I'll Be Watching You Read online

  “See, no attacking gators here,” he whispered.

  Tullie was holding her nose. “They’re just laying there,” she whispered back.

  She took them in with her big, blue eyes for a couple of minutes. The worry had eased a bit. “Okay, we can go now.”

  They both took gulps of fresh air when they stepped outside. “Feel any better?” he asked.

  “A little. I hope it’s a regular dream.”

  “I’m sure it is. Nobody’s ever been killed by a gator around here.”

  She looked at her dad’s truck. “I can go back with my daddy.”

  “All right. Let’s go see what they’re up to.” He put Tullie’s bike in the bed of the other truck and headed into the small gator house.

  “I’m going to wait out here,” she said, climbing into the truck’s cab to get away from the mosquitoes. “I’ve seen enough gators for a while.”

  He didn’t like that she was getting afraid of gators. Being part of the Macgregor family meant being close to the creatures. That was partly why he had the gator test for any woman who had a mind to become part of the family. He remembered how Kim had accused him of using the test to keep women away. How she’d suspected he’d had a broken heart once. She was right. He did use the test to keep away marriage-minded women. He’d never had a broken heart, because he’d never given it to anyone. Until recently, he’d doubted that he would ever give it away.

  He walked into the small gator house and headed toward the incubation room. As he reached for the doorknob, he heard JoGene’s voice.

  “I offered Kim a partnership.”

  Winn said, “A what?”

  “I thought you wanted her out of here like the rest of us,” Owen said. “What the hell have we been doing all this time then?”

  Zell froze.

  JoGene said, “I’m still going to get the bar. The way I figure, I get what I want and eventually she’ll fall for my charms. Then I can keep her in line.”

  Owen said, “What if she doesn’t take your offer?”

  “She’s running out of options. We made her use all her money fixing up the bar, stole them orchids, and now she can’t get booze. I’d say she’s done.”

  Winn’s laugh was bitter. “She’ll find a way. She always does.”

  Owen said, “She was out there fixing the windows today. No, JoGene, we gotta get rid of her. I’m with Winn on this. No partnerships. We gotta do something drastic.”

  Zell’s anger was building with each word. He wanted to bust in on them, but that wasn’t his style. His style was to mull things over, think about the ramifications.

  JoGene said, “Let me handle this. Probably she’ll give up and sell out to me, after I was such a nice guy and all. And if I get a roll in the hay in the meantime—”

  Zell opened the door and shoved JoGene against the empty shelves.

  JoGene’s eyes were enormous. “What the hell?”

  “It’s not going to go down that way. No partnership, no roll in the hay—nothing.” He knew the defeat he’d seen on Kim’s face was fueling him on; it made him shove JoGene harder.

  JoGene said, “Zell, you don’t like fighting, remember?”

  Winn barked, “Zell, let him down!”

  Owen stood there with his mouth hanging open.

  Zell gave him one last shove before releasing him. “Did you have anything to do with those two goons jumping her?”

  JoGene stumbled and had the audacity to look mad. “They acted on their own. I only broke out the winders and painted the bar.”

  “And stole the orchids.”

  “Well, yeah, that too. Look, I’m not trying to hurt her. She’s still going to end up with money and she can open a bar somewhere else. I’m trying to put her in a financial situation. I planned to sell the orchids and add in the money to what I offer her.”

  “You have it all figured out, smart boy, don’t you?” Zell said. He wasn’t sure how much was a load of crap. He shifted a hard gaze at Owen. “How do you fit into all this?”

  “I was helping JoGene out, is all. Since you won’t let me work with you, I figured I’d help him at the bar some.”

  Zell knew where they were coming from; two powerless men kept down by wives and family. It still didn’t excuse them. “What about trashing the bar?”

  JoGene said, “That was Dad. I told him I was handling things, but he had to jump in like always. I didn’t think I’d have to go this far. I figured she’d give up and leave long ago.”

