Chapter Ten #3
highly suspicious that they stopped working at the same time and right before
an act of vandalism.”
“Tell me something, Rye.” The Harper clan ignored the whole
police report thing, preferring to do their form of family therapy here and
now. Brooke had her hands on her hips and a frown on her face. She was always
pretty, even when she was cutting a man down to size. “Why didn’t you get me a
chastity belt when I was a kid if you’re so determined I’m going to marry the
right person and need to be ready to hand my virginity to him.”
Rye’s jaw straightened, and a stubborn look hit his face.
“You didn’t need a chastity belt. Not when we made sure everyone in this town
was watching you. Don’t you remember how Teeny and Marie happened to be at the
movie theater in Alamosa whenever you were on a date? Or at the Chili’s you
thought was too far out for me or Max to follow you?”
That was not going to go the way Rye thought it would.
Although Bay would admit he had no idea what Rye thought he was going to get
out of this beyond pissing his sister off. He needed to get this thing done so
he could figure out how to get them back home. Because the way this was going
Brooke might marry them tonight just to piss her brothers off.
“Was anything stolen out of the truck?” Elisa asked as her
dad went over to check on his own truck.
Bay had looked through the cab before he’d gone back for
Brooke and his brother. “Not that I can find. We didn’t have much in there. We
keep our tools in the bunkhouse since we tend to use horses or four wheelers at
work.”
“I’m going to go take some pictures and make sure they
didn’t hit the other cars,” Elisa said, taking out her phone.
“You had people follow me?” Brooke kind of screeched the
question.
“We had people looking out for you, sweetie.” When had Max
become the nice one?
“Do you think I made it up?” Shane kept his voice low, his
eyes still on Brooke. “Do you honestly believe that I would make shit up to get
out of a place I didn’t want to be in?”
Bay knew he’d fucked up the minute the words left his mouth.
“I think you thought you saw something and it made an excellent excuse to get
out of a place you weren’t comfortable with.”
“Brooke, you were a teenager, and you were driving off to
meet boys an hour away from home.” Rachel seemed to be the voice of reason.
“They didn’t have experience as parents then. They took things a little too
far, but can you blame them?”
“I know what I saw,” Shane said stubbornly.
“I thought you saw a glint of metal,” Bay reminded him. “You
didn’t come back and say you saw a bunch of guns. You said the crate lid came
slightly off and you saw something metallic.”
“Well, they wouldn’t have been talking about offing us if I
saw fencing materials,” Shane insisted.
“Oh, I can blame them.” Brooke ignored everything but her
family. “I can blame them because the last time it happened I was twenty-four.
I had come home for vacation and met a nice tourist, and guess who was at the
Chili’s? Mel and Cass. I got to have skillet queso while discussing the mating
habits of aliens, and guess who didn’t get to mate that day?”
Elisa was still filling out her report even as she walked
back to them. “Are you sure nothing was stolen? Because they did a number on
the cab. It looks like they went through everything.”
“I actually think they did steal something.” Bay nodded with
a frown. Damn. He’d kind of hidden it from his brother so he didn’t have to
share or be told he was getting pudgy. “I had a whole Snickers bar in the glove
box and now it’s gone.”
He’d been looking forward to that Snickers.
Shane rolled his eyes. “I fed it to Maurice. No one stole
it. Could we pay attention to the real problem we have?”
“You gave Maurice candy?” Maurice was the legendary moose
who walked the woods around Bliss and made frequent appearances in town. There
were a bunch of myths and legends about the big guy, including the one about
how if someone offered Maurice food and he accepted it, that meant the person
would become part of the town.
Now he had to get another Snickers bar and hunt down the
moose because he wasn’t getting left out.
“He looked hungry,” Shane admitted. “Can we focus now?”
“I’m trying to help by getting the police report out of the
way,” Bay argued.
“Why? So we can get insurance to fix the tires?” Shane asked
with a long-suffering sigh. “In case you forgot, we don’t have insurance.”
“Twenty-four? She was twenty-four years old?” Rachel rounded
on Rye. “You told me you only did it when she was a teenager and you didn’t
want her taken advantage of.”
“Well, I still don’t want her taken advantage of. You don’t
know how guys are, Rach. If you fall in bed with them too soon, they treat you
like a…” Rye stopped, and his mouth went closed.
