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Mark had changed a lot over the last year.
I wasn’t sure what it was, exactly, that had set him on that particular path, but he’d started to force his beliefs on me as well.
And I had to tell him the truth, New York had never appealed to me.
There were just too many freakin’ people.
Plus, I already had my dream job here. Not to mention my family was here—even if they weren’t always the most supportive of people.
“Fine,” he said. “But I want to meet this guy that you’re seeing.”
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit.
“Sure,” I squeaked.
Lies.
I wouldn’t be introducing them at all—my fictional boyfriend/baby daddy was always going to stay just that. Fictional.
“I gotta go.” He paused. “Are you dealing okay with the wreck? Do you need me to do anything about it?”
I shook my head. “Not as of yet. The parents are taking care of everything because they don’t want their son to get into any more trouble. They’re trying to be extremely super helpful. My car’s already in the shop. Getting fixed up as we speak.”
He nodded. “Which shop?”
I rattled off the shop that I’d taken it to in Longview.
“Let me know if you need anything,” he said as he dropped a kiss to my forehead. “I have to get to work.”
I watched my father leave with half an eye on him, and half on the couple that were still standing on the front stoop of Grans’ place.
My brows rose as I slowly closed the door on them.
Was Grans home?
I didn’t know.
But Dad wasn’t the only one that had to get to work.
I did, too.
So, ignoring the couple on the other stoop, I got ready for work, glanced once at my SWAT calendar that was hanging on the wall to make sure I hadn’t missed any appointments, and headed out without a backward glance.
• • •
“Please, will you come?”
After my day, I wanted to say no.
I wanted to be like, hell no.
But this was Hastings.
And I’d do anything for Hastings.
“How long do I have to stay?” I asked.
“It’s kind of like a block party between everyone,” she said. “All of us are gathering around, barbequing, and having a good time. Everyone wants you here.”
I tell you what.
If there was anywhere I didn’t want to be, it was out with my brother anywhere in the vicinity.
After him tattle-telling to my father and forcing me to blurt shit out that wasn’t real, the last thing I wanted to do was see him.
But… yeah.
“I’m bringing Axe,” I muttered. “That way I can be like… oh, no. I need to go. Axe is tired.”
Axe was such a good buffer. And he didn’t care when I lied and used him as an excuse.
Hastings snickered. “You do that.”
“When do I have to be there?” I wondered.
“Now,” she said. “Everyone’s already here.”
I sighed. “I’ll be there in however long it takes me to walk there.”
Then I hung up and looked at Axe.
“You want to go for a walk, ol’ buddy?” I asked.
His ears perked up.
Oh, yes. He loved his walks.
Especially the ones through the woods that we’d started taking lately.
Grans had shown me her shortcut when I’d explained that my brother lived in the duplexes not far from her house.
She’d been super excited and had informed me that her grandson lived over there, too.
And now that I knew that her grandson was Malachi, things made a weird sort of sense.
Grans loved talking about her grandson, but every once in a while she got this really sad, defeated look about her when she spoke of him.
Now that I knew who he was, I understood that sad look.
Malachi had been held as a prisoner of war and had been kept that way for quite a long time. Another couple of men that moved to Kilgore, or were from Kilgore originally, had also been part of that group.
They’d healed together once they were back home.
Hayes, another man on the SWAT team, was one of those men. He was very active in a military group based in East Texas to help soldiers just like him and Malachi to overcome whatever they’d suffered over there.
I wonder if Gabriel is also a part of this same group. It would make sense.
But, since we’d made a pact long ago to always keep the really personal stuff just that, personal, I wouldn’t ever ask him.
Though, now that I was thinking about him…
I pulled out my phone and sent a quick text to him, letting him know my misery.
Sierra: I’m about to go to a party that I don’t want to go to. Wish me luck.
Gabriel: Sounds like fun. That’s what I’m doing, too.
Sierra: I’ll send you an emergency text in an hour. You send me one back. Then we’ll both have an excuse to leave.
Gabriel: Deal.
The walk to my brother’s duplexes that were dubbed as ‘Cop Row’ took less time than I’d been hoping, and when I arrived, Hastings was right. The entire party was in full swing.
