“There was a letter on the doormat, and I bent to pick it up.”
The sheriff turns around and looks beyond us to the hills in the distance.
“Cody, you and Jack head up into those hills, check the area out.” Sheriff Holt glances at me. “I have a feeling, like with your dad, we aren’t going to find squat.”
Both men jog back to their cruiser and drive off in a cloud of dust.
“What makes you say that, Sheriff?” asks Kyle.
“Whoever fired that shot tied some red ribbon to the sapling, to check windage. He knows what he’s doing.”
Kyle nods. “Yeah, I saw it but didn’t pay it much attention.”
Sheriff Holt nods. “And why would you?” With his hands on his hips, he turns to me. “I think it’s time you came into town. I’m not having you hurt Beth.”
I shake my head. “Nope. Got too much to do around here.”
“Elizabeth Trent, it’s too dangerous for you to be out here alone,” orders the sheriff.
“I’m not alone. I have Kyle here with me.”
Sheriff Holt eyes Kyle. “You one of those bikers?”
“Not sure what you mean, Sheriff.”
“Are you an outlaw, son?”
Kyle bursts out laughing. “No, sir. I came here looking for my brother. I didn’t come looking for trouble.”
“Seems like it found you, though, didn’t you?”
Kyle nods. “I’m not here to cause anyone any problems.”
I don’t like the way the sheriff is looking at Kyle, so I interject. “Sheriff Holt, do you think it’s the same man who killed my daddy?”
The sheriff purses his lips and nods. “Seems that way.” He turns back around and points at the door. “Going to have to try and find the slug. It’ll be somewhere in your house, Beth. We’re going to need to have a look around...” The man pauses and casts a sideways glance at me. “I’d sure be happier if you came into town tonight.”
Beside him, Kyle nods, and I feel like I’m being ganged up on. To appease them both, I nod. “How about I think about it?”
The sheriff claps his hands and marches down the stairs. “Sounds fair.” He keeps walking until he meets up with the other two deputies, and although I can’t hear what he’s saying from all the gestures, he is giving out orders.
“You know he’s right. You should stay in town.”
“Wasn’t me he was shooting at,” I reply.
“Right.”
“Do you know where Sean is?”
The scowl on Kyle’s face deepens. “No.” He nods toward the front of my property. “You’ve got company.”
I look up and see Myles Graham’s shiny new truck coming toward us.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
Kyle quirks an eyebrow. “Friend of yours?”
“Used to be.” I sigh and jog down the stairs with Kyle right beside me. “We used to date. He’s buying the ranch.”
“Think he’s the one who shot at me?”
“No. At least I don’t think so. I’m kind of a mess where he’s concerned.”
“My brother has a way of confusing people.”
I look up at him but keep walking. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Without looking at me, Kyle says, “Sean has a way of worming his way into your heart, and it’s hard to blame him for anything. Something tells me you like my brother. Be warned, Beth, he won’t be caught easily.”
He won’t be caught period.
Once the ranch changes hands, I’m gone.
I keep walking toward Myles who’s face clouds over when he sees Kyle. Myles slams on the brakes and climbs out of the vehicle. He strides toward me, and when I’m within touching distance, he pulls me into his chest.
“Thank God, you’re all right. I don’t know what I would have done if anything had happened to you.” Myles buries his face into my neck and inhales deeply.
Feeling a little uneasy, I place my hands on his chest and push him back slightly. “I’m okay. They weren’t shooting at me.”
Myles leans back but doesn’t let me go, and his gaze goes to Kyle. “They took a shot at you?”
His tone is accusatory, and from the look he’s giving Kyle, I’m amazed he doesn’t drop dead on the spot.
“Actually, I think they thought I was my brother.”
Myles’ gaze comes back to me. “The other guy? The biker?” He drops his hands and steps back. “What is it with these guys? Bikers? Beth, what has gotten into you?”
Kyle steps in front of me and puts a hand to Myles’ chest and pushes him back. “Nothing has gotten into Beth. I think she can read people well. Beth seems to be the kind of woman who can size you up fairly easily, like, for instance, if you’re being an asshole.”
