by Gina Wilkins
“We do, but the first and most important decision concerns us. Which brings me to a proposition I have for you.”
He cleared his throat, looking suddenly, uncharacteristically nervous. Her heart suddenly pounding against her chest, Hannah felt her eyes widen. Surely he wasn’t going to suggest...
“Hannah, would you—”
A hard thump on the back of the trailer made him whirl in that direction with a frown. “What on earth?”
She must have jumped a foot in response to the crash, which only demonstrated how much she had tensed when Andrew started to speak. He crossed the room to draw back the curtain and look out the back window into the darkness.
“Do you see anything?” she asked. “Is it still raining? Is the wind blowing?”
“No to all of the above.” He turned toward the door. “Maybe a tree limb fell?”
“There isn’t a tree behind my house,” she reminded him. “Not close enough for a limb to hit without any wind anyway.”
“Stay here. I’ll check it out, just to be safe.” He reached for the doorknob, shaking his head. “We really are going to finish this conversation eventually.”
She was sure he meant it as a promise rather than a threat. So it made no sense that she gulped and wiped her suddenly damp palms on her yoga pants in response.
She stood in the open doorway while Andrew walked around the end of her home to investigate the sound. The air still felt cool and damp against her face. Overhead, the clouds were beginning to drift apart, revealing patches of stars sprinkled in the night sky. Puddles on the asphalt road reflected the light from the security lamps on tall poles between the mobile homes. Across the road, she saw Pax snoozing on Steven’s porch, his stocky yellow body illuminated by the amber porch light burning beside the front door. Poor old Pax was going to miss Steven when he left for the fire academy. The dog would be well-cared for and would get plenty of attention from the rest of the affectionate family, but he and Steven shared a special bond.
She made a mental note to give the dog a little extra attention herself in the fall, then remembered that she would have a newborn infant by then. She swallowed hard again. Every once in a while, the reality of that huge looming change in her life overwhelmed her.
Speaking of imminent challenges...
Andrew came back into view, shrugging when he met her eyes. “I didn’t see anything.”
“That’s odd. I wonder what made that noise?”
“I’ll look again tomorrow in daylight,” he promised, coming up the steps. He paused when he reached the top. She didn’t immediately move out of the doorway.
“Well?” he asked. “Are you going to let me in?”
“I’m thinking about it,” she admitted, resting one hand against the doorjamb. She would let him in, of course, but considering where their conversation had seemed to be headed earlier, she didn’t think anyone could blame her for procrastinating.
Wearing a faint smile, Andrew crossed his arms and leaned back against the railing. “Is there a password or—”
She heard a loud crack and she cried out in shock when Andrew fell backward, disappearing from in front of her eyes.
Chapter Six
Rousing herself from her momentary paralysis, Hannah leaped forward. Andrew lay on the ground on his back, surrounded by broken segments of the redwood handrailing from her porch. Taking as much care as possible, she hurried down the still-slightly damp steps.
Andrew was already struggling to rise on one elbow when she reached him. His face was thrown into shadows, but she thought she saw a dark smear on his forehead. She touched her fingers to his face, and they came away sticky. “You’re bleeding.”
“Bumped my head on a rock,” he muttered, tentatively raising his hand to his temple. “It’s just a graze.”
“Don’t move, I’ll call for help.”
He caught her wrist when she would have moved away. “Hannah, it was a three-foot fall. I’ll be fine.”
Still, he’d fallen hard, landing awkwardly on rocks and the broken railing. She hovered nearby when he rose gingerly. Before he’d even made it all the way to his feet, she heard doors open and raised voices.
“Is everything okay?” Maggie called from next door.
Aaron must have looked out from across the road to check on the noise. He sprinted over to support his brother, taking in the scene in a sweeping glance as Shelby followed only a bit more slowly. Aaron was still in jeans and a T-shirt, bare feet stuffed into sandals. Shelby wore plaid sleep shorts, a lace-edged tank top and flip-flops, evidence to Hannah that they’d settled in for a quiet evening. Pax raised his head from Steven’s porch and gave a questioning bark.
