Chapter 10
Blake gripped the steering wheel of his truck so hard his hands ached, and he exhaled a sigh of relief when he spotted Paradise
along the side of the road opposite where her car was parked. Visions of her nearly dead from a bite had haunted him on the
short drive here. Especially after a worrisome phone call from Savannah.
He parked behind her Kia and leaped out to rush to take her in his arms. “Are you all right? Did the snake bite you?” The
scent of her hair was a balm to his fear.
She rubbed her arm. “I got out when it moved under my seat. My shoulder took the brunt of it when I hit the pavement. I’ll
soak it in the bath tonight.” A shudder ran through her. “It was next to my leg until it tried to get to the kittens. I knew
I had to do something, so I moved fast. When I left the door open, it escaped and disappeared under my car. I’m not sure where
it went.”
“I’ll look.” He guided her back across the road to his truck. A deer flicked its white tail and bounced away. “You can wait
inside.”
“I need to make sure the kittens aren’t hurt. It could have bitten them and I didn’t know.”
From her determined tone he knew better than to try to dissuade her. He leaned inside his truck and grabbed a flashlight from the dash compartment. The beam of light pushed back the night, and he saw movement in the grass near the back passenger wheel. “There it is.”
The snake raised its head and flicked its tongue in the light before it disappeared into the tall grass. The vegetation rippled
as it headed away. It was large—easily six feet long and probably eight pounds. Paradise wasted no time rushing to seize the
carrier from the back seat. She opened the door and reached inside to stroke the kittens. The car engine was still running.
He joined her. “Are they okay?”
“They’re purring, so I think they’re fine.” She pulled her arm out of the carrier and shut the door.
“How crazy it got in. It was a big one too.”
“I think someone placed it in my car. That someone left me another present.” She sat on the driver’s seat and reached inside
before opening her palm to reveal a USB drive. “It was in my sound system playing ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’”
The USB was a generic white like a million others. “I doubt we can trace where it was bought. Those are everywhere.”
She nodded. “And I probably shouldn’t have touched it. We could have had it checked for fingerprints.”
“We’ll do it anyway.” He grabbed it by the cord and carried it back to his truck, where he fished a plastic bag out from under
the seat and placed the drive inside.
She followed him. “Let’s give it to Nora.”
Nora had been sympathetic to the way Creed Greene tried to sabotage every piece of evidence they gave him to investigate.
If not for her, Blake would be in jail for a murder he had nothing to do with.
“Yeah, that’s what I had in mind. I don’t like this at all.”
“I was going to text you once I got home and have you check the cameras to see who might have put the drive in my car. That
was before the snake made its appearance.”
“You were lucky that rattler didn’t bite you, babe. They don’t have to rattle to bite.”
“I got out once to check the car and the trunk to make sure no one had hidden inside. Maybe the snake was sleeping and my
rustling around woke it. Though they’re nocturnal, so it could have just been hiding.”
He embraced her again, relishing the way she nestled against him with such trust. He kissed the top of her head and stepped
back. “I’ll follow you home.”
“You don’t need to do that. It’s only three miles.”
“A lot can happen in three miles.”
She smiled. “I’m not made of glass.”
“You’re much more precious.” He pulled her back for a thorough kiss that stole his breath and made his heart pound. “It should
be illegal to love someone as much as I love you,” he whispered when he released her.
“Should I call the cops to take us both away?” she teased.
“Greene would be only too happy to lock me in one cell and you in another.”
The reminder wiped the smile off her face. “We have to report this.”
“It’s closer to Nova Cambridge than the park. I’ll tell Jane.” He escorted her to the Kia. “Let’s get you home where your
pulse rate can come down.”
“I don’t think that will happen with you around.” She blew him a kiss and closed her door.
His smile faded as he walked back to his truck and followed the taillights of her car toward town. Nothing would have saved her tonight if that rattler had struck when she got in the car. It all would have happened too fast. How could he keep her safe?
She’s mine.
The whisper in his heart was a reminder she belonged to God, not Blake. He’d thought he was getting better at not feeling
so responsible for those he loved. The way he’d failed his best friend resurfaced often, and he wasn’t sure he would ever
get past it. About the time he thought he could let go of his guilt, it came roaring back.
Just like tonight. He would have thought of a dozen ways to take the blame if something had happened to Paradise during those
short miles to town. How did he let go of his need to control things like this? He had no power over life and death, success
and failure, good times and bad. No matter how many times he reminded himself of the fact, he found himself in the same old
loop. God had a lot of work to do in him.
By the time they were done reporting the snake and music incident to Officer Jackson Brown from Pelican Harbor PD, fatigue
made Paradise’s brain feel like it was stuffed with cotton. She was so tired she could barely think, but she had to see the
DNA report she’d downloaded.
