by Dylann Crush
After a few more stops, he turned the truck southeast and started the hour-plus drive back to Holiday, Texas. This had been a relatively quick trip, and Kenzie had only talked him into a few things not on the list…a big bag of cotton candy that would probably be stuck all over the leather seats, a sparkly collar for her grumpy old barn cat, and a new stuffed dog. The kid could already outfit an entire stuffed zoo, but as the most important female in his life, she pretty much had him wrapped around her pudgy little finger.
He might curse her mother with every four-letter word he’d ever heard, but the woman had given him one good thing—Kenzie.
“Turn it up, Daddy? Please?” Her favorite song had come on the radio—Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line.” Not that kiddie crap his older brother had to play when his wife and kids were in the truck. Hell no. He’d raised Kenzie on classic rock, country, and the country-western star who’d inspired his name—the Man in Black.
“Should we stop by the big house when we get back or go home and eat dinner first?” he asked.
She clapped her hands together in time to the music. “Stop at Nana and Papa’s. I asked Nana if she’d make cookies today.”
“All right. Nana and Papa’s it is.”
The truck ate up the miles of asphalt until they turned off the pavement and onto the private road that ran through the Walker family ranch. When he had first moved out on his own, he had found it stifling to have a house on the edge of the family compound. But now, with Kenzie, it was comforting to know he had family close by. They passed Waylon and Darby’s place, then turned down the long driveway to the big house.
He brought the truck to a stop behind his sister’s dually.
“Yay! Aunt Charlie’s here! I can pretend to be an almost-mommy just like her!” Kenzie scrambled out of the back seat, her sticky cotton candy–covered hands leaving traces of syrupy pink goop all over the seat.
Great, just great. That fifty-dollar sparkly unicorn costume suddenly seemed like a reasonably priced alternative to Kenzie wanting to dress up like his pregnant sister.
Chapter Two
Jinx climbed off her bike and set the kickstand. Thank goodness for modern rest areas, although she’d just about kill for a shower. The grit and dust from driving halfway across Texas had somehow managed to cover every inch of exposed skin. Even with her old motorcycle jacket and a pair of windproof pants protecting her from the elements, the dirt had worked its way into all kinds of places she couldn’t clean with a quick wipe down over a sink.
“How ya doin’, Hendrix?” She nuzzled him against her cheek. He yipped and rewarded her with a sloppy kiss, then took the bit of kibble she held out to him. Stopping every couple of hours for him to water the bushes and stretch his legs hadn’t been as bad as she thought. Better than leaving the little guy behind.
“Spare some change?” A woman sat with her back resting against the building. She appeared to be in even worse shape than Jinx. A mottled purple bruise covered one side of her face, and she looked like she hadn’t bathed in weeks.
“Where you headed?”
“Does it matter?” The woman didn’t make eye contact, just focused on a spot on the ground in front of her.
Jinx crouched down, putting them on the same level. “What’s your name?”
The woman let out a harsh laugh that sounded more like a moan. “Why? Are you gonna try to save me?”
Jinx recognized the familiar signs. The last time she’d seen her mom, her face had reflected the same defeated hopelessness along with some similar bruises. She reached into her pocket for a couple of bucks. This woman needed help. If someone had provided a leg up for her mom, would she have found the courage to lift herself out of her own desperate circumstances?
“The only one who can save you is yourself, you know.” She handed the money to the woman, who slid it into her pocket.
In a voice so quiet, Jinx had to lean closer to hear, the woman spoke. “Mona. My name is Mona.”
Jinx reached out to squeeze her hand. As she did, Hendrix hopped down and scrambled onto the woman’s lap. Before she could grab him, he put his front paws on Mona’s chest and gave her a half dozen Chihuahua kisses.
“Hendrix!” Jinx grasped the dog. “I’m so sorry. He’s usually much better behaved.”
Mona smiled. “What a sweetie.”
