by Jill Sanders
“Right.” He nodded slowly. “We’re having a little thing for Rachelle tonight in the center square. There will be live music and barbeque. You’re welcome to join,” he offered.
She had heard a few employees talking about it but had figured that she hadn’t been invited because she was the boss. Rachelle had requested to be cremated and hadn’t wanted a fuss to be made over her. Or so the woman’s lawyer had stated.
“I’d like that,” she agreed, already thinking of sending Cade a text about their change in plans.
“And since everyone in town knows you and Cade Stone are an item”—he smiled— “he’s welcome too.”
“Thanks.” She glanced down at her watch. “I’d better get back.”
“See you tonight,” Eddie called after her.
When she sat down behind her desk again, she realized she no longer cared what gossip was going around about her parents. Anyone who knew them, knew her, understood what the truth was. All others could go to hell.
She sent Cade a text message about the event, and he agreed to meet her there after work. When she was done working, she headed up to her room, once again avoiding the area just outside the elevators, to change.
After showering, drying her hair, and adding just a touch of makeup, she pulled on a simple black dress and low matching heels.
When Raven parked in the small parking lot near the center of town, a quick moment of anxiety hit her. This was the first time she’d be around so many townspeople. She could see more than a hundred of them gathering in the grassy park near a pristine white gazebo that marked the exact middle of Cannon Falls.
At this point, everyone in town knew she was back and no doubt knew everything about her—that she was fixing the resort up and that she’d fired her aunt and uncle. Most everyone even knew that she and Cade were seeing one another and that she spent most of her nights at his place now.
So why was she so nervous?
A knock on her car window made her jump and her hand went to her heart.
“Sorry,” Cade replied with a smile just outside her window.
God, he was so good-looking. He’d changed into a black button-up short-sleeved shirt and black jeans. Part of her wished he had a black Stetson to put on, completing the look. She knew it was too much to ask for. Not that there wasn’t a hint of cowboy in him. He’d been raised in the country, but to her knowledge, he’d never ridden a horse or roped a cow.
Still, every time she caught sight of him in his full fire gear, she salivated enough that she had a difficult time getting any work done.
“Are you coming out of there?” he asked, and she realized she was still sitting in her car fantasizing about him.
She grabbed her purse and cell phone and climbed out of her car. Cade reached in and took her hand, helping her out.
“Everything okay?” he asked her, his eyes running over her face, her shoulders, her hair.
“Yes.” She tried to smile and hide the immense force of desire pulsating from her body.
Cade didn’t seem to notice and led her towards the growing crowd. She could feel eyes on her as they passed people. Still, Cade didn’t stop until they were near the front of the crowd.
A band had set up in the gazebo and was already playing soft music while everyone arrived.
Less than five minutes later, Eddie got up in front of everyone and held up his hands to get everyone’s attention.
“I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight to celebrate the life of Rachelle Braun. Only a handful of people knew that Rachelle and I go far back.” Eddie’s eyes landed on hers and then quickly moved away. Raven heard a few whispers behind her, but then Eddie continued talking, telling the mourners a few personal details about the woman he’d loved but had been too afraid to commit to. Raven glanced sideways at Cade and remembered him saying those three special words she had yet to respond to.
Since he’d spoken them to her, she’d avoided the talk about what it meant to them, what it meant to her, other than the short conversation they’d had.
What if something happened to either of them? Would she regret not telling him how she felt about him? Would he know? Did he know already?
As she listened to Eddie finish talking and welcome others to speak on Rachelle’s behalf, she thought about her own life. Her own procrastinations. How she had avoided returning to Cannon Falls for over ten years, trying to keep the hurt, the pain, and the guilt hidden from everyone else.
She’d put herself in that bubble and had convinced herself that what she had with Cade was just attraction. Just sex. But the truth was, he’d snuck in behind her carefully guarded walls. Somehow, he’d convinced her that life wouldn’t be as great without him in her life.
The fact was, she was in love and wasn’t sure what the hell came next.
Time to make the bitch pay. Twisted fates. Ropes tangled like webs.
You think this is fun? You think you can get away with saying whatever you want? Doing whatever you want?
Someone has to pay tonight. Someone needs to die. It might as well be you.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Foul water will quench fire ~ English proverb
Standing next to Raven in the middle of the town square, surrounded by everyone he knew, a sense of pride fell over him. Here he was with the woman he loved, in the town he fought every day to keep alive.
He couldn’t think of a better place to be. When the band kicked on and he remembered why everyone was gathered there, he realized it could have been for a better reason.
He hadn’t known Rachelle all that well. Each time he’d inspected the resort before Raven had returned, he’d dealt with Colin. Glancing around, he wondered if her aunt and uncle were present tonight.
As the sun sank lower behind the hills, candles were lit along with the town’s string lights and the spotlights that lit up the gazebo.
If it wasn’t for the murder of a woman, the scene could be described as very romantic.
He held onto Raven’s hand with one hand and a candle someone had given them in his other while a bead of sweat rolled down his back.
