Chapter 30
After leaving Aiden at the small Silverville community hospital, where he had already driven one nurse to quit, I slid my Fiat to the curb in front of Nana’s shop and climbed out.
Bulging gray clouds stacked above the street, and the wind cut through my jacket.
Another rainstorm crept closer and would probably smother the entire town in minutes.
I crossed the sidewalk and halted at the window next door. A new sign hung inside Gloria’s place, right by the Walton Optometry notice: Gloria’s Supplements: We Don’t Drug You. I read it again. My mood, already raw, dropped another notch.
I knocked on Nana’s door. She opened at once and pulled me in, the bell giving a quick jingle.
Her eyes widened. “How is Aiden? I would’ve gone with you, but that reporter wouldn’t leave. I needed to get away from her.”
“I know. Jolene O’Sullivan never quits,” I said, wondering which story she’d chase first, Nana’s arrest or Aiden Devlin passing out. I tried to block her, but she grabbed shots of him out cold, wedged between benches. “For now, we focus on the tea and what happened.”
“Okay.” Nana moved behind the counter where receipts covered the surface. “We sold all of the tea they claim got spiked.”
“All right.” I exhaled hard. I hadn’t had time to talk to her or the sheriff.
The second Aiden opened his eyes, I hauled him to the hospital, where the doctor had admitted him with orders to take it easy.
Aiden didn’t even know what easy meant. I rubbed the back of my neck, heat and worry grinding at the same spot.
Aiden always felt invincible to me, like nothing could touch him.
Then he hit that bench and folded. The sound kept looping in my head, a dull crack that turned my stomach.
He carried strength like most people carried breath, and yet I had watched the lights go out in his eyes.
No control. No warning. I kept seeing his hand reach for mine and then miss, fingers sliding off the polished wood.
The room had tilted. I hated that feeling, the one where I couldn’t fix a thing.
“I doubt I can hold him in that hospital,” I said. “He’ll push to leave by tomorrow. Maybe sooner.”
Nana nodded. “All right. Back to the tea. I don’t know, dear. Here are my receipts.”
“Hold up,” I said, catching her wrist before she could retreat into the stack. “What did the sheriff say? How did they even learn about the mushrooms being in the tea?”
“Oh, the O’Connor kid. Jimmy, the one in high school.
He got high after drinking the tea. His grandma gave it to him for a sore throat.
He’s fine now.” She shook her head. “So the sheriff came, and I didn’t have any more tea to give to him.
I handed over my receipts, and he’s tracking most of them down. ”
I blinked. “You’d sold quite a few cylinders of it before I arrived to help you.”
“Yes. Brad Backleboff bought twenty of them.” She smiled. “I thought it kind of him.”
Kind? Yeah, that was suspicious. How, I wasn’t sure. “I’ll talk to him.”
She looked tired, color leached from her cheeks. “I don’t understand how this happened.”
“Okay.” I pressed my fingertips to my eyes. Lavender and eucalyptus drifted from the diffuser, the usual calm trying to land. My pulse kept kicking. “Let’s start with the supply chain. Give me the name of your distributor.”
She blanched. “Honey, I really don’t want to do that.”
I held the counter and breathed, slow and steady. The shop usually settled me right away. Shelves sat neat and full, labels straight, jars catching the low light. The old wood floor carried a soft polish, the scent clear and familiar. None of it reached the knot in my chest.
Even so, I softened my voice for my grandmother. “I need the name of that distributor. If a bad batch slid through, I want a contact, a phone number, a warehouse, anything. We need to move fast, Nana.”
Nana glanced toward the back room, then back to me. She hesitated, guilt creeping into her eyes.
“I know you want to protect people,” I said, voice low. “Right now, protecting means answers.”
The bell over the door clicked in a soft draft. Outside, the wind picked up. Clouds pressed lower, streetlights flickering even though afternoon still held. I squared my shoulders and met her gaze. “Name. Number. Then we start calling.”
Nana looked around the shop, her eyes darting. “Yes, dear?”
“Nana.” My tone sharpened.
Finally, her gaze met mine. “What?”
“I’m your lawyer. You have to help me help you.”
“Oh, Anna, you can do anything. You’re the best lawyer there ever existed.”
“I appreciate that,” I said, trying to keep my patience on a short leash. “Who’s your distributor, and why do I have a horrible sinking feeling in my gut?”
Her sigh drifted out, carrying the weight of Ireland and guilt in equal measure. “All right. Brooke Walton is my distributor for the tea.”
If a chair had been close, I would’ve fallen into it. “What did you say?”
