Come Rain or Shine (Shine On Series, Book Three)

by Allison J. Jewell

  Emmie looked at her hands. She attempted to twist the ring on her finger again but her hands were shaking so bad she couldn’t. Her throat burned with all the vile things she had planned to tell him if he ever apologized to her like this. But she couldn’t find a single word. She had no idea how long they sat there, fighting off emotions that both father and daughter refused give in to.

  “I sent your mom money all of those years. I bought the house in Bowling Green that Gabe and I rarely used. Both of those things were really about me and my own guilty conscience. As if that would make me feel better. I watched you from a distance when we were in town. I told myself I was staying away because it was what your mother wanted and it was what was best for you, but I don’t know . . . Now that you are grown, I’m not sure it was right. So I’ve been thinking, if I’ve got no apology to give what am I to offer? The only thing I’ve got to give you is a little more insight to your past.”

  “I’m not sure I can take any more insight into my past right now. Marco, the reason I want to get home is because my friend’s cabin was burned down. It’s partly my fault. I think it’s this revenuer’s family that is after him.” She swallowed hard and left out all the parts to do with death. She just had to tell him enough of the truth to make him understand. Isn’t that the advice that Silas had once given her? “This revenuer’s family is at odds with Silas. I helped my friend make apple pie moonshine in that cabin and now someone has wind that he is loosely tied to Silas. Bo lost his cabin and all of his goods because of me. And Silas . . .” Emmie said, standing and walking the length of the room, “I’m worried about him. I can’t just sit up there buying myself dresses while he is down here working out the problems I helped to create. No matter how much he would like me to do that . . . I can’t. Marco, I appreciate that you are trying to help me here.” She sat across from him and grabbed his hands. “I appreciate your honesty with me and your apology.” She swallowed hard. “I just don’t think I can take anything else that may be upsetting right now. My cup is running over.”

  Marco frowned and looked up at the ceiling. When his eyes came back to hers, he nodded. “I’d just hoped this might be a memory you and I could make together. It was the only one I could think of that you might take me up on. And if you are a user, girl, you got it honest. I knew you were desperate to get home and I preyed on that weakness. If you want to go home, I’ll take you to Bowling Green tomorrow.”

  Emmie should have felt happy at his words but she didn’t. His eyes looked so hollow, so sad. Somehow this man had convinced himself that by taking her to meet her family, he was completing his first real fatherly task for her. She could lean on him and learn from him. What would it hurt her to spend an afternoon getting to know her mother’s family? How could it hurt any worse than when she’d learned Gabe’s father was actually her own?

  Emmie looked up at Marco and spoke before she changed her mind. “I’ll stop there with you, if you promise to have me back in Bowling Green by Sunday.”

  “You don’t have to.” Marco shook his head.

  “No, you were nice enough to bring me down here and put me up in this fancy hotel.” Emmie hoped she sounded sincere rather than sassy. “I appreciate that you are trying to help me learn about my mother. I will go. I just don’t want to stay a long time. Is that okay?”

  Marco’s face split into a grin. For the first time ever she saw emotion reach his eyes. “You have your mother’s spirit. Thank you for letting me do this for you.”

  Emmie forced herself to smile and nod in agreement. As Marco went off to bed for the evening, Emmie sat on the couch wide-awake. Maybe she’d slept too much on the train. Maybe she was anxious about meeting the Sloan family. Or maybe she was just too mentally drained to sleep. Her thoughts moved past meeting her mother’s family and on to Bowling Green. She looked at the clock; it was late. Forcing her mind off her worries with Silas, she thought of one person. If there was one person in this state who would tell her more about what was going on, it was him.

  Silently she slipped on her shoes, walked out into the hall, and found her way to the lobby. It took a little while to find a worker, but after a few questions he agreed to take her to an empty office with a telephone. He even helped her place the call before leaving her alone. Just when she was sure no one was going to answer she heard a groggy “Hello.”

  “Bo, it is so good to hear your voice.” She sighed and pulled the phone closer to her face as if she would be able to touch him through the line. “I need your help.”

  “Emmie?” he asked, startled. “Where are you?”

  Chapter Forty

  Emmie ignored his question and asked one of her own, “Are you okay? I’ve just heard about the cabin. I am so sorry.”

  “Emmie, I’m fine. We are all fine. Where are you?” he asked, his voice a harsh whisper.

  “I’ve just gotten back to Louisville. I’ll be home by Sunday,” she said. “How is Spotty?”

  “Your dog is fine. Millie’s taken good care of him,” he said quickly, as if only to appease her. “Listen, don’t come home, okay?”

  “What? What do you mean, don’t come home?” She frowned.

  “I mean do not come back to Bowling Green right now,” he whispered loudly again.

  “Why?” she asked.

  “It ain’t safe for you here right now.” He spoke so quietly she could barely make out his words.

  “Bo, tell me what’s going on. Are you in danger? Do I need to send Silas to help you?” she asked, her heart pounding. What if those men were there with him right now?

  “Are you with him right now?” Bo asked, keeping his voice level.

