Chapter 45
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
JENSEN
She doesn’t change her mind.
She marries me in the courthouse in South Platte that afternoon.
Then, we go down to the diner to get Landis some ice cream.
He’s chattering a mile a minute about anything and everything he can think of.
Della answers him, her arm around his shoulders.
Her hand in mine is tight, like she never wants to let go.
I thought today might feel like the aftermath of a disaster, but it doesn’t. It feels like waking up after a long nightmare and remembering I’m safe. The relief is overwhelming.
That night, after Landis is fast asleep with his new stuffed fox tucked under his arm, I take her into the bedroom and lock the door.
It isn’t like in the loft, or even our first time together.
It’s quiet, no words spoken, no need for them.
We undress each other, and I lay her on her back, kissing her mouth until her body blossoms, opening for me.
In the dark, I fuck her as my wife for the first time.
The next morning, I get up and take my truck down to Ryder Ranch.
I didn’t realize it until late last night, but Chicken has been living out there this entire time.
When I pull into the drive, there he is, sitting on the porch like he never moved.
I get out and whistle, but he just stares at me, eyes unfocused.
“Goddamn,” I say, putting my hands on my hips.
“About time.”
I turn to find Deacon striding out of the barn, wiping his hands on a grease rag. “I thought you were never going to pick up your dog.”
“Sorry, I was out of town,” I say.
He pauses next to me, looking me from head to foot. “What happened to you? You look like somebody hit you in the face with a brick.”
“I went back to Kentucky.”
“You did? Why?”
Everything comes pouring out, in the simplest of terms. I tell him about meeting Della at the stockyards, that Brothers had sent him, about Leland and Landis. He listens, brow lowered like he’s really absorbing it. At the end, he whistles low.
“Damn. So you’re married now,” he says. “You got a kid.”
I nod. “Yeah, that’s how it shook out.”
He looks like he wants to say something.
“You good?” I ask.
He rubs the back of his neck. “Listen, do you remember a while back when I needed to talk to Brothers Boyd about killing some guy who had fucked my wife years ago?”
“What?”
“He was like an old boyfriend sort of,” Deacon explains, like that makes sense. “You gave me Brothers’ number on the condition I don’t tell him I got it from you.”
“Yeah?”
He squints at the sun. “I sort of recall him implying he knew you were out here in Montana. I just had a lot of my own shit going on, with the baby and all, and I forgot to bring it up.”
I put my hands on my hips and stare. “Oh yeah? That seems like important information.”
“In hindsight, it probably was,” he admits.
Out of every wild escapade and harebrained scheme Deacon Ryder and I have shared, this might be the dumbest thing he’s ever done. Old Jensen would have punched him in the jaw, but right now, still in the afterglow of marriage, I don’t even care anymore.
“Just for that, I’m gonna make you keep Chicken,” I say.
He lifts a hand. “Please don’t do that.”
There’s a low whine from the porch, and we both turn. Chicken heaves his haunches off the porch and ambles over, sniffing my pant leg. He does a circle around us, stares at Deacon like he could care less, and heads towards my truck.
“I think he’s ready to get out of here,” Deacon says.
“I better get back,” I say. “Next time you get info like that, at least clue me in.”
“Will do,” he says, standing back.
On the drive back, it’s hard to focus. Chicken is panting like he just ran the derby, but I turn everything over in my head. It doesn’t matter that Deacon knew. It’s an irrelevant detail at this point. Everything that happened, happened for a reason, and that reason led me straight to my family.
I’m lighter than air.
Back at the house, Della sits in the front yard, watching Landis play in the driveway. I pull up and circle the car, opening the door.
“You want a dog, Landis?” I call.
His eyes light up, and he’s up and running, skidding to a halt. Chicken heaves himself to the ground, sniffing and flinging drool everywhere as he licks his lips. The yell of delight from Landis as he drops to a crouch and flings his arms around Chicken brings Della running.
She looks from me to Chicken, her brows knitting.
“You bought him a dog?” she whispers.
“I already owned a dog,” I say, wrapping my arm around her waist. “He was staying with some friends, but it was time for him to come home.”
Landis starts running, clapping his hands for Chicken to follow. For the first time in his life, Chicken gets some life in him and runs after him. They start circling the yard until Landis throws himself into the grass, and Chicken collapses next to him, panting hard.
“What is he?” Della asks.
“Some kind of hound mix,” I say. “Hard to say, I found him a while back, and he just kind of stayed.”
She lays her hand on my chest, looking up with a smile. “He’s always wanted a dog. You scored some points today.”
“With you or him?”
“Both.”
I kiss her, and she kisses me back.
The days pass in a golden haze as we slowly adjust to being a family together, but there’s always an image in the back of my brain I can’t shake.
It’s Brothers Boyd, holding Kayleigh’s body as the fire raged behind him.
It’s the realization he wasn’t lying when he said he was truly sorry for the part he played.
And that he’d done his best back then to keep me safe.
It’s this nagging feeling there’s still one more step in tying up all my loose ends.
A week passes, then another. The fields are growing golden, ready for the haying season. I don’t say anything until one Sunday night after Landis has gone to bed. We’re on the porch. She’s laying in my lap on the steps. That’s when it all spills out, and I tell her what I saw.
She sits up, open-mouthed. A tear slips down her cheek. “You have to find out what happened to her,” she whispers.
I turn to look up at the dark peak of Sovereign Mountain towering in the distance.
“I need to go back one more time,” I say.
It’s a relief to hear the words after carrying them inside me for weeks.
She leans into me, wrapping her arms around my torso.
We both know how hard it will be for me to return after finally getting away, but the need for closure is stronger.
Della loved Kayleigh, and we both owe her a debt for the part she played in saving our family.
If I don’t return and find out what happened, we’ll live with that shadow over us forever.
“I just need to know,” she says, voice breaking.
“I know, baby, and I’ll go,” I say. “When the haying season is over in a few weeks. The fall meet starts up then. I know where Brothers will be on the first day of the races.”
“Thank you.”
I bend to press my lips to her head. We stay like that for a long time as the sun drops below the mountain.
Then, we go upstairs to bed.