by Mary Leo
Kevin wanted to see the house now that she’d been cleaning it out. Plus, there were a few things in his old room that he wanted to get, so RuthieAnn drove him over along with Jayden, who refused to leave Kevin’s side. They’d bonded in just one day, and RuthieAnn couldn’t be happier.
“What is all this?” Kevin asked once RuthieAnn turned off the main road and headed up the long red-dirt road to their old house.
“I have no idea,” she said as they passed several pickups parked along the road, all filled with building supplies.
“Did you call in reinforcements or something?” Kevin asked as he sat up front in the passenger seat. Jayden was strapped into his car seat in the back, sucking on a juice box, perfectly content to drink and gaze out the windows. Jayden liked to be in the car more than almost anything else. Always did, ever since he was a baby and RuthieAnn couldn’t get him to fall asleep. She’d just pop him in his car seat and within a ten-minute drive, he was out.
He still reacted that way . . . most times . . . but not today. Not with his uncle Kevin in the car.
When the house finally came into view, RuthieAnn had to stop the car for a moment and they both just stared out the windshield.
“What the hell . . . I mean, what the heck is all this?” Kevin asked, correcting himself from swearing in front of Jayden. Jayden liked to repeat words, and RuthieAnn would rather they weren’t swear words. Kevin was trying to abide by her rule, but having lived on his own for the past several years, it was difficult for him to curb his language.
There must have been about fifty people swarming around the house. Some were pulling stuff out of the house, dumping what was obvious garbage, and stacking up everything else in one of those large mobile storage units. There were men up on the roof, on the porch, on the stairs, on the sides of the house, the front, and more people swarmed the barn.
“I think some of these people were at the memorial yesterday,” RuthieAnn said. “Friends of Dad’s that I never knew he had.”
“Chase’s brothers are here. Even Reese Jr. I think I know who’s responsible for all of this,” Kevin said, pointing. “Look who’s here? That guy’s generosity knows no bounds.”
“Did he tell you he was going to do this? I saw the two of you talking yesterday at the luncheon.”
“Never said a word.”
“What did you say to him?”
“We talked about school, my part-time job, and cra . . . junk. Nothing about his pulling any of this together.”
“Did he mention anything about me?”
“Not really. I just told him that you were working hard at the old man’s house and that it was more difficult than you thought it would be.”
“That’s all you needed to say, and now look at this. It’s insane. Who are these people?”
“Ranchers, shop owners, people who attended the memorial. I guess they all want to help out.”
“I can’t let them do that. I can’t let Chase do this. It’s too much.”
“Good luck with trying to stop him. Believe me, I’ve tried many times. Once he makes up his mind on something, there’s nothing that’s going to stop him.”
“We’ll just see about that. Stay here with Jayden,” RuthieAnn said as she got out of the car and headed right towards Chase.
She could hear her son calling out Chase’s name, but she ignored him, hoping that Kevin would distract him . . . which he did.
“What the hell is all this, Chase? Shouldn’t you have asked me about this first? What are they doing to my dad’s house?”
He spread his arms open. “What? No kiss? No, hello Chase? Nice to see you? Or thanks for putting this all together for me, Chase.”
“I won’t say any of that. You know how I feel about you going behind my back to do things for me that I didn’t ask for. The memorial is one thing, but this is way over the top.”
“Did you or did you not tell Kevin that you wished Clark’s house was like the picture?”
“What picture?” She knew exactly what picture, but she was stalling for time while she thought of a good comeback.
“The one Clark kept in his wallet.”
“I did, but that was just wishful thinking from a sad daughter after a long day of listening to stories about a man I barely knew.”
“Well, as the saying goes, your wish is my command. Actually, it was more my three brothers’ doing than mine. Draven, to be exact. He said he always felt guilty that no one did anything for you in high school when he learned that your mom died, so this was his way of making up for that time. Then we all pitched in and made a few phone calls and,” he swiveled around to gaze back at all the activity, “this is what happened.”