As fire marshal, he wanted to warn everyone about extinguishing their candles properly, but he knew that the town square was doused every morning with sprinklers, so the grass wasn’t dry.
Besides, when he’d been informed a few days earlier of the event, he’d scheduled his guys to be there with the fire truck parked in plain sight, just in case.
Shortly after nine, the band stopped playing and the mayor got up and spoke for a few moments and then told everyone the event was over due to the town’s noise ordinance. The crowd started to leave.
“You okay?” he asked Raven as they walked back to her car, making their way through the crowd. She’d been quiet since the moment he’d helped her out of her car.
“Yes, I was just…” Suddenly, she jerked forward. Since the pathway was dark and there were a lot of people around him, he hadn’t seen what had happened. He didn’t know if she’d been pushed, or someone had bumped into her by accident.
“Watch it,” he called out and turned to help Raven.
“Bitch,” someone hissed, and this time he saw a young blonde woman lift her hands and shove Raven backwards. Thankfully, he was there to catch her. Immediately, he put his body between hers and the other woman.
“Kim,” Raven said calmly.
“You think you have it all figured out, don’t you?” Kim said, pushing her shorter and smaller frame towards them. She was trying to duck around him and get to Raven.
“It looks like you’re drunk,” Raven replied, holding onto his arm to steady herself as Kim swung her arms frantically around, trying to hit Raven.
“Who do you think you are?” Kim spat. “You think you’re hot shit and can come into town and fire everyone?”
“It’s within my rights as owner,” Raven said calmly.
He took a slap on the shoulder when Kim tried to get to Raven and another one on the opposite arm as
the younger woman tried to maneuver around him.
“Cade, I can handle…” Raven started to say.
“Is there a problem here?” Sean stepped towards them.
Kim spun around and, after one look at his uncle in full uniform, she bolted down the street, laughing hysterically. Cade shrugged his shoulders at his uncle, who turned around and headed towards a group of loud people.
“That was fun,” Raven said dryly.
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re not the one with the bruises.” Cade rubbed at his shoulder.
“Oh.” Raven wrapped her arms around him. “Did the little girl hurt your big…”—her hands wrapped around his biceps— “hard”—she leaned closer to him— “muscles?” She squeezed his arm, and he completely forgot about Kim or the slight sting to his skin.
“Let’s go home,” he said, taking her arm and practically dragging her to his car.
“What about my car?” she asked with a giggle.
“We’ll get it tomorrow.” He opened his car door for her.
Before she could respond, he nudged her inside, ran around, and had the engine roaring. His place was only five minutes outside of town, but thanks to the crowd of people leaving at the same time, it was close to fifteen minutes before they finally pulled into his driveway.
He had yet to cool down and still wanted her just as badly as he had in the town square.
“Raven,” he said, opening her car door for her.
“No, don’t.” She placed a hand over his lips. “Let’s talk later.” She took his hand in his and pulled him towards the house. “After.”
He wasn’t stupid. You didn’t have to tell him something twice. Especially when it came to the possibility of having really great sex with the woman he’d grown to love.
The moment they stepped through the door to his place, she plastered her body against his.
He’d enjoyed the view of her in the little black dress she’d worn that evening. Even though it was extremely modest, he liked the look of her in it. Liked the soft sexy scent that surrounded her everywhere she went. The feeling of her skin against his own when he pulled the dress off of her.
He could no longer hold back his feelings, nor did he want to. With each article of clothing that he removed of hers, he took his time exploring her, savoring her, consuming her.
Somehow, they moved away from the front door and ended up in the kitchen, where he hoisted her naked body onto the bar top and stepped between her thighs. Their lips never left one another as he slowly entered her with her legs wrapped around his hips.
“Tell me,” she asked softly as she sucked his earlobe in between her teeth.
In the middle of the haze of lust, he somehow understood what she was asking.
“I love you.” The words burst from him as if she controlled every aspect of his physical being.
“I love you too,” she said just as he felt her tighten around him, forcing him to lose himself completely in her.
When he regained himself, he hoisted her up in his arms and carried her upstairs to the bedroom. There, they lay in each other’s arms, talking in hushed tones until he felt her drift off to sleep.
It seemed like he’d just fallen asleep himself when the doorbell rang and Blue barked, jolting him awake.
“What?” Raven pushed her hair out of her face and looked around as if she’d forgotten where she was.
“I’ve got this.” He pulled on a pair of sweats and headed downstairs. As he walked by, he grabbed his cell phone, which he’d left in his jeans pocket when he’d tossed them on his living room floor earlier.
Seeing the more than dozen texts and calls from his uncle, he knew automatically who was waking him up at three in the morning.
“Hey.” He answered the door and stood back as Sean walked in.
“Tell me Raven is here with you,” Sean said, stepping in and glancing around. His uncle’s eyes locked onto the sexy black dress she’d been wearing earlier, now draped over a barstool, and he relaxed.
“What’s up?” he asked, glancing towards the stairs.
“Didn’t you read my texts?” Sean asked.
