Page 82 of Resisting His Charm
“Good. Get him to take you to the main house, Poppy. I’ll meet you there.”
“Okay.” I hang up the call. “Sammie is going to meet us at your place.”
Jaxson nods and starts picking up my mom’s journals, putting them back into the plastic bag. “Let’s get out of here before the spiders get hungry.”
“Spiders? Where?” I jump up. Why didn’t I think to be on the lookout for the creepy motherfuckers.
“Relax, princess. I’ll protect you from the spiders.” Jaxson laughs as he follows me over to the ladder.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“We need to leave,” I tell Alfie.
We’ve been locked away in an interrogation room of the small sheriff’s station. It was way too fucking easy to get in here and gain unrestricted access to files. All we had to do was wave our badges and say some bullshit about following a lead in our investigation on Emmanuel Lopez.
“What was that about?” my cousin asks, nodding at my phone.
“Poppy said she found something,” I explain as the door opens and Sheriff Cane Searlait walks in.
“Poppy Kestral?” he questions.
“You know her?” I keep my tone casual.
Alfie closes all the files. We didn’t find anything in them. It was all the same bullshit we’ve already read.
“I was her mother’s partner when she was murdered.” The sheriff nods. “Good girl, that one. What did she find?”
“Excuse me?”
“You said Poppy found something. What’d she find?” he presses.
Fuck, I’d love to just put a bullet in this fucker’s head right here. That’s not going to get me anywhere, though.
“No idea. We visited her this morning. Gave her a card and asked her to give us a call if anything came to mind on what her mother was investigating prior to her death. But you being her partner and all,youwould know more than any kid would. What was she investigating?” I turn the question back to him.
“No idea. Kestral kept shit to herself a lot. Honestly, I just figured she was on the take, up to dodgy shit because everyone in this town knows that the Kestral Ranch isn’t successful just because of its beef,” he grunts.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing’s ever been proven, but a lot of bodies go missing out on that ranch. They like to hire ex-cons as ranch hands too.” He shrugs.
“Maybe they believe in giving second chances to hard workers,” I suggest.
“We’re done here. There’s nothing new in any of this. If anything comes up, give me a call.” Alfie takes out one of his fakeFBI cards. He hands it to the sheriff and then we both walk right out of the station.
Neither of us says a word until we’re in the car and about five minutes down the road. I take my phone out and call my mother.
“Did you find anything?” Mom asks.
“No, but Poppy went to her parents’ house and said she did. Meet us at the ranch. And that cop knows something. He overheard me telling Alfie what Poppy said and was very interested in what she knew,” I reply.
“Where is she now?”
“She’s with her cousin. She should be back at the main house.”
“You need to hurry up and get to her. Don’t let her out of your sight, Sammie J,” Mom says.
“See you soon.” I cut the call.