“Like a what?” Rachel’s tone had gone icy. “You should
finish that sentence and then give me a timeline on how long it is before it’s
okay to sleep with a man. I slept with Max on our first date. It wasn’t much of
a date. He caught me swimming in the pond in the back field and we did it right
then and there. Did that make me a whatever you were about to call your
sister?”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” Rye lost his cold, calm
demeanor, and his hands were out as though he could stave off the attack. “I
just think she’s a bit na?ve and needs someone to look out for her. You know
she is practically a nun in New York. She doesn’t like the same things you do.”
“Like sex?” Rachel asked. “It’s okay for you and Max to
knock me up about a hundred times, but your saintly sister is to be kept pure
and innocent.” She sniffled and turned to Brooke. “Sweetie, I’m sorry. I don’t
mean to…”
Brooke waved her off and then reached for her hand. “I know
you’re not saying anything bad about me, but my brothers are. It’s okay for
them to have a sex life but I should keep myself virginal or some shit until
they find a good man for me to marry. And don’t think I didn’t figure out Stef
was sending men you all approved of my way. Did he think I wanted to date some
banker?”
“Yeah, but he was doing that because Brooke asked to be set
up,” a new voice said. “I told him we needed to find someone a bit more
artistic.”
And there was the owner of the last vehicle in the lot. Stef
and Jen Talbot were here, and his humiliation was probably complete. Unless
Trev or Jamie showed up.
Jennifer Talbot dropped her husband’s hand and rushed to her
friend. “Rachel, are you okay?”
Max frowned and turned their way. “What do you mean you
don’t have insurance?”
“She didn’t ask you to set her up,” Rachel answered Jen. “I
would bet she didn’t know they’ve had a private firm doing background workups
on all the men she’s dated.”
“She doesn’t date much.” Rye stepped closer to Stef, who had
a deeply constipated look on his face.
Probably because his date night had now turned into Family
Fight Night.
“Stef, when you parked, were the overhead lights on?” Elisa
looked down at her notes.
“You sicced PIs on the guys I dated in the city?” Brooke
asked.
“I think both lights were on or I would have called it in,”
Stef told Elisa. “I would at least have made a note for someone to come out and
fix it.”
Stef was the town engineer. Architect. Something that meant
he took care of shit for the town along with the mayor and council.
“Again, it wasn’t like there were many men, but yes, I had
the ones you dated checked out,” Rye replied. “Brooke, we have done everything
we did to protect you from men like the ones you’re getting dangerously close
to right now. Do you know they both have records?”
“For bar fighting.” Stef was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt,
expensive boots on his feet. “I’ve gone over this with you before. They’re good
men. You know Max has a record that’s way longer than Bay and Shane.”
“At least Max has insurance, and I stand by all my false
arrests. Nate is prejudiced against me because he knows his wife once had a
crush on me and he was a second choice. Or maybe third, since I think Callie
only took him on because of Zane,” Max announced.
Yeah, Bay had figured out those relationships quickly. Max
was a mouthy asshole who pushed the sheriff way too hard and got taken in on a
regular basis, while Zane poured him beers and didn’t tell about Max’s hot wing
addiction.
Jen gasped. “I can’t believe he said that.”
Rachel wiped her eyes and put a stoic expression on her
face. “I should get home. I would bet Nell’s having a hell of a time with
Paige. Getting her to eat vegetables is a real trial these days, and the boys
are a handful. This was a bad idea. We don’t need to go out anymore. We have
too much to handle at home.”
“We can’t afford more than liability. And honestly, we would
end up paying more than the truck is worth.” There was something wrong with
this scenario. If there were three cars in this lot, then two of them were
absolutely more break-in worthy than theirs. “Uhm, why would they break into
our truck when Stef’s car is over there? Did they not see it?”
Elisa sighed. “That’s why I’m trying to establish a
timeline.”
“There is nothing wrong with Bay and Shane. I know I joked
about Brooke breaking them, but that was a long time ago. I kind of think they
might be good for her now,” Stef announced and turned Brooke’s way. “Brooke,
I’m sorry for the part I’ve had in this. You should know the only reason I
agreed to pay for the PI was I knew they would do it if I didn’t, and they
don’t need to be spending money right now. They’re expanding the business and
have a new kid on the way, and they’re stubborn about what they consider
charity. I didn’t want them to have more pressure than they have right now.
They were worried about you. You weren’t yourself the last time you were here.”
“Well, now we know for sure she’s not herself since she’s
decided to take up with those two,” Rye accused. “And Max is just annoying.