by Martha Carr
They fell into silence as Lisa watched him, and the cabin suddenly seemed too quiet.
Johnny looked up from his work and leaned sideways to peer into the hall. “What are those hounds up to?” He whistled shrilly. “Boys?”
Luther barked beneath the worktable. “Right here, Johnny.”
The dwarf stepped back and tilted his head. The coonhounds lay side by side beneath the table and stared at him.
“Been here the whole time.” Rex whined and licked his muzzle. “You didn’t know?”
Frowning, he glanced at Lisa, who smiled at him. He shook his head. “I must have been real focused.”
“Or distracted.” Luther crawled forward on his belly and stared at his master. “You look distracted.”
“You look pissed, Johnny.”
“Yeah. You know what helps? Roast beef.”
With a snort, he snapped his fingers and pointed to the back of the cabin. “All right. Go on, now.”
“For roast beef?”
“Hey, Luther. I saw him throw an empty peanut butter jar in the trash this morning. Let’s go—”
“Out.”
The dogs slowly rose from beneath the table and their tails wagged expectantly despite their lowered heads. “Maybe if we’re real quiet—”
“Last chance to get outside and stay outside before I lock you in the house while I go fetch the girl.”
“Aw, man.” Rex licked his muzzle and sniffed the floor before he trotted after Luther toward the back door. “You’re coming back soon, Johnny, right? ’Cause we—”
The dog door clacked open and shut, and Luther’s loud baying broke the silence. “Rex! Biggest squirrel I’ve ever seen! Holy shit!”
His brother bounded through the kitchen and disappeared outside.
Johnny shook his head and started to pack his tools. The tackle box went back to its place under the worktable but the crossbow, bolts, and interchangeable tips remained laid out neatly on the surface. He straightened a bolt that had rolled away from the others, then nodded toward the front door. “I gotta see a friend about a kid. You can come if you want.”
“Great.” Lisa jumped when both hounds bayed wildly in the back.
“Woah, watch out!” Rex shouted. “Hey, that’s a raccoon, you moron.”
“Get it!”
The dwarf snorted as he strode toward the front door.
She smiled curiously at him. “What?”
“Nothin’.” He opened the door, held it, and gestured for her to step out ahead of him.
She inclined her head and tilted the brim of her out-of-place cowboy hat. “Mighty kind of you.”
Hissing a laugh, Johnny pulled the door shut behind him and headed after her down the porch. “I hope that was a bad joke on purpose.”
“Maybe.”
“Well, lose the hat at least. Or the joke’s on both of us.”
With a frown, she removed the offending headgear, stared at it for a moment, then set it on the hood of her rented Camry before she turned to Johnny.
The dwarf was already climbing into Sheila’s driver’s seat.
“No… Johnny, can’t we take the truck or something?”
“Feel free to walk, darlin’. I’m happy to pick you up along the road on the way back.”
With a laugh, Agent Breyer rolled her eyes and ran a hand through her long dark hair as Sheila’s diesel engine revved to life. She clambered into the passenger seat, which bounced wildly as she sat. “You wouldn’t make me walk.”
“Turn your nose up at Sheila? You bet.”
He accelerated out of the dirt lot at the end of his drive and smirked when she shrieked and braced herself against the Jeep’s interior.
Chapter Four
A huge cloud of dust puffed up behind the red Jeep as Johnny pulled to a stop outside Darlene’s trailer-turned-diner. Lisa steadied herself on the passenger seat, then hopped out to create a much smaller puff of dust beneath her boots.
He raised an eyebrow as he studied her briefly. “It didn’t take you long to get your Jeep legs.”
“Jeep legs. Ha.” She raked a hand through her wind-whipped hair and looked warningly at him. “I wouldn’t have to get them if you drove like a normal person.”
“Aw, come on, darlin’.” He grinned as he turned away from her toward the raised trailer’s staircase. “If I did normal, I reckon you wouldn’t keep comin’ around.”
“Uh-huh. Except for the fact that I’ve technically spent the last two weeks on temporary leave, waiting to join you on this next case.”
