Dangerous Waters (Lantern Beach Book 4)

by Christy Barritt

  “I just happened to talk to Bozoman.” Bozoman was what Mac called the current police chief, Alan Bozeman. The name, unfortunately, was all too appropriate. “I casually asked about any recent crimes in the area—not mentioning the one at your house. It turns out there’s been a rash of robberies in this area over the past two weeks.”

  “Really?” Cassidy said. Again, was this something disconnected? It seemed so unlikely. But maybe it was a possibility. She didn’t want to be closed-minded.

  “Really,” Mac said. “I heard a little about it on the police scanner, but I wanted to confirm. It’s mostly petty thefts—TVs and electronics. Probably some kids selling the stuff for drug money. Seen it before.”

  “Thanks for your help,” Cassidy said.

  “Anytime. Oh, and I nailed a board up over your broken window until someone can come fix it.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “I’ll keep my ears open for more information on the break-ins. Send me a picture of that guy who’s giving you trouble, and I’ll keep my eyes open for him too.”

  “Thanks, Mac.” Cassidy smiled. “I appreciate that.”

  After Ty hung up, they remained in the parking lot. Biting flies dived at the windows, making Cassidy glad the AC was on. Those things were vicious.

  Kind of like life could be sometimes.

  She leaned her head back against the seat, fighting feelings of being overwhelmed. Her thoughts just kept circling and circling, as if they had no place to land.

  “This keeps getting stranger and stranger,” Cassidy finally said.

  “You can say that again.”

  “Whoever did this, broke in during the middle of the day,” Cassidy said, still trying to fit the pieces together. “Why would they do that? It’s risky.”

  “Maybe they know most people are at the beach and figure it’s a good time to strike. Thieves are always breaking into cars at the beach. Tourists often leave them unlocked with their valuables inside. Vacationers think the area is safe—and it generally is—but there are people who prey on others, and they live off those assumptions.”

  “Maybe you’re right.” But Cassidy still wasn’t convinced. She had to keep searching for answers. “I say we go check out the campground now. Maybe Orion is staying there. I just know I can’t sit around not doing anything.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Ty and Cassidy had talked to several people at the campground, but no one had seen Orion. It was another dead-end. Maybe the man really had rented a house for the week. Occasionally, deals popped up at the last minute, or there were even some people who rented out rooms in their homes through online websites.

  Lines of worry had formed on Cassidy’s face. This was taking a toll on her, and the fight was just starting. She’d already been through so much. The thought of her walking through this by herself made Ty’s heart hurt for her. No one should have to carry that kind of burden alone.

  “How about we visit Lisa?” Ty suggested. “She’s a good contact for this. A lot of people come into her restaurant.”

  Cassidy nodded, still seeming like a mix of dread and fire collided inside her, making her gaze uneasy. “Okay, let’s do it.”

  Ty slipped his hands into hers, wishing he could say something to make all of this better. But there was nothing he could say that would do that. He’d just be there for her.

  She was quiet on the ride to the Crazy Chefette, and he gave her time with her thoughts. He needed some with his own thoughts, for that matter.

  Lisa greeted them at the door with a big grin on her face and her lab coat splattered with remnants of some new creation. A scientist-turned-chef, she loved playing with crazy food combinations. The lithe blonde’s eyes always danced with creativity and a touch of unhinged brilliance.

  “Fancy seeing you two here,” she said. “I thought you’d be out selling ice cream. People would pay an arm and leg for a cool refreshment on a day like today.”

  “Long story,” Cassidy said. “And are you acting as hostess today or were you waiting for us?”

  “Someone called in sick so I’m running around like a chicken with her head cut off. Hey, that should be the name of one of my new dishes.” She looked off into the distance, her brain already hard at work. “Anyway, let me get you seats. You want to sit with Austin and Skye? They’re here.”

  Cassidy glanced at Ty and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds great.”

  They took a seat beside their friends. Before they could strike up any type of conversation, Lisa continued talking.

