by Layne, Ivy
“I’m sure, really, it was just a thing for a second. I’m fine. But I was in the kitchen and—”
I filled him in on what I’d witnessed and he shook his head in annoyance. “If Savannah can’t get Miss Stiles back, Finn’s taking over until she finds someone else whether he wants to or not. But really? Culinary Institute of America and Cordon Bleu? That’s impressive. I knew he left home after high school, but I didn’t know he was a trained chef. And he wants to open a restaurant? Interesting.”
“I know. Now I really want him to cook for us. I want to know if he’s any good after all that bragging. And speaking of cooking, do you want to raid the kitchen? I didn’t eat much lunch and you skipped it altogether. Then I was thinking maybe some hot cocoa and a fire in our bedroom. So we could watch the snow and, um, other stuff.”
“Hmm, some of that sounds good.” Griffen scooped me up in his arms, sweat and all. I didn’t mind. In Griffen’s arms was one of my favorite places to be.
He strode from the room, explaining, “I’m taking you upstairs, and you can help me wash off all this sweat. And then I’m going to make you come at least twice, maybe three times, and then I’m going to feed you a brownie, in bed, while we watch the snow. How does that sound?”
“That sounds just about perfect.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Griffen
I leaned over the laptop, scrolling through the contract we were reviewing. “Tricky bastards. They keep trying to slip something in.” A click and I deleted the extra lines before moving on. “I’ll be glad when we’re done with these clowns. By the time this contract expires we need to have an alternate supplier in place.”
“Got it,” Hope said, adding it to the list in her ever-present notebook.
A quick double rap sounded on the door and both of our heads popped up. Royal stuck his head inside the office. I thought he’d headed out to the Inn after breakfast. Maybe he’d come back.
“Come in,” I said, closing the laptop. “I’m ready to take a break from this anyway.”
A little hesitant, Royal crossed the room and took one of the big leather chairs in front of the desk. He sat, propping an ankle on his knee before he leaned forward.
“I know you haven’t had a lot of time to get up to speed with the business, and it’s even harder with Ford… gone.”
“We’re getting there. I’d be lost without Hope.”
Royal gave Hope a surprisingly affectionate smile. “I can see that,” he said. “It was a surprise, you two getting married, but it’s good to see you both happy.”
I leaned back in my chair, taking Hope’s hand with a smile that probably showed more than I meant it to. I didn’t care. Hope smiled back before dropping her eyes, still too shy for public displays of affection.
“Is that what brought you in today?” I asked. “Here to wish us happy?”
“Not exactly. I had some thoughts about the Inn that I wanted to run by you. I’ll be honest and tell you that I ran most of this by Dad and Ford. Ford was in favor of it. Dad was not.”
“If you’re trying to get me on your side, that’s a good start,” I said.
“That’s what I was hoping,” Royal said with a hint of his charming grin. “The first thing is the guest cottages. We have more land along the river and the cottages have been selling out on a regular basis, year-round. I put together some numbers—”
Royal handed me a manila folder. A quick look showed spreadsheets and graphs. “Tenn and I believe the investment would pay off within a few years, if not sooner. On top of that, we’d like to do more coordination with the rest of the family businesses. Dad was determined to keep us all separate. Islands unto ourselves and all that. We have a great restaurant at the Inn, but we should coordinate more with Avery’s brewery, and I know she’d like to add a restaurant at some point, which would be great as an alternate place to send a guest for a meal and still keep them in the family. Ditto for offering activity packages through Quinn’s guide business.”
“Hope and I haven’t reviewed the family concerns since I knew the rest of you had them under control, but I assumed all of this was already going on. I didn’t know about Avery wanting a restaurant, but the rest of it. Why would Dad hamstring you like this?”
“Paranoid, I think, that we were plotting against him. Or he was just being an asshole. With Dad, it’s hard to tell.”
