Deadly Sight by Cindy Dees Page B

house?”
    “Dead guy must’ve been mixed up with that Proctor gang,” Miss Maddie replied knowingly.
    “Proctor gang?” Gray asked as he materialized at her side. Sam slipped an arm around his waist and was delighted that he didn’t go board stiff at the contact.
    She leaned into his warmth and strength as Miss Maddie drew a deep breath to impart clearly treasured gossip. “Wendall Proctor is the leader of a group of hippies and weirdos hereabouts. They’re all hepped up about going off the grid. Most of them are looking to live all back-to-nature and organic. That Proctor guy has turned his property into practically a cult compound full of ’em. Women and kids are up there, too. But—” she leaned forward and her voice dropped to a juicy whisper “—I hear there’s some wackos among ’em. You know, the kind who think there’s government conspiracies all around, and someone’s trying to kill them.”
    Gray nodded toward the police cars. “It looks like no good has already come of it.”
    Miss Maddie snorted in agreement. “Four of Proctor’s boys rented that house a few months back. Mighty suspicious if you ask me. Men coming and going from that place and at all hours of the day and night. No surprise they’re mixed up in that young fella’s death.”
    As the woman fell silent, Sammie Jo fanned the gossip flames. “Do you suppose the police will arrest someone?”
    “Oughtta arrest ’em all. Throw ’em clean out of the Zone. Damn outsiders.”
    Gray piped up in his most charming voice, “I hope you won’t consider us outsiders for long, Miss Maddie. You make the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever tasted, and I’d be mighty sad not to get any more of it.”
    The woman simpered under his warm regard, and behind her shades, Sammie Jo rolled her eyes.
    “Police have been in there a long time if they’re just picking someone up,” Miss Maddie announced. Her voice dropped in volume. “I’ll bet they’ve got a search warrant.”
    “You think?” Sammie Jo murmured back. “Maybe I should go for a jog up that way and see if they’re tossing the place.”
    “Oh, my child, I wouldn’t go near there. What if it turns into a shoot-out?”
    “I’ll run away. And I’m really fast.”
    Gray interrupted. “Miss Maddie has a point, sweetie. I’d hate to see you get hurt.”
    Sweetie? Grayson Pierce had called her sweetie! How was it one stupid little word that he didn’t even mean could knock her completely off balance like that? Of course, it wasn’t the word that did it. It was the man saying it who messed her up so bad. Being around him was like hanging out with Prince Charming. And just like a fairy tale, he was too perfect to be real.
    She didn’t know what his flaw was or where the chinks in the armor might be, but he had to have some. He had to. Otherwise, her entire conception of the world was wrong. She’d known for a long time that life was not fair. That happiness was not guaranteed, nor even likely, at the end of the day. A person was born; their life sucked; they died. That’s how it went. If she happened to grab a few moments of transitory pleasure along the way, then she was luckier than most.
    But this man challenged all of that. If men like him were real, then she had spent her entire adult life failing to search for a man like him. And what a waste would that have been? Had she been completely, totally wrong about everything?
    “Honey? Are you okay?”
    Honey? Her heart pitter-pattered until she mentally shook herself. “Yes. Of course. I was just thinking about that poor man. The one who died. Do they know who he was?”
    Miss Maddie supplied, “Zimmer’s the name. Not from around here. Hooked up with Proctor as soon as he got here. Must have known someone on the inside. Way I hear it, Wendall’s pretty cautious about outsiders.”
    “Now why’s that, I wonder?” Sammie Jo speculated. “Do you suppose he’s got something to hide?”
    “Why else would he have all