“Sometimes.” Jinx grinned back. “He can also be a giant pain in the ass. Good luck, Mona.”
A tear slid down Mona’s cheek. “Thanks.”
Jinx nodded, making sure she caught Mona’s eye before she headed into the bathroom. If only she had more. A couple of dollars wouldn’t make a difference for someone in that kind of situation, but at least she could get something warm to drink out of the vending machine, maybe ease her suffering a tiny bit.
Jinx cleaned up as best as she could using a sink that stopped running every time she took her hand off the faucet. Digging through her bag for a fresh shirt, her hand hit something hard and heavy at the bottom. What the hell? She felt around the item, the size of a brick. How could she have missed that when she packed?
As she pulled the plastic-wrapped bundle out of her bag, her heart skipped a few beats, then picked up the pace.
Wade’s gift cards.
Shit, shit, shit. How in the hell had those gotten in there? And what was she going to do about it? She locked herself in a stall and unwrapped the plastic with trembling hands. There must be thousands of dollars’ worth of cards—enough to keep his thugs and runners paid for a couple of months, easy.
Think, Jinx, think. Geri had borrowed her backpack a couple of days ago. Maybe Wade had sent her on one of his special errands, and she’d forgotten to put the cards in the safe. That was the only logical explanation. But what could she do with them now? There was no way she could keep them—she’d taken what he owed her, and that was it. She didn’t want anything more from the bastard. But it seemed such a waste to just throw them away.
A vision of Mona sitting on the floor flitted through her mind. Wade might be a complete and utter ass, but at least something good could come out of the time she’d spent with him. She pulled a huge handful of cards out of the stack and tucked the rest away at the bottom of her bag. Hundreds of miles separated her from New Orleans. She may as well save the rest of the cards in case she had a chance to dole them out along the route. Once she got there, she could make an anonymous donation to a women’s shelter or something with whatever she had left.
“Here.” Jinx handed Mona the gift cards on her way out. “Get away from whoever did that to you.”
Mona reached for them, but Jinx held fast.
“Promise?” She wanted to shake the woman, tell her that no man was worth letting her body be used for a punching bag.
A glimmer sparked in Mona’s eyes. “Yes.”
“Good.” Jinx released the cards, silently sending a wish to whomever or whatever might be listening that Mona would find her way.
Satisfied she’d done what she could, Jinx consulted the map on the wall. She’d been on the road for days. If she pushed it, she ought to make San Antonio before dark. She could splurge on a cheap hotel with a shower and let Hendrix run around a bit.
She climbed back on the bike, but it wouldn’t shift into gear. Please, not now. When she got to New Orleans, she’d find a garage to take a look at it. Until then, she just needed to get as far as she could. She wrestled the bike back into gear and opted for a side road. No sense in overdoing it on the highway.
Thirty miles later, she must have taken a wrong turn, since the setting sun ended up behind her. She needed to be going south, not due east. The bike gave one final surge, then died underneath her. Dammit. Jinx climbed off the bike and circled it, looking for obvious signs. She’d done some basic maintenance on it in the past, but a standard oil change fell far short of diagnosing a possible transmission problem.
If she’d sold the motorcycle back in LA, it could have added a cool ten grand or more to her pathetic bank account. She could have spent the cash on a cheap compact car and avoided the inevitable breakdown in the middle of freaking nowhere, but she’d chosen to be sentimental instead of practical for once in her freaking life.
Now what was she going to do? The burner phone she’d picked up before leaving California offered no solution. Service out here in the sticks was limited. She rolled the bike off the road into a scrubby strand of bushes, hopefully hiding it from anyone who might pass by.
What to do with the gift cards though? She didn’t want to have them in her bag in case something happened. How would she explain thousands of dollars in gift cards? Not that she paid much attention to Wade’s side dealings, but even she’d heard him bitching about a recent bust in Arizona where the feds had recovered hundreds of gift cards along with a sizable stash of heroin.
