Chapter Twenty-five – Let It Be Me
Chapter Twenty-five
Parker
LET IT BE ME
Performed by Ray LaMontagne
FIVE YEARS AGO
HER: Cranky is a good-looking guy.
HIM: No.
HER: No? No what? You don’t even know what I was thinking.
HIM: We both know what you were thinking. So I’ll repeat it with extra meaning— NO!
PRESENT DAY
“You’re supposed to be resting,” I groused as I scowled at Fallon sitting on a hay bale just outside the barn.
If you gave her a cursory glance, she looked the same as she always did, dressed in dark jeans, a tank, and her cowboy hat.
But when you scrutinized her, as I’d been doing all morning, you saw she was unusually pale and shaky.
Her sunglasses shaded her eyes and hid the dark shadows, and her hat hid the ugly knot with its purple-and-black coloring, but I knew they were there.
I’d barely been able to take my eyes off them as she’d pushed the eggs I’d made around on her plate.
Stay out of bright lights, and get lots of rest. That was what the doctor had prescribed for the first forty-eight hours, but Fallon had done very little of either.
“I’ll go back to the house after the staff meeting,” she said.
She’d met with the last remaining guests this morning in the lobby, hugging them, apologizing, letting them know how sorry she was that the worst had happened while they’d been staying with her.
Some of them had been polite, shaking it off as not her responsibility, and others had looked like they might sue her for everything she owned.
Now, she was waiting to meet with the resort’s employees. While they’d slowly been gathering around the barn, the hum of conversation had grown. It felt uneasy. A hint of fear lingered in the air.
Eventually, Andie told Fallon everyone had checked in, and Fallon stood up on the bale.
Raised above the crowd, she was an easy target, and I had to fist my hands in order to resist the temptation to jerk her back down.
I focused instead on scanning our surroundings for danger before turning to assess the people assembled.
Somewhere in this midst, a traitor lurked.
Either they’d pulled the trigger themselves, or they’d helped whoever had.
As Fallon shared the plan for the resort’s shutdown, paid leaves, and bonuses for those who volunteered for the skeleton crew, I examined each face for any sign of responsibility.
“Forgive me for saying this, Fallon, but are a few weeks really going to make a difference?” a tall man asked, and my vision narrowed in on him.
“We hope to have the person in custody by then,” she told him with a surety I knew she felt far from.
I heard the murmur just as she did, a whispered voice that said, “Yeah, but what if it’s you?”
How the fuck had anyone already heard about Wylee’s accusation? And why the hell would anyone who knew Fallon believe it?
I stepped closer, reaching for Fallon’s hand, but she batted it away.
“I see some of you have been listening to ugly rumors. This land is mine. It’s been mine since I was a teenager.
Mom and Dad may have helped me shape it, but it’s my legacy.
Anyone who believes I’d do anything to hurt this place or the people who work here can resign today.
No hard feelings. I’ll give you a nice severance package and a reference, but I won’t have you working here if you don’t believe in me and mine. ”
Movement at the back of the crowd had my eyes jumping to Chuck. He was fidgeting, face as white as snow. Sweat glistened on his brow. Every instinct in my body leaped to attention. The kid knew something.
He tugged at his baseball cap, kicked the dirt, and then headed into the barn.
Fallon answered a few more questions before handing over the logistics to Andie. As she stepped down, I grabbed Fallon’s hand and hauled her toward the barn.
She protested, but I ignored her, determined to find Chuck before he disappeared.
Theo’s giggle and Teddy’s deep laugh from the stall with the puppies greeted us, and guilt hit me square in the chest again—for giving Theo so little of my time in the last few days, for dragging him to a place where people were getting shot.
I couldn’t solve it at the moment, but somehow, I’d have to do better. For all of us.
Movement near Daisy’s stall drew my gaze. Chuck was petting the horse over her stall door. I made a beeline for him, and Fallon followed with a whispered, “What’s going on, Parker?”
I didn’t touch the kid, but I shifted into his space enough that unease had him taking a step back. His eyes darted behind me to Fallon.
“H-how are you feeling, Ms. Har—Fallon?” he asked.
“She’s got a concussion, and the sheriff thinks she’s responsible for all this bullshit. How do you think she’s feeling?” I demanded.
“Parker!”
I ignored her indignant exclamation.
“How about you tell me why you look like a kid caught with his hand in the till?” I growled.
Chuck started crying, shoulders shaking.
