Lookin' for Trouble (Honky Tonk Angels Book 6)

by Ciana Stone

  “You might be right, but that doesn’t mean something hasn’t happened to her. I need to go find her and then we need to get this thing settled. Bernice is confused and scared and no child deserves to live that way.”

  “You really have fallen in love with her, haven’t you?”

  “I have. Strange as that is.”

  Hannah smiled. “It is a little. Strange, I mean. You’ve never shown a whole lot of interest in kids and I just figured you didn’t much care about them.”

  “I don’t as a rule. I guess having Callie and Lily with me for a while changed things. And now Bernice. Honest to god, just watching her and listening to her is sometimes the funniest thing ever. And she’s good so cute and sweet.”

  “Cody’s in love.”

  Those words had Cody starting before she could stop herself. Unfortunately, Hannah noticed. “With more than Bernice, it seems.”

  Cody didn’t know if she was going to be honest or lie to her sister’s face—all she knew was that Hannah had an expectant expression and she had to say something.

  Stars be praised, her phone rang and saved her. She quickly snatched it from her pocket. It was Riggs. “Sorry, have to take this.” She answered the call. “Hey.”

  “You still want company for the trip to Rock Ridge?”

  “I do.”

  “Then meet me at the trailer. I’m taking a couple of days off.”

  “On my way.”

  “Great. See you soon.”

  “’K. Bye.”

  She returned the phone to her pocket. “Okay, I need to hit the road.”

  “Who was that?”

  “Riggs. He’s going to ride with me.”

  Hannah nodded. “I’ll take good care of Bernice.”

  “I know you will.”

  “You want to wake her up and say goodbye?”

  “No, just tell her I’ll be back soon.”

  “Like her mama?”

  “No. Tell her I’ll call her at noon.”

  “Okay.” Hannah got up as Cody stood. She wrapped her arms around Cody. “Be safe and I hope you find her.”

  “Oh, I’m gonna find her. Thanks again for taking care of Bernice.”

  “No problem. She’s a sweetie. Now scoot. And call me later.”

  “At noon. I promise.”

  “I’ll be waiting.”

  “Okay.” Cody headed for the door. “Love you.”

  She heard Hannah’s, “Love you” as she let herself out. With luck she would be back before the end of the day, with Belinda, and then she was going to get to the truth of things once and for all.

  *****

  Hannah heard someone yell her name and a minute later Pressley, walked through the door.

  “What’re you doing back?” Hannah asked and then added. “Want coffee?”

  “I do thanks, and I just had to get out of there.”

  “Why?”

  “You don’t know?” Pressley accepted the cup Hannah offered. “Thanks.”

  “Know what?” Hannah took a seat.

  “Cooper quit the company.”

  “What?” Hannah was shocked. He’d as much as admitted that he didn’t want to make Cotton Creek his home but she’d never expected him to quit. “Why?”

  “To go back to Quinlan Oil.”

  “Seriously? After all the hate and contempt he spewed about his father?”

  “Exactly.”

  Hannah lifted her coffee cup to her lips. It had cooled to lukewarm but it didn’t matter. It wasn’t warmth she sought as much as time—time to think about this latest news. What would make Cooper willing to go back to his father? Lucas had to have offered something huge, something that would make it worthwhile for Cooper to turn his back on all he’d help build.

  “Oh my god.” She lowered her cup. “Liz.”

  “She’s a mess,” Pressley said and leaned back in her chair to rub her hands over her eyes. “You should have seen her. I almost cried. She gave up everything for him. Everything. Her entire trust went into the company because it got him out from under his father’s thumb. And he just walks away like it doesn’t mean a thing.”

  “What will she do? I mean, what happens to his stock?”

  “Liz owns it.” Pressley laughed but it was more of a bark than a sound of humor. “That’s really rich, isn’t it? Now she owns most of a company in a business she never wanted to be involved with in the first place and he just strolls on back to Daddy like he hasn’t majorly screwed her over. Honest to god, if he were my brother I’d beat the living shit out of him.”

