Chapter 50
Rhodes
We all knew Hattie and Kipp wanted to keep things casual, but it was easy to find out that the local barbecue place did catering.
Nobody was going to want to be stuck in the kitchen handling the big stuff when it was a celebration like this, not even Maggie.
Thankfully, Ellis was willing to hang back and meet the people from the Holy Pig, because I wasn’t going to trust random people with the code to my property, given all the unresolved shit going on.
It was still going to grate on my nerves to have to let people in at the gate, but Ellis was going to be in charge of that.
My guess was that it wouldn’t just be family, but half the town.
When I’d bitched about it, Sage had just laughed.
For her, I’d be the host, even if I wouldn’t like having strangers here.
By the time we got back to the house, the weather was perfect, and even I had to admit the wedding high was buzzing in my veins.
When I pictured a courthouse wedding, I imagined something sterile, but that wasn’t what happened.
Of course not. It had been full of laughter and tears, and that chaos that seemed to come with this wonderful family I’d wrapped myself in.
It had been the opposite of my joyless wedding day.
Hattie and Kipp had looked at each other with love and raw emotion.
I’d zoned out a little, standing there, watching them and wondering what it would be like to hear those vows from Sage. To say them. We’d look at each other like that.
The driveway was already packed with cars, and it brought with it the familiar crawl of anxiety that I wasn’t controlling the scene here. It made me itchy.
Opening the door for Sage, I helped her out, giving her a little look over. She looked beautiful, but tense from all the excitement of the afternoon. It made me want to ask Ellis if something had happened that I should know about. There was a distant look in her eyes that had me asking, “You okay?”
Opal was already unbuckling and squirming out of the truck, sprinting for the door, talking about cake for Cheese, while I watched Sage try to lie and say she was fine.
“Yeah. Just processing.” She gave my hand a little squeeze. “Let’s go help these yahoos.” The smile came back on full force. “We’ve got good food and good company. It’s going to be a killer afternoon.”
“Sounds like a date,” I murmured, watching her go.
The yard between the porch and the greenhouse was already becoming party central. We had cranked up the speakers so the music wafted through the air, and everything looked phenomenal, from the clusters of chairs Sage and her sisters had set up to the bouquets of flowers everywhere.
By the time Kipp and Hattie showed up, rumpled and smiling from what I’d guessed was a quickie on the way here, we had trays of barbecue: ribs, smoked brisket, chicken, and sides galore.
My mouth was watering just looking at what the Holy Pig had delivered.
I’d already caught Wade and East sneaking food like they were starved.
“Wow! I thought this was casual.” Kipp’s eyes were dancing as he took in the spread, his arms looped around Hattie protectively.
“This is us casual.” Wade shrugged. “Everyone needs to eat and shit. Gigantor, here decided catering was the way to go.”
“Gigantor? Man, eat a dick.” I knocked into him, making him spill his beer.
Hattie snickered at us before wiggling out of his arms. “I’m off to find the girls and mingle.”
“Trouble.” The nickname was almost a whine, and I’d tease Kipp about how he held out his hand to her, but I couldn’t because there was a lump in my throat watching them.
“Happiness looks good on you,” Cole was saying. The fire chief had brought his little girl, Elvie. She was currently playing with Opal on the swings under Maggie’s watchful eye. “You’re lucky as fuck. Hattie’s too good for you.”
“Don’t I know it,” Kipp agreed easily with a smile, watching Hattie as she gushed over the wedding cake. “Damn, Phiny and Lila went all out. That thing is a monster.”
“You know them.” East gave his wife a fond smile. “Lila said Hattie needed a wedding cake, and once they started talking about wedding cakes, they decided it didn’t need to be small.” He gave Kipp a sly smile. “There’s a coconut layer with that lime curd you like. Lila let me have a sample piece.”
“Well, we do need to eat.” He gave a longing look at the cake. “Doesn’t mean we should have all the things. Barbeque and wedding cake seem like the best celebration food ever.”
We settled in to enjoy the afternoon, and I chatted easily with Wade while we watched the small crowd until finally Sage called Kipp and Hattie for their first dance. Apparently, a dance floor wasn’t a requirement.
“Alright, newlyweds. Time for that first dance!” Sage called from where she stood beside Phiny. She nudged Hattie, and the group cheered, raising their glasses as Kipp corralled Hattie from where she was chatting with a local.
