her face flush.
“Does that mean more of us are going to be fired?”
“Why did they get fired?”
While other questions were thrown at her, she felt her pulse spike. Thankfully, Fiona stepped forward and laid a hand on her shoulder.
“Any employment questions can be directed at me. If you’d like to know why Max and Kim were let go, I’d be happy to meet with you. For now, the answer to the other questions is no. At this point, I don’t plan on letting anyone else go. Just as long as you show up to work on time, maintain a professional attitude, and stick to your jobs.” Fiona smiled warmly. “Now, I’m sure Miss Brooks is ready to turn us all loose and let us get back to work.”
“Yes.” Raven stepped forward. “Thank you all for making time this morning. You are released to head back to work.” She turned to leave but stopped when Sean motioned her over.
“Do you have a moment?” the sheriff asked her.
“Sure, we can head back to my office.” She led him down the hallway.
Sitting behind her desk, she started to feel a little more like herself. That fell apart with Sean’s next words.
“We just heard back from the coroner’s office. It appears that Rachelle Braun was poisoned.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
When a heart is on fire, sparks always fly out of the mouth. ~ Traditional Proverb
There was a lot that Cade liked about his hometown. And then there was a lot he didn’t like. Today, he’d found out just how vicious some people in town could be. It had been less than a week since word had officially gotten out that Rachelle had been murdered.
Since then, Raven had made it a habit to stay at his place each night. He figured it was because she was scared to be alone. Whatever the reason, he was happy to have her in his bed each night.
Today, he was at Jay’s Groceries certifying their fire extinguishers when he overheard a young woman, whom he vaguely remembered seeing in town before, talking about Raven.
“Can you believe the bitch fired me? Everyone knows it’s because she was jealous of me. I mean, there’s only so much this town can take of that woman. Am I right?” she asked. The woman she was talking with nodded and looked bored. “We all know she started that fire years ago.”
“What were you? Ten?” the other woman asked.
The first woman looked shocked and annoyed. “Does it really matter? I suffered just the same.” She sounded annoyed. Then her eyes moved around, and he could tell instantly that she’d spotted him. “Speaking of suffering.” Her tone changed. “I hear she’s torturing everyone who works at the resort because she’s crazy. My cousin who lives in San Diego heard that she spent almost ten years in therapy because of guilt from murdering more than thirty people all those years ago. Including her boyfriend, whom it’s widely known that she cheated on.” The girl giggled as her eyes narrowed at him. “With multiple people. Something tells me Raven Brooks is a bigger slut than Heather Craft.”
Just then the sound of a shattering glass bottle echoed throughout the store, a deep voice cried out as in pain and someone immediately said over the loudspeaker. “Clean up on aisle ten.”
The two women glanced in his direction and giggled as they continued down the aisleway. He’d steamed about it the entire time he was working at the store. What was he saying? He was angry about it for the rest of the night. That was until Raven distracted him by rubbing her naked body up against his own.
“You seemed distracted tonight,” she said once they were lying in each other’s arms, their bodies cooling off.
“Me?” He tried to shake the statement off.
“During dinner, you were very quiet.” She leaned up and looked down at him. “Is something wrong?”
He thought about keeping what he overheard from her and then figured she’d handled a lot worse over the years and told her everything.
To his happy surprise, she shrugged and dismissed the conversation.
“It was probably Kim. I fired her earlier this week when I overheard her and Max, a dishwasher I fired as well, gossiping about me in the kitchen.” She shrugged. “I’m the boss. I can hire and fire anyone I want,” she added with a smile.
“Remind me never to work for you.” He chuckled. “Or piss you off.” He kissed her. “How’s my mom doing, by the way?”
“She’s really saving my butt.” She relaxed