  “Or you’d get into her pants first?” That pissed Zell off almost as much as the vandalism.

  “That would have been a bonus. I figured if we were friendly, she might be more susceptible to selling me the bar. Or maybe I’d marry into it and get both bar and pu—”

  Zell shoved him before he could finish the crude word. He turned to Winn. “How much of this are you involved in?”

  Winn’s expression was as hard as it had been when he’d seen Zell kiss Kim. “I suspected these two were up to something. I want to make sure it’s handled the right way.”

  Zell ran his hand back through his hair. “For the first time, I’m ashamed of being a Macgregor.”

  Winn’s face reddened, and he clenched his fist. “Don’t you ever say that! I’m going to do whatever I have to do to protect his family.”

  “What are you trying to protect us from?”

  Winn’s face paled for a moment, but he recovered quickly. “False allegations. You are a Macgregor in any case, and you won’t say a word about any of this.”

  “I won’t incriminate our family…if you give me him.” He pointed to JoGene. “He and I have a little business to discuss.”

  JoGene looked at Owen and Winn for help. Neither said a word. No one had ever seen this side of Zell before. He liked their reaction and hoped they remembered it. Especially Owen, who’d gotten mouthy recently.

  “I’ll see you outside,” he said to JoGene and walked out. Yeah, he had some business to give him.

  Two in the morning and everyone was sound asleep in their beds. Moonlight slanted in through the bedroom windows, illuminating Oscar on his big pillow. It was too bad the pig would die. To save him would mean waking Kim, who lay in the shadows sound asleep. Hopefully both would succumb to the smoke before the flames reached them.

  When Elva and Pete had built this place, they hadn’t put in a back door. Obviously, code enforcement officials weren’t as strict back then. There was a door out the kitchen, but that wouldn’t help Kim.

  A series of wood strips wedged into the bedroom door would jam it closed. The strips would burn with the house and leave no evidence. Of course, the authorities would know it was arson. Gasoline left a trace. But no one would know who had set the fire.

  With the door closed, the smell of gasoline shouldn’t reach the bedroom before the house was consumed with flames. By then it would be too late.

  Gasoline splashed along the wood floors and soaked the old furniture. The smell burned the nostrils and stung the eyes, but soon it would be over. Hopefully for good this time.

  At the front door, the match lit up the night; then lit up the house. Flames took hold instantly.

  Ah, so this was why pyromaniacs set fires. The roar and the intense heat were exciting…almost sexual. The flames shimmered, and smoke curled along the roofline. Maybe it was because fire was so all-powerful, taking a life and a structure at once.

  There wasn’t time to gloat or get off on the scene. Time to leave before anyone saw the smoke. The plants beneath the bedroom windows came to life in flames, blocking the only other way out of the bedroom.

  Now the truth would be safe.

  Zell still couldn’t drop off to sleep. He sat up in bed and looked out over the prairie. He could only see the palmetto heads sticking up out of the vast grayness of grass.

  As angry as he was with his father, he was more disgusted by Winn’s expectation of silence. Maybe it was Zell’s attraction to Kim that had made Winn want her out of town more
urgently. Was that the source of his desperation? Or was it something bigger, darker? After his talk with JoGene, he’d questioned Winn alone. Buck had wanted to know what his son was up to and figured Owen would be involved. He’d asked Winn to check it out. Supposedly as simple as that.

  What bothered Zell most was the turn of events. Kim had found herself in that same uncomfortable place he’d been in: between him and his family. That’s why she’d backed off of the relationship. Winn had told Zell that she’d seen the petal and likely knew someone in the family had stolen the orchids. She hadn’t accused anyone, hadn’t reported them to the police. She hadn’t even mentioned it to Zell.

  So, was she really trying to break off things between them or protect him? All he knew was he’d hated seeing defeat in her eyes instead of that sass. He pushed out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans and a shirt. The clock on his nightstand read two o’clock.