“It’s too late. They didn’t act then, and I don’t want their help now.”
He took a step closer to her. “I know you don’t mean that.”
She knew this was the old defensive RuthieAnn talking, but still she pushed on. “I do. I want everybody to stop and get off my land. Right now.”
Kevin came up behind her with Jayden in tow. “He wants to help.”
“That’s fine, but your sister here wants everyone to go home.”
Kevin turned towards her. “Why? This is, like, epic.”
Just then two guys around Kevin’s age walked up. RuthieAnn immediately recognized them: Jimmy Sanchez and Danny Quinn, Kevin’s best friends. They’d been at the memorial and the luncheon, but RuthieAnn never got the chance to talk to them. She wondered if they’d been in on this little house-coup even then.
“Hey guys,” Chase said. “Thanks for stopping by to help.”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Jimmy said. “Just want to help out any way we can.”
“Yeah. I’m pretty good with a hammer,” Danny volunteered.
“Me too. Me too. Help,” Jayden said, beaming, tugging on Kevin’s hand.
“I know you don’t want to disappoint Jayden,” Chase whispered. “You can’t send everyone home now. He won’t understand. Besides, sounds as if he wants to help out.”
“Help,” Jayden repeated, twirling around, nodding his head.
She gazed down at her son, knowing perfectly well that Chase was right. The disappointment would be too much for Jayden to handle and he’d go into one of his rages that might take all morning to quell.
“Fine, but just know that I didn’t ask for any of this.”
“You don’t have to,” Jimmy told her. “Chase and the Cooper brothers already did it for you.”
Chase shrugged, grinned, and everyone walked off toward the house as RuthieAnn looked on, realizing she was in so deep now that drowning was her only option. Why tell Chase at all? Did he really have to know the truth?
After all, at this point, what good could come of it? Kevin wouldn’t dare tell Chase what he knew about that morning, and Pearl would never betray her trust. They were best friends. So why not just keep it all a secret?
She would be leaving in a few days anyway, and once she was gone, everyone could just get on with their lives.
Simple as that.
“HE’S OUT AND HE’S looking for her,” Sheriff Gentry told Chase as they stood out in front of Clark’s house. “I have to tell RuthieAnn, but Pearl wanted me to tell you first.”
The sheriff, a tall lean man in his mid-thirties, with black hair, a rugged tanned face and a no-nonsense demeanor, had driven over right before Chase was about to leave to meet RuthieAnn and Kevin at the bank. They were going to check out Clark’s safety deposit box, and despite Clark not wanting Chase to be part of this, both RuthieAnn and Kevin had insisted he come along.
“But I thought this Lucky character would be locked up for a long time?” Chase argued, his stomach feeling like molten lava.
“And he would have been. The ruling is directed at prisoners serving no more than four years, but because of some kind of glitch or maybe because of a mistake in his paperwork, he was set free two days ago. I guess he’s named Lucky for a reason.”
Chase had a bad feeling ab
out this, deep in his gut. This guy was bad news . . . really bad news.
“How do you know he’s not hiding somewhere, enjoying his early freedom?”
“He wants to see his son,” Sheriff Gentry said. “Told just about everyone about it, even the guards.”
“Does he know where she lives?”
Sheriff Gentry nodded. “Went there first looking for her. Neighbors called it in. Somebody trashed her place. I figure it was Lucky, but we don’t have solid evidence yet. Unless she changes her identity, guys like him always seem to be able to track down whoever they want to find.”
Chase refused to accept the idea that this guy could terrorize RuthieAnn and Jayden at will. Weren’t there laws to hinder his movements? The guy was a felon.
“Can’t anybody stop him?”
“Not if we can’t get something on him, and so far we’ve got nothing. His sentence was commuted. He’s a free man. As long as he abides by the rules, he’s free to go wherever he wants. Nothing I or anybody else can do about it.”
