“Thanks.”
She gave me a little smile and opened her mouth as if she might say more, but I was hoping she wouldn’t tell me how great my new landlord was or that I should cut him some slack. He probably was pretty awesome even if he had his head up his ass, but I wasn’t in the mood.
“I hope you stick around for a while. We have a girls’ night at the Public House. Sage and I, you’ve met her, you should come, it’d be fun.”
“Kipp’s sister, the one with the rubber boots and all the hair?” The idea of a night out with the girls sounded amazing. It was pretty rare for me to have a moment to hang out and enjoy myself with female company in a bar. My friend Sydney and I were close, but we didn’t get the chance to hang out very often. “She seemed like a kick. That’d be nice.”
Lila laughed. “Sage is definitely a hoot. She keeps me laughing. We usually go during the week when we can during happy hour. Give me your number, and I’ll let you know when we’re meeting up.”
After swapping numbers, Lila headed back to the counter, and I settled into my armchair to enjoy my croissant and coffee while swiping through my messages and emails. Excited to see one from Leo, I opened the thread.
LEO
Found the motherlode. Allison had her own bank account in Briar Falls, and her husband wasn’t even a co-signer. The kicker was that she had over a hundred thousand in there, so it wasn’t small. I did some digging on where it was coming from, and she was working as an online cam girl.
He’d also sent me an email with the statements backing up his evidence, and, like always, I felt that stab of guilt over the questionable morality of the hacking we were involved in. It definitely wasn’t exactly legal. This was big news. It was a lot of money, which meant motive. The husband worked at a lumber mill, and that probably didn’t bring in that much.
Flipping through the other records Leo had attached, I saw Trent’s bank statements and confirmed my suspicions. It was a decent salary, but they seemed to be struggling to pay rent, which made me wonder even more why Allison was sitting on that much money.
LEO
Trent’s finances were pretty bleak. He’s worked at the mill for years and earned a decent salary. It looks like he knew about the cam work, or at least some of it. Allison paid for groceries and withdrew weekly cash for them. She also paid their heating bill from her account, but went to the bank to have a draft drawn. She never had any checks written or any other cosigners.
Looking through the other attachments, I saw what Leo was talking about, slotting it into what I knew about Trent. Would it have pissed him off?
LEO
I’ll start looking into getting more information on the cam work and see if I can pull records and conversations. We might get a lead there, but it might be tough cracking that system. I’ll get back to you. L8GTR.
Finishing my croissant, I added a few more items to my notebook list: talk to someone at Briar Falls bank, ask if they ever noticed anyone with Allison, and I underlined talk to Trent. That was a priority now. I needed to know if I could shake something loose there.
CHAPTER 16
Kipp
By the time evening settled over the little cabins, Fish and I had gone for a nice run through the mountain trails just as dusk slid in smooth and slow, the kind of evening that made the glass fronts of the A-frames glow like lanterns under the setting sun.
Hattie returned a few hours ago with a bounce in her step and a bag from Chapter & Crumb before she disappeared into her cabin. I’d tried hard not to obsess over the length of her tanned legs or the curve of her ass, instead working on getting things ready for the family checking in.
Fish had kept me company while I reviewed my checklist earlier, making sure the cabin was ready. Nerves started creeping in as it became real that my first customer was going to stay tonight. For some reason, I didn’t really count Hattie as a tenant.
I spent some time stocking up on extra supplies near the fire pit, making sure that the extinguisher was where it should be and the water pump was primed. The last thing I needed was someone starting a forest fire up here. It was one of my worst fears, if I was being honest. East and I had cleared the area around the cabins and taken every precaution, but there was always a risk when unseasoned people were out in the woods.
There were practical reasons I had decided to start this venture, but I also loved the idea of introducing others to the magic that could be found away from big lights and big cities. The cabins were a little oasis away from everything. They weren’t exactly roughing it or anything that was for damn sure, but people could still get the feeling of being right up into the peace that the woods had to offer.
It had just started to get really dark when headlights appeared around the bend in the driveway, shining brightly against the darkening forest. I had all the string lights on now and the timer set. I hadn’t turned them on earlier, even though Hattie was staying here, but I should have. Now the whole area looked like something out of a storybook (according to Lila).
Fish’s tail wagged easily. He liked evenings like this. I did too, most days. I was struggling to figure out my role as a cabin host. Was it okay that I was sitting on my porch in my Adirondack chair with a glass of sweet tea? There would be check-in times I couldn’t make, but when Icould, it would be nice to be on-site. Sage had set everything up so that people would receive an automatic email with all the correct information and maps in their inbox, but a real person couldn’t be beat.
A single SUV, clean and new, rolled slowly forward like the driver didn’t want to miss anything, or they weren’t sure where to go, but that wasn’t possible because everything was clearly marked. It was making my stomach pitch and roll uncomfortably.
I watched them pull in, noting the way the parents leaned forward, the way the kids craned their necks to take everything in, jabbing each other excitedly in the back seat. The kids were both under ten and were practically bouncing against the ceiling. I smiled to myself at the thought of all the sugary snacks they’d probably had and all that energy they needed to burn off. They were going to love it here.
Grabbing my clipboard, I walked out to meet them, staunchly ignoring Hattie, who was lounging front and center with her laptop on her porch. However, I did need to make nice with her. It wasn’t cool to be a dick. I’d been thinking a lot about what Wade said, and maybe I was being unfair.
It hadn’t stopped me from dropping a call to Rhodes today. He’d weasled me out of a 7-day stay, hogging six cabins for a work retreat with his guys, but whatever. The deep-dive would be worth it. My bookings weren’tfull yet, and having all his guys here doing whatever they wanted wasn’t going to be a problem.
The mom stepped out first, eyes wide, swiveling over to me just as the kids piled out of the doors on either side, whooping and hollaring. “Oh wow,” she breathed. “Pictures did not do this justice.”