“Everything okay over there?” Steven called from his doorway.
“It’s fine, Steven,” Andrew replied. “Don’t try to get out. We’re good.”
“Andrew, you’re bleeding,” Shelby said, peering up at him.
He swiped at his temple with the back of one hand, smearing blood across his cheek, a dark stripe in the dim light. “It’s shallow,” he assured them. “I’ll stick an adhesive strip on it in a minute. First, I want to know what happened with this railing. How the hell did it break just from my leaning against it?”
“Good question,” Aaron agreed grimly, bending to study the broken rail. “Hannah, do you have a flashlight?”
“I’ll get it,” Maggie said before Hannah could reply, heading toward the door. “I know where she keeps it.”
Hannah figured Maggie thought she could move faster and more safely up the steps—and she was probably right. Maggie was back in only a couple of minutes while Hannah hovered close to Andrew, her throat still tight from the shock of watching him fall. She noted that he moved rather stiffly as he and Aaron closely examined the railing and the porch, talking in low, solemn voices while Aaron ran the beam of the flashlight over every inch of wood on the ground and the porch. Andrew’s white shirt and khaki pants were smeared with mud now—at least, she hoped it was only mud and that there wasn’t any blood hidden by the dirt.
“I can’t imagine why that railing broke,” Maggie fretted, shaking her head. “Dad built that porch himself, and he’s such a stickler about making sure everything is solid and secure.”
“The broken railing was a result of Andrew’s fall, not the cause of it,” Aaron replied grimly.
Hannah frowned. “I don’t understand.”
Andrew rested a hand on her shoulder. Even though his touch was gentle, his face was hard with barely suppressed anger. “Someone deliberately sabotaged your railing, Hannah. Some of the wood screws are missing altogether, and I know your dad didn’t leave it that way. When I leaned against the railing, the supports gave way. The handrail broke when I landed on it.”
Hannah was stunned into silence. Not so Maggie. “Who on earth would take the screws out of Hannah’s porch?” she asked in bewilderment. “And why?”
“I’ll be right back.” Carrying the flashlight, Aaron ran next door to Maggie’s trailer, where he examined the porch closely before crossing the road to Shelby’s and Steven’s homes.
Seeing Andrew wipe his face again, Hannah shook off her stupor. “Come inside,” she ordered him. “I want to get a look at that cut. I have a first-aid kit if it only needs a bandage. I can make tea for anyone who wants to come in for some.”
Shelby glanced down as if trying to decide if her state of dress was sufficient, then shrugged and nodded. “Tea sounds good. I’m sure the guys are going to want to talk about this.”
Thinking of a talk that had been delayed—yet again—Hannah nodded and turned toward her home, accepting her sister’s help as they climbed the steps.
* * *
Andrew was furious and having a hard time keeping that anger in check. He did not consider himself a violent man, but if the person who had removed the screws from Hannah’s porch supports stood in front of him now, he couldn’t promise he would keep his hands to himself. The thought of her falling, hitting the gro
und with the same force he had, especially in her condition—the thought of her being injured, maybe even losing the baby...
His fists clenched and a low growl escaped his tight throat.
Hannah’s hands stilled in the process of cleaning and bandaging the cut at his left temple. “Am I hurting you?”
She and Maggie had both fussed that perhaps he should go to the E.R. for a scan, but he’d assured them that wasn’t necessary and Aaron had backed him up. He was sore all over and figured he’d have more than a few colorful bruises the next day. There was a distinct possibility he’d cracked a rib on his right side. A dull headache throbbed in his temples and at the back of his neck, but his vision was fine, he wasn’t dizzy or confused. He wasn’t concussed, just mad as hell.
“You aren’t hurting me. Just stick a bandage on it and I’ll be fine.”
Leaning over the kitchen chair in which he sat, she frowned at him. “If you won’t be still, the bandage is liable to end up in your eye.”
