Bailey’s mouth twitched. He was sure Shamgar was complaining about Tess talking so loudly near his stall. Man, it would be good to get home and spoil that big guy again.
“Whatever you say, Sissy.”
“Don’t call me that.” Her growl was playful and a sign she’d calmed down.
“You’re getting bossy in your old age.”
“Ha! You haven’t even seen me being bossy.”
“I’m scared.” He tossed shirts into a duffel bag. He should probably give his landlord notice.
He glanced around the single room. Nothing here felt like home.
“Bye.”
“See you in a couple hours.”
But she’d hung up before he finished. Once he got on the road, he’d call Jaz and verify that Tess followed through on his request.
Because he wasn’t leaving his sister at the mercy of the man who’d made his life Hell for years.
2
Lonie Dyer was a piece of work. Jazlyn Rolle had met sweet talkers like him during her six months with Boldt & Associates. It wasn’t the false charm that grated against her as much as the expectation to get something for nothing.
By the time he’d spoken two sentences, Jaz had known that the striking physical resemblance between Bailey and Lonie was all there was. Even without the sharp planes on his face and hardness in his eyes, Lonie wasn’t at all appealing.
“And who might you be?” That was the first sentence he’d spoken.
“This is Jaz.” Tess stepped around her as the two of them entered the parlor.
Lonie’s hand settled possessively beside a photo book of Central Texas on the edge of an antique table.
“A Sweet Grove native like my little girl?” His tone dripped honey, and Jaz figured he could con a starving man out of his last meal.
Probably how he’d convinced the parole board a man with one armed robbery after another shouldn’t serve out a full sentence. Jaz had entered the man’s name into the county database as soon as Bailey had mentioned he was out of prison. Not that she expected him to show up in Sweet Grove. He’d burned whatever bridge he might have had to his children years ago.
“I thought you’d be in your room.” Tess gazed at him with expectation.
That’s when Jaz saw herself in her friend’s posture. Tess wanted his approval. Since she’d always yearned for Daddy love, Jaz knew the feeling exactly. But Lonie’s narrowed eyes told Jaz that Tess was heading for heartache.
Jaz stepped closer. Lonie’s gaze flashed to her and roamed lasciviously down her body.
The very same thing had happened so many times during her six years in the Army that Jaz was surprised when she glanced down at herself. The uniform she expected to see was only loose boyfriend denim and a form-fitting sweatshirt. Judging from the lust-filled gaze on Lonie’s face, it should have been something much more revealing.
“I’m Bailey’s girlfriend, and he’s on his way here.”
Lonie’s lips thinned into a reptilian smile. “Boy couldn’t wait to see me.” His dry chuckle sent a hoard of shivers down Jaz’s spine.
“Tess and I are going to hang out until he gets here.” Jaz turned Tess toward the doorway. “Let’s get some sweet tea. What’s on the menu for breakfast?”
She forced her backbone to steel as she marched her friend into the kitchen. Tess responded about breakfast, but Jaz didn’t pay attention. Now that she’d met the man and seen the open desire in Tess’s eyes, she realized Bailey hadn’t been overreacting to send her to the ranch.
Jaz blocked the doorway into the kitchen by leaning on the side of the bar. Lonie pulled up a stool like he belonged there.
“Sweet tea?” Tess paused to glance over her shoulder at Lonie while pulling glasses from the cupboard.
“I never did sweeten to it.”
Once Tess turned away, Lonie shifted a leer to Jaz. She glared, unblinking. Maybe it would be smarter to pretend to fall for his slimy charm, but she couldn’t do it. Men like Lonie Dyer had too much power over women, and Jaz refused to be another conquest for him, even if only in his mind.
Tess handed her a glass of tea and sipped hers. “What are your plans?” She set her glass down. “Did you want something else to drink?”
This wasn’t part of her normal B&B hostess routine, and Jaz wanted to snap at Lonie to leave the kitchen since it wasn’t generally open to guests. But Tess’s hopeful expression killed the protest before it reached her lips.
