Chapter 6 #2
“I’m so glad you’re home. I’ve got to get to work. Davey doesn’t have a light hand with the biscuit dough. You know where to come if you’re wanting a meal. Your daddy is still asleep.” Then she gave his hand a quick squeeze and hustled back to her car and drove away.
Gunner watched her leave, but instead of going back inside, he turned to the south, eyeing the land behind the house and trying to remember how far back their property actually went. A thought was forming in his head, but he needed to talk to his dad before it went any further.
He was still gazing across the scrub brush and spiny shards of Yucca plants when he heard the sound of a big rig and a driver shifting gears, then saw the headlights of the semi coming in from the east. The driver was hauling ass, taking advantage of the long stretch of highway and the lack of traffic, and bringing an end to Gunner’s brief moments of meditation.
He went back into the house, claimed the shower, and came out later minus the dark shadow of whiskers he’d gone to bed with, then began unpacking. Once he was dressed for the day, he headed to the kitchen with his laptop. He wanted coffee and needed to send Asher that list.
* * *
The Tumbleweed Bar always opened at 10:00 a.m., but Jacob was up by eight. And this morning he dressed quickly, anxious to talk to Gunner before the day got too busy.
When he entered the kitchen and saw his son at the kitchen table with his laptop, his fingers flying across the keyboard, for a moment it was like every morning of Gunner’s life in high school, knowing he’d waited until the last minute to finish an assignment.
Then Gunner looked up, and the face looking back at Jacob was the face of a man with a problem.
“Morning, Dad.”
Jacob smiled. “Morning, son. Did you rest well?”
“Better than I have in ages,” Gunner said. “I can make you breakfast if you want.”
“A bowl of cereal and this brew will be enough,” he said as he filled his cup and then a bowl of cereal and carried them to the table. “I’m going to eat while you tell me what’s wrong, and don’t tell me nothing. I raised you. I can see it in your eyes.”
Gunner took a deep breath. “I took a leave of absence because here I’m safe, and in Dallas, there is contract out on my life, and a fifty-thousand-dollar bonus for the delivery.”
Jacob felt the blood draining from his face. “My God.” His hands were shaking as he leaned back and took a breath. “Talk to me.”
So, while Jacob ate, Gunner went through the entire scenario again, just as he had with Asher during the drive home.
“Good lord. Are you worried they’ll come for you here?” Jacob asked.
“No, and I wouldn’t be here if I thought for a second that I was putting anyone in danger. I just needed to lay low until the word gets out to all concerned parties that the bounty was called off as promised.”
Jacob frowned. “Can you trust this Dixon to keep his word?”
“Hell no, but he knows without doubt that after the target I put on his back, he’s the one who’s going to be blamed if anything happens to me. He doesn’t want to get sideways with the Feds again, and he also knows the State Attorney General’s office is aware of the hit that was put out on me, too.”
A slight smile slid sideways on Jacob’s face. “You were my wild child, and you grew up to be an indomitable, take-no-prisoners man of honor. I’m proud of you, Gunner, but it’s good you left Dallas until this all blows over.”
Gunner leaned back in his chair. “I have a question.”
“Ask it,” Jacob said.
“How far south does your property line go?”
“I own twenty acres. There’s about an acre’s width to the east of the Weed, then the rest of it runs straight south. Why do you ask?”
“Because I’m thinking, since I won all that money, I might want to build a house and move back to Crossroads.
Being in law enforcement has lost its shine for me.
I think it hit me when the old man was killed in that hit and run, and then the bounty on my head, and a dirty cop in my division, and I no longer have a desire to go out on a call with people I do not trust. It’s too easy to get shot in the back and blame some mythical crook that’s how it happened. ”
Jacob picked up his cereal bowl, put it in the sink, and refilled his coffee before he sat back down.
“I’ll gladly deed you land to build a house, Gunner, but will you be happy in this little town, after all those years in Dallas?”
“I have a job in Dallas, but I don’t have roots there. I’ll figure something out to keep me busy, but in the meantime, I’ll be your bouncer for free.”
Jacob grinned. “In the evenings after Pearl is home, if it gets too loud in the bar, she comes stomping up from the house with an air horn, blasts it once, and she returns to the house without saying a word.”