“True enough. I can’t see any reason we shouldn’t do everything you suggested. Hope and I will take a look at these numbers you put together, but if they look as good as you think they do, we can start talking construction plans.”
Relief washed over Royal’s face. He let out a breath as if steeling himself and went on, “There’s something else. I never mentioned this before because, well, I wasn’t interested in working any closer with Dad than I had to. I don’t know how Ford did it. He acted as a buffer for the rest of us, and I appreciate it, but I didn’t want that job.”
“Dad’s gone,” I said, flatly. “And I don’t know when Ford is coming back.”
“I know. I’d like you to consider letting me take Ford’s place,” he said carefully.
I have to admit, I was surprised. From my siblings, I’d gotten mostly contempt and dismissal. They’d been ignoring and avoiding me for the most part. That was fine, honestly.
I had enough on my plate between taking over the business and getting the house in shape, a new wife and a new life—if they wanted to give me space I’d take all I could get.
Not sure what Royal really wanted—or if I could trust him—I raised an eyebrow and said nothing.
“I don’t want to leave the Inn completely, but we’re growing there and need more than just Tenn and I at the helm. I thought we could bring on a CFO. Tenn could officially have the CEO position, and I could split my time between the Inn and working for Sawyer Enterprises.”
“Why?” I had to ask.
“Look, I love the Inn. I’m proud of everything we’ve accomplished there, but sometimes I want to do more. Sawyer Enterprises is so diverse, you’re always doing something different. I guess I’m restless.”
“And Tenn? How would he feel about this?”
“Tenn loves the Inn, loves everything about it. I talked to him about the idea and he was open to it. He doesn’t want to go anywhere. He likes having control over all the moving parts of the property. Truthfully, he doesn’t understand how I could be restless. Every day at the Inn is different. New guests, new challenges. I guess I just want a different kind of different.”
I stared at my brother, lost in thought. I couldn’t deny it would be helpful to have another hand on deck, assuming I could trust him. I didn’t have a reason to distrust him any more than he had one to distrust me. Wasn’t it time I took a chance on one of them? Didn’t I have to eventually?
“Let me think about it,” I hedged. Royal’s face shuttered. “I’m not saying no. I just need to think about it and go over everything you’ve given me. It’s a big decision and I’m still getting my feet wet here. I can’t just say yes.”
Royal looked between Hope and me and nodded. “Fair enough.”
“Now, to save some time, why don’t you walk me through some of this—” I gestured to the manila folder he’d given me.
Royal opened the folder and spread sheets of paper across my desk. Cost projections, a map of that section of the Inn property, complete with sketches of proposed cottages. Noticing that one of them could be moved to catch a better view of the river, I reached for my pen and found it missing.
Shuffling through the papers, I was about to pull a new one from the drawer when I looked down and saw the pen by my foot. “One sec,” I said, leaning down.
A sharp crack of glass, a deep thud sounded, and my chair rocked back hard, knocking me to the floor. I hit the carpet hard on my hands and knees, momentarily stunned.
What
the fuck was that?
Turning, I spotted a neat hole in the back of my leather chair exactly where my head had been. A bullet hole. The broken window closest to my desk had a matching hole, spiderwebs of cracks reaching out from the center across the clear glass.
What the fucking fuck?
Hope jolted upright in a rush, reaching for me as her face drained of blood and she crumpled to the floor.
“Hope!” I lunged across the carpet for Hope, shouting to Royal, “Call Hawk. Tell him we have a shooter on the grounds.”
I vaguely heard Royal talking into his phone as I checked Hope for injuries. No blood, nothing broken. She hadn’t been shot. I forced myself to take a deep breath. Hope hadn’t been shot, she’d just stood up too fast and fainted.
She was already coming to, her fluttering hands batting me away as I rolled her over to double-check that she didn’t have any injuries.
“Are you OK?” she asked, voice weak but gaining strength fast. “Griffen! Did someone shoot you?”
