by KC Crowne
And the thought scared me to death. I’d told myself I’d never be in a position like that – never would I let a man have such an intense hold on me. But there I was, my emotions all tied up with his well-being and nearness.
“I bet he’s takin’ care of it,” Sabrina commented, a soothing tone in her voice. “It’s common with men like him. They get all wrapped up in sortin’ out problems on their own, not needin’ help. And he probably doesn’t realize we’re all worried about him.”
“It’s selfish, is what it is,” I retorted. “He knows I’m worried, and he knows I’m thinkin’ about him.”
Adie and Sabrina shared a look at this, and I realized I’d put my feelings out in the open. But at that moment, I didn’t care. I wanted Gerald back. Hell, at the very least I wanted him to check in.
In the middle of more pacing, my phone shook in my pocket. I pulled it out as quickly as a wild west gunslinger and checked the screen. It was him.
“Where are you?” I asked in lieu of a greeting, the worry plain in my voice.
“Comin’ back right now – passin’ through Idylwood. Where are you? Tell me you’re at the ranch.”
“We’re here,” I said. “And you need to get back soon.”
“Honey, you don’t know how right you are about that.”
“What do you mean? What happened?”
“Just stay put. I’ll be there soon. And I’ll tell you everything.”
“Okay.”
“Be there in twenty.”
“Is he okay?” Adie asked, concern on her face as I stuck the phone back into my pocket.
“He’s fine – on his way back. But somethin’ happened, and he wouldn’t say what it was over the phone.”
“Don’t worry,” Sabrina said, always the calmer of the three of us. “He’ll be here soon.”
I did my best to follow her advice, feeling better now that I’d finally heard from the man. After about fifteen minutes, I went to the front room and waited near the window. A few minutes later, his truck appeared over the horizon and parked near the entrance.
Relief rushed through me like a cool wave as he stepped out and dropped to the ground, dust kicking up around his big boots. Whatever had happened, Gerald was as calm and confident as ever, striding toward the house like he’d come back from picking up eggs and milk at the store.
The door swung open and he stepped inside. Lord help me, but I ran over to him and threw my arms around his body.
“I’m alright,” he said, his voice soothing and calm. “I’m alright.”
“I know. I knew you would be.” I let go of him and looked at his face, his body towering over me like always. “But I don’t know. I just knew something was wrong. I knew you were in danger.”
“That’s because you’ve got good instincts,” he said. “They’ll take care of you if you let them.”
“Well, what the hell happened? What’s that smell?” He’d carried a strange scent in the air, acrid and almost sulphuric.
“Gunpowder,” he answered as if it was no big deal.
I gasped. “Gunpowder? What the hell?”
“Come on,” he said, taking my hand. “This ain’t somethin’ we need to talk about out in the open.”
I nodded and led him to the library where Sabrina and Adie were waiting for us. They leapt to their feet and asked what had happened, both of them eager and relieved.
Gerald stood before us, his hands on his hips. In that moment he was all Texas Ranger, calm and confident and authoritative. It was a reassuring sight in all the confusion.
“Things have gotten complicated,” he announced. “Let me tell you what happened so we’re on the same page.”
He explained how he’d gone to the car dealership but found no sign of the owner. And when he told us what had happened at the manager’s house, my gut went cold, an icy spike stabbing in me.
“They shot at you?”
He nodded. “Whoever was there had been keepin’ an eye on the place, guessin’ to see if anyone might poke around. But I managed to give ‘em the slip.”
“What if they track you down?” Adie asked, concern still in her tone. “Can they find you?”
He turned his steely gaze, those golden eyes, onto her. “I don’t doubt they’ll try. Believe it or not, you’re in the safest place in the region right now. No way they’d try something as ballsy as assaulting Rainbow Canyons, and even if they did, it’d be like tryin’ to invade a fort.” He shook his head, his voice sure and strong. “No, they wanna keep this low-profile, which is why they hoped to take me out at the house, get me out of the way.”
“Okay…” My voice trailed off as I tried to wrap my head around everything he’d told me. “What about the police? I know you don’t trust them, and I get it, but if there are men out there trying to kill you…what other choice to we have?”
“The place was barely set up to look like a break-in – just enough evidence for the cops to write it off that way. Even more proof that the cops are likely in on it too.” He gazed at me. “Listen, I know this sounds like I’m bein’ paranoid, or that I’m dealin’ with old grudges or somethin’ like that, but you have to trust me. I got my reasons for keepin’ the police out of this.”
“But still,” Sabrina said. “This all sounds like somethin’ bigger than us. This is a region-wide money-laundering operation complete with criminals who aren’t scared to kill to get what they want.”
Gerald nodded, processing her words. “I know. That’s why what I want to do is hold tight, wait for Mayor Simms to get back to me so we can figure out our next step. There’s a chance he might have connections with people he can trust. Right now, he’s the best chance we’ve got. Unless we want to form a damn posse and pull some frontier justice.”
Adie grinned. “Now that’s a plan I can get behind.”
