by Jenna Night
Lily looked at him and he felt as if he was still crossing uneven ground even though he was standing still. He’d found a measure of balance in his life and she was messing it up. He wanted to do something to lighten her load and make her happy. She deserved that.
And then he’d let her be on her way.
Nate knew his limitations. His childhood had been chaos. Waking up to find his mom passed out on the kitchen floor. A string of “uncles” passing through the house who weren’t shy about letting a hopeful little boy know he was a nuisance. Birthdays forgotten and Christmases not celebrated. Nate didn’t know the things other men seemed to intuitively know about being a husband and father. He’d missed that boat.
There was a quiet knock on Wolfsinger’s office door and Deputy Rios walked over to open it. Bubba continued to chew on his toy, but managed to watch Rios’s every move at the same time.
A plainclothes detective stepped into the office and closed the door behind him. He gave one quick nod of greeting directed to everyone in the room before turning to Wolfsinger. “We’ve got some information back on your gunmen. Also, somebody’s here from the district attorney’s office to help with deals and charges, depending on whether we want to go with a carrot or stick approach to get information out of them.”
Wolfsinger stood. “Rios, you and Bubba get something to eat and get ready for a long night.” He turned to Nate. “You’re still officially on leave. I can assign a couple of deputies to protect Lily and we can tuck her away in a safe house in town.”
“No. I’ll take care of her.”
“Nate, you did good work in Phoenix. Three different people from Phoenix PD have called to tell me about it. They also told me it was an intense assignment. You’ve earned some time to unwind.”
Lily made a scoffing sound. “Looks as if I’ve already gotten in the way of that.”
Nate turned to her. “You’re welcome to stay at the ranch as long as you want. I can keep you safe.”
She nodded. “I’d like to stay there.”
The sheriff let out a sigh. “All right. I’ll make sure there’s always a deputy patrolling the roads around the Blue Spruce. If you get even a hint of trouble, Nate, you call it in.”
“Yes, sir.”
Wolfsinger turned to Lily and glanced at her leg. “Make sure you follow the doctor’s orders so you heal up properly. And do what Nate tells you to stay safe.”
Lily looked at Nate and rolled her eyes. Then a slight, tired smile played across her lips.
Nate smiled in return. It felt as if the two of them were partners. For now.
“Between the stakeout and the interrogations, maybe we’ll get things wrapped up tonight,” Wolfsinger said, glancing at everyone around the room. “My concern, though, is that we’re looking at something much bigger than just the two yahoos we have in custody and a few people stealing cargo.” He took in a deep breath and blew it out. “If we really are looking at a large-scale organized-crime operation, Lily might have accidentally stirred up a hornet’s nest.”
* * *
“It wasn’t easy, but I did it.” Lily disconnected her phone and set it on the bench seat beside her in Nate’s truck, glad that conversation was over. “I convinced Mom I’m okay. And I told her Sheriff Wolfsinger assigned extra patrol coverage on Penny’s street just in case.” Lily had asked for that before she left his office, and the sheriff had agreed.
They were riding along the hard-packed dirt road that led to the ranch.
“And your mom knows you’re safe and you’ll be staying at the Blue Spruce Ranch for a while longer?” Nate asked.
“Yep.”
Wipers slapped rhythmically across the front windshield of the truck, pushing aside the cold, slushy rain that had been falling since they’d left the sheriff’s department complex twenty minutes ago.
Nate slowed and turned onto the driveway leading up to the main house at the Blue Spruce. Instead of going directly to the house, though, he pulled into a small barn and parked. “Wait in the truck. I’ll drive you up to the house in a minute.”
Lily got out of the truck.
“I’m tired of sitting,” she said when Nate came around to help her. The pain medication had worn off faster than she’d expected. The searing ache in her leg made her wobbly and she needed to steady herself against the truck’s doorframe for a minute.
Nate stood in front of her with his hands out to catch her if she fell. “Want to get back in the truck?”
“Nope.” She blew a strand of hair away from her face. “But let’s just stand here a minute.”
“Sure.”
A motion-sensor light in the ceiling had clicked on when they’d pulled into the barn. The place looked like a storage space for stuff that didn’t belong anywhere else. Car parts sat on a shelf behind the front end of a small tractor. Snowshoes and mountain bikes hung from pegs on the wall. Fishing poles were tied to rafters in the ceiling.
“Will Deputy Rios or somebody else call and tell you what’s happening at the stakeout tonight?” she asked.
“No. They’ll have a lot more on their minds than reporting to me.” After making sure Lily wasn’t going to topple over, Nate walked to a corner and pulled out some wooden crates and a trash can. He dropped in snow chains, bricks, chunks of wood and other random objects.
“What are you doing?” Lily called out when there was a break in all the racket.
“Roadblocks. I’ll set them up in the driveway and around the house.” Nate walked back toward her. “It’s not enough to keep anyone out, but it will slow them down and give us some warning if anyone tries to come after you tonight.”
Lily hugged herself. “Why aren’t you a detective? The way you and Sheriff Wolfsinger interact seems like something beyond what a typical patrol officer does.”