“And that there might not be a case. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with my drivin’, anyway.”
She snorted and followed him up the narrow staircase toward the front door.
The dim light of Darlene’s under-the-radar Southern diner and a raucous howl of laughter greeted them. Johnny frowned at the two tables pushed together in the center of the trailer, where eight locals gathered around a grinning Amanda, beers or glasses of iced tea in their hands.
The girl’s smile faded when she saw him before her gaze flicked toward Agent Breyer behind him. “Lisa!”
“Hey, kid.”
“Speak of the goddamn devil.” Arthur raised his beer bottle toward Johnny with a snicker and his white handlebar mustache fluttered around his lips. “And his name’s Johnny Walker.”
“Come on, Arthur.” Johnny walked along the bar and rapped the edge of it absently with his knuckles. “Y’all got way better things to talk about.”
“Not us, Johnny,” Tripp Bolton said on the other side of the table. He stroked his wiry black beard and chuckled. “But Amanda here’s been sharin’ some stories we ain’t never heard before.”
Another round of laughter rose from the table, and the girl stared at him as she lowered her mouth to the straw that protruded from an antique milkshake glass.
“You wrackin’ up a tab for me already, kid?”
“On the house, Johnny.” Darlene slid a double Johnny Walker Black neat across the bar toward him and nodded toward the combined tables and the girl entertaining the diner’s regulars. “For the girl, everything might be on the house.”
“Thanks, Darlene.” He glanced at the whiskey and shook his head. “Ain’t drinkin’ right now.”
“You might want to.” The diner’s owner chuckled and swiped loose hairs and a sheen of sweat from her forehead with her thick wrist. “I don’t think they’re gonna let you live this one down.”
He leaned sideways against the bar. “What’d she do?”
“Hey, Johnny!” Harry Gooden shouted, his graying beard flecked with beer foam. “Sing any Katy Perry lately?”
The old-timers around the table chuckled.
“Betcha feel real nice after an aria in the shower and in those nice, tight pair o’ silk briefs, eh?”
The table exploded in another round of laughter. Darlene chuckled and her chest and shoulders bounced as she wiped her grill-cook hands on her already stained apron. She tried to lose the smile on her face when he darted her sidelong glance. He turned toward Amanda. “I thought I told you to stay out of my room.”
The girl stared at him and the only sound in the diner was the rattling slurp of her sucking the last of her drink through the straw. She popped the straw out of her mouth and shrugged. “They were hanging on the clothesline.”
With a growl, he turned to the bar for the whiskey and swallowed the entire glass. The locals roared with laughter again and smacked their palms on the tables. Tripp leaned so far back in his chair that he almost fell over, and the old-timers lost it all over again.
“Hey, watch it.” Darlene pointed at them. “You break my tables or my chairs, you’re buyin’ new ones. And yeah, Rick. I’m talkin’ to you too.”
The particularly old, lanky Rick with a bright orange hunting cap and suspenders over his long-sleeved black shirt raised his hands in surrender. His blue eyes twinkled before he snorted and he joined his laughter with the others’.
“Come on, kid.” John
ny gestured toward the door. “Leave your milkshake and let’s get goin’.”
“It was a root beer float.”
“I don’t care if it was a White Russian— Wait.” He pointed at Darlene. “Forget I said that.”
The large woman chuckled and took the empty rocks glass. “What kinda place do you think I’m runnin’ here, Johnny?”
The dwarf smirked. “The kind without rules. I know that much.”
She scoffed. “Get on, now.”
“Let’s go.” He nodded toward the door again and met Lisa’s gaze. The woman stared at him and covered her mouth, trying to hide her smile.
I should have let her keep the damn hat.
Amanda rose from the table and pushed the chair in behind her. “I guess I better go.”
“Yeah, girl.” Arthur winked at her. “You keep a sharp eye out, ya hear? We’ll be waitin’ for the next story.”
“Oh, I have way more.”
The old-timers laughed and catcalled enthusiastically.
