Page 56 of Strict Confidence (Rochester Trilogy 2)
A dead rat. And not a rat that had crawled up from the ground and died of natural causes. Not a rat that had been brought to us as a gift from the kitten.
A murdered rat in its own pool of blood.
I meet Beau’s eyes across the porch. There’s fury in his expression. And fear. “Are you all right?” he asks, his voice rough. He sounds worried. More worried than I’ve ever heard him.
Because it wasn’t just the rat. There was a note. It said Jane.
It was for me. It was meant for me to find and to see.
It was meant to make me afraid. And it’s working.
I’m definitely not okay. I rub a hand down Paige’s back, between her little shoulder blades. “We’re going to be fine,” I tell Beau in a level voice. “It was scary, but we’re going to be fine.”
The look on his face scares me more than the rat. I can see him pulling away, building that wall between us. Here on the porch, with his body blocking the horrific sight from view. “It’s time to go in.” It sounds final, in that tone. As if we’ve finally come to the end of something. “We need to go inside. Right the fuck now.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Beau Rochester
Jane takes Paige inside.
They take the first step through the front door and Paige starts to wail. It’s worse than the screaming she did when we first arrived here. It’s worse than the terrified screams that brought me running down the stairs. It reminds me of the way she cried after the wake, sobs consuming her whole body. Marjorie is there, her face white. The three of them go into the living room and Jane falls onto the couch, pulling Paige along with her.
What the fuck.
A dead rat. Out on the porch. For Jane.
Why?
The hair on the back of my neck pulls so tight it hurts. I can feel eyes on me from every angle but I can’t see a damn person. Paige’s howling slashes through the morning breeze again and again. It starts to taper off but the storm in my own head doesn’t.
Joe Causey did this.
That’s the logical conclusion. Causey did this. He put the rat there to terrify Jane into confessing something. He wants her to break down and admit she set the fire at the house. Or hell, he would probably be satisfied driving her away from me.
I can’t even call the police. Causey is the police. Even if another officer takes the call, he’ll be the one investigating his own damn crime.
Mateo meets me outside, quiet and calming in that way of his. “What can I do?” he asks.
“Bury it,” I say, gritting my teeth against what I have to do. It will be a hell of a lot harder than digging a hole, but I can’t put it off any longer.
“I checked the camera. Whoever it was concealed head to toe. They knew the doorbell was a camera, and they did it when it was dark out.”
“Don’t act as if it’s a mystery,” I say. “Joe Causey knows we have surveillance at the inn. He was pissed when he found out we recorded him.”
A pause. “I’ll handle this. What are you going to do about Jane?”
I haven’t had any illusions about Jane. I’m dangerous to her. The boss who couldn’t stay away from her. Even now, I don’t want to stay away from her.
I want her in my house, in my bed.
“I’ll do what I have to do,” I say, though the words feel like shards of glass inside my throat. “Whatever it takes to keep her safe.”
“You’ll send her home.” Mateo’s staring at me, his jaw set.
“No, I won’t.” My leg feels like it’s crumbling from being out here. My thigh bone could snap in half. I ignore it. “How the hell would that help anything? I can’t protect her in Houston.”
Mateo’s eyes widen. “You’re shitting me. You have to send her home.”
“She’s not safe on her own.”
“She’s not safe with you,” he bursts out, barely managing to keep his voice low. “You’re playing games with her. She’s already your employee. And a decade younger than you. Now things are getting dangerous, and you’re going keep her around so you can fuck her?”
The words land like a goddamn arrow. Right in the center. Bullseye. No, she’s not safe with me. It doesn’t mean I can let her go. “I can’t do a damn thing for her if I send her out of here.”
“That’s all you can do for her. Damn it, Beau. That’s all you can do. Give Jane her life back. Stop stealing it from her. Don’t be a selfish asshole about this.”
I square off with him. “Don’t tell me what’s good for her.”
“How dare you risk her?” He looks pained to say it. “How dare you drag her into your shit? I always knew you had baggage, and I accepted it. I also accepted that Emily knew what she was doing with you, but this is different. Jane is innocent. She’s young.”
