CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR #2
“What is it?” I asked just as Raina came up beside me. I ushered them both into the house since it was chilly outside with that January wind coming off the water. “What’d you find?”
“We don’t know where they are,” Myla said, obviously upset that kidnappers were still at large on the island. “But we know how they got here.”
“They chartered a boat from Wayman Island. They took the ferry from the mainland to Wayman—like a lot of people are doing—then chartered a fishing boat over here,” Clint said.
“We’ve spoken with the fishing guide who brought them over, and he’s really upset that he contributed at all to the attempted kidnapping.
He was just happy to make a little money, didn’t ask too many questions.
” Myla made a face that she understood the fishing guide’s plight.
She wasn’t going to hold it against him.
Neither would I. This time of year, with all the storms, everyone who worked on the water was hurting for cash.
“But nobody has seen them at any of the ports, and they know not to accept a request to shuttle. We’ve passed around their photos. Which means they’re most likely still on San Camanez,” Clint went on. “The question is: where?”
“Hawke hasn’t seen them at the hostel?” I asked.
Myla and Clint shook their heads. “No. After finding out Soloman was there, Hawke’s been extra vigilant with knowing just who his guests are,” Myla added.
“And Wyatt just came back from checking the cabin on Bonn Remmen’s land, since we know that’s a place where people can squat too.
It was empty. No signs of anybody staying there recently.
” Clint scratched at his dark, short-cropped beard.
“We’re not going to stop looking. If they’re here, we’ll find them. ”
I wrapped an arm around Raina when she started to shake beside me. “Marco is safe here.”
“We’re also going to let the school know the situation Monday morning so they’re on high alert as well,” Myla added. “But hopefully, we find them before tomorrow.”
Clint and Myla left, and I closed the door, pulling Raina into my arms again. God, she felt good there. Tucked under my chin, her cheek against my chest. I could very easily keep her there forever.
Marco joined us shortly, and we had breakfast.
Then the nieces and nephews were knocking at my door, asking if Marco could come out and play with them again.
They had the walkie-talkies and wanted to go amble around the hillside and hide nuts for squirrels who might not have stored enough to get them through the winter.
Aya and Talia each had a big bag of peanuts, and the two older kids had the walkie-talkies.
That left Raina and I alone again, and while I would have loved nothing more than to whisk her back upstairs to my bed and replace her worries with orgasms, we both did have some work to do.
“Is it wrong that I really like this?” I asked her as we sat at opposite ends of my kitchen table, each of us on our laptops, a cup of coffee and various binders and paperwork in front of us. “Us, working, kind of together, but also not.” I smirked as I took a sip from my mug.
“So long as you don’t go rooting around my laptop looking for the land proposal,” she quipped.
“Ditto.”
“Any idea when they’re going to reschedule it anyway?”
“All I know is what you know,” I said, lifting one shoulder. “Sometime in March.”
“Oh to be retired and able to caravan down to the Baja to ride out the winter,” she sipped her coffee. “Regarding the subscription box …”
I raised my brows.
“You said you could include a few cans of beer? Bottles? What else do you guys have to offer?”
The way she said, “What else do you guys have to offer?” made me want to laugh. Somehow, my horny brain made it sexual. And she must have picked up on that, because she rolled her eyes.
“Not what I meant. Get your head out of the gutter.”
“It’s mind, not head.”
“I said what I said.” She paused and pursed her lips in thought before asking, “What other things could you toss in?”
I wracked my brain for a hot minute, then Wyatt’s new fry salt popped into my head. “Actually … have you had our beer fries with fermented black garlic and parmesan?”
“No. And why are they not on the table now so I can?”
Snorting, I picked up my phone and shot off an order of fries to Burke in the kitchen.
“They’ll be ready in fifteen. Anyway, they’re so popular that Wyatt and Burke have been tossing around the idea of creating their own jarred blend of the seasoning and selling it in the pub.
I bet they’d be on board with the idea of putting it in the box. ”
She frowned as she mulled it over, her gaze shifting back and forth over the exposed wood rafters of the ceiling. “Go get me those fries and we can talk.”
“You’re lucky you’re such a cute little cactus,” I said, getting up from my seat. “Be right back.”
I jogged down to the pub and arrived just as Burke was tossing the order up into the food window. Chloe, Dom’s partner, was working the bar and greeted me. “Hey, Jagger, how’s it going with the full house?”
