Fearless Rebel: A Hero Club Novel

by Eden Butler

  “Oh, I will?” I said, laughing.

  “Yeah.” She pointed her thumb over her shoulder. “That cottage is plenty big enough. It was supposed to be a She Shed for me, but then I got pregnant and started focusing on the nursey.” Evie lowered her hand, resting it over her round stomach. “When you told us about your conviction getting overturned, I told Alex I wanted to fix up the cottage for you.”

  “It’s not much,” he said, “but it’s yours as long as you want.” He tipped his chin toward the small building.

  It was neat, and the fresh coat of paint and new roof shingles was nice, subtle, nothing over the top or too damn cute. Sometimes my kid sister took things a little too far to the cute side. But the cottage was white and had black shutters and shingles with concrete pavers and a small raised front porch. There were potted flowers out front and nothing else to make it look too remarkable. Low key. Bare bones. Like me.

  “It’s got plumbing,” Alex said, still looking at the place, “a shower and small kitchen, a comfortable bed…”

  “More than I’ve had lately,” I said, winking at Evie, laughing with my brother-in-law then sobering up when my sister smacked my leg, her frown hard, severe. I caught her hand, pulling on her fingers, making sure to keep a smile on my face. “Hey, come on, kid. We gotta be able to joke about it.”

  “It wasn’t funny. None of it.” The humor vanished when Evie’s voiced cracked and she looked away from me, letting Alex grip her shoulder like he understood what had set her off. I caught my brother-in-law’s look, understanding this was more than a pregnancy thing, that maybe Evie still was pissed that I’d been on the inside for so long. In a lot of ways, she’d taken it harder than me. “If you’d just let me do some more poking…”

  “God knows what would have happened. You might not be here either and I couldn’t have any more blood on my hands.” I dropped my shoulders, my stomach coiling as Evie’s eyes widened, going glassy at the reminder of Finnley Michaels. I was useless when women cried, especially my kid sister. “Hey,” I started, tugging on her arm as I scooted closer to her. She looked at me and my chest tightened when I spotted the tears that smudged her make up. “Shit, Choady, it’s not worth it. Come here…” She crashed against my chest in an instant, letting me hold her like I did when she was a kid and another nightmare had her running from her tiny cowgirl twin bed to my room.

  “Listen,” I said, making her look at me, my thumbs under her bottom lids to clean away her make up. “It’s over.”

  “It’s not right. What happened to you. It just isn’t right.”

  She wasn’t wrong, but if I’d let that shit weigh me down, the five years I’d spent in Stillwater would have felt even longer than it had. “Maybe not, but who the hell said right means much to everyone?”

  “They took so much from you.”

  “I can’t think about that.”

  My sister frowned, opening her mouth, another complaint ready, I was sure, but I wouldn’t let her dwell on it. “I just wanna think about my nephew and that cake I heard you talk about and getting back to normal.”

  Her smile dimmed, but she fought to keep it on her face, finally giving up when she reached up to tug the braid from the back of my neck. It wasn’t nearly as long as it should have been, nothing like it had been when I went into Stillwater. The first time she’d seen me after Cooper cut it, Evie had cried the entire visit. It felt like a death, watching my little sister mourn what that bastard took from me.

  “It’s taking forever to grow back,” she said, twisting the end between her fingers.

  “It’ll get there.”

  “It was so long.” She shook her head, pushing her eyebrows together. “So pretty. I…think Velma cried for a week when they told her what happened.”

  “She wasn’t the only one.”

  Then Evie blinked, dropping my braid before she moved her chin up like she’d finally let my words sink in. “You’re right. It’s over. You’re here. You’re free and you can start all over again, yeah?”

  “Yeah, I can.”

  “Good,” she said, grabbing Alex’s hand to lift herself up from the swing. I followed her, holding her elbow, which she slapped away as we walked toward the door. “You know, the girls are all here.” Evie’s smile stretched and she moved her eyebrows up, like she expected me to rush inside to pick out a date for the night.

  “Jesus, baby, he’s barely home…” Alex said.

