“They’re okay,” I said. “Look. They look really happy to me.”
His eyes went to the round pen where all of the horses were running wild. Bobber was even on his back rolling in the snow, his blanket doing very little to protect him from the snow when he was making such a mess.
He gritted his teeth. “Do you think this was your stepmother and dad?”
The thought had occurred to me. “This looks more vindictive, like it would be my stepmother. My dad is pretty in your face, like you saw the other day.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll see if Apollo can find anything. Maybe she was stupid and failed to cover her tracks this time.”
“Doubt it,” I muttered.
We fell into the regular routine once we’d cleaned up from the fire, mucking out stalls and feeding the horses.
When I’d done my part, I went back inside and took a quick shower, dressing quickly because by the time all was done, I was starving.
When I got out of the bedroom, mostly dressed, Romeo was on the phone with Apollo.
While he did his thing, I got started on lunch, seeing as we’d completely missed breakfast.
Thankfully, today was a Saturday and neither one of us had anywhere to be.
I’d just finished throwing all the ingredients into a pot for a hearty hamburger soup when he joined me. “Apollo’s looking into it. But your stepmother’s pretty smart. If it was her, she’d would have had to act impulsively and screwed up.”
“What…”
Romeo’s phone rang, and he answered it on speaker as he leaned his hips against the counter.
His feet were still covered in a layer of dirt as he crossed them.
“What’d you get out of him?”
“Guy sang like a canary. Apparently, Whitney Watts ordered him to do it or she’d get him fired. He did it, but only in a way that he knew it wouldn’t hurt them. He also riled the horses up to get them to make noise. He’s fully prepared, though, to go down swinging. He said the conversation took place in front of a camera. My guess, she took care of that footage.”
“She could try,” Romeo said. “But Apollo’s been tapped into all those cameras for months since we got here. There’s no way that she’ll erase them in a way that he can’t get back.”
“Good,” I muttered darkly.
Romeo winked.
“Speaking of,” Romeo said as he pulled his phone away from his face. “Apollo just sent a video. Check it out.”
I looked at the video over Romeo’s shoulder as I continued to stir the soup.
“You’ll go, or I’ll fucking end you, Skeeter,” Whitney hissed. “This is nonnegotiable. I’ve been keeping you in a job for years. If you want it to continue, you’ll do this for me.”
The order was simple. Whitney, my so-called stepmother, had ordered Skeeter to set fire to Romeo’s house. Only, Skeeter hadn’t followed that order and had gone for the barn instead.
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“That’s enough to bring her in,” Romeo said hopefully.
“It sure the fuck is.” Gentry sounded amused. “We’re on the way there now.”
“Good,” Romeo grumbled. “Keep me updated.”
“Will do,” Gentry responded.
Just as his phone was set down on the counter, my phone rang.
