Be Mine(35)

Somewhere far off the highway. When they passed over a cattle grate into free range land, Jenny started to get nervous. Why the hell would Ellis need to be out here? This wasn’t right. He certainly wasn’t the snowshoeing type.

She’d lost sight of him for a few minutes, but she wasn’t concerned. There weren’t any side roads here, or if there were, they weren’t plowed.

As the road snuck through a bare grove of aspen, Jenny finally found a sign of life. A side road, and two cabins, one with smoke tripping from the chimney. But Ellis’s van wasn’t there, and no recent tracks marred the three inches of new snow on the plowed driveway. Jenny drove on. Five minutes later, she found the tracks she’d been expecting and took a right onto a side road. When she eased around the next bend, she had to slam on her brakes so hard that she slid nearly ten feet and skidded along the edge of a ditch for a precarious few seconds.

But it wasn’t Ellis’s van coming toward her. It was a sheriff’s truck. She was so sure that it was Nate that when the deputy got out of the truck and started toward her, she only felt confusion at his blond hair. She didn’t even notice the two other deputies. Or the fact that their guns were drawn. Not until she turned her head and found herself staring into the barrel of a handgun.

For the first time, the thought of running had come too late, and now she was caught in a way she’d never expected.

* * *

AS SOON AS ELLIS WAS in custody, Nate counted himself done. Victor had shown up first, blasting music and so high already that he’d stared stupidly at the arresting officer for a good three minutes before alarm had kicked in.

Ellis had followed fifteen minutes later, and it was done. Nate had expected to feel relief, but he’d only felt tired as he’d trudged down to the cabin and finally gotten a good look inside the greenhouse. “Jesus,” he said as soon as he ducked under the plastic sheeting. “This is the most pitiful pot-growing operation I’ve ever seen.”

The techs had apparently been having the same conversation, because they burst into hysterical laughter. Any worries that this was connected to a big operation were completely assuaged by the sight of the mishmash of random heating lamps and leaking water containers. And the plants themselves looked—

“Good Christ,” his sergeant barked. “That’s the saddest crop of marijuana I’ve ever seen.”

More laughter from the techs, and even Nate felt a smile tug at his mouth. He should’ve taken a closer look yesterday. If he’d seen these two dozen pitiful stalks, he’d have known that he and Luis could’ve quietly taken care of this problem themselves. Hell, they could’ve even made it look like a warning from a real drug operation. Oh, well. It didn’t change the fact that Victor had abused his uncle’s generosity, desecrated a place that meant a lot to the family and endangered his minor cousin. The kid deserved a good scare, not to mention a penalty.

“Got another one, Sergeant,” one of the other deputies said from the makeshift doorway.

“Another what?”

“Suspect.”

Nate’s head jerked up at that. “Who?”

The guy shrugged. “I don’t know. A woman in an old-school Camaro.”

“She’s here?”

“Pulled up a few minutes after we cuffed Ellis Stone.”

Jenny was here. She’d known exactly what was going on the whole time. Damn. Just...damn.

He could feel his sergeant’s eyes on his face, and Nate hoped he didn’t look as green as he felt.

“Hendricks?”

“I won’t interfere.”

“Good. We’ll sort it out at headquarters.”

“Got it.” His voice sounded remarkably light considering the weight in his chest. “I’ll head over now.”

Nate felt the blankness on his own face as he walked through the trees to his truck and got in. As he pulled off the camping road, he called Luis and listened to the broken ring of a bad connection in his ear. Up ahead was her yellow car, bright against the snow and the dark green horde of sheriff’s vehicles.

“Nate,” his cousin said.

“Luis, it’s done. We’ve arrested Victor and some accomplices. The plants will be destroyed, though the rest of the cleanup will be up to you. We’re not very good at helping out with that kind of thing. But...”

He edged past her car, and he thought the danger was over, but as he passed a marked patrol car, Nate saw her in the backseat, her face shockingly pale against the dark interior. Her head turned toward him just as he turned away.

“But it’s done,” he told his cousin. “It’s done.”





CHAPTER NINE



NATE LEANED AGAINST the wall, his eyes locked tight on the interrogation going on behind the glass. Victor was no longer stoned. He was brutally sober and absolutely terrified. And he was spilling everything he knew, which wasn’t all that much.

“I don’t know, man. I met him at a party at Steve Tex’s place, and we started talking about all the bullshit work we do for practically minimum wage. He told me he had a great idea to make a little money. He just needed the perfect spot to do it. Come on, man. Pot never hurt anyone. It wasn’t like we—”

“So you volunteered your uncle’s property?”

The kid had the good grace to squirm at that, but Nate was distracted by the sound of a woman’s

voice as a door opened in the interrogation suite across the hall. Jenny’s voice. He couldn’t make out what she was saying, but as the door closed again, he heard the tense note of pleading in her words.

He’d managed to avoid her. He didn’t want to see her. She was probably scared. She’d probably cried as she was handcuffed. He hated that. He always did. Even when the woman was a stranger.

The hair on his arms rose at the idea of Jenny being booked into jail. Whether she’d lied to him or not, he didn’t want to watch that. He’d held her naked in his arms; he couldn’t watch her be broken that way.

He was turning to make his way back to the desk he shared with two other officers when a deputy named Davidson appeared in the doorway with a big smile. He held a plastic baggie up. “Don’t go anywhere. You’re going to want to see this.”

“What?” Nate asked, but the guy had already disappeared. He reappeared again in the room where Ellis was waiting to be questioned. Nate switched off the speaker of Victor’s room and moved over to watch Ellis.

“You still determined not to say anything?” the deputy asked.

“I’m not a snitch,” Ellis said, but he didn’t sound defiant; he sounded sad.

“No? You’re not much of a drug dealer, either.”

“It’s not like that. Pot helps people, you know?”

“So you thought this stuff was going to improve people’s lives? Because you got that all wrong.” Davidson smiled toward the two-way mirror and pushed the baggie forward. “You know why your pot plants look so shitty and woody?”

Ellis was apparently smart enough not to defend them and claim the plants as his own. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No? How much did you pay for these plants? Or maybe you bought them as seeds, I don’t know. But you don’t strike me as a guy with a green thumb. So, where’d you get the plants?”

Ellis stared down at the table.

“I only ask because I’m concerned about you. Maybe you paid too much. Maybe you got ripped off. Because, Ellis...” Davidson leaned forward, his fists on the table and a grin on his face. “The reason your plants look so shitty is that you didn’t buy marijuana. What you have going is a thriving hemp farm.”

Ellis’s head snapped toward Davidson. “What?”

“Not a drop of THC in them. Or not enough to show up on a field test, anyway. You could smoke every one of those plants, and all you’d get was a sore throat.”

“That’s not true,” Ellis said, aiming a pleading look at Davidson.

“No? Bet you got a great deal on them, huh? Something special just because you’re a nice guy? Did you even know the man when you handed over the cash?”

“You’re lying. He wouldn’t—”

Davidson shrugged. “This interview is being recorded. I’m not allowed to give you false information about your case.”

Nate rolled his eyes. That wasn’t true, but apparently Ellis believed it, because his gaze slid to the baggie as the tips of his ears turned red. “He said...”

“Who?”

“A guy named Frank. We were friends. I thought we were friends. He wanted to help me out. He—”

“Frank who?”

Ellis hung his head, dropping his forehead into his hands. “I can’t believe any of this is happening. Victor said no one ever went out there. I only had two hundred dollars left to my name. Everything else was gone. I just needed a new start. A way to make enough money to get in on a new landscaping business.”