  “Ashley, bring out my experiment,” she called to one of her waitresses. “I was hoping everyone would be here to act as my lab rats . . . I mean, taste testers.”

  Lisa and her experiments sure did make life interesting. People never knew what her mad scientist persona would dream up.

  A moment later, a waitress appeared with some cupcakes.

  “These are on the house,” Lisa said with a wide grin.

  Ty stared at the chocolate cupcakes with orange icing, wondering what was wrong with them. Little orange sprinkles of some sort graced the top.

  “What are these?” Austin leaned closer to examine them, looking like he’d come straight from a construction site, with his black T-shirt, jeans, and a baseball cap he wore backwards.

  “I thought you’d never ask.” Lisa clapped. “Cheetos cupcakes.”

  Ty cringed at the thought of eating Cheetos-flavored sweets. As he glanced around the table, everyone seemed to share the sentiment.

  “They’re delicious,” Lisa said. “I promise.”

  “I’ll save mine for dessert,” Cassidy said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Skye said.

  “Makes the most sense,” Austin agreed.

  Cassidy shifted, her momentary humor disappearing. “Hey, Lisa. Before you go, can I talk to you? All of you.”

  Lisa’s expression turned from giddy to serious. “Sure thing.”

  “What’s going on?” Austin asked. “Does this have something to do with you dropping off Kujo earlier?”

  “Kind of. I need to tell you all something.” Cassidy glanced around the table.

  Ty put a hand on her back, encouraging her to continue.

  “There’s a man in town looking for me,” she started. “We have a history. A very bad one. And I’m afraid of what he’ll do if he finds me.”

  Skye gasped softly. “Like a boyfriend?”

  Cassidy shrugged, that one action indicating there was more to the story than she wanted to share. “Something like that. Anyway, it’s extremely important that if you see him or if he asks you about me, that you tell him I’m not here. I’m out of town. I hate to ask you to lie. But, it’s like I said, if he finds me—”

  “He’ll hurt you.” Austin’s face hardened. “We’re not going to let that happen. What does this guy look like?”

  Cassidy pulled out her phone and found his picture. “This isn’t the best picture of him. He appears to have cleaned up his act before coming here.”

  They passed the phone around, each staring at the picture. Skye squinted when she saw the photo. “I just can’t see you being with someone like that.”

  Cassidy shrugged. “I guess we all have secrets and regrets from our past.”

  “Yes, we do,” Skye agreed.

  “You’ve seen him in town?” Lisa asked, her gaze bouncing from the phone back to Cassidy.

  “This morning,” Cassidy said.

  “So what are you going to do?” Austin asked. “Are you leaving?”

  “No, I’ve decided to stand my ground,” Cassidy said. “For better or worse. I can’t run every time he finds me. I need to claim my life again.”

  “I’m proud of you,” Lisa said. “That’s not an easy choice to make.”

  Something about the way she said the words made Ty wonder if there was more to Lisa’s story than she’d shared in Bible study.

  “You just want us to tell him you’re not here?” Austin asked. “Or you want us to run him
out of town?”

  Cassidy swung her head back and forth. “I can’t have you getting hurt because of me. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to one of you because of this. Just tell him you don’t recognize me.”

  “We can think of ways to make his stay here very unpleasant,” Skye said. “I can add some Visine to his water. Or throw some rotting fruit outside the place where he’s staying. Or maybe something with fire ants.”

  “Fire ants?” Austin asked.

  Skye shrugged. “Long story.”

  “We think he could be staying at the campground where you are,” Ty said. “We don’t know that for sure.”

  “I’ll keep my eyes open,” Skye said.

  Skye lived there because housing in the area was so expensive. It wasn’t unheard of for locals to park an RV at the campground and settle there permanently.

  “And I’ll watch for him here at the Crazy Chefette as well,” Lisa said. “You’re one of us now, Cassidy. We look out for one another.”

  Cassidy smiled. Maybe the first smile since she’d revealed her past to Ty.