  “Deservedly so.” Hannah felt horrible for Liz. She knew how much Liz hated the oil business and all the sadness and loss it’d brought to her family. To have Cooper pull this stunt had to have hurt her greatly. “Will she be okay?”

  “She will.” Pressley straightened. “She has Kyle and lucky for her, she doesn’t give a fat shit about the money. She only did it for Cooper, but now she’s got a good steam of anger going to keep the pain at bay for a while. Eventually the anger will cool and the hurt will set in, but when it does, Kyle will be there.”

  “He’ll always be there to catch her if she falls.” Bryson’s face flashed through her mind. “I guess that’s really what we all want, isn’t it?”

  “Are we talking about Liz or you?”

  Hannah felt her skin heat and had no doubt that a blush was working over her skin. “Me?”

  “I know you’re crazy about him. Bryson, I mean. Damn girl, anyone with eyes in their head can see it when the two of you are together.”

  “Do you think I’m… I don’t know, bad or whorish or whatever?” If anything had bothered Hannah about her feelings for Bryson, it was that people would think she was some kind of hussy, breaking her engagement with Cooper and getting involved with Bryson.

  “For what?”

  “You know. Seeing Bryson so soon after Cooper and I split up.”

  “Oh. No, why? Look, I know this is like Small Town Capital of the world and all that, but who cares what everyone thinks? You and Cooper broke up. It happens. You started seeing someone else. Again, it happens.” Pressley gave Hannah a sly smile. “And between us, girl you upgraded ’cuz Byrson is F-I-N-E.”

  Hannah grinned and then chuckled. “God, ain’t that the truth?”

  “Girl, God knew what he was doing when he created the Weathers men.”

  “Amen to that,” Hannah agreed with a laugh. Suddenly she felt lighter, freed of a burden that had been weighing her down.

  Pressley was right. People broke up all the time and went on to become involved with other people.

  She was happy when she was with Bryson and from now on she wasn’t going to let anything diminish her happiness. Not one little bit.

  *****

  Cody felt like a pressure cooker that was ready to blow, she was so mad.

  All day they’d searched for Belinda. They looked in every bar, tavern, restaurant and seedy motel in the city. Cody found the address of the doctor Belinda had been seeing. When she paid the doctor’s office a visit, she discovered that Belinda had never been there.

  Her next stop was the hospital. As she’d feared, Belinda had not been a patient there either. On a hunch, Cody went back to the doctor’s office and thanks to Riggs charming the office manager, got the woman—Doris—to check the national transplant list.

  Belinda was not on it.

  Cody made it all the way to the truck, opened the door and started to climb in but Riggs took hold of her arm. “Maybe I should drive.”

  It wasn’t his suggestion or even his touch that set her off. The pressure valve on her anger just gave way and kaboom. She lost it.

  “I. Am. Going. To. Kill. Her.” Her voice was a roar that she made no effort to quiet. She shoved Riggs away from her, whirled and kicked her truck. Despite the dent that appeared in the side panel, she drew back and kicked again, screaming in time with the blow.

  Her poor truck was sporting a good dozen new dents by the time she sto
pped, breathing hard and sweating. She leaned over, hands propped on her knees, sucking in air. Riggs made a step toward her but she held up one hand. “I’m just a fool.”

  “For caring about a friend?” He took hold of her arm and pulled her upright, turning her to face him. “There’s no shame or foolishness in that.”

  “I saw the signs. I should have known she was lying. Hannah saw it and tried to tell me but I wouldn’t listen.”

  “Okay, so why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why wouldn’t you listen?”

  That question stopped her. Physically and mentally. She had to think about it. Why had she refused to listen to Hannah, when Hannah was obviously right?

  “Well?”