  Emmie toyed anxiously with the cord. Something in Bo’s tone made her afraid to answer that question.

  “Emmie, where is Silas?” Bo asked.

  Again she said nothing.

  “Answer me,” he whisper-shouted again.

  “Bo, what’s wrong? Do you need his help?” she asked.

  Bo Johnson laughed into the telephone. “No, but he may need mine.”

  Emmie’s shoulders relaxed a little.

  “He’s not here right now, but he is close,” she answered.

  Bo was silent for a second before he said, ‘Will you see him tomorrow?”

  Emmie skirted the question. “I’m not sure.”

  “Are you alone?” Bo asked incredulously.

  “No,” she said. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Some men are after your Yankee friends and I think they’d be pretty happy to get their hands on you,” he said. “Don’t come back here right now, Emmie. Promise me.”

  “Are the men in Bowling Green? How do you know all of this?”

  “I can’t say Emmie. I just don’t want to see anything happen to you. You have a way of putting yourself in the middle of things,” he said.

  “Why would they stay in Bowling Green after burning your cabin? Are you going after them? Please wait until I can get them to come help you.”

  “Them? How many men does Silas have with him?” Bo asked curiously.

  Again Emmie felt like maybe she shouldn’t answer that question.

  “Bo you’re frightening me.” Emmie uttered the words she didn’t often let herself say.

  “Good. Because you should be frightened. Go to Walter’s and stay there until he tells you it’s safe to come back home, okay?”

  “Bo did you lose all of your moonshine in that fire? Did you lose your money?”

  “Emmie, moonshine money needs to be the least of your worries right now. I have got to go. Don’t tell anyone we talked tonight, okay?”

  Emmie made no promises and he hung up before she had the chance to ask him any more questions. She wandered back upstairs, peering over her shoulder. Rather than feeling more comfortable, her conversation with Bo had left her feeling more unsettled. Why was he so adamant that she didn’t come home? In the end she was left with two questions that strained her brain: What did Bo Johnson know, and why did he have so
many questions about Silas?

  *

  Silas tossed and turned in his bed. The room reminded him of Emmie and her peacock feathers. The only peace he had tonight was the knowledge that she was safely at home in Chicago. He would give her a call tomorrow night when she’d had time to calm down. He didn’t sleep as well without her. He’d need to get over that. She wasn’t likely to spend more than a handful of nights in his arms for the next couple of years. Walter was right. He took too many liberties with her. If she was going to keep a job in education, they’d have to be much more careful. Get it together, Silas. He chastised himself. He was in the middle of a shit-storm here and he was thinking about sleeping with Emmie. What the hell was wrong with him?

  He rolled over and punched his pillow into a better shape then refocused. Walter Jones. He trusted the man. Well, he trusted him as much as he trusted anyone he wasn’t related to. Bo had called Walter this morning. He’d been cryptic. He’d only said things at home weren’t safe and he was worried for Millie. He had asked if things got worse if Walter and Mae would keep an eye on Millie. Walter had asked for more details but the only thing he had divulged was his family’s moonshine jars had been used to ignite the blaze in their cabin. Although that was not necessarily sound evidence of their involvement. It wasn’t uncommon for revenuers to burn down places with the moonshine that had been made there. Since Parbour’s family had been working with revenuers it made sense they would have taken a page out of their book. What Silas really wondered was what made Bo question the action? He had to know more than he’d told Walter. When Silas had spoken his concerns aloud, the old man had agreed that Bo likely knew more but he also didn’t think that made him guilty of any crime.

  Silas rolled over and looked at his younger brother asleep on the bed next to him. Trick had gotten all jumpy at the thought of Millie Johnson in danger. He was not going to be happy when he learned they weren’t returning to Bowling Green tomorrow. Both Silas and Al had agreed they needed to get more information about the Bardston fires before he returned home. He also knew there were two police officers in Louisville working with the Parbour family when they baited Emmie and something about that made him feel uneasy. Part of the butcher brothers’ complaint had been that police had shown up and swept everything under the rug. Saying the fire had left no evidence to search through. No evidence. No case. He wondered if they were the same men who had arrested Emmie.

  Silas remembered that Trick had a friend from Chicago who had joined the force here earlier this year. It was the friend that Trick had planned to use to get onto the force. While he didn’t have plans to let his brother join up with the police just yet, he would use that connection. Chris, one of the butcher brothers, was going to meet them at the hotel in the morning. Together he and Trick would head downtown to the station to get a good look at the police officers that had come to the butcher shop. Emmie had given him a vague description of the men who had arrested her. Vague or not, he would take what he had to work with. One way or the other, they would find some answers tomorrow.

  Silas’s closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. He was tired of this. He used to feel a rush of power when he was helping work on something like this. Now he just felt exhausted and worried for those he cared about. He had too many weaknesses and the biggest one was named Emmie. His last thoughts before he finally drifted off to sleep were of her. Her soft pink lips, her gentle hands, and the way she shined a ray of light into his dark world.

