“They must have figured out it wasn’t you because the actual witness was killed in the hotel room where the cops had put this person for his safety.”
“That’s awful.” Darla thought a minute. “But if they found the person who saw them, why would they still be after me?”
“They still seem to think you saw something.”
“I didn’t. They came out the back door of their father’s store and I went back inside the restaurant, like I always do when I see them.”
“The last time you saw them, was their father with them?”
“No.” She thought a moment. “No. I didn’t see Mr. Kozlow at all. They were carrying duffel bags but . . .”
Van Holtz was staring at her, one brow raised and Darla couldn’t hide her revulsion. “Eeew. Their father was in those bags, wasn’t he?”
“Probably.”
“Poor Mr. Kozlow!”
“The problem is, Darla, you can still place them at the scene of their father’s death. You’re still a threat.”
“I have to talk to the police.”
“To protect you?”
“No. To tell them what I saw.”
Van Holtz shook his head. “Darla, I don’t think you should do that.”
“I know you don’t, but that’s what I have to do. That’s the right thing to do. If Mr. Kozlow’s sons killed him, they have to pay for it.” She stood but Van Holtz caught her hand, keeping her from walking away.
“Don’t do anything yet.” He released her. “Please. Give me and my Pack a few more days to see if we can . . . fix this somehow.” When she hesitated, he pushed, “Please, Darla.”
She let out a sigh. “All right.”
“Thanks, Darla.”
“Thank you.” She gave a small shrug. “I’ll walk you back.”
“That’s all right. I can make my own way.” He led her back to the boulder. “Why don’t you sit here for a while? Try to relax.”
“Thanks, Mr. Van Holtz.”
He smiled, patted her shoulder, and walked off.
Darla pulled her legs up onto the rock and rested her chin on her knees. She wrapped her arms around her calves and let out a sigh. She had no idea what she was going to do next and for the first time that realization bothered her.
Eggie trotted through his backdoor and into his kitchen. Once there, he shifted to human and pulled on his jeans. He was reaching for his T-shirt when he caught a scent and picked up the gun he’d left sitting on his kitchen table, pointing it at the foreign wolf on his territory.
Van Holtz didn’t move and he didn’t panic.
“I’ve heard so much about the infamous Egbert Ray Smith over the last few years.” He nodded. “Believe it or not, I hope what they say about you is all true. Because you’re exactly what Darla needs right now.”
By the time Darla made it back to the house, Mr. Van Holtz was gone and so was Eggie. She decided to believe Eggie had gone hunting for deer rather than hunting for Mr. Van Holtz.
Not knowing what else to do, she sat down at the kitchen table and wrote up the list of supplies she’d need if she was going to make all these pies to compete with her sisters. She knew those heifers would be bringing their best work and Darla wasn’t about to let them win at this. Besides, it was easier to focus on something so ridiculous than it was to think about poor Mr. Kozlow stuffed in a duffel bag . . . several duffel bags.
She shuddered and finished her list. Once done, she ran upstairs and changed out of her dress and into more comfortable cutoff shorts and a T-shirt, then sat in the kitchen a bit longer. She didn’t know how long Eggie was going to be. The man did like getting his hunting time in and he might need more of it today before they headed over to his momma’s house and dealt with his family.
She glanced over at the counter where Eggie had left the keys to his car last night. She looked away, bit her lip, and looked back.
“Oh, what would it hurt?” she asked the air when she stood up and rushed over to the counter, snatching up his keys. She also went into the kitchen drawer where she’d found a box with several thousand dollars, a gun, and passports for several different people who looked just like Eggie but didn’t have the same name. She took out a hundred dollars, more than what she needed but she erred on the side of caution, and put a note in the box informing Eggie of her I.O.U.
Once done, she headed outside and got into Eggie’s car.
She started up the Plymouth and smiled as it purred to life. Darla didn’t have a car of her own because she didn’t like having the extra baggage in her life, but like her sisters, she did love really nice cars. Especially well-maintained ones.
Easing onto the road, Darla glanced around, saw that no one was nearby, and stepped on the gas.
By the time she hit a hundred and five miles per hour, she was having a hell of a time.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Darla was no more than half a mile from the Collinstown neutral territory shifter grocery store Eggie had told her about when she came to a stop at a light. Letting out a breath, she sat back in the seat. Now that had felt wonderful.
To her left, she heard males yelling at her, and she looked over at a gold Mercury Cougar XR7 convertible filled with four male lions.
“Hey, beautiful!” one of them yelled over the Black Sabbath playing on their car radio. “That was some damn fine driving there, darlin’. You been runnin’ ’shine?”
She laughed and gave them a little wave. The light changed and they pulled off, gold and brown lion’s manes whipping in the wind.
Darla made it to the store and was just turning into the parking lot when a Chevrolet Nova SS cut her off, the back end of the Nova hitting the bumper of Eggie’s car.
Darla hit the brakes and let out a whimper. Eggie’s car. Eggie’s car!
She was so mortified, she didn’t notice who was driving until the driver’s side door of the Nova opened and she saw a tall, blonde female step out. She looked at Darla, smirked, and said, “Sorry about that, sweetie pie. I just didn’t see you.”