“Hey, Johnny. You take your showers in the mornin’ or at night?” Harry called. “I wanna come by and hear that purdy voice of yours.”
Johnny pointed at the man in mock warning. “You won’t be able to hear it with two coonhounds on your chest.”
“Naw, those dogs love me.”
“You teach them to sing?”
The men chuckled and sipped their beer. He smirked and flipped them the bird, which drew another round of hardy laughs.
Grinning, the girl moved past the bar. “Thanks for the drink, Darlene.”
“Any time, hon. You be good.”
The dwarf remained where he was and glanced at the diner owner in exasperation before he turned toward Lisa and Amanda. Darlene chuckled and wiped the bar.
“Wow.” The girl studied Agent Breyer with open interest, her eyes wide. “You look nice.”
“Oh, you think so, do you?” Lisa gave Johnny a knowing glance as she slung her arm around the girl’s shoulders.
A man who’d already arrived at Darlene’s more than halfway into his daily inebriation sat at a booth beside the door and stroked his chin as he ogled the agent. “Yeah. Real nice.” He reached for her Daisy Dukes and yelped when Johnny threw a salt shaker at his fingers. “Ow. What the fuck was that for?”
“Hands to yourself, Bobby,” he warned in a growled tone.
Lisa turned and frowned at the drunkard who now cradled his hand and glared at the dwarf. “Johnny.”
“Let’s go.” He nodded toward the door and the agent opened it for them and frowned over her shoulder as he stalked after her.
It banged shut behind them. “Well, that was completely unnecessary.”
“I disagree.” Johnny passed her on the landing and hurried down the stairs after Amanda.
“That man was wasted.” She glanced at the door again and followed him down the stairs. “It’s all simply fun and games.”
“Yeah, until some asshole wants to play a little more and takes it too far.”
“Then I’ll handle it.”
He stopped and turned to face her. “You didn’t see him reachin’ for the goods, did you?”
“The goods?”
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Next time, I’ll stay out of it. Let you play ‘hot pants’ all you want.”
“What’s going on with you?”
“I’m fine.” He stormed toward the red Jeep but paused briefly when he saw Amanda leaning back against the rear door, her arms folded. “What’s so funny?”
The girl wiped the smile off her face and opened the door before she clambered in and closed it moodily behind her.
Great. Teach a drunk to respect women and let a kid blow off steam without a babysitter, and I’m the asshole.
When he slumped into the driver’s seat and revved Sheila’s engine, he felt both pairs of eyes on him. His grasp firm on the steering wheel, he stared directly ahead and raised an eyebrow. “Go on, then. Say what you gotta say.”
“I wasn’t ready to leave,” Amanda muttered in the back seat, her arms folded.
Lisa drummed her fingers on the armrest of the passenger-side door. “I’m wondering what you’re not telling me.”
“More than you imagine.”
“You’re in a mood, Johnny.”
“What?” He looked sharply at her, and Lisa raised her eyebrows in a challenge.
The girl nodded firmly. “Definitely a mood.”
It’s two against one and this is the only fight I can’t win.
“Well, if I’m in a mood, it’s because—” He sighed and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Forget it.” He looked into the rearview mirror and met Amanda’s glare. “But I’m serious, kid. No more stories about my personals. That shit stays at home.”
“Your personals?”
The dwarf raised an eyebrow in the mirror, and she rolled her eyes.
“Fine.” She slumped in the seat and stared through the pane-less window.
“Good. We’re all on the same page.” He shifted Sheila into drive with a quick jerk.
Lisa’s drumming fingers stopped so she could grasp the armrest instead. “And maybe you could—”
She yelped when he stepped on the gas and lurched in a tight circle. Dust and small rocks flurried from the wheels as the Jeep raced out of the dirt lot. Despite the tension, Amanda laughed as they bounced over rocks and gravel and thrust her hand out the window.
Yeah. All on the same damn page. I should be better at this by now.
Chapter Five
Amanda practically skipped beside Lisa as they climbed the stairs of Johnny’s front porch.
