I'll Be Watching You Read online

  Or would she?

  She remembered how Charlotte had enjoyed creating strife. Nothing lethal, just a dose to liven things up. She liked to play both sides, pretending loyalty while enjoying the show. Tullie’s words came back: Be careful who you trust. Then the singular warning to be careful. The girl was worried, no doubt about that. Kim had every intention of being very careful about who she trusted. She had a feeling her life might depend on it.

  A couple of hours later, Kim called it quits for the day. She drove home, running her apology through her head like a speech. It occurred to her that Charlotte had pressed her into this apology using her own lie against her. Was she orchestrating another display of humiliation or was she really trying to make peace for her family, and Zell in particular?

  All right, she’d prepare for humiliation and hope for the best. That Zell wouldn’t be around would make things easier. He had stepped into the role of reluctant ally. She didn’t want to put him in that uncomfortable place if Winnerow refused her apology.

  As soon as she pulled up to her house, she knew something was wrong. She couldn’t pinpoint what it was at first. She sat in the truck and scanned the house. Her gaze honed in on the open hothouse door.

  She grabbed her tear gas, left Oscar in the truck, and walked to the hothouse. Pieces of bark and leaves littered the ground. When she walked into the hothouse, she saw that those bits were all that was left. She’d had to fight tears that morning at the bar. She couldn’t handle one more assault.

  Yet, there it was. Not vandalism this time. Her legs went weak, and she held onto the nearest post. Every orchid had been stolen except for the few that had been nailed to the posts. How much was she supposed to take? This wasn’t just thievery. Like the vandalism at the bar, its aim was simple: drain her and run her out of town.

  What pissed her off was that it hurt. It was rejection at its worst. She dropped to her knees and gave in to the tears for a few minutes. She needed this release of grief and frustration. She sure as hell deserved it. How was she ever going to repay Zell?

  She pulled herself up, not out of a desire to pull herself together and buck up, but to check out the house to see if further damage had been done. A quick tour showed no sign of thievery or vandalism. She let Oscar out and took in the empty hothouse again. It looked as though someone had dragged a length of board over the ground to cover up footsteps and tire tracks. Not that she expected any resolution, but she still called the sheriff’s substation and reported the crime.

  A deputy she didn’t know came out and wrote up the crime. While she’d waited for the deputy, she’d taken a shower and actually considered drinking one of the beers Elva had left in the fridge. She nixed the idea. What she didn’t need was a loose tongue when she went to see Winnerow.

  After the deputy left, she put Oscar in the house and drove to Heron’s Glen. She hated leaving the pig behind, but it was too hot to leave him in or near the truck. She whispered a prayer for his safety. Besides, they’d done their deed. Now they’d sit back and wait to see what she did.

  Funny, she thought as she drove between those two fancy columns with herons on them; when she’d first come back, she’d sworn to steer clear of the Macgregors. Now here she was driving onto their property for the third time in less than two weeks. As a perfect backdrop to the visit, storm clouds roiled the dark sky above her. She was hoping the storm would hold off long enough to be used as a reason to make a quick getaway.

  JoGene stomped into his father’s house. “What the hell were you thinking, trashing her bar like that?” It was the first time he’d had a chance to confront Buck about it.

  Buck was sitting in the living room with his usual can of discount beer. “Someone had to take matters in hand.”

  “I said I’d handle it, and I am!”

  “She’s still here, ain’t she? I wouldn’t call that handling it. I’m helping things along, that’s all.”

  He hated that Buck didn’t trust him, even if he didn’t deserve it. And in fact, he could use this to his advantage. Yeah, that’s exactly what he’d do.

  CHAPTER 21

  Zell’s black truck was parked in front of Heron’s Glen. Kim tried to sell the jump in her belly as nervousness about her apology and nearly succeeded. As she walked up to the house, she ran her speech through her mind once more. Short and sweet and to the point. She took a deep breath and pulled on the fancy brass knocker.

