“Where is your room located?”

She felt a blush creep up her face. “On the second floor, north side.”

“Then I’ll take a north side room.”

Her mouth dropped just a bit and she held there, unable to close it or speak. Finally, she said, “You don’t think I’m in danger, do you?”

“Until I can figure out who or what is doing this and their motive, I don’t want to discount any possibilities. If a man is vandalizing your property, then it’s personal, and that’s something I want to explore with you tomorrow. He may escalate. Hiring me may cause him to escalate more quickly.”

A flood of scenarios that she’d never considered washed through her mind. Locked up in her home with the sexiest man she’d seen in forever or alone with a potential madman or mythical creature on the loose.

She wasn’t sure which was more frightening.

About the Author

JANA DELEON grew up among the bayous and small towns of southwest Louisiana. She’s never actually found a dead body or seen a ghost, but she’s still hoping. Jana started writing in 2001 and focuses on murderous plots set deep in the Louisiana bayous. By day, she writes very boring technical manuals for a software company in Dallas. Visit Jana on her website, www.janadeleon.com.

The Awakening
Jana DeLeon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

To my friend, Nancy Lea. You’ve been chasing monsters for years now, but I’m certain your happily ever after is coming.

Chapter One

Josette Bettencourt stared at the group of workers gathered in front of her ancestral plantation home and for the first time in a long while, couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

The crew leader, Ray, a Creole man who was probably in his fifties, stepped forward. “We need the work, Ms. Bettencourt, and the normal dangers of the swamp are things we’re comfortable with, but not this.”

She took a deep breath and blew it out. “I want you to explain to me again exactly what you saw.”

Ray nodded. “We were repairing the fence on the north side of the property when we heard howling, but it weren’t no swamp animal that we know. Then we heard something moving in the brush—something big.”

“Did you see it?”

“It came through the brush about thirty yards from where we were working. Looked straight at us, then ducked back in the bushes and disappeared.”

“What did it look like?”

“It was taller than me by at least a foot or two and had long gray hair. It had a face like a monkey and yellow eyes.”

Okay, it didn’t sound any better the second time.

“You’re sure it wasn’t a bear?”

Ray drew himself up straight. “I know bear, ma’am. I feed my family off of this swamp most of the time.” He pointed to the crew. “All of them know bear, too. We all saw the same thing.”

The men nodded and shuffled around, clearly uneasy.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said finally. “I will look into it with Emmett, but I’m begging you not to leave.”

Ray looked at the men most of whom stared at the ground. “I can’t speak for another man,” he said, “but I will keep working for now. How many will stay?”

All of the men slowly raised their hands.

Josie felt almost dizzy with relief. “Thank you. Move your crew to the west side tomorrow and work there until I figure this out. Where’s Emmett?”

Ray shrugged. “We haven’t seen him since he got us started this morning.”

She struggled to hold in her frustration. “If you see anything out of the ordinary tomorrow, come straight to me.”

Ray nodded and started to walk away, then hesitated.

“Is there something else?” Josie asked.

“You grew up in this swamp, ma’am. You know the legends.”

“The legends are stories made up by parents to keep their children from wandering into the swamp,” she replied, stubbornly refusing to buy into age-old scare tactics.

“Perhaps, but what I saw today wasn’t my imagination and it scared me—a grown man. Stories that last so many years often have truth in them. You can choose not to believe, but please take precautions in the swamp.”

Josie softened a little, realizing the man was simply worried about her safety. “Of course. Thank you.”

Ray gave her a single nod and motioned the crew away.

She blew out a breath and strode toward the barn, wondering where her foreman had wandered off to this time. Lately, she spent more time looking for Emmett than she did working with him on the repairs needed at the plantation. He’d always been distant and short on words, but since her father’s death six months before, he’d moved on to physically absent as well as verbally.

There was no sign of Emmett in the barn, and one look at the sky let her know that daylight was running out. She grabbed a flashlight and a shotgun from a gun rack near the barn door and headed out to the location in the swamp where the crew had been working on fencing.

The area the crew had worked in that day was in the denser part of the swamp surrounding the house. Fences already existed at the perimeter of cleared land, but given the many dangerous creatures living in the swamp surrounding the main estate, the bank was requiring her to maintain a second set of fencing deeper in the swamp in order to open the house as a bed-and-breakfast. The new fencing would also keep hikers from wandering into the more dangerous areas, and provide an extra line of defense for her horses, the only luxury she’d held on to after her father’s death.

She pushed through the thick brush on the seldom-used trail until she reached the work area. Cypress trees rose in a thick wall around her and parted at the edge of the brackish water that comprised one of many ponds contained on her property. A stack of posts and barbed wire stood about twenty feet back from the edge of the water, the remains of the previous fence scattered in front of it.

She’d thought animals and the hurricane season had taken down that stretch of fence that her father had installed years ago, but what if she’d been wrong?

The silence of the swamp seemed to echo in her mind. How in the world could something so quiet cause so much unease? She crossed her arms over her chest, unable to remember a time when she’d ever felt at ease in the dense undergrowth. The myths and legends about the swamps of Mystere Parish were as long as the Mississippi River, and although her father had always dismissed them as the ramblings of superstitious swamp people, Josie couldn’t help wondering if Ray was right—if those long-survived tales had some basis in truth.

She scanned the work area one last time and blew out a breath, unsure what she expected to find. There was nothing to see here but another afternoon of unfinished work. Another half day of lag to add to the week they were already behind.

As she turned to leave, a twig snapped behind her. She whirled around and looked across the pond where the noise had come from. The sun was setting, creating a dim orange glow over the pond. She peered into the foliage on the opposite bank, but didn’t see anything.

You’re spooking yourself.

She let out the breath she’d been holding, chastising herself for getting worked up. It was probably just a deer. Then the bushes on the opposite bank parted and a head emerged. It was completely gray and neither human nor animal. Yellow eyes locked on her and she froze. One second, two seconds, three.

And then as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared in the brush without a sound.

The Tainted Keitre.

For a split second she wondered how something so big could move through the dying brush without so much as a whisper of noise, but then common sense took over and she turned and ran down the trail to the plantation as fast as her legs would carry her.

JOSIE CLENCHED HER HANDS down by her sides, afraid that if she lifted them above her waist, she’d punch Bobby Reynard straight in the mouth. The fact that he was currently the sheriff probably wouldn’t play to her favor.

