by Nora Roberts
“And there you are, real handy.”
“Oh yeah. I just want to get some eats with my girl. Really don’t want to fight a mean drunk, so I’m all, Hey, man, chill, but he doesn’t want to chill. He gives me a couple shoves. I figure I can outrun him, but, shit, I just can’t grow the feathers for that. I reckon I’m going to have to fight this drunk asshole, probably get my own ass kicked. But Cyrus came along. You remember Cyrus, right? Nice guy, was married to Emily for about five minutes back in the day.”
“Yeah, I know him.”
In fact, Zane picked him out of the crowd now simply by the red hair—some white streaked through it.
“He comes up, and he gets in Draper’s grill, tells him to take off, and says if he gets in his truck to drive off, he’s gonna call the law, cause he’s skunk drunk. Draper walks off, shoots us the bird like that hurts our feelings. I wanna buy Cy a drink, but he rain checks it ’cause he’s heading home. I figure that’s that.”
“But it wasn’t?”
“The next morning when I leave for a job, my tires are slashed, all freaking four.”
“Son of a bitch,” Zane muttered. “Did you tell Lee?”
“Yeah, but what’s the point? Can’t prove it was Draper. And better the tires get slashed than me, bro. I’m saying he’ll for sure try something with you, because like Cass said, good deed.”
“Let him try.”
“When he does, I’ve got your back. Keep me on speed dial, man. Seriously. Now, it goes in the box, lid on, ’cause we’ve got partying to do. Like Cass said, the music’s tight. I’m going to find her and show these people how to dance.”
How not to was more like it, Zane thought. Micah had never picked up anything approaching rhythm, but he sure as hell had a good time stomping around on the dance floor.
Zane hoped he’d have a chance to do the same with Darby, but knowing his obligations, walked back to relieve Dave at the grill. And found Lee already had.
“Hey, get yourself a beer and a plate,” Zane told him. “I’ve got this.”
“No, I need a little wind-down time first, and a little grilling for the masses does the job. We’ll talk about the rest tomorrow.”
Understanding, Zane backed off. “When you’re ready, send up a flare.”
“Count on it. Go find your girl.”
“I believe I will.” He walked through the crowd, stopping to talk here and there until he could get to Darby.
She still manned the softball pitch. He spotted Roy, a bunch of teenagers, including Gabe.
He heard the tail end of a challenge as Darby eyed Gabe and lightly tossed one of the balls in the air.
“If I do three in a row, you take over here.”
“Over-sixteen distance,” Gabe added. “Straight pitch, no underhand crap.”
“Of course.”
“Deal. You miss, you buy my lunch next Sub Saturday.”
“Done. Give me room here,” she said, and in her pretty sundress, stepped back to the flag planted to indicate the over-sixteen line.
She rolled her shoulders, tipped her head, took her stance.
She wound up, sent the ball straight through the hole in the plywood and into the net behind.
Zane’s brows lifted as she said, “That’s one.” He already knew she had an arm, now could add she had damn good form.
She sent the next through with a nice little whiz, then picked up a third. She batted her eyes at Gabe as he rolled his.
And hit the sweet spot with the third.
As she polished her nails on her arm, she smiled at Gabe. “You’re my relief. Oh, look, we’ve got another contender.”
Even as Zane shook his head, she grabbed his hand, pulled him up to the line.
“I’m rusty,” he claimed.
“What, you can’t pitch three through the hole?”
“I’m looking for a dance, not a prize.”
“A dance with me? That’s your prize, slugger. Step right up.”
She tossed him a softball. He preferred the size, the toughness of a baseball, but still it hit a chord with him, took him back.
What the hell, he thought, just a kids’ game at a cookout.
He zipped the first one through, felt that quick snap in the blood. He took another, let it fly so it thwacked against the net.
Felt damn good.
He put some speed on the third, winced as the force of it had the net toppling over. “Sorry.”
