Hot Texas Sunrise

by Delores Fossen

  The sound got Otto hurrying back toward his motorcycle, proving that he could indeed move faster than a snail and without starting thigh fires. He motioned for Lavinia to join him. Not a casual, “come here” gesture, either. It was frantic, causing his arms to flap like pterodactyl wings.

  Judd was betting the man had a sheet. One that maybe he could use to make sure Lavinia never came back here with him again. First, though, he was going to have to explain to Kace what the heck was going on.

  Kace killed the sirens and pulled to a stop behind the motorcycle, causing the guy to groan and shake his head. Lavinia didn’t go into retreat mode, though. She whirled around, clomping her way to the cruiser.

  His brother got out, but he wasn’t alone. Deputy Liberty Cassaine was with him, and that let Judd know that Kace had come expecting trouble.

  “You’d better be here to arrest them for kidnapping,” Lavinia said, flinging her hand back at Judd and Cleo.

  Kace made a sweeping glance at all of them, then at the house and the barn, where Beckham was still watching. Judd wasn’t sure how much Rosy had told Kace, but his brother seemed to have a quick understanding of what was going on. Of course, Kace usually did.

  “I’m Sheriff Kace Laramie. And you are?” he asked Lavinia.

  “I’m Lavinia Mercer, and I’m here to get my grandbabies.” She spat out the word grandbabies like milk past its expiration date. “They stole them from me.” She aimed an accusing finger at Judd and Cleo.

  Kace ignored the finger jab and barely spared the woman a glance before he shifted toward Otto. “And you are?”

  It was so obvious that the man didn’t want to give even that bit of info, but Kace didn’t back down with his cop stare. “Otto Burrell,” the guy finally mumbled.

  “Run them,” Kace told Liberty, who went back to the cruiser. Kace turned toward Judd. “These two people are trespassing?” Kace asked.

  “Yes!” Cleo answered before Judd had the chance. “And she assaulted her grandchildren.”

  That set off a profanity-laced howl of protest and counteraccusations from Lavinia. More groans and gaze-dodging from Otto.

  “SAPD’s investigating the assault charges, and for now the kids are in my protective custody,” Judd told his brother and hoped Kace could hear over Lavinia’s rantings. “But if she doesn’t shut up, I’ll arrest both of them for trespassing and disturbing the peace.”

  As expected, that caused Lavinia to aim her fresh tirade at Judd.

  “Uh, Vinia,” the man said as he started up the motorcycle, which, of course, only added to the noise. “I gotta go. Like now.”

  Kace cut through the loud spew by aiming his stare at the woman. “Ms. Mercer, you’ve got five seconds to leave or I haul you in.” And with that, Kace started counting. “Five, four...”

  Lavinia might not have had a clue about suitable undergarments for breast support, but she realized when a cop meant business. “I’m coming back with a lawyer,” she said, hurrying to get on the motorcycle. “So help me, I’ll have your badge.”

  However, the woman’s threat was somewhat diminished by the farting noise the motorcycle’s exhaust made as Otto sped away. Lavinia obviously hadn’t been prepared for the jolt of speed because her body jerked back and her arms and legs went flailing. Judd hoped she didn’t fall off because he didn’t want to have to deal with any injuries right now.

  “Rosy, it’s okay,” Kace called out to the woman who was now in the doorway. He gave her a quick wave.

  “No sheet on the woman,” Liberty called out to Kace. “You’ll probably want to sit down and have coffee, though, while you read Otto’s. It’s multiple pages. Apparently, he has a thing for urinating in public.”

  Considering his beer requests, Judd supposed that made sense. Lavinia probably hadn’t considered that bringing an ex-con with her would hurt her argument for getting the boys. An argument that she wouldn’t have won no matter what.

  Now Judd would have to explain that to Kace, too.

  Since he was still barefoot, Judd motioned for Kace to follow him to his cabin. Along the way, he buttoned his shirt and hoped that Kace didn’t misinterpret his clothing issues as his carrying on with Cleo. But one glance back at his brother, and Judd got confirmation that Kace did indeed believe that. Great. Now Kace would think that lust and sex were playing a part in this mess.