“So you’re not going to do anything?” she asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

He puffed out his chest, which still didn’t force it to extend beyond his belly. “I am an officer of the law. I don’t waste my time and taxpayers’ money by investigating the ridiculous claims of a bunch of superstitious swamp people, especially when it’s all happening on private property. You got a problem at your house—it’s your problem, unless there’s a crime.”

“A brand-new section of my fence was torn down three times in the last two weeks. Vandalism was against the law the last time I checked.”

He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and stared past her out the window, clearly bored with the conversation. “A bear is probably tearing down that fence. Sounds like you’re fencing what he considers his territory. Problems with the local wildlife are not problems for the sheriff’s department.”

She glanced down at his protruding belly and then back at him. “Looks to me like nothing but drinking beer down at the Gator Bar is your business.”

His face reddened and he drew himself up straight, trying to suck in the gut and failing miserably. “You better watch your mouth, sweetheart. Everyone may have kissed your butt in high school, but this is the real world now and you aren’t any better than anyone else in this town now that all that family money is gone.”

“Oh, I imagine I’m still better than some,” she said, then whirled around and left the sheriff’s office before he could retort.

Not that there was any danger of him coming up with something witty in the next hour or so. Bobby Reynard had been a bully and an oaf in high school and he’d made a profession out of it as an adult. She only hoped some desperate woman didn’t marry him so that the cycle could end with him.

“Don’t let him get to you, honey, or he wins.”

Josie stopped digging for her car keys and looked up to find Adele LaPierre standing in front of her. The spry, little silver-haired woman claimed to be sixty-five, but Josie’s mother had always said she was every bit of eighty.

“You’re right,” Josie said. “But it’s just so stupid. High school was ten years ago and he’s still stuck there.”

“Some things never change. You were the most beautiful girl in high school and you had no interest in him. Now you’re the most beautiful girl in the Honey Island Swamp and you’re still not interested in him.”

Josie smiled and gave Adele a hug. “You always know the right thing to say.”

“You’re a good girl, Josette. Your parents would be proud of the way you’re trying to save their home. Don’t let anyone make you feel differently.”

She sighed. “All my work is going to be for nothing if I can’t stop the vandalism. The crew is already spooked and threatening to quit. Without the crew, I’ll never have the house ready to open for New Year’s, and without that revenue, the bank will start foreclosure in February. And all that is assuming the work they do isn’t destroyed by whoever is doing this.”

Adele narrowed her eyes. “Whoever or whatever?”

Josie stared at the sidewalk for a moment before lifting her gaze back to Adele. “I haven’t told anyone, but I went into the swamp that day and I saw what the men said was out there. I can’t afford to tell the truth. People will think I’m crazy. If that story gets back to the bank, they may take away my extension. I shouldn’t even have tried convincing Bobby, but I was desperate.”

“What if I told you I knew someone who could help? Someone who would believe the real story and find out the truth?”

“I’d say that’s great, but I don’t have the money to pay trappers and hunters.”

“It’s a detective agency I have in mind, not hunters.”

Josie blew out a breath. “At this point, I’m willing to try anything, but I don’t have the money for a detective any more than I do a trapper.”

“Don’t worry about the money, dear. I’ve got some savings and I don’t think the people I have in mind would try to gouge you.”

Josie shook her head. “I can’t take your money.”

“And why not? My money’s as good as the bank’s, and if I can’t help my oldest friend’s daughter, then what in the world do I have left to do with it? We can work out a payment plan later on, after you get the bed-and-breakfast going.”

Josie sniffed, touched once again by Adele’s huge heart. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’ve been such a rock since Mom and Dad passed.”

“Your mama was a good woman. One of the best I’ve ever known. It makes me proud to see her daughter grow up like her. I’ve got my sons, but if I could have had a daughter, I would have wanted her to be like you.”

“Oh, Adele, you completely undo me.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “I really appreciate the thought, more than you can ever know, but I can’t imagine a detective agency would care about a case that seems nonexistent.”

“This one will. An old friend of mine who died years ago had a daughter who just opened a detective agency in Vodoun with her husband. They specialize in things the police won’t bother with. I think they’ll take your situation seriously.”

A tiny sliver of hope ran through Josie for the first time in days. “If you think they can help, then I’d like to try.”

Adele nodded. “I’ll call the daughter, Alex, as soon as I get home and explain things. She’ll want to talk to you, I’m sure, to get more particulars.”

“Of course. Have her call me at home.”

Adele patted her arm. “Don’t you worry, honey. We’re going to fix this.” She crossed the street and climbed into an ancient Cadillac.

Josie lifted a hand to wave at her as Adele drove off.

What in the world had she just agreed to?

TANNER LEDOUX STOOD ON the dock, staring at his two half brothers, certain they’d lost their minds. “Absolutely not,” he said.

“You said you were interested in working for the detective agency,” argued Holt, the oldest of the three brothers.

Tanner shook his head. “Not if it means going back into the Honey Island Swamp. I left there when the last day of high school was over and have no intention of returning. Not now. Not ever.”

Max, the middle brother, jumped into the fray. “Look, I get it. I wasn’t happy about my first case, either, but it turned out fine.”

Tanner laughed. “You ended up back in your hometown and acquired a wife. I call that a living nightmare, not fine.”

Max shrugged. “Before now I would have, too. Things change and this time it was for the better.”

“The bottom line,” Holt said, “is that we need you. I’m already committed to another case that’s keeping me hopping. I have two cases in the pipeline, but you are the most qualified to handle this one. Max is a good tracker, but he’s not you.”

Tanner looked over at Max, expecting his brother to launch an argument on that assessment, as he had done since they were kids, but he just nodded.

Well, didn’t that just beat all?

Tanner shoved his hands in his jeans pockets, trying to come up with a reason for refusing that sounded even remotely sane. He wasn’t about to tell them the truth. The two men standing in front of him had their lives together. The more difficult the task, the more excited they’d be about it. They couldn’t possibly understand the baggage he carried around with him that he was unable to release.

Finally, he sighed. “You really think I’m the best person for the job?”

“You’re the only man for the job,” Holt said. “This case is time-sensitive and we can’t afford to lose even a day.”

“Fine,” Tanner said, “I’ll do it.”

Holt and Max both broke out in grins.

“That’s great,” Max said.

Tanner wished he could share his brother’s enthusiasm. “So, are you going to tell me what I’m tracking?”

The grins vanished from their faces and Holt glanced at Max, who looked off down the bayou. A bad feeling washed over Tanner. What in the world had he just agreed to?

