Mischievous Malamute Mystery Series: Books 4-6

Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Leah and I shuffled our feet, alongside the crew, and exchanged relieved glances when Blaze finally ended the silence.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“That really should be my line, given your recent behavior,” Anna replied, her mouth pulled into an unforgiving line.

“You’re disappointed.” It was not a question as Blaze met her eyes, the sadness in his voice palpable, causing more awkward foot-shuffling from the rest of us.

“Are you sure you want to do this here?” She nodded around the room but her eyes remained locked on Blaze, who was starting to resemble an ice sculpture fracturing under her laser-like glare. “In front of your crew?”

I gave him credit, Blaze managed to move his lips and little else.

“Hey guys, can you give us ten?” He squinted at Anna, before adding, “Make that twenty.”

“You want us to step out, too?” Leah attempted to offer her—and us—one last out.

“Nope, I want you right where you are,” Anna replied firmly.

“Wow, bringing in backup,” Blaze commented before hacking out a rough laugh. Noting Anna’s tapping foot, he added, “Maybe I should let the crew stay. It seems like this could get dicey.”

Only for tourists, I thought wryly, just as Anna responded, “Don’t play me, Blaze. You know I have a black belt. And a detective’s license on top of that.”

The man was smart—he held his hands up in surrender.

“Decker warned me from that start, said that I should have told you.”

“And yet, you didn’t.” Anna’s angry tone didn’t ease but she uncrossed her arms and opened them to him.

Blaze shook his head and started to pace. “Despite Decker’s advice, I thought things would get better. Or just resolve themselves.”

“You shouldn’t blame her for coming to me.” Leah and I nodded in agreement as Anna continued, “It’d be a shame to have her services wasted because she was the one who chose to do the right thing by coming to me when you wouldn’t.”

“I won’t fire her,” Blaze replied, still pacing. “She did me a favor, even though you’re disappointed that you had to hear it elsewhere.” Anna said nothing, permitting him no consolation, nor conceding the point. Blaze stopped, looked at her. Nodded. “All right…awkward silence.” Blaze chuckled but there was no humor behind it as he elected to change the subject.

“Your boy is looking good.” He nodded at Nicoh, who was absently chewing on his foot.

Though I knew it was a diversion—an attempt to diffuse some of Anna’s anger—I doubted it had the effect he’d hoped.

It certainly hadn’t worked on me and while I was here at Anna’s request, I knew the boundaries of civility.

“Yeah, he’s trimmed up a bit,” I replied after a moment, keeping my tone even as I stroked the fur behind Nicoh’s ears, finding myself flashing back to the recuperation period we’d both been forced to endure—under Leah’s watchful eye—just a few short weeks earlier.

I knew Anna had filled Blaze in on the events that had transpired—and nearly led to our deaths—and was thankful it was not necessary to rehash the details. Nor was the timing optimal for laying out all the gory details—no matter who was doing the asking.

Apparently, Anna agreed.

“Let’s be clear. I am not here on a friendly fiancé drive-by to play kissy-face. I am here to find out—from you—in nauseating detail, what’s been going on so that you, I and Decker can identify and eliminate the source of this problem. Pronto.” Blaze opened his mouth and closed it. Anna nodded her approval. “Yup, it’s time to start talking because I’m not moving from this spot until I get exactly what I came for.”

Blaze, probably realizing he had nowhere to go, jabbed a finger at her. “See, that…that there is exactly why I didn’t want to involve you…or…”

“Who? Abe and Elijah?” Anna snapped.

Blaze shrugged. “It certainly seems like they’ve rubbed off on you.”

“You didn’t have any trouble reaching out to them for help when you needed a reference, despite the fact your fiancé also happens to be a licensed private detective and more than fully qualified to handle situations like this. Didn’t you feel the least bit guilty about being less than honest when you told them why you needed it?” Blaze opened his mouth, immediately shutting it, causing Anna to scoff as she added, “Oh, and Sweetie Pie? Don’t bother giving me that ‘conflict of interest’ bit, either.”

Blaze chewed the inside of his mouth. I hoped he was giving the answer a decent amount of thought, otherwise, I feared Anna would unleash a bit of that black belt on him. When he finally spoke, he proceeded slowly, as though weighing the potential impact of every word.

“Like I said before, I honestly didn’t want to get anyone involved until I was able to fully assess and comprehend what, or who, it was we were dealing with. Admittedly, I waited too long to do so…especially with you.”

“Yeah, well, while you were off assessing the situation, I thought you were having an affair,” Anna ground out through clenched teeth.

Blaze c****d his head. “You’ve got to be kidding. An affair? Really, Anna?”

“What was I supposed to think?” Anna threw her arms up. “You wouldn’t talk to me and even when you did manage to show up, you weren’t exactly…present.” Blaze shook his head until she added, “Of course, then I saw you with her.”

Blaze eyes widened in surprise and he started to speak, but then clamped his mouth shut and fidgeted with something in his pocket for a long moment before responding. “You know, Decker told me she thought you were watching us.”

Anna raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue.

“It was after she’d caught a glimpse of you across the street when we entered that dive bar. Then, she followed you while you were following me to one of our meetings, but she didn’t tell me until afterward, which is when she recommended that I bring you into the fold and let you know what had been going on.”

“And yet, you still decided against it.” Anna huffed out a breath when Blaze could do nothing but shrug. “Whatever, Blaze. We’ll deal with that later. Right now, let’s talk about these threats. And I do mean right now.”

Blaze nodded. “It started a few months ago. At first, it was small things: misplaced props, faulty equipment…stuff like that. We chalked it up being tired, poor craftsmanship…whatever. Then it moved onto what seemed like pranks but those quickly moved into accidents.” He paused, pacing as he did.