She wasn’t being serious, and her little joke managed to lighten the mood a bit. Before the conversation continue, the dinner bell rang, the clear chime carrying down the hall to the library.
“God, I’m starved,” Sabrina announced.
“Same here,” Adie echoed.
“I ain’t in the mood for eatin’,” I said. “Not with all that’s goin’ on. You girls get some grub – I’m gonna plan this out with Gerald.”
“Crystal,” he said, his tone stern. “Go get somethin’ to eat. You’ll need—” But he stopped, not finishing his sentence. He’d realized what he was doing and stopped himself from telling me what to do.
And knowing he caught himself and stopped made me like him all the more. The man was respecting my wishes.
“We’ll save you a little,” Sabrina called to me as they walked out.
“Both of you,” Adie added.
Then they were gone, leaving Gerald and me alone.
“I need to sit a spell,” he said. “Wanna go upstairs?”
“Yeah, sounds good.”
He took my hand, comfort flowing through me at his touch. Together we headed up to my bedroom, and I shut the door behind us. I felt so drained, so sapped of energy from worrying that all I could do was lay down. Gerald did the same, positioning his big body next to mine and wrapping his arm around me. I rested my head on his broad, strong chest and listened to his heartbeat, knowing that as long as I heard it, he was safe.
At that moment we were together. Nothing else mattered.
“I’m sorry.”
Gerald appeared confused, and for a second so was I, not sure why those words had been the ones to come out of my mouth.
“Sorry?” he asked. “What’re you talkin’ about?”
“I’m sorry I thought you and your family were behind all this insanity. It was stupid, stupid and paranoid. I should’ve known better, but I guess I just wanted someone to blame, someone I could pin all this on and—”
I didn’t get a chance to finish. In the middle of my words, Gerald placed his hand under my chin and tilted my head up, gazing into my eyes with those brilliant golden orbs and silencing me with
a hard kiss. The moment his lips touched mine, the urge to speak vanished. It was almost magical the way he could make me feel like there was no one else in the world other than him and me. His lips lingered on mine, his mouth opening just enough for his tongue to drift past my lips and into my mouth.
I placed my hands on his chest, and he held me by the hips, pressing my body close to his. We kissed, and all I could think about was making love, our bodies joined, Gerald on top of me as he moved inside, bringing me closer and closer to the pleasure only he could make me feel.
But we didn’t get a chance. My phone shook in my pocket, and Gerald pulled away.
“Any other time,” he murmured, “and I’d tell you to put it on silent.” He gave me a wry smirk.
“I know, I know,” I said, taking my phone out of my pocket. My heart dropped when I saw who it was. Michael Diaz. “It’s him.”
Gerald’s expression was grim. He didn’t need to say anything for me to know he wanted me to answer. I took a deep breath and hit the accept button.
“Crystal Peterson.”
“Good afternoon, Crystal.” His voice was even and professional as ever. “How are you?”
“Fine. What’s goin’ on?” Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Gerald took out his phone and began flipping through local news sites.
“Just wanted to check in and see if you’d had time to think about our conversation.”
“Didn’t you give me a few days to think it over? I need some time.”
“I did say that,” he said. “But all the same, I’d like to come to an agreement as quickly as possible. The faster we move, the faster we can put all this behind us, and you and your partners can move on to the next chapters of your lives, whatever they might hold.”
“I want to ask you somethin’.”
“What’s that?”
“What happens if I say no? If I tell you I don’t want any part of this deal?”
After several moments of silence, he said, “It would be in your best interest to say yes.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I made sure the reasons why you ought to agree to my proposition were clear. Saying no would be the most foolish thing you could do.” He was trying to frame it as a simple business decision, but there was unquestionable menace in his tone. It wasn’t advice – it was a threat. “I’ll give you a little more time to think it over. But make the right call, Crystal. Your future depends on it.” Then he hung up.
The conversation played in my mind over and over, Gerald’s attention still fixed on his phone. There was no doubt he’d gotten news about what had happened at the manager’s house, and that him knowing Gerald was getting closer to breaking it all open was motivating him to move.
We were hardly out of the woods. If Michael was beginning to feel cornered, the odds of him doing something bad went up.
I took the phone and tossed it to the other side of the bed, as if putting as much distance between me and Michael as possible.
“What the fuck?”
I glanced at Gerald and saw that his face was white, the color having drained out. He held his phone in front of his face, his expression suggesting he couldn’t believe what he was reading.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He said nothing, instead turning the phone to me. I quickly read at the headline for the local news on the screen.
Idylwood Mayor Joshua Simms Found Dead in Apparent Suicide.
I gasped, bringing my hands to my mouth in total disbelief. “No way.”
Gerald spoke, his voice a mixture of rage and sadness. “Says they found him in his bathtub, dead of an overdose.”
“That’s horrible.”
“And it’s bullshit,” he seethed, turning off his phone and sticking it in his pocket. “I know Josh – he’s the last person who’d ever kill himself.”
“Are you sayin’ someone did it and made it look like a suicide?”