Sitting across the table with a cup of hot tea, Shelby giggled. Andrew gave her a look, but subsided so Hannah could finish her task.
Not amused, Aaron paced the kitchen. “So no one’s porch was touched except Hannah’s,” he murmured, organizing his thoughts aloud. “We haven’t had time to check the houses, but there’s no reason to think anything has been done there. We should check in daylight tomorrow, just to be sure, but this seems to be aimed at Hannah for some reason. Which makes the slashing of her tires yesterday look less like a random act of vandalism.”
Unable to stay away, Steven had crossed the road on his crutches to join them. He sat now at the table with Maggie and Shelby, all of them watching Aaron pace and Hannah patch Andrew’s cut. “Who would want to hurt Hannah of all people? I mean, Hannah’s the nicest of all of us.”
Andrew noted that Maggie and Shelby nodded as if that were a given, while Hannah made an embarrassed sound of skepticism.
Aaron turned to cock his head in Steven’s direction. “Is there any chance sabotage was involved in your accident?” he asked, nodding toward the crutches propped at the back of Steven’s chair.
Steven shook his head. “Totally my own fault. I let my thoughts wander while I was mowing, took an angle too steeply and turned over the mower.”
Even though Steven didn’t further elaborate, Andrew figured he’d been thinking about his future, trying to work up the courage to tell his family he wanted to leave the resort and train for a firefighting career.
“So it’s aimed at Hannah, then,” Aaron said with a grim expression.
Andrew felt the slightest tremor in Hannah’s fingers when she smoothed the adhesive bandage against his temple. Once again fury flared, and again he had to forcefully tamp it down. He needed to think clearly, rationally, and he couldn’t do that when his mind was clouded with anger.
Maggie watched Hannah pack away the first-aid supplies. “Chuck Cavender,” she said simply.
Hannah started. “We can’t know that.”
Andrew remembered that her ex-father-in-law had been the first person who’d popped into Hannah’s mind as a potential suspect in the vandalism of her car. He remembered, too, the uneasy feeling he’d had when they’d all ended up at the same intersection earlier that day.
He stood to push Hannah gently but firmly into his chair at the four-seat table, saying she needed to get off her feet for a while. “Does he resent you that much?” he asked when she was settled.
“Yes,” she said simply. “But it still seems unlike him to sneak around and cause this kind of mischief.”
“This was more than mischief, Hannah. This was an attack on you and the baby,” Andrew snapped, his simmering temper momentarily getting away from him. He wasn’t angry with her of course, but it was a good thing Chuck Cavender wasn’t within his reach at that moment. “I think I’ll have a talk with him tomorrow.”
Hannah swiveled in the chair to gaze up at him. “Andrew, you can’t just show up at his house and throw accusations at him without some sort of evidence. You of all people should know that.”
“I know how to question a suspect.” Aware that he’d snapped, he grimaced somewhat apologetically afterward.
She narrowed her eyes at him, reading the emotions roiling inside him. “With your fists?”
“If necessary.”
“I can see how Cavender could have gotten to your tires,” Aaron mused, leaning against the counter. “But would it be so easy for him to get to your porch? He’d have had to come through the gate, right?”
“Well, anyone can come through the gate,” Maggie pointed out. “If they aren’t registered guests, all they have to do is pay five dollars for one day’s admission.”
And no names or license plate numbers were taken at the gate, Andrew thought. Maybe that should change in the future.
“Still, he’d have risked being recognized by someone,” Aaron continued. “I’m assuming he spent some time here when you and the evil ex were married, Hannah.”
She nodded with a grimace at his use of the nickname everyone in the family had given Wade.
“He wouldn’t necessarily have come through the gate,” Steven suggested.
Leaning side by side against the counter now, Andrew and Aaron both looked hard at Hannah’s cousin. “There’s another way in?” Andrew asked. “Why didn’t I know that?”
“The old road?” Maggie asked, looking from Steven to Hannah. “I guess Wade knew about it, but would Chuck?”
“I don’t know,” Hannah replied unhappily.
“What old road?” Andrew demanded.