  They weren’t.

  But Judd wasn’t going to convince anybody, not even himself, that the lust wasn’t there.

  “Rosy said there was a dispute,” Kace said as Cleo, Judd and he went into the cabin. “The grandmother bruised up the kids, they ran away, you found them and brought them here.”

  It was a good summary, void of emotion. In other words, Kace was speaking like a cop.

  Judd went straight to his bedroom area, sat on the bed and pulled on his boots. “SAPD put the boys in my protective custody.”

  “For how long?” Kace asked.

  Judd had to shake his head, but the answer was...not long. In fact, someone in SAPD was likely already starting the paperwork to undo it.

  Cleo shook her head, too. “I can’t let the boys go back to living with that woman.”

  Kace helped himself to a Coke from Judd’s fridge and had several gulps while he studied them. “Any reason you didn’t come to me with this before you ended up with a motorcycle thug and a shrieking woman in the driveway?”

  Again, it was a good summary, but he doubted Kace would consider his response a good one. “I was trying to handle it myself,” Judd said, just as Cleo blurted out, “I asked Judd to foster the boys, as a favor to me.”

  Kace nodded, considered and had another sip of the Coke while he propped his shoulder against the fridge. “No parents involved in this?”

  Cleo shook her head again. “Both are dead. But I was close friends with the boys’ mother, and before she died, she asked me to raise them. I can’t legally do that because I have a police record. And, no, it’s not for urinating in public.”

  “Breaking and entering when you were eighteen,” Kace stated. “I had Liberty run you on the way over.” He stayed quiet a moment before he shifted his attention back to Judd. “I take it you turned Cleo down? On fostering the boys,” he added.

  Yeah, Kace was aware of the lust problem.

  “I did turn her down,” Judd admitted.

  “I asked him to be a foster in name only,” Cleo confessed. “In other words, I wanted him to bend the law.”

  The silence came, and it lasted for some long moments before Kace spoke. “Buck and Rosy are in on this?” he asked.

  Cleo nodded. “They were going to let me use the house because my apartment isn’t big enough. I’ll buy a place, eventually. And I have a sitter lined up who can be here when I’m not, and I’ll commute to work.”

  Kace stared at her from over his Coke can. “You’re willing to spend more than the next decade or so raising these kids?”

  “Yes, I am,” Cleo said without hesitation. “I owe that to their mother. The oldest, Beckham, and I have talked about this. He’s fifteen, and when he turns eighteen, he’ll petition the courts for custody of his brothers. I’d still continue to be with them, but that would let Judd legally off the hook.”

  “Three years,” Kace muttered. “That’s a long time for Judd to be a foster father on paper.”

  The breath that Cleo released sounded as if she’d been holding it forever. “It is. I knew it was a huge favor to ask and don’t blame him for refusing.” She sighed. “I just need a fix for this, Kace. A fix that keeps those children away from their turd-head of a grandmother.” Cleo shook her head and blinked back tears. “She doesn’t even want them and will put them in foster care first chance she gets.”

  Even though Judd had heard Cleo say that multiple times, it still made his chest tighten. Kace didn’t say anything, but Judd figured he was havin
g the same reaction. It was impossible to forget what they’d gone through.

  “The boys likely wouldn’t be able to stay together in foster care,” Cleo went on. “Beckham has a juvie record.” She stopped and gave her bottom lip a quick nibble. “So, are you going to arrest me for trying to get around the law?”

  Again, Kace paused. “No.” Then he huffed, “Actually, I’m going to help you.”

  That got Judd’s attention. Cleo’s, too, because she took several cautious steps toward Kace. “Help me how?” she asked.

  “Let me look over the boys’ case file, and then I’ll contact CPS,” Kace explained. “I’ll ask them to sign over custody to me.”

  * * *

  THIS WAS A GOOD THING, Judd reminded himself as he stood in the hall of the second floor of Buck’s house and watched Cleo putting the kids to bed in the bunk-bed room. A really good thing. Kace had stepped up to the plate and would help Cleo go through with her plan to raise the boys.

