“You think someone is out there?” she whispered.
He touched the small of her back, urging her forward. “It’s hard to say for sure. But I’m not taking any chances.”
A shiver ran through her.
Did this have something to do with Vince? Or was this related to the trouble that was already here before she came?
“Wes . . .” Her voice trailed.
“Yes?”
“I’m scared.”
He paused before saying, “I won’t let anything happen to you. We just need to keep moving right now. Okay?”
She nodded and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
She waited for something else. For someone to appear. For a threat to emerge.
Nothing happened.
But just because it didn’t happen now, that didn’t mean danger wasn’t coming. Maybe not at this moment. But eventually.
For that reason, she remained on edge.
Finally, the clearing appeared beyond the trees in the distance.
They were almost back to the house.
The tension in her chest loosened some.
“Yesterday . . .” Wes started. “When you had the confrontation with Travis.”
She glanced over her shoulder before quickly looking at him. “What about it?”
“You mentioned he wouldn’t let you leave. That he made you uneasy.” He paused. “Was there anything else you noticed? Anything you didn’t say at the time?”
Rowan thought back to the conversation—the gravel crunching under her feet, the urge to turn around before she’d even made it to the porch.
She thought about the way Travis had saideven if you are a King—the careful, deliberate tone that had almost sounded like a threat. “Travis made sure I knew how he felt about my family.”
“Anything else specific?”
She sucked in a quick breath. “Now that you mention it, there were two smells when I got out of the car. One was rot, like something had died nearby. The other was . . . gasoline.”
“Gasoline?”
“I told myself he’d probably been cutting the grass or weed whacking or something. I didn’t think much of it.”
“It could have been a coincidence, but it’s worth looking into. We’ll need to let Sheriff Sutherland know.”
“Of course.” She paused. “But if Travis set this fire, he really must be desperate. It could have spread—to his own home. Or it could have spread to Refuge Cove. Innocent people could have been harmed.”
“From the sounds of it, people like Travis don’t think much about consequences.”
They continued walking until they finally reached the fence.
“I’m assuming that Caleb told you about the land dispute,” Rowan said.
