Lookin' for Trouble (Honky Tonk Angels Book 6)

by Ciana Stone

  "Well, in that case, I'll head over with you. Seeing as how I was the one who promised to help. Give me a minute to grab something to drink and I'll meet you at the truck."

  "Don't you want to stay and get cleaned up and have supper? Eloise said she was fixing fried chicken, and we were welcome."

  "Naw, I'll heat up something when we get back."

  He smiled to himself as he walked in the house, sure that if he looked back he'd see scowls on his sons' faces. Not that JD didn't trust them. They were good boys. However, at almost eighteen and puffed up with popularity, riding a high from the success of their football team and particularly the last game, they might be thinking more with their hormones than their brains.

  Last thing he wanted was for them to offend the Sweet girls. Billy Sweet, their father, was a good man and a good friend. JD would never forget Billy and his wife, Stella bringing over home-cooked meals when his wife died. Stella came over once a week, did laundry, cleaned and cooked until JD found a woman to come in once a week and do household chores.

  If the Sweets needed help, JD was more than willing. One thing his father had taught him was to always be willing to lend a friend a helping hand. JD followed that teaching. His father, Jason Weathers might have made mistakes in his life, but teaching his boys right and wrong was not among his shortcomings.

  So JD could wait for dinner and offer help. And he might keep his boys from making a darn fool of themselves over the Sweet girls.

  He grinned, grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator, and headed back out of the house.

  Briggs and Dawson talked the entire way to what used to be Billy's Bar and Barbecue. A month ago a tornado roared through town and took out half of the bar, along with damaging many other buildings in town.

  Repairs were under way, and while he hated to profit off the misfortune of others, his family appreciated the available work. His brothers, Bryson and Jayce, ran the family construction business, and it had been a month since they worked less than a twelve-hour day.

  When JD pulled up, he saw the entire Sweet family minus the youngest daughter KC, standing beside Billy's pickup. He and his boys got out and walked over to the family. "I hear you could use some help." JD said and shook Billy's offered hand.

  "Thanks to Cody." Hannah turned and slapped her hands on her hips. "She fired the entire crew we hired to tear it down."

  "There's stuff that can be saved." Cody argued. "Like that copper sink Daddy and Mama got in Mexico that was in the office bathroom. No reason to just bust it out and throw it away. And Daddy's desk and--"

  "We can buy new ones, Cody!"

  "Well why spend money you don't have to, Hannah? Damn, this stuff has meaning. It's not just a pile of rubble. This is part of our life."

  "I know it is, but it has to go."

  At those words from Hannah, Cody squared off at her sister, her hands going to her hips. "I'll decide what goes."

  "You?" Hannah stuck out her chin. "You? Who made you boss? Daddy gave this to both of us in case you've forgotten."

  "Yeah and I'm keeping the half of whatever the hell I want and if you don't like it then you can—"

  "Girls." Stella Sweet called out. "No need--"

  "Oh, there's need." Cody interrupted. "There's gonna be need for me to knock Hannah on her ass if she doesn't—"

  "Whoa Nellie!" Billy threw up his hands.

  "Daddy, she's making this impossible." Hannah said.

  "Me?" Cody pointed to herself. "I'm making it impossible because I don't want to save things that have meaning?"

  "Cody." Despite having to rely on his cane, Billy moved quickly to get between his daughters. "Don't go getting all riled up. Your sister is just eager to—"

  "To get rid of our life! Dad, this isn't just stuff – it's our stuff. Our life. I sat at that desk and did my homework, and carved my name in it, and –"

  "I know honey and I'm sure your sister didn't mean to imply that she didn't want to save those things. Right Hannah?"

  Hannah's arms went from her hips to cross in front of her and Cody mirrored the stance. JD bit back at smile. Two women, both with arms crossed over their chests, chins stuck out and fire in their eyes. It was clearly a battle of wills being acted out in front of an audience and he didn't know whether to be embarrassed for Billy and Stella or amused.

  He cut his gaze to Briggs and Dawson. They were both wide-eyed and taking it all in.

