While Zach scampered around the table, Shelby pinned Garrison with a gold-flecked brown gaze beneath an arched eyebrow.
“So, how was the meeting today?” she asked.
Garrison gave her a curt shake of his head and eased into a spindled wood chair at one end of the table. She pressed her lips together with a wary expression and turned back to the food on the stove.
With a frown of concentration, Zach filled four glasses with milk and set one next to each plate. No spills. A wistful swell grew in Garrison’s chest. His son was growing up too fast.
“Hey, Zach Attack, go get Grandpa,” Shelby called over her shoulder.
He took off at full tilt, careening around the doorway and disappearing into the depths of the big ranch house. Garrison winced at the bangs and slams that drifted back to the kitchen.
“So?” She turned away from the stovetop and crossed her arms. If not for the serious frown, he would’ve laughed out loud at the tall version of Little Orphan Annie glaring at him.
“Teacher says he’s acting out some.”
“How come?”
“Who knows? Kids picking on him because of his mom.”
“What a bunch of little pukes.”
He loved her fierce mama-bear streak when it came to Zach. While it didn’t take the place of their mom, gone these last five years, or his ex-wife Tiffani, Shelby’s supportive presence had steadied his son.
“Just kids being stupid.”
“You sure it’s not anything else?”
He scrubbed his face. “Like Zach developing an ability?”
“Yeah.”
“Hope not. You notice anything?”
“No. And you’d think I would get a sense if something was going on with him.” She tapped her head.
A breath he didn’t know he’d been holding whooshed out. “I know. And the teacher didn’t mention anything ... suspicious ... about his behavior.” Maybe he could figure out a way to get Ms. Lopez to observe his son’s behavior a little more closely. Eye in the sky, so to speak, in case the Taggart gift was starting up in his son.
“Well, that’s good. So what did the teacher recommend?” She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.
“Nothing helpful. Something about counseling and stuff. Dumb.”
She faced him squarely. “Dumb? You think Zach talking with a counselor is dumb? Might help him. Tiffani only left a year ago. He still remembers.”
“I know. Tiffani hasn’t contacted us since she left, and I haven’t been able to track her down.” Truthfully, he hadn’t given the task a ton of effort. She had what she wanted, and what she wanted didn’t involve Zach or him.
“And you don’t think his mom being gone bothers him?”
“Sure, but we’re his family. We look after him.”
“You’re an idiot.” Shelby blew another curl off her forehead with a scowl. “As good as the Taggart clan is, being here for each other, Zach may need more ... professional help than we can give him. That’s all I’m saying.” She squinted at him. “You were nice to that teacher, right? Didn’t go all grumpy, I-can-do-this-myself caveman on her, did you?”
Guilt socked him like a one-two punch to the midsection. “Uh, no.”
“Uh, yes, you mean. That poor lady. How bad was it?”
He stared at the red-and-white-tile floor. “Not my most commendable moment.”
“You should apologize.”
“She’s probably used to it.”
“Used to getting abuse from parents? Have I mentioned lately that you’re an idiot? No one deserves for people to be mean to them.”
She studied him for another long moment, her eyes unfocusing in that eerie way of hers when she accessed the part of her unique ability that allowed her to read emotions. After a brief wince and a few blinks later, she smiled.
“What in the world?” She laughed. “You like the teacher!”
“Show off. Quit rooting around in my head just because you can.” He leaned back in the chair. “Besides, you’re wrong. Projecting. Wishful thinking.”
“Ouch. Bitter, much?”
“No. Just saying you’ve missed the mark on this one. If you can’t read me, maybe you can’t read Zach, either.” Satisfaction smeared a grin on his face. Take that.
Pain creased her brow. Then a dangerous scowl appeared. “All right, Zoltar, all knowing. You think you got me pegged and I’m making up what my power tells me? Then why don’t you use that truth-or-lie ability on me and find out for sure?”
Well. Shit.
“What? No answer?” She lifted her hand. “Actually, why don’t you use that lie-detector power on yourself? Because your nose is growing, Pinocchio.”