  Cody looked up at him. Shame wasn’t going to keep her from being honest. “I wanted to believe that Belinda was telling the truth, that she was really a good person, just one who’d had the shittiest luck in the world—luck that was making her behave all wrong. I didn’t want to believe that Belinda was really so uncaring about her sweet little girl. I wanted her to be better than that.”

  Riggs smiled and place his hand on the side of her face. “People don’t always turn out to be what we hope.”

  “No, they don’t.” She moved to wrap her arms around his waist and hugged him tight. It was best that he didn’t see her face. She was trying hard not to let herself get caught up in fears that he would be another person to disappoint her.

  “We should head home,” she said before she pulled away.

  “I’ll drive.” He gave her a kiss and held out his hand for the keys.

  She placed them in his hand and when he opened the door, climbed in and slid across the seat. As he got in and started the truck, she rolled down the passenger side window. She purely hated going home and admitting that Hannah had been right about Belinda. But pride wasn’t her biggest concern.

  “What am I supposed to do about Bernice?”

  Riggs looked over at her. “I don’t think there’s much you can do until the DNA test comes back.”

  “Yes there is. I can get Lily to go ahead and draw up the papers.”

  “What good will that do if she’s not sick? Or if Cooper is the father?”

  That was when it hit her. Really hit her. “I don’t care. Neither one of them deserve that child. Belinda clearly doesn’t care about her and Cooper would ship her off in a flash to grow up in a boarding school alone.”

  “But you can’t be her guardian if she has two living parents. Not unless they sign over parental rights and no offense to your friend, but she’d be more likely to sell her rights than give them away.”

  Cody groaned. “I hate it when you’re right.”

  “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” She turned to stare out the window and there was little conversation until they were just a few miles from Hannah’s house.

  “There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you,” Riggs said. Cody looked over at him and he continued, “Lucas Quinlan offered me a job.”

  “But you have one with Cotton Creek Oil.”

  “Yeah. He offered me one that pays better.”

  “How much better?”

  When he told her she was speechless for a few moments. Finally she found her tongue. “That’s a crazy amount of money.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Is he serious?”

  “He is.”

  “And are you going to take it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, what’s stopping you?”

  Riggs pinned her with a look but didn’t answer.

  “Well?” she asked after nearly a minute.

  “I told you in the beginning that I’m not the kind of man who wants to settle down in one place. I never wanted to be. Until now.”

  “You don’t have to say—”

  “Yes, I do. You make me want to be that man. More than anything. But I’m afraid it’s too late in the game for me. I don’t know how to live that life or even if I can but I don’t want to try and fail. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Cody could hear the truth in his words and she credited him for that. He’d never led her to believe there was a future for them. That was her dream. She wanted it to be his, but clearly it wasn’t and wasn’t going to be.

  She took time formulating her words, and didn’t have them together until he pulled up in front of Hannah’s house. He turned off the engine and angled to face her.

  “I appreciate your honesty,” she said. “But the truth is, it’s inevitable that one way or another you’re going to hurt me. It’s not a question of if, but when. So I’m not going to try and change your mind or talk you out of taking the job. If the money is what matters, then go for it. Do what’s right for you.”

  “And what about you? About us?”

  Cody reached over and pulled the key from the ignition, then opened the door. “There is no us. There never was.”

  “There was—there is.”

  “No, there isn’t. If there was, we wouldn’t be here. So, again, do what you want Riggs. To be honest, I’m tired and more than a little heartsick over the way people treat one another—the ones they claim to love. Maybe I’m better off alone.”

  With that, she climbed out, shut the door and walked to the house. It took every bit of steel she possessed to keep her spine straight and her gait strong. She couldn’t allow the pain and weakness eating her insides to show. She didn’t pause or look back—she just opened the front door and walked inside.

  Hannah was sitting in the front room, watching television. She looked up as Cody entered.

  “Are you all right?” She jumped up and headed for Cody.

