37. We All Care
WE ALL CARE
“You’re fucking kidding me,” Ash said.
“No,” Skye said. “I’m not.”
“I’m going to have words with him over what he said to you.”
“Don’t,” she said. “I mean it.”
He clenched and unclenched his fist. “Skye. He has no right to talk to you that way. No right to blame you for something like this.”
“Really? Because I’m the reason he got interviewed. I’m the reason his name was brought up. Your family asked me to think outside the box and I did. That’s two people now that I’ve thrown out there and both are pissed at me and have had nothing to do with it.”
He didn’t believe that. He just couldn’t let it go no matter how much Ford and Clay told him.
He didn’t want to think someone he’d worked with for years could do this, but they had nothing else.
No one else.
Flying blind never sat well with him.
Even worse, when the woman he loved was in danger.
“You can’t take the blame for that. You were asked to give your opinion and you did. No one had to run with it.”
“Don’t be that way, Ash,” she argued. “You didn’t want to believe it was Alan either.
And it doesn’t seem to be. Then Clay got me thinking and I came up with Kyle.
I wouldn’t have believed it was even possible if your brother hadn’t looked into him.
Now I feel biased and that is the worst feeling ever. I know. I’ve been there in my life.”
He looked at Corbin where they were working on the site. The last day for him for a few days since he had to work at the firehouse tomorrow. Then Thursday he’d try to get some sleep in the morning and pop over in the afternoon.
“What’s she saying?” Corbin whispered.
He shook his head and held his hand up, then turned and walked away. “I know you have. You understand what it’s like, but that’s not the case this time. This is serious.”
“You think I don’t know that? So yeah, everyone is going to get their wish because when this is done, when this guy is caught, I’m done with the freelance stuff. Or if I do it, it’s going to be about cute little bunny farms.”
He laughed. “Never that. You know it. Kyle is one person. Don’t let him get to you.”
“So you want me to keep doing this? Because last I heard you were the one leading the pack for me to stop.”
This was where things got tricky.
Yep, he wanted her done with it.
But if he said that, she’d be pissed at him.
He’d avoid that at all costs.
“I want you to do what you want to do.”
“It really hurt you to say that, didn’t it?”
His shoulders dropped, a gush of air escaped his lungs, and his neck stretched as if he could try to push it all away.
It didn’t work. Honesty was the only course of action.
“Yeah, it did.”
“I called to tell you. I’m sure Tate is going to find out at some point how it went, but you heard that from me.”
“You should tell Tate.”
He turned around and Corbin was standing there with his arms crossed, his face not moving a muscle.
Being in love with his best friend’s sister wasn’t as easy as he’d thought.
Not that he ever wondered why he thought it’d be easy.
“I’ll call him next and let him tell Keegan. I’ve got work to do. Brenna was here earlier too. No one is leaving me alone.”
“Because we all care, Skye.”
She sighed so hard he almost felt the breeze through his phone. “I know you do. I get it. I love that everyone cares, but I need space.”
“Don’t you dare run.”
“Now you’re going to tick me off,” she said, her voice sharp enough to slice his skin even miles away. “I’m not going anywhere. If you can’t believe me or believe that, then I’m not sure where we go from here.”
“Sorry. I’m on edge. You can’t tell me you’re not.” He held his hand up to Corbin again. The dude’s eyes were going to light his flannel shirt on fire in a minute.
“I am. I want this done. I hope it is soon. I just don’t know how it’s going to be, but maybe he’s losing his patience too. That email was just a different tone.”
“Too threatening,” he said.
“I know. And I don’t want to talk about it again. I’ve got to call Tate and get work done. I’ll see you when you’re done. What do you want for dinner?”
She had never asked him that before.
Not like a couple. Or a woman he’d be coming home to daily and they were planning their time together.
“Whatever you want to make is fine or I can pick something up.”
“I’ll cook. Just text when you think you’ll be done.”
“I will. Love you, Skye. Even if we tick each other off, I still love you.”
“The same. I just hate that we are doing more of that lately.”
She hung up after that.
He hated it too.
Hated it even more that his best friend was standing there waiting for him to say what had just happened on his call.
“Well?” Corbin asked.
“Kyle called. He’s in the clear. I’m sure we’ll hear more from Tate soon. Or the detective will call Skye.”
“This is only coming from Kyle though,” Corbin argued. “He could be lying.”
“He could be, but I doubt it. He showed proof of where he was when the emails were sent and it wasn’t anywhere near the locations of them. He’s pissed off that his name came up and blames Skye.”
“It’s not her fault,” Corbin said.