“I was a military policeman in the army for a few years. When I got out and came back to Copper Mesa, a basic deputy position was the only job available with the sheriff’s department. So I applied for it.” He glanced at her leg. “Let’s get you back in the truck and I’ll drive you to the house.”
“It’s stopped raining,” she said with a glance outside. “And it’s not that far. I want to try to walk. Sitting actually hurts more.”
They stepped outside into the blue twilight. The cool air felt good. Maybe it would help clear her mind.
Nate bent his arm, holding his elbow out toward her. It was an old-fashioned, courtly kind of gesture. She linked her arms through his and he pulled her closer, letting her lean into his strength and helping her walk.
This would not help clear her mind. Not at all. The feel of his muscles in his arms and chest made it hard to think. As did the faint cedar scent of his aftershave.
Walking slowly toward the house, they passed by several pine trees. Rainwater dripped off the branches and needles. It smelled like Christmas.
“Your transfer,” she said. “Painted Rock. Spill the details.”
She’d been watching his face and she immediately regretted asking. He took a deep breath and looked down, the slight smile vanishing from his face.
“Painted Rock is a cute little town, though,” she said, giving him an out. Her story was humiliating, but she suddenly knew with cold certainty that his story was much worse.
“You know how my mom was,” he said.
She did. The poor woman was wraith-thin and typically dressed in dirty jeans and a shabby T-shirt. She wandered all over town, sometimes in the street. She’d show up at high school football games, pathetically trying to bum a beer off teenagers.
That had to be heartbreaking for Nate. Over and over, she chose her love for alcohol and oblivion over her love for her son. Nate was known for being pretty wild, too. But then he became friends with Joseph and started hanging around the Suh family. And eventually he’d moved up h
ere to the Blue Spruce Ranch.
“I tried my whole life to help my mom, but I couldn’t,” Nate said quietly. “I was spiraling down the same path she was following until I found faith. Over time I realized I had value as a child of God, even if my mom didn’t value me so much. After high school I had to get out of town for a while. Had to get away from her for a while.” He took a deep breath.
Lily felt a quivering in her own chest. The uncertainty she’d felt growing up was nothing compared to what he’d been through.
“While I was away my mom fell in with yet another group of ‘friends.’ They were into drugs as much as booze. Imagined themselves big-time dealers. One night there was an exchange of money and drugs at a fast-food restaurant in town. They were probably high or desperate to get high. One guy starts shooting, then another. Bullets fly and my mom catches one through the center of her chest. She was already gone by the time the ambulance arrived.”
“You don’t have to finish the story,” Lily said softly.
“Please listen,” Nate said. “There are rumors going around that just aren’t true. Accusations that almost cost me my job.”
“Okay.” She’d eventually heard about his mom, but she’d been away at college when it actually happened.
“I didn’t come back to Copper Mesa for revenge, despite what some people have said.” He turned to her, and in the moonlight she could see an earnestness in his eyes that was so opposite his usual suspicion it made her heart ache.
“When I came back for my mom’s funeral, I realized how much I love it here. I still had a year to go in the army, but I started thinking about the cops back here and how much they’d helped me. I remember one handing me a jacket on the street one day when I was about ten and playing outside. More than one bought me a hamburger over the years. They brought stuff at Christmas. I wanted to do something like that for kids in the same situation.”
Lily didn’t know what to say. Her arm was wrapped around him as he helped her walk. She gave him a squeeze.
“The Oso County sheriff’s department doesn’t have a large number of employees or much turnover. I’d had experience and training that would have gotten me a higher rank and a detective’s badge anywhere else. But I took the job that was available here. I got out in the community and people started to tell me things about what happened with my mom. And who was involved.”
“Wasn’t someone arrested after she was killed?”
“Nobody was prosecuted. There wasn’t much in the way of evidence and everyone had vanished by the time the cops arrived. As I learned new information, I relayed it to Sheriff Wolfsinger. He put a couple of detectives back on the case and eventually the creeps who were responsible for my mother’s death were brought to justice.”
“How do you mean ‘brought to justice’?” Lily was trying to figure out how any of this could get Nate into trouble.
Nate looked at her and quirked an eyebrow. “I didn’t shoot them, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Okay.” Lily looked away. “I guess that’s kinda what I was asking.” All this must have happened while she was wrapped up in her own little world with her former fiancé, Kevin.
“The dealers were prosecuted, but the defense claimed I had come back to town seeking revenge. That I had set up the perpetrators. That I had listened to lies and planted evidence.”
“And there are people in Copper Mesa who believe that?”
“Yes. But the prosecutors did a good job. So did the detectives and forensics people. They shredded the defense’s claims and the perps went to prison for a long time.”
“And your transfer?”
“People like to stir things up. The accusations got pretty crazy and interfered with me doing my job. Sheriff Wolfsinger kept me from getting fired, but I had to accept a transfer to Painted Rock.”
“That’s so unfair,” Lily said.
