She set her hand on his back. “What’s the matter?”
He shivered. “I don’t know. But I think I’ve suddenly got a bit of your mojo or something. It feels weird.” He glanced around while his hand threaded with hers, tugging her into his side.
Melinda scanned the area. It was chilly this early. She wrapped her free arm around his biceps and leaned her cheek against his arm. “I don’t see anything.”
He stepped forward, ignoring her, his attention riveted to the center of the foundation.
Melinda had a lot of difficulty envisioning what the casino was supposed to look like when complete since the only parts present so far were the concrete foundation and about a third of the wood framework.
“It doesn’t look right.” Keegan’s muttered voice was more to himself than her.
“Okay, babe. So let’s look around.” She felt the same ominous vibe as Monday, but nothing about it had increased to make her concern heighten. Whatever Keegan was seeing or sensing, she had no idea. But she sure wasn’t one to question.
Still holding her hand, tighter now, Keegan stepped closer until they stood at the very edge of the foundation. His gaze darted to the left and then the right. “Damn.”
“What?” Her heart beat faster at his obvious stress.
He pointed to a fork lift on one side. “See that lift?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s not going to work without tires.”
Sure enough, it was flush against the ground, the wheels nowhere in sight.
His finger trailed to another spot. “That beam on the ground was erected yesterday.” And then he angled to the right. “Somebody has taken a sledgehammer to that pile of two-by-fours. They weren’t broken in half when I left here last night.”
“God.” She squeezed his hand tighter, unsure if her goal was to comfort him or herself.
“Can your spirits do this? Like a warning?” He swiveled to face her.
She shook her head. “Not usually, no. It’s unlikely. I think you have some human involvement here. The spirits can, however, warn about danger, human or natural.” Had this been why the black smoke had coalesced for their view in the night?
“You should go, honey.” He abruptly pulled her away from the construction, tugging her by the arm toward their cars.
“I’m fine, Keegan. I don’t feel anything imminent. What you need to do is call the sheriff and report this damage. Somebody’s trying to make a statement here, and it will be impossible to know if they mean harm or simply aren’t in favor of the casino. Either way, this isn’t safe.”
He nodded. “I will. Right away. You go to work.”
She eyed him. “How did the tables turn so abruptly since Monday?”
“What do you mean?” he asked as he opened her car door.
“You would have given your right arm to keep me by your side. Now you want to get rid of me as if I have a disease.”
He smiled, though it was forced, and leaned down to kiss her distractedly. “Hon, I want you safe. Monday I still thought you were sort of full of shit. Now I know differently. Monday we didn’t have a dead guy on our hands who may have sent me an email to warn me about the builders. If that email turns out to be from our dead guy, we’re really going to be in trouble.”
Melinda eased into the driver’s seat. “I’ll go to work, but promise me you’ll stay in contact all day. Call me when you can. Keep me posted mentally when you have a second.”
“I will.” He kissed her lips, lingering a bit, and then leaned back to shut her door.
She watched him out of the rearview mirror until he was out of sight.
Keegan never moved from his spot, his gaze on her car the entire time.
•●•
Two hours later, the site was crawling with reservation deputies and employees. The first three obvious things Keegan noticed turned into about a dozen oddities before he was done making his rounds.
Now, he stood in the conference room in the trailer with his boss, Mitch Highland, and Corbin Archers from the local sheriff’s office.
“How’s your mate?” Mitch asked politely.
“Okay. Worried.”
Mitch nodded.
Corbin pulled out a chair. “That’s right. You mated with Miles’s sister Melinda, right?”
“Yep.” Keegan smiled as he took a seat across from Corbin.
“And one of the Masters also? Did I hear that right?”
“You did indeed.”
“Crazy. What’s with those Masters boys anyway? I don’t know whether to be jealous, applaud their virility, or thank God I don’t have a mate I have to share with another man for the rest of my life.”