But she didn’t want to leave them on the bike either, on the off chance someone found them. Scanning the side of the road for a potential hiding place, her gaze caught a hollowed-out log about twenty feet away. She wrapped the plastic tight around the cards and pushed them deep into the decaying wood. That ought to work until she came back for her bike. She’d crossed a four-lane road a few miles back. If she could get to the highway, she could hitch into the nearest town and see about finding a garage. She tucked Hendrix into her backpack and pulled her coat around her, her heavy black boots crunching onto the gravel shoulder.
Just another minor setback. She’d been down before. It would take a hell of a lot more than a fickle engine to knock her out for good.
* * *
Cash held Kenzie’s tiny hoof in one hand and the pillowcase containing her massive haul of Halloween candy in the other. Trick-or-treating sure wasn’t this easy when he was a kid. Back then, he and his brothers would ride their bikes from ranch to ranch almost all night long. They probably pedaled fifty miles by the time they hit up the few neighboring houses close enough to reach on two wheels. For all that effort, they were lucky if they got a fourth of what Kenzie had managed to shake down in less than forty-five minutes at the annual Tot Trick-Or-Treat at the Rambling Rose. Back when Sully owned the historic honky-tonk, he didn’t cater to the half-pint crowd. But ever since Cash’s sister and her new husband—Sully’s grandson—had taken over, they held all kinds of events and activities for the kids.
“Go say good night to Aunt Charlie, Uncle Beck, and Nana, Tadpole.” Cash prodded Kenzie toward his sister and mom. She sashayed away, her glittery unicorn tail swishing with each step. Leave it to his brilliant sister to suggest Kenzie stuff a pillow in her costume and dress up as a unicorn with a tummy full of candy for Halloween. Charlie thought she’d reached a compromise with Kenzie, but he’d overheard his daughter telling people she was a pregnant unicorn. Best of both worlds for her, but he’d pretty much lost on both counts on that one. At this rate, he’d be doomed by the time she reached puberty.
Kenzie doled out hugs and kisses, then scampered back to his side. “Can I have some more of my candy, Daddy?”
“One more piece, okay? You’ve got to get to bed. There’s school tomorrow.”
She held out a king-size bag of Skittles. “This one?”
“I said one piece, not one giant bag. Who gave you that, anyway?” He peered across the crowded dance hall, trying to find the most likely source of the abundance of sugar. Had to be someone without kids.
“Uncle Presley.” Kenzie dug through the pillowcase and withdrew another giant bag of candy, this one M&Ms. “He gave me this too.”
Presley, of course. Probably better than him handing out single shots of his new favorite whiskey to all his nieces and nephews. Cash had spent years wishing and hoping for his younger brother to get tamed by some two-stepping Texas beauty. Presley wasn’t just the black sheep of the family; he caused enough trouble for a whole damn flock.
“Why don’t you pick something else tonight, and you can start in on those Skittles tomorrow?” He dropped the candy back into the pillowcase and pulled out a single Starburst. “Yellow, your favorite.”
“I love yellow.” Took her less than a second to unwrap the candy and pop it in her mouth.
He led her out of the building and crossed the parking lot to the truck. Once she got settled in her seat, he pulled out onto the road for the short drive home. As he navigated around a bend, he squinted at the dark shape standing on the side of the road up ahead.
“What the hell?”
“Bad word! Gotta put a quarter in the curse-word jar when we get home.”
Stinker. He’d probably be able to pay for her first car with the amount he owed the curse-word jar. Her toothy grin filled the rearview mirror. But seriously, what the heck was that? The headlights bounced off what appeared to be a person. They got closer, and he could make out a black jacket, black pants, and a mass of bright hair. The figure turned to face the truck, thrusting a thumb out to solicit a ride. Cash wouldn’t pick up a hitchhiker around Austin or San Antonio, but on the backroads surrounding Holiday, he didn’t run across many strangers. Probably some kid on her way to a Halloween party in town. He slowed the truck to pull off the road.
