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“Libby wouldn’t have it, and neither would I. You guys have been through the grinder more times than anyone can count. I’m not pulling you away from your women and kids to watch over a pile of bones and some dusty buildings.”
“Better there than on our doorstep,” Leo says. Those strange violet-amethyst eyes of his glitter in the dim light. And people think my eyes are weird. “We sit around waiting forever, he’s bound to go after something or somebody in town. Hit hard and create a ruse before he comes for Ursa.”
Fuck.
My jaw tightens, my brain sifting through the many ugly possibilities he’s conjured up.
“He’s right. We’ve made the same mistake too many times, sitting back and manning our fort.” Warren strokes his chin, looking past me, out the window at the sleepy, idyllic night grounds of Charming Inn. “We need to flush his ass out.”
“Can’t be that easy, War,” Blake chimes in. “Holt said this guy’s crafty. If he’s really that sly, he’ll see it coming from a mile away.”
“No, wait,” I say. “There’s one way we can do that, and one way only—Sierra Potter.”
Four heads swivel toward me, eyes tense in the moonlight, slowly blinking.
“You really think she’d flip on him?” Blake asks weakly. “From what you said, the poor girl’s smitten with this clown. She’d—”
“She’d be sorry if she fucked her sister over,” I say, sitting up straight in my seat. “She may be confused, reckless, desperate, and misled. But mean-spirited isn’t the vibe I got from Sierra. She doesn’t want to hurt Libby, not really.”
“It’s not crazy.” Doc nods firmly, his keen mind in overdrive. He senses it too. “She’s been lied to, not unlike the rest of this grifter’s little army. I only fear she won’t have a chance to figure it out, much less escape.”
My blood goes cold. It’s a real possibility, even if by some miracle Sierra figured out her boyfriend’s a dumpster fire and walked out on him tomorrow.
“We won’t let that happen,” I say, without a clue how I mean to make good on that promise. “I’ll find her, have Libby talk some sense, and get her to give up that fuck’s location.”
Doc leans back in his chair, sneaking another cookie under the table.
“We’ll keep our ears open and draft a few more, then,” Leo says, looking at me and his friends, one at a time. “The girls hear and see all sorts of traffic, seeing how busy they are. We’re lucky men. We need our wives for this shit. Help them help us find Sierra, and then we can turn her over to you and her sis. I know how the bond with sisters goes, no matter what comes between them. It’s freaky shit, too strong for any asshole to sever.”
Heads nod all around. I bite back a grin.
It’s honestly a bit touching to see these bruisers looking all starry-eyed when they talk about their women. I’m also humbled at them bringing in Haley, Ember, Clarissa, and Peace. Their girls are as sharp and battle-tested as they are beautiful.
The fact that they wound up with these guys at all means they did their fair share of suffering, too.
“I’m grateful,” I tell them, trying to keep it short and sweet. “Not just because you’re all doing your thing keeping Heart’s Edge safe. Again. When I first came back here, I didn’t have a friend in the world with the arson thing and all…now, I’m just happy somebody’s got my back. I won’t let you down.”
A big hand slaps my back. I look over to see Blake grinning like the big dumb weirdo he is.
“No need to get these guys all teary, man. We’ll figure this out. You just keep Libs and her horses safe.”
We break up then, and I clasp four powerful, sincere hands as everybody clears out. Can’t resist stealing a couple cookies myself for the road.
Blake trails me to my truck, keeping pace better than he could months ago, that trademark limp of his down to a barely-there cowboy swagger.
The crickets are loud tonight, our background track for every word.
“I still feel like an asshole for burdening everybody like this,” I tell him, leaning against my tailgate. “If it weren’t for the body, I’d go to Langley and the Feds, but…damned if you do, damned if you don’t barely cuts it here.”
“Hmm. Can’t decide whether or not I like this,” Blake says, sweeping his coppery brown hair back.
“What?”
“You having a conscience and all. Seems like now that you’ve got one, you don’t know where to point it, bro.” He grins his usual insufferable shit-smile.
“Yeah? That more of your sage radio wisdom when you’re not taking on callers who want to talk about alien butt probes?”
He chuckles. At least he’s used to me giving him crap about his ridiculous Coast to Coast AM meets love doctor radio show.