“I’m fine, they missed. Why did you pass out?”
“I don’t know, I just got up too fast. Maybe it was the shock. You leaned over and then the window cracked and there’s a hole in your chair. Griffen, someone shot at you? Is Royal talking to West?”
“No, Hawk.” I looked to Royal, who hung up his phone.
“Hawk started a search, told me to stay with Hope, said you should get out there.”
“What? No!” Hope’s hands closed over my arm and held on tight. “There’s someone out there with a gun and they’re trying to kill you. You can’t go out there. Are you crazy?”
I pulled my loaded weapon from the holster at my lower back. “I’m armed,” I reminded her gently, “and this is what I’m trained for. I need you to trust me, Hope. I have to go out there.”
Royal took my place, helping Hope to her feet. “Hawk told me to get her to the lower level, away from any windows, and call West. Go, before he gets away.”
I pressed a quick kiss to Hope’s mouth and promised, “I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise.”
I hated leaving Hope behind, but she was safer in the house with Royal and I needed to do my job. I ran through the house, past the unused family gathering room and out through the side door, not far from the edge of the woods. I called Hawk as I ran and learned that he’d picked up the shooter’s trail a few hundred yards west of my location.
It had been years since I’d been in the woods on that side of the house, but as I curved around the back of the property to meet up with Hawk I realized the shooter was retracing his steps back in the direction of the area where I’d been run off the road. Fuck.
Keeping low, my weapon in hand, I moved as fast as I could and still stay alert to my surroundings. As far as I could tell, I was alone in this part of the woods. Hawk was fast and he had a head start. He’d also spent the last few weeks learning every inch of the house and surrounding property. He might have been a newcomer, but he knew his way around better than I did.
I came over the rise to see Hawk staring up the hill in disgust. He shook his head when he saw me. “Fucking bastard was fast. Took off like a bat out of hell. I’d say he didn’t even stick around to see if he hit you. Just took the shot and ran. Smart. This about where you got run off the road?”
I didn’t have to look around to answer. “Yep. I rolled down that hill and hiked this way back to the house.”
“I heard a truck engine start up and take off a few seconds after I got here. That’s not much proof, but my gut says whoever tried to run you off the road took the shot.”
I holstered my weapon at the small of my back. The holster wasn’t my first choice, but I hadn’t wanted my weapon at my side where Hope would see it.
“Well, fuck. Suggestions? Do we need to put in a fence?” I scanned the woods surrounding us. The idea of a fence didn’t sit right. Forgetting the fact that it would be expensive as hell, a fence would be an annoying disruption to everything and everyone, cutting through our hiking trails and trapping local wildlife.
Hawk shook his head. “No. It would take too long and it wouldn’t be worth the cost. I can put up an electronic perimeter. I have some of the equipment and can order the rest. We’ll get a lot of false positives, but we’d get those if we had a wired fence anyway. And I’d rather send the guys out or go check myself and have eyes on the property. It’ll only take a few days. Let’s get back to the house and talk to West.”
“Yeah, I want to get back to Hope. She hasn’t been feeling well, and she passed out after that asshole shot through the window. Said she stood up too fast but—”
Hawk raised an eyebrow. “She pregnant? Already? Didn’t you two just get married?”
“It’s not that,” I said automatically before turning the word over in my mind. Pregnant? No. It was too soon to know, wasn’t it? We’d been careful, except for that one time… I couldn’t process the thought.
It seemed to take forever to get back to the house. West was walking through the door when we got there. I shot him a wave. “I’ll be right back. Meet me in the office.”
I sprinted up the stairs and down the hall to find Hope lying on the sofa in our sitting room, cradling a cup of tea in her hands, a worried line etched between her eyebrows. She sat up when I came through the door, almost spilling her tea.
“You’re all right,” she said.
“Of course, I’m all right. We chased him through the woods, but he got away. Hawk thinks it could be the same guy with the truck from a few weeks ago. He’s going to put up a perimeter around the house. No one will get close enough to take a shot at us again.”
