At Long Last; Book 4 of the Long Ranch Series

by Michel Prince

  “And he let you drive?”

  “In the pasture.” Her sister’s head shot up. “Nowhere near where they are building stuff or any houses. It’s empty land. Worst I could do would be to run over a bush.”

  “And did you?”

  “It came out of nowhere,” she said with her palms upturned. “Even Miles was surprised.”

  “I bet.” Ashleigh drank from her cup that had finally cooled.

  “You gonna marry him?” she asked. “Because the ranch is fun.”

  “The ranch is dangerous,” Ashleigh warned. “There are poisonous snakes, scorpions and coyotes.”

  “So? They have them here too.”

  “Yeah, well not as many.”

  “If you marry him would I still live with you?”

  “Where did all this marriage talk come from?”

  “Nessa said she hopes all of her cousins get married soon before she’s too old to be the flower girl. If I’m not the flower girl at your wedding, what would I be?”

  “Pump your breaks there Sierra. Let’s get through today before you start marrying off your old maid of a sister.”

  Ashleigh went back to her bedroom to get dressed. No reason not to be a little early. It would give her time to drop off her resignation and let Hamilton know she wouldn’t be in court with him at nine.

  Sierra’s boss said he understood, but would miss her when Ashleigh went in with her. “You’re still going to give me a good two weeks right? No skimping because you’re heading out the door,” he said as Ashleigh got a pastry and another boost of caffeine.

  “No sir.” She beamed as she tied her apron and scampered off to the back.

  “I’m gonna miss her around here,” he admitted, the confession stopped Ashleigh from cutting and running. “She’ll always have a place for her here, if things don’t work out at the new job.”

  “Thanks that will help take some of the worry off of me. It’s an experiment I’m not sure I’m ready for.”

  “She’s overdue. Especially, since she’ll be able to drive to work.”

  “Did she say that?” Ashleigh let out a laugh. “Now that’s not the way I heard it, but I’ve got to stop babying her, that’s for sure.”

  Ashleigh sat in the parking lot of her office and counted back from ten. Officially, the office didn’t open until eight, but that was the public doors. She could go in at any time and saw the Hamilton’s car was parked a few spots away. He was in there. She hadn’t learned what Paul Truman, the new DA drove. In the cup holder for her car was a wilting pale purple rose. Cradling it in her hand, she brought it to her nose and inhaled the scent that had surrounded her for the weekend. It was from Miles’ boutonnière.

  With a smile and blush, she remembered the feel of it as he traced her belly and brought it to her hardened nipples. Twirling the petals as she arched her back. His lips surrounded the other one and she groaned. His free hand had been on her hip, but soon it was between her thighs probing and circling her core. She called out with too many parts of her being teased all at once.

  Bang! Bang! Bang! Hamilton’s loud knocks on her window made her jump out of an orgasmic memory. Turning her car back on, she lowered the window. “Can I help you?”

  “Are you driving?” he asked and she looked at the clock. Nerves and too much time in la-la land had her ticking off the minutes she should have used for her resignation. “No, I need to go speak to Mr. Truman I won’t be able to help you with the trial.”

  “That’s not funny,” Hamilton said as she put her window back up and shut off her car. When she started walking to the office, Hamilton was on her tail like he was a puppy and she had a porterhouse. “Ashleigh, I know you’ve been saying I don’t have a case, but it’s not like it’s a reflection of you if I lose. And I’m not going to lose. You just don’t understand the law fully.”

  Turning on her heel, she came to a full stop making Hamilton run into her. “I’ve been working in the field of law for over a decade, which if I do the math right, is more than half what you have.”

  “But you’re not a lawyer, see there are nuances—”

  “Good thing, the Longs demanded a jury trial then, because what ever made up laws you’ve concocted in your brain, no sane human would see or comprehend.”

  “Okay, that is a battle I think I can win.”

  “Can you? If I can’t see it, no one else will.”