I moved over to Sage’s side, where she leaned against the porch, watching Kipp twirl Hattie across the grass in some crazy two-step as Hattie laughed.
To his credit, he wasn’t wincing at her terrible dancing.
She wasn’t as bad when it was slow, which was good, because when it was line dancing, she resembled a giraffe on crack.
“Can I fix you a plate?” Brushing the hair from her cheek where it had gotten tangled in her sunglasses, I bent in for a light kiss. “I’m going to make one for Opal.”
“Sure.” She linked her pinky with mine for a second. “Extra mac and cheese.”
“You got it.” Giving her one more peck on the cheek, I kept an eye on her as she mingled with Phiny and chatted with a woman whose name I couldn’t remember.
I filled two plates, trying to find things Opal would eat.
She was at the stage where she wanted all her food not to touch, and she didn’t like meat on the bone, so the ribs were out.
“Boss, did Sage talk to you?” Ellis had edged up next to me at the tables, his own plate filled nearly to overflowing. “I’m taking this back to the gate so I can let people in. I figured she hadn’t yet. It’s been kind of busy with the wedding. That Cedric dude in her shop?”
My teeth ground together. “Spit it the fuck out.” Carefully, I cubed chicken for Opal, trying to picture it as ‘that Cedric dude’.
“He was getting way too close to her.” Ellis shifted on his feet before picking up the potato salad spoon and serving himself a hefty helping. Apparently, he didn’t care if his food touched.
“What the hell am I paying you for?” I grumbled. “Nobody is supposed to get close to her.”
Viola, the woman from the police department, glanced my way with eyes wide in alarm.
“Not that close,” he corrected. “And he made some comments that were off. My gut says red flag.”
I’d checked his background months ago, and it had come up clean.
Maybe it was too clean. My brain went into overdrive.
He was someone Sage hardly talked about in any meaningful way, except to mention whether he was going to cover her hours or open the shop.
He seemed like a reliable employee. Even now, nothing stood out to me.
If memory served, he was in his late thirties and had moved here from California.
Ellis was rarely wrong, though, and his instincts were spot on. That was why I’d asked him to handle the close protection detail in the first place. If he was picking up something weird, then we needed to take another look.
I nodded and took a breath. “Let’s hear the recap.”
“He was being super douchy.” Ellis gave his trademark look of disgust. “He thought he was being subtle, but even Sage was skeeved out. The wedding came up, and he said something about her ‘fairy-tale ending’. He tacked on a comment that was just weird.” He gave me a look.
“About how someone is ‘keeping an eye on her’ and how the stalker might be sweet. She’d mentioned the reception being here.
She said there would be a get-together here after the wedding, but she said at our place.
That Cedric dude looked pissed. He called her on it specifically. ”
Picking up the plates, I tried to swallow the absolute boiling anger that raged hot in my throat.
The person responsible for the notes and the flowers had been quiet, but that hadn’t fooled me.
Whoever they were, it was just the lull before the storm.
Our teams had been looking, and even Hattie’s group hadn’t cracked it, but the beauty was in the simplicity.
The flowers had all been delivered by proxy, and the stalker had been hands-off, or had they?
Maybe they’d been hovering two feet away the whole time. Maybe I’d been an idiot.
“If it is him…” Ellis picked up his own plate and walked with me toward Opal and Sage, who sat next to the play structure. “He’s had access to her schedule and to her. Maybe it’s been enough until now. Guy was clean, right?”
“Yeah,” I choked the word out. “I thought so, but I guess we need to take another look. Have Parrish, or even Briggs, do a deep dive on him and cross-reference all the flower orders, specifically looking for him via facial recognition. See if we get anything on him from any of the security cams.” Defeat rolled over me for a second. What a fuck up.
“Boss, we’ve got this. I’ll call them so they can get started on that. Eat with your girls. I’ve got to get back to the gate.”
Giving him a stiff nod, I tried to swallow past that rock in my throat.
There were personal notes that echoed her Idaho ties.
Why? Turning my head to Ellis, I hissed back at him.
“The notes hint that he has a past with her. Check the man who was convicted of her parents’ murder.
Find out what the story was. If he had kids. ”
“I’ll get on it.” He gave me a chin lift, but I could only swallow back bile at the thought that I’d missed something so big.