Chapter 6
SIX
Ethan
Hannah’s gaze wandered over my skin, her lower lip caught between her teeth.
She swayed closer, resting her hands on my chest. Her fingers against my bare skin had my heart racing.
I slid my palms down her sides, past the plain bra that did nothing to cool my desire for her, to rest on her waist. My mate didn’t need fancy lingerie to turn me on.
Though I wouldn’t object if she wanted to wear lace.
She stretched up, looping her hands around my neck and tugging me down to meet her.
I didn’t resist. Couldn’t if I’d tried. Her lips were soft against mine.
I kissed her back. The cool water of the pond should have calmed me, but if anything, I worried we might heat the water to the point of evaporating. The chemistry between us was so hot.
I yanked her closer, her soft curves now pressing against my hard edges.
I lifted her and she wrapped her legs around me, grinding her core against my cock.
My grip tightened, fingers digging into her skin.
I wanted her even closer, and for a moment, I let myself imagine her beneath me.
Me sliding inside her and making her mine.
Instead, I slowed the kiss that had grown almost frantic with its eagerness and softened my hold on her until we were trading gentle brushes of lips against lips.
I rested my forehead against hers, struggling to keep control over the urge to mark her.
She wasn’t ready for that, and I wouldn’t push her.
“We came here to cool down, but I’m hotter now than I was on horseback.” I shot her a wink. “I definitely have no complaints, though.”
Her cheeks flushed pink, and she squirmed in my hold until I lowered her back onto her feet. “No complaints here, either.”
My grin widened. “Happy to hear that.”
We both ducked back under the water before heading back to shore. There was a new awareness between us, but it wasn’t awkward. It easily could have been, but we each accepted the progress in our relationship.
She wrinkled her nose as she picked up her jeans. “I don’t suppose you brought towels? I’m not looking forward to putting on my clothes while I’m still wet.”
“Here, use my T-shirt. I can ride home without it.” I tugged on my pants. It wasn’t the first time I’d gone swimming in the pond without a towel. “I’ll remember next time.”
“You’re so sure there’ll be a next time?” She tried to look serious, but the corner of her mouth twitched. That and her eyes gave away the laughter that she was just barely containing.
“I am.” I leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Maybe next time it’ll be actual skinny-dipping.”
“Hmmm.” She turned to me, her lips a mere whisper from mine. “In your dreams, maybe.”
“Definitely in my dreams.” I waggled my eyebrows. “Hopefully tonight.”
Laughter burst out of her, and she pressed a light kiss against my cheek. “Thanks for today. It was good to have a break from everything.”
“Anytime.”
We mounted our horses and were soon back at the barn. I made quick work of bedding them down, keeping up a running dialogue with Hannah so she wouldn’t leave without me. I didn’t want her walking around alone, just in case. Something I needed to explain to her.
I put the saddles away and took Hannah’s hand, lacing our fingers together. “I hate to ruin the mood, but I need to talk to you about the stove.”
Her dimples disappeared. “I really am sorry about that.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about.” I shook my head. “If anything, we owe you an apology.”
Her brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Did Chloe tell you about the sabotage that happened months ago?”
She nodded.
“There’s been nothing since those men were caught. We’ve tightened our security and are very careful about who we invite onto the ranch.” I let out a sharp breath. “But someone, we don’t know who, tampered with the oven. That’s why it caught fire.”
Hannah was silent, and I could see her thinking, but she was giving nothing away. My nerves over her reaction to my next words almost had me holding them back, but I needed to see it through to the end. Even if it meant she wanted to leave.
“You should be safe here, but you aren’t. And I’m sorry.”
Her eyes rounded as the implication struck her. “Jonah!”
“He’s fine. He’s with Chloe, Austin, and Gabriel. They’ll keep him safe.” I brushed my thumb over the inside of her wrist. “I won’t let anything else happen to either of you.”
“How can you promise that?” She frowned. “You can’t be there all the time.”
“Yes, I can. But if I can’t, one of my brothers will be there.”
“That’s ridiculous. You all have more important things to do.”
