Chapter Eight
Ethan
I’d spent about half an hour trying to calm Marty down and talk him out of getting his shotgun and hunting down the person responsible for poaching his deer. Two more had been taken in as many days. The fence wasn’t broken and Marty reckoned he would have heard a gunshot if they’d wounded or killed the deer so I was at a loss as to how they were capturing the animals and getting them out of the pen. He’d lost six deer in three months. I wasn’t sure what to do about it.
We didn’t have the manpower to set up round the clock surveillance, but if the situation continued, Marty was going to be bankrupt. Fortunately, they were only taking his does, because his prized breeder buck would have been far more expensive to replace, but he was still out of pocket by about forty thousand dollars. That was a lot of money to anyone, but especially to a small scale farmer like Marty. I had to get to the bottom of it or he would be sure to take matters into his own hands.
My deputy, Rick, had met me at Marty’s place a while back and he’d stayed to talk to Marty and his wife Marie while I walked a circuit around the pens and surrounding pastures. Eventually, we had managed to persuade the couple to call it a night. There was nothing they could do standing around outside in the cold except get more upset. There was nothing further Rick or I could do either, for that matter.
“I can stay and have a look around the area to see if the poachers have left any clues behind,” Rick offered.
I shook my head. “Nah, there’s no point. The poachers will be long gone and the area’s clean. I think we should call it a night.
“We’ll come back tomorrow when it’s light and have another look around. I’m not hopeful we’ll find anything, but it’s worth a shot.”
Rick nodded. “You going back to Luke’s place? This call must have interrupted your dinner, huh. How was it going?”
I sighed. “It was already finished. Luke and Andrea had an argument so we left early.”
Rick chuckled. “That’s siblings for you.” He frowned. “Is Andrea still under guard?”
“Yeah, why?”
He shrugged. “I just saw her getting dropped off at The Shack.”
I froze. “Say that again?”
“She was out with her friend—Serena. Her brother dropped them off in the parking lot, but they were alone. No guard. I thought she was supposed to have someone watching her still so I figured you might want to know about it.”
I muttered a curse. “Yeah, I do. Thanks, Rick.” I put on my hat then headed towards my cruiser. “I’ll catch you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” he called back.
Son of a bitch.
What the hell was Andrea playing at?
She knew she was safe at my cabin, so why had she gone out unguarded? Again. I thought I’d got through to her the other morning. I’d told her I wouldn’t be long at Marty’s place. If she’d wanted to go to The Shack so badly, I could have taken her myself. Did the woman have no sense of self-preservation?
I fumed and cursed all the way to The Shack. By the time I parked in the parking lot and got out, I was practically spitting nails. I strode through the lot with purpose then flung open the door and scanned the room, but when I caught sight of her, I stopped dead in my tracks.
My shoulders hunched, I lowered my head and sighed heavily. Andrea was seated at the bar with one of the FBI agents I’d met with the other day. I swallowed hard. As I watched, she threw her head back and laughed at something he said. They were facing one other and seated close together. The ease and intimacy between them made me wince and caused my chest to tighten. The anger I’d felt earlier dispersed in an instant, only to be replaced by a sense of hurt and disappointment.
I’d thought that Andrea and I had something—something we could build upon, but evidently, I’d been wrong about that. I turned to leave. For as long as she was with the agent, I’d have no need to worry about her safety. There was no way I wanted to witness them get even closer. I was halfway out the door when some masochistic part of me made me turn to look at her one last time.
The agent put his hand on Andrea’s arm then leaned in to whisper something in her ear and an ugly burst of jealousy unfurled in my gut then rose up in my throat to leave a bitter taste in my mouth. The anger I’d felt previously paled in comparison to the fury that coursed through my veins now. I clenched my teeth together and the low growl that sounded in my throat surprised me.
I marched over there without pause for thought. My every instinct screamed at me to separate them—to get him far away from her.
Andrea looked up as I approached and the surprise or guilt that I expected to see in her expression was absent. Instead, there was something that resembled resignation on her face.
“Thank you for keeping my seat warm, Agent Rees,” I said curtly. “It was good of you. And I’m sure Andrea appreciates you keeping her company until I arrived.”
His eyes widened as he looked between us. “Uh, Sheriff, sorry, I didn’t realize you two were, uh, right.” He got up from the bar stool with surprising speed. “Guess I’ll see if Jackson’s ready to go back to the lodge. Thanks for having a drink with me,” he said with a nod to Andrea.
She smiled politely but said nothing.
“I’ll see you later, Sheriff.”
I didn’t reply. I didn’t even look at him again as he lumbered off to find Jackson.
I was too focused on Andrea.
“What the hell was that?” she asked with a sharp tone.
“What the hell was that?” I repeated angrily. I gestured to the bar. “What the hell is this?”
She averted her gaze. “I can’t do this, Ethan,” she said quietly. “I just can’t.”
“Can’t do what? Us? Because correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember that you were doing it just fine until right before I got that damn phone call. And if we hadn’t been interrupted, you’d have been doing a lot more.”
She glared at me but I was on a roll and wouldn’t be deterred.
“So tell me, Andrea, what the hell is up with the hot and cold routine?”
“It just wouldn’t work,” she said in a small voice.
“It would,” I argued. “If we wanted it to. It would.”
She shook her head
“Look at me,” I commanded, surprised by the sharpness of my tone.
Slowly, she lifted her head and met my gaze.
“You want me,” I said. “Don’t deny it—to me, or to yourself.”
I could see the indecision in her eyes, but what I didn’t get was why so was so confused about us.
“Are you afraid?” I asked.
“No.” She lifted her chin stubbornly, but the lie was evident in her eyes.
I looked across the room. “Go and tell Serena you’re leaving.”
She blinked up at me. “What?”
“You heard me. We’re leaving. We’re going to talk about this whether you like it or not and I assume you’d rather do it without prying eyes.”
She averted her gaze. “I don’t want to leave.”
What she meant was, she didn’t want to have that talk, but I wasn’t going to let her get out of it that easily.
“You don’t?”
I grabbed her arm, pulled her up from the stool then kissed her, pushing my tongue into her mouth as if it belonged there. When I finally leaned back, she was breathing heavily and her eyes had glazed over.
“Go and tell Serena you’re leaving,” I repeated.
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re bossy.”
I never would have admitted to it but she was probably right. Regardless, she crossed the length of the room and told Serena that she was leaving.
Andrea might not realize it, but I had her worked out. She wasn’t just scared, she was terrified and that’s why she’d run earlier. That was why she wanted to end things between us before they even got began. It was because she realized that a relationship between us had the potential to go all the way and that scared the living daylights out of her.
It was up to me to show her that there was no reason to be afraid.
I had her back in every conceivable way.