“What would he have been doing?” Sylvie asked. “If he wasn’t looking for help, that is? Or us. I’m sure my momma has called the sheriff by now. I told Gertie I was taking the afternoon off but I didn’t get into the details. I’m sure your momma called my momma, and there was probably a ritual of protection performed last night. But only after she called Armie.”
They were completely in sync. “That’s a good thing because I’m the dumbass who didn’t properly tie our boat and it’s floating around somewhere. I’m sorry. I should have taken better care of you.”
She stopped at the stairs and smiled up at him, a gleam in her eyes. “Oh, you took care of me, Rene Darois.”
It was good to see her smile. She didn’t expect perfection from him, and that made him relax. He brushed his lips over hers. “I’m still sorry we don’t have a boat. And since we don’t have power, we also don’t have coffee.”
Her smile faltered. “What?”
So she wasn’t all sunshine this morning. That oddly made him comfortable, too. “I’ll build another fire and boil some water for you. I promise I will make this work.”
Sylvie moved up the steps without him. “What’s that?”
He tested his full weight on his bad leg and was satisfied when he was steady. He hoped he had another pair of sweatpants, though. These were covered in mud, and he was going to have to suffer an incredibly cold shower. He followed her and saw what she was talking about. There was a pouch slid under one of the two rocking chairs on the porch. The leg of the chair would ensure the pouch didn’t blow away. “Is it wet?”
She leaned over and picked it up. “No. It’s perfectly dry. We can assume it wasn’t sitting here all night. Do you think that man left it? It has to be intentional. It couldn’t have fallen under there.”
“Give it to me. I don’t want you to open it.” He held out his hand.
“What do you think it is?” she asked, handing it over.
“I don’t know, but I don’t want you to touch it if it’s dangerous.” It didn’t weigh a thing, and he couldn’t feel anything hard inside.
“Maybe you shouldn’t open it, either. We could wait until we get back to town and let the sheriff deal with it. Technically, that man was trespassing.”
He was too curious to wait. He slid the zipper open and discovered some folded papers. “It’s a note.”
Sylvie sank to the rocking chair. “Good. Someone probably borrowed supplies and they left a note about it.”
He opened the paper and his heart sank. And a kernel of rage sparked. He was staring at his company letterhead. “It’s our bid for the Lowestone job. They’re a banking chain and they’ve been a client for years. Our contract was up and we have to place a bid on the job. This is our bid.”
“Why would it be . . .” She stood again, her arms crossing her chest and a hard look entering her eyes. “Charles has been coming out here on weekends. Is he supposed to be here tomorrow?”
“I don’t know, but it’s a good bet.” It was good to know his wife caught on quickly. “I’ll check the schedule when I get back to town. But I’m sure he’s not going to admit that this was for him. He’s careful, and he’ll point out that you and I were the only ones here at the time.”
“He’ll have a thousand excuses.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe he’s doing this to you. He would wreck the company so he can take the CEO job?”
A weariness threatened to overtake Rene, and he sank down to the rocker where his grandfather used to sit and watch the water. This place had been his grandfather’s space to relax and recharge, as he’d called it.
Now it would always be the place where he had to face the fact that his cousin would do anything to take him down. “It’s more about me than anything else. He’s always hated me.”
“I know you didn’t get along as kids, but you weren’t mean to him.” Sylvie sat down in the rocker beside him.
“I didn’t have to be. His father was mean enough, and he held me up as the example,” Rene explained. “I was the golden boy who could do no wrong, and Charles would never live up to me. I got better grades and I was better at sports.”
“That’s not your fault.”
“It doesn’t matter to Charles. His father’s gone, and he still has to prove to everyone that he’s better than me. I’m the villain in his personal story, and no amount of trying to make it right can change that.”
“He’s never worked for the company?” Sylvie asked.
“He did the same summer internships almost everyone in the family has,” Rene explained. “I think he got his law degree with the idea he would take over legal eventually, but my father didn’t trust him. Of course, Charles blamed me for that, too.”