“A shot of Jim Beam would be nice.” Lonie chuckled again, this time the sound more authentic, although it still grated on Jaz.
“How about a Coke? I have Sprite or cola.”
Lonie shrugged. “Don’t go to any trouble for me, darlin’.”
As if she hadn’t already by loaning him a rent-free room. The front door opened and closed, and footsteps plodded toward the dining room. Jaz’s heart leapt, but Bailey would use the kitchen entrance, so it must be Tess’s other guest.
“That’s Mr. Gary.” Tess brushed past Jaz and into the hallway.
Lonie arched a scraggly eyebrow at her and smirked. “How long you been goin’ down on my boy?”
Jaz clenched her fist. “He’s not your boy any more than Tess is your darlin’.” She mimicked his syrupy drawl of the endearment.
“Feisty, too. I see my boy didn’t fall too far from his father’s good taste.”
Her short fingernails jammed into her palms. Lord, I want to deck his smarmy face. Help me here.
“Cat got that tongue o’ yours? I could show you a few things to do with such a tricky tongue.” He leaned closer, reaching toward her.
Tess flew back into the room. “He has everything he needs. Checking out in the morning. And he’s convinced me to make apple tarts.”
Lonie retreated into his own space. Jaz tried to relax her combative posture, but it wasn’t easy.
Tess pulled out a mixing bowl. Lonie’s voice returned to syrup as he talked about his plans to “find a good job close to his family.” Jaz doubted hot wiring cars and waving a gun while wearing a mask qualified him for decent employment, and Bailey would be sending him packing in short order.
Tess moved through the kitchen with practiced ease, getting out ingredients and then sifting them together. “Would you grab a gallon of apple slices from the freezer on the porch?”
Jaz shook herself from her dark meditations to amble into the adjacent room. She stared through the glass into the darkening night. No headlights coming up Armstrong Road. It would be at least another hour until Bailey arrived.
She wished him home as soon as possible—before her self-control broke and she hurt Tess’s feelings by hurting Lonie Dyer’s face.
* * *
Bailey stomped up the stairs Friday night. The back door flew open and Jaz flung herself on him.
“Thank the Lord! I’m about to kill him.”
The instant of relief from holding his girl perished in the fire of increased tension in his shoulders.
“What did he do?”
“The man’s a slime ball. And Tess can’t see it.”
The scars between his shoulders itched. Only he knew the exact caliber of Lonie’s sliminess. He hugged Jaz close, breathing in the scent of coffee and sugar. Their lips met and the sweet tea he tasted made him want to deepen the embrace, but the need to rescue Tess from the nightmare of Lonie Dyer curtailed the enjoyment of the reunion.
“Thanks for coming.” His voice sounded harsher than normal.
Jaz nuzzled her nose against his chin. “I love Tess almost as much as you do.”
His hands squeezed her waist and trailed to latch onto her fingers. She glanced toward the door but turned to the driveway.
“How about coming to dinner tomorrow night?” The longing in her voice tore at him.
“I’m not leaving Tess alone with him.”
She cocked her head. “What about when you head to your meeting?” He’d filled her in on the eminent move back to town when he’d called her during her dri
ve to the ranch.
“I’ll make sure to drop Lonie off somewhere in Rosewood.”
Jaz blinked. Something in her pale eyes told him she didn’t think it would be so easy to get rid of the man.
A wave of dizziness plowed through him. He was exhausted and didn’t want to confront Lonie Dyer.
“I’ll text an invite to Tess in the morning.”
She brushed her lips over his, then she strode off the porch. He watched her disappear beyond the sphere of light from the porch and steeled himself.
He twisted the doorknob and clambered into the screened back porch. As he shoved through to the kitchen, Poppet yipped, her entire body wagging. He shrugged off his Carhartt jacket and hung it on the tree beneath his hat. Scents of cinnamon and sugar swirled around him. His stomach roared like an angry grizzly.
Tess looked up from behind a curtain of steam as she rinsed dishes in the sink.
“Where is he?”
She slapped her hands on her apron-covered hips. “Welcome home, Lee. Coffee?”
