tonight?”

  “Out! I don’t answer to any of you.”

  An instant of stunned silence descended after her outburst. Sasha spoke up first. “Generally, that’s true. But after what happened when Jesse came back and now this, yeah, actually, you kind of do answer to us. We all need to look out for each other. Besides, how many times did you call to check on me while you were in DC? Six times a day? More?”

  Eve waved that away. “That was different. Someone was trying to kill you.”

  “It’s not different. You’ve stirred up another hornet’s nest, and somebody is already buzzing or they wouldn’t have threatened you.”

  Jesse grinned. “Give it up, Eve. You won’t win this one.” But then he turned to Cole, eyes hard. “Meanwhile, I still haven’t gotten a clear answer as to what he’s doing here.”

  “He drove me home when my car wouldn’t start.”

  Jesse glanced from Eve to Cole and back. “And why wouldn’t your brand-new rental start?”

  Cole met Jesse’s eyes head-on. He didn’t really know the other man well, but he’d heard enough to know he protected those he cared about. “Someone cut the battery cables.”

  “Where was Eve when all this was happening?”

  Eve made a frustrated sound. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, I was watching Blackwell Farms, taking a few photos. With the sound of the storm, I must not have heard whoever it was.” She glanced around the room, seeming to finally notice Sasha’s yoga pants and T-shirt. She turned to Blaze. “You called them?”

  Up went Blaze’s chin again, and Cole decided they might not be blood relatives, but all the sisters were cut from the same stubborn cloth. “I was worried. Family looks out for each other.”

  Eve stepped over and wrapped the teen in a hug that appeared to surprise them both. “Thanks, kiddo. But as you can all see, I’m fine, so let’s all get some sleep.” She turned to Cole. “Thanks again for the ride. I’ll try to get out there tomorrow to pick up my car.”

  “If you give me your keys, I’ll get it back to you in the morning.” He spotted a notepad clipped to the fridge and jotted down his cell number. “Just in case.” After she handed him the keys with a muttered thank-you, Cole settled his soggy Stetson back on his head, gave the brim a little tug as he scanned the silent room. He knew when he was being dismissed. “Good night, then, all.”

  Cole’s truck had barely cleared the driveway when the bombardment of questions started. Eve let them talk for a few minutes and waited until they all wound down. Finally she said, “I’m fine, OK? I will not be foolish or careless. But I am trying to figure out what is going on here.”

  “How does Cole enter into it, besides him being the guy you had a major crush on in high school?” Sasha asked.

  “She did?” Blaze grinned. “He is pretty hot, for an old guy.”

  “Hey,” Jesse protested. “We’re the same age.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re pretty hot for an old married guy.” At Sasha’s arch look, she grinned. “Just sayin’.”

  Sasha planted a kiss on Jesse’s cheek. “Can’t say I disagree with you, Blaze.” She turned to Eve. “So, what gives with Cole? I heard he finally came back after his father died. If I remember right, his father kicked him out in high school after he got Candy Blackwell pregnant.”

  “He got a girl pregnant?” Blaze’s eyes were round.

  “No, he didn’t get a girl pregnant.” Anger flooded Eve with a force she hadn’t expected. “He would never have done that.”

  “So then why’d his father kick him out?” Blaze wanted to know.

  “I don’t know all the details,” Sasha put in, “but from what I heard, his father wanted him to marry Candy right away, and Cole said he wanted proof first.”

  “That’s seems fair. Why would he want to get married if it wasn’t his kid?”

  “Apparently, Cole’s father didn’t see it that way. And then Candy died in a car wreck.”

  “Wow. That bites.”

  Eve looked at Blaze and remembered the guilt etched in Cole’s face after Candy died. “Yeah, it was very sad.” She glanced at Sasha. “How do you know so much about it, anyway?”

  Sasha shrugged. “I overheard people talking about it at school right after it happened.”

  “He’s been gone all this time? What’s he been doing?” Blaze petted Bella, who’d come back for another round of loving.

  “Guys at the marina said he’s been out west in Montana or somewhere, running somebody else’s ranch,” Jesse said. “From what I’ve heard, he came back after his father passed to run the ranch, which is in big trouble, financially. Local speculation is that’s due to medical bills his father racked up.”

  Sasha eyed Eve. “Isn’t Cole’s ranch near Miss Althea’s property? Are you thinking Cole had something to do with little Glory getting sick?”

  Eve sighed inwardly. Sasha might get distracted easily, but she was sharp. “I’m trying to explore all the possibilities.”

  “You think the water got contaminated from too many nitrates, from the manure on Cole’s ranch.” Blaze phrased it as statement, not question.

  Eve didn’t try to hide her shock. “You’ve been doing research.”

  Blaze shrugged like it was no big deal, but Eve knew better.