“It’s not a what,” Holt said. “It’s a who, maybe.”

“You don’t know what I’m tracking? You said this was a vandalism case. It shouldn’t be hard to determine animal from human destruction.”

“This case isn’t that cut-and-dried.”

Tanner felt his frustration with the stalling increasing. “Just spit it out, already.”

“The eyewitnesses saw something that matches the description of the Honey Island Swamp Monster.”

Tanner stared at his brother. “You have lost your mind. I suspected it earlier, but now I know for sure.”

Holt held up a hand. “I know how it sounds, but the vandalism is real and the witnesses are credible, especially the one who hired us. Whether it’s a man trying to scare her or a real monster, we need to know and we need the vandalism to stop.”

“Her? The client is a woman?”

“Josette Bettencourt. She inherited her family’s plantation when her dad died and is turning it into a bed-and-breakfast. Do you know her?”

Tanner nodded, afraid the flood of emotion that coursed through him would filter out if he spoke. Yeah, he knew her, all right.

She was one of the main reasons he’d vowed never to return to the Honey Island Swamp.

Chapter Two

Tanner stood at the threshold of the massive front doors of the Bettencourt family home and wondered what the hell he’d let his brothers talk him into. Of all the things in the world he’d never wanted to do, returning to the town of Miel and the Honey Island Swamp was number two on the list. Seeing Josie Bettencourt again was number one.

He lifted his hand to ring the doorbell, then dropped it again and glanced around. No one had seen him drive up. There was still time to leave and tell Holt he’d made a mistake. Max could take the case. He was a decent tracker.

Before he could cement his decision, the front door flew open and Josie Bettencourt jumped back with a startled cry.

Tanner stared, at a complete loss for words. She was even more beautiful than he remembered, and that was saying a lot. Her long auburn hair fell in waves across her shoulders, and the morning sun reflected off her light green eyes. She was taller than he remembered, but still had a body that was both athletic and feminine at the same time.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t hear the doorbell.”

“I just got here,” he said, angry at himself for fumbling for words. “I hadn’t rung it yet.”

“Are you from the detective agency?”

“Yes. I’m Tanner LeDoux.”

He studied her face to see if the name registered with her. Granted, when he was old enough to make the decision, he’d dropped his father’s last name and taken his mother’s name like his half brothers, and no one had called him by his first name, William, in years. But he’d wondered if his appearance would create a spark of recognition with her.

She smiled pleasantly and extended her hand. “Josie Bettencourt. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

He shook her hand, not sure whether to be relieved she didn’t recognize him or disappointed that he’d never left an impression on her to begin with.

“So,” she said, “where would you like to start?”

“I read the case file before coming, so I’m aware of everything you told Alex. Has anything happened since you spoke with her?”

She motioned him inside. “I just put on a pot of coffee. Might as well have a cup while I fill you in.”

Tanner stepped across the threshold and into the old plantation home for the first time in his life and followed Josie down a long hallway to the back of the house. It worried him that so much had happened in the span of a day that it took having coffee to cover it all. Josie’s voice, when she’d invited him back, sounded resigned, frustrated and more than a little worried—none of them good signs.

The enormous kitchen stretched across the back of the house, floor-to-ceiling windows making up most of the back wall. The view of the pool and gardens was beautiful, in spite of the deadness of winter. Pots of poinsettias lined a brick patio and chairs with overstuffed cushions surrounded an outdoor fireplace. The house had always held a level of class above anything else in town and so had the occupants, a fact Josie’s father had been quick to point out to him many years ago.

“How do you like it?”

Josie’s voice broke into his thoughts and for a split second, his mind flashed to something other than coffee. One look at her slim, toned body in formfitting jeans and T-shirt was enough to remind him of things he had no right to consider.

“Black is fine,” he said.

She handed him a steaming mug of black coffee and smiled. “You’re easy.”

He took the cup and downed a big gulp of the hot liquid, trying not to think of the connotations of that phrase, either. At the moment, it hovered dangerously close to the truth.

“I like to keep things simple,” he said, as much to remind himself as answer her.

She poured herself a cup and added a bit of sugar to it. “I prefer that, as well, but it seems the universe is working against me.”

“Why don’t you tell me what’s happened since you talked to Alex?”

“My work crew found another section of fencing down. They’d just installed it the day before.”

“So more of the same things happening?”

“Not exactly. This time it was different.” She set her mug on the counter and blew out a breath. “This time there was something red on the fence posts. It looked like blood.”

Tanner straightened up. “Did you take a sample?”

She nodded. “I sent it to the Fish and Wildlife Laboratory in New Orleans for testing, but they said it could take weeks with their backlog.”

“I’ll make some phone calls and see if they can speed things up.”

“Thank you,” she said, her relief apparent.

“Is that everything?”

“Yes.” She looked down, averting her eyes from his.

“Are you sure?”

She raised her eyes back to his. “It’s everything that you need to deal with. The rest is my problem.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”

She sighed. “A couple of men on the crew left the job this morning. They’re spooked, and I probably won’t be able to replace them. Word is out and there are only so many qualified workers around these parts. Most are working reconstruction in New Orleans.”

“So you’re delayed a bit, but it’s not the end of the world.”

“If the delays continue, I can’t open the bed-and-breakfast on time. I have people booked for New Year’s Eve.”

“Why would swamp fencing hold up the opening?”

“Apparently, the insurance company considers it a liability if I don’t have the fencing and won’t write the policy I need to open.”

Okay, it was unfortunate, but not a crisis. “You can probably get some workers to come over from New Orleans if you pay a bonus. Worst case, you’ve have to refund deposits for the bookings and reschedule them if you think the property’s not inhabitable by then.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

He studied her face, the way her hands shook as she poured the rest of her coffee into the sink. Why all the concern about not opening on time, but the lack of interest in paying a bonus to acquire enough workers to get things finished on time? Surely, not every contractor in Louisiana would be afraid to work in the Honey Island Swamp, especially if the price was right.

She was hiding something, but what? Holt had warned him that the hardest part of the job was figuring out if the things people were hiding were relevant to the case. He hadn’t been on the job five minutes and could already see that clear as day. He took a sip of his coffee to avoid sighing. This sort of issue was exactly why he’d chosen a career path in the swamp among the creatures. They didn’t present complicated problems like humans.

“Well, if that’s all,” he said, “I’d like to start by taking a look at the place you saw the creature.”

