Chapter 15
Be like the llama: hold your head up high, climb mountains, and don’t spit into the wind.
One week later
“Have you seen Patricia?” Scout’s eyes were wide and she had that same manic look she’d had the last hour.
The winter festival had officially started ten minutes ago, but people had started showing up over an hour ago.
She’d been right to warn him and the others working the festival, Hudson had realized too late.
Because when two big vans full of kids around middle school age had shown up and started running around, it had been chaos.
“Who has eyes on Patricia?” Hudson asked into his earpiece. He’d recruited Lorna, Nestor, Theo, and even Dante and Aileen had come. Dante was sort of working to help out, but he was also here because they’d brought their twelve-year-old daughter, Nessa, to enjoy the festivities.
“I do,” Dante said. “She’s with Nessa in her shelter. Nessa says she needs a break from people.”
Hudson relayed the message, which eased some of the worry in Scout’s face.
She actually laughed lightly. “Okay, good. I just hadn’t seen her for a while. Everything seems like it’s going good, right?” As she asked, she glanced around to see a line already forming at the two food trucks, and kids and adults at every single booth.
The lines were relatively short because everyone was spread out.
“Everything is great,” he said. “Everyone is in place, and I’ve got eyes and ears everywhere.
If there’s an issue, we’ll either take care of it or report to you.
” This was her first year doing the event without her grandpa, and it was clearly having an effect on her.
“You’ve done an incredible job. Everything’s going well. ”
They hadn’t had any vandalism in the last week—though he still wasn’t letting his guard down. But the lack of any threats had made a big difference in her mood.
Until this morning.
She’d mostly been extremely polite to him the last week, and was very clearly avoiding him when she could. Until last night when she’d gathered everyone working the festival to go over all the last-minute things. And this morning, she was a ball of nervous energy. He felt compelled to ease it.
“You’ve got this,” he added. “People are enjoying themselves.”
The tension in her shoulders seemed to ease as she looked around at the smiling people. Her community. Luckily she had more than enough parking, and a couple local high school students had volunteered to man the parking lot for their community service hours.
“Thank you. I know this is going to be great. It’s just overwhelming. I feel like I’m forgetting something. Oh, I see someone I need to talk to.” She was gone before he could respond.
He and Sarah were in charge of security, essentially.
And keeping the animals safe. Though that didn’t seem to be much of an issue with the way things were going.
Everyone was having a good time and in the holiday spirit.
Some of the high school students who had worked the festival in years past were manning the different booths.
Keeping an eye on Scout, he grabbed a hot cocoa from one of the food trucks, mainly to help him blend in as he continued walking around the festival.
Her house was off-limits and he’d locked all doors and windows as a precaution.
She said in the past she’d let people use her bathrooms if the porta potties were in use, but after the things that had happened, he wasn’t letting anyone in her house who he didn’t know.
People were way too nosy on a good day, and no one needed to be in her place unsupervised.
Luckily she hadn’t argued with him over that. Of course she’d barely talked to him at all over the last seven days, so there was that.
He wanted to crawl out of his skin, to demand she talk to him, for things to go back to the way they were. But he’d opened his big, dumb mouth and now things were awkward. He’d wait until after the festival.
Shoving those thoughts aside, he stopped at the reindeer toss booth where Aileen and Dante were hanging back while Nessa, at the front of the line, tossed rings on faux reindeer antlers.
“Seems like you guys are having a good time.”
Aileen smiled at him, her hand resting on her baby bump. He knew they’d planned to wait at least a few years before getting pregnant but clearly things had worked out differently. Luckily they both seemed happy about it—though Dante was ridiculously overprotective. Even for him.
He’d always been that way with Aileen, even before they’d gotten together. The man had been a bear to Hudson simply for talking to her, something he’d always found over-the-top.
But now… His gaze strayed to where Scout was talking to some guy he didn’t recognize. Yeah, he got it.
“Nessa certainly is,” Aileen said, still smiling. Pregnancy definitely agreed with her. She looked exhausted but there was a happy glow about her. Or a peacefulness that hadn’t been there before. “My hope is that she tires herself out and crashes on the way home.”
Dante snorted in agreement. “Seriously.”
Hudson watched and frowned as Scout placed her hand on the forearm of the man she was still talking to. Who was that guy? He needed to get a picture of him, have him vetted.
As three kids raced past them, all with corn dogs in their hands as they chattered about the llamas, he murmured something he hoped passed as polite to Dante and Aileen before circling back to where Scout was.
He didn’t like this weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. Jealousy? Had to be it. And he wasn’t a fan.
By the time he was within ten feet of her, the handsome guy had gone and she was now talking to a couple who looked to be in their eighties. At least.
And that weird band of tension around his chest eased.
Get yourself together, he ordered himself. He didn’t do jealousy or whatever this bullshit was. He’d never been insecure in his life and wasn’t about to start now.
As he went to toss his now cold cocoa, he spotted a single man walking around wearing jeans and a Henley. The guy looked normal enough but the Hermès sneakers gave him pause. The brown and cream sneakers weren’t flashy and he doubted many people here would recognize the brand.
But they stood out to him.
This was a small enough town that sure, was close enough to Miami that maybe someone had picked up stupidly expensive sneakers but… It didn’t fit the dynamic around here and his instinct was telling him this guy didn’t fit either.
Keeping his distance, Hudson watched the man as he made his way from booth to booth, not actually playing or buying anything. He didn’t seem to be with anyone either—and no one greeted him.
Sure, Candy Cane wasn’t that small, but most people seemed to be here with someone or know others here. And it was a lot of families or couples. This wasn’t the kind of event that someone came to alone unless they were meeting up with friends.
Hudson also noticed that the man seemed to stay within visible range of Scout. He wasn’t overtly watching her, but he gave the impression that he was trying to stay close enough to have eyes on her.
That had all his hackles up. “I’ve got eyes on someone,” he murmured into his Bluetooth as he lifted his new drink to his mouth. “Near the sand art booth.” He gave a brief description to the others.
“I’ll get a picture of him,” Sarah said through the comm line.
Almost as if he sensed Hudson watching, the man turned in his direction, but Hudson was already on the move, headed toward Lorna. “I’m going to hug you, Lorna,” he said. “Act like we haven’t seen each other in a while.”
As they hugged, she murmured, “He’s lost interest in you.”
“Good.” He stepped back and resisted the urge to turn around and get eyes on the man.
He had enough people here to help out. He hadn’t told Scout how many people he’d asked—she thought it was just him and Sarah—but she would likely recognize some of them since they’d helped with decorations.
Hopefully she would just assume they were here for the festival.
“He’s still covertly keeping an eye on Scout though,” Lorna added, her expression neutral. “To be fair, he could just be checking her out. She’s an attractive woman.”
Yeah, and she’s mine. “Have you seen his shoes?”
Lorna’s gaze trailed past him, then she frowned. “Huh. That’s not a brand you see often. Not here anyway.”
“Exactly.” And maybe he was being an elitist, but this was part of his job, paying attention to things.
Scout’s safety depended on his paranoia, so he was going to lean into it and trust his instinct.
“I’m on him.” Sarah’s voice came over the comm line. “He’s heading back to the parking area. I’ll get a picture of him, see if I can tag his vehicle.”
That would have to be enough for now.
If this guy was a threat, Hudson would take care of him.