  “That was my first thought, but he’s had big concrete slabs poured that he stores the manure on before it gets bagged and sold. So that isn’t it. But since Cole’s is the nearest property to the Daughtrys, he’s still the most likely suspect.”

  “Isn’t suspect a bit harsh?” Jesse asked. “Maybe nobody realized what was going on.”

  Eve crossed her arms. “Ignorance is no excuse. You know that. Whether you intend to cause harm or not, when there is harm done, someone must be held accountable.”

  Eve’s phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number. When she read it, she gasped. “It’s from Cat.”

  “What does it say?” Sasha’s tone was cautious, and Eve couldn’t blame her. Cat
hadn’t exactly been warm and welcoming when she came home for Mama’s sixtieth birthday party.

  “She says, ‘Will call when I can. Things crazy. How’s Mama?’”

  They all looked at each other.

  “Sounds like she’s still in some kind of trouble,” Jesse said.

  “Or maybe she’s just really busy,” Eve said, but she saw the same doubt on their faces that she felt. Something was wrong in Cat’s world. But she wouldn’t tell them what.

  Sasha hid a yawn behind her hand. “Sorry, this pregnancy thing is wearing me out. Let Cat know we’re, ah, thinking of her, OK?”

  Jesse put a hand on Sasha’s back. “You need to get some sleep. We can talk more tomorrow.”

  After a round of hugs, Sasha and Jesse headed home.

  Eve texted Cat. Mama holding her own. Call me when you can. Worried. Love you.

  With a sigh, she locked the front door and turned, surprised to see Blaze still there watching her. “You should get some sleep, too,” Eve said.

  “I’m sorry your mother died.”

  Blaze tossed the words out and disappeared down the hall, leaving a shocked Eve to turn off the last of the lights and climb into bed, the words echoing in her heart.

  Chapter 8

  Cole stood in the ranch kitchen after another near-sleepless night, leaning on the counter and gulping down coffee. Every time he’d drifted off to sleep, visions of deformed cows and his father’s angry face galloped through his mind. But the thing that woke him every time was an image of Eve, mouth wide open in a scream of terror, water closing over her head.

  After the dream had jerked him from sleep for the third time, he’d given up and gone to his office, where he went over the ranch accounts again, which was a different kind of nightmare. He scrubbed a hand over his cheeks, surprised at the stubble. He couldn’t remember when he’d last shaved. Between the ranch’s finances and Eve’s meddling, he felt like he was slogging through the days, going from crisis to crisis, solving nothing, just getting further mired in debt and uncertainty.

  The screen door slammed behind Buzz, who stalked over to the table and slammed down a copy of the Safe Harbor Gazette. “That crazy nut job needs a muzzle put on her.”

  There was only one “nut job” Cole could think of, so that had to be who Buzz meant. What had Eve done now? He walked over and scooped up the paper, scanning the headline.

  DC ENVIRONMENTALIST ACCUSES LOCAL RANCHERS OF CONTAMINATION

  Safe Harbor, Florida—DC environmentalist and former local resident Eve Jackson was quoted as saying she suspects several local agricultural operations (including Sutton Ranch and Blackwell Farms) may be contaminating the water supply, and she is pushing for area wells to be tested to locate the source of the contamination, which she believes made a local child deathly ill. Infant Glory Daughtry, whose home is near both properties listed above, is in intensive care. Her primary physician, Dr. Stern, has diagnosed blue baby syndrome, whereby an infant can’t process oxygen in the blood, so the lips, fingernails and skin tone turn blue. Dr. Stern has ruled out a heart condition, often the cause of blue baby, and says the child is responding well to treatment of methylene blue. The other cause of blue baby syndrome is nitrates, often found in agricultural operations, which Ms. Jackson claims caused the infant’s illness. Richard Blackwell has vehemently denied Jackson’s allegations, saying, “Ms. Jackson needs to be careful about tossing out unsubstantiated speculation as fact. She’ll be hearing from my lawyer.”

  To date, Jackson has provided no proof of wrongdoing by any local operation, though her tendency to make premature accusations is not new to the residents of Safe Harbor. Most recently, her accusations against a congressman forced her employer, Braddock Environmental, to put her on administrative leave in hope of avoiding defamation-of-character charges.

  Ms. Jackson’s passion for environmental causes began when she was a student at Safe Harbor High and started a petition to replace the water hose the football team drank from after practice with a filtered water system. But she is best known for sneaking onto Sutton Ranch one night and releasing all their calves before they were shipped off to become veal. She was in danger of being trampled by the scared livestock when high school senior Cole Sutton plucked her from danger. In the process, a calf kicked his elbow, shattering it, thereby costing Sutton his chance for a football scholarship—and costing Safe Harbor High the district championship. The school has not won a championship since. One of the calves jumped into a nearby pond and was attacked by an alligator. The calf didn’t survive, and Jackson spent several months working for the local veterinarian to pay off the cost of the calf.