“You ain’t lost a hair, Zane,” Roy said as Gabe trotted over to fix the net. “Not a single hair. Takes me back.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
Darby ran a hand up his arm. “If you don’t play for the Lakeview team next season, it’s a crime against humanity.”
“Crime against humanity’s a little extreme.”
“Baseball is humanity.” Then she took his hand. “Let’s dance, Walker.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
While Zane watched fireworks bang and bloom in the sky, Clint Draper decided to borrow his good pal Stu’s pickup. Of course, with Stu passed out cold on the couch of his deaf bitch of a grandmother’s basement, Clint couldn’t exactly ask permission for the loan.
He owed Stu, not only for giving him a place to stay, but for digging into his supply of oxy and home brew to help take the edge off.
And still, he was royally pissed.
He’d teach Traci a lesson, a good, hard lesson when she came crawling back, but meanwhile he had others needing good, solid payback.
His pappy had taught him—and those lessons had often come hard—that when somebody fucked with you, you fuck them back. And worse.
He had the whole story now, knew who he needed to fuck back. And no point in waiting to start.
In a couple days, he’d come out of hiding, and good old Stu would swear on his grandmother’s Bible that Clint had been with him up in the hills, fishing and camping all the time.
Nobody’d prove any different.
He raided Stu’s paint supply. When Stu worked, he put time in painting houses, and always took what was left, claiming he’d used every drop.
He had a closet piled with paint cans, old brushes and rollers, dented pans. Plenty for Clint’s purpose.
After carting a few cans to the pickup, tossing in a couple of brushes, Clint drove into town.
He liked being drunk, believed when he’d downed a few he thought clearer, saw clearer, got stronger, even smarter. He didn’t care if he swerved onto the shoulder a few times.
It just woke him up.
When he veered toward Zane’s office, the front left tire hit the curb, then bumped over it. At that time of night, Lakeview slept sound, so no one heard him whistling softly through his teeth as he got to work on the job at hand.
Maybe some paint splashed on him when he opened a can at random, and some dribbled on the sidewalk as he walked across. He sloshed a brush around in what was billed as Moulin Rouge and slapped on his message. Because he wanted nice big letters, he had to open a second can. Blooming Orchid merged with Moulin Rouge.
He’d quit school at sixteen, had a spotty attendance beforehand. Spelling hadn’t been one of his strengths, but the meaning and the hate came across in the sloppy lettering and drips of clashing paint.
SUK MY DIK MUTHR FUKER
Stepping back, he studied his work with some pride and watched drips of paint slide down the pristine white of the building.
Pleased, he used more of the orchid to scrawl FAGGIT across the main door before heaving more paint on the window, dumping the rest on the porch.
Too drunk and stupid to think of fingerprints, DNA, or basic common sense, he left the empty cans on the porch before unzipping and releasing his bladder on the doorstep.
Besides, he considered good old Stu an ironclad alibi.
He got back in the truck, smearing paint from his hands onto the steering wheel. He swerved and weaved his way out of town, navigated the road up to Darby’s house.
Bitch stuck her nose in his pers
onal business? Bitch had to pay.
He considered burning the place down, but he hadn’t thought to get a can of gas.
Next time, he vowed, and settled for defacing the house with a rainbow of Cerulean Blue, Daffodil Yellow, Mountain Mist, slopping ugly words over the wood.
CUNT HORE LESBO BICH
He attempted to depict a gang rape with stick figures, and to his bleary eyes considered it fine art.
Using his art as a visual aid, he masturbated, howling with satisfaction as he spattered cum over her welcome mat.
Far from finished, he stumbled back to the truck.
Now came the big guns. Literally.
Hunched over the wheel, he drove toward Zane’s, and was far too drunk, much too focused on getting where he needed to go to notice the headlights keeping a steady quarter mile back in his rearview mirror.