  "Right Hannah?" Stella echoed.

  Hannah looked from her father, to her mother and finally at Cody. "Fine. But you've got twenty-four hours to get whatever you want out and not one second longer and then I'm—"

  Her words turned to a scream as Cody started at her. JD watched as Hannah took off with Cody on her heels. When they made it to the parking lot and lit off down the street, Billy turned with a sigh. "Well, that was fun."

  "So, you're not gonna be working here tonight?" JD asked as he watched Hannah and Cody disappear from sight.

  "Don't look that way."

  "Okay, well listen, once Cody has all she wants from the place, give Bryson a call. I'll tell him to make time to get over here. If you want it bulldozed down and hauled off, he'll give you a decent price. You have my word on that."

  "I 'preciate that, JD."

  "Least I can do. Y'all have a good night and I'll tell Bryson to be expecting a call."

  "Thank you, Justice." Stella added.

  "Anything I can do, Stella. You know that."

  "I do. Tell your daddy we send our best."

  "I'll do that." He looked at his sons. "Okay, boys, let's head home."

  The moment they were in the truck, the boys started up. "Oh man, ten on Cody." Briggs said. "Hannah will never outrun her."

  "She was moving pretty good," Dawson argued.

  "Naw, those boobs will slow her down."

  "Boobs?" JD looked around Dawson, who sat in the middle, to Briggs.

  "Yeah. Hannah's got big boobs. I mean big and everyone knows that slows you down."

  "Cody's aren't small." Dawson said.

  "Compared to Hannah's they are. Besides, Cody's tough. She works the ranch and you remember last year at the founder's day thing when she punched that roustabout out who tried to cop a feel?"

  "I still say Hannah will escape. And even if she doesn't outrun Cody, Cody won't hit her."

  "What makes you so sure?" JD asked.

  "Cause she loves Hannah." Dawson said. "She's just mad at her right now. It's like me and Briggs. Sometimes I want to knock his teeth out, but I won't cause he's my brother, and it’s like you always said, Dad. Family is what matters. They're the only people you can count on in life."

  JD smiled. His boys sometimes surprised him, and this was one of those times.

  Chapter Two

  Jolene finished typing the last sentence of her notes and leaned back, staring at the screen of her laptop. Her latest assignment had proven to be more interesting than expected. She'd produced many pieces on cowboys, ranching families that spanned generations, mega-cattle stations, small family owned operations and every kind of rodeo cowboy known to man.

  Doing a documentary about a cursed ranching family was a horse of a different color.

  It hadn't started out that way. Originally, the assignment was a piece on Mik Morgan who married a rancher in North Carolina, Jed Nash. Mik reigned for three years as world champion barrel racer. Her brother-in-law, Jesse Nash was a four-time world champion all-around cowboy.

  Jolene had contacted Mik and Jesse and asked about doing an episode for her show on the cable network about their family. Since Mik ran a breeding and training program for roping and barrel racing horses, it would be good advertisement. CWL, Country Western Life Network was less than ten years old, but had a solid following that was growing each year.

  Eight years ago, Jolene had taken a job with them as an editor. Today she produced her own segments. She loved her work, even if it meant she was on the road with her crew seventy-five percent of the time. I
t wasn't like she had a husband or family to tie her down.

  Mik and Jesse had agreed, so Jolene and her crew had traveled to the Rocky River Ranch in Union County, North Carolina. The Nash family was generous to a fault and allowed her to stay in what they called the Lake House, a small house on the property overlooking a lake. She'd anticipated being there two weeks tops. Four weeks later she was about to wrap up this phase of what had turned out to be a two episode piece.

  To say the Nash family was interesting was an understatement. Aside from Mik and Jesse being rodeo champions, all the Nash men were horse whisperers. Actually they were more than that. Their abilities extended to people as well.

  Then there was the matter of the family curse. At first she’d been skeptical, but between her researchers, things that were a matter of public record and things she’d seen with her own eyes, Jolene found herself with more than a story about successful rodeo competitors who were also successful ranchers and breeders.