I can’t help it, I laugh. Both men stare at me, and I lose it. Laughter bubbles up out of me, I stumble away, and I keep going until I reach my kitchen, where I grip the sink and try to stop. After a while, I realize Kyle has followed me inside.
I glance at him. “Sorry. It’s a reflex. Poor Sean got me on a bad day, and I dissolved into tears. I did it to him in town, too.”
Kyle nods. “Bet he didn’t care.”
I grin at him. “No, he handled me well.” I push my hair out of my face and lean against the sink. “I was embarrassed as hell, but you’re right, he was there with me and didn’t seem to mind.”
“You’re friend is gone.”
“He’s not my friend, not anymore.”
Kyle cocks his head to the side. “How long do you think the law will be here?”
“We’ll be here as long as it takes,” answers Sheriff Colt.
I look past Kyle, and he’s standing behind him, looking concerned.
“I have a ranch to look after, Sheriff. Do you mind if I go check on my horses?”
“You go right ahead, Beth. Maybe you could go help her?”
“I intend to, Sheriff,” replies Kyle as he crosses his arms over his chest.
“Good. And Beth… Myles is gone. Don’t reckon he’ll be back anytime soon,” Sheriff Holt states.
“Good.” The sheriff’s eyes widen, but he says nothing. “I’m going to do some work,” I reply frostily.
With Kyle at my side, we walk out across the paddock to the barn. The temperature of the day is starting to climb, but as we enter the building, you can feel it get cooler.
“You two okay?” asks a voice from above, scaring me half to death.
“Yes!” I yelp.
Kyle chuckles and sidesteps me to walk further into the barn. He looks up at the loft area, and Cutter’s head emerges over the edge.
“Thoughts?”
“We need to find Sean. Whoever wants him dead is smart.”
“How do we do that?” I ask.
Kyle looks at me. “His old unit is being picked off one by one. Sean would be doing reconnaissance work, but from what we can gather, there’s only him and Norman Brittle left. I vote we go play Norman a visit.”
“Do you know where he is?” I ask.
“Angus did some digging before he went radio silent. He sent me an email with all the addresses of Sean’s unit.” Kyle looks up at Cutter. “Stay hidden until the sheriff is gone. I don’t want you getting arrested.”
“Sure thing, Prez.”
“As soon as the law is gone, we are, too. You want to come?”
The question startles me for a moment, and then reality hits home. “I can’t abandon the horses or the ranch.”
“That’s not a no. Can anyone look after it while you’re gone? You got neighbors you could ask?”
“It was hard enough getting a ranch hand. I can’t imagine my neighbors would do it for nothing.”
“So pay them. Come with us. I don’t like leaving you here alone. It’s too dangerous. Besides, I have a feeling Sean would kick my ass if anything happened to you.”
“I was safe before you lot turned up.”
“Not with a dead father, you weren’t,” interjects Cutter from above.
I scowl up at him because I know he’s right. Letting out a frustrated breath, I look down at the floor.
“Is there anyone at all you could ask?”
I nod. “Yeah, there is. A neighbor, but he never liked my dad. He’s always been nice to me, and he came to Dad’s funeral, but I don’t know.”
I raise my eyes to Kyle.
“I could ask him.”
“He won’t know you. He’ll say no,” I reply.
“I can be persuasive.” There’s a glint in his eyes I’ve never noticed before, almost as though he wants to do it to prove me wrong.
“Okay, give it a shot. I point north. He lives that way. His name is Gus Pinkerton, and he’s an ornery old coot.”
Kyle nods. “Okay, I’m off to deal with him unless you need help in here?”
“Nah, you go ahead. It won’t take me long to muck out the stables.”
“Okay. I’ll be back soon.” And with that, Kyle leaves the barn.
I look up at Cutter, who has a frown on his face.
“What?”
“He shouldn’t be riding alone. If something happens to him, my brothers might kill me.”
