3 Times the Heat

by Sapphire Knight

  “Thank God he’s okay, at least.”

  Nate sniffs, wiping his hands over his face. I understand why he’s so upset now. He and Dallas are close whether he admits it or not.

  “Did you call the sheriff?” Shyla speaks up for the first time since we’ve arrived.

  “No, I didn’t want the law coming out here and searching.” He glances from her to me.

  “Your safety is more important than what is in that shed over there,” I grumble.

  “I’m not letting you go to jail, Clyde.”

  Shyla gives Nate a hug and peers up at me. “I’m going to get some coffee going. I’m sure Nate could use it.”

  “Thank you, darlin’.”

  “Thanks, Shyla,” Nate mumbles quietly.

  She presses a kiss to my cheek next and then heads inside.

  “Fuck, this isn’t good,” I gripe, and my brother shakes his head.

  “I’m glad we were here and not you and Shy. It could’ve been one of you shot.”

  “I’d rather it have been me,” I admit and Nate scowls. “You keep a lookout from here; I’m going to check on the barn, make sure the horses are fine.”

  “No.” He stands, his frown firmly in place. “That’s your future wife in there. You watch from here. I’ll go patrol the barn and sheds.”

  “The hell you will.” I admire his strength, but I’m still the oldest.

  “I’m not a kid anymore, that woman would be lost if something happened to you. Now let me do this, damn it.”

  Swallowing, I give in. He’s set on this, and I do have to give him some credit. I’m not used to him being so serious when it comes to the ranch. “If I hear so much as a scuffle, I’m on my way, you hear me?”

  He nods.

  I gesture toward the barn and grab the gun right inside the front door. He opens the chamber, making sure his is loaded again and takes off in a determined stride. The dark quickly swallows his frame up, and I stare so hard my eyes strain.

  I fight myself against blinking. I don’t want to miss anything, even within just a blink. Gracie sits at my feet while Titan dutifully went along with Nate. That dog seems to be more of his than mine, even though I’m the one who usually feeds him every day.

  Shyla soundlessly opens the door behind me, seeing me standing with the gun ready. “Hey,” she whispers.

  “Nate’s checking the buildings.” I’m curt so I can concentrate.

  “Okay,” she breathes and sets a steaming cup of coffee down beside me and another for Nathan. “His has a bit of Irish whiskey in it to calm his nerves.”

  “Thank you, babe,” I quietly mumble. “Get in the house until I know it’s safe.”

  She presses a kiss to my chin and slides back over the threshold with merely a creak from the door.

  Time passes, the only sounds of the night coming from the bugs and Gracie’s random low growls. She’s obviously as worried as I am. She’s been bonded with Titan ever since I adopted the pair. “Shh, Gracie girl.” At my voice, she lets out a small whine but quiets, peering into the dark alongside me.

  A few beats later and Nate approaches with Titan dutifully by his side, and Gracie launches off the steps, inspecting them both. My eyebrow hikes and my brother shakes his head. “I didn’t see anything out of the normal.”

  A breath escapes that I didn’t realize I’d been holding captive. “Good. Tomorrow once the sun’s up, we’ll get a better look everywhere.”

  He gratefully takes the fresh cup of coffee I hand him. “What are we going to do about Dallas?”

  “I want to react right now, but we’re not going to. They’ll be waiting for us, and I’d rather have them wigging out over it right now and catch them when they don’t expect it.”

  “I just can’t get over the fact that one of those assholes shot our cousin. And for what? Over the moonshine?”

  “I don’t know, brother; your guess is as good as mine. But I have a feeling things could get worse before they get any better. We need to come up with a plan.”

  “A good one, before we end up in jail or dead.”

  I couldn’t agree more.

  God don’t like ugly.

  —Southern mommas

  on manners

  “Anything?” I ask Clyde when he comes in the next morning. He’s been up thinking for half the night and out first thing this morning to search the ranch. I know this has to be eating him up inside. He’s not someone who’s used to not being able to fix something when it’s broken.