“It’s hardly more than a dirt path through the woods now,” Steven explained. “It’s the original road from the old highway to the river, before the dam was put in and the resort was built. It’s not on any of our resort maps, but it runs through the woods behind Pop and Mimi’s house. We used to ride four-wheelers and dirt bikes on the road when we were kids, but it’s pretty rutted and overgrown now. It’s still accessible from the old highway, though there’s a chain and a No Trespassing sign at the entrance. I guess someone could have gotten around the chain if they set their mind to it.”
Andrew was stunned that he’d never known about the old road. “Why the hell didn’t anyone tell me about that road? Did anyone mention it to you?” he asked Aaron.
His brother shook his head. “First I’ve heard of it.”
“Not even when Shelby was missing?” Andrew asked in exasperation. “You didn’t search it then to see if the chain was still in place?”
“Aaron didn’t know about it and the rest of us didn’t think of it,” Maggie admitted. “Besides, Aaron was pretty sure he knew who had Shelby, so his focus was on Cabin 7.”
Andrew slammed a hand down on the counter in frustration. “So I’ve been focusing on a plan for lighting and closed-circuit cameras without even knowing there was an unsecured entrance to the damn resort?”
He was aware that everyone except his brother was looking at him in surprise. Aaron was more accustomed to seeing Andrew’s rare but occasionally explosive bursts of temper.
“We’ve never really had any serious problems here before,” Shelby explained tentatively. “I mean, sure, we’ve had to summon the police a few times for drunk-and-disorderly calls. The evil ex caused us all that trouble last summer, but he didn’t sneak into the resort in the process. Even when Landon—or whatever his real name was—grabbed me, it was a stupid and impulsive act, not a well-planned, covert operation. The old road just never crossed our minds.”
“I want a topographical map of this place. I want to know every possible way in or out, even if it’s just a footpath.”
Hannah studied Andrew with a raised eyebrow in response to his imperious commands. “You are aware that you aren’t on the job here, right?”
He leveled a look at her. “Let’s just say I have a vested interest in keeping this family safe.”
Maggie coughed.
Shelby smiled weakly at Aaron. “Is he th
is protective of all his former clients?”
“Not so much,” Aaron murmured, his expression suddenly speculative.
“I will find out who’s behind this,” Andrew promised. “If it’s Cavender, I’ll find proof, and I’ll put a stop to it.”
“You have to be back in Dallas Monday,” Hannah reminded him.
“I’m in, too,” Aaron said immediately. “I’ll help you investigate and keep an eye on Hannah when you aren’t here.”
Feeling torn between his responsibilities in Dallas and his concern about Hannah and the baby, Andrew nodded shortly.
“Should we call the police about what happened tonight?” Shelby asked.
Even as he glanced at Andrew for confirmation, Aaron was shaking his head. “There’s nothing really to report. Without evidence that there was actual sabotage to the porch, they’ll say it’s just as likely the screws were left out in construction.”
Maggie scowled. “Our dad would never—”
“He said we need proof,” Hannah cut in to remind her sister. “If there’s a way to prove who did this, Andrew will find it.”
Even though gratified by her confidence, Andrew was still on edge. He was relieved that the others left not long afterward, Maggie declaring that Andrew probably had some questions for Hannah and then Hannah needed to rest. The way Maggie looked at him as she rushed his brother and her cousins out made him wonder if she either knew or suspected his role in Hannah’s pregnancy. He watched Aaron and Shelby help Steven across the road, then closed the door and turned back to Hannah.
He wasn’t sure what he expected her to say, but it wasn’t “Okay, now that everyone is gone, take off your shirt.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “I beg your pardon?”
She advanced on him with a frown of determination. “I know you didn’t want to make a big deal of your fall in front of the others, but I’ve seen the way you wince every time you turn sideways. I want to see the damage.”
“I’m okay, Hannah. Bruised and a little sore, but I wasn’t really hurt.”
Her hands were already working at the top button of his now-dirty white shirt. “Take it off.”