“Shel—”
“Can it. You know when you’ve been beat.” Good point. After turning off the burners, Shelby pointed a wooden spoon at him. “So? Going to ask her out? Sara Lopez seemed like a nice kid in high school, minus some brushes with the law. But who doesn’t have some kind of past, right?”
“No, I’m not asking anyone out. And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“One bad decision does not a character make. Wouldn’t you agree?”
When she gave him that stare, broken up by some winces, it unnerved him, mostly because he could tell she was filtering his emotions the whole time. Anytime the Taggart siblings used their powers, it hurt, and Shelby was no exception.
“So?”
“So what?” he spat.
“Are you going to ask her out or what?”
“No. I have things to do here. And with Zach, there’s no time ... I’m still waiting to see if he’s going to develop an ability.”
“I don’t think so. We all had ours by his age.”
“Good. No kid can function normally with our family’s weird powers.”
“Uh, I manage fine.” Shelby wrinkled her nose.
“You think avoiding close relationships is fine?”
She didn’t meet his eyes but raised her hand when he opened his mouth. “Shut it, big brother, or I’ll spill to everyone else about you and teacher.”
“Doesn’t matter, Shel. I’m never going to do anything about any feelings I might or might not have. Besides, there’s too much work to be done here.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Lifting her hand, palm in, she presented three raised fingers. She lowered one finger at a time. “First, you have help: us. Second, you need to get out there. Date. Go, be a regular guy. Enjoy.” Only her middle finger remained extended. “Third, you’ve been a zombie since Tiffani left. And that was even before she left a year ago.”
Well played, little sis.
He bit off a curse. “I wouldn’t say ‘zombie,’ Shel.”
“Get back in the game. Take a chance. Ask pretty teacher out. You might enjoy it.”
“You’re one to talk, avoiding—”
She hissed and pressed her lips together as Zach strolled into the kitchen, tugging Austin Taggart behind him.
With a groan, their father eased himself into the chair at the head of the table. He patted his belly; it was still only a small paunch. “Smells great, Shelby.” The ranch work kept him fit, though he had slowed down considerably after Mom died.
She grinned and laid her apron on the counter. “It’ll taste great, too. Zach, come get this plate.”
They set the food out on the table, and for a minute, the only sound was the clank of serving spoons on bowls and the scrape of forks on plates.
After a few bites, Garrison looked up. “Did you get the back forty fence repaired, Dad?”
His dad ruffled Zach’s hair. “Sure did. Your boy was a big help today, too.”
Zach’s beaming smile had orange cheese smeared all over it. Garrison fought the urge to wipe his son’s face.
At his father’s quick frown, Garrison tensed. “Did you find the lost cattle?”
He flicked a glance at Zach, who was busy creating orange tracks with his fork.
Lines, deeper than Garrison had seen before, creased the
skin around his dad’s watery blue eyes, suddenly aging him. “No, but the fence break was pretty extensive. Looked intentional.”
Shelby stared at him.
Garrison put down his knife. “What do you mean?”
“A big section of fence had clean cuts in the wires, enough to let an ATV pass through. And there were some tracks in the open section.”
“Exactly which section were you working on?” Garrison’s hand curled into a fist.
“Top of the property, north section, where the mountains start.”
“Near the national forest? Abutting the Brand property?”
“Yep.” His dad raised a bushy eyebrow and passed a weathered hand over his face. “Something’s going on over there.”
“Like what?”
“Don’t know. The Brands never liked us, ever since I moved here in the seventies and outbid them for this property. But they’ve been acting more squirrely than usual over the past year, especially after we turned them down on their offer for our ranch.” He swiped at the circles under his eyes. “Now? Big equipment moving in and out of their property, but no one in town knows anything. Ol’ Wyatt who runs the supply store was acting weird when I came in to buy feed the other day.”
Shelby sat up straight and leaned forward. “Acting weird, how?”
“Cagey. Won’t make eye contact. Won’t extend us credit anymore. He says no more local discounts, but it seemed personal. I don’t know. Maybe I’m getting old and paranoid.”