“Sounds kind of drastic. Surely, they’d understand?”
“Welcome to the Loyal Rebels MC. Where we treat you like family until you fuck up, and then you have to prove yourself.”
“What did you do?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
I grin up at him. “Right, of course, it doesn’t. Okay, I’m cleaning out the stalls. You have fun up there.”
Men and their secrets.
Honestly, I’ve had enough of them to last me a lifetime.
Kyle
Beth was right. The old guy next door drove a hard bargain, but in the end, he agreed to look after the ranch until Beth got back for a hefty price. The one thing I do know is it’s coming out of Sean’s end, not mine.
The sheriff and his men took the better part of five hours to turn the house upside down. In the end, he did the whole ‘don’t leave town,’ but I have no intention of staying. I’m sitting on the third last step of Beth’s house, waiting for her to come out.
Cutter is pacing in front of me, eager to be gone.
The screen door opens and slams, and the sound of Beth coming down the stairs has me looking over my shoulder. She’s dressed in a black leather jacket, jeans, a red T-shirt and her work boots. Her hair is pulled back and plaited down her back.
“Took you long enough.”
“I wasn’t sure what to pack,” she says as she holds up a backpack. “So, in the end, I did the basics… T-shirts, two more pairs of jeans, underwear, and toiletries.”
“Can we go now?” asks Cutter.
“Sure.” I stand. “Beth, you can ride with me.”
“What about Sean’s bike?”
“What about it?”
“You’re going to leave it here?”
“Are you saying you can ride?”
“Of course, I can ride. I live on a ranch. We use ATVs all the time.”
“An ATV is not a Harley,” replies Cutter.
With an exasperated sigh, Beth joins us at the bottom of the stairs. “You forget, Sean left me his keys. Clearly, he trusts me to ride it.”
“I do believe the note said only to ride it if you had to.”
Beth places her hands on her hips and looks at me. “How else are you going to get it home? I can ride. I’ll be fine.”
I cast a glance at Cutter, who shrugs.
“Fine, but if you drop his ride, that’s on you. Are we clear?”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake! I’m not going to drop his precious ride. Can we leave now?”
I quirk an eyebrow at her, bow slightly, and swing one arm wide. “After you.”
Beth walks toward Sean’s Harley putting on the backpack as we walk.
“Where are we headed?”
“Norman Brittle’s place.”
“Is that where you think Sean is?”
I nod and climb on my ride. “Yeah, well, at least it’s where I hope he is.”
“Did you try to phone him?”
“Brittle?” Beth nods. “No. If he’s after Sean, I don’t want to alert him.”
“Makes sense.”
I watch as she starts the bike, puts on her sunglasses, kicks up the stand, and gives it a little rev.
“I’ll lead, you follow, yeah?”
Beth nods and smiles slightly. “Yes, Prez.”
I chuckle and shake my head, then start the bike, and we all ride single file—Beth, then Cutter, and then me. When we get to the end of her very long driveway, I stop, and she pulls up beside me.
“You ready?” I ask her.
“Yeah.”
“You need to stop, you pull alongside me and let me know. Cutter will be behind you, keeping an eye out. We’ve only got a few hours of daylight left, and we need to make the most of it. We’ll find somewhere to sleep at night. Be safe and don’t do anything stupid.”
“I won’t.”
I nod at her and turn down her street, headed for the open highway.
It takes us the better part of two days to get to Norman ‘Scope’ Brittle’s house. Beth rides up beside me and motions for me to pull over. I do, and Cutter pulls in behind her. Beth climbs off the Harley and bends over stretching her tired muscles. It’s late Thursday afternoon. Darkness is slowly creeping into the world, but even in the diminished light, I can see Cutter’s eyes glued to her ass.
“You okay?” I ask.
Beth nods while she places her hands above her head and stretches some more. There are no houses around us as Scope lives outside of town surrounded by trees and silence.
“Hear me out.” Beth places her hands on her hips. “I think I should be the one to go knock on his door. I’m a woman and less of threat.”