“What about a restraining order? Can she get one of those?”
“She can, but if he wants to get to her, it won’t do any good. Besides, he’s the boy’s father. Any judge would probably give him visitation rights.”
Chase knew right off that RuthieAnn’s life had just changed for the worse. As long as Lucky knew her location, she wouldn’t have a moment’s peace.
“She’s going to run, and I’m not ready for her to leave. Not now.”
The thought of her leaving Wild Creek was almost more than Chase could withstand. As long as he could kick that reality down the road for a few more weeks, he thought he had a chance to convince her to stay. Lucky’s release just changed all that.
“She and her son are probably safe here. At least for now, but convincing her of that won’t be easy,” Tyler Gentry said.
A cold wind threatened to knock Chase’s hat right off his head. He tipped his head down and pushed against it. “Maybe if we’re all with her, she’ll listen. Kind of like that tough love thing.”
The sheriff held onto his own hat with a couple fingers, securing it on his head. “We can certainly try.”
“I can’t believe this,” Chase said, shuffling his feet, then gazing off into the distance. Wild Creek bordered lush green mountains on one side and dry, red-clay desert on the other. Chase preferred the long vista of the desert over the boxed-in feeling that the mountains gave him, which seemed to be closer from Clark’s place.
“It happens, prisons get overcrowded and unless you killed someone or raped a few people, there’s a chance you’ll get out early. Crazy how it works, though. Someone who’s in there for something minor like drug possession never seem to get released during one of these, but put a guy in there for assault charges and he’s the first one out. No real rhyme or reason that I can see. Politics mostly. Too bad, because someone like Lucky Mathis is bad to the bone. Won’t do nobody any good with him being back on the streets. This time, a guy like him might kill somebody.”
White heat shot up Chase’s spine. “And it won’t be RuthieAnn or Jayden if I can help it.”
The sheriff turned to Chase, his look intense, and his demeanor aggressive. “You can’t get involved in this, Chase. I’m just telling you so you’re aware. But if you’re thinking of confronting the bastard, that’s not your place and might get you killed. This guy has a rap sheet a mile long. His dad was just as bad. Died in prison, but not before he taught his son the ropes. Some things shouldn’t be passed down between father and son. Now, you mind what I’m saying, Chase. Let me handle this. You stay clear. Your mom recently buried her husband, she doesn’t need to be burying her son.”
“Whatever you say,” Chase said, but he had no intention of staying out of anything.
RUTHIEANN COULDN’T wait for Chase any longer. The bank would be closing in about ten minutes, and she wanted to get into Clark’s safety-deposit box today, while Kevin was still in town.
“Let’s do this,” she told Dotty Chin, the woman who escorted them back to Clark’s box.
Dotty was a woman of few words, and as soon as she and RuthieAnn turned their keys to open the box, she reminded RuthieAnn that the clock was ticking.
“You have eight and a half minutes,” she said, and left.
“That’s more than enough time,” Kevin told RuthieAnn as she peeked inside.
“Will you get a load of this,” she said, pulling out a stack of crisp one-hundred dollar bills. She handed the neatly bound stacks to Kevin, who proceeded to count them.
“What the hell? Where did he get all of this? I thought he was broke,” Kevin said while he counted. “The man never gave me a dime while he was alive. If it wasn’t for Chase giving me a job on their ranch when I was fifteen, and your money every month, I would’ve starved. Dad didn’t even buy food and there were plenty of months when I had to pay the utility bills. I spent most of my time with Jimmy and his family, especially in that final year when Dad didn’t even bother coming home anymore. Chase and Jimmy’s family more or less took me in or I would’ve been completely on my own. And that bastard had all this money in the bank? What the hell?”
RuthieAnn had no idea life had gotten that difficult for Kevin.
“I’m sorry it was so bad for you,” she said, giving him a shoulder hug. “I wish you would’ve told me. I’m sure I could have helped.”
