Chapter 10
Rowan fell into step beside Wes.
“You think someone is out there?” she whispered.
He touched the small of her back, urging her forward. “It’s hard to say for sure. But I’m not taking any chances.”
A shiver ran through her.
Did this have something to do with Vince? Or was this related to the trouble that was already here before she came?
“Wes . . .” Her voice trailed.
“Yes?”
“I’m scared.”
He paused before saying, “I won’t let anything happen to you. We just need to keep moving right now. Okay?”
She nodded and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
She waited for something else. For someone to appear. For a threat to emerge.
Nothing happened.
But just because it didn’t happen now, that didn’t mean danger wasn’t coming. Maybe not at this moment. But eventually.
For that reason, she remained on edge.
Finally, the clearing appeared beyond the trees in the distance.
They were almost back to the house.
The tension in her chest loosened some.
“Yesterday . . .” Wes started. “When you had the confrontation with Travis.”
She glanced over her shoulder before quickly looking at him. “What about it?”
“You mentioned he wouldn’t let you leave. That he made you uneasy.” He paused. “Was there anything else you noticed? Anything you didn’t say at the time?”
Rowan thought back to the conversation—the gravel crunching under her feet, the urge to turn around before she’d even made it to the porch.
She thought about the way Travis had said even if you are a King—the careful, deliberate tone that had almost sounded like a threat. “Travis made sure I knew how he felt about my family.”
“Anything else specific?”
She sucked in a quick breath. “Now that you mention it, there were two smells when I got out of the car. One was rot, like something had died nearby. The other was . . . gasoline.”
“Gasoline?”
“I told myself he’d probably been cutting the grass or weed whacking or something. I didn’t think much of it.”
“It could have been a coincidence, but it’s worth looking into. We’ll need to let Sheriff Sutherland know.”
“Of course.” She paused. “But if Travis set this fire, he really must be desperate. It could have spread—to his own home. Or it could have spread to Refuge Cove. Innocent people could have been harmed.”
“From the sounds of it, people like Travis don’t think much about consequences.”
They continued walking until they finally reached the fence.
“I’m assuming that Caleb told you about the land dispute,” Rowan said.
“He did. It sounds like things have the potential to get pretty ugly.”
“Yes, they do.”
Wes nodded. “I agree with what the fire investigator told Sheriff Sutherland. The burn pattern back there wasn’t an accident. And those toothpicks didn’t end up in the tree line by themselves. Travis’s property is close. He knows this land. And he has reasons to want to hurt this place.”
Rowan understood what he wasn’t saying—that she may have handed Travis a new reason to continue his strikes simply by showing up.
“You think my being here makes things worse?” she murmured. “I seem to have caught his interest, which may have turned his attention back to Refuge Cove.”
“I think Travis is looking for any excuse to make your life and the lives of your siblings miserable. If he makes you all miserable enough, maybe you’ll leave.”
She scowled. “He still couldn’t afford the property.”
“He probably hasn’t thought that far ahead.”
Rowan wrapped her arms against the chill in the air. She didn’t like the sound of that.
Wes’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and his pace slowed. “I need to take this. It’s the client I’m bidding on over in Staunton—I’ve been trying to reach them since yesterday.” He looked at her. “You good to head back from here?”
The house was visible from where they stood, no more than two hundred yards across open ground.
She nodded. “Go.”
He held her gaze a beat longer than necessary, the same way he’d held it when he said, “Don’t look back.”
Then he answered the call and angled away across the property, Remington at his side.
Rowan stopped at the edge of the yard.
She remembered Wes’s question earlier. Are you in trouble?
She’d laughed it off. She’d done her usual routine—deflect, redirect, keep moving. She practically had it down to a science.
She frowned.
The truth was that she was very much in trouble.
Her phone felt heavy in her pocket. She’d been ignoring the alerts since she and Wes had left for the fire site, and she couldn’t put it off any longer.
She pulled her cell out.
Another headline loaded before she was ready for it.
Cinematographer Thayer Holt Found Dead—
Death Ruled Accidental
Her breath left her in a slow, quiet exhale.
She read the headline again. Then once more.
Accidental.
The word sat wrong in her chest, like something placed deliberately off-center.
She tapped the article and quickly absorbed the details. Thayer’s body had been found in a production office. A piece of lighting equipment had fallen. There were no signs of foul play.
Rowan pressed her lips together.
She still remembered Vince holding up that bag with her earring. She’d understood his silent threat. You come forward with what happened, and I’ll frame you.
And he’d do just that. Even worse, people would believe Vince over her. Especially since she had a possible motive after Thayer had asked her out. People might think they’d gotten into a fight or something.
Rowan should have called the police that night. She knew that.
And the longer she waited, the worse this became.
Her phone rang in her hand, she startled and looked at the screen.
Her stomach tightened when she saw the name.
Tessa Earlington.