  Cody shook her head, unable to speak, and went into Hannah’s arms. She’d just lost the one man she’d ever truly loved and was about to lose a little girl she’d come to love as her own.

  She wasn’t even close to all right and didn’t know if she ever would be again.

  *****

  Riggs stood on the sidewalk, looking at the house. Lights were on in the front room. Maybe he shouldn’t have told Cody about the job offer. He wasn’t sure he was going to accept.

  So, why had he told her?

  “You look like a man with troubles.”

  Riggs turned his head to see Joe standing beside him with his hands jammed in the pocket of his worn, baggy jeans.

  “It is that obvious?”

  “’Fraid so,” Joe replied.

  “She deserves better.”

  Joe nodded, rocking back on his heels and watching the front of the house. “And yet, she’s in there, shedding tears over you.”

  “She’ll get over it.”

  “Yep, in some manner or other. Question is, will you?”

  Riggs looked to meet Joe’s gaze. “If you have something to say, just spit it out. We’ve known each other too long for games.”

  “Indeed we have so all righty then, my friend. You’re in love with that little gal and it scares you more’n anything’s ever scared you before.”

  “This isn’t my first rodeo, remember?” Riggs pointed out. “I have been married twice.”

  “And not a one to a gal you thought would last more than a season. You married two times and neither of them for love. Lust and money, excitement and fun maybe, but never love.”

  Riggs couldn’t disagree. “And your point?”

  “You love her and you admire her. She was willing to risk her life to climb in under that rig for you and you ain’t never had nobody willing to do something like that for you. You watch her and see the goodness that shines from her. You see how big her heart is and know her love is something precious and rare because it’s pure. And that purity calls to something inside you. That’s what scares you, old friend. Cody Sweet calls to the divine in you and make you want to open your heart again.”

  “You know I’ll never—”

  “Love anyone the way you loved that little boy?” Joe looked up at the sky. “Brother, you weren’t ever g
onna get out of that country with that little boy. There was too much hate and too many guns in that place of death.”

  “I killed him.” Riggs fought the emotion that pulled at him.

  “You saved him.”

  “You can’t seriously believe that?”

  “But I do.” Joe turned to face Riggs. “You were faced with an impossible choice. Kill the child and take the torture for him or watch him be killed, slowly and painfully. Given the choice, if it was you which would you chose? A quick death or a slow painful one? He never felt the bullet, Jaxon. I made sure of that.”

  “I loved him.”

  “I know. He knew. He knows.”

  “I can’t…” Riggs paused, wiped his eyes and faced Joe. “You’re right. I am scared. Scared to love like that again. The loss is too hard.”

  “The greater the love, the greater the grief.” Joe put his hand on Riggs’ shoulder. “I’d take the pain any day.”

  “Would you?”

  “You know it, brother. Question is, do you have the guts?”

  Riggs blew out his breath and looked at the house. When he turned to look at Joe, he realized he was alone.

  Just as well. Joe had forced him to take a hard look at himself.

  He needed to find an answer to Joe’s question. Did he have the guts to accept the love Cody offered?

  Chapter Twelve

  “Wow!” Cody stepped out of the back door of the church and stopped dead in her tracks.

  Hannah and Bryson were across the way, standing in the newly finished gazebo, both were grinning like crazy. “It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” Hannah yelled.

  “That’s an understatement.” Cody looked around in amazement. A path of smooth white stones laid into concrete led from a wicker seating group just outside the door through a garden that looked like it had been designed by someone who came from a magic fairyland.

  Decorative lanterns of colored glass swung from tree limbs, and lined the path which wound its way across the expanse to a large ornamental pond. Big koi swam lazily and blooming lilies floated on the surface of the water.

  The arched bridge that crossed the pond had two big planters, one on either side of its entrance. Flowering vines wound up the supports and onto the upper rails.

  Cody made her way to Hannah and Bryson, marveling at the beauty.