She hesitated for just a moment, and he thought she was going to let out some of what was really bothering her, but finally, she nodded. “Let me grab a long-sleeved shirt and put on my boots. Then I’ll take you there myself.”

She left the room without as much as a backward glance. He downed the rest of his coffee and stared across the acreage to the tree line where the swamp began. Something was moving below the surface. He could feel it.

The question was, how much did Josie know and how involved in it was she?

JOSIE PULLED ON HER GLOVES as they entered the trail in the swamp. Southern Louisiana rarely got cold enough for the gloves to be a necessity, but the bare branches and dying foliage were sharp and scratched the skin with direct contact. She noticed Tanner had pulled leather gloves from his jeans pocket as soon as they’d neared the tree line. He wore hiking boots and a long-sleeve shirt, which made sense as Alex had told her he was an expert tracker. Even the pistol shoved casually in his waistband only comforted her that she’d made the right decision.

But the rest of the picture was the absolute last thing she’d been expecting when he’d introduced himself as the detective she’d hired. She’d expected someone older, rougher, maybe someone who’d lived in the swamp for a while. Someone with graying hair, scars and maybe even a limp. Or maybe she’d seen too much late-night television.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Tanner’s looks should be the least of her worries. She had the bank pushing her every day for payment, and hiring a detective was the last chance she had to save her family’s plantation from foreclosure. It felt like a long shot, but if it worked, the money would be well spent, even if she had to suffer the discomfort of explaining her precarious financial position. She’d avoided the subject in the kitchen when he’d suggested paying higher wages for workers, but she wouldn’t be able to avoid it forever.

She was a bit surprised that Tanner hadn’t asked about the creature she saw, but maybe he thought she’d been mistaken. It rankled her that people discounted what she said simply because it sounded implausible, but she wasn’t going to lie just to make people comfortable. Now, if only she could convince him to work quickly, her New Year’s business might be spared.

“So, Alex tells me you were a game warden,” she said, unable to tolerate the silence or her mental wanderings any longer.

“Yeah, I’ve spent almost ten years in the Atchafalaya Basin.”

“But your family is in Vodoun?”

“They are now. Everyone scattered after high school, but my brothers have settled down there now with their wives.”

“That’s nice.”

“I suppose so. If that’s what you’re into.”

His dry tone made her smile just a bit. “It’s nice to know I’m not the only person in Louisiana jaded about love.”

He didn’t respond, but she didn’t think much of it. In her experience, most men weren’t exactly dying to have long discussions about romantic entanglements. At the moment, the last thing she was interested in was a romantic entanglement, which was a good thing since the tall, muscular man behind her was enough to tempt any woman with clear vision.

Something about his slightly unkempt brown hair and the two-day shadow on his face screamed masculinity in a way she’d never noticed in another man, and during her modeling days, she’d seen many prime specimens. The tanned skin and green eyes only made a beautiful picture perfect.

And familiar.

She frowned as the thought registered completely. There was something familiar about him. It was so brief and fleeting in her mind that she couldn’t get a grasp on it, but she had no doubt that she’d seen him somewhere before.

“Did you grow up in the area?” she asked.

“Mostly, but we moved around a lot. Never stayed in any one town for more than a couple of years, except Vodoun.”

That probably explained the familiarity. She’d been a cheerleader in high school, and her school had had a big rivalry with Vodoun High School. Tanner looked about the same age as her. She’d probably seen him at a game. He certainly had the build of an athlete.

“Is this the area?” His voice broke into her thoughts as they stepped into the clearing with the damaged fencing.

“Yes,” she said, switching her mind back to the present. “I was standing over there, just at the edge of the water. I saw … whatever it was poke its head through the bushes on the far-side bank.”

“And it was early evening?”

“The sun was setting, but it was just at the edge of the tree line. The light was still reflected off the pond.”

He stepped up to the edge of the water and studied the bank, probably trying to estimate just how good her view had been from that distance and in that amount of light. Apparently satisfied, he nodded and stepped away from the water.

“Did you search the bank on the other side?”

“Not that evening,” she said, embarrassed to come right out and admit she’d run for the house like a scared little girl. “But I came back the next morning with the plantation foreman, Emmett Vernon.”

“And that’s when you took the cast of the footprint?”

“Yes. And sent it to the Wildlife and Fisheries State Lab, along with some of the surrounding soil so that they could estimate weight.”

He looked back at her, frowning. “But they couldn’t identify it?”

“No. They said it didn’t match the print of any known animal in the universe, much less the state of Louisiana.”

“But surely, they gave you some information.”

She nodded. “They said it was made by a bipedal creature, over six feet tall and approximately two hundred pounds. The shape was somewhat similar to humans, but with only four toes and webbing between them.”

She studied his face as she delivered the description. Everyone from Mystere Parish and likely a lot of people around the country knew exactly what she was describing. All of this was in the information she’d given Alex the day before, but if there was ever going to be a time Tanner called her crazy, this was going to be it.

He gazed back across the pond and jammed his hands in his jeans pockets. “Well, I guess we’re going to find out if the legends are real.”

Josie stared at him. “So you believe me?”

“I believe you saw what you saw, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“But you don’t think it’s a swamp monster.”

“I don’t have to think it’s anything. I just have to track it down and stop it from vandalizing your property.”

He turned and started off down the bank around the perimeter of the pond. She stared after him, trying to squelch the growing frustration she felt over the entire situation. He was humoring her.

Fine by her.

If he was as good a tracker as he claimed, then he should have no problem finding the vandal. Then everyone who thought she was a frightened drama queen could kiss her skinny butt.

Starting with Tanner LeDoux.

Chapter Three

Josie put her hands on her hips and glared at the plantation foreman, Emmett Vernon. The man had worked for her father since he was a boy—over forty years—but he wasn’t going to make it to retirement if he kept up with his current attitude.

“I don’t understand your problem, Emmett,” she said. “The detective will take a big weight off our shoulders so that we can go back to the jobs we need to be concentrating on.”

Emmett took a gulp from his water bottle, swished it around in his mouth and spit it into the hedges near the front entrance of the house. She struggled to keep her cool. He knew she couldn’t stand his filthy habits, and she would swear he did it on purpose to aggravate her.

“You mean the business of turning your daddy’s life’s work into a hotel for snooty people?”

“How many times have I told you I don’t have a choice?”

“Yeah, right. You were gone for years prancing on that runway in France. You mean to tell me you didn’t get paid?”