Even shit-faced he remembered Zane’s security. Everybody knew about it, especially since Bigelow got his ass kicked by that lesbo bitch. Which proved, in Clint’s reasoning, Bigelow was a pussy, and too much of a pussy to have knocked his wife and kids around back in the day.
Buncha bullshit.
One thing Clint Draper wasn’t, for fuck’s sake, was some pussy.
He cut the headlights as he drove up the steep lane, pulled up a little better than halfway. Security, my ass, he thought. He’d slip right through it, do what he came to do, and slip right out again.
He got his rifle off the bench seat beside him—paint time was over—and hiked into the woods.
He had a nice, bright moon to guide him.
If Clint knew one thing and knew it well, it was how to hunt and shoot and make the ammo count.
He thrashed his way through underbrush—not worried about scaring off game, as what he wanted slept all nice and tidy inside the big house.
He didn’t figure on killing them—yet—but he’d sure as shit scare the piss right out of them.
“Time to wake up, fuckers. You’ll be eating floorboards and shitting your pants.”
And maybe, just maybe, one of them would peek out a door, a window. If that happened, he’d put a bullet in them.
Didn’t matter a good goddamn which one.
“Think you can take my wife from me, turn that stupid bitch against me? Gonna fuck you up, fuck you up real good.”
He stumbled a time or two, scratched the hell out of his arms on brambles—and left plenty of fibers and bits of skin behind.
He wished to Christ he’d thought to grab a beer from Stu’s stash so he could slake his thirst.
The warm, close night and all the work he’d done had him soaked in sweat. Even drunk he could smell his own stink.
No worries. He’d clean up at Stu’s, grab that beer, maybe pop one of the old lady’s Ambien.
Sleep like a baby after he finished his good night’s work.
The moon cut through the trees, flooded over the house. Clint thought he couldn’t ask for better.
He saw himself slipping in and out of the shadows, silent as a ghost even as he stumbled, thrashed, cracked twigs under his boots.
But the shadow behind him moved quiet and bided its time.
Clint took a stand, such as it was, at the edge of the trees, keeping back as he studied the house.
Word was they had a big, fancy bedroom in the front with the big glass doors so that pussy Walker could stand out there on the deck lording it over the town.
He shouldered the rifle, brought the doors into the crosshairs of his scope. He thought he might even get lucky, at least wing one of them.
Either way, he thought, either way, they wouldn’t sleep easy after tonight.
He fired twice, hit the glass, watched it shatter, then added a spray that flashed through the opening, hit the jambs, the house.
Grinning, heart thumping, he kept his aim, picturing the shot if that fucking Walker had the balls to come to the doors.
The shadow moved in behind him. Clint knew an instant of shocking pain when the rock smashed his skull. His rifle hit the ground seconds before he did.
Now the shadow smiled and thought: Interesting.
When an opportunity fell into your lap, only a fool ignored it. Coolheaded, he took the rifle, hauled Clint up and over his shoulder.
He’d just take his opportunity off to a more private location.
* * *
The shots ripped Zane out of sleep. Instinctively, he rolled over Darby, wrapped around her, kept rolling until they hit the floor.
“Stay down,” he snapped as the dog sent up a howl.
“What—”
“Stay down. Somebody’s shooting at the house.”
“No. Maybe more fireworks.”
“Fireworks didn’t do that.” He gestured at the broken glass, lifted his voice over the alarm as it began to shrill.
Zod nuzzled in, lapped his tongue over faces, shoulders, hands while Zane slithered over her, pawed his hand onto the nightstand for his phone, already signaling.
“Yeah, I’ve got a problem. Somebody’s outside shooting at my house. Call the damn cops, now. Stay down,” he ordered Darby again. “I want you to stay low and get into one of the spare rooms and hide. If you hear him break in, get out a window. And keep going.”
She lay on the floor, clutching the dog, every muscle trembling. “Is that what you’re going to do?”
“Just do it.”
He stayed low, worked his way to the closet and inside. He came out with the Louisville Slugger Emily had given him for his twelfth birthday.
