Chapter Twenty-Nine
Colson
What the fuck is going on?
I stand next to my truck on the side of the road and pull my phone from my pocket. I click on Nash’s contact and wait for him to answer.
“Where are you?” Nash asks when he answers the phone.
“You need to turn around. There’s something wrong with the truck. It feels like it’s going to break down,” I answer, rubbing the back of my neck.
Nash lets out a chuckle. “What the fuck do you mean?”
“I don’t fucking know, Nash. The truck is fucking wobbling down the road!” I raise my voice in frustration.
“Alright. Calm down. I’m comin’,” Nash says before hanging up.
I grip my phone tighter in my hand before opening my contacts again. I scroll until I find who I’m looking for and press the call button.
“Chief Lawson.” His voice has a hint of laughter, and I can hear the guys at the fire station in the background.
“Hey Chief. It’s Colson. You got a minute?” I look up and down the road.
“Hey, man. What’s up?” I hear his office door close behind him.
“Can you meet me and take a look at my truck? I think someone messed with it. Maybe bring some tools?”
“Why are you calling me instead of—”
“If you say Deputy Fritz, I’m going to kick your ass, Lawson,” I practically growl through the phone.
“Alright, alright. Send me your location. I’m on my way.”
He hangs up before I can respond. I quickly shoot him a text, and before I slip it back in my pocket, I notice a message from Lucy in the group chat. I open it to see a picture of her and Ren making funny faces inside a coffee shop and chuckle.
Lucky fucker.
Ren was able to skip out on work today, so he and Lucy are spending the day together, shopping in the next town over.
Lucy’s eyes are their normal, bright icy blue color, and Ren’s hair is still messy from our private moment this morning.
The picture makes me smile, and I feel my heart flutter as I look at two of the most important people in my life besides Nash.
Ren is an annoying thorn in my side that I would actually miss if it were gone.
And Lucy—she’s my sun. She makes every day brighter just by existing.
I begin to text her back, but I’m interrupted by Nash pulling up and shutting his door.
I put my phone back in my pocket as he walks across the road towards me.
“So what’s wrong with it?” Nash asks as he begins to circle the truck. I go to answer him, but Chief Lawson pulls up behind me. Getting out of his truck, he grabs a tool bag from his back seat before walking over to us.
“So what seems to be the problem, Colson?” He looks between me and the truck as I explain to both of them the way the truck felt and the noises I heard while driving it. Lawson circles around the truck with Nash and stops at the rear passenger side.
“I think I found your problem,” he shouts over the bed of the truck. I lift my head to look at him as I make my way around the back of the truck. He kneels down and points to the tire.
“See anything wrong here?”
I inspect the tire closely and realize half of the lug nuts are missing. The few that are left are barely hanging on. I crouch down next to Lawson and touch one of them, watching as it falls to the ground.
“What the fuck?” Nash comments as he takes a knee on the other side of the Chief. “I just checked the tires last week.”
I take a deep breath and stand back up. I run my hands through my hair and thread my fingers together behind my neck. “How would this happen?”
“They don’t get loose like that by themselves in a week.” Lawson stands as he continues, “Someone did this intentionally. Have you seen anyone lurking around the shop?”
“No.” I shake my head and blow out a deep breath.
“I’ll go call the tow truck.” Nash stands and walks away towards his truck.
Lawson turns to me. “Who did you piss off, Colson?”
“Me? I haven’t done anything lately. This isn’t the first weird thing to happen to us in the last couple of weeks.” I look up at him, and he gives me a nod to continue talking. I fill him in on the prank calls we’ve gotten and are still getting from different numbers and different names each time.
“I’ll look into a few things for you. I got a buddy who does some tech work. In the meantime, put up some cameras and keep me in the loop.” Lawson holds out his hand and I shake it.
“Will do, Chief. Thanks for coming.” I watch him walk back to his truck and take off. I move to the front of the truck as Nash meets me.
“Tow truck won’t be here for an hour. Want me to wait with you?” Nash looks down the road and then over to his truck.
“No, it’s alright. I’ll have the truck tire fixed and meet you at home. Sorry you have to do this job by yourself.”
“It’s a quick fix. It’ll only take two or three hours. I’ll meet you at home. Be safe.” Nash leans in and surprises me with a quick kiss on the cheek. I feel warmth crawl up my neck as I watch him make his way to his truck. He takes off, leaving me here on the side of the road to wait for a tow.
I pull out my phone and begin to scroll, looking up security cameras for the house. It takes some time, but I find the perfect one and order two sets for same-day delivery.
This situation has me on edge, and I can’t see the connection between any of it.
Who would do this? And why? We have a good reputation throughout Whisper Grove and even the surrounding towns.
It doesn’t make any sense. The red truck Lucy talked about pops into my brain, but I can’t fit that piece of the puzzle together either.
There are too many things to think about at once, and my brain feels heavy. I rub my eyes.
What am I missing?
I don’t get to think about it too much longer before the tow truck arrives.
The rest of the morning and early afternoon pass quickly, and I make it home just as the delivery driver is leaving the house.
I spend the next couple of hours getting the system set up for the shop and the house and making sure it all connects to the main screen hub in the house when Nash arrives home.
“Hey. How’d it go at the tire shop?” he asks, taking off his boots at the door.
Didn’t Lucy also mention dirty boot prints in the house? I know it wasn’t Nash or me, and Ren swears it wasn’t him. I shake the thought away.
“It went alright. They replaced the lug nuts and checked the actual tire. Everything seemed fine. They did say someone would need a tool to get those lug nuts off though.” I look up from the screen and see Nash staring at the ground.
“Someone loosened the bolt for the blade on the mower,” he says, his eyes unblinking.
“What?” I ask in disbelief.
“Yeah. I guess they didn’t realize that the bolt being loose would trip the safety and cause the blades not to work.”
“What the fuck?”
“Somethin’ weird is goin’ on,” he says, bringing his gaze to mine.
“I know.” I let out a sigh and set the screen down on the table. “Should we tell them?”
Nash shakes his head. “No. Not Lucy. She’ll worry too much. Ren should know that way he can keep an eye out too.”
“What do we say about the security system?”
“Tell Ren the truth, but let Lucy think it’s a precaution from the prank calls.” He gives me a hard stare.
I nod my head in silent agreement as he heads to Lucy’s room to shower.
There’s a tiny pit in my stomach, and the thought of what that could mean is something I don’t want to think about.
My mind moves to Ren and what his reaction is going to be.
He’ll be worried, but he can handle it. I’m not sure how Lucy would react, and that scares me.
Would she run? I couldn’t blame her for that.
Would she stay? Then we’d be able to keep an eye on her.
As much as I hate keeping things from her, Nash is right.
I rub my face and take out my phone to text Lawson.
Everyone is going to be fine.