  He huffs. “Not a damn thing.” His fingers squeeze the bridge of his nose for a beat before falling away.

  “What’re you going to do? Surely these people can’t get away with shooting your cousin. They trespassed on private property as well.”

  He swipes his hand over his face, exhausted and stressed out. His mouth opens to reply just as Gracie sets off howling at something. He grabs his gun and checks out the window. Nate’s snoring away on the couch in the living room. He wanted to be down here just in case anything else happened, and the Irish whiskey helped put him right to sleep.

  “Fuck.” Clyde curses and sets his gun against the counter. I’ve heard him curse more times since last night then I have in the entire time frame expanding from my first visit until yesterday.

  “What is it?” I gaze at him, worried. He doesn’t need anything else on his plate at the moment. I can only imagine what he’s thinking.

  “It’s the law; they just pulled up,” he grumbles. “I’ll be back. Nathan!” He yells, and Nate jumps to his feet, glancing all around.

  “Go, Clyde, I’ll tell Nate for you.”

  He nods and the back door slams shut behind him.

  “Where’d he go?” His brother gazes at me sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

  “I think the sheriff just got here. You should get dressed in case he needs to speak to you. I’ll get you some more coffee.”

  “Thanks, Shy.” He yawns, the close resemblance between the brothers a touch unnerving. With tired movements, he drags on a plain T-shirt along with his ball cap. I pour him a strong cup of coffee, leaving out the whiskey this time and hand it over.

  He takes a sip and Clyde comes back inside, the sheriff hot on his heels. “Sheriff.” I send a friendly smile his way. “You care for some coffee? It’s a fresh pot.”

  “Shyla, good to see you, and I’d love some.”

  I get to pouring the coffee, his gaze flicking between Clyde and myself. “I hear your Daddy’s running for the senate, now.”

  “Yes sir, you heard right.”

  “Alabama could use a good man like him. We were lucky to have him as governor for so long.”

  I hand the cup over. “Thank you; that’s kind of you to say.”

  He nods and turns to Nate. “Nathan Owens…You wanna fill me in on what happened last night, son?”

  We all take a seat around the kitchen table where Nate recants the same thing he told us to the sheriff. “Your uncle called me, hotter than a chili pepper last night. If it weren’t for your cousin being in the hospital, I’d have been dealing with a couple shootings last night. That man was livid and rightfully so. I spoke with Dallas, got his statement. I came over to get yours then I’m headed over to the neighbors.”

  “You haven’t arrested them yet?” Clyde nearly growls. I figured they’d have been picked up right after Dallas was admitted for a gunshot wound.

  “I barely got the truth out of your cousin an hour ago. I came straight here to see if I could get some more information to corroborate his story before showing up with half the information.”

  “You mean to tell me you don’t believe him?”

  “Now calm down, Clyde. You have to look at it from my direction too. Dallas hasn’t been the most upstanding citizen. He was in jail just last month on a DWI.”

  “He wouldn’t lie about getting shot!” Nate interrupts, his own anger escalating. These Owenses can be a group of hotheads when they get angry.

  The officer’s hands fly up. “Eve
ryone just take a step back and simmer down a bit. You have my word I’ll be doing everything I can to get to the bottom of this. I don’t like the thought of anyone getting shot in my county, especially a person belonging to the Owens family. You’re good people, and I don’t want any of you hurt. Your family’s one of the few I don’t get any problems from out this way, and I’d prefer to keep it like that.”

  “What will happen to them?” Clyde gestures in the direction of the neighboring land.

  The sheriff sips his coffee before responding. “Well, it depends on what evidence I can find. I’ll go submit the request for a warrant from the judge and then do a search of their property. I doubt they’ll work willingly with me on it, so that’ll take a little bit of time. I may send some officers out here to have a look around if you don’t mind as well.”

  “What do you need with my land?” Clyde side-eyes the deputy.

  “The bullet was still in your cousin, so we have that for evidence. If I can’t find a weapon to match, I may need to see if they ditched it around here somewhere.”