“Not a damn doubt in my mind,” he said with certainty. “He was gettin’ close to the truth, and more importantly, he was in a high position who wasn’t goin’ along with what Diaz and his fuckin’ goons wanted. No doubt they’d been plannin’ to get him out of the way for some time.”
It was about the most shocking thing I’d ever heard, and somehow, my little business was stuck right in the middle of it. I shook my head and put my hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Gerald. I know he was a friend of yours.”
He nodded, his eyes fixed forward for a long moment before turning them on me. “I’m not gonna let these fuckers get away with it. I need to take them down, not just for us, but for Josh.”
“You’re wrong about that, Gerald,” I negated.
“Pardon?”
“You’re not doin’ anything. We’re takin’ them down.”
A small smile curled the corner of his mouth. Gerald was ready to bring down Michael once and for all. And I’d be by his side.
Chapter 24
GERALD
Before long, hunger caught up with us, but as much as part of me wanted to be around the company of my family, I needed some time to think. And Crystal felt the same way.
My cousin Wyatt was out of town, on vacation with his family, meaning his cabin was vacant for the time being. Mama G made sure to set us aside some plates of dinner – roasted chicken and mashed potatoes and fresh biscuits, along with a couple slices of blackberry pie – on our way out the door.
We drove in silence to Wyatt’s cabin on the far side of the property near the western barn where the horses he kept a close eye on stayed. I parked and we climbed out just as the sun was beginning to set.
“Nice out,” I commented. “Wanna eat on the porch?”
“Sounds good to me,” she said.
We headed inside to grab a couple of beers to drink before sitting at the small table on the wooden porch. The view from Wyatt’s cabin was amazing, a clear shot over the woods and to the tree line, the sun setting over the expanse of land and casting the sky in brilliant pinks and oranges and reds, the inky black of night opening above us, a few stars twinkling.
“She’s a damn good cook,” Crystal commented as she shoved a forkful of mashed potatoes into a mouth and groaned with pleasure.
I smiled, enjoying the sound. “She always has been, and when you’re cookin’ for a squad of big guys like us, you learn how to make good food, and big portions of it.”
“You spent time here a lot when you were growin’ up?” she asked.
It struck me as a somewhat strange question at first. We had so much going on, and she was asking me about life when I was a kid. I realized that because we had so much going on, talking about such topics was necessary – a good distraction.
“I did. My parents…they’re good people, through and through. But my pops, he’s always been a type-A kinda man, always workin’, always tryin’ to provide for us. And my mama had her hands full with three boys. Easy to get lost in the shuffle, easy to feel overwhelmed. So, we’d come out here a dozen times a year for the same reasons as the tourists – to slow down, to have a break from all the troubles outside in the real world.”
She smiled as her eyes scanned the property. “That’s what it’s like here. You feel like you’re in another world.”
I nodded. “And more than that, there’s nothin’ but love here. We’re a big family, but we’re tight. The world feels so big nowadays – sometimes you need a reminder that all you really need to be happy is some love and some open spaces.” I shrugged. “But then again, maybe that’s just the cowboy in me talkin’.”
“I love to hear you talk like that,” she told me, smiling. “Tells me what kind of man you are deep down.”
I grinned. “I love that you love it. But it worries me to hear you say somethin’ like that.”
She seemed confused. “What do you mean?”
“Love and family and nature…that’s as basic as it gets to me. Makes me wonder what kinda life people have without those things.”
> “It wasn’t a good one,” she admitted, her eyes drifting as she spoke. “New York is exciting, for sure. There’s culture and action and glamour and everything else. But there’s no love there, that’s for damn sure. And most people who live there aren’t with their families.” She chuckled quietly. “And nature? Well, kind of – a few little green squares carved out in the concrete. It wears on you, after a time. Gettin’ away from all that’s why I wanted to come back.”
I took a bite of my biscuit, letting her do the talking.
“And it’s why I’m so damned hurt that it might not work out for me here. I try to make a little oasis in some of the most beautiful country in the world, but there’s still pricks out there who wanna take it away from me.”
I placed my hand on her knee, her skin bare. “That ain’t gonna happen. We’re gonna get through this and bring these pricks to justice. Not a chance in hell I’m gonna let them get away with what they’ve done.”
She nodded, appearing happy with my answer. “But how? There’s the family, sure, but I don’t want the entire Walker clan puttin’ their necks on the line for me.”
“Us Walkers, we care about doin’ what’s right. We’re lookin’ out for you and yours – that’s for damn sure. But there’s also justice to be done. I might not be with the Rangers anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see every damn criminal get their day in court.”
“I appreciate that, I really do. But we can’t do this on our own, Gerald,” she told me, her voice serious. “We need help. We need the law on our side.”
Dammit, she was right. No way a handful of Walkers, tough sons of bitches we all might’ve been, would be able to take on a whole damn international cartel. And losing even one of us in the process was a risk I wasn’t willing to take.
And I had a name in mind, a man I knew I could count on, but bringing him into this would mean bringing the law.
“You’re thinkin’ somethin’,” she guessed. “I can tell – you get that faraway look on your face.”