“So far, so good,” I said, gabbing a paper bag from beneath the bar since the to-go container for the fries was piping hot. “Marco’s a great kid.”
She finished fixing a Caesar—her speciality—and put it up on the bar. “Yeah, Silas said they all had fun exploring the tide pools and drinking smoothies yesterday.” She made a pained face and my eyes went wide.
“You okay?” I asked.
Nodding, she reached for a glass of water that had a slightly green hue to it. “Yeah, just a little nausea. A dash of pickle juice with my water helps.”
“Why are you working and not my brother?”
“He’s hunting for kidnappers with Bennett and Clint,” she said, her face serious. “I love how strong and capable they all are. But this whole running toward danger bullshit just stresses me out.”
“Why do you think I didn’t enlist?” I said.
Her smile was small and tired. “Hopefully they find them, and this all just goes away. We’ve all had way too much drama and danger to last us a lifetime. I thought this year was going to be better.”
I squeezed her shoulder, then pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “You and me both, you and me both.”
I was nearly out the door when Alice Figgs, who was part of the Sewing Circle and currently working on some project in their reserved booth, flagged me down.
Her husband, Palmer, was the school bus driver and the kids all just loved him.
“Jagger, dear,” she said, resting her hand on my arm.
“I’m sorry about what Raina and Marco are going through. ”
News traveled so fast in a small town, and since we were an island made up of a lot of gossipy older people—one being the Island Mouth, Jolene Dandy—it was no surprise Raina and Marco were a hot topic of discussion with everyone.
“Yeah, it’s pretty scary,” I said. “He’s a great kid. All the vineyard kids are.”
She pressed her thin lips together and nodded. “I understand the would-be kidnappers are still at large on the island?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Have you looked in the empty houses of the Island Elders who have gone down to the Baja for the winter?”
My eyes widened and my jaw went slack.
Alice just continued to nod. “Palmer and I were discussing that this morning. Since there aren’t that many places to hide on the island, and of course you boys—and Myla—have undoubtably all looked everywhere imaginable.”
“Alice,” I put my hand on her shoulder, “that is a fantastic suggestion. Thank you.”
She beamed, her cognac-brown eyes glittering. “By the way, the whole island very much approves of you and Raina together. All that animosity, of course it was just hidden sexual tension.” Her brows bobbed salaciously. “It’s about time.”
Heat rushed into my cheeks, and I dropped my hand from her shoulder. “Thanks for the tip, Alice. You ladies have a great Sunday.”
Then I dashed out of the pub, shooting off a series of texts to my brothers in our group chat, and that they should absolutely go check to see if Azriel and Ezekiel were hiding out in a vacant Elder’s home.
The first text response was from Dom.
Why the fuck didn’t we think of that sooner? On it.
I raced back up to the house to make sure the fries stayed warm, and relayed the news to Raina. Just like mine did, her jaw dropped. “Fuck, that’s smart. I bet you they’re hiding out in one of those homes. It makes so much sense.”
Nodding, I plunked the to-go container of fries next to her computer.
I barely saw what she had up on the screen, but by the looks of things, it was the winery’s proposal for Bonn Remmen’s land.
My curiosity obviously piqued, but I wasn’t an asshole, and I’d hate if she pulled the same stunt with me.
So I went to the kitchen to grab a plate and tongs.
When I returned to dish myself up a portion of fries, she already had a mouth full and was giving me a thumbs up.
“Is that a ‘yes’ to the jarred seasoning mix?” I asked, grabbing just a third of the fries for myself.
Still chewing, she nodded, swallowed, and smiled. “That’s a ‘yes’ to the seasoning mix, and a ‘yes’ to placing another order. I’m stressed, so I’m going to eat carbs.” She shoved a bunch more fries into her mouth and groaned very sexually. “Delicious, delicious carbs.”
Chuckling, but also a little turned on, I shot off another text to Burke. “On it. But just so you know, the next order of fries comes with an invoice.”
“Blowjob?” she asked, totally unfazed. “I’ll give you two for another order that I don’t have to share.”
“I was going to say a kiss, you little sexpot, but I like your currency better.”
She shot me a wink as she shoveled more fries into her mouth. “These are blowjob worthy fries for sure.”
All right, it was official; I was in love with this little rose-scented porcupine. Now all I had to do was get her to fall in love with me too, convince her to move here for good, and hope to God that she didn’t hate me when my family’s proposal beat her family’s proposal.
Maybe I needed to place two more orders of fries, just in case. I texted Burke.