“Nah. You had your own problems. Besides, I knew you were struggling to keep it together. You had school and Jayden. You didn’t need your seventeen-year-old brother dragging you down. I worked it out. I’m just mad at the old man for keeping all of this cash from us. We both could’ve used a little help. He really was a bastard, wasn’t he?”
“Down to his core. And apparently, this money is just one more thing we didn’t know about him.”
There were more pictures of the happy little family that she shoved into the paper bag she’d brought to hold the contents of the box, a few pieces of jewelry that she recognized, a copy of the will, the deed to the land, permits to build Clark’s house, and the letter addressed to her that Avery Templeton had told her about during their meeting, the one thing she’d been looking for. She didn’t take the time to really look at it or anything else, and instead just shoved everything into the bag.
“There’s twenty thousand dollars here,” Kevin said, his voice high with excitement. “Do you know what he could’ve bought with this? Where did he get all this money?”
“Maybe he saved it from his Social Security. Apparently, he got that as well. I found a couple uncashed checks at the house. Just stick it in the bag and we’ll divide it up later.” She held out the paper bag and he carefully slipped in the stacks of cash.
Just as Kevin dropped the last thousand-dollar bundle into the bag, Dotty Chin walked back into the room. “The bank is closing,” she announced without ceremony.
“We’re done. Thanks,” RuthieAnn told her without making eye contact.
Dotty handed RuthieAnn a white slip of paper. She and Kevin had asked for the balance on their bank account, the one Clark had put in their names, when they’d first walked in. Because they were short on time, Dotty had agreed to give them that information before they left.
Without looking at it, RuthieAnn handed the slip of paper to Kevin, figuring their dad probably didn’t even have enough to pay for his burial.
Kevin took the paper and as they followed Dotty out, Kevin said, “There must be some mistake here. This can’t be right.”
He tried to return the slip of paper back to Dotty.
“I don’t make mistakes. That’s the balance,” Dotty said and kept right on walking.
Kevin stopped. “But this can’t be right.”
“I assure you that it is, sir,” Dotty said. “Now if you’ll please follow me. The bank is closed.”
“What’s wrong?” RuthieAnn asked gazing over at Kevin who looked flushed. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I think I need to sit down.”
/> “There’s a bench right out front, sir. You can sit there.” She held open the glass front door for RuthieAnn and Kevin. Chase was just walking up as they exited.
Kevin plopped down on the bench and shook his head. “This can’t be right. It just can’t be.”
“Something’s come up,” Chase said, ignoring Kevin. “We need to go somewhere and talk. It’s important.”
“I’ll say,” Kevin said, his voice sounding strained.
“So you know? Did Pearl’s husband call you?”
“No one called,” RuthieAnn said. “Is Jayden okay? You’re scaring me.”
“Jayden’s fine. Everyone’s fine. It’s something else. Something I . . . well, can we go somewhere else? We can’t talk here. Too many folks walking by.”
And Chase was right. The sidewalks were crowded with people. Many of them waving hello and some wanting to stop, but from the look on Kevin’s face, like he was going to be sick, they kept right on walking.
“We can leave,” RuthieAnn said. Then she turned to Kevin. “You coming?”
He shook his head. “Not yet.”
“What’s wrong with Kevin?” Chase asked RuthieAnn.
“I don’t know. He’s been acting weird ever since we opened Clark’s safety deposit box. There was over twenty thousand dollars in cash in there. I think he’s reacting to Clark having that much money lying around.”
“Well, Clark was a tightwad, so that probably explains it.”
“No,” Kevin whispered. “You guys don’t understand.” He leaned back on the bench. “Clark had a lot more money than that. Way more.” He handed RuthieAnn the white slip of paper and she and Chase read the numbers.
“Does that say what I think it says?” RuthieAnn asked.
Kevin nodded.
“This can’t be right,” she protested. “It must be some kind of mistake.”
“Dotty doesn’t make mistakes, remember?” Kevin countered.