  “Starting already?” I asked my sister, recognizing the matchmaker glint in her eyes.

  “I’m just saying…” She poked her husband as she moved to the door. “All the girls from the circuit. The sweet ones…”

  “And Rey Rigby,” Alex said, winking at me, then wincing when Evie jabbed him hard in the ribs.

  “Not Rey,” Evie said, shooting a glare between me and her husband.

  I stepped back, releasing a long whistle. “Gotta admit, I don’t think I’m quite up to Rey’s speed.” My neck going hot when I remembered the last time I’d messed around with that one.

  “Let’s start with cake,” Evie said, nodding us into the house, looking for all the world like she wanted to change the subject. “I’m starving.”

  “Yeah. Looks like you’re wasting away.”

  Evie turned, jabbing me in the gut with a wicked punch that had me laughing. I waited until she was through the door before I exhaled, holding my side where I knew I’d have a bruise the next day.

  Alex held the door open, serving me with an eye roll and a disappointed frown. “You got a lot to learn, man.”

  “About?” I wheezed, still rubbing my side.

  “You can’t say that shit to a pregnant woman.” He slapped me on the shoulder when I came inside, bringing me into the foyer, toward the living room full of all of the loud, wild women Evie had known her whole life. “And, your sister’s right hook has gotten a hell of a lot stronger.”

  Eddie

  “I mean it, darlin’. Don’t think I’m just flirting with you.”

  “You got your hand on my thigh. Can’t mistake that for just flirting.”

  It was like juggling dynamite with a lit cigarette dangling from your mouth and kerosene dripping from your nails, but I wasn’t sure if I should complain.

  “My kid sister figures out it’s going on six in the morning and you’re still over here and you’ll catch her wrath.”

  “Hell, Ed, I ain’t worried about Evie.”

  Rey Rigby was a stump jumper. At least, that’s what we’d always called her. Evie tolerated her because the woman knew how to ride and her daddy had an in with one of the best horse breeders in the state. Besides, I was pretty sure my sister was Rey’s only friend. Maybe that was because the woman didn’t know how to act when it came to men that caught her eye. I’d been the unlucky bastard that had done that when she was eighteen and I was about to head off to Montana.

  Should have never bedded her that night.

  Told her as much.

  Six years later and the woman still wasn’t listening.

  “I about fell right out when you walked into that party, looking the way you do after being gone so long.” Rey followed me when I sat on the small porch outside the cottage, handing her another beer from the six pack I’d lifted out of Alex’s stash. After the party, and the crowd there, my two drink maximum got extended and Rey’d tagged along, ignoring the look Evie gave her and the warning from her friends about letting me have a minute to myself after being crowded by an hour of “oh, hell, Eddie, you look hot!” and “Damn, Ed, we missed you…I got a single cousin,” and the worst of them, “You want me to kick Piper’s ass?…” or variations of offers from my sister’s friends. They were loyal. They were sweet, but hell, they were a bit much.

  Especially Rey Rigby.

  But, if I was honest, I didn’t hate her company, not when it had been so long since I sat with a woman, having her attention, smelling the sweetness of her perfume, seeing the curve of her mouth and the promise behind the smile she gave
me. I’d missed it, even if I knew touching Rey would court trouble I’d never get out of. She wasn’t the sort to get what she wanted and be done. She had claws and wanted to sink them in deep.

  God knew it had taken a talk with her daddy and me changing all my social media profiles to shake her loose back in the day.

  Now, here she was, making me offers with her smile and her hand on my thigh and a load of trouble waiting for me that I didn’t want.

  “Hell, Rey, I ain’t crazy.”

  She laughed, pulling on her cup, smile covered long enough for her to drink before she set it down. We’d exhausted Alex’s beer and headed off to Anderson’s because Rey wanted whiskey. I passed on that. Beer was one thing. No way was I touching whiskey.

  A bottle later and Rey was holding her own. I was sober as a monk, but sleepy and the woman wasn’t taking my yawns for the hint they were.