His stomach balked worse than an inexperience pitcher, and he shook his head.
A floorboard creaked and Bailey twirled. A man an inch shorter than him and a few pounds lighter entered from the hallway. The dark blue eyes mirrored the color of Bailey’s, but something hard lay beneath them. Light brown hair barely covered the top of the man’s head and was threaded with gray at the temples. His thin face looked wolfish, and the lipless smile baring browning teeth didn’t dispel the image.
“There’s my son.” The smooth tones slid like oil over glass, but the hairs at the base of Bailey’s neck stiffened.
Poppet whined and shied behind his boots.
“You turned out all right.” He raked narrowing eyes down Bailey’s frame. “I think I’ll turn in.”
“How about you get in my truck and I take you to a motel?”
Lonie’s thick eyebrows lowered. “Not very hospitable, are you? Haven’t seen your pa in years—”
“Save it. I buried my dad six months ago.”
Tess slid an arm around Bailey’s waist, startling him. “Lonie has a room here.”
“He should move along.” Bailey stood to his full height and glowered at the man.
Lonie laughed, and the menace in the sound sent a pack of rats scurrying down Bailey’s back. The man didn’t intend to walk out of their lives so easily. “I could use an extra pillow.” His beady eyes flicked toward Tess. “Can you get me one, girl?”
Tess nodded, shooting Bailey a warning glance as she squeezed his waist. “He is our father.” Her lips wobbled as she smiled toward the strangely familiar man on the other side of the counter.
That hopeful look undid the belt cinching around his heart. She didn’t know anything about the past, and Bailey didn’t want to tell her now.
“They’re upstairs. I’ll put one in your room.”
“That’s a good girl.”
Bailey’s hands clenched as Tess hurried into the hall.
Lonie narrowed his eyes. “Looks like Old Dona did you a favor by signing you over to the state. This is a nice spread.” Lasciviousness glinted in the man’s gaze.
Here it was. Now the demands would begin.
Bailey crossed his arms over his chest. “The ranch hasn’t been profitable for years.” He had done his best, but the marketplace didn’t reward small, family-operated beef ranches.
“Land is money. How many acres?”
“It doesn’t concern you.” Bailey leaned toward the intruder, glaring down at him although he didn’t have much of a height advantage.
“Not happy to see me, boy?” Thin lips sneered. “Then you better find a way to pay me off, so I’ll get out of your hair.”
Something hardened in Bailey’s chest. He would not be bullied by this man now that he was grown. “You think you scare me?” He curled his fingers into the front pockets of his jeans so he wouldn’t reach across the counter and wipe the leer from the pinched face
The stairs creaked.
“What about her?” Lonie glanced toward the sound. “You’d best consider your little sister, boy.”
Then he strutted from the room like he owned it.
Bailey gulped the acid that welled from his stomach back down. Lord help him, he would destroy that man if he laid a finger on Tess.
3
Jaz shrugged the ache out of her shoulders and rested the paddle across her lap. Water slapped against the hull of the borrowed kayak as she floated toward the far shore of Mill Pond.
After what happened at Tess’s the previous night, she needed the physical exertion. In fact, it was Tess who suggested she ask Jack Bryant at the Cider Mill about borrowing a kayak. He’d been experimenting with renting some equipment in the park during the summer, and Jaz had had to dig one out of a locked shed beside the small pier where Mill Creek dumped into the pond.
A gray band of clouds scuttled overhead. She dipped the paddle into the murky water and stroked closer to the willow marking the special place that Drew had brought her to get away from her tensions. He’d also shared it with Bailey, and now it had become something of a sanctuary for them. They’d discovered the will that saved the ranch from the clutches of Honey Campbell there, and two weekends back Bailey had apologized beneath the old willow for accusing her of betraying him.
As the front of the boat stirred up the silty bottom matter, Jaz caught movement near the old fence. Behind the trunk of the willow, a mass of reeds and bushes stretched five feet to the stained cedar planks that marked the edge of the county park. Ruts from vehicle traffic cleared a central area of foliage, and the opposite side of the clearing had a leaning wooden fence that bordered the ramshackle homestead that had been vacant for as long as Jaz remembered.
