by Marnee Blake
Could that be it? No doubt, there were things hiding under Lyle Parrish’s too smooth exterior. But could he be professionally connected to these fires?
“Either that, or it’s something to do with Dak’s mother or brother.”
A shiver coursed along her neck. “Do you think Dak knows anything about that?”
Jesse shrugged. “Don’t know. But, like I said, he hasn’t been home in years.”
She’d assumed that Lyle Parrish had ulterior motives. Now she had a better direction to figure them out. “I just don’t understand why Dak brought me here.”
She’d been talking to herself, really, but Jesse must have read her confusion. “If he brought you here, he’s trying to help. Whatever is going on, he’s stuck in the middle. But, I guarantee bringing you here, making sure you meet me? He’s on your side.”
Offering him a half grin, she waved as she got into her car. Retrieving her phone from her bag, she noticed a couple missed calls from her mom and a missed text from Dak.
Pulling it up, she found the map to a pool hall and a note, reaffirming his hope that she join him tonight.
She cradled the phone in her hand, staring at the screen and wondering what she should do.
Logically, she shouldn’t go. She should call him tomorrow from the office. Any questions she had for him should be kept professional, in a professional setting.
Was Jesse right? Had he been helping her? It made sense. She understood so much more now than she had yesterday.
Except why would he do that if his family might be involved?
She’d suspected that his father might have ulterior motives. What were Dak’s?
As she turned onto the road leading back to Bend and her office, she decided it was time that she learn a little more about the Parrish family.
* * * *
“Why didn’t you ever mention that you grew up on Warm Springs?” Lance Roberts, Dak’s closest friend, lined up his shot at the table, pocketed the solid three in the corner, and moved on to the five.
Around them, the after-work crowd was winding down. There were places in Redmond where they could shoot, but he and Lance used these quick trips to Bend, to this pool hall, to get away. In Redmond, they would run into someone from the air center at any of the bars. While they didn’t have an issue with anyone at work, sometimes it was nice to have a little more anonymity.
“You never asked.”
His friend shot him an incredulous look. “Really? That’s your explanation?”
He shrugged. “Don’t really like to talk about it.”
“There are people in witness protection who give more details than you do,” Lance grumbled as he missed the five.
Dak laughed, positioning himself to shoot his fourteen ball. His propensity to keep to himself was a running joke between them. “It’s not you, you know. And Warm Springs was great. But my family—we’re kind of messed up. Besides, I haven’t talked to them for years.” Not that the conversations he’d had with his brother and father could be considered real talking. More like bickering or ultimatums, battle words, maybe, or something equally dysfunctional. “My father showing up the other day? First time I’d seen him or heard from him since I left.”
“When did you leave?”
“When I was seventeen. My life? They haven’t been part of it for a long time. Just didn’t seem worth mentioning.”
“Got it.” Lance rubbed chalk on his cue stick. “Heard your dad didn’t endear himself to Mitch when he was at the air center the other day.”
It shouldn’t surprise Dak that everyone would know that. The air center was tight. Everyone knew everyone else’s business. “My dad works closely with the tribal council. They listen to him because he is one of the community’s business leaders.” His father liked to throw his weight around. “I think he saw a way I could be useful, or we might still not be on speaking terms.”
“What do you think he wants?” That Lance hadn’t asked him more about why he wasn’t talking to his family was a real testament to their friendship. Over the years, he never pushed. It was one of the things he liked best about the guy.
“At first I hoped it was exactly as he said. He only wanted me to show the investigator around.” Dak couldn’t stop his grimace. “Now, I think he might be trying to bury evidence.”
Lance whistled low under his breath. “Evidence?”
“Yeah. My brother.” He sighed. “My brother didn’t adjust to our move here and fell into a bad crowd. They did stupid shit, shoplifting, fighting—they even got busted for stealing a car. I did what I could to convince him to knock it off, but I was his seventeen-year-old brother. He wasn’t listening to me.” Unwittingly, the memories flooded back, those days when he and his brother had grown irreparably apart. “One day, he did something I thought was the last straw. I tried to convince my father to step in, to get him some help. We had a big blowout.”
Blowout didn’t exactly cover it. The day he’d found Mikey with the lighter fluid, he’d told his father and they’d had a full out brawl. It hadn’t been the first time his father had taken a swing at him, but it had been the first that he’d struck back. The first time he had thrown a punch at anyone in anger, really.
It had ended badly.
Two days later, no one in his family was talking to him. His mother because his father wouldn’t let her, his brother because he made himself scarce afterward. When his father handed him a train ticket to Pasadena, telling him that he would be staying with his aunt, his mother’s sister, for a while, he’d packed his bags and left.
“So, you think your brother is involved in the arsons on the reservation?” Lance’s eyes widened.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
More than maybe. Everything started to go south for Mikey after their house in Washington burned down. Before that, everything had been great. His father had a successful real estate development company. In eighth grade, though, their house burned to the ground and his father moved them back to the reservation, where he’d grown up. He said it was only for a little while, until he could figure out where to start again. But they never left.
