Chapter 2
Two
Michael didn’t have time to fix the leak in the upstairs bathroom, but if he didn’t do it, no one else would. He searched the plumbing aisle of the hardware store for the right fitting.
“Mike!” Huck Blackwood ran up to him and held out a fist. “What are you doing here?”
Michael bumped the waiting knuckles and grinned down at the ten-year-old wearing a cowboy hat, which probably hid the stubborn cowlick the kid’d had since he was born. “I didn’t tell ya? I quit being a cop to become a plumber.”
Huck narrowed his eyes. “Are you kidding me?”
“Yeah, you got me.” Looking up, he found Huck’s mom a few steps away, her long dark hair pulled back in a braid.
Sierra Blackwood—nope, Sierra Wallace now.
And by the looks of the maternity shirt declaring “a little buckaroo on board,” Huck was about to become a big brother.
Still, she walked up to him with the grace and confidence of a woman who could wrangle a wild horse or her full-of-mischief son with a firm but tender hand.
It wasn’t a hardship anymore to run into Sierra.
At one point, it would’ve been an awkward reminder of the torch he’d carried for her.
After he’d moved back to Renegade, she’d been a brightness and warmth that had kept him going in one of the darkest times of his life.
But even when they’d been together, part of him had known she was still in love with Rowan “Hammer” Wallace.
He couldn’t compete with that. And though it emphasized a certain emptiness in his life now, he could honestly say he was happy for Sierra and Huck.
Rowan was a lucky guy.
“What are you guys up to today?” Michael asked Huck.
“Mom needs to order some stuff to fix the fences. But she said I can look at the new model horses. Can I go by myself?” Huck looked at her with big eyes and stuck his bottom lip out a bit for good measure. As if he needed to resort to such tactics.
She chuckled and tapped the brim of his hat. “Go ahead. I’ll find you in a few minutes.”
“Bye, Mike!” Huck ran off toward the small section of toys.
Sierra turned her smile on to him. “Still trying to solve all the world’s problems, Mike Martinelli?”
“Not the whole world.” She always did see more than he wanted her too. “Just here to fix a leaky shower head.”
She slowly nodded. “So still not much progress on your mom’s case.” It wasn’t a question.
He worked hard to keep his grin in place. “You should join the police force. You’d make a great detective.”
She laughed. “I’ve got plenty to keep me busy at the ranch. And home.” She placed a hand on her swollen belly. “I’ll leave the safety and justice of Renegade to you and the rest of the RPD.” She paused, a warm kindness sparking in her eyes. “You’re good at what you do, Mike.”
Just not good enough.
Not that it would stop him from investigating his mother’s murder any time soon. Still, it would be nice to find a new lead. To understand why his mother had been in the seedy part of Southwold. To know where the cash found with her body had really come from.
No matter what everyone else thought, just because drug supplier Sean Fletcher’s fingerprints were all over the envelope didn’t mean Martina Martinelli had taken a bribe.
If she had, they wouldn’t have had a reason to kill her.
Whoever “they” were.
And now even Donner was gone without a trace.
“You should come out to the ranch sometime, Mike.” Sierra’s voice cut through his musings. “Bring your brothers and sisters and we can go for a ride. Well, I might not be the one to take you out, but Huck would absolutely love to lead a trail ride and show you the changes out at the ranch.”
“That’s a sweet offer, but there’s no way you’ll want my whole family out all at once. It can’t be good for the horses.”
“My horses can handle anything. I train them for all kinds of riders. And maybe the horses would be good for you. You look like you could use some fresh air and relaxation.”
The concern was touching—typical of Sierra, who’d never believed the rumors about his mother either—but there was no way he had time for something like that. Still, he didn’t want to seem rude. “I’ll think about it.”
Sierra pursed her lips. “Trying to write me off?”
“Of course not—”
She laughed. “It’s okay. It was worth a shot.” Her expression softened. “But you’re always welcome, you know. I’ve had some of my best breakthroughs on the trail.”
“You haven’t had more issues at the ranch, have you?”
She shuddered. “Thank God, no. I’ve had enough with the arson and Grandpa’s death last winter.
But that’s kind of my point. Going through stuff like that, we need time and places to heal.
There’s something about the majesty of the mountains on horseback that quiets my spirit and helps me to think more clearly. It could be good for you.”
“I do appreciate it, Sierra.” But he had too many things on his plate as it was, and a nice horseback ride wasn’t going to solve a thing. Besides, he didn’t need a front-row ticket to all he was missing out on in life.
