Chapter 23
Devon
“W here’s Reese?” I asked my mother as I entered her kitchen the next day.
We were having a family dinner tonight at my mother’s place, and Reese had come over early to help Mom.
Since they were going to be cooking, I’d stayed behind for a while to work on a song that I was co-writing with Anna.
Reese had subtly hinted that she wouldn’t mind having some girl time with my mom, and I certainly wouldn’t be helping them cook dinner.
Reese was slowly starting to learn to manage her PTSD with the help of her new counselor, and I was fairly sure it helped her to talk to my mother, too.
The two of them had gotten even tighter since the truth about Reese’s past had been revealed.
Mom looked from the food she was stirring in a big pot and smiled at me. “Reese and I went for a walk earlier to see the progress on Cole and Asher’s land. We sat for a while at the property border by that big Ponderosa Pine. I think I left my phone there. She offered to get it while I watched our dinner. You just missed her, but it shouldn’t take her long.”
I’d lightened up a little about Reese being alone while she was in Crystal Fork.
I still didn’t let her ride alone because the trails were pretty remote, but she should be safe enough going to the Ponderosa Pine and back. It wasn’t like that big pine tree was miles deep into Mom’s property.
“We’re all in the dining room,” Kaleb said as he strolled into the kitchen. “So what’s the latest news about Cole and Asher?”
Cole and Asher Remington were our cousins.
They’d left Crystal Fork years ago and had never really stayed in touch.
I’d connected a few times with Cole in the last few months because they were building homes on our uncle’s old property and planning on moving home now that they’d sold their multi-billion-dollar tech company in Austin.
Asher was a mystery to me.
My communication had been sparse with Cole, but at least he’d been cordial.
Asher had never bothered to answer anyone in the family when they’d tried to contact him.
Since their father had been an asshole and an alcoholic, we’d never really mingled with our cousins much when we were younger.
My father had been estranged from his brother, and my cousins hadn’t seemed to want to have much to do with us, either.
Cole and Asher had always had a hard edge to them and were pretty anti-social. As far as I knew, they hadn’t changed much.
Looking back on that as an adult, I was pretty sure their behavior had a lot to do with their father.
I suspected he was an abusive dick.
I wasn’t quite sure how they were going to be accepted back into Crystal Fork.
A lot of the townspeople still believed that they’d murdered their own father, but I’d never really believed it was true. Unfortunately, I had no real proof that they hadn’t done it because the murder had never been solved.
That property next to Mom’s had been abandoned for a long time, and in my mind, it was past time that it was occupied again.
“We could really only see Cole’s home,” Mom said. “Asher built his on the other side of the property. Cole’s home is lovely though. I’m glad that they’re both coming home. That property is their birthright.”
“I doubt they care,” I said drily. “They’re both filthy rich.”
“They’re Remingtons,” my mother insisted. “Montana is in their blood.”
“Cole said they’re going to breed horses,” I informed them. “And they have a bunch of other business interests around the world. Their tech company just happened to be their biggest one.”
“I hope they’ve gotten a little friendlier,” Kaleb said wryly. “I’ve reached out to Asher, but he never returned my calls.”
“Don’t count on it,” I warned. “I have a feeling they’re coming back to figure out who killed their father. I’m not sure why they care because they weren’t convicted of the crime, and I’m not sure they even liked the asshole.”
“Devon,” my mother said in a scolding voice.
I held up a hand. “Okay, I’m sorry for cursing, but you know it’s true.”
My mother shook her head. “I’m going to welcome them with open arms. They are my nephews. Your father felt horrible because there was nothing he could do for them, but they swore they weren’t being neglected. There wasn’t much he could do. I think he’d want me to welcome them back as adults. He’d be happy they were back. He’d want them to be part of our family.”
“Just don’t get your hopes up,” Kaleb warned. “They may not want to be part of the family.”
“Well, I’ll still defend them,” Mom said stubbornly. “I never thought they killed your uncle, and I don’t believe it now. I don’t think it’s fair that people call them the black-sheep Remingtons. It bothers me. Those two boys did nothing wrong.”
Kaleb rubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t think any of us believe that they killed our uncle, but it’s going to be hard for them to prove who did after all these years. If they couldn’t solve the crime years ago, I doubt it’s going to be solved now.”
“Did Cole say when they’re making their move?” my mother asked.
