by Flora Burgos
"Ev, what does it say?"
He handed Courtney the photo, and she flipped it over to read the message on the back. Do you feel safe?
"Oh, shit." She gulped.
"Yeah. You think you could take some time off and head back home for a while?"
"Ev, are you crazy? I am not going back home. I haven't been back home for a solid year. This trailer is my home."
"Do you have anyone you can call?"
"I can try to call my brother, but I don't know where he is. He could literally be anywhere in the world right now."
"While you do that and wait to hear from him, maybe I should bunk here with you. I can take the couch and stick around to make sure that whoever is screwin' with you doesn't get any closer."
She wasn't sure how she felt about sharing her space with someone, but the question circled around and around in her mind. Do you feel safe? Do you feel safe? Do you feel safe? No. The answer was no, and since that was the case, she couldn't argue with Ev about staying with her.
"Ok, maybe you should. I, ah, I can take the couch, and you can take the bunk if you'd like."
From the look on his face, she knew that was a no-go, so she changed her tune. "Or I'll take the bunk, and you can have the couch." When he cracked a small grin, she let out a sigh of relief and said, "Do you really think I should call my brother? This is definitely getting scary, and he probably has the skills and contacts to get to the bottom of all of this."
"I definitely think you should call your brother. What kind of skills does he have exactly?"
"Well, he's a government contractor. Private military. Ya know, those guys who go in but aren’t active military anymore?”
“He’s a merc. Fuckin’ hell, Court, your brother is exactly what you need. Go ahead and call him. I'll hang out with you until he can get here to take care of whatever is going on. We're going the same place anyway."
"You know, Sean Everett, you sure are hell on my self-esteem. You just started this watching-over-me gig, and you're already ready to pass it on to someone else. Ouch!"
He smiled at her. "You know I don't mean it like that. I'm just not cut out for being a companion. Nothin' against you, darlin'." To soften the blow, he added, "Why don't you get us a couple of beers, and I'll run over to my truck and get a change of clothes?"
Her smile brightened. "Now, that I can do."
He walked out, and she couldn’t help but smile when he knocked on the door seconds later and said gruffly, “Lock it.”
She grabbed her cell, walked to the door, turned the lock, and waited to listen for his booted feet to stomp away before she dialed Devon’s number. She was unsurprised when it went straight to voicemail. Really, he could be anywhere in the world, so she left a short voicemail instead. "Dev, hey, bro. Long time no talk, I know. Listen, I, uh, may have a little problem here and need to touch base with you. Can you give me a call when you get this? Love you, bro. Be safe."
There’s another number you could call. One still programmed in your phone.
But to do that would mean opening herself up to the deepest of pain, and she wasn't sure her safety was even worth that much to her.
Sitting on the couch, she tapped the phone against her palm and thought about it. She knew that with their history, he would at least send someone to check on her. He would probably even answer the phone even though there had been absolutely no contact since the day she had driven his rental to her parents' house.
Of course, she could call Clint, too. He would come if he got the call, but chances were that he was wherever her brother was, and if he wasn't, then he would totally tell his brother, and it would end in the same scenario.
She could go home to her parents' ranch. That was a consideration, but the memories would eat away at her soul, as they had in the days following Cole's abandonment before she fled the year before. Being there again, she knew the pain would be too much. So, she was stuck. She would accept Ev's company and perhaps get to the bottom of his odd solidarity while she waited for her brother to reach out to her. Really, her choices were limited. And if things got scarier, she could always reconsider.
There was a tapping at her door that caused her to freeze in fear right before Ev spoke up and said, "Open up, Court." In relief, she set the phone to the side and got up to let him in. This was her best alternative for the time being. She unlocked the door, turned the knob, and gave the door a push before she walked the few feet to the mini fridge and grabbed two beers for them. Ev stomped his boots on the steps and climbed into her trailer while Courtney walked back over to the couch and curled up into one corner. When Ev took a seat on the opposite end, she handed him a beer.
“You call your brother?”
“Yeah, he didn’t answer, but I left him a message. I should hear back from him in a day or two."
He twisted the cap off his beer and took a long drink before responding, "Sounds good. So, what has you curled around yourself if you didn't talk to him?"
His question took her aback because their friendship was a casual one. Rarely did they touch on anything personal. "What do you mean?" she asked, feigning ignorance.
"It's not any of my business, and you can say so, but you sat down on the couch and tried to curl yourself into a ball. I watched you shrug off two threatening photos like it was nothing, so what's up?"
"I just got caught up. You ever try to outrun your heart?"
The corner of his lips tipped up sardonically, and he lifted his beer in her direction. "Every damn day, Court. That what you're doing?"
"Just as fast as I can."
"You runnin’ from a man or a heartbreak?"