  “Miles Long killed someone and either Henry or Clevon Long killed the other man.”

  “Not necessarily and if the defense is smart enough to see one of the guns dropped on the floorboard was the kill shot for Yahir, they won’t be convicted either.”

  “What is with you and this family?”

  Ashleigh held her hands up. “Look, I didn’t want to tell you this until after I talked to Mr. Truman, but I need to recuse myself from this case. When I was working with you I didn’t have a personal relationship with the Longs outside of Harper, but even we stopped talking. I spent the weekend at the Long ranch and I can no longer be unbiased.”

  “You haven’t been unbiased this whole time,” Hamilton snarled. “From the first day, you’ve been saying to drop this.”

  “I helped you,” Ashleigh countered. “I got the confession to stay. Without me, you wouldn’t even have a case. We’re in a state that was formed around vigilante justice. Every few days, gunshots are fired at the Longs from the road. It’s to the point they had armed guards at Melody’s wedding to keep the thugs Federated keeps sending away from them. You can’t tell me that is okay.”

  “Have you ever wondered what these people do to piss off their neighbors, so much?”

  “They win, something most people can’t do and that makes them hateful. They don’t look at the work that is put in to the win, they hate because they only see the end result. You know that feeling all too well, don’t you Hamilton.”

  “Winning,” he mocked. “I plan on it. And if I find out you leaked privileged documents—”

  “I lost my best friend for two months to make sure I didn’t leak anything. If anything, you’re to blame for me quitting today. Dig up dirt on the Longs,” she huffed. “All I did was discover a family anyone would be proud to be a part of. Now if you don’t mind, I need to turn in my resignation.”

  “You’re leaving too now, so maybe I need to have the Longs investigated for having a cult down there. It’s kinda weird they all live on the same property. How many guns do they have?”

  “Now you’re just a moron,” Ashleigh pushed past him as she found her way to June’s desk. “Is Mr. Truman in yet?”

  “He’s with a Sam Trunket about some sort of matter.”

  “Campaign finance?” Ashleigh asked as she shook her head.

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  “Like you didn’t know with Art? Come on June, you’re not stupid.”

  The older secretary leaned forward causing her ample bosom to be smushed against the wood. “He was a friend of the victim for Hamilton’s case. That’s all I know.”

  June sat back quickly when the door opened and Mr. Truman stood with Sam Trunket in all his glory. The killer smile, charisma and honed people skills most would kill for.

  Maybe Sam had killed before. She had no way of knowing.

  “Tell me something, how do you get so many beautiful women to work in your office,” Sam beamed as he shook Mr. Truman’s hand.

  “They came with it thankfully.” He looked directly at Ashleigh. “Is there something I can help you with Ms. Wood? Aren’t you supposed to be leaving for the courthouse soon?”

  “That’s why I’m here can I have a minute?”

  “Hope it’s nothing too bad,” Sam asked as he gave her a look that made a chill run down her spine.

  Pulling out her phone when they got into the office, she scanned hoping to see if there was something she’d missed. With no notifications, she had to calm herself and let the gooseflesh go down on its own, still something picked at the back of her brain.

 
; “Can I help you?” Mr. Turner asked and she came back from her conspiracy stacking brain.

  “I need to turn in my resignation,” she said absently as she sent a text to Miles.

  “Please look at me when you talk. You know I hate those necessities. There was a time when people talked to each other and looked them in the eye.”

  “I’m sorry it’s just something Sam said,” she explained as she tucked her phone away.

  “Mr. Trunket?”

  “He said what we were going to talk about, he hoped it wasn’t too bad.”

  “And?”

  “What was he talking to you about?” she asked.

  “I don’t see how that is any of your business.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He brought up the Long property and wanted to know how his company might acquire it to help the family out, since they’d had so much loss lately.”

  “And what exactly did you tell him?” she asked knowing Sam’s plans had nothing to do with helping the Longs. With a fourth of the solar panels up, they’d already started to drain Federated Gas’s income. Tender Root’s local electric company contracted to purchase their power from DEC and would be for years to come.

