“My mother made me call you.”
“Ah. Well, she’s a good woman.”
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt.” Caleb bit his lip hard enough to hurt. He’d been through this before a year ago and knew what the members of his church were capable of.
“Oh, don’t worry, son. No one will get hurt. We just need to do our part to keep the peace in Cambridge. You’ve done a good deed, son. Listen, I need you to do something for me.”
Caleb swallowed hard. He didn’t like this plan at all. “What?”
“I need you to follow this woman and figure out where she goes and what she does.”
“Follow her? Sir, I’m in college. I’m not a private investigator.”
Pastor Edmund chuckled. “Of course you’re not. I don’t mean forever. Just long enough to get me a few locations. I’ll text you her sister’s address. It shouldn’t be hard to catch her there this morning and see where she goes.”
Caleb groaned inwardly. This was way more than he bargained for, and he secretly wanted to throat punch his mother for putting him in this position. As soon as he got out of college, he was going to leave this godforsaken town and never look back. If he made it that long and didn’t get caught breaking the law in the name of religion first. “Okay,” he breathed.
“Good. Call me later when you have something.” Pastor Edmond ended the call.
Caleb set the phone down, his arm shaking so badly he had to cross both arms to keep the shudder at bay. He hadn’t felt good about calling the pastor for a single moment since he’d made that call on Friday at his mother’s urging.
His church was already under close scrutiny with the sheriff’s department for harassing three people last year. And Caleb had been the one to instigate that issue too. He didn’t like it. If he’d known how far the members of his church would go to make their point, he would have kept his mouth shut. And here he was doing it again.
He wished people would just get along and stop judging each other for their religion, the color of their skin, or who they slept with. His mother disagreed, however, and insisted a bit of gentle nudging to get the new woman to decide against taking that job was for the benefit of everyone.
She even implied it was best for the woman. After all, she was new to town and had no idea what she was up against if she decided to become an accomplice in the fight to end racial separation.
Granted, Caleb wasn’t fond of the idea of him and his peers mixing with the Natives either, but if history was any indication, his church would do far more than provide a gentle nudge. They could be destructive and dangerous at times.
»»•««
Logan unlocked the door to his condo and stepped inside with Sawyer right behind him.
Sharon was in the living room surrounded by boxes. She held up a hand. “Don’t even say it. I know the drill. The younger sibling moves back in with Mom and Dad while the older one figures out a place to live with his new mates. This has happened so many times in this condo it’s getting ridiculous.” She grinned.
“Yeah. Sorry. We don’t have many options right now,” Logan muttered. He did feel bad for kicking his sister out.
“I should have invested in a larger trailer. It’s more like bad camping, which is fine for me alone, but not a place to bring a woman.” He reached out a hand. “Sawyer. I know we met the other day, but we weren’t super civil that day. Let’s start over.”
Logan’s chest swelled at the kind gesture. Thank God he wasn’t mated to an asshole.
Sharon accepted his truce with a handshake and then turned back around to tape a box closed. “I saw the trailer. I can’t believe you actually live there. I thought it was more of a construction building just so you’d have some place to get out of the rain or something.”
“Ironically, if it rained in this area, I wouldn’t even be here. I was hired by the newly formed local branch of the wildland firefighters.”
“Sounds dangerous.”
Sawyer shrugged. “Not if you’re good at it.”
Logan shook his head. “Cocky much?”
“I have to be to stay alive.”
Sharon set the tape aside. “Well, in any case, the condo is yours. I’ll go back home. The big house is nearly empty anyway. It’s not like I’m stifled by Mom and Dad. They leave me alone and don’t ask questions. Take your time. I won’t be needing the condo myself until your brother Cooper decides to make himself available.” She rolled her eyes. “Hell might freeze over first.”
“I guess if you really wanted to get the ball rolling, you could make a trip to Spokane,” Logan teased.