Nana’s gaze slid back to the mountain of paperwork on the counter.
“Brooke Walton distributes the tea. I’m not sure if her connections come from Gloria’s shop maybe?
You know, with the health supplements and all that?
She’s been working for Gloria while studying to take her boards so she can be a psychologist. Anyway, we were having coffee one morning, and she seemed like such a nice girl.
She dates Clark quite a bit, but she’s sweet, really. I’d love to see them together.”
My pulse ticked fast. “Nana, Gloria thinks you’re competing with her.”
Nana reared back. “Well, I’m not. She doesn’t sell tea.”
My ears heated so fast they throbbed. “I’m going to kill Brooke.” I blanched. Shouldn’t have said that out loud. “I assume you have her number.”
“I do.”
“Call her. Please.”
Nana waved her hands. “Oh, no. I really don’t want to drag her into this.”
I fought the real urge to yank my hair out. “Nana, she’s already in it. Call her.”
“Oh, all right.” She sighed again and reached beneath the counter for her phone.
Her fingers shook a little as she dialed.
“Hi, Brooke. Hi, honey. Yes, it’s true. I know, can you believe it?
Oh, no, you’re not in any trouble. Would you come by the shop?
Anna wants to speak with you. No, no, honey, you don’t need a lawyer.
I promise. If you do, Anna will represent you too. ”
I shook my head hard enough to rattle my brain. “I most certainly will not.”
Nana ignored me. “Okay, honey, see you soon.” She ended the call. “Brooke will be here in a second. She’s just down the street.”
I stepped back because there was a very good chance my head might actually spin and launch off my neck. “Nana.”
“Anna,” she said in that patient voice that usually followed disaster. “Brooke’s a nice girl. Yes, she dates around, but she’s young. She’s still finding her path. She’s been kind to me.”
“Except for selling you psychedelic mushrooms disguised as tea,” I croaked out.
“No, she didn’t.” Nana’s chin lifted. “She had no idea.”
I doubted that. Strongly.
We sifted through another pile of paperwork.
My stomach kept twisting tighter with each passing minute.
Aiden lay in a hospital bed, maybe still half hooked to monitors, and here I stood chasing tea labels and bad decisions.
I’d thought he couldn’t break, couldn’t fall, and yet I’d watched him crash.
The memory dug in deep, reminding me how fast everything could shift.
The bell over the door jingled, and Brooke finally stepped inside. I hadn’t realized I’d left it unlocked. She carried the kind of confidence that came easy to people who hadn’t yet learned how fragile the world could turn.
She wore black leather pants and an orange-and-red blazer buttoned high. Her dark hair sat twisted tight, the tawny tone of her skin catching the weak light from the window. The scent of fresh rain drifted in with her, mixing with Nana’s lavender oil.
She hesitated on the threshold, glancing toward the street like she expected cameras. “Oh my gosh, Fiona, I can’t believe it.”
I crossed my arms, my pulse steady and cold now. “Yeah, I can.”
Brooke rushed straight to my grandmother and caught both her hands. “I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, honey, it’s not your fault,” Nana said.
“The hell it isn’t.” I stepped forward. “What did you do?”
Brooke jolted, her dark eyes flicking to me. “I swear to God, I had no idea. It couldn’t be me. That tea sells all over the Pacific Northwest.” She still clung to Nana’s hands like they might save her. “Honestly, Fiona, I don’t know what happened.”
“Okay, take a breath,” Nana said, her voice steadying them both. “We’re going to figure this out.”
I glanced at her and then at Brooke. “Look at me.”
Brooke turned, chin lifting as if bracing for impact.
“Did you purposely sabotage my grandmother to help Gloria?” I asked.
Brooke’s brows slashed down. “How would this help Gloria?”
“Gloria thinks she and Nana compete for the same customers.”
Brooke shook her head, her shoulders visibly tightening. “Everyone competes for customers, but we sell different things. That’s why I felt fine connecting Fiona to the distributor. Gloria doesn’t even deal in tea.”
I crossed my arms. “You’re serious? You had no clue?”
“None.” Brooke dug into her blazer pocket and pulled out two long cylinders. “This is the tea. We could drink it right now and nothing would happen. I’ve been drinking it all week.”
Maybe she’d been high all week. I bit that thought back.
Nana leaned closer. “Yes, yes, that’s the tea.”
I tried to remember. “Wait a second.” My mind tracked back to opening day.
“I sold a lot of that tea, but the packaging looked different. No blue stripe around the bottom.” I took one of the cylinders, turning it in my hand.
