Chapter 23
“I’m not telling you anything, Sawyer.”
“Sure you are.”
“Nope. I’m your little brother, but you can’t beat shit out of me anymore because I’m as big and mean as you are now.”
Sawyer scoffed. “I can still take you.”
Dan drilled a finger into his brother’s belly. “You’re soft.”
“I know what you’re doing.”
“What?” Dan said, looking to the road, hoping he’d see his uncle’s cruiser appear.
“Trying to change the subject.”
“The truth is, I don’t know what I found in that barn, Sawyer.”
He looked at the four outbuildings in a row. “But you found something?”
Dan nodded. What he’d found were pieces of paper that looked like receipts for drug shipments that were possibly stored in that barn… or so he believed. Just like the ones that Old Mr. Lupton’s niece had found in his.
Had Chuck Reynolds been the next to profit from the Bandits’ cocaine? Had he brought drugs onto this property to hold before they were taken out and distributed, all the while knowing he was dealing with criminals who could hurt his daughters if he crossed them in any way?
Dan was tempted to go to the prison and beat the shit out of the man.
He’d never seen Chuck Reynolds flush with money, so where the hell had it all gone? Because the dollar amounts in that book were big. Did he gamble it away? Maybe he wasn’t involved?
He remembered the conversation he’d overheard in the Rollaway bathroom. The leads were all pointing somewhere, and that somewhere, Dan believed, was someone he and his uncle had wanted to take down for a long time.
What worried him now was, did anyone know that room was there?
Possibly not, seeing as it had been Leah who charged that battery and moved the pickup off the door that led down to the secret room.
Seven years, Dan reminded himself. Had no one been down there for seven years? He hoped that was the case.
“I can see fifty emotions running across your face about now, and none of them good,” Sawyer said.
He inhaled and exhaled. Dan was the calm Duke when he was on duty. Nothing ruffled him usually, but what was in that safe, and what he’d already found in that room, was trouble. He could feel it.
“So, have you seen some of her pottery?”
Dan nodded. “It’s good.”
“I wonder why she’s growing stuff, then, if she’s good at that?”
“Not everyone is like you, Sawyer. Some of us can be good at more than one thing.”
“Ha ha.”
“Birdie told me she did some kind of course about planting and stuff. So I guess it’s understandable she wants to start there.”
The sting of jealousy Dan felt was because Leah had told Birdie and not him, and he had no right to feel it because she didn’t confide in him anymore.
“So, how’s things between you and Leah after our talk the other night? Doesn’t look to me like it’s thawing any,” Sawyer said. “You need to talk to her. Sit down and be truthful.”
He looked at his big brother standing there in a ripped T-shirt and old, faded shorts. His beard was scruffy, and his hair hadn’t seen a brush for a while.
“You haven’t tried that new beard oil is my guess. The stuff JD gave you. I can see a couple of house finches have taken up residence in there.”
“Whatever. My point is—”
Dan’s phone rang, and he answered it. “Hey, Ry. How’s it going? You busy in the cafe this morning?”
He listened as his brother talked and the oldest one stood there, arms folded, glaring at him.
“What design and when?” He listened a bit more. “Sweet. Later then. I’ll tell the grump because he’s here with me.”
“What?” Sawyer demanded once Dan had pushed the phone back into his pocket.
“Pretty sure you need to speak better to an officer of the law,” Dan needled him.
Sawyer’s brows drew together in a fierce scowl.
“You know how we talked about matching tattoos? Well we’re getting them tomorrow at midday.”
“What design? We’ve never been able to agree on one.”
“JD has drawn one, apparently, so I guess we’ll see if we like it or not.”
“Okay, now back to Leah.”
“No. We’re not talking about her, or what I found in that barn, anymore.”
“I can keep secrets,” Sawyer muttered.
“We need to do a random act on Leah soon,” Dan said. “If she’s good at the pottery stuff and wants to get the growing working for her, she’ll need capital, which I don’t believe she has.”
“Agree. Not sure how, though. Woman’s smart, and we don’t have access to what she did for the past seven years. We’ll put our heads together. There has to be something.”
“We’d better think fast. It’s not just about her anymore.
There’s that little boy to think about. We need to make sure they’re coping, and to do that, we have to be sneaky,” Dan said.
“She’s always been stubborn and filled with pride.
But then, considering her upbringing, I’m sure she needed that.
I also think she may have bigger problems now that she’ll need help dealing with. ”
“Stuff you’re not telling me about?”
Dan nodded.
“There’s plenty of us, so we can look out for her even if she doesn’t want us to,” Sawyer said.
Dan saw his uncle’s cruiser then and went to meet him. Ally and Hudson had beat him to it. Birdie and Leah were walking out of the house when he and Sawyer arrived.
“I got a badge, Aunt Leah!”
Dan watched the boy run to his aunt. She dropped to her knees and studied the little toy badge he held out to her.
“Does this mean you’re a deputy now?” Leah asked.
Hudson nodded.
“That’s pretty cool. Now you go on and take Ally to the house. You can show Birdie where the coffee fixings are, plus there’s juice for you two,” Leah said.
“Do you want to see my tree house, Sawyer?” Hudson said, looking hopeful.
“Hell yes,” his big brother said. After shooting a look at Dan, which told him he’d be asking more questions soon, he followed the kids back inside.
“Hi, Leah. I hear you found some things you want me to look at?”