“What’s ‘paranoid’?” Zach piped up.
“Paranoid is what you’re going to be if you don’t finish your homework,” Garrison said.
“Can I be excused?” Zach lifted his plate. “Look, Auntie Shelby, ate all my greens. They’re all goooone.”
“Good job!” Shelby’s tight smile didn’t reach her eyes.
“Wash up first,” Garrison said.
Zach jumped out of the chair and was halfway to the kitchen doorway.
“Dishes!” Garrison called out.
Zach spun around on his socked feet, grabbed the plate, dumped it into the sink with a clatter, and dashed out of the kitchen. The thud of his feet on the stairs stopped, and the water ran in the bathroom upstairs. Full blast or nothing. That kid didn’t have a second gear. If only Garrison had that much energy, he’d make a dent in the endless list of things to do.
“Dad, I don’t like you taking Zach out if the Brands are acting weird.”
“Agreed. Didn’t think fixing my own fences was dangerous until I saw the ATV tracks coming through the opening in my fence. And cattle tracks.”
“You sure it was the Brands?” Shelby pulled on the end of an orange curl. “No other folks with missing cattle?”
Their father rubbed the loose skin on his jaw. “Haven’t heard of anyone else, and it makes sense. Given the area of fence cut, if someone else wanted to take our cattle, they’d have to cut through the Brand fencing, break through our fencing, take the cattle out, and run them through rough terrain in the mountains before getting back to flatland. That’s if no one saw them. So, damned unlikely to be anyone else.”
Garrison took a bite and swallowed. “To hell with them. We have enough to do without having to deal with those losers. What’s going on over there? Why can’t they just leave us alone?”
His dad shook his head. “No idea, but Hank Brand called again today, asking if we’d sell our ranch to them.”
Shelby’s head whipped up to stare at their father.
Garrison’s vision blurred. Damn it, they’d already told that man no. “He did what?”
“Said he reckoned we might be losing money, and they could help us make up the losses if we sold.”
Cheeks blazing red, Shelby leaned forward. “It’s odd how much he knows about our financial situation. It’s none of their business. I hope you told him to go shove it.”
“Not in so many words.” The lines next to his eyes deepened. “But yes, ‘not interested’ was the general message.”
Garrison set down his fork and knife on the empty plate. “They have a good-sized spread. Why does he need ours, too?”
“Don’t know,” his dad said. “Might have to do with whatever project is going on over there. We all need to keep our eyes and ears open.”
“Damn it,” Garrison cursed. “We can’t do anything about his little project. But what about the cattle? Can we go looking for our ear markings and tags?”
“We’d be trespassing.”
Garrison snorted.
“I believe they trespassed, too, son, since that livestock is gone. Any smart cattle thief wouldn’t hesitate to tear the ears, remove the tags, or slaughter the cattle by now. We’ll never get proof. All we can do now is prevent them stealing more.”
“Son of a bitch. We have to move our herd down sooner this year. This week. Soon.”
“Yep.”
“So we’re going to need more hay, earlier than usual?”
His dad nodded.
“Going to cost more money.” Garrison scrubbed at his face. So much shit piling up. He turned to Shelby. “What’s your availability this week?”
Maybe he could convince her to help. God knew, they had enough work to go around. She liked to bury herself in volunteer work on the area’s search-and-rescue team; due to her extra ability, she never came back from a mission empty handed. Of course, none of her teammates knew about her gift; they simply thought she was incredibly lucky.
She had the strongest abilities of all the Taggart kids, no question. Even if she hated the part of her gift where she could read others’ emotions, her second ability to find anyone more than made up for it.
If only she didn’t drive herself to near collapse trying to find each victim.
He sure as hell didn’t want her back up in the Tetons with the increased seismic activity in the region. If tourists were dumb enough to go off-trail with the heightened danger, then they could damn well rescue themselves and not make his sister put her life on the line for them.
However, telling Shelby to do anything fit on the scale of impossible things right between finding Bigfoot and discovering Atlantis.