Dak had adjusted. He’d never been an overly social guy, kept mostly to himself. But his mother and Mikey had always needed more of a connection. And both of them had floundered.
After missing his shot, he shifted to stand, propping his pool cue on the floor. He leaned closer to his friend to avoid being overheard. “I thought he was just rebelling against having to leave his friends in Washington. But now—” He inhaled. “Our house burned down in Washington. That’s why we came here. Now I’m starting to wonder if maybe it was Mikey who started the fire there. He said he was at the ballpark, but maybe he set it before he left. I don’t know. They say arsonists sometimes act out of a need for attention. And if he did it there, he could be doing it here, too.”
Voicing his concern lifted a weight from his shoulders.
Lance glanced around to see if anyone was listening. “You tell anyone else yet?”
“Tell them what? I don’t have any proof. Even the fire the other day at the casino? I’d been with Mikey when it started. It couldn’t have been him, not unless he somehow rigged it earlier. Heidi didn’t mention any contraptions to delay a burn. From what she said, it was started the old-fashioned way, with a match. I don’t know. Besides, who would believe me? Everyone on the reservation knows there’s bad blood in my family.” He grimaced. “And what if I’m wrong? My mother is sick. She had a heart attack last year. My father has always had her under his thumb. If I’m wrong, I might not ever see her again.”
“Oh, man.” Lance buried his hands in his pockets. “Why haven’t you ever said anything about this stuff? You don’t have to carry everything on your own, you know. You have me and Meg.” Meg Buchanan was Lance’s girlfriend. During training camp, they’d reconnected after many years apart. In
all the years he’d known Lance, he’d never seen him happier.
“It’s been a busy summer.” That was true enough, but it didn’t tell the entire story. Not being able to see his mom? It ate at him every day. Continuing to reach out with no response? It was toxic. “I’ve been trying to get in touch with her, but I’m guessing my father is keeping it from her.”
“Why haven’t you just gone over to see her? It’s not like the reservation is that far away.”
“That’s not how things in my family work. If my father doesn’t want me to see her, he’ll keep her away.” Dak sighed. “I’d hoped that if I gave them some time, they’d all come around. Now, I don’t know.” Nothing had gotten easier with any of them. Rekindling any relationship with his mom was beginning to seem further and further away.
As he leaned over to take his next shot, Lance asked, his voice low, “Did you at least tell Heidi?”
“No.” It had been nagging at him all day. He’d had the opportunity this morning, in the car. She’d asked him about his father, his brother, his family. Perfect chance to come clean, to give her all the gory details.
Except he hadn’t.
“I think she’s hiding something, too. From me. I can’t figure out what it is, though.”
Lance nudged him. “Sounds like just the kind of girl for you.”
Dak laughed. Leave it to Lance to see what he hadn’t said. He hated to admit how much he agreed. “Didn’t you hear me tell you that we’re keeping things from each other? Trust me, that’s not the right way to start something.”
“So you were thinking of starting something.”
He couldn’t stop thinking about it, actually, or that kiss they’d shared. Being in the car with her this morning? It had taken everything in him not to reach across the seats and hold her hand, touch her.
“I invited her to come hang out tonight. Since Meg will be here soon.” He probably should have cleared that with his friend, but he didn’t want to make it into a big deal.
It wasn’t a big deal.
“Did you, now?” Lance’s eyebrows were so high, it must have been causing him physical pain.
Dak shrugged. “I don’t think she’s going to come.”
“No?”
“I told you. She’s skittish. It’s complicated.”
“Skittish, huh? Any ideas why?”
“Not really.” He shook his head. He wished he did. “Maybe we could all go do something together? She doesn’t know a lot of people here. It might be good, you know, to introduce her…” As he said the words, it struck him that introducing her to his friends was probably a big step. Except it didn’t feel that way. He liked her, as a person. She was cool and, if he were a betting man, he’d guess that she would get along with Lance and Meg.
He’d asked her to come there tonight without considering it at all.
“I think it would be good to get together sometime,” he said.
Lance patted Dak’s shoulder. “Sure. I’ll talk to Meg, if you’re serious.”
“I am.” After the way she’d been acting about going out—not even responding today—maybe it would be good to have some backup. Maybe she’d relax a little if there were other people around, if it felt like less of a date.
If she even gave him another chance.
“Fine, but I do think you need to talk to her. Tell her about your family.”
At that moment, Dak looked up, as if some force compelled him, to find Heidi striding toward him. Out of her work clothes and dressed in jeans and canvas jacket, her hair down, she stole his breath.
Maybe he would get that second chance after all.
Chapter 8
“You came.” It wasn’t the snappiest hello he could have come up with, but it was the thought that prevailed in Dak’s mind. “I didn’t think you were going to come.”
“Probably because I didn’t text you back.” Heidi buried her hands in her jacket pockets, shrugging.
He chuckled. “Right. That’s probably it.”