  “We’ve looked everywhere. There’s nothing here.”

  The sheriff scrunches his forehead, catching on that the brothers obviously don’t want them poking around. I speak up for the first time since sitting in on this meeting of sorts, remembering my mother’s advice growing up. Most won’t look if you welcome them with open arms. It’s only suspicious when you close them off. If you’re open, then you appear like you have nothing to hide, and that’s what we need to do here.

  With a pleasant smile, I rest my hand on the older man’s wrist. “Sheriff, if you need anything else from us, we’d be happy to oblige. Please give me a call so I can fix a batch of cookies and refreshments for your officers. I’d hate to have them stop over and not be prepared to welcome them. You know my mother would be entirely too embarrassed.” I send Clyde a warm smile, wanting him to go along with my offer, before glancing back to the officer. “That woman wouldn’t let me live it down.”

  “Yes ma’am, I’m familiar with the kind woman your momma is. I’m sure my deputies would be in for a real treat.” He stands. “Here’s my card, and Miss Shyla, I’ll be sure to have someone let you know before we stop over. Lord knows your momma’d have my phone ringing off the hook if I didn’t.”

  We stand along with him, and I beam a bright, fake smile. “Yes sir, she certainly would. I have to thank you for stopping over. We sure do appreciate you getting right on this. I couldn’t imagine how heartbroken I’d feel if it’d been my fiancé who’d been shot.”

  His chest puffs with the compliment of his investigative skills. “Why, yes ma’am, just doin’ my job, and I’d like to offer my congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. It’s been a long time coming, I expect.”

  “Yes sir,” Clyde grumbles, shaking the sheriff’s hand. Nate follows his brother and shakes next. The sheriff tips his hat in my direction with a respectful, “Ma’am,” before exiting along with Clyde.

  “Phew.” I blow out a breath and Nate nods.

  “I don’t know how you pulled it off, but you smoothed that one over. Clyde would’ve come to blows with the officer with much more talk about searching the property.”

  “Fortunately my mother is quite the hostess. With my father in politics, I’ve learned how to deal with nosey people. Especially the police and media; the sheriff means well.”

  “You know about the sheds?” His brow jumps, gazing at me curiously.

  “There was a time when your brother kept nothing from me,” I say with a wink.

  “Ah.” He nods. “I figured. I guess it’s a good thing you do know. Clyde could end up in jail, and I can’t let that happen.”

  “Neither can I. Trust me, I’ve waited too long to have that man in my life. I don’t intend to lose him now.”

  He smiles for the first time since before my engagement party. “I knew I liked you Shyla.”

  “Ditto, Nathan Owens, ditto.”

  Clyde storms back inside, closing his eyes tightly after slamming the back door closed. He takes a breath before speaking. “You okay, sugar?” His worried gaze finds mine and Nate sits back down.

  “I’m good.”

  “I don’t know what to do,” he admits, and I can tell he hates that with every bit of his being. He sighs, and I pull him into my arms, wrapping them around his back to hold him tightly. He needs us to be strong for him right now while he thinks up a plan.

  “You’ll figure it out, I have faith in you.”

  He snuggles me closer, pressing a kiss to my temple before taking a seat next to Nathan. “Brother,” he grumbles.

  “What about the ‘shine shack?” Nate furrows his brow, his mouth firmly set in a worried frown.

  “I don’t know about that either. I have to figure out what Dad would’ve done about all of this. He always knew what to do about everything.”

  “Go over to the cowards with a shotgun in hand,” Nathan suggests.

  “I got that much, Nate. I meant about the shack and the cops looking around.”

  “You need to get rid of it,” I suggest, coming to sit back in my previous spot.

  Both of their stares fly to me, caught off guard with my answer. “It was my dad’s.”

  “We can’t.” They both argue one after the other.

  Shrugging, I huff. “You can’t go to jail either.”

  “If you hadn’t practically opened the door wide open, inviting the police, I wouldn’t be thinking of it,” Clyde grumbles and Nate rolls his eyes.