  Cole finished the article and shook his head. Avery Ames, who owned the paper, had included photos of the concrete slabs under the manure at Blackwell’s operation, though none from his. Though if she’d shown up, he doubted he’d have given her permission to take photos anyway.

  As much as it galled him to be accused without a shred of proof, he knew the part of the article detailing all the times Eve had made premature accusations that had later been proven false would get her hopping mad. He was almost disappointed he wasn’t there to see her reaction.

  But the end of the article was what set him in motion. He poured more coffee into his to-go cup and turned, almost tripping over Buzz, who stood behind him, arms crossed, a scowl on his face.

  “What do you plan to do about that meddlesome woman?”

  Besides give her a piece of my mind when I return her car? He wouldn’t tell Buzz that, though, so he said, “At the moment, nothing. I have more important things to do. She’s gone off half-cocked before, as you read, so I’m sure this will all settle down soon enough.”

  Buzz narrowed his eyes, and Cole was surprised at the animosity shining in them. “You were a coward back then, and you still haven’t grown a spine. If you don’t take care of that woman, I will.”

  He turned to go but stopped short when Cole’s hand shot out and gripped his arm. Cole spun Buzz back around with enough force that the other man’s hat flew off. “You will do nothing of the kind. I will deal with Eve. And if I find out you’ve done different, you’re done here.”

  “Your father would have—”

  “My father is dead. I call the shots now. Deal with it or pack.”

  Cole didn’t so much as blink while Buzz worked his jaw, weighing his sincerity.

  He waited until Buzz looked away before he released his grip.

  The other man scooped up his hat, jammed it on his head, and stomped to the door. Hand on the doorframe, he glared over his shoulder. “You’ll regret this.”

  Cole let out a sigh as the door slammed shut behind the other man. He already did.

  Eve walked out onto the porch when Cole rapped on the door.

  “We brought your car back.”

  Eve looked over at Hector, who stood next to the ranch pickup. She waved, and he tipped his hat and climbed back into the truck.

  “Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I could have gotten—”

  “No problem.” By his expression, she knew he’d seen the article in the Gazette. Which told Eve she’d get the same warm welcome from all of Safe Harbor today. She’d wanted Avery to do an article, but this wasn’t quite how it was supposed to go.

  “Don’t you ever get tired of causing trouble for people?”

  “I wasn’t trying to cause—”

  “If people think there’s a problem at Sutton Ranch, how do you think that will affect buyers for my livestock? Or the sale of the crops we’re growing?”

  Eve thought of the calves they sold for veal and didn’t think a lack of buyers was a bad thing. But she wasn’t naive. Selling calves was part of the business, an income ranchers like Cole depended on—no matter how much it horrified her. “I was just trying to—”

  Cole planted both hands on his hips. “For once, Eve, I wish you would think about the collateral damage your crusading leaves behind.”

  Without another word, he climbed
behind the wheel of the pickup, and he and Hector disappeared.

  Eve paced the porch for several minutes, then headed for the hospital before she exploded with frustration. She never wanted to hurt people, but she couldn’t just stop fighting for justice. Without people like her, who fought for the Glory Daughtrys of this world?

  Time crawled by in Mama’s hospital room. After a while, Eve popped up and started pacing. She couldn’t sit still for another minute. It felt like she’d spent days at Mama Rosa’s bedside, but when she checked her phone again, it had actually only been two hours. It wasn’t so much the hospital itself she hated as the waiting. She had never been good at that. She took action. Did things. Made things happen.

  Here, alone with Mama and her cancer, there was nothing in Eve’s arsenal she could use to fight with. And that made her feel helpless, which always made her angry.

  So she’d hopped up from the uncomfortable plastic chair and started pacing. She used her phone to google various medical sites, looking for the newest advances in the fight against cancer. But she’d already read them all—and Mama Rosa had tried most of them, to no avail.

  “You are going to wear a trench in the floor, Eve,” Mama rasped.

  Eve spun around and went to her, tucking one frail hand in hers as she leaned over the bed to kiss Mama’s cheek. “Did you get a bit of rest?”

  “Some.” Mama eased her hand away so she could pat Eve’s hand. “It’s OK, Eve. Go. See what you can do to help little Glory. Things with me will be exactly as God wills. Your concern and pacing will not change anything.”

  Eve wanted to argue, but when she saw the effort it took for Mama to console her, shame washed over her. She should be the strong one, the one offering comfort. But right then, she had none to give, and that made her feel awful. She leaned over and gave Mama another kiss, then eased away. “I love you, Mama. Get some rest. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

  She sent Sasha a quick text that she was leaving Mama before she headed to Glory’s room in the ICU.

  Her steps slowed as she approached the room and heard a male voice. Once she got close enough, she saw that Cole was sitting with Celia in the nearby waiting room. Without thinking, she ducked out of sight, not wanting to interrupt.