Bleary-eyed and stiffer than she’d have thought possible, Charlee shuffled into the kitchen the next morning and stopped short to find Hunter standing at the stove, scrambling eggs. “Morning, cher.” He pointed with the spatula. “Coffee’s ready. Eggs coming right up.” He reached over and put bread in the toaster, then went back to the eggs.
Charlee poured coffee, then slid into a chair and watched him. His dark hair glistened, still wet from his shower, and he was freshly shaved, already wearing his FWC uniform. She could get used to seeing him in her kitchen every morning. The smile disappeared. No. She couldn’t. Shouldn’t.
They were best friends. Best to leave it at that. Besides, she had a future to figure out.
Once they solved this case and Mama got a little better, Charlee would work up the courage to tell her parents she didn’t want to take over the Outpost. Liz wanted her to move into the spacious apartment above the café and become a full-time baker. Then she could create a life separate from her overprotective family and the river she’d come to hate. It was what she wanted, wasn’t it?
Hunter turned off the burner and slid a plate of eggs and toast in front of her. She pushed her conflicted feelings aside. Now was not the time.
“Eat up, cher. Today will probably be another long day.”
She watched his face as she asked, “Have you heard how Josh is?”
“I spoke to the nurse a little while ago. He’s tired and grouchy, but the scans showed no fractures or any bleeding, so they’ll release him later today.” He smiled. “He’s got a hard head, like someone else I know.”
Charlee smiled back. “No argument there.” She scooped up some eggs. “Thank you for checking. And for breakfast. Again.”
“Eggs and steak are my go-to foods. But after all this is over, I’ll make you my famous jambalaya.” He grinned. “I’m told it’s world-class.”
Charlee’s heart stuttered at his casual comment, and temptation crooked a finger. What if they took it a step further, gave in to the attraction that kept getting stronger? She choked on her eggs and tried to regain her equilibrium. Right now, they both had more important things to think about.
A sudden urge to check on Mama hit her, so she started clearing the table. “Liz needs more cupcakes, so I’ll head over to the folks’ place this morning and have Mama help me bake.” She was also the one person who could help Charlee sort out her jumbled feelings for Hunter.
“I’ve got a briefing with the captain, then I’m going to the Outpost to talk to Travis, so we’ll catch up in a while.” Hunter looked up from his cell phone, met her eyes. “How’s the head?”
Charlee thought a minute. “Everything else is sore this morning, but the head is getting better every day.”
His sexy grin warmed her all the way to her toes. “Good. I’ll drop you off on the way.”
* * *
Charlee found her mother in her usual wicker rocker on the screen porch, gazing out at the water. She smiled her lopsided smile, and Charlee’s heart clenched, as always. “Morning, Mama.” She gave her a kiss on the cheek, then sat in the other rocker. “It’s sure peaceful out here this morning.”
“My Charlotte.” Mama smiled, and Charlee saw the worry in her eyes. “How’s…Josh?”
Charlee smiled and patted her hand, always startled by how thin she’d become, how fragile. “He’s going to be fine. The nurses said he was grouchy and complaining this morning, so that’s a good sign.”
Sudden tears ran down Mama’s cheeks, and Charlee gently brushed them away. “He’s okay, Mama. Truly. They’ll release him later.”
“Could. Have. Died…You. Too.”
Her body might be struggling, but her sharp mind cut right to the heart of things. “God was looking out for all of us. We’re okay. Please don’t worry.”
At this, Alice tried to roll her eyes, and the result surprised a laugh out of Charlee. “Right. Mother’s worry. Check.” They rocked in silence for a few minutes, then she said, “Liz needs more cupcakes, so I figured we’d bake some this morning. That okay with you?”
Alice beamed and gripped the arms of her rocker as if to leap to her feet. Charlee grabbed the wheelchair and helped her into it. Within minutes, they were settled in the kitchen with the oven preheating and Alice balancing a bowl in her lap and mixing batter with her good hand, a smile on her face she never had anywhere but in the kitchen.
Mama looked up, watched Charlee’s face. “How’s…handsome…lieutenant?”
