Chapter Three
First thing in the morning, Levi checked with each department around Goosebay Lake, and then once more at end of shift. Stuck in the conference room with his staff, the clock read a little after 1:00 PM. For over an hour he listened to marketing pitches and felt ready to hang himself.
When he got the call from his barn manager, he had already covered all of his standing appointments for that afternoon. Since everything ran smoothly on a day-to-day basis, he figured it had to do with Cayden.
After he ended the meeting for the day, his staff practically killed each other to leave the room. Apparently, they also believed their pitches sucked. During the lake’s off season, he needed to keep money pouring in, which meant they would have to focus on different streams of revenue.
As he left the side door out of the conference room, Levi dodged questions from the marketing manager and headed to his truck. It never failed—everyone had a million things to talk about.
“Wagons of hay!”
While he got into his pickup, Katie seemed to pop out of nowhere. “We can have bobbing for apples and a corn maze,” she proposed with more enthusiasm than any of her ideas warranted.
He turned the key and drove past with a wave.
“Maybe a haunted house? It’s totally an autumn thing!”
In less than three minutes, Levi whipped around the bend and pulled into the barn’s driveway.
“The pretty crazy lady says she you gave her permission to be here.” While he parked alongside the barn, Fernando approached Levi’s truck. “Mario wanted us to call security, but then Carla said you fired him last night for bothering the very same woman.”
“No one got fired.” Levi chuckled at the way gossip spread and stepped out of the pickup.
“Not a bother. She’s quite sweet actually,” Fernando said, accompanying him around to the field, “but we thought you should know.”
Cayden skipped around the horse paddock with the miniature ponies. As teeny, tiny workout shorts cupped her round ass, a white tank top hugged her perfect breasts. Breathtaking, rang in his head. Levi leaned against the fence and waited for her to tire out. With sweet abandon, Cayden threw her head back and laughed while she chased the ponies around the field in her ridiculously expensive Ugg boots. A silly fact he knew due to his mom’s obsessions with the gossip mags.
“Ponies!” she screamed. “When did you get mutha-fucking ponies?”
“If you ever read your emails, you would know that we got them a year ago. Hey, don’t! Stop that.”
She pretended to ride Stella’s back. “If you told me about the ponies, I would have been back here so much sooner.”
“That’s reassuring,” he grumbled. “I’m guessing you didn’t get any sleep.”
“What’s that? I couldn’t hear you over the pony.”
Years of pent-up resentment couldn’t be erased with a simple smile. Nevertheless, if she stayed around much longer, he would be powerless against Cayden Young. “You’re punch drunk. Come here?” Sleep would cure her current mood, but unfortunately, but she always had an aversion to the good stuff.
“I already told you, mister, I don’t want your candy!” she shouted.
“Look, if you don’t come here I’ll be forced to climb in and get you. Then our staff will witness one boss wrestling another to the ground.”
“Since one boss wants to buy the other one out…” She shrugged and carried on with the ponies.
A hot pain twisted his gut. He didn’t want to buy her out—he more or less needed to for the sake of his sanity.
“There’s manure in there. Trust me, you don’t want me to come get you.”
“Fine.” Cayden growled in defeat and stomped her way toward the fence. He couldn’t help but laugh at her dramatics. “So who was it? Which one snitched?”
Levi glanced at his workers, who pretended to be too preoccupied with their work to pay attention to them.
“Why, are you going to fire them like you did Dickie?” He reached for her but she dodged his hand. “Cayden, I swear … I have work.”
“Yeah, I heard … pumpkin patches. That Katie is a chatty one.” She walked the length of the fence and Levi shadowed her from the other side. “With ideas like that, I’m going to be your partner forever.”
He’d bite his tongue off before admitting he felt the same way about the fall theme. “Tell me, guru of marketing, genius of promotion, what would you do?”
“Never that easy. I’m going to need you to supply some quid pro quo, Scott.”
A deal or a challenge always had to be in place to interest Cayden. “I’ll think of something. In the meantime…” He caught her arm and easily hefted the five-ten beauty over the fence.
“Levi,” she yelled, “put me down!”
He effortlessly flipped her over his shoulder and headed to his truck.
“Go back to work. I promise the pony fairy will be out of your way for the rest of the day,” he told everyone.
“No, she won’t!” She pointed at them. “The pony fairy will always be watching.”
Levi opened the door and dumped her in. “Stay,” he demanded before he shut the door to his pickup.
****
Crime scene photos and autopsy results rolled on a continuous loop in her head. Without anything to keep her mind off of the girl’s death, Cayden sobered up pretty quick.
“If you want, I can—” As Levi pulled up to her cabin, she grabbed the handle of the door and pushed out of the truck without a second glance.
“Cayden!”
Running to her porch, she kicked off her Uggs and opened the door. Sleep had eluded her for a couple of days, an hour or two here and there. In the past, Goosebay Lake usually did the trick, but apparently not anymore.
Instead of forcing it, she’d taken a walk around the resort. Nothing caught her attention until she laid her eyes on the ponies. The ridiculously cute animals made everything better … at least for a moment.
Reaching for the bottom of her tank, she pulled it over her head and walked to her room.
“You want to talk?” he asked from behind her.
Cayden figured he would be too busy with his daily work to follow her into the cabin. “Not particularly.” Tempted, she knew she didn’t need the inevitable fight it would provoke if she whipped off her sports bra and shorts.
“Fine, then I’ll talk. This book is a bad idea. You’re too close to the victim.”
Flashes of Shana’s arm sticking out of the bushes came to mind. This defining moment changed the trajectory of her life. “Maybe I should pack up my shit and leave. Would that make you happy?” Yearning to pick a fight, Cayden turned to face him. “But only after I sign over the resort, right?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Not today you didn’t.”
He shoved his hand through his hair and took a ragged breath.
“Forget it.” She climbed into her oak bed. “Look, you win. See?” Cayden slipped beneath the cover with the belief that would be the end of it, but he took a seat in the white puffy chair near her window. “I don’t need a babysitter, Levi. Go back to work.”
“Just relax.”
No match for his strong will, she took a deep a breath and closed her eyes.