  “Now, how about some food?” Lisa asked. “I’d hate for those Cheetos cupcakes to go to waste!”

  Thirty minutes later, they were back in Ty’s truck and headed down the road again.

  He drove a restored antique Chevy pickup that turned heads wherever they went. The vehicle was beautiful, and every detail had been done with attention and precision. There was nothing like taking a ride in it on temperate nights with the windows down and classic music from the fifties blaring from the speakers.

  Cassidy’s thoughts turned over in her mind as she rode. Her new group of friends here were amazing. Just hearing that they thought of her as one of the gang meant the world to her. Not to mention that Lisa kept her well-fed. The Cheetos cupcake hadn’t been that bad.

  She glanced over at Ty and sensed a heaviness about him. Since she’d revealed so many of her secrets, she didn’t want to push him to talk. When it was time, he would.

  Besides, she was preoccupied with her own thoughts.

  They shifted from her new friends to Orion. She reviewed the facts she had against the questions that remained. First, Cassidy had thought she’d seen him. Then she’d learned a man had asked about her at the docks. Lastly, her house had been broken into.

  Nothing definitive. In fact, she could justify each as a fluke because, in a court of law, none of it would hold up.

  Yet she couldn’t ignore it either.

  Her dad had told her that sometimes the mind tried too hard to make sense of things. It was why people saw images in clouds and hearts in puddles. It was why a person attempted to order events and believe there was a purpose in their sequences.

  “Thanks for being here, Ty.” Cassidy’s voice came out husky with emotion.

  “Of course. Thank you for trusting me with your secret.”

  Silence stretched for a moment as they cruised down the street, dodging tourists who hurried across the road loaded down with inner tubes and beach chairs and wagons with puffy wheels made for traveling on the sand.

  Ty pressed on the brakes to slow the pickup.

  But nothing happened.

  A surge of adrenaline raced through Cassidy’s blood. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s my brakes. They’ve gone out.” He lay on his horn.

  Tourists scrambled from the road, some shouting and raising their hands in anger at him.

  Irate beachgoers were the least of their worries right now.

  They still had to pass through the downtown area without harming anyone—or themselves.

  “Hold on, Cassidy,” Ty muttered. “I’m not sure how this is going to end.”

  Chapter Eight

  Cassidy gripped the armrest as they coasted down the road.

  Please, Lord, protect the people around us.

  Another car, heading toward the intersection they approached, braked suddenly and honked at them.

  “Sorry,” Ty muttered, though the driver couldn’t hear him.

  He pumped the brakes again. His other foot was off the accelerator, but they weren’t slowing down nearly fast enough. There were too many people in this area—people who expected the right-of-way belonged to pedestrians.

  Ty pounded his horn again, warning people to get out of the way. People jumped back from the road, throwing more dirty looks and disgruntled words his way.

  “We need to head toward the lighthouse,” he said. “That road is usually empty, and the area around the road is sandy. That will definitely make us stop.”

  “We just have to get through town without harming anyone first.” Cassidy squeezed the armrest again.

  “That’s the key,” Ty said through clenched teeth.

  Finally, they hit the end of town, the truck still coasting. At the first area where the sand created deep canyons beside the road, Ty jerked the wheel. The truck lurched from the asphalt and bounced onto the soft sand.

  They lurched as all four wheels left the thick pavement. Finally, the truck rolled to a stop.

  Neither spoke for a minute. Cassidy’s heart pounded in her chest as her thoughts caught up with her adrenaline.

  “That was close,” she said.

  “Are you okay?” Ty turned toward her, concern in his gaze.

  She nodded. “Yeah, you?”

  “I’m fine. I’ve got to check this out.” He hopped from the truck.

  Cassidy followed, anxious to see for herself what had happened. “What do you think? Was the brake line cut?”

  She didn’t want to ask, but she had to know. She kept the second part of her question silent, though. The question that asked, Had Orion done this?

  Ty lay on his back and pulled himself beneath the truck. “It doesn’t appear to be tampered with. I can’t say for sure what happened. It is an old truck. Things happen sometimes.”

