Watch Me (Last Stand #3)(58)
Author: Brenda Novak

Once the noise of the engine faded, he let his dogs out of their pen to keep him company. With Sheridan’s attacker still on the loose, he feared for her safety. But the gun-wielding Skye Willis had insisted, in no uncertain terms, that she could protect them both. And she’d come all the way from Sacramento, so it wasn’t as if Sheridan could just tell her to quit worrying and go home. Sheridan needed to spend some time with her friend, to explain.

Maybe she’d come back, he thought hopefully. But deep down, he knew that probably wasn’t the case. This had to happen eventually.

“I don’t think I like Sheridan’s friend,” he grumbled to Koda, whose tail thumped the floorboards of the porch. Recently, he hadn’t given his dogs as much attention as they normally received. He couldn’t imagine they were too broken up about seeing Sheridan go. But he felt strangely bereft. Even cheated.

So here he was, alone with time to think. About the man in the ski mask. About Jason and John and Owen and Robert. About Owen hiding that gun in his cabin. Cain believed Owen when he said he hadn’t been trying to frame him. Owen wasn’t malicious. But he hadn’t come forward to protect Cain when the rifle was found, either. He’d chosen to continue covering for Robert, and that showed Cain where his true loyalties lay. Not only that, Robert had been more support to Amy than he’d ever been to Cain.

Even worse was that moment in the police station when Ned had drawn his gun. John had wanted him to fire. Cain had sensed his sudden eagerness, his reckless “just do it and end it all” attitude.

The memory of his mother’s voice came into Cain’s mind. “It’s them, not you. If they knew you like I do, they’d love you every bit as much.” For the sake of his relationship with Marshall, he’d made peace with his stepbrothers and father over the years. They spent Thanksgiving and Christmas together, and each year got a little easier. There were moments when Cain thought he might actually be able to forgive John. But then Bailey’s rifle had surfaced and everything had snapped right back to where it’d been twelve years ago.

Quixote and Maximillian growled and got to their feet, their noses pointing toward the road. Koda lifted his head and flicked his ears. Cain thought maybe they smelled a skunk or some other small animal and told them to relax. With Sheridan gone, he didn’t have to worry so much about every little sound or rustle of movement.

A few seconds later, however, he heard an engine and saw the lights of another vehicle coming down the lane.

When he recognized it as his neighbor’s car, he got up and walked into the clearing.

Levi Matherley rolled down his window. His dark hair, laced with gray, stuck up on one side as if he’d recently been in bed. No doubt he had, since it was nearly three-thirty in the morning. Levi had a wife and two little girls to support. His feed store opened at six. Why would he be up and about at this time of night? “Hey,” Levi called out.

“Hey, yourself. What’re you doing here?” Cain asked.

“Vi heard something so I grabbed a flashlight and went out to check the yard.” He sounded concerned and, after what had happened, Cain could understand why.

Squatting, Cain rested his elbows on the window ledge. “Don’t worry. A friend of Sheridan Kohl’s arrived a few minutes ago from California. She’s not familiar with the area, probably made a wrong turn and ended up on your property before she found mine. That’s all.”

Levi’s eyebrows went up. “Oh, really? Did she take time to stand in the woods and drink some tequila?” he asked and showed Cain a half-filled bottle he handled only by the very top.

Cain studied the label. “Where’d you find this?”

Levi pointed beyond the clearing. “In those trees behind your place. I’ve been tromping around back there with a flashlight. Didn’t you hear the dogs?”

“I assumed they were barking at my guest.”

“Lucky for me. I was afraid you’d think I was a threat and shoot me.” He laughed uncomfortably. “That’s why I decided to get in the car instead of approaching your place on foot.”

“Good idea.” He sighed as his gaze returned to the tequila. “We need to see if we can get some prints from this bottle.”

Levi wedged the bottom of it carefully between the seat and the console, so the middle part, which would most likely hold prints, didn’t touch anything. “I’ll drop it off at the police station on my way to work in the morning.”

“You don’t have any idea who it was, do you?” Cain asked.

Levi didn’t respond right away.

“Are you going to answer me?” Cain prompted.

“I think it’s best to let the police handle it from here.”

Cain touched his neighbor’s shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

A frown created deep grooves on either side of Levi’s mouth. “Just a hunch.”

“What kind of hunch?”

“I suspect it might’ve been Tiger Chandler.”

Cain rocked back on his heels. “Tiger? What makes you say that?”

“I’ve seen his car up here a few times.”

“What for?”

“What do you think?”

Cain was at a complete loss. He couldn’t even remember the last time Tiger had been at his house. “I have no clue.”

“He used to come up here fairly often. He’d park his car on the edge of my property and walk over to your place,” Levi explained.

“He never came to the door,” Cain said.

“I know. I confronted him about it once, as he was getting back in his car.”

“What’d he say?”

“He claimed he was just out for some fresh air.”

“What, the air’s better at my place?”

Levi cleared his throat. “Come on, Cain. This is awkward enough. Stop pretending.”

Cain felt his jaw drop. “Pretending? Levi, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“He knew about you and Amy, okay? He must have. That’s why he kept coming out here, creeping around in the dark.”

Cain couldn’t have been more surprised. “Knew what about me and Amy?”

“I saw her, too,” he said as if Cain’s response had been deliberately misleading. “She came here quite often. That’s the reason I didn’t get up when I heard your dogs the night Sheridan was attacked. I figured it was Amy. Again.”