  “Sit down Ashleigh, I think I need to play catch up with you. Before Hamilton, you were Harper Maxwell-Long’s paralegal almost exclusively weren’t you?”

  “Almost, not totally,” she admitted as she sat in one of the two chairs opposite his desk.

  “Did you help with the federal charges?” he questioned.

  Now Ashleigh wished she knew him better. Two minutes ago, Sam Trunket had been sitting in this chair more than likely. There’s no way Winnie Lasiture wanted to appoint a DA that might be corrupt into a seat recently vacated by indictment. “I like to follow trails. I see breadcrumbs where they might not be sometimes.”

  “And Sam just dropped a loaf of bread at my front door.”

  “Why was he really here?”

  “Land, he represents a company that is interested in trying to help the rancher’s effected by the recent environmental damage.”

  “He works for Federated Gas.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “When Harper was in Mexico she met him trying to stop the cops from extraditing Julio Vasquez. Then he came here trying to get him off saying he wasn’t a lawyer, but a concerned party. And he’s the one that claimed the two bodies after the courthouse shooting.”

  “Every time I speak to Hamilton, he says his case is solid.”

  “He tends to live on a loop. The case is crap.”

  “The ballistics prove they were shot by the Longs, right?”

  “Yes, and no.”

  “No?”

  “The coroner can’t exclude a bullet that appears to of come from the driver on the passenger Yahir. It was under the rib cage and would have caused him to bleed out quickly. That’s what Yahir did when they tried to kill Harper. A body was found and it wasn’t his.” Ashleigh’s leg was bouncing up and down as she looked down at her still blank phone. “I need to get to the courthouse. Something is wrong.”

  “I’m sure Hamilton is probably fine by himself.”

  “Not for Hamilton. I told him on the way in I had to recuse myself for personal reasons.”

  Mr. Truman waved his hands in front of his face. “Wait a minute. Has this whole office lost it?”

  “This case should have never come to trial. And now that it is, the good guys being targeted.”

  “I thought we were the good guys?”

  “We can be,” she challenged. “But not on this case. It reeks of Art Connelly and we both know that is not a good thing.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Gunshots had finally died down at the Long Ranch. At least enough that the families could start gathering themselves, Miles had tried to call Deputy Andy who was on duty last night. What a sad thing it was to need twenty-four hour protection on their own land. Sure, they took their own patrols, but you never knew where they were going to be hit. Six houses, four barns and over a dozen people, targets were easy to come by.

  “How many windows did they get?” his father asked as they pulled Harper and his mother out of the closet they’d hid them in.

  “All but the front ones. They had to come in from the pasture to get the back windows,” Monty replied.

  All of them felt a combined fear.

  “Mel and Sunny,” his father said as they all ran outside to find every tire had been slashed on their vehicles. Their weapons were still drawn as they scanned the area. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “They even flattened the spares,” Monty said as he popped up from behind his pickup.

  “I’m going to radio Sunny’s and Clay’s. There’s a chance they weren’t hit.” Miles took off into the house and used the only form of communication that didn’t fail them. He prayed his sister hadn’t turned her receiver off. No one was supposed to at this time. Too much was going on and when he saw the sun starting to crest the horizon, he saw his family losing more than windows. How were they going to get to the courthouse on time? Their bail was partially tied to the ranch. They could lose everything. “Sunny. Sunny come in.”

  “Not really a good time,” he replied with a crackle.

  “You’re house was hit too.”

  “Yes and if that damn prosecutor tries to pin this murder on me defending my land he’ll get more than my boot up his ass.”

  “Murder?”

  “I winged a guy. I assume he bled out quick because there seems to be a lump on the road.”

  “Is Mel okay?”

  “Shaken, but not even a scratch. Thank God she was in the shower when it started.”

  Miles made the sign of the cross as he saw his mother and sister-in-law with their faces drawn. “You’re truck able to run?”