Gunner grinned. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack,” Jacob said.
“What do they say? Does it make them mad?” Gunner asked.
“Nobody gets mad at Miss Pearl. She’s the reigning queen of Crossroads—her and the Yellow Rose. They just laugh and throw her kisses, but they do tone it down.”
Gunner shook his head. “That’s priceless. Lord, I am missing out on all the good stuff. This just makes me want to come home even more.”
Jacob stood. “Well, you’re already here, so that’s the first step.
The next one will be going back to officially part company with your job.
In the meantime, I need to get to work. Want to help me carry up some kegs to store under the bar?
I have two that are going to need changing out before the day is over.
I wouldn’t mind having them at the ready. ”
“Absolutely. Just show me which ones you need,” Gunner said and followed his dad into the bar.
* * *
Asher received the list of names Gunner sent him and went straight to his boss, Robert Ivory, to tell him what happened.
To say the attorney general was upset that an actual hit on a law officer was circulating was putting it mildly.
And to be told that Burgess Dixon was the number one suspect of who’d done it and why made it worse.
“This is appalling,” Ivory said. “You have my permission to do background checks on all of the names on that list. If there’s a dirty cop in that division, I want to know about it.
Also, share everything you learn with the FBI, because they will be the ones who prosecute.
Don’t share your information with the Dallas PD or your brother. Understand?”
“Understood, and thank you,” Asher said and walked out.
The moment he was gone, Robert Ivory was on the phone with the FBI. The Feds were still reeling from losing four of their special agents and a material witness to their case. They knew Dixon was responsible, but they had yet to find a shred of evidence to prove it.
* * *
Unaware that Asher had set new wheels in motion, as soon as Jacob opened the bar and customers began trickling in, Gunner went through the house and out the back door and started walking the land, looking for a site to build a home.
He walked and walked, pausing often to look around as the sun moved higher in the sky and the day kept getting hotter.
Finally, he stopped and turned around to check the view. From the rise where he was standing and looking back at the bar and Crossroads in general, it was West Texas in all her beauty, and the little town that he called home.
This is it, he thought, and he began picking up rocks and stacking them up like a pylon to mark the spot.
He had to wait for the lottery money to hit the bank before he did anything drastic, but he needed to get a hydrogeologist out to see if there was water anywhere beneath his feet and get an architect to draw up the blueprints.
He knew what he wanted.
A place to call home.
A woman to love and grow old with, and children to fill the rooms beneath his roof.
Money could buy the house. It would be up to him to let down his distrust of all people. He wasn’t sure he knew how to be in love, or if he’d know it was happening. But Holly had opened him up to the prospect.
He glanced at the time. It was nearly noon, and he was getting hungry. Time to go back and check on his dad, then go to the Rose to get them some food. Orders from Pearl were not to be ignored.
But instead of walking back, Gunner took off at a jog, and then finally an all-out run. For the first time in years, he wasn’t chasing after a suspect. He was running for the pure joy of it—just because he could.
* * *
The parking lot at the Yellow Rose was like a revolving door.
Drivers pulling in to pick up to-go orders.
Other diners leaving as new ones were arriving.
Truckers traditionally pulled off onto the shoulder of the highway across from the Rose and walked over.
Today there were six big rigs lined up on the other side of the highway when Gunner pulled into the parking lot and went inside.
People began calling his name and waving him over to sit with them.
It was the best feeling he’d had since the last time he’d been here with his brothers.
He wound up sitting at a table with two guys from his high school football team.
Billy Barrett, who’d been their kicker, was now a cowboy on his granddaddy’s ranch, and Will Devlin, who’d been the star quarterback, was now a trucker.
His truck was one of the six parked on the other side of the highway.
As soon as Gunner turned in his order to Cheryl, and a to-go order for his dad, they started talking, and the first thing they asked was about his marital state.
“Are you still on the most-eligible-bachelor list?” Will asked.
Gunner nodded. “Hard to have a personal relationship when your every waking hour is devoted to trying to solve murders and find killers. What about you two?”
“Lindsey and I got married the year after we graduated high school,” Billy said. “We have two kids. A boy and a girl.”