She felt the telltale blush steal over her cheeks. “Handsome.” She paused, and then the words spilled out, as always around Mama. “I like him, a lot, but I’m afraid. Things with Rick were okay for a while, but then everything got all turned around.” She paused. “I didn’t like the way Rick made me feel, like I was stupid and inadequate. Maybe I am. What if I start to feel that way with Hunter?”
Alice thumped the bowl on the table with a clatter that made Charlee jump. She wheeled the chair around and tugged Charlee down until they were face-to-face. She cupped her cheek, eyes fierce, as she forced the words out. “You are not stupid. Smart. Good instincts. Hunter good. Man.” She paused. “Rick weak. Manipulator.” Her mouth worked. “Used you, Charlotte.”
Charlee reared back in surprise. “I never knew you felt that way about him. I thought you liked him.”
“Never asked.”
Chagrined, Charlee smiled. “True, I didn’t, did I?”
Mama smiled. “Stubborn Tanner.” Then she turned her wheelchair and rolled from the kitchen. Charlee followed, surprised when Mama dug around in the magazine basket in the living room and thrust a dog-eared education journal at her. Mom might be retired, but the teacher in her was still going strong. She tapped an article on the cover.
Charlee looked down, then back at Alice. “Gaslighting?”
She nodded. “Rick. Read.”
Before she could ask more, the oven timer dinged, and they went back to the kitchen. By the time Hunter came by to pick her up, they had several dozen cupcakes ready to go. Charlee cupped her mother’s cheeks and looked into her eyes. “I love you, Mama. Thank you for this morning. I needed that time.”
Her mother’s eyes filled, something new since the stroke, since no Tanner had ever been a crier. “Love. You. More.” She pointed to the forgotten journal on the table. “Read.”
Charlee gave her a kiss and scooped the magazine into the old backpack she’d unearthed from the back of her closet after losing hers in the boat explosion. Along with her spare weapon. “I will.”
* * *
Hunter had found Travis behind the counter at the Outpost, playing a video game on his phone.
When he saw Hunter, all the color drained out of Travis’s face. “Is Josh okay? Mr. Tanner said he got hurt. He’s in the hospital.” He glanced around, then lowered his voice, though there was nobody else in the store. “He said Josh’s boat blew up. That can’t be right, can it?”
Hunter rested a hand on his weapon as he focused on Travis. “That’s why I’m here. What do you know about it?”
Travis jumped up, and the stool he’d been sitting on crashed into the wall behind the counter. “What do I know about it? Are you crazy? I don’t know anything about it. Why would I?”
Hunter folded his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes. “Let’s try this instead. What do you know about some dead alligators?”
“You mean the three that were down on the bank a couple miles downriver?” He shrugged. “Yeah, they stank pretty bad.”
“When exactly did you see them?”
Travis’s eyes bounced back and forth across the room. “Uh, yesterday morning, before work. I, ah, took a ride in my kayak.” He looked away. “I’m trying to get in shape.”
Since he looked like the only thing he bench-pressed was a video game controller, Hunter figured he had a long way to go. But he never criticized anyone trying to improve.
“Why didn’t you report the dead alligators?”
“I didn’t know I was supposed to.” He cocked his head. “I’m supposed to tell you guys stuff like that, huh?”
Hunter suppressed a sigh. “Yes, Travis, you’re supposed to report stuff like that.”
He shrugged. “Sorry. I didn’t know. But what’s the big deal? They weren’t hurting anyone. They were already dead.”
“When did you kill them?”
Travis’s head whipped around so fast, Hunter thought he heard a snap. “I didn’t kill them. Why would I?”
Hunter stepped around the counter. Travis inched backward until his back hit the wall. “You’ve done it before. Why did you do it again?”
Travis’s eyes narrowed, and his fists clenched at his sides. “You had no right to go digging in my past. That happened a long time ago. When I was a kid. I don’t do that anymore.”
Hunter kept his eyes on Travis, voice low. “Because you’re hunting people now?”
Travis’s eyes blazed, and he lunged toward Hunter, who stepped back, hand in easy reach of his weapon.
“You don’t want to do that, Travis,” Hunter warned quietly.
