Forbidden Ground (Cold Creek #2)(72)

“So where has Brad been staying?” she asked him at breakfast the next morning. “Is he still doing okay at the mill?”

“With Lacey. Her parents are still up at their cabin, and he’s with her at their house in town. He says they don’t know, that they think he’s still living here. For sure, they’ll find out, so I told him I wouldn’t lie for him if it came to that.”

So maybe that’s what they were arguing about on the phone last night, she thought. If he was talking to Brad.

“Good move,” she said. “Lies only create eventual disasters.”

Grant leveled such a strange look at her that she trembled. Resentment? Anger? Worse, hatred? He got up from the table. “You’re right about that,” he said. Maybe she’d misread him. “As for Brad’s work at the mill, the same. Helpful, supportive, yada yada. Gotta go, Kate. You have plans for the day? You promised you wouldn’t go back out to the mica seam alone, and I’m holding you to that. Or out in the woods.”

“‘Beware of the woods’ sounds like good advice for Little Red Riding Hood, but I hear you, master of the manor,” she said, aware she was stalling for time to decide how to answer. If Grant could go behind her back...maybe lie to her, then...

“I plan to stop to get that Adena tree trunk from Nadine today. I’ll call her first,” she said.

“I can go with you this evening. It’s too heavy for you—both of you.”

“Then I’ll just pay her for it, and you and I can stop for it later. I’m sure she could use some extra money right now. I’ve been wanting to visit her.”

“Great. Sure.”

She didn’t tell him that she was also going to drop in at Todd and Amber’s house to chat with Jason—after she dug up Brad’s box under the stones in the woods.





23

Grant slammed his office door and swore when he spilled hot coffee on his wrist. He hated being in such a foul mood, but he was furious with Brad...with Kate...with himself. He was angry at Kate, but he also wanted to grab and kiss her, and that might be dangerous. He had to either keep her close or get her out of his life.

As soon as Gabe and Tess returned from France this weekend, would Kate leave town? He wanted her to stay away from the mound, but he wanted to keep her in his life, and that looked impossible. And then Brad—

His brother knocked on the door and stuck his head in the office, as if summoned by Grant’s thoughts. “Keith said you wanted to see me. A production problem this early—or more dire warnings about me and Lacey?”

“I don’t care about that, other than, like I said on the phone, you’d better tell her parents and not think you can hide out from them. Her dad’s good with a shotgun and—”

“And her mother still likes you, not me. Look, we’ve got a load of oak coming in soon, and I should be on the cutting floor.”

“Close the door and sit down.”

“Wow, this is big. What?” he asked, perching on a chair across from Grant’s big desk.

“You told Kate you had a dog—Max, I think it was—a collie, no less, that you buried in the woods. What are you, a fiction writer?”

Brad glared at him. One leg bounced, so Grant knew he was nervous. “Okay, when I was walking in the woods one day, I think she spied on me. I made up that story on the spot to get her off my back. I’m quite sure you like her on your back in more ways than—”

“Cut the cuteness. That pile of stones, even if off the beaten path, is not exactly subtle. Someone else could find it—I did.”

Brad shot straight up out of his chair then leaned toward Grant, stiff-armed with his fists on the desk. “Only because Miss Adena Archaeology told you, I bet. Did you dig it up? Oh, yeah, I know it’s your woods. Well, did you? We took vows we’d never so much as ask where each of us hid our stuff.”

Throwing himself back in his chair, arms crossed, Brad looked as if he was ready to have a tantrum. His face was red; a vein throbbed on the side of his neck. Wanting to face him down, Grant came around the desk and sat on it so he almost hovered over him.

“Keep your voice down,” Grant said. “Yeah, I dug it up, but so what since you—or someone else—had obviously moved it somewhere else. You didn’t sell it, did you? Even so much as mention it to someone—like Lacey?”

“Are you nuts? You think I’d be back here if I sold it? I’d be bailing out my mill instead of working at yours if I got big bids for that! And I’d be nuts to try to sell it anonymously on eBay or anywhere word would get out!”

“How about somewhere it wouldn’t get out? Someone who wants it for a private collection or museum? Since it’s not out in the woods with your imaginary dog, just assure me it’s someplace safe and you aren’t asking anyone for advice about where to sell it on the black market. What if Paul did that, and look what happened?”

“Yes. Yes, it’s someplace safe. Have you located Paul’s? Do you know where Todd’s is? If someone’s found out about our stuff, it’s not from me.”

“As you said, we’re not to tell each other where we keep them. I just want to be sure yours is safe, since it was missing from the box. And why didn’t you take the box with it, since you went to so much trouble to have a silk-lined nest made for it just in the shape of the large arrowhead?”