AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, well, well,” Vernon said when I climbed out of the truck. “To what do we owe this honor, your highness?”
“Which one of you fuckers shot at Lio tonight?”
My uncle sobered right up and lunged to his feet. He marched down the steps with his chest puffed up like an indignant rooster. His three boys were right on his heels, and I could tell they were spoiling for a fight. Vernon stopped in front of me and said, “You have some nerve coming around here and accusing us of something like that.”
“Save your posturing for someone who might be swayed,” I said, then turned my glare on Red. I formed a finger gun and repeated the threat he’d made at the cabin a week ago. “Pretty coincidental that someone shot at Lio just down the road from here, isn’t it?” Red screwed up his face like he didn’t understand what coincidental meant. I growled my frustration and grabbed him by his shirt and jerked him forward. “Answer the fucking question. Did any of you, or anyone you know, shoot at Lio either intentionally or accidentally while hunting illegally?”
“I-I-I didn’t shoot at n-n-nobody,” Red stammered.
My cousins tried to move in to help Red, but Vernon held up his hand to stop them. “You might be the sheriff in Bryan County, but you don’t have any authority here. I don’t know what time your little boyfriend got shot at, but it doesn’t matter because it wasn’t us. Red’s been with me all damn day. We got dozens of witnesses who will swear we were at the Swamp Tavern. Let go of my boy, get the fuck off my property, and don’t come back. You won’t like what happens if you do.”
In the dim porchlight, we squared off like sworn enemies for several moments before I shoved Red backward and released his shirt. My cousin stumbled into his brothers and nearly took them all down. It had been a foolish thing for me to show up there by myself and accuse them of a crime. While I could take any of them in a fair fight, I wasn’t so sure how I’d stack up against all four of them at the same time.
I pressed the gas harder than necessary when I drove off, spewing rocks from my tires and hoping the stones pelted them in the face. I questioned my sanity during the trip back to Thunderbolt. I wanted to think my fear-fueled rage would’ve given me the edge, but I’d lived among honorable people too long, and my family played dirty. I hated feeling helpless and wanted to find a way to make the threat disappear. If not Eads or my family, then who? The careless poacher? That theory still didn’t sit right with me. It had to be one of them. Eads’s only alibi was his buddies, and plenty of people lied to cover up crimes. Uncle Vernon might’ve sounded outraged by the accusation, but I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. And Red’s alibi was just as suspect as Eads’s.
I was nowhere closer to solving the mystery when I pulled back up in Lio’s driveway, but a new fear punched me in the balls. If Lio had woken while I was gone, he would’ve assumed I’d broken my promise and bailed on him. I might’ve puked again if there’d been anything left to expel. I held my breath as I let myself into the house and eased down the hallway. Lio was still sound asleep when I stripped my clothes off and climbed back into bed. I spooned behind him, pressed my nose in his hair, and breathed in his scent. Tears burned my eyes as I thought about what we had almost lost, but I got a grip on myself.
“Good thing you came back on your own,” Lio said gravelly. “I was going to track you down after my power nap.”
“I didn’t run from you, baby. I was chasing down a lead.”
“Red?” he asked.
Of course Lio had recalled the threat. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it when Gunderson interviewed us. Why didn’t you mention it to him?”
He rolled over and cupped my face. “Because Red Beecham is all talk and no action. And now it’s time to work on our conflict resolution skills because I’m pretty damn pissed at you for going there by yourself. Luckily for you, I’ve already decided how you can make it up to me.”
“Yeah?” I asked as I gripped his ass with both hands.
Lio placed teasing kisses on my lips. “It involves physical labor.”
“Liking the sound of this,” I murmured.
“And a scraper.”
My lusty brain slammed on the brakes. “A what now?” Lio’s wicked grin clued me in. “Fine. I’ll help you take off the damn wallpaper.”
The following morning, I tried to distract Lio with sex, but I apparently didn’t fuck him hard enough. After breakfast, he produced two scrapers and a bottle of something that was supposed to release the old adhesive. It took us hours to get the crap off because there were two other layers of ungodly wallpaper patterns beneath the goose, but the smile on Lio’s face when the walls were bare made it all worth it.
Lio
Iwas up to my armpits in annual reviews on Wednesday afternoon. They weren’t due for another six weeks, but I loathed procrastination more than I disliked messiness, which was ironic since I was using the reviews as an excuse to not think about the ballistics report Gunderson had delivered to me—both by phone and email. But damn, I hated annual reviews. The struggle wasn’t because I didn’t care; it was because I cared too much and overthought every comment I made about an officer’s performance.
When my cell phone rang, it felt like someone had thrown me a life preserver to save me from drowning in misery. When I saw the identity of the caller, my spirits lifted. “Well, this is a surprise,” I said instead of a standard greeting. “Is everything okay?”
Alex snorted. “Can’t a boy just call his dad between school and baseball practice to talk? Why so suspicious? It’s like you’re the chief of police or something.”
I laughed at his snarky response. “You’re at the age where you only call your old man if you need something,” I teased. “When you were younger, you wanted to talk to me about the most random things.” I tried not to think about how much I missed those moments.
Alex huffed a sigh. “I don’t only call you when I want something, but you happen to be right this time.”
“What’s up?”
“Can I stay at your house tonight?” Alex asked. “Mom and Russ are going to a retirement dinner for some guy Russ works with, and they might be home late. I thought I would hang at Eric’s house after practice, but he has an Eagle Scout meeting.”
“Bud, you never have to ask permission to come over. It’s your house as much as it is mine. You’re my favorite human, not just a visitor.”
“I thought you might have plans with Abe,” Alex said.