“My financial situation is none of your business. You get your paycheck every week. I’m telling you to do your job to earn it.”

Emmett narrowed his eyes at her. “You saying I’m slacking?”

She drew herself up straight, not about to back down from him again. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Half the time, I can’t find you when I need you and neither can the work crew. You’re supposed to be managing the work on this plantation. Right now that work is in the swamp and that’s where I expect you to be, along with the crew.”

“You want me to stand around watching people work?”

“No, I want you to pick up a post and help. Like it or not, the days of you standing around spitting are over.”

The man glared at her, then spun around and stalked across the lawn to the barn. She let out a sigh and leaned back against one of the huge columns that stretched across the front porch of the house.

“Problems?”

Tanner’s voice sounded from the doorway of the house and she jumped. She’d left him inside earlier to have a sandwich and make some phone calls to Wildlife and Fisheries and see if he could get them to move faster on testing the blood she’d found at one of the work sites. She hadn’t even heard him open the door. Now she wondered how much of the conversation he’d overheard.

“Nothing outside of the norm, lately,” she finally said.

“Is your foreman always so rude to you?”

She frowned. “No, but ever since I went from boss’s daughter to boss, his attitude has gone downhill.”

“You think he could be the vandal?”

“No! I don’t … Oh, wow….”

He sighed. “It hadn’t occurred to you yet. I’m sorry I sprang it on you that way.”

She shook her head. “You’re just doing your job. And no, it hadn’t occurred to me, but I don’t think it’s him. I can see where it would look that way, but I can’t bring myself to believe Emmett would betray my father’s trust that way, even though he’s dead.”

“That’s okay. You don’t have to believe it. I’m going to get proof, but I have to tell you, Emmett’s a good place to start. I’ll need to know everything you know about the man, and the rest of the crew, for that matter.”

“Of course. I have personnel files for all of the crew. I’m afraid that’s about the extent of my knowledge of them, but Emmett has been here since before I was born. I can probably tell you anything you need to know about him.”

“Except where he disappears to during the day?”

She blew out a breath. “Yeah, except that.”

He nodded. “If you’ll show me to my room, I’d like to unpack and start on those personnel files tonight.”

“Your room?”

“There’s no hotel in town and I’d rather be on-site until I figure this out. You’re turning it into a B-and-B, right? So I figure you have rooms.”

She couldn’t think of a single good reason to tell him no—at least not one she could openly state without looking like a fool. But the thought of Tanner sleeping under the same roof sent her body tingling in places it had no right to tingle in.

Unfortunately, his idea made perfect sense.

“Sure. I have two rooms ready on the second floor. One on the north side and one on the south. You can have your choice.”

He nodded. “Where is your room located?”

She felt a blush creep up her face. “On the second floor, north side.”

“Then I’ll take the north-side room.”

Her mouth dropped just a bit and she held it there for a couple of seconds, unable to close it or speak. Finally, she said, “You don’t think I’m in danger, do you?”

“Until I can figure out who or what is doing this and their motive, I don’t want to discount any possibilities. If a man is vandalizing your property, then it’s personal, and that’s something I want to explore with you tomorrow. If he doesn’t get you to take whatever action he thinks he’s going to cause, he may escalate. Hiring me may inspire him to escalate more quickly.”

A flood of scenarios that she’d never considered washed through her mind. Locked up in her home with the sexiest man she’d seen in forever or alone with a potential madman or mythical creature on the loose.

She wasn’t sure which was more frightening.

TANNER ROSE FROM THE small desk that held a stack of personnel files and peered out the bedroom window into the dimly lit courtyard behind the sprawling mansion. On the surface, everything appeared so peaceful, so normal, but he knew something was off balance. He’d felt it in the swamp. Something malevolent was at work below the surface at the plantation.

The personnel files had given him no indication of the problem. The men in the crew were from the area, and Tanner hadn’t found anything suspect on them or Emmett Vernon. Tanner had heard Josie talking to someone out front, but he hadn’t gone to investigate until he’d heard her voice rise and could make out her accusation that Vernon was slacking. Josie had looked startled when he spoke, and now he wondered what had been said that he missed.

Whatever it was, she wasn’t repeating it. Sure, she’d given him some information, but he hadn’t mistaken that flash of fear when she’d realized he was behind her. Whatever had transpired between her and the surly foreman, she didn’t want Tanner to know it all.

He sighed. This was so much more complicated than Holt and Max had made it look. In only two months, they’d already solved several cases the police had deemed not viable. At the rate his level of confusion was rising, Tanner seriously doubted he could contribute even a quarter of the success to the agency that his brothers did.

His cell phone rang and he wondered who in the world was calling him this late. Then he saw the number for Wildlife and Fisheries and knew it was his buddy Tommy. Tanner was convinced the man never slept and lived at the office.

“Tommy,” he answered. “What do you have for me?”

“Not much, I’m afraid,” Tommy replied. “The blood belonged to a rabbit common to the swamp. Without the carcass, there’s no way to determine cause of death.”

“I understand. I don’t suppose you’ve had a chance to check into the records on that footprint cast Ms. Bettencourt sent in before?”

“Are you kidding me? You call and tell me you were hired to track the Honey Island Swamp Monster and we might have a print cast here—heck, I ran straight to storage and pulled it before I did that test on the blood.”

“I was hired to track a vandal,” Tanner corrected. “I’m not making any other assumptions.”

“Yeah, well, that print was creepy.”

“Is that your official opinion?”

“As a zoologist and amateur cryptozoologist, yes, that’s my professional opinion.”

“Okay, I’ll bite. Why was it creepy?”

“Well, everything indicates it’s a bipedal creature, but given the soil conditions and depth of the imprint, we’re talking something between six and seven feet tall and two hundred fifty pounds or more.”

“Bear?”

“With four toes? Dude, don’t even go there. Even with a foot caught in a trap, there’s no way a bear made this track. Besides, it says in the notes that the next partial imprint was over five feet away. What bear has a stride five feet long?”

Tanner frowned, not wanting to admit outright that his buddy’s assessment was correct. “But it could definitely be a man.”

“A man with legs long enough to make that stride, yeah. But you’re talking about constructing a suit that is good enough for Hollywood filmmaking with all the witnesses that are convinced, not to mention someone agile enough to move through the swamp wearing it. If it’s a man, this is the most elaborate hoax I’ve ever heard of.”

