Luna wanted to spend the night at Benjamin’s but knew she needed to put that distance between them. Better to start the process now than suffer an abrupt ripping off of the Band-Aid at the last possible second. Besides, she was terrible company tonight.
Sayeh was out for the night, and Kenna was in her room, but Luna’s nephew, Ty, wandered in and sat next to her, clearly something on his mind. Luna felt bad for neglecting her only nephew in all the commotion and ruffled his tawny mop. “You settling in okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Different than the city but I like driving Grandpa’s truck. He’s teaching me to work a stick shift, and he says it’s a lost art nowadays. Kinda like cursive, but I don’t know what that means.”
She chuckled. “Cursive is a form of writing that’s become obsolete. You’ll likely never learn it because you’ll never need it.”
“Will I need to learn a stick shift?”
Luna considered Ty’s question, answering, “Well, if you plan to drive a race car or high-performance vehicle, it might come in handy, but by the time you’re driving, everything will probably be automatic.”
“Then why am I learning?” he asked, confused.
“Because chicks dig boys who can drive a manual transmission,” Luna quipped, tickling Ty in the ribs.
Ty laughed and undoubtedly believed his aunt Luna was loony tunes, but that was okay. It wasn’t likely Luna was ever going to be a mother, but she’d happily be the best aunt ever. Kenna never talked about why she’d bailed from the city, aside from saying she was running from an abusive ex, but the fact that Ty wouldn’t talk about it either worried Luna.
From a law enforcement perspective, Luna wanted to ask Ty for details, but as his aunt, she wanted him to feel safe to move on. She figured Ty was bored and wanted to be entertained, but he surprised her with his question.
“Auntie, some guys were talking to Grandpa and they seemed real mad. Is Grandpa in trouble?”
Luna stilled. “What do you mean? What guys? When did this happen?”
“Yesterday. When everyone was gone. It was just me and Grandpa at the house. They didn’t see me. I couldn’t hear everything they were talking about but I could hear their voices and it wasn’t good.”
“What did they look like?”
Ty shrugged. “Regular guys. I dunno, just regular.”
That wasn’t helpful. “Tall, short, fat, skinny?” she supplied, trying to jog his memory.
“Um, no, regular, but strong. They looked like they could punch your lights out without a problem.”
Good Lord, why were people showing up at the house and intimidating her dad? “Did Grandpa seem scared?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he answered in a small voice. “He kept saying he was sorry and then they yelled at him some more and told him to ‘handle it.’ What did they mean by that?”
“I don’t know, buddy, but I’m going to find out,” she promised. “Is there anything else you can tell me about Grandpa’s visitors? How many were talking to Grandpa?”
“I saw three.”
“And they didn’t see you?”
Ty shook his head. “I stayed hidden in the shop while Grandpa talked outside.”
“You were smart to stay hidden.”
“I know.”
That one statement hurt her heart. How many times had Ty been instructed to hide or stay hidden because of whoever Kenna was running from? A heartache for another day, she promised. “Hey, I think Auntie Sayeh bought some more ice cream sandwiches. You want to run and check the freezer for me?”
Ty eagerly jumped from the sofa and ran out to the outside freezer, where they kept the frozen foods. When he returned with two ice cream sandwiches, she smiled with approval. “Excellent. I can always count on Auntie Sayeh for the sweet tooth supplies.”
Luna pretended to happily munch on the ice cream bars with her nephew, but she couldn’t taste a thing. Her mind was paralyzed with fear that someone was terrorizing her dad, and he hadn’t told her. Why? What was he hiding? Did this have to do with Charlotte and Roger or her biological parents’ death?
It could be either.
She had cause to question her father’s integrity for the first time in her life, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t fight like a badger to protect him.
Where was her dad tonight?
“Do you know where Grandpa went?” she asked Ty casually.
He shrugged, licking the quickly melting cream from his fingers. “Dunno, he said something about needing supplies for his woodshop. You think he can make me a bow and arrow? I saw one in the sports shop but Mom said it was too expensive and maybe Grandpa could make me one. I haven’t asked him yet, though.”
“I bet he could, buddy,” she answered absently, her mind churning. Dad, where are you? And what have you gotten yourself into? Luna smiled briefly down at Ty, trying to remain calm for the sake of her nephew. He’d had enough turmoil and fear in his young life. She wasn’t going to add to it, particularly when she didn’t have all the facts.
Ty finished his ice cream, and Luna reminded him to wash his hands before he touched everything with his sticky fingers. He rolled his eyes. “I’m not a baby, Auntie Luna.”
And she quipped, “Then why do you have an ice cream mustache, buddy? Go wash.”
He groaned but went to do as she asked.
He was a good kid. She was glad he was here now. Maybe he and Kenna could build a new life and start over. Lord knew her sister’s first attempt at adulting had crashed and burned. If it weren’t for Ty, she wasn’t sure where Kenna would be.
Kenna had certainly made her share of costly mistakes in her life. Now that Luna had mended fences with Sayeh, she would have to make a concentrated effort to be there for Kenna as she began her new life.
Fresh starts sounded like a breath of much-needed oxygen in this family for all of them.