  Judd couldn’t even argue with the plan itself. The boys needed someone to take care of them, someone who would keep them together, someone who would love them, and Cleo was going to do all of that.

  With Kace’s help.

  Too bad it made Judd feel like shit.

  He knew what it was like to be in foster care and separated from his brothers. He knew what it was like to have no one give a damn. But he was also well aware of his limitations. Flashbacks and memories could send him straight back to the bottle, and if that happened, it wouldn’t do anybody any good.

  Judd shoved his hand in his pocket to touch the sobriety coin that he always carried with him. It was a reminder that feeling like shit was better than being shit—which was what would happen if he went back to drinking.

  “How long do we get to stay in this stupid place?” Little Leo asked, grinning as Cleo shadowed him up the ladder to the top bunk. Once he was on the bed, she lifted the side railing that would stop him from falling out.

  “A while,” she answered. “And it’s not stupid. I even slept in these beds a time or two before I got the room down the hall.”

  “It’s stupid,” Beckham complained.

  He was already on the lower bunk and was wearing the devil-red pj’s that Rosy had given him. The color wasn’t just red. They actually had devils on them, making Judd wonder if Rosy was typecasting or if she’d just bought them because they’d been on sale. Probably the latter considering the other pj’s that she’d given to Isaac had aliens on them and Leo’s had dancing doughnuts.

  “What about Popsicle?” Leo asked as he peered down at the kitten, who was sacked out on the bottom bunk of the other bed. “Is he gonna come up here and sleep with me?”

  “No, he’ll be fine where he is,” Cleo assured him, “and this way he can get to his litter box if he needs it. And speaking of needing it, remember the bathroom’s just across the hall, but if you have to use it in the night, call out for me to help you down the ladder.”

  “I’ll help him,” Beckham snarled. “But if she comes back again, we’re not staying here,” he added, still snarling. “And I’ll punch her in her stupid ugly face.”

  Judd nearly made a sound of agreement about the punching before he caught himself. Best not to encourage Beckham to commit violence even when that person, Lavinia, deserved it.

  “Will Miss Rosy lock the door so Grandma Lavinia can’t get in?” Isaac asked. The kid didn’t have the defiant tone like his older brother. Just the opposite. Isaac sounded scared. And that hit Judd even harder than the defiance did.

  It had the same effect on Cleo.

  Judd saw her swallow hard, and he heard the long breath she dragged in as if to steady herself. “Yes, the door will be locked, but your grandmother won’t be coming back tonight,” she said. “Remember, Sheriff Laramie said he was going to get some papers to make sure she stayed away.”

  A restraining order. Kace was indeed doing that, probably right now at this very moment, but Judd knew that a piece of paper rarely made idiots act smarter. That’s why he’d be keeping watch tonight to make sure Lavinia and Otto didn’t return to the ranch. Judd was almost hoping that Otto would come back so he’d have somewhere to aim this dangerous energy boiling inside him. He couldn’t hit a woman, but Otto was fair game.

  Cleo tucked in Isaac and Leo, giving them both cheek kisses, but Beckham turned away when she leaned down to him. “I’m giving you a good-night kiss in my mind. Five of them.” She smiled, winked at him, then leaned down and whispered something to him that Judd didn’t catch. Whatever it was had Beckham shrugging and maybe even relaxing a little.

  Cleo gave all three boys and Popsicle a final check, turned off the lights and closed the door as she stepped out into the hall. She motioned for him to follow her to the stairs, no doubt so that she’d be out of earshot from the boys, and she let out another of those long breaths.

  “I don’t think they’ll run,” she whispered, “but just in case, I’m bunking in a sleeping bag outside their door.” She pushed her hair from her face and glanced around. “Kace isn’t back yet.”

  Judd shook his head. “A restraining order can take time.” Plus, the ever organized Kace was probably making other calls, other arrangements. “What did you tell Beckham?”