  “You’re still thinking of me as that clingy little girl knocked on her ass by one monumental night with Eddie Mescal.”

  When I shot her a look, quirking my eyebrow up, half grin and all, but didn’t speak, Rey held up her hands, the bluff called. “Okay, fine. I’m guessing I’d probably still get a little clingy.”

  “Will you, now?”

  She stood, moving in front of me, pulling the can of soda from my hand. I didn’t move, kept my back straight and my arms resting on my thighs.

  “I’ll just say this.” Rey ran her nails over my forehead and I squeezed my eyes shut when a breeze moved around us, rustling her thick, red hair against my face. It smelled like lilacs and had me tightening my fingers into a ball to keep from touching her.

  Five damn years.

  “My door is always open to you.” Rey lifted my face in her hands, and I stared back, ready to jerk away if she moved too close, reminding myself of the trouble that came with this woman. “And I can damn well promise you, you’re not the only one who can knock people on their asses with their mouths and tongues and…other things.”

  I blew out a breath, coming close to kissing the woman, just to see if I remembered how it was done, but the shrill chirp of Rey’s phone broke us apart and the grin on her face fractured when she looked down at the screen.

  “Aw, hell…”

  “Your mama wondering where you are?” Her one-finger salute had me grinning, and I relaxed when she stepped away from me firing off a text message to whoever had put that worried look on her face.

  “Worse. It’s your sister.”

  “Shit…that is worse.” I glanced across the yard squinting to make out the small form of my sister standing on the bedroom balcony, her hands on her hips as she tilted her head.

  “Evie still wakes with the chickens.” The frown Rey wore made the grin on my mouth split wider and the worried look she pretended she wasn’t hiding got irritated and anxious as she shot my sister a wave. I had to give her a push. “You better get going.”

  “Guess I better,” she said, stepping away, her long fingers on the hem of her skirt as she smoothed it straight. “Walk me back. She won’t scream at me if you’re there.” When I didn’t move fast enough, Rey tilted her head, curling her bottom lip under her teeth like she knew it made her look sweet and innocent—two things we both knew she wasn’t.

  “Fine,” I told her, taking one last swig from my can before I left it on the porch and gestured toward the small path that led away from the cottage. She took the pavers one at a time, waving her hand toward the sound of Evie clearing her throat the closer we came to the side of the house, then Rey slipped, or pretended to, just as my sister turned to move back into the house.

  Rey reached out and I caught her around the waist, getting a face full of her thick hair as she grabbed hold of my neck. “Oops,” she said, her mouth brushing my lips as she bumped against me, coming to straighten with a grin on her face that would shame the Cheshire Cat.

  “You’re a mess,” I told her, not able to keep the laugh out of my throat, letting it bubble inside my chest because it had been too damn long since I’d found anything funny enough to laugh, since a pretty woman made a fool of herself to pull a smile from me.

  We were near the house, coming to the paddock, a few yards from the horse barn when that laughter died on my tongue and the smile Rey Rigby had worked so hard to get, flattened to something bitter and cold.

  “Oh hell…” I heard her say, walking ahead of me a few paces when I stopped at the fence surrounding the paddock.

  The horse was large, beautiful, and it trotted along the fence line, prancing like it knew it had an audience, but I forgot horses like that needed attention, usually a rider. And this pretty girl had one.

  Piper stepped back, glancing at the animal, her grip loosening from the reins, her fingers shaking before she curled them into a ball. Then she went perfectly still, and her mouth straightened into a firm line, her cheeks going red, her eyebrows bending together and the line of her mouth pulling down as she stared right at me.

  Piper

  The Appaloosa was a pretty girl with a dominate coat so brown it was almost black and a spatter of white covering her back legs, rump and belly that reminded me of dark, quiet nights looking up at the sky, staring at nothing, letting my mind wonder.

  Not that I did much of that anymore.