She could feel his eyes on her as she played with the label of her unopened beer. "The man has a wife. I'm just trying not to let the pain kill me." Saying that, she twisted the top off her own beer and tipped it up. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ev nodding, but he stayed silent, so she didn't say anything further. There were a few moments of awkward silence before she spoke again, "Ok, I'm hungry. You? I don't have much, but I can make a mean grilled cheese, and I have a bag of corn chips and plenty of beer. There's even a cooler in the bed of my truck with more beer, water, and soft drinks." He did a double take when he looked back at her and had a perplexed expression on his face. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
He chuckled deeply before saying, "I guess I just don't know how to take you. Honestly, you come across as extremely high maintenance, and I know you're a sweetheart, if not a little nosy, but grilled cheese, corn chips, and beer is not a meal that I would expect you to pull out of your, ah, repertoire. It's, well, it's man food."
For the first time that night, she felt like laughing. "Ev,"—she leaned forward and slapped his shoulder in hilarity—"I was in a very long and very committed, on my part anyway, relationship with a soldier. I was raised on a ranch, and I am the only daughter. My brother, my ex, and his brother grew up together, giving me hell. My mama made sure that I had class and knew to take care of myself and always look presentable, but I can drink, cuss, and cook ‘man food' with the best of them." She stood up and walked toward her mini kitchenette area, pausing along the way to look back at Ev and laugh. "Man, we really don't know each other that well, do we?"
"I guess not."
She started pulling a griddle from a cabinet, supplies from her mini fridge, and kept talking to him, "So, what's the story with her?"
"Her?"
"Yeah,"—she plugged the power cord into the wall and the griddle and set the heat level—"her. The girl who broke your heart. What's the story? Did you meet her on the circuit?"
Ev rubbed his hand through his hair and said, "What makes you think there is a girl?"
She plopped a spoonful of butter onto the griddle and looked up at him. "Really? Ev, you don't lack female attention, yet I never see you spending any considerable time with any of them. You spend more time with me than any other female, and we both know that our friendship has been surface deep. What gives? There
has to be a girl."
He was quiet for so long that Courtney assumed that was the end of it, but he surprised her when he spoke up. "It's a long story. She was my high school sweetheart. I go out when I'm lonely and get some companionship, but I sober up and take off to find the next bull."
She had frozen with that. "What the hell, Ev? You deserve more than some one-night stands with the random buckle bunny. God, you've been doing this for years, and you haven't had a real relationship since some girl in high school? Man, I thought I was hung up. I bet she's married with three kids by now, huh? We have shit for first loves, huh?"
Ev jerked up from his slouched position on the couch and nearly growled, "Katherine was not a shit first love. Fuck, that was me. I'm no better than your ex from the sound of it."
The butter on the griddle was sizzling now, so she turned down the heat and buttered a slice of bread before placing it butter side down to cook. "Oh yeah, you think so? Did you get married to someone else while you were engaged to her? You knock up some woman while you were engaged to her? No. She didn't even stick out you being on the circuit. I went through two tours overseas and a stint as a contractor, and he cheated on me." She paused to lick butter from her thumb and cringed at the taste. "You can never compare yourself to Cole."
Ev stood from the couch and started toward her, but she felt the tears burning her eyes, so she quickly bent back down to the mini fridge to grab the sliced cheese to place on the cooked sides of the bread that she quickly flipped over on the griddle. "Don't. I'm not going to fall apart. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go there. Just don't say that, ok? Clearly, exes are too heavy of a talk for Man-food Monday." She grinned up at him and gave a half-hearted laugh. "Maybe we should try again on Whiskey Wednesday."
Seeing that she had pulled herself under control, Ev stepped around her and pulled two fresh beers from the mini fridge, then twisted both caps off before wrapping an arm around her shoulders and playfully pulling her to him before kissing her forehead. He released her, handed her a beer, and stepped around her to make his way back to the couch. "Well, here we are, a couple of heartbroken fools. We'd be the perfect couple if we weren't in love with other people."
She took a quick swig from the bottle and laughingly said, "And you kinda remind me of my brother. No offense, but that doesn't get me all hot and bothered."
Ev saluted her with his beer and watched her finish up the sandwiches with a smile on his face. Both finding solace in their simple companionship.
Ev slept on her couch for two weeks, but there wasn’t another picture. Devon called finally, halfway through the second week, but Courtney no longer felt as threatened, so she downplayed the situation. Ev went back to staying in his truck while she stayed alone, even though she tried to convince him that she had more than enough room and surprisingly, it didn't annoy her to have someone else sharing her cramped space, but he declared he liked the solitude even though Man-food Monday was now a tradition for them. She had no idea that in just a few short weeks, her whole life was going to implode, and it would land Ev a permanent spot in her life and that of her brother and the La Barrons for the rest of their lives.
Because whoever was sending her the photos had found a new target to threaten, and this one was even better connected. Hell was about to rain down on them all, and her only warning was a missed phone call while she was at a small diner in Albuquerque having breakfast with Ev before their next rodeo. By the time she finished that evening, placing third in her event, her past and present were about to collide in an epic way.