The girl grabbed the backpack at her feet, slung the strap over her shoulder, and approached the passenger side. Cash lowered the window before leaning across the front of the cab.
“Hey, where you headed?” His gaze raked over her teal hair, shaved to the scalp on one side, exposing an ear full of metal piercings. At least she didn’t have any of that crap on her lips or eyebrows. He couldn’t understand the kids who poked holes all over their faces. Made booking them a pain in the ass too, since he couldn’t rely on the sensitive metal detectors.
“Thanks for stopping. Is there a garage somewhere around here? My bike broke down.”
“What, did you slip a chain? Tire go flat? We can throw it in the back, and I can run you home.” Easy fix. His hand wrapped around the door handle, ready to exit the vehicle and give her a hand.
“Sorry, it’s a motorcycle, not a bike.”
Cash turned his head back toward the window. She moved into the light coming from the overhead dome. Hmm, she wasn’t as young as he thought. Had to be early twenties.
“Where did you leave it? We can still toss it in back. I’ll drop you off at Dwight’s, and he can take a look.”
“You got a ramp?” She patted the door frame. “It’s kind of heavy.”
“Is she gonna ride with us?” Kenzie unbuckled and leaned into the front seat. At the sight of the stranger’s bright teal hair, her eyes widened. “Are you a mermaid?”
Great, now his daughter would be begging for a trip to the salon for her first dye job. “No, babe. She’s probably just dressed up for a Halloween party. What are you supposed to be, anyway? A punk rocker? Some sort of survivor of the zombie apocalypse?”
A hint of pink tinged the woman’s cheeks. “I’m not going to a party. Look, can you just give me a lift into town? I can come back later with a trailer to get my bike, okay?”
The color drained from Cash’s face. “I’m so sorry. I just thought, with that getup, I mean…”
“It’s fine, really. I’m used to it.” Her gaze flitted around the cab. “About that ride?”
Nothing like opening his mouth and inserting both boots at once. He needed to shut up before he buried himself completely. “I’d be happy to give you a ride. Do you live close by?” Cash gestured to Kenzie to buckle up again as the gal climbed into the cab.
She pulled the door closed behind her. “Not exactly.”
He didn’t recognize her as anyone he’d seen around town. “Where you from?”
“Um, how far is the garage?” She sandwiched her backpack between heavy black motorcycle boots and pressed herself against the door.
“Not far. You just passing through then?” She didn’t strike him
as threatening, but something about the crazy-ass hair and vintage black leather jacket put him on edge. Or was it the way she looked like she wanted to crawl right out of her skin every time he asked a question?
“Something like that. Is there a hotel in town? Somewhere I can lay up for the night?”
“There’s a bed-and-breakfast just off the main road. Otherwise, the typical chain places are a few miles away along the interstate. Plenty of options closer to Austin.”
Kenzie’s hand reached over the seat back to pat the woman’s hair.
Cash shot a glance toward his daughter. “Kenzie, keep your hands to yourself, hon.”
“But it’s so pretty. Can I have my hair like that?”
“We’ll talk about that when you’re eighteen.”
The woman let out a soft laugh. It seemed to surprise her, since she covered her mouth with her hand.
“What’s your name? Do you like cats? What’s your favorite color?” Kenzie must have taken that tiny break in the woman’s outer armor as an invitation to pepper her with her own questions.
The woman turned to face the back seat. “My name’s Jinx. I like your costume.”
“Thanks. My aunt Charlie is going to have a baby.”
“Oh. Um, congratulations. How old are you, Kenzie?”
“Seven. My birthday is in August. When’s yours? Do you have any pets?”
“Just one.” She reached into her backpack. Cash instinctively stiffened in the seat next to her. She must have noticed. “Relax. I’ve got a dog in my bag.”
Kenzie squealed as Jinx pulled a small ratlike creature out and held it up.