  He walked out onto the back deck. The night air was warm and muggy, the same as it was during the day. For those few moments when he’d shoved JoGene against the shelving, he’d felt primitive. That was the passion that had driven his father during his younger years. Giving in to his impulses before thinking the consequences through was Winn’s nature. Maybe it was Zell’s nature too, and he’d fought it after watching his father self-destruct.

  He picked up the scent of smoke and searched the night sky for its source. It was too wet for a wildfire. He saw no glow toward the north, so he walked around to the front of the house. There, to the southeast, was a subtle orange glow. Smoke, somewhat lighter than the black sky, billowed into the air.

  Even in the warm night air, a chill washed through him. That was where Kim’s house was.

  CHAPTER 23

  Kim dreamed of fire. At first, she was in a field of flames. Oscar was nudging her and making odd grunting noises. She was sure it wasn’t time to get up, but she wanted out of this dream so she forced her eyes open. The air was hot, just like the dream. The smoke was real, too. She shot up and gathered her murky senses.

  Oscar’s front hooves were up on the bed in his efforts to wake her. She pushed him to the floor and scrambled off the bed. Flames licked outside her windows. She ran to the door and tried to open it. The doorknob was warm. It turned, but the door wouldn’t budge.

  “Stay calm, stay calm,” she chanted, assessing the situation.

  Smoke poured in from beneath the door. She yanked the sheets off the bed and jammed them in the crack. The scent of gasoline was strong, though she didn’t smell it in the bedroom. She could feel heat coming through the wood door, which wouldn’t hold off the flames for long.

  She coughed, feeling her chest constrict. “Oh, God…oh, God, help me.”

  Flames blanketed the window on one side of the house. Was the whole yard up in flames? If so, there wasn’t any hope. She looked out the other window. Only a small fire had been lit below. The yard wasn’t on fire—yet. She started to open the window, but pulled back from the hot metal frame. She grabbed a sheet out of the linen closet and used it to push open the window. Smoke spilled in through the opening. She ran to the bathroom and turned on the faucet, then searched for something to put the water in. All she could find was a drinking glass that Elva had once used. She filled it up and dashed to the window.

  The flames hissed when the water hit them but didn’t go out. She raced back to the bathroom and filled the cup again. She saw a large bottle of hand lotion and grabbed that, too. A quick read of the ingredients revealed no alcohol. She poured the water and dumped out the lotion onto the flames. As she filled up another glass, she searched for more lotion. Elva was a fanatic about her skin. She was also a bargain fanatic and had stocked up on a few large bottles with Sale stickers on them. Kim dumped more lotion and water onto the remaining patch of flames.

  Now, she thought as she turned to Oscar; she had to figure out how to get him out of there. Getting a hundred-and-twenty-five-pound pig through a window was not going to be easy. Oscar was pacing and making high-pitched grunting noises. He kept looking at the door and then nudging her leg. Only a few wisps of smoke drifted from around the edges of the sheets, but the wood was making cracking sounds.

  Kim grabbed up one of the nightstands and swung it at the window. She’d meant to keep a hold on it, but it broke through and landed in the yard. She took one of the lamps and used it to break away the shards of glass left in the frame. Smoke started coming from a black patch on the door. The fire was coming through.

  She grabbed hold of the chest of drawers and pulled it toward the window. It tipped over and fell facedown in front of the window. “Come on, Oscar.”

  He was too preoccupied with the growing dark stain on the door and the thickening smoke coming from it. “Oscar!” she screamed, and he turned toward her.

  “Come on, now!”

  She helped him climb onto the back of the dresser. With the expertise she’d gained helping him in and out of vehicles, she maneuvered him to the window’s ledge, lifted him rear first, and shoved him through. He landed with a heavy thud and limped away from the house. She turned back to the room. Her purse was lying on the far nightstand. She grabbed that and threw it out the window. She climbed through the window, falling as ungracefully as Oscar had, and scrambled away.