His uncle had a way about him that instantly put people at ease.
Dan had spent years trying to emulate him.
Not as tall as his nephews, but he was solid and could take anyone down if he needed to.
People respected his uncle, and the ones who didn’t learned the hard way not to mess with Sheriff Asher Dans.
“Dan found them,” Leah said.
“Well, let’s take a look,” his uncle said.
“It’s this way,” Leah said and then walked away from them.
She’d spent a lot of time doing that to Dan. Too much time, as far as he was concerned, and he was going to change things but wasn’t sure yet how.
Dan gave his uncle a brief rundown on what he’d found as they followed Leah.
“So after reading those papers and seeing the numbers in that book, you’re thinking that Chuck Reynolds may have been holding drugs too? Or maybe Grill moved everything here after old man Lupton’s place?” Uncle Asher asked.
“Looks like that. Plus, I told you what I overheard in the Rollaway the other night.”
“Grill and the Bandits are involved.”
“When are they not?” Dan said.
“True. Okay, let’s see what we’re dealing with first,” his uncle said.
“Sawyer’s been digging, but I haven’t told him anything,” Dan said.
“But he’s persistent, that one. I remember he was always the one who never gave up on getting a second helping as a youngster,” Uncle Asher said.
They followed Leah’s long legs into the barn, where she stood to one side. They went down, then she did the same and sat on the step once more.
Dan and his uncle pulled on gloves and started looking around. They methodically photographed everything, not that there was much to photograph, and then put the book and folder into evidence bags.
“We may have to get Bradford out. He could probably crack this,” Uncle Asher said from his crouched position before the safe.
“I’ll make the call,” Dan said.
Bradford picked up on the third ring, and Dan told him what they needed. The man said he’d be there in five, as he was at JD’s, helping in the stables.
“He’s coming now,” Dan said when he’d finished the call.
“Now, Leah.” Uncle Asher’s voice was low as he came to stand over her where she sat on the bottom step. “I need you to think back to before your dad went to jail.”
Her eyes flicked from the Sheriff to Dan, then back to his uncle, wary.
“Do you remember vehicles coming and going? At nighttime, maybe—something you might have woken to or half heard?” His gaze was steady, coaxing but relentless.
Leah shifted, and Dan knew that this was hard for her because it was going back to a time when her life had imploded.
“Dad planted those big trees for a reason. He wanted the barns private. Cassie and I…. We couldn’t see much of anything.”
“I know it’s been years,” Asher said, leaning closer, “but think. Were there conversations that didn’t sound right? Something you couldn’t place at the time?”
She shook her head. “Dad didn’t talk on the phone much, and he didn’t have visitors.”
“What about the Bandits?” His voice hardened. “Did they ride in here often?”
Dan stood back slightly and allowed his uncle to question her. He let his eyes wander around the room, checking if they missed anything.
“No, and Cassie and I weren’t allowed in the sheds. He locked them, too, so we couldn’t,” Leah said.
And I bet that was because he was up to his neck in illegal shit, Dan thought.
Uncle Asher nodded.
“As we got older, he used to constantly say, ‘Don’t you girls go looking in my business,’” Leah explained. “We didn’t and never wanted to. Neither of us ever wanted to get on the wrong side of him.”
Asshole.
“Now, don’t take this the wrong way, Leah, and I’m not usually someone who likes to talk about other people’s parents. But I’ll be really honest with you now. Your father wasn’t a good man, and he had no right to raise you and Cassie the way he did,” Uncle Asher said.
Leah’s eyes widened as the sheriff of Lyntacky continued.
“You deserved better, and you need to understand that. You and Cassie were good girls, and it was because you had each other and made sure you weren’t like him that you’re the person you are today. Strong, resilient, beautiful, and smart.”
The hand she pressed to her mouth was shaking.
“Don’t you let that man define you, Leah.
Don’t let him dictate another minute of who you are or what you want to do.
He’s not getting out of prison, and that’s for the better, if you want my opinion, which you probably don’t, but as my niece and nephews will tell you, I’m never afraid to offer it. ”
“Th-thank you,” Leah whispered.
“I know that this is hard for you and that all that stuff that went down seven years ago left its mark, but it’s a new chapter now, Leah, for you and that little boy.
You’ve been dealt a shitty hand, but you need to know we’re all here if you need us.
You’re home now, where you’re both safe with us.
You’re worthy of being happy, never forget that, and you have people who love you in Lyntacky. ”
She started crying then. Uncle Asher moved in to hug her tight, and then he continued up the stairs and disappeared, leaving Dan alone with a broken woman and a respect and love for the man who had raised him that grew constantly.
“He always knows the right things to say, even if we don’t want to hear them,” Dan said, moving to stand before her.
“Y-you’re lucky to have him.”
“We’ve never doubted that,” Dan said solemnly.
“I-I hate crying, and yet since c-coming back here, it’s all I seem to do.”
“Need another hug?”
She looked up at him with those pretty green eyes filled with tears, and he felt it again, that tug of longing deep in his chest.
“I don’t think that’s wise, considering.” She wiped her nose on the back of her arm.
“That’s the kind of thing Sawyer would do.”
“Hug a woman when he sh-shouldn’t?” she whispered.
“Wipe his nose on his sleeve,” Dan drawled.
“Did someone mention my name? That means I can come down, right?”
Dan sighed as his brother appeared and ran down the stairs.