  Chapter Forty-one

  Marco had promised the drive to the Sloan’s house would be a short one, because they didn’t live far from Louisville. Emmie’s stomach rolled. She did not want to meet these people right now. Of all the secrets she’d learned about her past in the last month not a single one of them was good. She was anxious about this whole trip home. She closed her eyes and tried to find a happy memory. Her mind took her back to Silas. He was bent down with the ring that now rested on her right hand, filling her head with lovely promises. Emmie twisted the ring on her finger. Her heart sank. She’d rather have him here with her than have a ring full of promises.

  “So is that just a gift or does it come with some kind of string attached?” Marco asked, nodding to her hands. He must have noticed her worrying with it as she thought.

  She frowned up at him not exactly sure she liked his tone. “Silas wouldn’t give me something with strings attached, Marco.”

  He grunted in reply. The sound almost came out as a hollow laugh.

  “What?” she asked.

  “All boys come with strings, Emmie.”

  Her brows knitted as she thought about his words. That wasn’t true, was it? Did all boys come with strings? Bo and Silas were the only two guys she’d ever kissed. Her experience was limited, but she didn’t think it was true. She glanced out the window and noticed the hills that were so colorful a month ago had already given way to a shade of barren brown. The once beautiful leaves littered the ground in winter’s welcome.

  Emmie wondered what landscape she would be seeing this time tomorrow. Bo had asked her to go to Walter’s in Louisville. There was no way she could go to Walter’s right now. She had decided she needed to do one of two things tomorrow morning: either she needed to head home, find Bo Johnson, and make him spill the beans about what had made him so spooked, or she needed to find Silas and tell him something was going on with Bo. Her heart wanted her to do the second, but her brain told her the first was likely a better plan. She knew Silas would jump to all sorts of conclusions where Bo was involved and she didn’t want that to happen.

  “I don’t guess I’ve got much right to give you advice on men though,” Marco said, breaking her out of her thoughts.

  It took her a second to realize what he meant. She didn’t say anything; she only nodded in agreement. Marco Del Grandé was not anyone she planned to take relationship advice from anytime soon.

  “I’m not sure he’s who your ma would have picked out for you but he’s a good kid I suppose,” Marco said, thinking aloud as he turned off the main road and down a dirt path. The car bumped and jerked her from side to side.

  “He’s a man, not a kid, Marco,” Emmie said, holding on to the doorframe to keep from jostling around.

  “I suppose he is. I’m not completely sure that they still live here but this town is fairly small. If they don’t, whoever lives here know should be able to tell us where to find them,” Marco explained as he pulled up to a cabin.

  It was an old cabin and she could tell someone had built an addition onto the back. Smoke was billowing up from the chimney. As they stepped out of the car, Emmie could see more smoke coming from behind the house. For a moment Emmie half worried the back of the house was on fire but then she caught the smell. It was early in the morning but whoever lived here had some animal roasting on a spit behind the house. It smelled delicious. They must be planning something special, if they were having a roast in the backyard.

  “This is where they live. I’m sure of it,” Marco said with a sigh. He popped his neck and led the way up to the house. She noticed the way his body tensed the closer he got to the house.

  “How do you know they still live here?” Emmie whispered.

  “Smell that? This is the Sloan place. Looks like you are going to see how your mother got to be such a good cook,” Marco said, raising his hand to knock on the old wooden door.

  He looked over and whispered, “They may not be happy to see me but tell them who you are, if I don’t get the chance.”

  Emmie’s eyes went wide with surprise. “Why on earth would you not have the chance?”

  Marco didn’t get to answer. At that moment the door popped open to reveal a very short woman with a long gray-black braid of hair. Her face was wrinkled and pruned from years in the sun. She squinted and leaned in to get a closer look at Marco. She turned her face to the side without saying a word as if she was trying to place the man standing on her front porch.

  “Mrs. Sloan, I’m sorry to come over unannounce
d—” he started but didn’t get the chance to finish.

  “Cain, we got a stranger here in a fine suit,” the older woman shouted, “and a pretty young lady in fancy clothes. You expecting them folks in your gatherin’ today?”

  They heard heavy footsteps thunder from the back of the house. Marco took a step back from the doorway. His arm reached out and pushed Emmie back, putting his body in front of hers.

  “A finely dressed man is not surprising, but they ain’t said nothing about no lady being with ’em,” Cain said from the doorway.

  She attempted to peek around Marco’s shoulder, but he was doing a good job at keeping her body behind his. Emmie realized she should probably feel afraid by the way Marco’s body tensed, but she couldn’t help but smile. This was the most absurd introduction she had ever heard of.

  “Like I was saying, Mr. Sloan, I’m sorry to come by unannounced—” Again Marco didn’t get out any other words.

  “Go. Get back to your car. We don’t cotton to any strangers around here right now,” he said.

  Marco put his hands up and took a step back, smashing Emmie’s toes in the process. She stumbled and fell out of her father’s shadow, finally able to see Cain and Miss Sloan for the first time. She gasped as she saw why he had stepped backward. Cain was holding the biggest knife that Emmie had ever seen in her life. He pointed the knife in the direction of their car. She grabbed Marco’s hand.