  She’d found a story about a curse that had started in the 1800’s and had not ended until three years ago. An added discovery was finding that Jed’s uncle who had run away from home before he was seventeen was still alive and living in Texas.

  It was a complicated piece with a lot to cover and it dominated most of her focus. Yet ever since she arrived, she had caught her mind wandering back in time to things she didn't want to dwell on. Why did being here on the Rocky River Ranch turn her thoughts to the past? Was it watching Mik and Jesse with the people they'd married, seeing their love and devotion and wondering why she couldn't seem to find that in her life?

  Of all the men who'd passed through her life, when she thought about loss why did her mind conjure up the image of a man with hurt in his eyes who walked away before there was a chance to see what might come of them?

  A knock on the door prompted her to get up to answer it. Mik stood on the porch with a six-pack of beer in one hand.

  "Hey Mik." Jolene stepped back and waved Mik in.

  "Figured you might be ready for a break. I know I am."

  "Me too. I just finished the last of my notes."

  Mik cut a look over her shoulder as she headed for the kitchen. "So you're finished? Where's the rest of the crew?"

  "They're packing the rig so we'll be ready to roll out in the morning. And yes, I am finished – at least with this part of the family." Jolene followed and when Mik put the six-pack on the table and pulled out one in offering, Jolene accepted.

  "So, you're definitely going to follow up on Jed’s uncle Jedidiah, I mean Jason Weathers?" Mik popped the top on a beer, took a swig, and put the rest of the six-pack into the refrigerator.

  "I am. I was hoping to hear from him today. I've talked to him half a dozen times over the last week and yesterday I had my research team UPS him all the documentation we could find about what happened when he was a teenager – before he left home."

  "Jed figured that might make him less than eager to be interviewed." Mik took a seat at the kitchen table.

  "Understandable." Jolene opted to lean against the kitchen counter, having been sitting for the last two hours. Jedidiah Nash had run away at the age of eighteen because of a fight he’d been in with another boy. The boy died and Jedidiah’s family feared he would go to jail.

  Until Jolene’s research team starting digging into it, the Nash family had assumed that Jedidiah had died. As it turned out, he had changed his name and was still alive today. "We found out there were no charges ever sought in the death of the Miller boy. In fact, from what we've been able to piece together, the boy he fought with was a well-known bully. Even his father knew it. I was able to track down an old newspaper article about it. According to the article, Jed's dad, Jacob said he fought that Miller boy."

  "You mean he ran away for nothing?"

  "I guess. Or fate. Who knows? But had he stayed he wouldn't have faced prosecution. I asked for copies of everything to be sent to him after I told him. I almost cried. He's spent his whole life hiding and carrying around guilt when he really did nothing wrong. It was an accident. He broke down when I told him."

  "I can't imagine what that must be like for him." Mik propped her feet up on a vacant chair. "Feeling like a fugitive all those years. It must be a little like being released from prison."

  "Or freed from a curse?"

  Mik smiled. "Yeah, that too. Which reminds me. What did you find out about his side of the family? Did their marriages end as miserably as Jed's fathers and the rest of the brothers?"

  Jolene downed a couple of swallows of her beer. "He hasn't given me much about that yet but I do know that he’s divorced and all of his sons as well, except for one who is a widower. I asked him if he or any of his sons ever dreamed about a woman getting hanged and I thought he'd hung up on me he took so long to respond."

  "So he knew about the curse?"

  "Yeah, he said he tried not to think about it if he didn't have to, but oh, he said he hadn't had the dream in a couple of years and didn't think his boys had either. I told him it was because you and your family ended the curse and he seemed happy about that.

  "In fact, he said he'd like to meet all of Jacob's boys and their wives."

  "We'd all like to meet him. Maybe we can work something out."

  "I hope so. Seems a shame to have family you don't know."

  "Amen to that, sister. So, what's next for you?"

  "If things work out with Jason, I'll be headed to Texas."

  "Texas? I thought he settled in Florida?"

