Nice men who should have pointed out the problem to him or Jesse. This was Bliss. The men of Bliss had taught him long ago that they had to stick together or the women of Bliss tended to run all over them. He and Jesse had received the lecture of a lifetime from the entire male population after the Christian Grady incident. And Jamie Glen had damn near broken his nose for not bothering to mention he knew Grady was in town. It didn’t matter that it was just a friendly gesture. It only mattered that those men were horning in on his woman. On Jesse’s woman. Damn it. He was just watching out for his friend. “Jesse or I will take her from now on, until we can find a car for her. I thought she had one.”
Lynn smiled brightly. “Oh no. We have one between the three of us, but Gemma insists on leaving it behind, and Naomi has been looking for a job, so she needs it right now. I think she’s going to take the doc up on his offer. The clinic is close to the sheriff’s office so they can share. I’m just so grateful to the sheriff. He’s been kind to us since the nasty threats started.”
Cade stopped. “Threats?”
Lynn nodded. “Oh, yes. She’s had some nasty letters in the last few days, but nothing that compares to the heart in the box. She thinks it has something to do with a case she worked on when she first started at her firm.”
Cade felt a little vein over his right eye start to throb. “Heart in a box? Tell me you’re talking about a heart-shaped box of candy that some asshole sent her. Was it expired?”
“Oh, it was expired all right. Doc Burke assured me it was probably from a cadaver.”
So Nate and Cam and now Caleb all knew something about Gemma that no one had bothered to tell him. That spot over his right brow ticked away. He couldn’t have heard the word cadaver. “Someone sent Gemma an actual heart and no one bothered to tell me or Jesse?”
“Well, Gemma didn’t want to bother you with it. Nate wanted to haul Jesse in since he was the one who brought the box to her, but Gemma asked him to just ask the questions in a way that didn’t alarm the two of you since what you had was so casual. I guess she was right since you were going to leave. Do you have something wrong with your eye?”
Nothing spanking the ass of one very naughty blonde wouldn’t solve. Jesse. He needed to wake up Jesse so Jesse could start punishing her in a manner that would assure the next heart in a box she received would be immediately brought to her men’s attention. Man’s attention. Fuck it. He could figure it out later. Right now all that mattered was he’d fucked her the night before and not once had she bothered to mention to him that someone was sending her creepy serial-killer love letters. Somewhere in between all the moans and groans and “yes, please, yesses,” she could have worked that little fact in.
And he and the sheriff were going to have a long talk.
“I think you should get that eye checked out. When Naomi comes back, she’ll take a look.” Lynn smiled like they were talking about the weather and not the fact that her daughter had received a death threat. There was no other way to interpret it. He was just about to go and wake Jesse up when Naomi walked back in, carrying the small bottle of cinnamon. Almost as soon as the door closed, it opened again and Nate came running in. He was red in the face as though he’d sprinted the hundred yards between their cabins.
He held a hand out. “You slept with Gemma?”
Lynn folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t think there was much sleeping involved.”
“Heart in a box. Gemma got a heart in a box and three really threatening letters and I didn’t break the code because you weren’t sleeping with her.”
“What?” Jesse stood in the bedroom doorway. At least he’d had the good sense to wrap a sheet around his waist.
“Get dressed, man,” Cade said. “This is not a conversation you need to have looking like that.”
“What’s wrong with your eye?” Jesse asked.
Cade turned back to his cooking. Soothing. He needed soothing. “Nothing. And I’m going to need more eggs.”
Jesse stared across the table at the sheriff. “And you didn’t bother to tell me, why?”
The last ten minutes had been an exercise in patience. What he really wanted to do was punch his fist through something.
Nate took a long sip of the coffee Naomi had made and sat back. “You weren’t sleeping with her.”
“I had made my intentions plain.”
“And Gemma was skittish. She asked me not to tell you. I felt all right honoring her wishes because she hadn’t made any sort of commitment to the two of you. When your car was spotted last night and was still here this morning, I ran because now you meet the criteria for being her man. Dating does not equal commitment.”
Jesse wasn’t completely convinced. “By your rules, Ty is responsible for about twenty women.”
Nate rolled his eyes. “Ty isn’t responsible for himself. Damn it, Jesse, you have to understand my position. She’s my employee. She asked me not to talk to you about it.”
“But you did talk to me about it.” Now Jesse could see he’d been carefully interrogated. Nate had asked him about how he’d come to handle the package, giving Jesse some lame-ass story about potential mail fraud. He should have known something was up.
“I did. And I honored Gemma’s wishes right up to the point where you became responsible for her.”
“He’s also been taking her to and from work,” Cade called out from the kitchen.
Nate shrugged. “She needed a ride. She’s working the day shift all next week. I expect her to be there at nine.”
“She’ll be there.” She would have a sore ass, but she would be there. “Now, what have you figured out about the threat?”
Naomi and Lynn were sitting at the table, praising Cade for his culinary skills. He’d apparently made some fancy French toast and now he was in good with Gemma’s mom. Bastard. From what he’d heard, Cade had been halfway out the door before Lynn had stopped him. Jesse had thought the night before had been a turning point, but Cade still tried to run.
At least he didn’t have to explain that to Gemma. It was a damn good thing because she had a whole lot of explaining to do.
“She thinks it has to do with a case she worked a couple of years back. It was an intellectual property case. She was an intern, but she came up with the argument that won the case. A man claimed that he invented a new material used in heart valves. The big medical tech firm that marketed it claimed they invented it. Gemma won the case for the medical firm.”
“And now this guy is angry.” At least he understood the heart imagery. “What are you doing about it?”
“Rafe called some friends with the New York FBI field office. They’re looking into it. This guy’s name is Paul Johnson. According to records, he lives in an apartment in Buffalo, but the package was sent from St. Louis. That’s easy enough to do.”
“And the letters?” Jesse couldn’t help but notice that Cade was leaning over, listening in even as he flipped pieces of toast.
Nate sighed. “They come from all over the country. One from Virginia. One from Pennsylvania and the last from Oklahoma. No rhyme or reason. They all say the same thing. I hate you. I want you dead. Blah blah blah.”
“It’s good to see you’re taking it seriously.” Jesse went through a mental checklist of the private investigators he and Cade had hired to track down Christian Grady. They’d gone through three utterly useless PIs before they’d found the Dawson brothers of Dallas, Texas. The twins had not only managed to find evidence to support that Christian was alive, but they’d tracked Hope McLean to Bliss. Ben and Chase were still on his speed dial.