“He never really said,” I admitted. “He’s not the kind of guy who overshares anything or explains anything he does, but I’m thinking it will be before winter.”
“Everything looks ready there,” Mom said excitedly. “Even the barns.”
Kaleb shot me a concerned look, and I understood exactly why he was worried.
Mom did have her hopes up that we’d all become one big, happy, Remington family someday, but that was highly unlikely.
It was going to be heartbreaking for her when she realized that our cousins didn’t give a damn about being family.
Cole was cordial at best, and I was pretty sure that Asher held more than a little animosity toward the rest of the family.
Both of them were known to be ice-cold, both in their business dealings and in their personal lives.
Cole might be distant and cool with my mother, but I doubted he’d outright snub her.
Asher had a reputation for being an ornery and unpleasant guy, and I doubted that he’d feel the least bit remorseful about blowing my mother off and hurting her feelings.
Neither one of them were going to be neighborly, and that would end up pissing off both myself and my brothers.
Mom had been through a lot with the loss of my dad, and she was getting older.
We were all protective of her, and it would be trouble if they hurt her in any way.
That’s why I’d tried to reach out to Cole more.
I’d wanted to see for myself if he was as big of an asshole as he was rumored to be.
Unfortunately, he was pretty unreadable and distant, so I couldn’t be sure if the rumors about him were true.
Hell, people thought my brothers and I were sharks.
We were when it came to business.
But we gave a damn about our family.
My mother moved to the fridge, and I leaned closer to Kaleb.
“If they hurt her, I’ll hurt both of them,” I said to Kaleb in a low voice that my mother couldn’t hear.
He nodded. “We all will.”
“Is there anything I can do to help,” Hannah asked as she waddled into the kitchen.
She was getting close to her due date, and she was starting to look a little uncomfortable.
“You can go into the living room and put your feet up,” Mom scolded. “Your feet have been swelling lately.”
“The doctor said I’m fine,” Hannah argued.
“She’s right,” Tanner said as he entered behind her with Anna directly behind him.
I watched as Tanner put his arm around Hannah and a protective hand on his wife’s abdomen.
Tanner probably had the calmest demeanor of all of us brothers, but he was looking a little frazzled lately.
He was obviously worried about his wife and her upcoming delivery.
I couldn’t blame him.
It had to be hell to know that your wife was about to go through a lot of pain to bring your kid into the world.
“Where’s Reese?” Lauren asked as she walked into the room.
My mother explained to her that she’d lost her phone, and that Reese had gone to retrieve it.
I glanced up at the kitchen clock.
It had been a while since she’d left.
The pine tree was a short hike, but she should be getting back by now. She was a fast walker, and she’d be hurrying in case Mom needed her help.
“Maybe I should go meet her,” I said out loud.
Kaleb slapped me on the back. “Relax. She hasn’t been gone that long, and I don’t think anything is going to happen to her here.”
I pulled my phone from the pocket of my jeans and sent her a short text, simply asking if she was getting close to the house.
Reese was always good about answering my texts quickly because she knew I would be worried if she didn’t.
Everyone around me looked at me like I was being a little overprotective, but I didn’t give a shit.
There was someone out there in the world who wanted the woman I loved dead, and that made me slightly edgy almost all of the time.
Ralph had told me a few days ago that it had been a while since they’d gotten a location on Kline.
It had also been weeks since he’d sent a threatening message to Reese on her old digital devices.
He’d also said that he wondered if Burke Kline had decided to commit suicide and was dead somewhere and no one had found him yet.
In my mind, that asshole offing himself would be the best-case scenario, but I wished someone would find his dead body so this could be over for Reese.
My family kept chatting as a minute ticked by.
And then two.
And then three.
By minute five, something in my gut was telling me something wasn’t right.
“Maybe she hasn’t seen it,” Kaleb suggested.
“She’d hear it,” I told him gruffly. “It’s not exactly noisy out there. Something’s wrong. I can feel it. I’m going out into the fields.”
“I’m coming with you,” Kaleb said immediately. “Tanner, take care of your wife, and call Ralph and tell him we might need him out here. It might be a false alarm, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. We’re going to find Reese.”
“I’ll call him on our way,” Tanner answered as he fell into step behind us after shooting a glance at my mother.
Mom nodded, silently agreeing to watch over Hannah while he was gone.
Kaleb had enough sense to grab my dad’s shotgun from the front closet before we were all out the door.