  "Apparently only for a short time. He met a girl there, Alice, a Texas girl. He moved to Texas to be close to her. They ended up getting married and with the help of her family, he got his own place.”

  "I didn't know that. Interesting. So where in Texas?"

  "A place called Cotton Creek."

  "Never heard of it."

  "Me either. Anyway, we have what we need for the two segments on you, Jesse and the family here and the network wants me to do at least one segment on the Weathers side of the family. It's turning into a pretty big thing so I need Jed, Jake and Jesse to make damn sure they're okay with all of this coming out."

  "We had a family meeting and said they are. Jed said the truth is like water, no matter how hard you try to damn it up, it seeps through the cracks so you might as well let it flow."

  "I like that man of yours. You sure you want to keep him?"

  "Yeah, I think I'll hang onto him."

  "Don't blame you, girl. I swear I’ve never seen so many sexy men in one place. What’s up with that?"

  Mik laughed. "Yeah, the Nash men are fine for sure but I'm sure there are all kinds of fine men out there. With all the traveling you do, I'm surprised you don't have a cowboy in every city."

  Jolene shook her head and took a seat at the table. "I'm not into the love'em and leave'em scene. Well at least not anymore. I sort of was until I hooked up with – never mind, ancient history."

  "Oh no, no and hell no. You can't do that. Come on. It's just between us and it's not like I didn't make my share of mistakes before Jed."

  Jolene hesitated. She didn't have many close friends and rarely shared anything about herself, particularly emotional things. A little over three years ago, something happened that did affect her. It still did.

  "Jo? Listen, I'm sorry if I'm prying into things –"

  "No. No, it's fine." She fiddled with the beer bottle, scraping at the label. "About three years ago I was doing a story on this big auction in Texas. Heavy bidding on this one bull and I mean heavy. Anyway, my first night I stopped into this bar. Lots of cowboys as you might imagine, most of them there for the auction either selling or hoping to buy.

  "A fight broke out and this guy, this really big guy stepped in to stop it. As luck would have it, when he did, he shoved one of the men hard enough that he fell right into me. Knocked me right on my ass.

  "So, this big guy picked me up and apologized and …" She paused, remembering the shock that ran through her when their gaz
es met. "And I've never felt anything like it in my life. It was like being struck by lightning the attraction was so strong.

  "I guess he felt it, too. After a few drinks we ended up in my hotel room. God almighty was that a night. There was something in that man eating him alive. I could see it in his eyes and it damn sure came through in the way he tried to lose himself in sex. It was rough and wild and probably the hottest night of my life, but he never lost that anger, you know?

  "Anyway, for the next three days, we damn near ate each other alive. When I wasn't working, we were together -- in his bed, my bed, his truck or my car. It was insane – like he was trying to drown himself in me, hiding, or running from some demon that had such a hold on him he couldn't shake it.

  "I spent my last night there with him, and that night, for the first time, I caught a tiny glimpse of the man he was when his demon wasn't riding him and I swear it nearly broke my heart. He was so tender and gentle. I've never ever felt like a woman being worshipped but that night I did. Right before I fell asleep he kissed me, stroked my face and said my name with such tenderness and – and emotion, that I really thought I was falling in love.

  "When I woke, he was gone."

  "And?" Mik asked.

  "And I never saw him again, but I never forgot him either."

  "Who was he?"

  "Dylan."

  "Dylan what?"

  Jolene shrugged. "He never told me his last name or asked for mine."

  "And it affected you that much?"

  Jolene shrugged. "Remember you telling me that the first time you were with Jed you felt something you'd never felt before?"

  "Yeah."

  "Well it was kind of like that. I felt raw pain and anger in him – a lot of it, but there was also such sadness and yearning. Like a man looking for something he couldn't find, or hold onto. I felt it so strong it was almost tangible. And as silly as it sounds, I wanted to ease it. I've never experienced that before or since."

  "And that turned you off the one-nighters?"

  "Yeah. I tried hooking up a couple of times but didn't even make it through the dirty deed. I can't seem to forget his expression as he said my name. It's haunted me."