“No, I left my phone downstairs,” Cade answered.
“Along with the rest of your clothes.” Sean pushed aside one of Raven’s heels, which was sitting in the middle of the entryway. “Kim McKinney was murdered.”
“What?” Cade hadn’t meant to shout. His eyes jerked up to the top of the stairs where Raven was standing in a pair of his sweat shorts and a T-shirt, a hand on the railing.
He rushed to the base of the stairs. “You could have stayed in bed,” he said, rushing up to her.
“I…” She shook her head. “Kim is dead?”
“Tell me the two of you were here, doing what I think you were doing, from the moment you left the event tonight,” Sean said, sounding a little weary.
“We were,” Cade responded as Raven sat down on the sofa.
“Good.” Sean started to leave.
“How?” Raven asked. “Where?”
His uncle stopped and sighed. “How, I’m going to find out. Where… the gazebo.” He shook his head.
“What? In the middle of town?” Cade asked.
“Yup, right under all those sparkly pretty lights.” Sean shook his head. “I had hoped…” He stopped suddenly. “Never mind.”
“You don’t know how she died?” Raven asked as she wrapped the throw blanket over her body.
“She was tied up, strung up. Like an animal. We’re not sure if she really died from suffocation or something else at this point.”
“How horrible.” Raven shook her head. Then she gasped. “You think… Because of what… Oh my god.” It hit her at the same time it hit him. “You think I had something to do with it?”
His uncle was there, checking to see if Raven had an alibi. Because everyone in town had witnessed the fight between the two women, he knew that most people in town would assume the same thing his uncle had. That Raven had killed Kim.
“No.” Sean held up his hands. “I never thought it. I’m only here to assure you have a tight alibi. That’s all.” Sean moved over and sat across from Raven. “I never believed you could hurt Kim, or Rachelle and Joseph. Never,” he clarified.
Raven nodded slowly. “Thank you.”
“Now, I have to head back out. But I need your promise that the two of you will stay put.” He glanced over at Cade.
“We have the day off tomorrow,” he assured his uncle. “We were going to take a hike.”
“For now, I think it’s best if you stick somewhere I can keep an eye on you.” Sean turned to Raven. “I don’t really think someone is out for you, but it appears that they really want to make this all about you.”
“You think someone is setting her up for the murders?” Cade asked, moving to sit beside Raven.
His uncle shrugged. “It’s a working theory.”
“We’ll stick around here tomorrow then,” Cade responded.
“Thanks.” Sean stood up. “Sorry to wake the both of you.”
“Who found Kim?” Raven asked as his uncle started to leave.
Sean stopped, glanced back, and sighed as his eyes locked with Cade’s. “Your mother did.”
The moment his front door shut, Cade fumbled his cell phone out of his sweat pockets and dialed his mother’s number.
“Mom?” he said when she answered quickly. “Are you okay?”
“I am,” his mother reassured him. She sounded tired and weary.
“Want to come over? I think we’re up.” He glanced over at Raven, who nodded.
“I’m fine, I’m just…” He heard her sigh. “I’ll bring something to eat.”
“I’ll make coffee,” he added before hanging up.
“How does she sound?” Raven asked.
“Shaken,” he admitted. “For as long as it took me to get past Reggie’s death, it took her twice as long.” He leaned in and hugged her, then kissed her on the top of the head before getting up t
o start a pot of coffee.
By the time his mother arrived, Raven had changed into a pair of her yoga pants and an oversized sweater. She’d braided her hair and had helped him pick up their discarded clothing.
His mother had stopped off at the town’s bakery and had a large box of freshly baked donuts, scones, and muffins.
His grandmother showed up just after sunrise with some fresh fruit and homemade biscuits and gravy. Sean came back just before noon with takeout Chinese food for everyone.
The day was filled with food, his family, and more questions than answers.
“The coroner has confirmed Kim’s cause of death was asphyxiation. He has the death down at around ten.”
“Less than an hour after everyone left last night,” Raven said.
“What were you doing there so late?” Cade asked his mother. He’d assumed that she’d found Kim shortly after everyone had left.
“I was…” Her eyes moved to Sean.
“She was leaving my place,” Sean said with a sigh.
Cade’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t let her walk home alone.” It was a statement.
“No,” Sean said clearly.
“So the two of you found Kim?” Raven asked.
“Yes,” Sean said, looking at Cade.
“Why hide…” Raven started, then she chuckled. “I think Cade knows by now that you two—”
“It’s fine,” Cade broke in. “You don’t have to hide things like this from me.”
“It’s just…” Sean looked a little uncomfortable.
“Son, our love life is none of your business,” Fiona broke in. “If Sean wants to keep certain details from you, he can.” She stood up to clear the dishes.
A look passed between Cade and his uncle, then Cade held out his hand. “If you promise to keep some details to yourself, I’ll promise not to hit you.”
Sean laughed and shook Cade’s hand. “If you think you can hit me, by all means, try.”
Cade smiled. “You’re just an old man. Slow.” He narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on his uncle’s hand. It was an old game between them.