  A few minutes later, Tullie answered the door. She had her little gator slung over her shoulder. Both were dotted with water, and Tullie had a towel wrapped around her bathing suit. She smiled when she saw Kim, who involuntarily stepped back at the sight of the gator.

  “Been swimming?”

  Tullie nodded. “Runt needs his exercise. You come to apologize to Grandpa?”

  “I’m going to give it my best shot. Is he here?”

  “They’re all down at the farm checking on the eggs. Wait a minute, and I’ll take you there.”

  A few minutes later Tullie reappeared, thankfully without Runt. She’d thrown on shorts, a tank top, and flip-flops. “Okay, ready,” she said breathlessly.

  When they got into the truck, Kim said, “That’s nice of you to take me there.”

  “I like you. You don’t treat me like I’m weird.”

  Kim felt a jab in her chest as she remembered the snide way Charlotte had referred to Tullie’s feelings. “You’re not weird. There are lots of people out there like you.”

  Tullie’s eyes widened with such hope, it was painful. “There are?”

  Tullie hadn’t been out in the world to know. “There sure are. Some people believe in them and some don’t. But it’s not considered overly strange.”

  “Uncle Zell says I’m different, not strange. He says being different is good.”

  Damn, why did he have to be so nice? She’d much prefer to think of him as arrogant and self-absorbed. “He’s right.”

  Tullie directed her to the two white buildings with white plastic roofs. To the left was the large water tank. Kim knew that every day they flushed out the water in the gator holding tanks. Beyond the gator houses was the slaughterhouse and cool storage for the meat. Part of the slaughterhouse building was the office.

  She pulled into the parking lot and cut the engine. This was as close as she’d ever come. The smell alone was enough to keep one away, let alone the gators inside. Even with constant freshwater, gator excrement in great quantity was strong enough to peel off skin.

  “Is Zell here?” Kim asked.

  Tullie shrugged. “I think he’s on a call.”

  She hopped out and headed to the building on the right. Kim envied her ease. Like Charlotte, she’d grown up around gators.

  Kim slowly followed, hoping upon hope that it wasn’t a drop of rain she felt on her arm. The sky rumbled in answer, and a shimmer of light in the east preceded another rumble of thunder a few seconds later. If Tullie hadn’t been with her, she would have gone on home and waited for another day. The storm was going to end up stranding her there.

  Tullie stood by the half doors waiting for her. No backing out now. She was one of the few people who seemed to like her. She didn’t want to lose her respect by chickening out.

  When she got to the doors, Tullie said, “Open the top door and look inside. Even though there are smaller gators in here, it’s still good to make sure none got loose.”

  “Very good,” Kim agreed.

  She remembered the story of how Owen had forgotten to do that once. She flipped the bolt and pulled it open. The smell wasn’t as bad as in the big gator house, but the air was still hot and steamy. It was dim inside; the only light came through the opaque roof. With the storm overhead, that was minimal. The walkway was painted white, probably to highlight any gators that may have escaped.

  “They’re in the incubator room. Come on, I’ll show you the eggs.” Tullie grabbed her hand and started pulling her toward the doorway at the end of the long walkway.

  Kim tugged the girl
back despite the enthusiasm in her voice. “Why don’t you tell them I’m here? I’ll wait. Don’t want to disturb them.”

  The rain started coming down, sending a gust of wet, cool air through the top opening of the doorway. She could feel the mist against her bare neck, and it sent a shiver down her spine. Tullie tugged harder. “Come on, see the eggs.”

  She allowed the girl to pull her along, but her gaze drew to the large holding tanks on either side. This was her worst nightmare, only in miniature. Even small, gators could deliver a nasty bite with their needle-sharp teeth. Each tank held a different sized gator. The one at the end held the smallest specimens.

  “Aren’t they cute?” Tullie said, sounding like a normal little girl…except for the fact that she was talking about gators.