“Oh, my God. It was so cool. We were flying across the water.” The girl swept a hand through the air in imitation of the speeding airboat. “I wanted to go faster but we had to slow for the alligator.”
“For the alligator?” The woman chuckled.
Johnny shoved the front door open with a grunt and strode inside.
“Yeah. Fifteen feet long. Biggest one in the Everglades—right, Johnny?”
“That I know of.” The dwarf ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily as he headed to the kitchen. And now she’s yakkin’ away like she didn’t wanna kill me on that airboat a few hours ago. Better’n holdin’ a grudge, at least.
“Well anyway, we didn’t get the ʼgator.” The girl shoved her hands into her pockets and stuck close to the woman as they walked slowly toward the living room at the end of the hall. “I found shifters instead.”
“Really?” The agent sat on the couch and studied the boar’s head above the mantle.
“Yeah. Right here in the swamp. Can you believe it?” Amanda sat absently in the armchair beside the empty fireplace and crossed her legs under her to lean forward with wide eyes. “I had forgotten there were other shifters here. Who would have thought we’d simply cruise up to them in a boat.”
“We didn’t cruise up to them,” Johnny muttered as he stepped out of the kitchen and headed toward them with three glasses of iced tea balanced in his hands. “Someone decided it was a good idea to run off and spook the ʼgator.”
“Yeah. Sorry, Johnny.” The girl glanced briefly at the glasses he placed on the coffee table. “We can try again. But Lisa, these shifters are right here. I bet they live close by too.”
The dwarf sat on the opposite side of the couch from Lisa and stared with wide eyes at the table as he absently sipped his tea.
She was supposed to cool off on that little solo trip through town.
The agent glanced at him and lifted a glass off the table. “Thanks, Joh—”
“And get this,” Amanda continued. “Johnny almost fought them.”
“You almost what?” The woman barely managed to not choke on her tea.
“It wasn’t my first choice,” he muttered. “And I’m glad we didn’t have to.” He looked at the girl and nodded. “They aren’t what you think they are, kid.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But you don’t know them, do you?”
&nb
sp; “Nope, and I don’t wanna.”
Amanda snorted. “That’s only because you saw a naked man in the swamp.”
Lisa burst out laughing. “I don’t think I’m getting all the pieces of the story.”
Johnny leaned back against the couch with a sigh. “There isn’t much to get. It was a close call but we got outta there.”
“Yeah, but if I—”
“Count it as a good thing, kid.” He ran his hands down his black jeans and nodded at her. “Those are not the kinda folks you wanna get yourself tangled up with.”
“Yeah, Johnny.” She smirked at him. “You said that already.”
“Well, I ain’t sayin’ it only to hear myself talk.”
Lisa snorted and focused her gaze firmly on her glass of tea to hide her smile.
“I know.” The girl studied him for a moment. “But you of all people know there’s more to someone than where they live or what they look like.”
He looked at her in surprise before he narrowed his eyes. “Uh-huh.”
The living room fell uncomfortably silent and after a moment, Amanda slapped her thighs and pushed out of the armchair. “I’m gonna take a shower. I’m still covered in swamp and everything. Lisa, you’ll still be here when I’m done, right?”
“Yeah. I thought about sticking around a little longer.” The woman crossed one ankle over her opposite knee and looked at the dwarf. “If it’s all right with Johnny.”
He snorted. “You let yourself into my house without knockin’. I’m fairly sure you ain’t lookin’ for my permission.”
“Okay. Cool.” Amanda hurried to the bathroom beside the bedrooms, then stopped. “Hey. We should take her out on the airboat.”
“Oh, no.” Lisa shook her head.
“No, come on. You’ll love it.”
“I’m not a boat kinda person, Amanda. But thanks.”
“Johnny, tell her she needs to come on the boat with us.”
He chuckled and rubbed his mouth before he gave the agent a sidelong glance. “I can tell her until the cows come home, kid.”
“Please, Lisa. Please.”
“If you can say no to a face like that…” Johnny nodded toward the girl, who stared at Agent Breyer with puppy-dog eyes that rivaled even Rex and Luther’s.