  “Shut up, Clyde; she saved your ass. Shyla had the sheriff eating from the palm of her hand. That’s more than I can say for you. If anything, she got him to agree to let us know before they stop over again.”

  “I know,” he confesses. “I’m just angry. I don’t want to destroy something that my father built.”

  “I have an idea.” Licking my lips, I wind our fingers together and bring up my plan. “What if you two build a new surround for it? Make it look like a water tank.”

  “But if there’s a door, then they’ll know,” Nate comments as Clyde gazes at me thoughtfully.

  “Not if you don’t put a door in it for now. Make it solid until this all blows over. You don’t need to make anymore right now. I have some money in savings to make up the money loss. You can eventually cut a door in place down the road.”

  “She’s right.” Clyde nods after a moment, his free hand massaging the back of his neck as he catches onto my idea. “I don’t need another batch until December, and that’s only if I have to get rid of the jugs already made. We can hide them in the storm cellar for the time being, and you can get to welding a new surrounding for the shed out there. It’ll be so big they won’t think twice about it being a water tank. Make sure you run a hose with a faucet so if they test it, water does come out.”

  “I get it now,” Nate agrees, flashing a mischievous grin.

  Next thing I know, Clyde’s up and hauling me out of my chair, an excited smile gracing his beautiful features. “You’re a damn genius, woman!” He tugs me to him, planting his lips to mine.

  Just doing my part. They’re my family now too. I’m not going to allow the man I love end up in jail if I can help it. I’d wondered when I was younger why their father never put a proper enclosure around it in the first place. I guess he couldn’t afford it, but I have plenty of money in my savings to help Clyde and his brother take care of it now. I’m sure he’ll get all huffy puffy about using my money, but it’s his now, too, if he needs it.

  This is going to get back to my parents I’m sure. Not that I’m worried about what they’d think. If anything, they’d be concerned for our safety. I hope this doesn’t impact my father’s reach for the senate if it comes out in the end though.

  He’s not directly related to the incident, but the news is evil—they twist and turn anything into whatever suits them and their agenda. We’ve learned that in the past; however, it wasn’t as bad being the governor. I can only imagine what types of
piranhas a higher office would unleash on my family.

  Clyde encloses my fingers in between both of his much larger hands, gazing at me lovingly. After a moment, he raises my hand to his mouth, kissing each knuckle. My belly flutters with warmth and love as he makes me feel cherished. I’d missed this for so long. I’d forgotten what it’s like to be loved and worshipped by such a strong man.

  My mouth tilts into a pleased smile. “However I can help you guys, please don’t hesitate to tell me. I’ll do what I can, you know that.”

  “Just keep your eyes peeled, my love,” Clyde mutters. “Your safety is what matters to me. Nate and I will handle the assholes next door. You try to stick around one of us when you’re out and about on the ranch for the time being, okay?”

  “All right, I can manage that,” I easily agree, not wanting to add to the stress he’s already dealing with. Besides, sticking close to the house will only give me more time to plan a simple but tasteful wedding to the man I love.

  You’re only helpless while your nail polish is drying. Even then, you could pull a trigger if you had to.

  —Lessons in womanhood

  Nate folds his arms over his chest, his face set as if he was still thinking over last night. “Now that Shyla’s gone to work, we need to discuss what we’re going to do to handle this,” he mutters with a sigh, his gaze falling to the gun still propped up beside the back door.

  “Well, I’ll need your help welding the new enclosure around that shed out there, starting today.”

  “I gathered that much. I meant what are we going to do about the Parsons brothers?”

  “I’ve been wracking my mind on it. the thing is, there are six of them and only two of us. We can’t go in there expecting to use our fists to teach them a lesson.”

  He snorts. “Shooting Dallas deserves more than a few punches to the face.”

  “I couldn’t agree more, but the sheriff is investigating at the moment. We can’t exactly saddle up and ride over there with guns blazing. We’d be just as bad as they are.”