Chapter 12

TWELVE

“OH REALLY?” Cassie stood three feet away from Donovan, and the look in his eyes when he turned around and saw her wasn’t one she’d ever seen before. She didn’t hate it. But she didn’t quite understand it either. She was pretty sure he was angry. But not at her. Or at Gray. But at someone.

He kept his eyes on her as he spoke into the phone. “Well, if she wasn’t aware before, she is now.” A pause. “Because apparently she’s part ninja and she’s standing three feet away from me.”

Cassie heard Gray’s laughter through the phone but couldn’t make out what he said. Donovan’s response was a grunt. Then a “Yeah.” And finally, “Later.”

He slid his phone into his pocket and faced her, hands on his hips. “Didn’t your mother teach you not to eavesdrop?”

“I’m sure she tried.”

What was she doing out here? Why had she followed him?

She needed to think. Needed to process. Needed to figure out why the sound of his deep voice telling Gray that she was his had turned a university-sized marching-band drumline loose inside her.

“Cards on the table, Cassie. I hurt you. And now you don’t trust me the way I want you to. That’s my fault. I did that. And now I want to fix it. With that said, I’m well aware of the fact that your need to put up boundaries is completely legitimate. I won’t push you into anything you don’t want. But I also won’t lie about what I want.”

He took one step toward her, and even though he didn’t touch her, she could feel the heat from his body and the energy that twined around them.

“What is it that you want?” she asked.

“I want you. I want you to stay in Gossamer Falls, with me. I want you to be mine. And I want to be yours.”

The drumline went completely bonkers and she found it difficult to catch her breath. She wanted to throw herself into his arms.

But she stood there. And tried to keep her voice steady even as her breathing turned jagged from her own fear. “There’s something I need to know. Something I still don’t understand.”

“Ask me. I’ll tell you.” Donovan sounded like a drowning man who’d been thrown a lifeline.

“Why didn’t you try to fix it before now? If I mean so much to you, why did it take this mess today for you to decide that I was worth the risk?”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously.”

“When I broke up with you, you acted like it didn’t matter! You were icy and calm and I thought I’d misread everything. I thought if you really cared about me, you’d put up a fight or at least be a little upset. But you weren’t. You didn’t even try to get me to change my mind. I know it was my decision, and I broke us. But when you just let me go? It hurt. And it confused me. And I thought that maybe it was for the best because clearly my feelings ran a lot deeper than yours did.”

She shoved at his arm. “I was faking it, you idiot. You crushed me. If you didn’t want me, I certainly wasn’t going to let on how much it hurt! A girl has to have some pride!”

Donovan’s phone rang.

Cassie closed her eyes and turned her back to him, attempting to hide her threatening tears. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever been as angry as she’d been at Donovan Bledsoe.

But she wasn’t angry anymore.

He’d walked away from her when he answered the phone, but his voice grew closer as he returned. “Yeah.” A pause. “Okay.” A longer pause during which he came to stand a foot away from her. “Got it. I’ll be there in fifteen. Yeah.”

He tapped the screen and his shoulders slumped. “I have to go. There was a fight at The Dry Gulch. Brick and Tony arrested half the people there. Gray had to call in everyone available.”

Fights at The Dry Gulch weren’t uncommon. But it didn’t usually require this much manpower to handle them.

“Someone got stabbed.”

That would explain it. Fights were usually more about people needing to sleep it off and property damage and everyone agreeing not to press charges for assault.

“Brick says the knife was a fancy knife—smaller than a chef’s knife, but definitely something from a kitchen.”

Cassie couldn’t stop herself from reaching for Donovan’s arm. She grabbed him and held on. “Was it...”

Donovan placed his free hand over hers. “The description matches, but I won’t know for sure until I see it.”

“The person who was stabbed?”

“On the way to the hospital. Dr. Shaw is riding with the ambulance.” He hesitated. “They aren’t sure if he’ll make it.”

Cassie couldn’t get her mind to settle on anything. Thoughts. Emotions. Questions. Fears. Everything was a maelstrom in her mind.