  “Uh…no. Not evenly remotely cute.”

  As soon as those words came out, she came face to face with Zell. He had opened the door and was about to walk right into her. Which wouldn’t have been a good idea considering his sweaty, naked chest. Not much better, she instinctively put her hands out and made contact with that chest, which was how she personally became aware of just how naked and sweaty it was.

  “I thought you were out on an emergency call,” she blurted out because nothing sensible came to mind. She pulled her hands back and wiped them on her jeans.

  He had his shirt wadded up in his hand and used it to wipe the sweat off his face. “I managed to mediate until we can get a court date. What are you doing here?”

  She pulled her gaze away from his face and looked beyond him. Charlotte was in a large room lined with shelves and wooden boxes. She said, “Tullie, where have you been? I’ve been trying to call the house for an hour. Some babies are hatching!”

  Tullie darted inside the room and peered in the box that was sitting on a table in the center. Now that Kim had a chance to collect her senses, she could hear the high-pitched grunt of hatching gators. The grunt was a call to their mother, who would help them out of their shells and carry them to the water.

  “Come here, Kim,” Tullie called, her face in total rapture.

  “I came to talk to Winnerow,” she stammered, but Zell steered her by the shoulders to the box.

  Charlotte had stripped down to a silky peach bra in deference to the heat in the room. Neither Owen nor Winnerow were within sight. Charlotte leaned down and stroked one of the eggs with her manicured finger. It shook and jiggled. “Come on, baby. Come on out or mama will help you.” She made the same type of grunting sounds the babies were making. “I heard them on the monitor a bit ago.” She sucked in a breath when the egg cracked. “Too bad Owen isn’t around. He hates missing a hatching. He and JoGene are out fishing.”

  Two tiny gators were curled up inside their eggs trying to break out. Charlotte used her nails to help them. Her face looked rapturous too, even though this was something she had to have seen a hundred times.

  When Kim looked at Zell, he was watching her. His gaze shifted to the box, though he wasn’t bothered that she’d caught him. She watched a bead of sweat making its slow journey along his jaw line as he leaned over the box. Sweat already trickled between her breasts and down her back, and she understood why the two had taken off their shirts. Not that she was going to do it.

  She decided it was a safer bet to watch the gators than to get caught staring at Zell. She moved into the space between him and Tullie, feeling his damp arm brush against hers. The two gators had broken free of their confines and were rubbing against the nesting material to shed the bits of shell. The first baby was sitting on Charlotte’s hand as she continued to grunt.

  Zell picked up one of them and held it in front of Kim, who made a point not to back away. The gator’s grunts quickened. “Cute little fella, huh?”

  “Cuter than the full-grown ones,” she allowed.

  Two more eggs cracked open, and she watched the babies emerge. Zell picked up the one on Charlotte’s hand and took both gators to one of the holding tanks. He returned and waited for two more to get their bearings before taking them off. Kim followed him and found his fantastic derrière perched up as he bent over to put the babies in the tank.

  She came up beside him in the open doorway and watched the babies instantly take to the water. They alternately swished through the clear water and assumed the gator pose: floating in the water with only their eyes and nostrils above the water and their legs akimbo. Rain pounded on the plastic above, catching their attention.

  Zell turned around to face her and whispered, “Now if I had a big ego, I’d think you’d braved gators to get another lip lock.”

  “You do have a big ego,” she whispered back and nudged him. “I came to see Winnerow.”

  He affected a shot-in-the-heart stance. “Thrown over for my own father.”

  That earned him another nudge. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “And I do not have a big ego. I just happen to be wildly good-looking and fun to be around.”

  She caught a spark of humor in his eyes and a twitch at the corner of his mouth. When she realized she’d been looking at that mouth for a second too long, she shifted to his eyes. She disliked him and liked him; sometimes he seemed threatening, and other times she was afraid of him for reasons beyond bodily danger. He wasn’t her type, yet she was drawn to him like sweet ants to sugar. She’d never been kissed like that before, and the way it had made her feel scared her more than anything.