  I called her Stardust, Dusty for short, because the name seemed fitting, and I tried not to worry much over the look Evie served me when Alex asked why I’d given my new horse that particular name. I didn’t volunteer a damn thing. Not that there was much to tell. My brother and his wife didn’t know much about me and stargazing or how often I liked to do it. Only one other person did, and I figured he wouldn’t be telling them a damn thing about it.

  It was Dusty and working out the limp she had in her hind leg that had brought me out to my brother’s place so early this morning. I meant to tend to her, get her sorted before Alex or Evie had made it to the breakfast table, which I knew always came early. So when I headed to the paddock and had my girl moving into a good trot and spotted Evie’s number shooting across the screen, I figured my timing was off. If I didn’t know her better, maybe Evie was calling to rub salt in the wound that Crystal and Rey had thrown her a birthday party yesterday and no one had bothered to shoot me an invite. But Evie wasn’t petty. She wasn’t outright mean. I knew better.

  Still, seeing the frilly signs with tiny flowers in the corners were still at the road and along the front porch, and deflated green and white balloons swept along the railings and hung from the screen door stung a little bit. Bet there was still cake. Wila’s on Tenth Street made the best cakes in town. Likely, it was Evie’s Auntie Queenie doing the baking. My mouth watered just thinking about that buttercream frosting.

  I hadn’t expected a friendly greeting. Evie and I didn’t do those anymore, considering our friendship had been removed from the table the day she sided with her brother.

  But I never expected the warning I got from my sister-in-law.

  “Evie?” I asked, repressing a yawn as Dusty neighed and moved through the tender step.

  “You gotta get out of here.” No sweet morning welcome. No get the hell off my property. Just that hurried, “Seriously, you might want to hustle.” It was the most Evie had spoken to me in five years.

  “Do what?”

  “I mean it. You’re gonna want to leave right now.”

  Dusty trotted around me, and I gave her little notice. My attention was on my sister-in-law’s voice and the nervous tone that made her sound winded and a little worried. “Why on earth would I want…”

  “Piper…” she started, speaking loud enough, her voice sharp enough that my own worry rose like a wave.

  “Is it…”

  “You should know what it is.” The sigh she let loose crackled into the receiver and I went still, holding my breath as Evie cleared her throat. “Ed’s out and he’s home. Here. He’s staying with us.”

  The air froze in my chest and the grip on my cell pinched the plastic into the tips of my finger
s. “What in the hell do you mean…”

  “You should have told us you’d be at the barn.” There was no hint of sympathy in her tone, but then, there wouldn’t be. Evie was loyal to her brother. Had been this whole time. So had my brother. “Alex would have told you to keep away.”

  Behind me, Dusty nudged at my back and the frigid sensation tightening my chest turned sharp, melting, and anger bubbled inside me.

  “The hell do you mean he’s back? How can he be back?”

  “You know his conviction was overturned.”

  “Daddy said…”

  “Doesn’t much matter what your dad said.” There was movement on the other end of the line, sounded like a rush of feet, heavy heels moving around hardwoods and in the background, I could make out my brother’s voice. Whatever he said, Evie didn’t listen, shushed him to finish telling me off. “Like I’ve been saying for five years, my brother is innocent. And he’s here. Right now.”

  It was the same line of bull Evie and Alex had been trying to feed me since the day they led Ed out of the courtroom. Lies. Made up fairytales they wanted to be true. At first, I understood. They loved him. They trusted him. But the evidence had been right there. In his truck.

  He’d told me he loved me, then he robbed me blind.

  “I swear to God…”

  “It isn’t the time for a fight, Piper…” On the other side of the phone, Evie’s feet were running now, shooting down steps and her voice was winded. “He hasn’t come up to the house yet, but it would be best if you settled Dusty and get on. We’ll make arrangements to move her if you want.”

  “You kicking me out?”

  “You want to risk the chance of running into my brother?”

  The words “Ed’s out” were still bouncing around in my head with Evie’s hurried, anxious tone warning enough for me to realize her fear was likely reserved for him, not me. She wasn’t a woman who liked drama, and Ed and me in the same place after so long, considering how badly things were the last time we saw each other was a recipe for drama.