“Thanks, man,” Tanner said, and tossed his cell phone on the bed.

More dead ends.

He heard the shower turn on in the next room and realized his bedroom must share a wall with Josie’s bathroom. Stepping back from the window, he sighed. As if he needed the visual of Josie showering playing in his mind. Josie fully clothed, complete with rubber boots and no makeup, was still far more temptation than he’d ever experienced. Picturing her naked might give him a heart attack.

He’d seen her surprise when he pointed out the advantage of him staying on-site and her discomfort when he’d chosen the room closest to her own, but he wasn’t sure what the reason behind it was. She was about to open her house to strangers. Surely, that put her at bigger risk than providing a room to the person she’d hired to protect her investment.

The one thing he was certain of was that it wasn’t personal. As a teen, Josie had never even noticed he existed. Her crowd had been the popular kids—the athletes from the “good” local families. Somewhere in town there was probably a loudmouthed ex-jock who called Josie his “woman” and put her in line behind football, hunting and beer. Maybe not in that order.

The scrawny kid doing odd jobs on her family’s plantation didn’t even catch her eye. Nor did the geeky kid who hid in the back of the classroom. Granted, his mother had moved them to Miel his senior year of high school, so it wasn’t as though he’d been around unnoticed for years, but it had often felt that way.

After his father’s death, his mother had hopped from town to town as often as she’d changed men. The last one, a trucker with a bad temper and a heavy drinking problem—both of which he’d taken out on Tanner—had brought them to Miel.

And that’s where his mother died—holding a bottle of booze and the trucker long gone.

Disgusted that he’d lapsed back into childhood angst and stupidity, he pulled off his boots and lay back across the four-poster bed. He wanted to get an early start tracking in the morning, and it was already close to midnight. If he had any sense left at all, he’d call it a night and turn in.

He stood back up to shed his jeans and shirt, and that’s when he heard a noise outside.

Immediately, he flicked off the lamp next to the bed and slipped up next to the window again. The noise had come from outside, but he couldn’t tell which direction. The patio lights extended only so far into the massive backyard of the plantation, so his field of view was limited. He was just about to decide it was the normal night sounds of swamp creatures when he saw something moving right where the patio lights faded away.

Whatever it was, it was big. And he knew of nothing that big that belonged directly behind the house at this time of night.

He grabbed his pistol from the nightstand and rushed into the hallway to bang on Josie’s door. She opened it a couple of seconds later, with a towel wrapped around her and water dripping from her head.

“What in the world—”

“There’s something in the backyard, just outside the light. I’m going to sneak out the front door and around the house. I need you to lock the door behind me. Do you have a gun?”

Her eyes widened. “Yes, of course.”

“Get it and hurry up,” he said before running down the stairs to the front door.

He heard Josie rushing down the stairs behind him as he slipped out the front door. The hedges across the front lawn provided some cover for him until he was clear of the front porch lights. At the end of the hedges, he slipped quietly across the yard to the barn, which stretched the length of the side of the house, and into the backyard.

It was pitch-black on the backside of the barn. A tiny glow from the moon broke through the dark clouds, but it made only shadows visible and even then, at a distance of ten feet or less, he’d be right on top of whatever was out there before he even knew what it was. Not the best of situations, but it was the one he had.

He inched down the side of the barn, pistol held up near his shoulder, ready to fire, and then drew up short at the sound of dead grass crunching around the side of the barn. Clenching his pistol with both hands, he eased up to the edge of the barn and then spun around the side, gun leveled.

Chapter Four

Josie locked the door behind Tanner and ran upstairs. She grabbed her pistol from the nightstand and checked to make sure it was loaded and ready to fire, then grabbed sweat pants and a shirt and threw them on. She snagged her tennis shoes on the way out of her bedroom, not even bothering with socks.

Socks weren’t necessary for shooting a vandal or a swamp monster.

She pulled on her shoes with one hand while unlocking the door with the other. Then, gripping her pistol, she eased out the door and silently drew it closed behind her. Following the same path Tanner had taken earlier, she edged along the hedges and around the side of the barn. Pausing for a moment, she listened to see if she could pinpoint Tanner’s position, but no sound reached her.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then crept down the side of the barn. At the end of the barn she paused again and stiffened as she heard the crackle of dead grass around the corner. Her heart pounded in her chest and despite the chilly weather, her hand felt clammy as she gripped the pistol. She said a quick prayer, then spun around the corner, gun leveled.

“Whoa!” Tanner said. “It’s me.”

She hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath until it rushed out of her in a giant whoosh. She lowered her pistol and tried to will her racing heart into slowing.

“Did you see him?” she asked.

“No, but I found what was moving out here.”

“What is it?”

“Horses. There were two of them wandering around back here. I’ve put one back in the stall, and was going back for the other one when I heard you and came to investigate.”

Panic rushed through her. “My horses!”

She shoved the pistol into her sweatpants, then rushed past Tanner into the open pasture and squinted into the darkness, looking for the remaining horse. Finally, she spotted him about twenty yards away peacefully grazing at the edge of the fence. Softly, she called him and he nickered, then walked over to her, lowering his head to be rubbed. She rubbed his head and then took him by the halter and led him back into the barn.

She flipped the light switch just inside the barn door and flooded the huge structure with fluorescent light. Her heart still racing, she scanned the stalls, doing a mental roll call.

“Are they all there?” Tanner asked.

“Yes, thank goodness.”

“I didn’t know which stall the other horse belonged in, so I just put her in the first one.”

“That’s hers,” she said as she led the other horse to the empty stall.

Her racing heart was starting to slow and she gave the horse another head rub before exiting the stall. As she slid the dead bolt back into place, she looked over at Tanner, her panic now turning into anger.

“If he was trying to piss me off,” she said, “this was the fastest way to do it. The last thing I will tolerate is someone putting my horses in danger, and they did not unfasten dead bolts and let themselves out.”

Tanner nodded, his expression grim. “Don’t worry. I’m going to catch him.”

His voice was so determined that Josie felt her hope rise just a bit. Tanner did not strike her as a man who was good with failure. Maybe with him on her side, she had a chance to get to the bottom of all this.

He stepped close to her and looked directly at her. She looked up at him and forced herself not to take a step back. He was so virile, so male, and being that close to him made her body tingle in ways that had been dormant for a long time. Ways she intended to keep dormant forever.

“You know,” he said, “that a swamp monster did not wander into your barn and turn your horses loose.”