“I know. I said the same.”
“And you want to go talk to the dude so he must have said some shit because you don’t get worked up often.”
“He told her she’ll never work around here again. He’ll make sure of it. He said she shouldn’t have crossed him and some other shit.”
“How dare he,” Corbin hissed. “Let’s go. Both of us and see him say that to our faces.”
Ash laughed. A forced sound because nothing about this situation was the least bit funny. “She said to stand down, and in light of not getting my ass handed to me yet again by your sister, I’m going to have to make sure you stay back too.”
“Fuck that,” Corbin said.
“See, now you know what I’m going through. You’re usually more laid back than me.”
Corbin scrubbed his hand across his face. “This is so jacked up.”
“Yep.”
“Is she going to stay home alone when you’re working tomorrow night?”
“I’m going to talk to her about it again tonight. She doesn’t listen to reason.”
“She can stay with me. I’ve got more space than Tate and Keegan. I can shoot a gun just as well as them.”
He laughed. “Good luck convincing her. I’m taking it one hour at a time. And right now we’ve got to get the rest of this framing up.”
“You want to talk to your brothers, don’t you?” Corbin asked when they turned back to the site.
“I will when I leave here.”
“Go now,” Corbin said. “I don’t need you nailing shit in the wrong spots because you’ve got stuff on your mind. Bring me back some donuts when you return.”
“That’s just your excuse for them.”
But he wasn’t going to tell his buddy no either.
On the way to Clay’s, he called Ford and asked if he could meet him on the farm for an update.
Neither of his brothers asked what was going on and both said yes without hesitation.
When he pulled onto the property twenty minutes later, Ford’s sheriff SUV was parked in front of the mill. Ash got out and went into the front, then up the stairs to Clay’s office where he knew he’d find them.
“I heard,” Ford said.
He wasn’t surprised there either. “From Keegan or Detective Brown?”
“Detective Brown. He’s keeping me in the loop faster because of your relationship with Skye.”
“So it’s true? Kyle is in the clear and it’s not just him saying it to Skye.”
“He is,” Ford said. “But by the look on your face, something else had to have happened.”
He filled them in on Kyle’s reaction. What was said to Skye, and what she’d said back.
“Gale would eat that right up and go after him in less than two seconds for that conversation alone,” Clay said.
“I know. Which is why she doesn’t need to know. Not yet anyway. And honestly, I’m okay with her not doing that stuff on the side.”
“Did you tell her that?” Ford asked. “Because your skin still seems intact.”
“Only because we talked on the phone and not in person.”
“It burns you to not get your way,” Clay said. “Get used to it. That’s what happens when you’re in love.”
“It shouldn’t be this way if she’s in danger. And she is.”
“Does she think she is?” Clay asked. “Or is she shrugging it off?”
“I think she knows it’s a possibility but doesn’t really believe anything is going to happen. And yes, I brought up the cabin again and she said absolutely not. She’d stay with one of her brothers before she came here.”
“Here she’d have her own space though,” Ford argued.
“She doesn’t want to bring more people into this.”
“We are already into it,” Ford said.
“It’s like talking to a brick wall to get her to understand that. As I told Corbin, one hour at a time. I’m talking to you guys, I’m going back to work, then home to Skye, and hopefully by tomorrow night someone can talk sense into her and have her staying anywhere she’s not alone.”
“Do you really think that will happen?” Clay asked.
“Probably not. I’ll try to get her to at least let patrol cars stay outside the building, but she said that will draw more attention to her.”
“There is no getting away from it,” Ford said. “Not right now.”
“I know that. What do you two think? What are we missing? I don’t want to believe it’s Alan, but damn it all, there is part of me that can’t let it go now.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s been out of town until Sunday. I’ve been driving by his house and then he returned. She gets the email on Monday.”
“It means nothing. Why not send it sooner?” Clay asked.
“Maybe he didn’t have a chance to do it. I don’t know. I don’t want to believe it, but I don’t know what else to think. Could this really be random and she just got caught up in it?”
“Anything is possible,” Ford said. “Or do you think this has been about her all along?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “The first fire was before she even started reporting on it.”
“There you go. But someone in this area is using her to get their point across,” Clay said.
“I wish we knew what it was they wanted. It’d make this easier.”
“It’s not meant to be easy,” Clay said. “Never think that.”
“Then how do I get through it? How did you two get through?”
“By knowing you’re not going to let anything happen to her,” Clay said. “No matter the cost.”
Ash nodded, his face hard as stone just like his older brothers.
Nothing was going to stand in his way, and if anyone thought that, they had another thing coming.