Chapter 38 Strong Motivator
STRONG MOTIVATOR
“Reenie is cooking dinner tonight at Mom’s and she wants you there.”
“Me?” Clay asked. “Why?”
“She wants to thank everyone. Now that she doesn’t need to run or hide, she wants to stay and work here. She’s talking to Mom now about a job and paying rent.”
“First, Mom won’t take rent and you know that,” Clay said.
“I said that, but it’s not my place to argue.”
“Second, Mom needs the help and she loves having Reenie around. We assumed she would continue. I think if Reenie left, Mom would be the one to hunt her down.”
Ford laughed and rested his armpits on the crutches. He was ready to ditch them, but the last place he’d do it would be here in front of his family.
Around the house, he was only using one, but he’d be moving around more on the property and it’d be a test of sorts.
Didn’t mean he wasn’t putting weight on his leg to walk, just testing out his strength before he started physical therapy in a week.
“I didn’t want to tell Reenie that either.”
“Mom already planned on putting her on the books. We need to figure something out,” Clay said. “I’d like her to work events also, so if she’s willing, I’ll have her as an employee too.”
“She’d like that,” he said. He was happy to hear it and knew it’d go a long way for his girlfriend to realize that his brother didn’t dislike her or blame her for anything.
He’d not been happy when Reenie was talking about her feelings, but knew enough to let her speak her mind.
He’d never tell her outright she was wrong or that she was silly to feel what she was.
She had to be handled differently.
She always made him feel so powerful around her.
But he’d seen that she’d come into her own power and it was a wonderful event to witness.
“She does good work,” Clay said. “I could use her eye in design. The whole wedding thing is going to be over my head. I thought revenue for the space would be great, but the time and headache aren’t my thing dealing with people who want it.”
Ford laughed. “I knew that. You’ve got Mom doing it, don’t you?”
“Yeah and Dad gave me shit over putting more work on Mom.”
Which saved Ford from having to do that.
Seemed it was working out for Reenie though.
“I’m positive Reenie will gladly do it.”
“Why isn’t she moving in with you?”
“Because she’s had too many men in her life tell her what to do,” he said.
“But you want her with you. We can all see it.”
“Which means she can too,” he said. Maybe that was part of the reason he was so ornery the past few days as well.
It wasn’t just being stuck in the house, feeling drained and helpless, it was knowing that Reenie saw what everyone else did. And still, she kept talking about going back to the cabin on Monday.
He had to give her freedom to choose. It’d be his greatest gift to her, even if it was the furthest thing from his nature to do.
His leading fear was losing her, but pushing her away with his insecurities wasn’t an option.
She found her inner courage and he’d help her hone it.
If it meant that strength she gained resulted in her leaving, he’d find a way to survive again.
“I’m the last person to give dating advice,” Clay said.
“That’s right, so don’t do it.” His phone vibrated in his pocket, he pulled it out and saw Reenie calling him. “Hey,” he said. “Ready to come get me?”
She was crying. He heard the sobs, but then the anger behind her words. “Ford. Someone broke in to my home and destroyed everything!”
“Get out now. Drive back. We are on the way.”
“What’s going on?” Clay asked, already moving toward the door ahead of Ford. Damn leg wouldn’t let him run.
“The cabin has been trashed. I thought you were watching it.”
“I am,” Clay shouted. His brother ran to his truck and drove it back to get Ford.
“If you were, you’d know someone was in it. Mom got Reenie clothes after everything happened. No way it was Randy or his men.”
Clay was speeding across the property and to the cabin.
To Reenie.
“They weren’t there,” Clay said. “I’d know.”
“You didn’t know they were in the cafe,” he argued.
The heat in Clay’s gaze when he turned his head told Ford to shut the hell up and not challenge his brother.
“They knew they were made when I saw them scoping out the gate. That’s how we found out who they were, because I knew exactly when it happened and pulled them up on the camera to get the van and find out who it was rented to. ”
Clay was right. They wouldn’t have found out who at least one guy was if his brother hadn’t remembered the suspicious van, then gone back to see when it was on the property or how many times it’d driven by.
Clay’s truck halted next to Ford’s. Reenie was outside standing by it.
“You didn’t do what I said,” he shouted.
“I’m not leaving,” she said. “There is no one here. I’ve seen messes like this before. It’s almost the same as the one I left behind in Florida. This is desperation in a coward’s form.”