The She-lions in the car laughed and Darla knew that these females were connected with the lion males who’d been talking to her at the light.
“Ridiculous, jealous crap,” she snarled, watching as the She-lion got back into her own vehicle. Darla wasn’t about to let them go, though. They were at least going to pay to fix Eggie’s car!
But before Darla could do anything, a bright red Dodge Challenger rammed straight into the cats’ car with so much force that it shoved their vehicle into Darla’s. She squeaked and cringed.
“He’s gonna kill me.” Yet she didn’t have time to worry about that when Darla saw Janie Mae and Francine get out of that Dodge. And Janie was definitely in a mood based on the way she slammed her driver’s side door.
Darla quickly got out and ran over, getting between Janie and the She-lions before Janie could throw the first punch.
“Janie, stop!”
“Well, well, well,” the She-lion sneered as the other cats got out of the car. “If it isn’t Janie Mae Trash Heap. I see you’re planning to bring another ass licker into the world.”
Darla turned on the She-lion. “Shut up!”
The She-lion eyed Darla. “Who are you?”
“None of your business.”
One of the other cats whispered in the She-lion’s ear and she eyed Darla again.
“You? And that freak of nature Eggie Smith?”
And before Darla could stop herself, she’d slapped the little sow across the face. Unlike Janie Mae, though, this sow slapped her back.
Of course that only unleashed the wrath of Janie and Francine. And by now, Roberta and Janette had also shown up. They scrambled out of the Pontiac GTO they were driving and came at the rest of the She-lions like the wrath of God.
It was not pretty.
Darla did try her best to get them all to stop but none of it did any good or mattered once the Collinstown Sheriff ’s Deputies showed up. And those bears were none too happy a
bout any of it.
Eggie’s father put a beer in his hand and sat down in the chair beside him. They sat in the front yard while Eggie’s mother and aunts arranged furniture in the backyard for dinner later that evening.
“She really wants to testify?”
“I don’t think she wants to, Daddy. But she will. I know her.”
“She’s one of them moral types?”
“Yep.”
“Then you know what you gotta do, boy.”
“She won’t want me to.”
His father frowned at him. “Why do you have to tell her anything?”
“She’ll know. She always knows.”
Daddy chuckled. “Yeah. Your mother’s got that skill, too. Only woman alive who’s ever caught me in a lie.” He glanced at Eggie. “You love this one, boy?”
“I do.”
“Even though your momma says she’s a little frail?”
“Daddy.”
“I’m just saying . . . it’s something to be aware of.”
“I’m fully aware, and she’s not frail.”
“All right, all right. If it’ll make you feel better, your brothers are jealous.”
“No, they ain’t. They love their mates.”
“Sure they do. But your mate is actually nice to you.”
“She’s not my mate, Daddy.”
“Don’t know what you’re waitin’ for, boy. I marked your momma the first weekend we were together. Knew I had to hold onto her or I would lose her.”
“I can’t worry about that right now. My first concern is keeping her safe.”
“So she can’t take care of herself?”
“Daddy, you’re making me crazy. One second you’re asking me why I haven’t marked her yet and the next, you’re talking about how weak she is.”
“Just making sure you’re thinking with the head on your shoulders.”
Why did Eggie bother? Some days he really didn’t know.
“Maybe I should look into it,” his father suggested.
“No, Daddy,” Eggie quickly said.
“But I just want to—”
“No.” Because Eggie knew his daddy would only make everything worse. “I don’t want you to do anything.”
“Then what did you come to me for?”
“I don’t know. Talk to my father, maybe?” His father frowned. “You know . . . father-son chats.” The frown got worse, and Eggie sighed. “Forget it.”
“I will.”
Eggie was about to get up and head home when his brothers came charging out of their parents’ house.
“What the hell’s going on?” Daddy demanded.
“The girls are in Collinstown jail again,” Bubba told them while he headed for his truck.
Eggie and his father laughed until Benji walked by and said, “Don’t know what you’re laughin’ about, Egbert Ray. Your girl is there, too.”
Darla rubbed her head in a desperate attempt to make her headache go away, but it wasn’t working.
Although that probably had a lot to do with the arguing going on between the bars. The bears had put Darla and her sisters in one cell and the She-lions—sisters from the local Barron Pride—in the other. And none of them had shut up since.
“What did you do to my car?”
Darla opened her eyes and let out a huge sigh. She was so relieved to see Eggie. Then she pointed an accusing finger at the other cell. “That heifer hit your car!”
“Your whore was hittin’ on our males!”
Eggie looked at Darla, raised a brow. “Really?”
“I was not!”
The deputies walked in and began to open the cells. “Y’all can pay your fines out front.”
“The usual?” Bubba asked as he waited for Janie to come out. He didn’t look happy and Darla didn’t blame him. She was five-months pregnant with his child but she was still getting into fistfights with cats. Just . . . no.
“What’s the usual?” Eggie asked as he took Darla’s hand when she stepped out of the cell.
“This one’s not in here for the fight,” the deputy explained.