  “That the chickens would chase and peck him if he went out at night. He knows it’s not true, that I was just trying to lighten him up some, but maybe part of him will believe it so he’ll stay put. They all need a good night’s sleep.”

  “So do you,” he pointed out, but Judd figured “good” and “sleep” weren’t going to happen with her bunking on the floor. “I can take a shift up here watching the boys if that’ll help.”

  A tiny smile tugged at her mouth—a reminder that she had a mouth that interested him.

  Yeah, even at a time like this.

  That didn’t help with the shitty feeling. Here they were in the middle of an upheaval, and he was going horndog with his thoughts.

  “No offense, but you look even more exhausted than I do.” Cleo patted his arm but didn’t immediately pull back her hand. It stayed there while their gazes connected.

  “Yeah, even at a time like this.” But this time, Judd said it aloud. The only saving grace was that Cleo likely didn’t have a clue what he meant.

  But she did. The tugging smile let him know that. “It’s okay. I’ll be so busy running back and forth between here and the bar that the old heat won’t get us into trouble. Trust me, I’ll be too tired to go sneaking into your bed and asking you if you want to get lucky tonight.”

  Good thing. Because as good as sex with Cleo would feel right now, it would only add another layer to his crappy mood. It would give him something else to regret.

  They both stepped back when they heard the footsteps on the stairs. Kace. And his brother was carrying a rolled-up sleeping bag.

  “Rosy asked me to bring this up,” Kace said. “Are the boys asleep?”

  “Leo and Isaac might be.” Cleo took the sleeping bag from him. “But I suspect Beckham is wide-awake and trying to figure out how many more things he can call stupid.”

  Kace did something that Judd rarely saw him do. He smiled. It didn’t last, though, and he scrubbed his hand over his face. “I’ve got good news and not so good. The restraining order against Lavinia is done, but she says she’ll challenge it.”

  “She might, if she stays sober long enough,” Cleo said, and then she winced a little. Probably because she thought she’d offended Judd. She hadn’t.

  Kace nodded as if that’d been the answer he’d expected. “As for custody, the best I could do was temporary, and I suspect Lavinia will challenge that, too.”

  Yes, as much as the woman hated Cleo, she would. “It takes money to hire lawyers to go up against even a temporary custody order,” Judd reminded Cleo.

  Kace made a sound of agreement. “That’ll count agains
t Lavinia and so will the assault charges I want filed against her. That means I need one of the deputies to question the boys. Not Judd or me, though, because I don’t want proper procedure called into question here.”

  Cleo groaned. Then nodded. “I’ll speak to the boys in the morning to let them know what’s to happen. FYI, I tried to get them to talk about the bruises, but they wouldn’t.”

  Probably because they were traumatized and scared. Being questioned by a cop wouldn’t ease that any, but Cleo would hopefully be able to make them understand that this would be the way to stop their grandmother.

  “One more thing,” Kace said a moment later. “CPS will be out to check on the boys and their living arrangements.”

  Cleo touched her fingers to her lips for a moment. “You’ll have to lie about being their foster parent.”

  Kace quickly shook his head. “No. I won’t lie. I won’t break the law.”

  Judd’s stomach suddenly felt tight as a fist. This was the reason Cleo hadn’t gone to Kace in the first place, the reason she’d asked him to do this.

  “My house isn’t big enough for all of us,” Kace continued before Judd could say anything. “But I just talked to Buck, and we came up with a solution.” His brother looked at Cleo now. “You and I will move in here together.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “GATHERING STUPID EGGS is fun,” Leo announced as he came through the back door and into the kitchen.

  Cleo sighed and looked up from her laptop where she was doing the payroll for the bar. Obviously, she needed to have another chat with Beckham about dubbing anything and everything stupid. Then she needed to chat with Leo about mimicking his big brother.

  She should chat with Judd, too.

  Cleo hadn’t missed the troubled expression on Judd’s face when Kace had laid out his plan for custody—a plan that involved Kace and her both moving in with Buck, Rosy and the boys. Since Cleo had planned on doing that—temporarily, anyway—it wasn’t a big deal.