“There’s nothing more important to me than keeping you and Jonah safe.” I cupped her cheek. “I guarantee you Declan will do the same for Chloe.”
Hannah snorted. “I can’t see that going over well with her.”
“After our last go round with the sabotage, she and Declan came to an agreement. She’ll put up with having a shadow.” I stopped outside her cabin door, frowning when she pushed it open without using her key. “First change is going to be locking that door.”
“Aye aye, sir.” She saluted me, and I tapped her bottom. A peal of laughter rang out but faded as she stepped through the doorway.
I pushed past her, gaze hardening as I took in the sight of the main room. Someone had tossed the place. “Stay here.”
I strode over to the first bedroom. The door stood open, but that didn’t mean someone wasn’t still inside. I felt Hannah at my back and looked over my shoulder. “I told you to stay where you were.”
“Not a chance. I’m safer next to you.”
My bear preened at that statement. “Fine. But if I tell you to run, you run.”
She nodded, and we stepped into Jonah’s bedroom, which had also been tossed. No one was there, but I checked the closet and under the bed to make sure. Next up was the bathroom. I pulled back the shower curtain, but it too was clear.
We approached Hannah’s bedroom. The door was wide open, and I quickly checked the room.
Whoever had been here was gone. I left Hannah in her bedroom as I checked the cabin again, this time letting my shifter sense of smell sniff out anything that didn’t belong.
Every scent I smelled was familiar, but one of them I couldn’t place.
It nagged at me—which meant I’d met the person it belonged to—though I drew a blank on who.
But was it related to the sabotage or just someone robbing an unlocked cabin?
I returned to Hannah’s room, where she stood staring at a picture frame. “Did you notice anything missing? The TV and Jonah’s console are here, so I don’t think it was a robbery.”
Hannah’s head snapped toward me. “Oh. Um, let me see.” Her gaze surveyed the room, stopping on a box along the wall. With a sharp intake of breath, she rushed over and flipped open the box. “Cassie’s laptop and her files are gone.”
Confusion washed over me. “Why would someone take your sister’s files?”
“I don’t know.” Hannah’s head shook. “I think the files were about her latest project. I know she was working on something big before she died, but notes about an article for a small town newspaper are hardly worth stealing. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Pieces of a puzzle I didn’t realize I’d been putting together snapped into place. Dread pooled in my gut. “Do you have a picture of your sister?”
“Of course.” She held up the frame in her hand, and I suddenly knew why Jonah’s eyes were familiar to me.
They matched his mother’s perfectly. And his mother, my mate’s sister, was the reporter who was investigating the ranch’s sabotage with me.
A reporter who had somehow ended up dead after claiming she was onto something.
Meeting my mate had driven all thoughts of my missing contact from my mind.
Something I felt guilty about now. If I had tried harder to find her when she stopped emailing me, would she be alive today?
And would Hannah ever forgive me if it turned out her sister’s death was related to her involvement with me?
Hannah
I sensed the change in Ethan immediately. It wasn’t just that his face paled, and his eyes held shock. Even his energy was different, as if he had withdrawn from me. “Ethan? What is it?”
He opened his mouth to speak but shut it again with a shake of his head.
He paced the narrow space at the end of the bed.
His fingers jamming furiously into his hair.
When he finally spoke, his voice was low enough I could barely hear him.
“Why? It has to be a coincidence. It can’t be because of me. ”
Stepping in his way, I forced him to come to a stop. I placed my hands on his cheeks and met his eyes with a firm gaze. “Ethan. Whatever it is, just tell me.”
He swallowed and shuddered out a rough breath. “Your sister. I knew her.”
“Okay? How? And what does that have to do with anything?” My hands dropped, and my stomach tightened, as if preparing myself for a blow.
“She emailed the ranch a few months ago, saying she was writing a story about the sabotage. I answered her, and we started investigating it together. We met up a few times but mostly communicated through email.” His fists clenched and released, over and over.
“The last time I heard from her, she said she was onto something. That it was big and could blow everything wide open. Said she’d get back in touch after she confirmed her theory.