“What kind of accidents?” Leah prompted. She and I had been silent for so long, both Anna and Blaze jumped. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

Blaze waved her off and continued, “We thought mice were chewing through our cables but on closer inspection, several of them had been stripped with a knife or wire cutters, but we didn’t realize that until after the fire.”

“Fire?” Anna, Leah and I said at once, waking Nicoh and causing him to release a sharp bark as he popped into an upright position.

“Sorry, boy,” Blaze murmured, bending to pat him on the head. “We thought it was nothing more than an unfortunate accident.”

“It’s that type of thinking that’s gotten us to where you—and we—are right now,” Anna replied, frowning.

Blaze blew out a breath. “True. But I can’t go back now. I can only apologize for what I unintentionally put you through and ask that you forgive me.” He peered at Anna, his voice pleading.

Anna stared back but sadness was replaced with hurt as tears threatened to emerge from watery eyes. Leah and I both glanced away, uncomfortable with what should have been a private moment.

She wiped the stray tears away with the back of her hand before continuing, “Decker said that these threats extended to the crew’s families?”

Blaze nodded. “I’m afraid so. Again, generally speaking, they could have been isolated incidents, but when you look at then as a whole…” He looked away as his voice drifted off.

“Tell us,” Anna replied, her voice firm.

“Bryce’s daughter, Emily, found one of the family’s cats dead on the front porch. It was bad enough, an eight-year-old having to come upon her pet dead but to find it…like that…” Again, his voice trailed off, barely a whisper.

He was quiet for so long, I thought Anna would prod him but she remained silent until he continued. “The cat had been mutilated. Bryce immediately knew it was no accident—some freak had not only put a lot of effort into gutting it, he had also staged quite a display for the family to witness.”

Anna pressed her hand to her mouth. “Poor Em!”

Blaze nodded. “Sasha immediately packed up the kids—pretty much the entire house—and moved them back to her parent’s summer house in Minnesota. That was two months ago.”

“That explains why she hasn’t returned any of my calls,” Anna replied, looking at me.

I nodded, remembering that Sasha was one of Anna’s bridesmaids. In her more recent phone calls, Anna had shared her concerns over Sasha’s sudden lack of interest in the wedding and we’d run through possible scenarios as to why she had all but fallen off the wedding plan train—from trying to wrangle three kids to increased workload—and still Anna hadn’t been able to shake the feeling something was amiss with Bryce’s wife. Apparently, she had been right to worry.

“T-Dog also had his tires slashed,” Blaze added.

“T-Dog?” Leah mouthed.

I could only shrug—the name was not familiar to me.

Without looking at us, Anna murmured, “Tate.”

Blaze nodded and continued detailing incidents other members of the crew had encountered, each one more bizarre than the last but thankfully, not as gruesome as the scene at Bryce’s house. When he finished, I noticed he had carefully avoided leaving one person’s name off that list.

His.

Anna had noticed the omission as well. “What about you?”

“What do you mean?” Blaze asked, though the tightness of his tone suggested he knew exactly what direction his fiancé was heading.

“Have you or your family been on the receiving end of any threats?” Anna prodded.

He shook his head, his brow furrowing. “That’s the funny thing—though funny isn’t really the right word, considering, is it? Anyway, except for the site-specific events, I haven’t, nor has my family, been the target of anything.”

“Yet,” Anna replied dryly.

Blaze nodded. “Exactly.”

I glanced at Leah. Nothing like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“I assume you’ve talked to your father about all of this so that he and your mother are aware and can take the necessary precautions.” Anna posed no question.

Blaze glanced away. “No, I’d prefer not to get him involved. You know how he is.”

Anna thrust her hand on her hip. “How, then, do you know that this has not affected him? Or you’re mother, for goodness sake?”

“Oh, I’d think I’d know,” he replied sourly. “The whole world would have heard about it.”

“Damn it, Blaze! I’m not talking about hearing about it on TV. The man needs to know that there are potential threats out there. He’s your family. You may not like it but you owe it to him.” Blaze crossed his arms, frowning. “Could you honestly live with yourself if something happened to him…or your mother?”

“Of course not, but think about it, Anna. I could put all of us, including you, in even more danger if my father gets involved.”

“So that’s why you’ve been keeping your distance, from me….to keep your father from getting involved?” Anna raised a brow.

“I didn’t say that. And I think I’ve already explained my oversight where you were concerned. I obviously didn’t do a very good job of thinking things through,” he replied.

“Oversight? That’s rich, Blaze, but we’ll deal with that later. In private,” she gritted out. “So what does Decker think? Has she found anything? Have a line on who might be involved? Or why?”

“No on the latter but she’s looked into several possibilities…lobbyists, environmentalists, businesses, sports enthusiasts, crazed and angry fans—”

“Angry fans?” I asked.

Blaze shrugged. “People who are bummed that I’ve stepped back from the X-sports gig.”

“What—they’d prefer you go out in flames? Or die trying?” Leah asked, causing Anna to shudder. “Sorry, under the circumstances, that was not my best choice of words.”

Before Blaze could respond, a crew member burst into the tent, his face red as sweat trickled down his cheeks.

“Blaze, you’d better come quick.” Each word came out in a huff as he struggled to catch his breath. “There’s been another accident. And this time it’s bad.”

“Define ‘bad,’ Cam,” Blaze demanded, going to the man and gripping his shoulders.

Cam’s body shook, his eyes wide as he stared not at, but through, Blaze. Finally, he managed to blurt out, “Bryce lost control of his bike on the PCH!”