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What in the shit? I leave you to do one thing and all that happened?
Pretty much. It s really Morgan s fault, I think, because she s the one who normally keeps us
altogether and sane.
I ll tell her you said that. Ridge s voice was dry.
You don t need to. I tell her every day. The phone beeped in his ear indicating another call. Max. I
gotta go, that s Max on the other line. He disconnected before Ridge could speak.
www.samhainpublishing.com 45
Annmarie McKenna
Tell me you found something, Max, Carter said as his greeting.
I did. You aren t going to like it though.
Carter s insides twisted. Tell me.
When I suspected the coffee, I returned to the trailer. Thought maybe I could send the pot of coffee
off to the lab for testing. But when I got there someone else was already there throwing away the
evidence.
Who? Carter gritted his teeth so hard he was sure they would crack. He wanted to punch someone.
Ryan was laying here in bed, unable to defend herself, and the asshole who d done this to her was wiping
away his traces.
Tad Dixon.
Carter exploded. That son of a bitch.
He denies having anything to do with either of the circumstances, but his answers were a little too
smarmy for me so I let the police take over.
Good. Here s to hoping the dick spent a great deal of time rotting in jail. Let me know how it goes.
I ll talk to Tom. He flipped the phone off and pocketed it.
Ryan twisted in her sleep with a moan, oblivious to the fact her cousin may have been the one to
cause her grief. He grabbed her hand and sat next to the bed again.
Carter hadn t once suspected there was anything the least bit off about her cousin. Had anything Tad
said earlier been a clue to his true feelings? He tried to recall. Tad had seemed quite the charmer to Carter
at first. Easy to do, he guessed, while trying to hide the fact that you d almost killed one man and were
about to try and bring down your cousin. Christ, he d been protective of her even, standing up for her
during their conversation about the epilepsy.
Perhaps the only thing that might have been a clue was his stance on Eric. The job was dangerous,
he d said, I don t think this is the best place for her either. Look what happened to Eric. Tom has other
ideas though.
Shit. Was that what this was all about? His need to be the foreman? Had Tad tried to knock off Eric,
thinking he would replace him? Then gotten pissed enough to take out Ryan when she got the job instead of
him?
Now he had to tell Tom his nephew was being questioned by the police for what would probably
amount to attempted murder.
He punched in the number of Tom s cell and told the older man everything he d learned and what he
suspected. Tom was just as shocked as Carter had been. Not to mention hurt and angry as hell.
46 www.samhainpublishing.com
Chapter Seven
Ryan sank back in Carter s oversized tub and luxuriated in the feel of the warm bubbles swirling
around her skin. She d been released that morning from the hospital a day after her seizure, and no amount
of talking had gotten Carter to let her out of his sight. Instead he d brought her to his house and asked
someone to go to hers and pick up a few things. She d barely gotten him to leave her alone so she could
chill out for a few minutes without him hovering.
Although she had to admit his form of hovering was much different than her family s version had
been growing up. They tended to wrap her in a plastic bubble. She much preferred Carter s method of
distraction showering her with naughty kisses, and teasing the crap out of her until she was good and
horny. There was definitely something to be said about horny. A girl could indubitably get used to it. And
since she was spending the night&
God help Carter if he decided to go easy on her. The doctor had said she was fine after her run-in with
Visine-laced coffee. The effects could have been worse. Much worse. Dead kind of worse. But she d only
had about a mug s worth of coffee the entire morning, what with Carter making her spill her first cup and
Max disrupting the second in order to investigate. Those things combined prevented her from finishing her
normal three-cup routine.
She really needed to shake the coffee anyway. It wasn t like the decaf was doing a damn thing for her.
Ryan still couldn t believe Tad had conspired to take out the foreman so he could have the job. When
she d finally woken up yesterday and Tom had been standing there so grief-stricken, she d thought for a
crazy moment they were going to tell her she had some incurable brain tumor or something.
What had come out of his mouth was the last thing she d expected. Tad had been furious with Ryan s
appointment to the job. Just when he d thought he d secured it by causing Eric to break his leg, Tom gave it
to a girl. Naturally, her epilepsy had played right into his hands.
One small Google search later and Tad stupidly thought he could get rid of her by causing her to have
a seizure. He was sure no one would allow her to stay if she was susceptible to her condition. The thought
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