“Ben Wolfsinger stuck his neck out for me,” Nate said. “I prefer to focus on how fortunate I am to work for someone like that.” He helped her up the porch steps to the house. “Let’s get inside. Anybody could be watching us from the surrounding ridges. And as slow as you’re moving, you’re an easy target.”
* * *
“It looks like you have things under control here,” Nate said a half hour after he got Lily inside the house.
“I believe we do,” Ellen agreed.
Lily, looking exhausted, nodded her head. “Snug as a bug.” Nate had dragged an easy chair from the living room into the kitchen, where Lily was sitting with her leg propped up. Ellen was nearby making southwest chicken with cornmeal dumplings.
Confident Lily was safe and in good hands, Nate was anxious to go outside and get to work. “I’ll be out in the stables. Call me when dinner’s ready.”
The rain had started up again and Nate walked through the chilly drizzle. He went to the barn to load his makeshift roadblocks into the back of his truck. Then he drove down the long driveway to set them in place. He’d much rather be helping out with the stakeout at Torrent Trucking later tonight, but at least he could do this. And he could watch out for Lily.
Once his roadblocks were in place he headed for the stables, where he could make himself useful and still keep an eye on the house.
It was too late in the day to start on any of the big projects he’d promised Ellen he’d take care of, but there were plenty of small things that needed to be done. The grooming tools for the horses could use a good cleaning and a spit shine. He found a pail and some liquid soap, turned on a hot water tap at the deep utility sink and got to work washing them.
A few minutes later he heard a familiar tread of footsteps behind him and a voice call out, “Really? Now? You have to clean that stuff right now?” He turned to see Gaston looking at him as though he’d lost his mind.
Nate was used to the look and it didn’t rile him. Strangers might be intimidated by Gaston’s occasionally glowering demeanor, but anybody who knew him just shrugged it off. Nate got back to work.
“I saw your barricades in the driveway.” Gaston strode over to him. “That’s not a bad idea. If you want to put out some more, I can help you.”
A horse snorted and stirred in a stall a few feet away. The sound was familiar and comforting to Nate, as were the scents of hay and horse and the oiled leather tack.
“I’m almost done,” Nate said. “I’ll be back up at the house in a few minutes.”
“Okay.” Gaston reached for some of the cleaning supplies Nate had left in the stable’s work area and put them away in the cabinets.
Gaston could come across as contrary, and he sometimes was, but Nate knew he had a good heart and it was simply the way he dealt with worry. Gaston worried about everybody. Nearly all the time. Maybe it was related to the dysfunctional family he’d run away from as a boy, but it was unlikely anyone would ever figure him out. Gaston didn’t talk much about his past.
He was a runaway who’d shown up at the ranch one day promising he would work hard enough to earn his keep. Bud and Ellen had officially taken him in as a foster child just before Nate had come to live with them. The two boys were nearly the same age, with Gaston being a year older. They loathed each other at first sight. After a few slugfests they grew tolerant of one other. Eventually they became as close as brothers. When it came to this situation with Lily, Gaston would have Nate’s back. He could be sure of that.
“Don’t worry,” Nate said. “I’m ready for trouble.” Never mind that he’d spent years as a military policeman and was now a deputy sheriff, he often had to prove himself to his prickly “older brother.” He pushed aside his jacket so Gaston could see the pistol riding on his hip.
“All right.” Gaston sighed. “I guess you know what you’re doing.”
“What do you want me to do, walk around like a sentry with a rifle on my shoulder?” Nate dried his
hands on a shop towel and then put the clean horse-grooming tools back where they belonged. “Too bad we don’t have an actual working gate across the ranch entrance. Now would be the time to close it.”
“Bud and Ellen have always been concerned about making people feel welcome,” Gaston said. “Not keeping them out.”
And, sweet dispositions aside, Bud and Ellen were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves.
“This might not be the most secure place in the world,” Nate said, “but I had to take Lily somewhere. I couldn’t just leave her on her own.” He emptied the bucket he’d been using into the sink. “She was Joseph Suh’s tutor in high school.” Once Nate had decided Gaston was tolerable, he’d introduced him to his friends in high school, including Joseph. Like Nate, Gaston had a fledgling faith that was nurtured by Bud and Ellen. Joseph and his family had been welcoming to him.
“I didn’t say you shouldn’t have brought her here,” Gaston said. “I don’t remember her from back in the day, though.”
“She kept a low profile.”
Gaston shook his head. “Too bad this didn’t happen earlier in the year before we cut everybody loose for the season.” From spring until late summer, they had a dozen cowboys working the ranch. This late into the fall, they were down to just the skeleton crew of Bud, Ellen, Gaston and Nate, when he had the time to come by and help.
A loud thump caught Nate’s attention and he turned to see his big orange cat jump from a low wooden crossbeam in the ceiling onto the shelf of an open stall door and then to the ground. Hank liked the horses and they liked him, so he made a point of visiting them often. It was also a good place for him to hunt mice.
“Hey, buddy, how you doing?” Hank meandered over at the sound of Nate’s voice and Nate scratched the cat’s ears.
“Is there any chance Lily knows something more about who’s after her than she’s telling you?” Gaston asked.