  “Nope, they got my truck and Mel’s car. I should have put on a garage.”

  “Stay safe, we’ll try to get you guys from there.”

  “What about us?” Clayton called over the radio. “I only have one gun.”

  “Keep it loaded. Hey Walt and Uncle Clevon what’s happening at your houses?”

  The reply had all of them gathered around the CB radio as if it were an old time one playing ‘Little Orphan Annie.’

  “This can’t be good. If they started at Clay’s, then Sunny’s they are probably on the way to Walt’s,” Miles reasoned.

  “Those poor babies,” his mother exclaimed and she held her hand to her face. “Please try a phone. You know they sleep with them sometimes.”

  “What are you jawing about this morning,” Uncle Clevon finally responded over the radio.

  “Clay, Mel and our house have all been hit,” Miles said. “Haven’t heard from Walt yet. Our tires have all been slashed too. If you can get over there, you might catch them. Either way, MeMaw needs to be put in a closet.”

  “What do you mean been hit?”

  “They shot out our windows after they slashed our tires. Sunny thinks he winged one. Unc you need to get out of the house.”

  “I’m on my way to Walt’s now.”

  The radio fell silent and Miles took in his family. Monty would need to stay. His father and he needed to get to the courthouse, but first they had to make sure Walt and the kids were okay.

  “I’m going to call Sheriff Rust,” Harper said. “Something had to have happened to Andy.”

  “We need to head out,” his father agreed. “Monty, keep talking with Sunny and Clay. Only move as a group until we get the all clear.”

  “And what do you think you’re about to do, Henry Long,” his mother cried and pointed her hand toward the front door. “You are not going out there with my baby.”

  His father wrapped his arms around his wife and began to softly whisper as she protested in his arms.

  Tears streamed down her face as she took his in her hands and began to lay kisses on his lips. She wasn’t scared to be in the house with Harper and Monty. She feared no longer h
aving him. Even though the road seemed clear, there was no way to be certain. The only thing they knew is his uncle was driving up on what could be a massacre at his cousin’s home.

  “Stay on that radio boy,” his father ordered. “Keep them in the center of the house. Don’t let them start cleaning up glass until we get the all clear from all five houses. I’m just glad you two haven’t moved into your house yet. The more we spread out the easier we are to target.”

  Miles feared his heart might burst as he and his father ran down the two miles to Walter’s home. Each noise had them dropping to the ground and crawling in the ditch beside the road. They didn’t talk outside of hand signals that somehow, they’d come up with in the last few moments. Crouching, they approached the front gate for the ranch and Walt’s house.

  “There you two are,” his uncle said as they came up on a sight Miles could have gone his whole life without seeing.

  The front windows were shot out. He could hear the horses kicking against their stalls trying to bust through and escape. On the porch, Tina stood dumb struck with Quinton in her arms and Nessa crying at her feet. Unable to get her parents to notice her wails, she took off toward Miles who scooped her up. Tears fell down her chubby cheeks that showed she was just a child who’d woken up to a nightmare, instead of from one.

  A shotgun was pointed to the ground in Walt’s hands. He was scanning the property feeling the same way the rest of them did. Overwhelmed. It was in that moment, Miles caught sight of the body under his uncle’s truck wheels. The grill of his pickup was smashed in from being hit at a high speed.

  Sirens called as dawn had officially come to the ranch. It was hitting seven in the morning and they still needed to find a vehicle to get them to the courthouse in time, even though every part of Miles told him to stay and protect his family. Passing Nessa off to his father, Miles made his way to the front gate where Deputy Andy should have been posted, but there was no sign of him. With his gun drawn, he continued to walk down the road toward town. It wasn’t until he saw Sheriff Rust that he lowered his weapon. No reason for a friendly fire incident even though he didn’t think Rust had it in him. Behind him was a trail with three other squad cars. Damn, the whole Tender Root police department was here along with an ambulance.