  Cassidy drew her lips into a tight line. Yes, things did happen. But with Orion in town, she wasn’t letting anything slide.

  Speaking of Orion . . . she glanced at the nearby woods, watching for a sign of anything suspicious. A squirrel scampered from branch to branch. Some birds took a bath in one of the puddles between the trees. The wind rustled leaves.

  But she didn’t see anyone.

  That didn’t mean no one was out there, though.

  Ty inched out from beneath the truck and leaned on his elbows. “I’m going to have to get a tow out of this sand. Austin should be able to do that with his truck. Until then, let’s walk back to the lighthouse.”

  “Sounds good.”

  They started side by side, Ty slipping an arm around her back. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah, just . . . I don’t even know how to describe how I’m feeling right now. Just preoccupied, I suppose.”

  “Hopefully we’ll get some answers soon.”

  Just then, her secret cell phone rang. It had to be Samuel calling.

  “Speaking of which . . .” she muttered. “Excuse me a minute.”

  She put the phone to her ear, turning away from the wind so she could hear better. “What’s going on?”

  “I talked to our other agent who’s undercover with DH-7,” Samuel started. “He heard Orion is looking for you. The last update he got was that Orion was in South Carolina or Georgia. Somewhere in that general vicinity.”

  “That doesn’t mean he’s not here.”

  “No, it doesn’t. But I wanted to let you know. Any updates on your end?”

  Cassidy scanned the area again. Just trees and sand and the tip of the lighthouse down the road peeking above it all. Yet it wasn’t that simple. Danger could lurk anywhere. “No, not yet.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to leave, Cassidy?”

  “I’d rather have my enemy within my sights than to run and not know if he’s behind me.”

  “I can respect that. Be careful.”

  “Always.” But as she hung up, her unsettled stomach churned.

  At the lighthouse, C
assidy felt a moment of restlessness. Their vehicle was now stuck in the sand, which meant they were stuck here until someone towed the truck out. There was too much at stake to sit around and do nothing.

  Ty approached her from behind and placed his hands on her arms. “You look like you’re beside yourself.”

  “I guess I am. I just want answers.”

  “How about we go for a walk?” Ty said. “We know no one followed us, and fresh air will do you good. We have a good half an hour until Austin arrives. I just called him.”

  She thought about it a moment before nodding. “Okay then. We just need to keep our eyes open. And bring guns.”

  “Never leave home without one.”

  “I knew I liked you for some reason.” Cassidy smiled, for a few seconds feeling like this craziness didn’t exist. As quickly as the lightheartedness appeared, it was gone.

  He took her hand, and they walked outside, toward the roaring ocean. It crashed against the rock jetty built decades ago to protect the lighthouse. Apparently, the ocean had shifted and deposited more sand around the structure, securing its place here on the island in recent years.

  That was if the few bits of history Cassidy had learned were accurate.

  They walked away from the ocean, toward the inlet that cut around the island, merging the sound waters into the salty Atlantic.

  Cassidy paused and pointed to something down the beach. “Please don’t tell me another boat washed ashore.”

  Last time she’d found one, she’d nearly blown her cover trying to figure out how it had gotten spit out by the ocean right in front of her home. Again, images of the women aboard the craft filled her mind. How was Rose doing? Stubborn, rebellious, rough-around-the-edges Rose? Or the always frightened Kat. Or Trina, who’d been neglected and abandoned for most of her life.

  “That’s the August Moon,” Ty said. “She’s been there for three years now.”

  “Really? I didn’t even see her from the lighthouse earlier.”

  “That’s because these trees are perfectly placed and conceal it.”

  “Nice.”

  Ty nodded. “The story is that a wealthy businessman from up north was having her towed from Florida when a storm came up. The boat broke free and came ashore. The guys the boat’s owner hired stayed with the vessel for the first month. Locals even brought them food. Eventually, the owner realized it was going to cost more to fix the situation than it was worth, so he cut his losses and left it here.”