“Damnit, Parker, you scared the bejesus out of him,” she said. She pushed me to the side and grabbed Chuck’s arm, leading him toward Kevin’s office stall. She made him sit on a stool and grabbed a cup of water from the dispenser.
The kid took a few sips and then looked up at us with scared eyes. “No one was supposed to get hurt.”
My stomach clenched. Goddamnit.
“I-I… He told me he was working for you the first time we met. He said you thought someone was s-stealing. N-no one could know he was investigating, or you wouldn’t catch them in the act.
I swear I w-wouldn’t have h-helped him otherwise.
I wouldn’t have! This place is the first place I’ve ever felt at h-home.
As if I b-belonged.” He shook his head fiercely, but his eyes were frightened.
Fallon squatted and grabbed his hand, squeezing. “I know, Chuck. It’s clear as day to me and everyone else that you were meant to work here. You’re a natural with the horses and the guests. Just tell us what you know.”
“He asked me for the security codes…”
Fallon frowned. “How did you have them?”
Chuck flushed and looked away. “I’m… I’ve always been sort of invisible. I can get in and out of places. People hardly see me. I caught Kevin punching in a code here and there. And one of the security guards never even tries to hide it.”
The security guard was fired. I’d let Kevin go too, but I thought Fallon might fight me on that one.
“And this man…he knew you had the codes?” I demanded.
“He said he’d been watching me and that I was a s-suspect because of my shoplifting and how I was able to get into places I shouldn’t have been.
He said the time I’d been spending up in the caves made it seem like I was hiding stuff there, and if I didn’t h-help him, it would prove I was the one s-stealing.
” I snorted, and the kid’s chin went up. “I thought I was helping!”
“Don’t worry about Parker, Chuck. Just keep talking,” Fallon said gently. “When was this?”
“The first day you came back from San Diego. But I’d seen him before. When I was here training over spring break, I saw him talking to some of the guests and just thought he was one of them.”
“Okay. So you gave him the alarm codes. Then what?” Fallon prompted.
“A-after…he said I had a record and that I’d h-helped him commit a crime, so if I didn’t continue to help him, he’d make sure I went to jail.
” His voice hitched. “My mom’s sick, you know.
She works part time at the emporium downtown, but I help with just about everything around the house.
If I went to j-ja il…wh-who would take care of her? ”
Fuck . Whoever this was had played on this kid’s fears about his mom and jail. But even knowing that, I couldn’t quite forgive him when he’d put Fallon and the ranch at risk to save his own ass. My empathy was almost nonexistent, whereas Fallon looked like she might cry right along with the teen.
“Do you know his name?” Fallon asked softly. “Did he tell you why he was doing this?”
“Wh-when he first approached me, he said he was undercover. He went by the name Terry. L-later h-he said the H-harringtons had stolen from his family. Th-that you were all evil and r-ruined his and other people’s lives.
I spat at him wh-when he said that, told him he was a liar, and he clocked me. ” Chuck rubbed his cheek.
“I’m so sorry, Chuck,” Fallon said, her voice all kindness while my anger grew inch by inch. “You must have felt so scared and alone.”
“I didn’t know he took the r-rifle, Fallon. I swear…I would have t-told you. N-no one was supposed to g-get hurt.”
“Fallon almost died multiple times,” I snarled.
The kid sobbed. “He said it was just payback for some stolen money.”
My mind went straight to her Uncle Adam.
Shit, was this him? Fallon’s uncle was still in jail.
He’d never see the outside of a prison again, but he could have hired someone to do this.
The feds thought they’d seized all his offshore accounts with the money he’d embezzled from the ranch, but maybe they’d missed one.
Maybe he still had enough money to hire a hitman.
But why wait ten years? What had changed that would push him into acting now that Fallon had control of the ranch?
“When was the last time you saw him?” I demanded.
“Day before the cabin explosion.”
“You’ll look through the video feeds from that day and see if you can identify him. If not, you’ll work with a sketch artist so we can get an image of him,” I ordered.
“I’ll do wh-whatever I can, but he always wore a hat and glasses,” Chuck said. “He had long sleeves on, even when it was hot. And he had a big, bushy beard, so I’m not sure if I’ll recognize him without any of that.”
“You’re still going to try,” I said coldly.
Chuck nodded and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. “Am I g-going to jail?”
“That depends on the sheriff,” I said just as Fallon said, “No.”
I glared at her.