“Are you sure?”
I sat on the edge of the sofa, urging her back until she was lying down. I brushed her hair off her face, wanting to chase the worry from her eyes. “This isn’t the first time someone has tried to kill me. Hopefully, it’ll be the last. I don’t want you to worry.”
“Not worry? Are you insane? How could I not worry? Someone shot you!”
“Someone shot at me. Trust me, I know the difference,” I said, thinking of my shoulder. Big fucking difference.
Hope scowled. “Smartass. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I’m being careful. I promise. I have to go talk to West and Hawk, see what we can do to make sure we’re safe. I wanted to check on you first. Are you better? How are you feeling? You went down hard. That’s the second time you fainted.”
“No, it’s not. I just got a little dizzy the other day, that’s all. I’ve been lightheaded. Maybe I’m drinking too much coffee or something.”
I narrowed my eyes on her, thinking back. “You haven’t been drinking coffee at all lately. You said your stomach felt funny.”
I thought about what Hawk had said. Thought about asking Hope straight out and immediately pushed the idea way. She’d tell me if she was. Wouldn’t she? The last thing I wanted to do was give her more to worry about.
“It’s nothing, I think I have a cold. I’ve been a little stuffy and I had a headache the last few days, that’s all. I always feel lightheaded and tired when I have a cold. Don’t worry about me. I’ll text Savannah if I need anything. You go figure out security stuff with Hawk and West. I’m just going to close my eyes after I finish this tea.”
A cold. She had been drinking a lot of tea and sniffling the day before. That made sense. I wasn’t expecting a flash of regret at her simple explanation. Just a cold. Nothing to worry about.
I wanted to stay, to curl up on the couch with her and just be. More, I needed to know she’d be safe. I pulled a soft blanket over her, dropping a slow kiss on her mouth before I finally dragged myself away and headed down to plug the holes in our security with Hawk and West.
I had no intention of being shot, but I wasn’t going to be a prisoner either. One way or another, we’d figure this out.
I’d never been an overly optimistic man before. Maybe Hope had softened me up. Maybe I was just happy.
Or stupid.
I should have been more suspicious.
I should have been more careful.
I should have remembered how quickly things can go bad, just when you least expect it.
Chapter Forty
Hope
I closed my eyes and slept for six hours. Griffen woke me for dinner, concern in his eyes. I lied and told him it was just a cold and truthfully admitted I was starving. That was my pattern lately. I woke late with my stomach turning over, wasn’t hungry until afternoon, and then I ate like a pig at dinner.
I wanted it to be a cold. The flu. A random virus I’d picked up somewhere. As each day passed and it got worse, I was afraid it was something else.
I was late.
My period wasn’t regular. It wasn’t irregular either, it was just kind of vague. I’m not one of those women who knows the exact day it’s going to show up, but I did have a general idea and that general idea had passed about a week before. My breasts were tender, and I was dizzy. Queasy when I wasn’t starving.
I hadn’t figured out what to do about it. I wanted to know one way or the other. But how?
Of course, I could just tell my husband. Everything in me rejected that idea. I wasn’t ready to accept the thought that I might be pregnant. I’d sure as heck wasn’t ready to talk about it with Griffen.
It wasn’t like I could run out and buy a test. There was only one drug store in town and I knew everyone who worked there. Ditto for the grocery store. The last thing I needed was for everyone to find out Hope Sawyer had been seen buying a pregnancy test. Griffen would get a dozen calls before I made it back home.
I could get one somewhere out of town, except that I never left town without Griffen. Usually, when I ran into a store he came with me. I couldn’t think of a way to ask for privacy that wouldn’t seem awkward and weird. Maybe I could order one online. Or ask Daisy or J.T. to get me one. J.T. drove into Asheville every morning for school. He wouldn’t mind stopping at a drugstore.