  The house was engulfed in flames. They rose up through the roof and licked away at the sides of the house. The only exterior fires had been the two set outside her windows. Someone had wanted her to die. This wasn’t about trying to ruin her financially or sending her a message. This had been about murder.

  Forget about that right now. She checked Oscar over and found a few scratches. He was still limping, but he was able to walk.

  Her truck! She called Oscar and headed around the house. She couldn’t even see the front porch with all of the smoke. Headlights swept down her driveway. Was this her would-be killer, checking to see if he’d done a good job?

  When she recognized Zell’s truck, her knees went to jelly. He parked off to the side and ran toward her. She fell into him the moment his arms went around her. His hands searched her face. “Are you all right?”

  She could only nod and cough.

  “Oscar?” After he saw Oscar running to the edge of the hammock, he turned back to her. “Where are the keys to your truck? I’ll move it.”

  She handed him her purse. He found her keys, corralled Oscar into her truck and parked it behind his. Sirens obliterated even the sound of the flames and cracking wood, and a few moments later a fire truck came around the corner. Zell had left her truck lights on so they’d see the vehicles.

  He pulled her out of the way as the men rushed forward shouting instructions. One man came over to them. “You own this place?”

  “I do,” Kim managed to say before coughing.

  “Anyone else in there?”

  “No.”

  “You all right?” he asked them.

  Kim nodded, but felt herself sink against Zell again. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She didn’t want to need his strength or comfort, but she was too scared and shocked to fight it. He stroked her hair and whispered softly, though she couldn’t hear what he was saying. It didn’t matter; the words soothed her anyway.

  When she thought she could handle it, she turned back to the house. It hit her then, that this wasn’t a nightmare. It wasn’t fixable. The house was gone. Two of the men shouted and backed away as one of the exterior walls caved in. Her home was going to be gone, along with her shell frame and pictures. She had nothing and no one… no one but Zell, temporarily, holding her.

  Another fire truck pulled in and the men started assisting the first group. It was hopeless. They were only trying to get the fire out to save the hammock.

  Hopelessness, the fear of nearly dying, and the relief of escape…everything crashed in on her. She felt the sting of tears and tried to hide them from Zell, hoping that turning away from him would do the trick.

  No such luck. He turned her to face him, tilting her
chin up. His eyes were filled with grief for her. His fingers trailed down her wet, sooty cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

  She nodded, because she couldn’t say anything. She was afraid to open her mouth and let out the sobs she was swallowing with all of her might. With every touch, every gentle gesture, he drew her closer to the edge. Behind her, she could hear the shouts of the firemen, the water gushing out of the hoses, and the sound of the flames gobbling up what was left of her home. She didn’t want to watch. She wanted only to stare at Zell and try to draw from his strength.

  It backfired. His strength somehow gave her permission to let go and crumble. She did. The tears came, as powerful and consuming as the flames that ate her home. She collapsed against him and cried out everything she’d been holding in for so long. He held her, rocking her back and forth and pressing his mouth against the top of her head.

  Kinsey and DeBarro pulled into the driveway and watched the proceedings for a few minutes before walking over to where Kim and Zell stood. Zell wished they’d stay away a few more minutes. He knew Kim would hate them seeing her like this. He wanted to give her comfort for a while longer…for as long as she wanted it. He was also eager to find out how this had happened.

  “She all right?” Kinsey asked.

  Kim roused herself at the sound of Kinsey’s voice and turned around. Her short hair stuck up in places, and tears tracked red streaks down her cheeks. First, she looked at the house. The firemen were getting the fire under control. A deep, wracking cough seized her for a few moments. Her dark green eyes were dilated and bloodshot, her face slack. She was in shock. That realization made him slide his arm around her and pull her close again. Her vulnerability ripped his heart out, but he couldn’t even recite any anti-love songs in his head to rebuild the wall.