“In my defense, I wasn’t sure if I was going to come until right before I left my apartment.” She trailed her fingers across her forehead, swiping the hair away before trailing them along the side of the pool table.
The statement, added to her almost nervous movements, was telling. He could completely relate. Never had he been so torn over wanting to spend time with a woman. The constant push and pull over whether he should or shouldn’t want to be with her.
He found he wasn’t strong enough to resist, though.
She was there. Maybe she felt the same.
“I’m glad you’re here.” He took her still dancing fingers in his own, squeezing quickly before he dropped them, not wanting to be too intense.
Relaxed. Casual. That’s what he needed tonight.
Gesturing across the table, he nodded to Lance who wasn’t even trying to pretend he wasn’t studying them. “That’s my buddy, Lance Roberts. He’s another smokejumper at Redmond.”
His hand came to rest on the small of Heidi’s back as he ushered her toward his friend to introduce her. It was like he was incapable of casual. “Lance, this is Heidi Sinclair.”
She shook his friend’s hand. “Hey.”
Lance smiled, nudging his head toward the pool table. “You play?”
“Some.” She shrugged, her wide mouth splitting into a sexy grin. “You guys know how to play cutthroat?”
He grinned back. This was exactly what he needed. Her to relax, to stop thinking so hard.
Maybe he needed it, too.
“I’ll rack.”
When each of them had their consecutive balls, he watched her run the table. He’d seen glimpses of her strategic mind, but there, on full display, she was spectacular. She wasn’t cocky about it, but her confidence was incredibly sexy. After she’d beaten them twice, Lance lifted his hands in mock surrender. “Yield, yield.”
“You’re not tapping out on this now, are you, Roberts?” Dak teased him.
“My girl’s here.” Lance pointed toward the door where Meg was coming in, a huge grin on her face. Then again, his buddy was sporting a pretty big smile, too. The two of them lit up when they saw each other. He watched as Lance made a beeline for her, and folded her against him in a tight hug. When they pulled away, their heads fell together in the kind of close conversation that suggested they could have been alone instead of in a busy billiard hall.
“His wife?” Heidi asked, leaning on her pool stick.
“Girlfriend. They’ve been together for about six months, I guess. But they grew up together.”
“He’s from here, too, then?”
He could sense it, then, how the conversation was going to shift from what had been a fun evening to something closer to work. Immediately he mourned the easier atmosphere. “Yeah. He’s from Redmond.”
She nodded. “Did you know him when you lived here?”
“No.” He wanted to stop, didn’t want to talk about the past. What he wanted was to think about the future, about getting to know her better, about leaving whatever was going on with his family on the reservation behind him.
But that wasn’t fair. And wasn’t this what he’d been talking with Lance about? That he should tell her more. He just didn’t know where to start.
“Warm Springs is a long drive. And, well, he left after high school and I left before I even graduated, had to finish up in California.”
“Yet your family stayed.”
“Yeah.” He inhaled. “I had a falling-out with my father.”
“He’s interesting.” Heidi’s brow creased, and she paused as if measuring her words. He wondered where she’d go with her questions and he tried to figure out how to segue from there. But what she said next surprised him. “Is your father having any difficulty with his business, maybe?”
He blinked. “My father?”
“Yeah.” She propped her stick against the wall. Someone else might have hedged, had a hard time getting into this conversation. But, leave it to Heidi to dive right in. “According to Jesse, your father has never involved himself in any other investigation at the tribal police level. I checked with my boss, and I’m under the impression that your father hasn’t been involved with the Forest Services either.”
“You think it might have something to do with his business dealings?” Why hadn’t he thought of that?
“I don’t know what to think.” They ceded their table to another couple waiting, and headed toward the bar. He ordered a beer while she waved off anything, her brow still low. The noise closer to the other patrons gave him a moment to consider what she’d said.
Could this have nothing to do with Mikey? Could his father be involved somehow? Except, what motive would he have to start fires and then talk with authorities about finding the arsonist? Was he trying to muddy the investigative waters?
“I can’t see any way to tie my father’s businesses to the fires,” he offered. “Most of his partnerships and land developments are in Portland or Washington. I can’t see how destroying land here would have anything to do with that.” He shook his head. “And, I think it’s more likely that my brother’s involved than my father.”
There, he’d said it.
“You think your brother is involved.”
“I don’t know.” It was the truth. Mikey hadn’t been at the casino when the fire started. And, though he’d had a rocky path when he was younger, Dak had no idea how he’d grown and changed.
He ran a hand over his hair, wondering if he wasn’t making everything worse. “I told you that my house in Washington burned down.”
“You said that’s the reason your family moved to Oregon.” Her eyes narrowed. “Wait, do you think your brother was involved with that?” Understanding lit her face. “You do.”
Now would be the time to explain about the day he found Mikey, the day he imploded his entire relationship with his family. Except the words wouldn’t leave his mouth. How did you tell someone you hit your own father? How did he explain the strange relationship they’d had?