Caleb looked at the front first before shaking his head. “You’ve got to be kidding me . . .”
“Found it in my room at Hollow House.”
Caleb’s jaw tightened as he read the message. “That was taken near the site of the fire.”
“Yes, it was.”
Caleb stared at the woods beyond the pasture. “What do you think this is connected with?”
“It’s hard to say for sure if this trouble is centered around Rowan or Refuge Cove.”
“You think Rowan’s the target?” Caleb asked after a moment.
“I think Rowan walked into something dangerous in California.” He looked back at the house in the distance. “But I also think this property already had enemies before she came home.”
Caleb rubbed a hand across his jaw. “You’re right about that.”
“Either way, we have a problem,” Wes continued.
Caleb gave a short nod at the photograph. “You think whoever took this is still watching the property?”
“I do.”
“I don’t like what that means for the women staying here.”
“It is an issue,” Wes said. “No one can deny that.”
“The question is: What are we going to do about it?”
CHAPTER 34
Rowan had goneto the kennel to play with the puppies again. As she sat with them in their pen, voices had drifted in from outside.
The conversation was between Caleb and Wes. She hadn’t intended to listen in. Yet she hadn’t been able to stop herself either.
One of Juno’s puppies climbed clumsily across her shoe, chewing at the lace with tiny, determined bites. Normally the sight would’ve made her smile.
Now she barely noticed. Instead, her mind kept replaying what she’d overheard.
One part of the conversation kept repeating.
This property already had enemies before she came home.
I don’t like what that means for the women staying here.
Something tight and painful settled in her chest.
Because Wes was right.
Shedidblame herself.
The surveillance photograph had made that impossible to ignore. Someone had followed her into Refuge Cove’s woods. Someone had watched the property. Had watched her family. Watched Naomi and Grace.
Now Wes was standing outside discussing perimeter breaches like Refuge Cove had become an active security problem instead of a home.
A home she’d brought danger into. Sure, maybe there was some before she came. But she’d definitely added to it.
The puppy finally lost interest in her shoelace and wandered across the blanket-covered floor toward its siblings. Rowan stared after it a moment, envying the creature’s innocence and the simplicity of its life.
