Cold River - Carla Neggers [47]
She didn’t answer as more footsteps sounded on the stairs. She remembered Bowie had promised to stop by and started to call out to warn him Sean was on the premises, but Devin ducked into the dim light.
He was halfway through one of the cupcakes. “I figured this was meant for me.”
Hannah collected herself, but she was aware of Sean’s eyes on her. Their clear blue had turned to a dark, smoky color in the cellar light. Whatever was going on between them, she would do well to remember that he was as relentless and mission-oriented as any Cameron ever born. He believed she was holding back on him, his brothers, Jo. He hadn’t given up the fight.
“Toby’s back, too,” Devin said. “Your message—we were worried about you.”
“Everything’s fine,” she said, trying not to sound breathless, self-conscious. “Toby has to finish a trigonometry take-home test before he heads to California.”
Devin peeled off more of the cupcake wrapper. “I hated trig.”
“You hated math, period. Did you work at the lodge at all today?”
“Nope. Tomorrow.” He stopped, glancing at Sean, then back at his sister. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Dev, you can say what you have to say in front of Sean.”
Her brother finished off the cupcake, his eyes on the old trunk now, as if he just needed to have something to focus on that wasn’t Hannah or Sean. “Even if what happened up at Four Corners wasn’t his fault, Bowie’s trouble,” Devin said. “He always has been. I remember Mom saying trouble will find him if he doesn’t find it for himself.”
“She liked Bowie.”
“Yeah, he’s a great guy when he’s not punching someone’s face in.”
Hannah felt Sean’s stillness next to her. “The police didn’t find anything up at the crypt,” she said, “and Bowie was hurt worse than I was.”
Devin balled up the cupcake wrapper in one hand. “Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think you do. You go tearing up Cameron Mountain, and then this.” He looked at her again. “You should see your face.”
“It’ll heal in no time.” She gave him a light smile. “All’s well that ends well.”
Sean squatted down behind the trunk and examined the leak damage in front of shelves of dusty canning jars. “I gather you haven’t told your sister what we talked about this morning,” he said.
Devin rubbed the back of his neck as the hulking furnace came on in full force. It had been churning away against Vermont winters for at least two decades. “Think this thing’ll make it through the winter?”
Hannah sighed, recognizing her brother’s behavior as his way of avoiding telling her something he didn’t think she wanted to hear. “Beth, Dominique and I have a pool going. I say it dies before Valentine’s Day. Dom’s giving it until the first day of spring. Beth’s the optimist—she thinks it’ll last through this winter and next.”
Sean grunted. “That furnace will last another five years.”
Hannah looked at him with amusement. “Well, if it dies when it’s four degrees out, I’m calling you in Beverly Hills. I don’t care if I have to get you out of bed.”
He smiled. “You do that.”
His voice was husky, sexy, which she told herself she only noticed because of her fatigue, pain and adrenaline.
Devin, mercifully, was oblivious. “Wish I knew something about furnaces,” he said.
“Ha. Don’t we all.”
Hannah abandoned the trunk and suddenly wished she hadn’t come down here at all—hadn’t hiked up the mountain or checked on Poe and Bowie at the cemetery. If she’d just stayed at the café and baked cupcakes and studied for her bar exam, she wouldn’t have Sean Cameron on her case right now.
She stepped back, right into cobwebs hanging from the ductwork. “What did you and Sean talk about this morning, Dev?”
Sean rose and Devin averted his eyes. “Nothing,” he mumbled. “It can wait. We can talk after you’re done down here.”
“Dev,” Hannah said, “just tell me what’s on your mind. If it’s something you think I don’t want to hear, that’s my problem, not yours.”
Sean dipped behind the trunk, examining more water spots on the cement floor and the stone foundation. Without looking at either Shay, he said, “Devin, you need to tell your sister your