And saw that rather than getting to a hiding place, Darby had unplugged a bedside lamp, now held it much as he did the bat.
“Two weapons are better than one,” she began.
“Quiet!” He shoved out a hand. “That’s an engine starting up.”
Moving fast, he darted to the broken doors before she could object—and caught just the quick flash of taillights.
“Son of a bitch. I’m going after him.”
“He has a gun. Do you?”
Ignoring her, he grabbed pants, swore as he cut his foot on broken glass. “Stay here.”
She only had a second to think: Like hell.
When he ran from the room, she was right behind him. “Wait. Think. I know you’re mad. Me, too. But there could be more than one of them, with guns, for God’s sake, Zane. They could be trying to lure you out, just like this.”
Though it galled her, she pulled out another weapon—the only one she believed would work on a furious male.
“Please don’t leave me here alone.”
That stopped him. “Damn it, Darby, he can’t outrun the Porsche. Hide in the pantry until the cops come.”
It galled, more than a little. But deciding her pride wasn’t worth his life, she wrapped around him, clung. “Don’t leave me alone.”
“All right. Okay.” So he stood with her in the upstairs hall, holding her. “It’s all right, darlin’, I’m right here. It’s okay.”
As relief spilled through her, she tightened her grip. “It had to be Clint Draper, had to be. He won’t get away, Zane.”
“No, he won’t. Look—I’m not going anywhere. I want you to take the dog into the spare room there—stay away from the windows. I’m just going down to wait for Lee.”
“We’ll all go down. Jesus, you’re bleeding.”
“Just stepped on some glass.”
“Bathroom,” she ordered. “We’ll clean it up, then Lee or Silas or somebody will be here.”
It gave her direction, something to focus on, so her hands stayed steady as she examined and cleaned the wound—nastier than she liked, not as bad as she’d feared.
“He didn’t try to break in.”
“He’d know about the security system. Everybody does. Probably too stupid to realize shooting the glass would spring the alarm.”
Seconds before Zane heard the sirens, Zod began to howl again.
“Here they come. Darlin’? You’re naked.”
“Right. I’ll take care
of that and be right down.”
He stood, favoring his injured foot. “You weren’t afraid of being alone.”
“I was afraid,” she said simply, and went to put some clothes on.
The dog raced downstairs, barking ferociously, and Zane followed.
Still naked, Darby sat on the side of the bed, let the trembling come again. The broken glass, the bloody footprints, the tangle of sheets. And, she saw now, the holes bullets had torn into the wall just a few feet from where they’d slept.
What if he’d waited? Waited until morning, until Zane stepped outside as he did every day? Until they’d sat together on the back patio over cereal and coffee?
They’d have been defenseless.
Or if he’d come sooner, using the booming fireworks as cover, shot while there were children running around the lawn, while everyone looked up at the sky?
She wrapped her arms around her belly, rocked.
“Pull it together,” she told herself. “Just pull yourself together. Ifs don’t matter. It didn’t happen. And they’ll find him. They’ll find him.”
She walked back to the bathroom, splashed cold water on her face, and waited for the sudden wave of nausea to pass.
By the time she’d pulled on clothes, Zane had started back up the steps.
“Wanted to see if you were dressed. Lee needs to come up.”
“Sure.”
He walked to her, laid a hand on her cheek. “You’re really pale.”
“I’ll be better after coffee. I’ll go make some.” She looked down to the base of the steps where Lee waited. “It’s really good to see you, Chief.” She continued down. “I didn’t even hear the shots, the glass breaking. I woke up when Zane rolled me off the bed and we hit the floor.”
“Don’t you worry now, honey. We’re going to take care of this. That I can promise.”
She nodded, walked to the kitchen to make coffee.
She continued to sit, sipping slowly, when Lee and Zane came back down.
Darby considered herself pretty adept at reading a room, and this one struck her as even more grim than it had been.
