Page 93 of Stripping Bare
But did he have the tech skills to pull off such an elaboratesetup?
Jonah couldn’t let Tessa find out his suspicions. She wouldn’t understand why the guy was targeting her and Jonah, and he sure as fuck didn’t want to explain. Because if Cartwright was after her, Jonah had done this. He’d brought all this shit to her frontdoor.
He urged her up from the chair. She looked as if she was about to nod off, even with all the noise. “Tessa and I are going back to my place. I need to think. The first person who calls or texts and interrupts my deep thoughts will pay a steepprice.”
Reid was the first to react, stalking toward Jonah. But Britt put an arm out to clothesline him. “I got this.” He turned to Jonah. “Going back there isn’tsmart.”
“It’s been cleared. And Reid’s upped security all over theplace.”
“The problem with that, as always, is guarding every inch of twenty thousand acres is impossible. This guy probably hiked in from land adjoining ours. Somehow, I don’t think those owners would be happy to let Reid’s security guys invade their privacy. Randi’s land only borders so much of our propertyline.”
Grif gave an agreeing nod. “He’s right. Which is why I brought these.” From his pants pocket, he pulled a keyring with two keys on it. “These’ll give you access to the Murchison building. The apartment is still setup.”
When Grif had first come back to Steele Ridge, he’d lived above his City Manager’s office for awhile.
“And that’ll put you both closer to the sheriff’s department and the fire station,” his momsaid.
“What about you?” he asked her. “If I’m in town, I don’t want you outhere.”
“I already have a bag packed to stay with Grif and Carlie Beth. Aubrey and I are planning a cookie-bakingmarathon.”
“I don’t like it.” Jonah glared around the room at the people he loved most in the world. “This fu…idiot is running us out of ourhomes.”
Reid clapped him on the shoulder. “Just for the time being. We’ll gethim.”
Which only reminded Jonah that his roomful of equipment was toast. What hadn’t actually burned, the heat had compromised. Finding the cash to replace it wouldn’t be a problem, but some of it had been custom built. He didn’t have time to replace and rebuild, not if he wanted to drop this guyquick.
Honestly, he wouldn’t have imagined Cartwright had this deep well of creativity. After Jonah had tanked the guy’s odds of getting into law school, he’d gone on to become a mid-level grunt at a bank, a loan officer or something. Not exactly avisionary.
Could he have hired someone to come up with a revengeplan?
From her spot in Gage’s lap, Micki said, “I know what you’re thinking. My setup isn’t as expensive as yours was, but it’s good. If Grif doesn’t object, we can move it over to the Murchison building. That’ll give us room towork.”
Jonah slid his hand across his eyes. He wanted them all completely out of the picture. “I called a travel agent earlier. I can have all of you on a cruise out of Miami tomorrow afternoon. Hotel in Charlotte is already booked and the flight goes out first thing in the morning. You can load upnow.”
His mom recoiled as if he’d slapped her. “You cannot beserious.”
He pulled Tessa’s hand up to hold it against his still painful chest. “Includingyou.”
Her eyebrows went up. “So you want us to take off and leave you here to find this person on yourown.”
“He’s already made it clear that he’s willing to inflict collateraldamage.”
“I sure hope you didn’t put down a deposit,” she said, her voice sharp. “Because you’ll lose every dollar of it.” She smiled in Grif’s direction and held out her hand for the keys he’d offered. “Thank you for the place tostay.”
“I dropped off some clothes and toiletries while y’all were still at the hospital,” Brynnesaid.
“We’ll plan to check in with y’all in the morning,” Reidsaid.
Fuck.He wasn’t six years old anymore, yet his older brothers were taking charge like they alwayshad.
Think with your head instead of yourego.
Micki broke away from Gage’s embrace and did something that had happened way too little in the past ten years. She put her arms around Jonah’s waist and laid her head on hischest.
When he wrapped his arms around her, a weight lightened inside him. He and Micki would always share something visceral, something special that came from floating around in a womb together. “Please let ushelp.”
“Micki, I don’tneed—”