Travis took a step back, threw his hands in the air, and shook his head. “I didn’t hurt anybody. I didn’t kill those gators either.”
“Where were you three days ago?”
“What day was that?” He huffed out a breath, whipped out his phone, checked the calendar app. “I had class, I think. Yeah, I had class.” He tapped the phone. “Then I went out in my kayak for a while. After that, I went back to my cabin, played video games.”
“Can anyone vouch for any of that?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know I’d need an alibi for my life. Geez.” At Hunter’s look, he shrugged. “My professor should be able to vouch for me. And people saw me on the river.”
“What people?”
“I don’t know. People people. Geez. I didn’t hurt anybody.”
Hunter took down the professor’s name. “Mind if I look around your cabin, Travis?”
His eyes narrowed. “Don’t you need a search warrant for that?”
“Why would I need that if you’re innocent? I just want to look around.”
A family with two small children came into the office, wanting to rent a canoe. Travis hurried in their direction. Over his shoulder, he said, “Go ahead and look. But I haven’t done anything wrong.”
But Hunter noticed that his hands were trembling as he handed out release forms.
* * *
Charlee leaned against the open doorway of Travis’s one-room staff cabin and covered her nose. It smelled like a locker room and looked like a storm had torn it apart. “Find anything?”
Hunter looked up, frowned. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“Travis said he didn’t care if I came, too.” When Hunter opened his mouth to say something, she added, “Don’t worry. I’m staying right here. Civilian. Evidence. I know.”
Hunter had opened the blinds and turned on the ceiling fan to let light in and the stench of sweat and old pizza out. He wore gloves and poked here and there, but nothing caught his attention until he moved the mouse on the computer and the big monitor clicked to life. The screen filled with images of Charlee.
He uttered a string of curses and turned the monitor so she could see. She gasped as row after row of pictures of her filled the screen, starting right after she’d gotten home last year and continuing until recently.
“He’s been following me.” She tried to process what she was seeing. And what it meant. “Could he be the one who put the camera outside my cottage? Did he send the clipping?”
Hunter already had his phone out. He held up one finger. “Byte, this is Boudreau. You’ve processed everything from the gator scene, right? Great. I need you to get over to Travis’s cottage at the Outpost and see what you can find, especially on his computer. See if he’s the one who set up the camera outside Charlee’s cottage, or if he’s spying on her in any other way. I’ll send Sanchez to grab the SD card out of the camera I installed, too. Yeah, thanks.”
Charlee’s stomach churned. She’d known he had a crush on her, but this took it to a whole new level. “He’s been taking pictures of me, following me, for a whole year.” She should stop repeating herself, but the words kept coming.
“That seems clear. How he fits into the rest of it, we don’t know yet.” Hunter stepped closer, put a hand under her chin, and forced her to look at him. “I want to kick his sick butt into next week, but we need to keep him close, keep an eye on him until we figure out his part in all this, okay?”
His words snapped her back into investigative thinking. “He’ll know we found the photos.”
Hunter nodded. “And I’m sure that’s making him very, very nervous. But we don’t want him to run. We may need him.”
Fury and bile filled her throat. “I need to get outside.”
She hopped off the small porch and walked to the edge of the woods surrounding the cottage, where she paced while she cleared her head. Could Travis have killed Brittany? Possibly, but unless he had been playacting all along, she didn’t think he had the smarts to plan such a thing or the guts to carry it out. But she couldn’t be sure.
One thing was crystal clear. Until they had someone in custody, she had to protect her family. Someone had tried to kill her brother yesterday, no matter what Hunter said. The bomb was on Josh’s boat. Whoever put it there had no way of knowing she or Hunter would be aboard.
She didn’t know who or why—yet—but because of her, someone had targeted her family.
She marched back to Hunter’s truck and grabbed her backpack. She pulled out her spare Glock, checked the magazine. She’d been keeping the gun nearby out of habit. From now on, she’d do more than that. She’d keep it on her person. She tucked it behind her back, in the waistband of her shorts, and pulled her T-shirt over it. No one was going to hurt the people she loved. Not without going through her first.