  Her heartbeat was speeding up, and he was only looking at her. Lightning flashed above them, lighting up the dim building. It felt as though an arc of electricity jumped from him to her. His hand went to his chest in the shot-through-the-heart way again. “Whoa, what was that?”

  At first her mouth was too dry, her throat too tight, to respond. “Lightning?” she finally said.

  He shook his head. “That wasn’t lightning.”

  She took a deep breath, her mouth hanging slack. No, it wasn’t lightning, at least not the kind that shattered the sky outside.

  The door at the end of the hallway opened, and a very wet Winnerow walked inside. He managed quite well with his cane, she noticed. His displeasure at seeing her was evident on his face, but apparently silence among the gators was more important. Was that why Tullie had insisted she come inside, knowing he couldn’t yell at her? He walked up to her, killing both her and Zell with his eyes before going into the incubation room.

  When she met Zell’s gaze again, she thought she read don’t worry, I’m here in the blue-green depths. Just what she didn’t want. She followed Winnerow, and Zell walked in behind her. Charlotte held up one of the babies. “You’re a grandpa!” she crowed in a whisper.

  Winnerow closed the door. “Why is it that every time I turn around, this woman is on my property?” He glared at Zell. “Or on my son’s property.”

  Kim cleared her throat and faced Winnerow, who hadn’t looked at her through his whole whispered tirade. “I’m sorry to intrude, but I wanted to apologize.” Of course, her perfectly planned speech fled her mind. “For everything. If I’d known the truth about my father… who knows how I would have felt? I came here with a lot of anger toward you. When I saw your truck going down that road, well, maybe I saw you because I wanted to see you. It seemed very clear back then, but I could have been wrong. I caused a lot of turmoil in the family, I know.” She took all of them in. “I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

  Winnerow Macgregor was speechless, something rare for him. The heat felt heavy, making it hard to breathe. The only sounds in the room were the grunts of the gators, the rustle of nesting material as they moved, and the gentle patter of the lightening rain. Since she didn’t expect him to absolve her she started to leave.

  “Wait,” he said. “You mean that?”

  “Yes.” She was pretty sure she did.

  He regarded her for a few long minutes. She glanced toward Charlotte and Zell, finding surprise on his expression, satisfaction on hers. Tullie was taking it all in as she usually did. Kim turned back to Winnerow,
who said, “Why are you doing this? Are you in love with my son?”

  Kim shifted her gaze to Zell and quickly back again, trying not to think of that lightning moment. “That’s not it at all.” Though she had to admit she was doing this for Zell, and she clearly had feelings for him to put herself through this ordeal. “I want to make peace.”

  “Are you saying you now don’t believe I killed Rhonda Jones?”

  “I believe that I convicted you without enough evidence.”

  He considered that. “At least you’re honest. If I accept your apology, I’d better not catch you snooping around in my backyard again.”

  “Fair enough.” She glanced at everyone standing around the nesting box. “I’ll leave you to your work.”

  She was glad to open the doors and step out into the relatively cool air outside. The rain still fell, but she gratefully stepped into the light shower. She lifted her face and let the drops of water wash down over her. That hadn’t been so bad. In fact, a weight had lifted off her shoulders.

  And a different one had taken its place as she remembered Zell’s words: Whoa, what was that? He wasn’t about to let either of them believe it was something else.

  A touch on her shoulder sent her spinning around. Zell stood there, still naked from his waist up. “That was pretty big of you, apologizing like that.”

  “It was about time really.”

  He brushed her hair off her forehead. “You’re something else, you know that?”

  “I was thinking the same thing about you just recently.”

  “Is that when you realized how big my ego was?”

  She laughed. “Sometime around then.”

  “You could have made things a lot easier on me by just being a pain in the ass. You’re good at it.”

  “Are you trying to lay the charm on me?”