“Hey.”

She looked up into Donovan’s face.

“I have to go, but this, you and me, us, we aren’t done. I’m going to fight for us. Fight for the right to love you the way you deserve to be loved. Fight to be a man worthy of you. So be careful. Stay here. Keep someone with you if you leave. We’ll figure out what’s going on, but until I know for sure, please promise me you’ll do everything you can to stay safe.”

Cassie couldn’t do anything more than nod.

“I need to hear it, baby. Because for all I know, you’re just nodding to get me to leave.”

Donovan’s voice held a touch of humor, but mostly it was concern.

“I’ll be careful. You be careful too. I’m...” Cassie swallowed. “I’m not through fighting with you.”

He ran a thumb across her cheek. “Don’t you mean fighting for you?”

She shook her head. “Not yet.”

Her intransigence should have been frustrating, but his smile was glorious. “I like this feisty version of you, Cassie. I really do.”

Then he was gone. And Cassie stood in the woods alone until Mo found her.

“You okay, kiddo?” He put an arm around her and led her back to the firepit.

“I’m not sure.”

“We all heard. You weren’t being very quiet.”

She tried to bury her face in his chest. “Shoot me now.”

“Can’t do it, sweetheart.”

They walked on, and when they stepped out of the woods, all the chairs around the firepit were empty. “Where’d everyone go?”

“Meredith said to tell you good night. Cal and Landry went home because they’re newlyweds and that’s what newlyweds do.” He winked at her. “But you’re too young for such things.”

“I am not too young.”

He put his hands on her biceps, and he looked so sad that she wanted to ask him what was wrong. Before she got the chance, he leaned close and whispered, “I’ll always be in your corner. Always. No matter what. But don’t let your stubbornness keep you from giving Donovan a chance to make things right.”

“I’m not stubborn.”

“You’re one of the most stubborn people I know. And that isn’t always bad. But when it comes to this? Maybe you should let go of the anger and give him a chance. Meredith was rooting for him. I thought she was going to blow a gasket when his phone rang.”

Cassie could picture them sitting around the firepit, straining to hear every word.

“He messed up. But so did you.” Mo’s smile was gentle, and she dropped her head against his chest and let him give her a hug. Mo gave the best hugs, but he was stingy with them. She’d learned to savor each one. When he released her, he pointed to the door of her home. “Go to bed. Sleep. And don’t leave the property unless someone, and by someone I mean me, knows where you are and where you’re going. Whatever this mess is, it’s escalating, and I don’t want you out on the mountain alone until we’ve resolved everything.”

Cassie wanted to tell him she was an adult and didn’t need him bossing her around. But he wasn’t wrong. And she’d already promised Donovan the same thing.

She’d almost reached her door when Mo called out, “Cassie?” He was standing on his porch, hand on the doorknob.

“Yeah.”

“I love you, sweetheart.”

“Love you too, Mo.”

210 DONOVAN ARRIVED at the police station to discover that every parking space was full, and most of the vehicles were trucks with varying degrees of cleanliness. He had to park two blocks away and walk back to the station, and when he arrived, he had to flash his badge and put on what Cassie called his “mean cop face” to get the crowd to clear enough for him to get inside.

He went straight to Gray’s office, stuck his head in the door, and said, “For the record, none of this was my fault.”

To which Gray replied, “Try again.” He wasn’t kidding.

“How is this my fault?”

“Your girl. Your fault.”

Donovan stepped inside the office. “What are you talking about?”

“Cassie Quinn has been a hot topic tonight. Apparently, the fight broke out over her. And of the five men currently behind bars, three of them told me they have info on the threat to her.”

“Do they?”

“Sure they do. One guy said she’s in danger from a guy she dated in high school, but then he said maybe it was from a girl who’s married to a different guy she dated in high school. He was fuzzy on the details. Of course, he was fuzzy on pretty much everything.”

Donovan groaned.

“Then we had the guy who blamed the sous-chef at Hideaway—”

“It wasn’t him.”

