Page 42 of Promised to the Cowboy
I let out a slow breath. “We almost lost Angus’s wife, Luna, in a barn fire.”
Her expression changes immediately. “Oh, my god.”
“We couldn’t prove it was deliberate.”
“But you think it was.”
“I do. We all do. Accelerant was used.”
Her hand comes up to cover her mouth.
“And Kitty, Tom’s wife...” I shake my head.
“What happened?”
“Somebody contaminated the Havenridge well.”
She gasps. “They poisoned her?”
“She has severe allergies, so she was vulnerable. It put her in the hospital.”
Captain Winky noses Evie’s shoulder, looking for another peppermint. She absently scratches between his ears without taking her eyes off me. “All because they wouldn’t sell?”
I nod.
She looks back at the house. At the ranch. At the miles of open country she’d begun to trust. “That’s not business.”
“No.”
“That’s terrorism.”
I don’t argue.
After a long moment, she says quietly, “I can’t imagine wanting anything badly enough to do that.”
Neither can I.
She lets out a slow breath. “So what changed?”
I hesitate. “There was another development this morning.”
Her expression sobers. “What happened?”
“They found Marlon Ennis this morning.”
She frowns. “Who was he?”
“The manager of the local bank.” I pause. “Ethan believed he was feeding information to whoever’s behind all this.”
“What kind of information?”
“Who was struggling. Which ranches were vulnerable. Where to apply pressure next.”
Her eyes widen. “You think he was murdered?”
“We can’t prove that.”
“But Ethan thinks he was.”