Bushes jerked by the old fence. The end board wavered as if struck by a boulder.
Jaz ran the kayak ashore. Her booted feet sunk up to the ankle as she stepped out of the rocking boat, steadied by the buried paddle on the water side. Mud slurped as she tugged her foot free, and her lips curled in disgust.
From the opposite side of the rundown fence, a clatter sounded. A limb from a pecan tree raked along the top of the planks.
An animal could be causing the commotion, but she’d been certain she’d seen a flash of denim dodge around the willow tree. If someone was there, why would they hide? And choosing to trespass on the old homestead could prove a dangerously poor choice. When she was eight, Jaz had tried to explore it, and Drew jerked her away from the fence that had been more upright in those days.
“It’s a nest for rattlesnakes,” he’d hissed. And as much as she loved the outdoors and could “man up” as well as any boy her age, snakes freaked her out.
But what if some other kid was in there?
After dragging the kayak completely out of the water, dropping her life jacket and leaning the paddle against the willow, Jaz strode toward the dilapidated cedar planks. Browning scrub snagged her yoga pants. She ignored the tugs and found two missing boards beside a third plank that raised up when lifted.
She crouched through the opening, duck-walking through the underbrush on the opposite side of the fence. Twigs snapped beneath her hikers and leaves snagged her ponytail. After several feet, she emerged into a dusty patch between the overgrown vegetation and a leaning structure. It was too small to be anything except an old pump house or other outbuilding. Smudged footprints in the reddish dirt marked a path around the side of it.
Jaz opened her mouth to call out but shut it an instant later. Any kid who was playing around in here would know it was trespassing and wouldn’t want to be found. She stepped lightly over the tracks and sidled along the building. A door hung off one hinge, closing the weathered building off except for an angular gap at the top corner where something had taken a chunk out of the wood.
She paused outside the doorway, holding her breath. A whisper of sound from inside gave away her quarry. Jaz pulled out her phone and selected the flashlight application. May as well stun the
kid—or the possum, whichever she was about to unearth.
A rusty latch remained as the only handle for the door. Jaz grabbed the metal and at the same moment it croaked in contempt, she flung the door ajar and shined the beam from her phone into the narrow building.
Behind a slab of cardboard, a pair of pale eyes stared out at her. A slender hand, covered in grime, blocked her view. “Turn it off,” squawked the cornered trespasser.
“Come out.” Jaz lowered the beam so it pointed at the sagging box hiding the boy. “It’s dangerous to play here.”
“Not playing.” He snapped the words like a trapped animal.
“Neither am I.” Jaz straightened and gestured with her free hand.
After a scuffle, the child dodged around her and slumped against the sliver-infested exterior with enough force to rattle its walls. His red hair was ratty, and his freckle-smattered face bore deep smudges of dirt. Bony shoulders reached to Jaz’s elbow, but the oversized sweatshirt didn’t hide the emaciated state of his body.
“How old are you?”
“What’s it to you?” He raised his chin, emphasizing the filth covering every inch of his skin.
Jaz arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “Where do you live?”
“Here.”
A stab ached inside her gut. Where were his parents?
“I ain’t going nowhere without Fl— my sister.”
“And where is she?” Her heart leapt. Was the girl hiding somewhere else? Hurt from a fall or even a snake bite?
Thin shoulders shrugged, and a fraction of defiance drained away. “Some house in Sweet Grove. That’s why I took off from that lady’s house in Harrison.” His pale lips pressed together.
He’d run away because he wanted to be with his sister.
“How old are you?” she repeated.
After a pause, during which he studied Jaz and she felt the strength of his perusal, he dropped his chin. “Nine. She’s only five. She needs me to take care of her.”
It could have been Bailey standing in front of her, neglected and worried about protecting Tess. Not that Bailey had ever run away from the system, but he surely would have fled his biological parents if there was a way to ensure Tess could escape safely, too.
Love's Emerging Faith (Love's Texas Homecoming Book 3; First Street Church #20) Page 2