The Blue Moon Tea logo wrapped around the label with a thin blue band at the base. “That wasn’t on the ones we sold.”
Nana reached for her glasses and squinted. “Honestly, I don’t remember. We were in such a rush. I’m positive the labels looked right.”
Brooke lifted her chin. “That’s the brand you should’ve had.”
“So what happened to the batch you delivered to her?” I asked.
Brooke blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, did it come from your guy directly or from a third-party shipment? Because if anything got swapped, we need to trace it.”
Brooke glanced at the cylinders. “I brought them over myself after they were shipped to me. They all looked exactly like this one.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” I held both hands up. “Nana, you can’t be certain your tea carried that stripe. It’s barely visible.”
Nana’s eyes turned a darker green. “Oh, yes it did. I examined every container and tasted the blend. When Brooke brought it over, we both drank some.”
Brooke nodded quickly. “Of course we did. I’ll give you the information for Blue Moon Tea Company. They’re more than legitimate, and if you sold laced tea, it wasn’t theirs. Somebody had to switch out the teas. Somehow.”
“Brooke,” I said, forcing my voice calm, “Nana had nearly fifty units. Do you understand the scale?”
Nana looked between us. “The sheriff’s collecting them, even over the pass. We think a few people got high last night without realizing it.”
My pulse kicked against my ribs. I dragged a hand through my hair and steadied my tone. “All right. I need the correspondence between you and the tea company.”
Brooke’s throat worked. “I’ll get the invoices.”
The rain outside picked up, wind tapping at the window like it wanted in. Inside, the three of us stood surrounded by receipts, glass jars, and the scent of guilt.
“Brooke, I need that information.” I crossed my arms. “While we’re at it, why are you distributing tea?”
Brooke flushed, the color rising soft and peach across her cheeks. “I dated the head sales guy for Blue Moon Tea for a few months. They’re based out of Missoula. I love to support local companies. Did you know about their location?”
“I did not know that,” I said, fighting to keep my tone level.
She sighed. “Clark’s probably not going to like this, huh?”
“Clark is definitely not going to like this.” I rubbed my temple. “But if you didn’t do anything wrong, we’ll prove it.” My mouth moved, but my gut stayed suspicious.
Nana leaned against the counter. “You’re sure, Anna?”
“I’m sure,” I said, though the word tasted like a lie. “I guess the thief who stole the silver boxes could’ve switch out the teas?” It didn’t make a lick of sense.
“No. Sorry,” Nana said. “I didn’t put those teas out until the day before my grand opening. They weren’t even in the store when the silver boxes were stolen.”
That sucked. “We’re missing something.”
Nana rolled her eyes. “All the cylinders should have had that pretty blue line on the bottom. I’m sorry I missed it. Still, who could’ve gotten in here and had time to swap them out?”
“None of this makes sense,” I muttered.
“I don’t know, honey.” Nana’s voice softened. “But the good news is the bulk of it went to one buyer. Remember?”
“Oh, right.” My stomach sank. “Brad Backleboff.”
“He bought tons of the tea,” Nana said.
I’d completely forgotten. Probably blocked it. Too much chaos, too many fires to put out.
Brooke grinned. “What a sweetheart. I think he sends tea to his cousins every year.”
The woman really needed to choose a guy.
“That was sweet,” Nana added. “The sheriff already got them from Brad.”
“I need to talk to him anyway,” I said.
Brooke leaned closer, lowering her voice. “Word around town is Aiden Devlin paid fifty grand to bail out your Nana. True?”
I blinked. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Brooke smirked. “I wouldn’t either, sister. The man’s already hot with that whole dangerous motorcycle vibe, but add rich to it?”
“He’s not rich,” I said fast, too fast.
“Anybody who has fifty grand lying around counts as rich. You sure you two are solid?”
I met her gaze head-on. “We’re solid.”
She winked. “We’ll see.”
“I don’t appreciate gossip about my client or my boyfriend,” I said evenly. “We’re dealing with enough without that.”
Brooke lifted both hands. “Hey, I’m just saying what people say.”
“Then stop repeating it.”
The words came out colder than I meant, but I didn’t pull them back.
Brooke’s eyes narrowed just a fraction, curiosity lighting behind them. “You really care about him, huh?”
My throat went tight. “You have no idea.”
Brooke tapped her phone screen. “Fine. I’ll text you the tea distributor info, but it’s not going to help.”
“Do that,” I said.
Nana gave me a worried glance, the kind that carried decades of unspoken advice. I turned toward the window. Outside, Silverville’s streetlights flickered against the gray, and thunder rolled over the mountains.
Another storm was coming.