Gray held up a hand acknowledging Donovan’s interruption but continued. “He claims it’s a conspiracy between the sous-chef, Chef Louis, Bronwyn, and other members of the Pierce family.”

“That makes absolutely no sense.”

Gray talked over him. “And last but not least”—he tapped the desk—“you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Apparently you’re all kinds of jealous and you’ve gone psycho. Those are direct quotes, by the way.”

Donovan couldn’t figure any of this out. “We’re missing something.”

Gray cleared his throat and sat straighter in his chair. “So far, everyone here is either drunk, high, or a truly disturbing combination of both, which has led to everything from belligerence to begging. Nothing that has been said can be used against them or anyone else. I doubt most of them will remember what they told us.”

“How many arrests?”

“Twelve. So far.”

Donovan sat in the chair across from Gray. “Twelve?”

Gray blew out a slow breath. “I’ve never seen anything like this here. But I’ve heard of something similar.”

“What happened?”

“Last year, a new dealer came to the city where a friend of mine is a deputy. This dealer decided to offer free samples. It took a while to figure it out. And they didn’t catch a break until the third event. Six people died over the space of a month at four different bars around the city.”

Donovan considered it. “So a guy comes in, offers a few hits. Then a few more. Maybe people try it who wouldn’t normally or who never had before? Things get out of hand. Or maybe it wasn’t someone who wanted to establish himself. Maybe it was someone who wanted to stir things up.”

“Either one is a valid possibility.” Gray pulled something from the printer behind his desk and handed it to Donovan. “I want you to look over the list of everyone who was there tonight.”

“What am I looking for?”

Gray shrugged. “I have no idea. But I think you’ll know it when you see it.”

Donovan studied the list. At first glance nothing jumped out at him. “Is this everyone?”

“Probably not. That’s just the first list I’ve compiled. When the dust settles, I’ll have Tony start looking through the footage.” Gray pointed to the door. “Close that, please.”

Here we go. Donovan closed the door, then returned to the chair.

“The knife.” Gray shoved another page toward him. On it, a picture of a knife. Thankfully it was not covered in blood. “We need to ask Cassie if it’s hers.”

“It is.” Donovan handed the photo back.

“How do you know?”

“Chefs are serious about their knives. Cassie would bring her knives to my house when she cooked for me. That knife has a small mark near the end.” He pointed to the spot on the photo. “It’s on both sides. She told me the story that when she was in culinary school, she somehow managed to pinch it in a press of some kind. Honestly, I don’t know how she did it. And this is the knife that went missing her second week at Hideaway.”

“So this knife has been missing for two weeks? Why didn’t she report it?”

Donovan rubbed the back of his neck. “She said that she couldn’t be sure she hadn’t lost it.”

“So, she used it, and then she couldn’t find it. So she assumed it was misplaced in the kitchen?”

“Yeah.”

“This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. A guy walks into a bar with a paring knife...” Gray stabbed the photo. “How does a guy walk around with that? It’s not like he could slip it in his pocket without stabbing himself in a delicate area.”

“I don’t care so much about how he got it in the building as I do about why he had it with him. It’s not like he could use it to frame Cassie for something. She has an airtight alibi. She was with me.”

“She was with you when the fight went down. But what about later tonight? What if the plan was to commit a crime with the knife and try to frame her for it?”

“What kind of a fool plan is that?”

Gray frowned at him. “If you’re expecting rational behavior from drug addicts, then you’ve been spending too much time helping little old ladies and not enough time with the darker elements around here.”

“Shows what you know. I’m 99 percent sure that the grandmother of the guy who owns The Dry Gulch is the one who manages their backroom poker games. Granny Lucas is always carrying. And she’s mean.”

“She’s also too smart for this.” Gray spoke with certainty. “But it could be some of the young guys who think they know what they’re doing but don’t.”

“Stupid mistakes can get smart people killed.”

“Which is why you’re going to stick to Cassie Quinn until we figure out what’s going on.”