The kittens clambered over her bare feet where she sat on the sofa, and Blake winced beside her when one of them pounced on
his leg and left claw marks. “You’re a menace,” he told the black one.
She caught the weary note in his voice. “You should go home and get some rest.”
“Too much on my mind to sleep. I didn’t get a chance to tell you, but Hez took a bad blow to the head during a break-in at the Justice Chamber and has a concussion. He had a seizure, but the doctor thinks he’ll be fine. He won’t be able to drive for a while though.”
“Oh no!” She liked Hez and Savannah. They already felt like her family.
Blake’s shoulder brushed hers, and his breath stirred her hair. “Besides, this is finally the big reveal to find your brother.
I don’t want to sleep through it.”
With his arm around her and his warmth pushing away the chill of the late-February night, she was tempted to close her laptop
and forget this for now. Kissing Blake would let her forget the trauma of the evening, but she’d been waiting and praying
for these results, so she settled for a lingering kiss. “Manage your expectations. There won’t be a list of relatives with
addresses and phone numbers.” If only it were that easy. “I want to see if it’s still on the server. I downloaded it from
my phone in case it disappeared again.”
She logged in to her account and went to the Results tab. Even though she’d taken precautions, she hadn’t expected the results
to be gone. But the file was empty.
She sat back and exhaled. “Blake, what is going on? Someone has to be deleting the results. There’s no other explanation.”
Fatigue made tears rush to her eyes. She rubbed her lids and swallowed down the lump in her throat. “I saved it in an encrypted
file in the cloud.”
With his arm around her, he pulled her close to his side. “You’re right. Check to see if the file is there.”
She called up her iCloud folder and sorted it by date. There it was, right at the top. “It’s here.” Her hands trembled as her fingers hovered over the track pad. What if her brother’s name was really in this document? Was she ready for her life to change so drastically?
“You want me to look first? Someone is very determined to keep these results from you.”
She exhaled and pressed her lips together. “I have to know.”
“You don’t always have to do everything yourself, babe. I’m here to help.”
A flash of irritation surprised her. She’d done life on her own for so many years, it felt wrong to let someone else carry a burden. If she handled things, she was always in control and had no one to blame but herself
if something went wrong. Blake was a caring guy and just wanted to help, but he didn’t seem to understand that she wanted
to stand on her own two feet.
She swallowed back the anger before it could take control of her tone. “That’s okay. I have to face this anyway. Besides,
I want to know, even if it’s bad.”
Could her brother know she was looking for him? Maybe he didn’t want to be found. She hadn’t thought of that before. He could
be the one involved in erasing the first results and the efforts to scare her off.
There was only one way to find out. She opened the file, and the results filled her screen. Her gaze landed on the table listing
Immediate Family. One name only was listed, a male. Drew Bartley. She’d been looking for Andrew Bartley, but he’d used the
abbreviated name. There were matches in the Close Family column as well, and she spotted her cousin Molly’s name. Lily’s and
Rod’s names were there too.
She took a deep breath and moved the cursor to the link for a secure message. “I’m going to message him now.” But nothing happened when she clicked the link. She punched the button again. “It’s not working to message him.”
“Probably because the results were erased. It’s no longer connected to the database. Try copying the file to your Results
tab on the database and see if it will link up.”
There was a plus sign for adding documents in her personal file on the database, so she clicked it and added the document.
It appeared in her files, and she clicked the message button again. This time a secure message box popped up. Her pulse stuttered
in her chest and she paused.
Blake moved close enough that she caught his eucalyptus scent. “What’s wrong?”
“What if I’m putting him in danger by contacting him? Someone doesn’t want us to talk.”
“You could wait and talk to the guy who called from the DNA company. Maybe with the weird circumstances we could get him to
tell us where he’s living so we could approach him personally. Someone is monitoring the database.”
The thought made her delete the file she’d just uploaded. “Good point. We don’t want whoever is doing these things to know
I have those results. I’ll try calling in the morning.”
“We could ask Jane or one of the detectives to do it. They might get more action.”
Patience wasn’t in her personality, but she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if something happened to Drew. She closed
her laptop. “You’re right.” She smiled into his weary blue eyes. “It’s nearly midnight. I’ll walk you to the door and lock
up.”
“Let me text Jane first and ask her to talk to the genealogy company.” He patted the sofa. “I think I’ll bunk right here.
After what happened tonight, I don’t think you should be alone.”
That flash of irritation reared its head again and she jumped up. “You’re smothering me again, Blake. I want you to go home and get some rest. I’ll be fine. I’ve got a tranq gun and the real one. There’s a dead bolt on the door.”
He rose slowly with his lips pressed together. She caught the flash of hurt on his face and nearly backed down, but this was
a disagreement that needed to be addressed. They both had to figure out the parameters of their relationship or it wouldn’t
work.