Chapter 4
3 weeks later
COURTNEY WAS NOT AMUSED when she opened the door at six a.m. that morning, still in her pajamas, her hair wild, and not a lick of makeup on her face to find Ev standing there, hands in his pockets, smiling up at her. She left the door open and turned on her heel with a groan. "Jesus, Ev, what the hell are you smiling about this early in the damn morning? Did you go home with that redhead last night after I left?"
He walked into her trailer and shut the door behind him while she threw clothes out of her closet over her shoulder before finding a pair of joggers and a racerback tank. Her blonde hair was falling out of the sloppy bun at the top of her head, and she had to push it back when she turned around to glare at him. Ev rocked back on his heel and wisely swallowed back a chuckle. "Good morning, darlin'. Happy to see you, too. And yes, I did go home with the redhead, but you know me. Home by two this morning and woke up hungry as a bear, so come on. It's time for breakfast."
She glared at him as fiercely as she could before she screeched, "Have you lost your damn mind? I tried to drink with you last night. Ev, Bobby had to bring me back to my trailer last night, and I am pretty sure that the rodeo clown thinks I have lost my mind because I kept singing Free Bird at the top of my lungs, with no music. I am putting on these clothes, going to feed the horses, and let them out, and then I am going back to bed. And if you try to stop me, I will slaughter you."
There was no effort to contain his hilarity this time. Instead, he roared with laughter. "Court, you get dressed, and for Pete's sake, run a brush through your mop, and meet me outside. I'll take care of your girls, and I'll even drive."
"Ev, this isn't funny! I don't have any makeup on, and I’m hungover. Just go alone. Leave me here to die alone in peace!" Dramatically, she flung herself onto the couch and covered her head with both arms.
This only caused him to laugh again before he stepped over to her and lifted her at the armpits. "Come on, Court. Quit bein' a drama queen. No one is going to see you dressed in sweats, and if they do, they won't care. Most everyone in camp is still recuperating. And that stink eye doesn't work on me. You know that." Playfully, he tussled her hair before heading to the door. "I'm taking care of Mystery and Rambler now. You have ten minutes before I'm dragging you out of here."
As soon as the door slammed shut, she screamed out and threw a pillow at the door before rolling into the couch and falling asleep again. The next thing she knew, she was being lifted from her couch and put on her feet. "Woman, you wanna go like that? Because I will take you."
Realizing what had happened, she immediately panicked. "Shit! Hang on a sec. Dammit, Ev, I didn't mean to fall asleep."
She grabbed the clothes she had pulled out of her closet earlier and rushed to the little bathroom. "I'll wait for you outside. You got five minutes!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!"
Ev pulled his truck up to the door of her trailer and got out to lean against the door and wait. He was shocked when she rushed out of the trailer only three and a half minutes later with her hair up in a knot on her head, huge glasses covering her eyes, and wearing workout clothes with a pair of white Adidas with the black lines on them. He grinned at her and then climbed into the driver’s seat while she walked around the truck and climbed in. "Well, it looks like the dead have arisen!"
Her glasses-covered face turned in his direction, and her jaw dropped. "Ok, who in the hell are you, and what did you do with the quiet cowboy I normally hang out with? He isn't annoying, and I actually like spending time with him."
"Court, I'm awesome. You like hanging out with me, and I figured since it's not Man-food Monday or Whiskey Wednesday, we could declare today Hangover Huevos Rancheros Day."
Courtney only gaped at him in silence for the next several minutes before he threw on his blinker and made a turn. "Where are we going for the huevos rancheros? And how on earth do you even know where to go?"
"Been on the circuit a lot of years, and I try to stop at this little mom and pop diner every year when we come through here. You won't regret it. Best hangover food that I've come across so far."
Courtney propped her feet up on his dash and nodded, sticking an arm out the window and letting the breeze make her hand dance around as the truck sped along the deserted highway. "I guess that makes sense. I hope this really is good hangover food, though, because I don't think I've felt this shitty since my twenty-first birthday."
Ev slowed and put on his blinker before pulling into what looked to Courtney like a run-down building that had her seriously doubting his conviction about the food, but she held her tongue. No point in offending him. When he parked the truck, she unfolded from her seat and opened the door to climb out. Walking to the door, Ev spoke up, "I know your princess sensibilities are screaming at you right now, but just go with it and give it a chance."
"I have to be honest here. I am a tad concerned about the potential for food poisoning."
He grinned at her and opened the door saying, "Get you a whiff of that smell and tell me you’re still doubting me."
She walked in and immediately, her mouth began to water at the smells coming from the kitchen and the food from the tables loaded to the gills. The hostess looked up and grinned at them as they approached. "Sean! So good to see you again. I was wondering if you’d be making it into town this time. Did you two want a table or booth?"
Courtney looked at the people lined at the door waiting to get a seat and mentally rolled her eyes, knowing the wait was going to be ridiculous as Ev answered with, "Either is fine, Laverne, and you know I couldn't hit New Mexico and not visit my favorite restaurant."
The older woman blushed at his praise and said, "Well, follow me. I have a booth I can sneak you into."