She blew out a breath, forcing herself to shift her focus from the incredibly attractive man in front of her and back to the night’s situation that could have ended badly. “I know.”

“You need to think about who has a grudge against you, no matter how slight, and you need to tell me about every single one of them.”

She nodded. The last thing she’d wanted to do was lay out her personal problems to a complete stranger, but she was going to have to give Tanner enough information to do his job. “I have an idea where to start.”

Tanner looked around the barn. “I don’t think he’ll come back tonight. Let’s try to get some sleep, and we can talk in the morning.”

“Okay,” Josie said. She reached for the light switch, but Tanner reached for her hand before she could turn the light off.

“Leave it on,” he said, still holding her hand. “He’ll be less likely to try something in the light, and if he’s foolish enough to come back, it will be easier to catch him.”

His hand was warm on hers, firm but gentle. The skin on his hands was rough in some places, as she would expect from someone who worked outdoors, but his rough skin pressed against hers made her instantly wonder how those strong, rugged hands would feel on the rest of her body.

She pulled her hand from his and nodded. “Okay, then. I’ll leave it on until he’s caught.”

Tanner walked out of the barn and she followed behind him and closed the door. They walked silently back to the house, and she couldn’t help wondering what he was thinking. Had he felt the same charge she had when he’d touched her hand?

She hoped not, because if he made a move on her, she was afraid she’d abandon her vow to swear off men. And then she’d regret it.

Getting involved with men always led her to regret.

TANNER LOOKED OUTSIDE his bedroom window across the silent lawn. The light from the barn windows created a dim glow around it. When he’d told Josie that he didn’t think the vandal would return that night, he hadn’t been lying, but there was an uneasiness in the air that he didn’t like.

Something was out there … watching, waiting.

Someone thought they were being clever, but to what end was the question. Josie was hiding something from him. He’d known that from the beginning. Maybe after the scare with her horses, she’d be willing to part with whatever she was withholding.

He stepped away from the window and shrugged off his jeans and shirt. What he needed to do was follow his own advice and get some rest. He’d just been thinking about a hot shower when he’d heard the noise earlier, but after seeing Josie all wet and wearing only a towel, a cold shower might be more in order.

Even earlier in the barn, she was still gorgeous. No makeup, wet hair, baggy sweats and she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Over the years he’d seen her in magazine ads, usually for clothes, perfume or jewelry. He knew that usually those pictures were altered with filters and software, but for Josie, it wasn’t necessary. She was just as perfect now as she’d been when she was a teen.

It had been a mistake to touch her. He could have told her to leave the light on. He didn’t have to grab her hand. Certainly, he didn’t have to hold it, but he hadn’t been able to resist making even the smallest contact.

Her hand had been so warm, despite the outside chill. Her skin was soft and smooth, just as he’d imagined it would be, and his body had stirred from that tiny bit of contact. For a moment, she’d stared at him, then looked confused and just a tad nervous. He’d like to think it was because she was attracted to him, but he knew that was a high school fantasy that his overactive imagination had dug up from the place he’d buried it long ago.

And that’s just where it belonged.

He strode into the bathroom and turned the cold water on full blast. Any and all thoughts about Josie Bettencourt that didn’t have a direct bearing on the case had to go. He wasn’t about to disappoint his brothers by screwing up his first case.

Making a fool of himself wasn’t on his list of things to do, either.

JOSIE WAS UP BEFORE DAWN and out the door to check on her horses. Although she’d agreed with Tanner’s assessment that the vandal wouldn’t return that night, she was still relieved to see everything was in order in the barn. She doled out feed, hay and head rubs to all four of her beauties, then headed back inside to clean up and get ready for the breakfast conversation she’d tossed and turned about all night.

She pulled off her boots in the utility room, put coffee on to brew and hurried upstairs for a quick shower. By the time she came back to the kitchen, Tanner was already standing at the back windows, looking out across the lawn and drinking coffee.

He turned when she came into the room and raised his cup. “I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself.”

Despite all the stress, Josie found herself smiling. It was hard to be overwrought with worry when there was a sexy man in your kitchen drinking coffee.

“Please help yourself to anything when you want it,” she said.

Tanner smiled and she felt a flush run up her chest when she realized the double meaning of that statement. She turned to pour herself a cup of coffee, trying to convince herself that if he took her up on that offer, she’d have the strength to turn him down. She wasn’t quite successful.

“You might be here awhile,” she said, trying to correct her earlier faux pas. “You should treat my house as if it’s yours. I keep the kitchen stocked well with eggs, sandwich stuff and makings for salad. It’s not the Ritz, but I don’t usually have much time for meals.”

“I’m not much of a five-course meal guy myself. I eat most of my meals in front of the television or standing over the sink.”

She smiled. “You can use a chair and table here, if you’d like, or the television in the den. I hate to admit, there’s television trays next to the couch. Sometimes that’s the only time I can catch up on the news.”

“A kindred spirit.” He crossed the room to the refrigerator and pulled out a package of bagels and cream cheese. “Bagel?”

“I can make some eggs—”

He waved one hand. “Is that what you’d do normally? Or would you toss one of these in the toaster and rush out to take care of your work?”

“You got me. Toss one in the toaster for me. I’ll wash up and rinse off some fruit.”

She pulled some strawberries out of the refrigerator and rinsed them in the sink, then carried the bowls of fruit to the breakfast table as Tanner placed the toasted bagels and cream cheese in front of two chairs across from each other, with a side view of the lawn.

“Go ahead and take a seat,” he said, and grabbed the coffeepot to refill both their cups.

She slid into her chair, trying to get a grip on her nerves. All night, she’d dreaded this conversation. A million times she’d run through it in her mind but still hadn’t come up with a way to say it without sounding egotistical and airheaded.

Tanner took a seat across from her and reached for the cream cheese. “How come you don’t have a dog?”

Josie blinked. That wasn’t the question she’d been expecting.

“Oh, well, we had a hound dog forever, but he passed away a couple of years ago. I thought about getting another when I came home, but I haven’t had the time to devote to a puppy. Why do you ask?”

“No reason in particular. I was just thinking that a dog might be good for security.”

She nodded. “I guess that’s something to think about.”

“So,” he said, “last night you said you had an idea about who might be doing this?”

She took a sip of coffee to wash down the bagel that seemed to be lodged in her throat. “I thought so at the time, but I think I was just stressed over the situation. Now my thoughts just sound stupid.”

“Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”

He looked expectantly at her and she took another sip of coffee. “I’ve lived here my entire life,” she said. “In high school, I was one of those popular girls, but I had big plans that included getting far away from the town of Miel and the Honey Island Swamp.”

“Why?”

She blinked. “I … I don’t know. I mean, I haven’t thought about it in so long. I remember thinking this place was so small and slow that I felt like I was slowly smothering, and I desperately wanted the fast pace and glamour of big cities and other countries. It all sounded so fabulous.”

“But it wasn’t?”

She frowned. “No. I mean, parts of it were. There are some simply breathtaking places in this world, and I feel fortunate that I got to see so many of them.”

“But?”

“But it was hard. I was a model and that business is rather cutthroat. You can’t spend much time enjoying everything around you. You’re too busy looking over your shoulder for the next person trying to stab you in the back. It just wasn’t for me. Then my dad got sick, and it seemed like the perfect reason to come home.”

“But there was no reason to stay after he passed. There’re other jobs besides modeling. You could have sold all this and started over.”

She nodded. “I could have, and I thought about it. I thought about it a lot. But when I returned, it felt different. It didn’t feel small any more. It felt comfortable. I knew my real passion was horses, not modeling, and I couldn’t ask for a better setup to breed and train. I just need to establish another form of income to support myself while I work on that.”

“Makes sense. With the weather here, you can train outside year-round and have plenty of room to grow your own hay. It is a beautiful piece of property, and it only took a glimpse of your horses to see you’ve got some fine stock….”

“But?”

“But apparently, you think your choice to maintain your roots in Miel didn’t make everyone happy.”

She blew out a breath. “No. Like I said before, I was part of the popular crowd in high school, but since I’d always planned to leave, I didn’t bother establishing close relationships with people. I just hung out with large groups, but it was all very shallow, really. Some boys called me a snob because I wouldn’t date them seriously, but it wasn’t personal. I didn’t have any close girlfriends, either. I just wanted it to be easy when I left, you know?”

“So some people think you’re a spoiled snob.”

“I didn’t say ‘spoiled.’”

“The spoiled is implied given the family money and the fact that your dad probably doted on his only daughter.”

“You’re probably right. I’ve already heard the snide remarks about my dad’s bragging over my modeling jobs.” She sighed. “Which explains the less-than-stellar welcome, but how does that lead to vandalism? It’s a serious leap from high school pettiness or even adult annoyance to illegally damaging someone’s property. Which is why the more I thought about it, the more I figured it was a stupid idea all the way around.”

“Not just illegal damage. This is criminal damage.”

She shook her head. “I’d never manage criminal charges. Civil is about all I can hope for.”

“Not necessarily. A good prosecutor could make the argument that tearing down the fences might endanger the people living within the boundaries of the fences.”

“Maybe, but I’d have to get someone arrested before that could happen, and given my relationship with the sheriff, that’s not possible.”

“The report Alex typed up says you told him about the vandalism and he blew it off. What’s his problem?”

“Me, among many other things. He asked me out once in high school and has hated me ever since I turned him down. He spent our entire senior year playing juvenile practical jokes on me. I’d thought after all these years that he’d have let it go, but apparently, he’s determined to hang on to that teenage angst.”

“Okay, anyone else you think is holding a grudge?”

“Mack Prevett is buddies with the sheriff. He owns the local bar. I’ve heard he and my dad quarreled over property lines, and Mack had to move construction of his fishing cabin further down the bayou. I asked Emmett about it, but he said it was old news. But my friend Adele told me Mack had already started construction and was mad as a hornet to have to start over.”

Tanner nodded. “So he has a couple of reasons to hold a grudge.”

“He was downright blatant with his dislike for me the one time I dared go in there with Emmett for a beer, but then, he wasn’t overly nice to Emmett, either. Emmett just ignored him, of course, as only Emmett can manage.”

“Having a beer with Emmett, huh? Given your conversation yesterday, I’m having trouble picturing you two socializing.”

“We were picking up supplies in town. Emmett left and went across the street to the bar. I went in after him, but didn’t want to make a scene ordering him out. The man is old enough to be my father. So I passed it off as needing a break, hoping he’d take the opportunity away from the house to tell me what’s up with him lately.”

“I take it he didn’t?”

“No. He barely spoke, which is typical. It wasn’t a problem when he wasn’t being so secretive and obstinate, but now … I don’t know what to think.”

“Don’t worry,” Tanner said. “I’m going to look into all options. That’s my job.”

She sat back in her chair, feeling some of the tension in her neck releasing. That hadn’t been near as mortifying as she’d thought it would be. He hadn’t smirked or done anything else to indicate he thought she had an overly inflated ego.

“So, what do we do today?” she asked.

“First, I’m going to contact my brother and have him start running some background checks on the people you’ve mentioned.”

“Did you look at the personnel files last night?”

“Yeah, and Max already did a quick check on everyone. All the workers are clean, including Emmett—with the law, anyway. I also talked to my buddy at Wildlife and Fisheries.”

Josie stiffened a bit. “Did he find out anything?”

“The blood on the post was rabbit. And my buddy’s take on the print is the same as what they told you before—bipedal, over six feet tall and roughly two hundred fifty pounds.”

“So we still have nothing.”

Tanner smiled. “If it was going to be that easy, you could have figured it all out without my help. We’ll dig deeper until we find something. All this means is that someone is being careful, and that takes planning.”

“Or the creature is real.”

He raised one eyebrow. “I suppose anything is possible.”

“So, what now?”

“I’m going to head out into the swamp and see if I can track down your monster.”

“Okay. What do you want me to do?”

“Whatever you would normally be doing if none of this were going on.”

A wave of disappointment washed over her and she struggled to keep it from showing in her expression. After all, she could hardly expect Tanner to take her with him to track the creature. He was a professional. She’d only slow him down or get in the way or both.

“If you can,” he said, “I’d prefer it if you stayed close to the house.”

“You don’t think he’d try something during the day, do you?”

“I don’t think it’s likely for anything to happen during the day and right here in clear view of others that may be working around the property, but I don’t want you going into the swamp alone.”

“Not even to check on my men?”

“Vernon can check on your men. That’s his job.”

“And if he doesn’t do it?”

“I’m going to have a talk with him before I head out tracking. I think we can work something out.”

He took a bite of the bagel and stared out the window across the lawn. Josie bit her lower lip and hoped Tanner had some magic words to say to her foreman, because she was all out.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.