She never did. That was just over three weeks ago. ”
My mind raced as it struggled to sort through everything Ethan said, and everything that had happened.
The pieces fell into place, creating a picture I couldn’t bear to look at.
But I forced myself to, needing to bring everything into focus.
“The accident. Except it might not have been an accident,” I whispered.
“I don’t know. But if someone is stealing your sister’s notes on the story, it makes me wonder.” Ethan blew out a breath. “What did Sheriff Danvers have to say about the investigation?”
“He blamed unexpected acceleration, caused by distracted driving. But that’s not Cassie.
She never touched her phone when she drove.
” I wrapped my arms around my middle, trying to soothe the ache building inside.
“The sheriff wouldn’t listen to me. My plan was to have the car inspected at a garage.
I thought they might find something mechanical at fault. ”
Ethan frowned. “Mason can check it out for you.”
“That’s not necessary—”
“It is.” His eyes closed. When they reopened, the pain in them staggered me. “I feel responsible. If I hadn’t answered her email, this might not have happened. I wanted to show my brothers I wasn’t just the family clown. I didn’t think about the danger it might put Cassie in.”
He was giving me someone to blame, and a big part of me wanted to take it. To pour my anger and grief out onto him. It would be easy and might even give me temporary relief. But I knew my sister. She never would have walked away from a story she believed in. And it was a story she’d got from me.
I was the one who told her about Chloe’s kidnapping and the saboteurs who were caught.
And how the Sheriff had brushed aside the idea that someone else had hired them.
I hadn’t known she would investigate it further, but I should have.
She had never been a Danvers fan, often investigating cases he called closed.
She’d been convinced he was corrupt, but had never proven it.
I chose my words carefully. “My sister was wonderful. She was an amazing mom and the best sister I could have ever asked for. But she had a strong sense of right and wrong and a driving need to expose the wrong. She would have investigated this with or without you. I knew she was working on something that excited her, and I never asked about it. I could just as easily blame myself as you.”
He started to reach for me but pulled back, as if he didn’t know if I would welcome his touch.
But Cassie had made her choice, and that was to help Ethan solve this mystery.
Experience had taught her to be a quick, but good, judge of character, and she never would have continued working with him if she didn’t approve of him.
In a way, that approval made it easier to accept him in my life.
I hesitated only briefly before I stepped forward and slid my arms around his middle, hugging myself to his chest, soaking up the comfort provided by his warmth.
His arms wrapped around me, cocooning me, creating a sense of safety, and the tears I’d held back the last few weeks as I struggled to be strong for Jonah rushed out.
He continued to hold me through my entire breakdown, his palms sliding up and down my back, whispering platitudes of support that I would have dismissed from anyone else but were somehow believable from him.
I rubbed my cheek against his chest, feeling the damp spot left by my tears. “Sorry for crying all over you.”
“You can cry on me anytime. Though I hope to build a life with you filled with more happy tears than sad ones.” He pressed a kiss against the top of my head, giving me one last squeeze before releasing me. “What do you need from me right now?”
I thought about it for a minute, weighing my next steps. “I think the first thing we need to do is check Cassie’s car and confirm whether someone tampered with it. The sheriff left a message earlier saying the car was ready to be released.”
“I’ll talk to Mason. We’ll have it towed to his workshop.” Ethan’s lips pressed into a tight line. “I also want to check on the construction crew when they’re back in tomorrow. See if one of their scents matches what I’m smelling here.”
“Do you think one of them is the thief?”
“It might explain why the scent is familiar to me.” His fingers raked through his hair. “But Mason did a background check on the company and nothing questionable popped up.”
We tidied up the mess, not wanting Jonah to see it. Luckily, nothing of his was broken. I made some calls and arranged for Cassie’s car to be towed to Mason’s workshop in the morning. By the time we finished, we had to run to make it back to the house for supper.
We weren’t able to discuss what we suspected with anyone, as Jonah was there.
Instead, we smiled and laughed as he shared stories about his day.
Ethan squeezed my hand under the table, and I gave him a soft smile, relieved I wouldn’t have to deal with this all alone. We would find the answers together.