Sitting back with a beer, Arden wondered if life got much better than this. Sure, he still had his brother on his ass as he tried figuring out what in the hell was going on with their town. And sure, nothing had been solved. But Arden was having a difficult time caring about that.
He’d fallen in love. It was odd, really. It was something he’d never thought about before. It wasn’t that he was anti-love. He just hadn’t been in a hurry to seek the perfect soul mate. When Kian had settled down, it had stirred things within Arden, but still, he hadn’t been in a hurry.
His parents had always shared a beautiful relationship. Sure, they argued, but never over anything insurmountable. He’d had great role models to look up to. Even with all of that, it didn’t matter until you ran into that person you knew you couldn’t live your life without.
Arden had found that. And he wasn’t willing to let it go. They’d get the situation at the school figured out, and if it did have anything to do with Keera, he’d damn sure find out who was after her, and he’d protect her.
That made him smile, because he loved how strong Keera was. She had far surpassed what most people could live through without a heck of a lot of handouts, and the worst she could say about herself was she had a hard time trusting. He’d give her all the time she needed to see he wasn’t like her father. He was with her because he couldn’t live without her, because when he looked at her, he saw the person his soul meshed with. He loved her. It truly was that simple and beautiful.
When his phone rang, he thought about ignoring it. But it could be Keera, so he didn’t bother with the caller ID before picking it up. He took another sip of beer.
“Arden here,” he said as a greeting.
There was a pause on the other end of the line, and still it took a moment for Arden to grow suspicious. It was the sound of heavy breathing that set his teeth to grinding together and made him sit up and pay attention. Whoever was daring to shatter his perfectly great mood would indeed pay the price.
“Is Keera Thompson important to you?” the voice asked.
“Who is this?” Arden demanded.
“Who I am doesn’t matter,” the person said before Arden could tell the mouthpiece had been covered. He heard the distant sound of coughing coming from the other end of the line, and he waited impatiently. He needed to know who this was.
“What do you want?” Arden asked.
“Some people want her dead and will go to any lengths to make that happen.”
“And why is that?” Arden asked.
“Because she’s uncovering things that should have remained buried. She will pay the price for that. She has a contract out on her,” the person warned.
“If you’re going to make threats, I assume you have evidence,” Arden said.
“I’m not the one after her. I just happen to know who that person is,” the man said. The phone was covered as the coughing started again. If Arden could keep him on the phone long enough, maybe he’d figure out who it was.
“If it’s not you, who plans on killing her?” Arden asked, bile rising in his throat as he asked the question. “Give me a name!”
“It’s the VP, and this is so much more involved than you could ever comprehend,” the man said.
Shock ran through Arden. There wasn’t a chance it could be Ethan. No, Arden didn’t like the man, had never liked him, but the weasel wasn’t capable of going to this much trouble to harass Keera. And besides that, he seemed to genuinely like Keera. What in the world would be the point of him trying to hurt her?
“You have to be mistaken,” Arden said.
“If you ignore this, you’re responsible for what happens next,” the man told him. Arden’s gut clenched.
“Can you meet with me?” Arden asked. “I won’t give up your identity.”
“No. I did what I needed to do. I told you what was going down. Now, it’s up to you to keep her safe. She has demons from her past that are knocking at her door, and things have come full circle. Ethan isn’t a good man.”
“What is he going to do?” Arden asked.
There was a pause. “He hired a hit man, paid that person a lot of money,” the man said.
“I need—” The phone line went dead. Arden wasn’t getting any further information from this person.
He wanted to think this was a prank call, that the person was doing nothing more than trying to scare Arden. But in his gut he knew the man was speaking the truth. There was something deeper going on here, and Arden didn’t know what it was, but he did know that somehow Keera had gotten in the middle of it.
And whoever she’d unknowingly gotten involved with wanted her out of their way. Whoever that was hadn’t counted on Arden to be at her side. Yes, Keera was strong, but no one should go through something like this on their own.
It was time for him and Ethan to have a little chat. He needed to give Keera the respect of telling her first, and he wasn’t going to do it over the phone. He ran out to his vehicle, grateful he’d only gotten about a quarter of a beer down before the person had called.
He dialed Declan as he made his way to Keera. The only reason he wasn’t panicked right now was because she was having an afternoon with his sister and Roxie, and she was just as safe at his brother’s house as she would be with him. But still, even knowing that, he pressed his foot down on the accelerator. He needed to get to her, needed to have her at his side where he knew no one could touch her.
He was going to kill Ethan with his bare hands if the man harmed so much as one hair on her head. The little weasel had some major explaining to do, and Arden was going to get to the bottom of it—much sooner rather than later.