He snatched a fitting, not even looking at the exact measurement. “I’d better get back, though, and fix that shower. I’m on call tonight.”
“Don’t work too hard, Mike. It was nice to see you.”
He nodded and headed straight to the self-checkout line. He had plenty he needed to do and never enough time to do it. If dating Sierra showed him anything, it was that he didn’t have room in his life for anything else.
Alexandria, Virginia
Dani threw the handful of shirts from the top drawer into her suitcase. She had two weeks before she had to report to the Renegade office, but she might as well start packing. Her career was over before it had even begun.
She chucked a pile of underwear in next.
“Whoa.” Felicity, her roommate, walked into the room, munching on an apple. Her eyebrows shot up at the mountain of clean clothes rising from the open suitcase on Dani’s bed. “Bad day at the office?”
Dani didn’t trust herself to say anything. She gave her a what do you think? look and marched back to the open pajama drawer.
“Oh…it was assignment day, wasn’t it? You didn’t get New York or Miami?”
And here Dani thought she hadn’t been listening when the work assignments came up in discussion.
The last thing she needed right now, though, was to break down and cry. It had never changed anything before.
Diversion though? That was always effective.
Dani plastered on a sly smile. “You know what? Since this is my last week in town, we should go out tonight. Who knows when I’ll have a chance to get good sushi next?”
“Where are they sending you? To Iowa or something?”
Even worse, but that wasn’t the point.
Dani scooped up her phone from the charger. “Better yet, we can call Maurice and Leah and try that new microbrewery that opened up in Fells Point. I heard they have killer appetizers.”
Felicity plopped down on the bed, jiggling the suitcase pile. “Sure, but where are you moving to?”
Dani stepped over to her closet and stared at the different textures and colors of the clothing hanging in front of her. What outfit should she wear if they went ou—
“Dani?”
Don’t cause another mess, Dani. Had enough of those for one day.
It took a few beats to steady her voice. “Or we could stay in. Order pizza.”
“Hey, you know you can talk to me, right? I mean, we’ve only been roomies for a little while, but I’m not stupid. I can tell things didn’t go down the way you hoped.”
Understatement of the century.
“So what happened. Where are they sending you?” Felicity took another bite of her apple and chewed.
Dani hung her head back a moment and closed her eyes.
Okay, fine. Rip off the Band-Aid. She had to start facing reality eventually.
She controlled the narrative at this point.
She just had to play it off like a dramatic sitcom.
Make Felicity laugh. Even if she had to make herself the butt of the joke.
Because anything was better than pity.
“They’re sending me home. Renegade.” She emphasized the city with a big eye roll.
“Where’s that?”
“Exactly my point. It’s in Colorado, but no one even knows where it is.”
Felicity leaned against the headboard. “Why are they sending you there, then?”
“Some cosmic joke? To serve time? To test my loyalty?” Dani grabbed a handful of hangers and walked them over to the bed. “Who knows?”
Okay, so she knew. Because no matter how hard she tried, she was a walking disaster waiting to happen. Her mother always said God didn’t make mistakes, but Dani wasn’t so sure.
Felicity waited.
Dani released a huff. “This is what I get for messing up today. My first sting, my first chance to prove myself, and I choked.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Worse.” She yanked the funky orange sweater from the hanger and threw it in the pile. “You know that scene at the end of Avengers: Endgame, when Tony Stark dies? The whole universe is this huge mess and all hope is lost? It’s like that.”
Felicity laughed. “Okay, so what’s so bad about your hometown? This sounds like more than a lack of good sushi joints.”
“There’s a lot of reasons I left Renegade, and my visits back there have been short and sweet. Every time I go back it’s like I revert to that awkward teenager again.”
“You, awkward? You’re like the epitome of cool, Dani. You’re a federal agent!”
“Try telling that to everyone in my hometown. There, I’m notorious for creating catastrophes. How am I supposed to make a difference when everyone there is only going to remember me as the girl who flooded the high school auditorium and caused a stampede?”
“You’re exaggerating, right?”
“Nope. My class’s graduation was the last one they held in that auditorium. Because of me. And to top it all off, the man I thought I’d marry had a front row seat.”
“Okay, this I have to hear. It sounds like a teenage rom-com.”
“There’s romance all right. I had this humongous crush on my friend Maria’s big brother. But this is more the making of a romantic disaster movie.”
“Oooh. A new genre. Do tell.”