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I turned back to Eve. “Christmas is a while away.”
She shrugged. “We both have work to do. He has a unit to run.”
“Sounds like a good man. Just make sure you’re at the top of his list.” I leaned back against the bed of my truck. “Trav about?”
She shook her head. “He’s up at Rachel’s. Someone’s cows got out and a semi tore through the herd. She’s out there with the sheriff fixing it up.”
“Jimmy? I heard he got promoted.” I grinned. “What a mess for the kid to clean up.”
“Lots of fun.” Eve watched me for a long moment and sighed. “Longside. That’s where she lives. Turn up about the other side of Black Hill land and follow the road to the next drive. About an hour. It’s on their southwestern boundary. But Kyle...” She hesitated, just like her brother had. Her mouth opened, but she said nothing more.
“I know about the bruises. She’s covered in them, Eve.”
She gave me a hard look. “All over? I know–”
“Spit it out, girl,” I said gently, though my heart hammered in my chest.
“Don’t yougirlme,” she sassed me, some of her old spark alive in her eyes. “Her family is...complicated. It’s messy over there. Sometimes her cousin’s around, and her daddy has a temper, but he’s blind now. Her mother passed years ago, and the place... well. It’s not kept up.”
I nodded. “Appreciate it.” I tossed my keys in my hand.
“You going to head over there?” she asked, tilting her head to one side.
“Maybe.” Not today though, I said softly.
Eve nodded. “Take care, Kyle. I’ll tell Travis you came by.”
“Sounds good. Anything I can pick up for you in White Cap?” The small town south of Red Hart was a good two and a bit hour drive, only half of it on the blacktop.
“Would you?” she hesitated. “I can make a list.”
“I got time.”
I waited outside, rolling up my leather pouches that stored jewelery and another with small findings. Others held various shaped batteries and fasteners and the like. Eve was back witha short list. I promised to bring her things back, trying to refuse the money she stuffed at me, but the woman who fed everyone except herself refused to give up and tossed more than I needed into my glove compartment instead.
I left Red Hart scant hours before the sun set, with no idea where I would spend the night, only that it wouldn’t be at Longside, or with Sienna.
But soon.
CHAPTER FIVE
When I bounced around as much as I could to avoid delving into the shitfight I expected to find at Sienna’s home, I dallied my way up the road past Blackhill, Eve and Trav’s not-the-best neighbours, and pulled into the next drive along the dusty road. I spent an entire twenty-seven years not doing what everyone else did, creating a family and a base, settling down.
Heading out to Sienna’s would change how I worked. As much as I pushed back against that, I knew I had to capitulate eventually. The longer I stayed away, the more she got hurt. Finally, the need to have her in my arms overrode my cowardice, turning up at her front gate that, as predicted, left me breathless.
Here the surface was pitted with ruts and potholes I could have sunk a full tire into and never emerged again. The front of the property was just as uncared for. In comparison to RHR’s neat front signage, the oiled wooden entrance and the trimmed grass, this place looked like it hadn’t had love in at least a decade. And considering that Sienna was in her early twenties...she must have been living in the decrepit place half her life.
I knew better than to judge randomly, but the lack of care factor broke me from the inside out. Hell, even Jack Stone’s place looked better than this, and that was saying something.
The drive wound through the unused property. The odd cow poked its head over the long grass gone to seed with the season, though the land was nowhere near grazed. A few tumble downbuildings lined the near distance before the treeline merged with the mountain side as my pick up meandered through the twisting drive.
From this angle I couldn’t see Red Hart, but I found myself staring at a different face of the imposing mountain that towered over the property from the other side. Where RHR saw a stoic mountain face, Longside lay beneath sheer granite cliffs that looked like God himself had carved a deep cleft in the mountainside. Ragged, unforgiving spikes extruded from the hard, gray surface. Deep shadows lay over the land, like a negative reflection to RHR’s more sunny disposition.
Pulling up in the yard didn’t change my opinion of the place. Weeds and long grasses wound their way through twisted fences that couldn’t hold a butterfly let alone a damn cow. I swallowed hard as I climbed out of my truck. Nothing moved. The air itself remained stifling, and still. No birds chirped.
Letting out a low breath I walked up the rickety stairs to the old homestead. The door stood ajar and the confines within were void-dark.
“Hello the house,” I called into the dimmed space, thunking my knuckles on the doorframe for emphasis.