But first, she had to figure out why the hell their dad was keeping dangerous secrets.
Benjamin drove out to the ranch, possibly for closure or to prove to himself that this house didn’t have any power over him or his decisions.
The place would forever feel like a tomb to him, but if some good could come out of this tragedy, he’d call it a win and be done with it.
The house would fetch a lot of money. Maybe he’d donate the money to the reservation clinic in Charlotte’s name and give them the purchasing power to buy the used equipment they needed.
The thought warmed his heart. That felt right.
The last time he saw his nephews, they’d been running around like wild-eyed heathens, half-naked Liam wearing nothing but his underwear and a blue cape trailing after him as he hollered like a beast after his big brother, tackling him to the plush carpet. He remembered remarking proudly, “That boy is going to make a good lineman someday. I’ll have to teach him the ropes when it comes time,” because Lord knew it wasn’t as if Roger had an athletic bone in his body.
He swallowed the lump in his throat at the memory. Goddamn, would the pain ever end? He’d tried to be a good uncle, but he’d traded gifts for time spent. Sure, he’d never missed a birthday or holiday gift opportunity, but he’d run away from most of Charlotte’s attempts to get him to come home to visit.
He’d justified his absence by saying that the boys only cared about the presents, anyway, and that was okay with him. He remembered being a kid, too. Cool presents were way better than talking to some old guy they barely knew.
But he’d give his right arm now to be that old uncle boring his nephews to death with stories they couldn’t care less about.
He hadn’t told Charlotte, but he’d made grand plans to someday buy his nephews their own bikes. He’d wanted to teach them the joys of the road, and he’d only trusted himself to do it.
That was all gone now.
Moisture crowded his sinuses, and he pinched the bridge of his nose, sniffing back the tears. What was the point of coming out here again? Oh yeah, closure. So, let’s do this and get it over with.
Benjamin climbed the porch stairs and unlocked the front door. His footsteps echoed on the hardwood. He clicked the lights on and wandered into the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and saw it empty. The cleaning company had emptied all the perishables, and everything gleamed clean and move-in ready for whoever came next.
He closed the fridge door and climbed the stairs, heading for the master bedroom where Charlotte died. A part of him needed to say goodbye to her ghost. He wasn’t particularly woo-woo, but it seemed important.
But as he climbed the final stair and started to turn right to head down the hallway, an unfamiliar sound pricked his ears. Immediately on high alert, his every sense tensed as he listened for the sound. There it was. He crept to the wall, hugging the shadows. The sound was coming from the boys’ bedroom.
He had nothing to defend himself with, but the US Marine Corps trained him, and if need be, he’d defend himself to the death with his bare hands.
Benjamin slowly peered through the cracked door and saw a hooded figure pulling the boys’ books and toys from a bookshelf, clearly looking for something. Rage blotted out his good sense, and he charged the man without thinking twice. He knocked the man to the floor with a hard grunt and landed a solid right hook to the man’s jaw, but the man recovered fast enough to drive a knee straight into his groin. Benjamin groaned as he rolled to the carpet, his nuts throbbing as his gut threatened to unload his dinner. He swiped at the man scrambling to his feet to run and managed to send him sprawling to the floor, but the man was wily and quick. Springing back to his feet with the agility of a cat, he ran down the stairs.
“What the hell are you doing in my sister’s house?” he roared, chasing after the man, but he’d jumped into a waiting truck, which had been hidden from view when Benjamin pulled up, and sped off, spitting gravel in its wake. “Damn it!” he yelled, grabbing his cell phone from his pocket with trembling hands to call Luna. When she answered, he shouted, “Someone broke into Charlotte’s house again! I caught them trashing the boys’ room. They were definitely looking for something. I landed a punch, but he got away. I want you to arrest every goddamn son of a bitch sporting a shiner!”
“Are you okay?” Luna asked, ignoring his rage and going straight to concern. “Did he have a weapon?”
He did a quick inventory. “No, I’m fine. No weapon. But I need you to get out here quick and bring your forensic kit. The guy wasn’t wearing gloves and he was touching everything.”
“Okay, don’t touch anything until I get there,” she advised. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
He clicked off, his adrenaline still pumping. He was pissed at himself for not seeing the groin shot coming. He was rusty. It’d been a while since he’d done any hand-to-hand combat, and it showed.
He bounded back up the stairs, only this time, he did a more careful search of the house before heading back to the boys’ room to survey the damage. Much like in Roger’s office, he’d tossed the room looking for something. Something that would’ve been easily hidden in a bookshelf. What could Roger have that would keep them desperately coming back to find?
Something worth killing for, that’s for sure.
He glanced at his knuckles, the reddened flesh torn in places. Was it possible he had some of the guy’s DNA embedded in his skin? God, he hoped so. He was careful not to wipe his knuckles just in case.
I’m going to find you and nail your ass to the wall, he vowed.
So much for bailing on Cottonwood and heading back to Arizona. He returned his gaze to his knuckles with a mean, hard-ass stare. With any luck, this was exactly the break Luna had been hoping for to crack the case wide open.