She raised her hands. “It’s unlikely I’ll get called out on a rescue. Don’t worry, I’ll help move the herd down.”
“I’d appreciate the help.” Garrison drained his glass. “Speaking of help, when’s Kerr coming back?”
She rolled her eyes. “He’s on an elk hunt with a group of guys from Texas. He’ll be back in a few days.”
Their dad smiled. “Don’t laugh, Shelby. Those flatlanders might get off the plane with the sales tags still on their fancy Cabela’s gear, but they bring in a lot of money.”
“Is Eric guiding with Kerr?” Garrison asked.
“Think so. Those guys are two peas in a pod.” She smiled. “I told Eric the other day he was our brother from another mother.”
“Pretty accurate.”
She pressed her hands to the table. “So, when do you want the cattle moved?”
“All right, then.” He wiped his mouth and crumpled the napkin on the plate. “We’ll wait until Kerr and Eric are back, then move the herd. Hopefully Eric will help, if he doesn’t have to work search and rescue either this week.”
“I don’t know his schedule.”
With a weary set to his shoulders, his father pushed back from the table. “Thank you for dinner, honey. It was delicious.” He dropped his dishes into the sink and trudged out of the kitchen.
Shelby frowned. “He’s still not the same after Mom died.”
“He’s slowing down. It’s been five years. Maybe it’s time he moved on.”
“Like you and Tiffani? Yeah, I agree. Time to move on.”
Time. Hell, he’d barely had time to process the whole exploding mess that was the end of his marriage. Maybe when he dug out from under the work here, he could sit on the beach, sip margaritas, and mull over his stupidity.
“Nothing like my situation. And moving on is easier said than done
. Discussion over.”
“What about the ranch issues, Vaughn leaving, and Kerr being back home but not totally okay? All of it’s wearing on Dad. I’m worried about him.”
“Son of a bitch, Shel, I can’t fix everything.”
After a pause, she tapped her chin. “What about the dreams? You still having those?”
Garrison wanted to deny it but couldn’t. “Yeah. Erupting volcano. Dark cave. Red eyes. And a woman’s hand stretched out to me.”
Shelby pinched the bridge of her nose. “Me too. It’s like she wants to help me. But then there’s blackness that swallows her up.”
“And pain?”
“And pain.” She swallowed. “Kerr’s having similar dreams, too. No idea what they mean. What do you think?”
“How the hell should I know?” he snapped, a red film covering his vision. “I’m up to my eyeballs in bullshit. Why don’t you work on figuring out the dreams?”
If only he weren’t so worn out, he’d try to take the pain away from her expression.
“So, poor ol’ you, then? You’ve got some nerve,” she spat. “Like you have a corner on worry and stress.”
Nasty silence crackled between them until she put a hand to her forehead, no doubt trying to deflect his steaming anger. Too bad for her, he couldn’t tamp down his feelings. Too worn out. So tired, his eyeballs ached.
So she absorbed the full force of his emotions, with only her innate filters damping the onslaught.
When he opened his mouth to apologize, she scooted back and raised her hand. “Let me know when you want to move the herd.”
A pile of manure stunk less than he did right about now.
“Look, I’m—”
“Shut up, Garrison. I know you’re stressed and worried about Zach and the ranch. I get it. Go to your happy place or think about cute teacher, but don’t take your crap out on me, okay? I can only filter so much raw emotion. Once I get tired, all I can do is absorb the feelings people throw off—you got it?”
“Yes.” He couldn’t meet her eyes but took a breath to say more.
“Damn you. Stop talking. Please.” As she rubbed her temples, her wild hair stood up in crazy curls. “I’ll be ready to help tomorrow, but right now, I need to sit by myself and air out my brain.”
“Understood. And I’m sorry.” He massaged the back of his neck. “Do whatever you have to so you’ll be ready. I’ll need you to find every last one of our remaining cattle. We can’t afford to leave any behind. Our margins are beyond tight.”
Legacy of Lies Page 3