“She’s not?”
“She was trying to stop it.”
“Then why—”
“She’s in here for doing a hundred and ten in a thirty mile per hour zone.”
The entire jail fell silent, all eyes focusing on Darla.
“I was just . . .” She cleared her throat, tried again. “Seeing what your car could do.”
“And it can do a hundred and ten?” Eggie asked.
“Apparently.”
“Our deputies lost her on Miller’s Road but they’d logged the make and model. Then they got to the fight and saw the vehicle there.”
“Right,” Eggie said. “Got it.”
Eggie glanced at her, shook his head, and started to walk off.
“Uh . . . Eggie?”
He stopped, focused on her.
Darla shrugged and admitted, “We still need to go to the grocery store.”
He growled and walked out . . . not that she blamed him, though.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The sisters all ended up baking at Eggie’s house and once they were finished with the pies, they brought them over to Miss Pauline’s.
By the time the Lewis sisters arrived, the “family dinner” was well under way and Darla would call it more of a party than a dinner. To her, dinners involved sitting at one table inside the dining room, but to the Smiths, it apparently involved many tables set up in rows in the backyard, music, and ’shine. Lots of ’shine. Not surprising, though. For decades, the Smiths had made their Pack money with moonshine.
Darla hadn’t seen Eggie since he’d paid her rather large fine at the Collinstown jail and handed her his truck keys. “Keep it under sixty,” he’d ordered her, and because she’d promised that’s exactly what she did. Much to the annoyance of her sisters.
Oh, what could she say? It was the one thing the Lewis sisters had in common. Their love of fast cars. Even Darla. Nothing was more freeing to her than hitting the gas and making a tight turn without losing control. Very few things in life really beat that feeling as far as she was concerned.
She helped her sisters put out the pies on the dessert table and she had to admit, their food looked amazing. As opposed to each one doing her own thing, they’d all worked together to get the pies done in a short amount of time, and she was really proud of her sisters. Then again, how could she still be mad at any of them when they’d gone after those cats like . . . well . . . like dogs after cats when they’d seen the Barrons hit Eggie’s car? So, for the first time in a very long time, they’d worked together and had done a great job.
“I’m gonna find Eggie,” she told Janie.
Her sister didn’t argue, just nodded and smiled. It wasn’t that Janie liked Eggie any more than she had the day before, but Darla had the distinct feeling that the fact that Eggie had paid Darla’s fine without a word of complaint somehow meant something important to her sister. Like he’d passed some test neither of them had known existed.
She walked through the crowd, smiling at people who greeted her. Relatives of Eggie’s that she’d never met but who somehow knew her name. It was strange.
She sniffed the air and walked off into the woods, following Eggie’s scent. She found him sitting on a tree stump, staring off. He looked pensive. Or angry. Or pensive and angry. She really didn’t know.
Standing next to him, Darla started off, “I am so sorry about your car.”
Eggie blinked, gazed at her. “My car?”
“Remember?”
“Oh. Yeah.” He shook his head, looked off again. “Can fix that, no problem.”
“You can?”
“Can fix anything with a motor. So can my brothers. Frankie does nice body work, too. He’ll bang that little dent out.”
“Well, I’m sorry I didn’t ask.”
He gazed at her again. “Ask what?”
“About borrowing your car.”
; He shrugged. “That don’t matter.”
Really? “But I just took it. I didn’t ask.”
“Wouldn’t have left the keys out if I didn’t want you driving the car.”
“Oh. Well, I’m definitely sorry about the fine.”
Still gazing at her, he asked, “What fine?”
Darla was beginning to get a little frustrated. “The fine you had to pay . . . because I was speeding . . . in your car . . . that I took without your permission?”
“Eh. Don’t really care about that.”
Throwing up her hands, Darla demanded, “Then what do you care about?”
“You.”
His simple response had Darla blushing from her face right down to her dang toes. “Oh.”
“Besides,” he added, “those cops were so impressed.” Eggie grinned. “Where did you learn to drive like that?”
She laughed a little. “Daddy. When we were young, he used to let us take turns sitting in his lap and driving the car around the parking lot of the store. Our feet couldn’t even touch the pedals.”
“And once they could?”
She shrugged. “Then there was no stopping us.” They both laughed and Darla added, “Lord, Momma has never forgiven Daddy for that either. She said it was his fault we were out-of-control heathens.”
His arm reached out and wrapped around her waist, pulling her close. “Look at me, Darla Mae.” She did. “If you need my car, you take my car. You need money, you take it. You don’t need to leave any notes. You need my gun, dammit, woman, you use my gun.”
“I’m a pacifist, Eggie,” she sniffed. “I don’t like guns.” But when Eggie kept staring at her, she added, “I may know how to use guns, but I just don’t like them.”
“You know how to use them?”
“Momma insisted. She said every Southern lady should know how to use a gun in case we have any more problems from Yankee soldiers.”
“Lot of Yankee soldiers coming around Smithville?”
“Momma likes to be prepared.”
“Smart lady, which is why I trust her daughter to do what she needs to do. You don’t need to ask.”
“I appreciate that, but . . .”
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