The Awakening. Jana DeLeon

want to make a scene ordering him out. The man is old enough to be my father. So I passed it off as needing a break, hoping he’d take the opportunity away from the house to tell me what’s up with him lately.”

      “I take it he didn’t?”

      “No. He barely spoke, which is typical. It wasn’t a problem when he wasn’t being so secretive and obstinate, but now … I don’t know what to think.”

      “Don’t worry,” Tanner said. “I’m going to look into all options. That’s my job.”

      She sat back in her chair, feeling some of the tension in her neck releasing. That hadn’t been near as mortifying as she’d thought it would be. He hadn’t smirked or done anything else to indicate he thought she had an overly inflated ego.

      “So, what do we do today?” she asked.

      “First, I’m going to contact my brother and have him start running some background checks on the people you’ve mentioned.”

      “Did you look at the personnel files last night?”

      “Yeah, and Max already did a quick check on everyone. All the workers are clean, including Emmett—with the law, anyway. I also talked to my buddy at Wildlife and Fisheries.”

      Josie stiffened a bit. “Did he find out anything?”

      “The blood on the post was rabbit. And my buddy’s take on the print is the same as what they told you before—bipedal, over six feet tall and roughly two hundred fifty pounds.”

      “So we still have nothing.”

      Tanner smiled. “If it was going to be that easy, you could have figured it all out without my help. We’ll dig deeper until we find something. All this means is that someone is being careful, and that takes planning.”

      “Or the creature is real.”

      He raised one eyebrow. “I suppose anything is possible.”

      “So, what now?”

      “I’m going to head out into the swamp and see if I can track down your monster.”

      “Okay. What do you want me to do?”

      “Whatever you would normally be doing if none of this were going on.”

      A wave of disappointment washed over her and she struggled to keep it from showing in her expression. After all, she could hardly expect Tanner to take her with him to track the creature. He was a professional. She’d only slow him down or get in the way or both.

      “If you can,” he said, “I’d prefer it if you stayed close to the house.”

      “You don’t think he’d try something during the day, do you?”

      “I don’t think it’s likely for anything to happen during the day and right here in clear view of others that may be working around the property, but I don’t want you going into the swamp alone.”

      “Not even to check on my men?”

      “Vernon can check on your men. That’s his job.”

      “And if he doesn’t do it?”

      “I’m going to have a talk with him before I head out tracking. I think we can work something out.”

      He took a bite of the bagel and stared out the window across the lawn. Josie bit her lower lip and hoped Tanner had some magic words to say to her foreman, because she was all out.