Chapter 34
ANYTHING THAT WOULD HELP
“I’ll be back down before you leave,” Blaze said the next morning. The sun hadn’t risen, but he wanted to sneak out now before Gracie woke.
“We’ll be fine,” Arden said.
“No. I mean it. Lock the doors. Clay has the cameras on the front door and one by the back. You’ll know if someone is there and I’m close by.”
“Do you really think someone would come here?” she whispered.
He was dressing quickly in the dark of her room. He’d offered to sleep on the couch and she’d told him he didn’t need to.
It wasn’t as if he slept much in her bed. More of it had to do with being on guard, the other was that Gracie might wake up and find him there.
Arden was going to tell Gracie tonight after work before he got home that he was more than their neighbor. They wouldn’t say he was spending the night here now, but that he was more than just a friend.
He’d like to be here for it, but he’d get home hours after her.
Clay was monitoring things like Clay always did. But it was all his one brother could do with no leads.
Maddy was coming in early and he was meeting her to talk in the parking lot without witnesses.
He hated to think this was on him, but his brother was right, and he had to be open-minded about it.
“I don’t know. They already did.”
“When no one was home,” she argued. “I think I would have known if someone had been here when I was.”
“And you would have thought that someone would notice a bike being taken off the porch and destroyed, then thrown out, and yet no one had.”
He was glad he’d never brought up Tina owning a gray car the days she’d heard the noise outside. It would have only worked her up and maybe caused another fight with Billy.
Since Tina was out of town when this happened, it couldn’t have been her.
And now it was weighing on him that it could have been about him all along.
They tried to keep it quiet in the neighborhood what had happened. There was no reason to alert anyone to any troubles just yet.
No one was getting hurt. Nothing other than everyone’s peace of mind.
Clay was right. Whoever this was almost acted as if they didn’t want to do it. At least not to Arden.
So was she caught in the crossfire of something he’d done? Something he couldn’t even think of?
She blew out a breath. “Give me a kiss. Will I talk to you at work at all or are we keeping things quiet there?”
“I’ll let you know.”
He gave her one more kiss, then snuck down the stairs as quietly as he could, her on his heels, out the back door and to his house while she locked up behind him.
He should have brought clothes with him, but it wasn’t as if he had far to go.
He let himself into his house, went to his room, showered, dressed, then got out. There was a text from Arden saying that Gracie was up, so he knew not to go back. Not this morning.
He made a cup of coffee, then found some food to eat, put his lunch together to bring with him, then shot off one more text to see if Arden was fine.
Go to work. We are good. I promise.
He sighed. Not much more he could do other than try to convince them to stay in the cabin next to Clay’s.
But then he’d have to tell his parents and they didn’t need to know what was going on.
Hadn’t they had their fill with first Ford, then Clay, and not that long ago Gale?
Here he thought maybe he could be the one kid who could slide into a peaceful relationship. Didn’t look as if it was going to be that way.
At a little after six, he left, drove by Arden’s, saw all the lights on and said a slight chant for her to stay safe. She knew to text him the minute she was at work.
And to let security know to come get her and walk her into the building.
If they wouldn’t go get her, he was damn well doing it.
He waited in the parking lot, then tried not to jump when Maddy knocked on the glass of his SUV.
He unlocked the door for her to climb in.
“Sorry,” Maddy said. “I shouldn’t have scared you. I thought you saw me.”
“I was looking at my phone.” At the list of employees he’d compiled himself. Even people he didn’t think it could be, but he couldn’t write anyone off either.
A text just popped up from Arden now, telling him she was trying to get Gracie out the door. A message that he was bugging her too much.
For a guy who wasn’t clingy he might as well change his name to Saran Wrap. But if any situation warranted a reaction like that, it was now.
“I can’t believe this is happening. You don’t think this could be me, do you?”
Normally Maddy was his rock, and now she was unsure. It wasn’t what he needed.
But he couldn’t lie.
“Ford brought up everyone. Arden said the person she talks to the most in the ER is you.”
“Does she think I could do something like that?”
“No. But she’s rattled. So am I. What was scary and more like a nuisance has turned into terrifying and looking over her shoulder. It’s been weeks since the last note. I think we both hoped it would have stopped.”
“Blaze. I wish I’d known. I wish you felt you could trust me.”
“I’m not convinced it’s about me, but my brother had a compelling case. I guess we need to look at all angles. You know everyone here the best. Is there anyone you could see doing something like this?”
“Not off the top of my head. The turnover is big, but we’ve got a lot of regulars. No one comes to mind that brings your name up more than anyone else.”
He blew out a breath. “What about the way they look at me? Do you think any of the nurses have a thing for me?”
He couldn’t think of anyone, but then wondered if maybe he hadn’t been paying attention.
“Romantically? Not that anyone stands out more than anyone else. Steven says the most, but he’s busting your ass. Everyone else is just casual comments or flirting the way it’s been long before you.”
“True. Do you have that list of everyone else?”
Maddy pulled it out of her purse. “I’m not sure giving you a list of names is going to help, but I’ll do what I can. Your schedule changes so much, and you don’t work the same days as me.”
“I know,” he said. “That makes it harder. I’m starting here.” He looked at the list. There were over fifteen names on his and most just first names, her list matching his but almost double. “I didn’t realize there are that many more than what I came up with.”
“Those are just the full-time nurses that cross into my schedule. More than half have been there long before you and I don’t see any of them doing that. The other half are less than a year or they are floaters, so I only know so much. No one is a terrible employee.”
“I know. It makes me feel like shit. That’s why I wanted to keep it between us.”
“What are you going to do with that list? Give it to your brother to look into it?”
“Ford isn’t looking into them. He has no reason to right now.”
It was a fine line with what he was saying.
Maddy wouldn’t think of Clay looking into someone. And that was the brother who’d be getting the list of names to see if he could find anything.
“I was thinking last night...” She just stopped talking.
“About what? Tell me anything that might help.”
“You don’t really know if it’s you or Arden, right?”
“They’ve been targeting her, but no one can figure out why. Looking at everything, the timing was there when she started to talk to me. We thought it was her ex and maybe his new girlfriend, as it always happened around their fights.”
Even the fight on Saturday and then bike on Sunday. But they didn’t know for certain when the bike was stolen.
And Tina was ruled out.
As much as he wanted to think it could be Billy and this could be a way to get the guy out of their lives, he had to trust Arden that it wasn’t.
He’d seen the change in Gracie lately too after she’d been around her father. Even how open she was around his brothers yesterday.
Slowly Gracie was losing the fear that had been riding in the shadows of her subconscious.
Where a deep, firm voice made her cower.
A large man who might frighten her even when they had a smile on their face.
Yesterday had been a test of sorts around the men in his family. Only Clay had her hiding behind his leg and not staying there long.
He’d take that as a win.
“Are you positive it can’t be him and he’s just a smooth talker?”
“He’s not smooth. I don’t know the new girlfriend other than a name.”
“And that has to be killing you. Here is my thought. If it is you. If the person is using Arden to get at you, put it out there in their face. You, me and her, we’ll be watching. Or I can watch to see if anyone reacts differently.”
“Not a bad idea. Though I don’t want to put you in the middle of it.”
Maddy looked down at the list in his hand. “You already did and I’m just fine with it.”