“Yeah, well, Oliver had no problem taking it out on you too,” he said. Not just faking the break-in at his place to have it look as if someone stole the drugs that Randy had hidden there.
“I’m not that person and this wasn’t them.”
“We know,” Clay said. “My mother has been here since then, and no one touched the place.”
Ford and Clay moved past Reenie to walk in. Reenie was right behind him. She didn’t leave when he told her to; she wasn’t going to again.
The couch cushions ended up on the opposite side of the living room. The chair turned over. The kitchen cabinets were open and everything was on the floor smashed as if someone swiped their hand across the shelves.
This wasn’t the case of someone looking for another thing, it was meant to destroy. It was an emotional breakdown.
“I didn’t go further inside,” she said. “I only saw this.”
Clay was sweeping the place while he stood in front of Reenie. It hadn’t taken long for his brother to come out.
“The bedroom is the worst,” Clay said. “No one is here, the doors are all locked, but the bedroom window is unlocked. My guess is that is how they got in.”
“I had it opened a few nights for air,” she said. “I didn’t think anyone could fit through it. It’s high enough off the ground and it’s small.”
Reenie walked toward her room, Clay next to her.
Someone had yanked her clothes from the drawers and tossed them across the floor, some torn to shreds. The mattress was half off the bed, tilted at an angle. Amid the mess, an envelope lay on the floor. She bent down slowly to pick it up.
“What’s that?”
“Money and credit cards I kept under the mattress.” She opened it. “It’s all here.”
“So not a robbery,” Clay said.
“Have you two ever gone through my stuff without me knowing?” she asked.
“No,” Ford said. “The only thing I ever did was open your closet door the first day to see if you put your stuff away. Why?”
“Clay?” she asked. “I know you’ve been here without me. It’s your place and you’ve changed locks and dropped things off. Did you go through my stuff? Because someone did.”
“What?!” both he and Clay shouted at once.
“When?” he asked. “And why didn’t you tell us?”
“I thought it was Clay,” she said. “He never trusted me. Or thought maybe it was you. It was after you asked me about the drugs and if I stole them. I came home and the place felt off. I couldn’t put my finger on it.
When I went to get a change of clothing, some of my stuff wasn’t as lined up as I keep it. ”
“I searched your car one night when you were sleeping,” Clay said. He wasn’t surprised that his brother admitted it. “But if I went through your stuff, there’d be no sign of anyone touching a thing.”
Which he believed. His brother wasn’t sloppy or careless and wouldn’t go through someone’s private clothing.
“Why didn’t anything trigger on the cameras?” Ford asked.
“Because they came in from the side, not the front or back,” Clay said.
“I kept thinking someone was watching me,” she said. “At the event. In town. A few days ago, something was reflecting in the back by the trees. I thought it was the sun, but then when I found out Lyle was on the property, I thought maybe it was them.”
“No way,” Clay said. “They wouldn’t have gotten down the road without the camera triggering something.”
“Only someone familiar with the property would know to go back by the apple trees,” Ford said. “An employee that knows this cabin is even here. Rod has always been a little too nice to Reenie. Do you think he could have done this? Could have been watching her?”
Clay was looking at the window, then crouched down and picked something up on the floor.
A little white pill.
“It’s not Rod. I know who it is.”
“Who?” she asked.
“Lexi,” Clay said, looking at Ford, his face showing no expression but his eyes troubled.
“Is that a Tic Tac?” he asked.
“Yep. Must have fallen out of her pocket when she came through the window. She’s small enough to fit and smart enough to be here without triggering lights if she’d been watching the cabin.”
Lexi had been walking this land for years. She’d know the cabin was here, probably even tended to the new crops in the back and saw Reenie’s car.
The lights would only trigger at the doors, but the bedroom window was on the side and she could have come at it from that direction and never got close to the back of the house enough to trigger a sensor.
Being an employee and always around, it was possible Lexi even knew the cameras were recently installed in those places.
“Why would she do this?” Reenie asked. “She’s always been nice to me.”
“Because she’s got a crush on Ford and always has,” Clay said.
“No,” he argued. “It’s you. She has it on you.”
“I’ve been telling you for years you can’t see what is in front of your face. It’s never been me.”
Could his brother be right?
He always thought Lexi’s flirting was something she’d done with all of them.
But Lexi was closer to him in age. And she still came around for years when Clay was gone and was friendlier with him than his other siblings.
“This makes no sense. She’s shown no signs of anger,” he said.