“No,” I state vehemently, and Cutter agrees with a firm nod.
“No offense, but you guys are scary looking. If he is the guy, I’ll have a better chance of getting him out in the open than you two.”
“Sean would kick my ass. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you go in there alone.”
“Kyle, you need to think about this. You two will be there.” She glances at Cutter. “You’ll be there from a distance, and I’ll have my cell on.
Cutter and I exchange a look, and he nods once, so I know he thinks it’s worth the risk, but I still don’t like it. Pursing my lips, I scowl and stare her in the eyes. “You have your cell turned on. If I think there’s anything, and I mean anything that sounds hinky or fucked up in any way, I’m coming in. Got it?”
“You got it, Prez.”
Beth climbs back on Sean’s bike and rides the short distance to Scope’s house. I have the cell pressed against my ear, listening for anything that sounds remotely dangerous. The motorcycle goes silent, and moments later, I hear her knocking on the front door.
Beth’s voice breaks the silence, and I release the breath I didn’t realize I was holding.
“He’s not here. No one’s been here for months. There‘s a letter here from two months ago.”
“We’re coming in.” I hang up on her and start my bike, and Cutter does the same.
Beth is leaning against the front of Scope’s house as we pull up. I dismount, stalk past her and kick in Norman Brittle’s front door.
Cutter takes one look at Beth’s face and bursts out laughing.
“Well, you said he wasn’t here.”
“I know, but did you have to kick in the front door, Kyle?”
I continue inside the home. Beth peers in, looking like a little kid who got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Scope’s house is small but clean, there’s not a thing out of place. Dishes are draining on the sink, and a wooden cross is nailed to the wall in the living room. Nothing to indicate he’s a murderer.
“You’re right. No one’s been here in a very long time.”
I catch Beth giving Cutter a hard stare.
“What?” she asks him
.
“You took a risk coming here by yourself. What if Scope had been here? What if he had murdered your father? Chances are he’d know who you are, and he would have hurt you.”
Beth shakes her head slightly. “Yeah, but he wasn’t here. I didn’t get hurt. No harm, no foul.”
I know she’s right, but if he had been here and if had hurt her, that would have been on me. Opening a kitchen drawer, I go through the contents. Beth and Cutter venture into the bedroom. After a while, I look in on them, noticing the bed is made, and nothing appears out of place. The closet is open, and there are only a few items of clothing hanging in it.
“There’s nothing here. The man’s a ghost,” states Beth.
I walk outside. There’s mail strewn from one end of the porch to the next. The whole place looks like it hasn’t seen any visitors in a long while. It’s then I notice the pile of newly drilled- out wood shavings in the corner of the porch, and in the corner of the ceiling, there are no spiderwebs. It’s as if they’ve been swept away. I reach up and find a camera. It’s one of those small pen ones. Hell, if they’d swept the pile of shavings away, I would never have found it.
“What are you looking at Prez,” asks Cutter.
I turn around and point. “Seems Scope isn’t as gone as we thought he is. Everyone, wave at the camera.”
Beth surprises me by walking up to it and giving it the finger. I can’t help it as laughter rises out of me, and Cutter laughs too.
Beth stomps down the path toward her bike and leans against it. “Now what?” she asks.
Glancing at the house, I say, “It’s late. Let’s go back into town, get a room, and try and decide what our next move should be.”
Sean
I wake up to Angus shoving me. “What the fuck, man?”
“You’re not going to believe this! Guess who showed up at Scope’s house?”
“The fucking tooth fairy? I have no idea.” I scrub a hand over my face to clear my head. “Why don’t you just tell me?”
Angus is bouncing on the balls of his feet, clearly excited. “Kyle, Cutter, and Beth.”
At the sound of Beth’s name, I sit up straight.
“Beth? Kyle brought Beth here. Is he crazy?”
“I know you’re upset, but don’t you see this is a good thing? With Kyle here, we can cover more ground.”
Spark of Vengeance: MacKenny Brothers Series Book 2: An MC/Band of Brothers Romance Page 9
