Accidental Knight: A Marriage Mistake Romance(84)

I nod, fully understanding what he’s saying.

I think about calling Angie all the time, but fear the exact same thing.

She’d told me to leave after Dad’s death, that she’d wished I’d never come home, and who could blame her? I swore I’d abide by that wish.

My hope is that once Avery’s son gets nailed on record for Winnie’s murder, maybe sis will understand. I’d known it was him, and knew where he’d been, but she’d called me about Dad missing before I’d gotten to his location.

Gary opens his car door. “Hold on, I’ve got your mail.”

I’m surprised he truly has it, I figured that was just an excuse. I take the stack of envelopes rubber-banded together. “Thanks.”

“I have to help,” he says. “And need to know what you need. What I can do. How do we get rid of Avery Briar? You name it.”

His request is as sincere as his apology to Bella. I’m happy about that. She needed to hear everything he’d said. He’s her father.

“Actually, keeping Avery close could work in our favor. He believes he has an in with you and your wife. If he thinks he’s making progress legally, it might prevent him from doing anything rash.”

Edison blows a loud horse snort from where he’s standing in the corral. Damn.

That reminds me of the binocular covers I found. Someone was watching the house, and I’ve got an ugly suspicion I know who.

“It’ll also help us know where he is and isn’t,” I say coldly.

“You’re right. I’ll make sure Molly stays in contact. They’ll both think they’ve got a fighting chance.”

I don’t know if he needs the proof, or if I need him to believe everything I’ve said. I pull the binocular covers out of my back pocket anyway.

“I found these in the pasture today, along with tire tracks. Those two men in jail weren’t the only ones here that night. A third was watching and drove back out to the highway in plenty of time to be almost ran off the road and call those men in. Convenient.”

Gary’s eyes widen. “Christ. I asked him what he was doing out here at that time of night. He said he has a drill site not far from here.”

“No,” I say, shaking my head. “He’s lying. I’d know about any Jupiter prospects this close to home because Jonah would’ve hired someone to burn it down.”

Gary cracks a smile. “He would have. He was a hell of a man, even if he always let his own stubbornness get the better of him.”

“He was,” I agree.

Gary holds his hand out to me. I clasp it, give him a hardy shake.

Too many people turn out to be rattlesnakes once you see their true skin. It’s a relief when the opposite happens sometimes.

Then he climbs in the car and shuts his door, rolling down the window. “I’ll see you at the restaurant, but be warned, I’m not letting Molly in on any of this just yet. I can’t. Not with Annabelle—” His Adam’s apple moves as he swallows. “Not with everything at risk if something goes wrong. And if it does, if there’s even a whiff of that, you need to call me, Drake. Got it?”

“Consider it done.” A deal’s a deal, and Gary Reed’s a lot more trustworthy than I would’ve thought.

He hands me a business card. “Here’s my cell number. Keep in touch.”

I tuck the card in my pocket with a nod.

An odd sense of dread fills me as he drives away.

There’s no good reason for it. Nothing’s changed. Except that I’ve admitted to myself I’m not in this for Bella, or even Jonah.

This was my old fight from the beginning. My hunt for the goddamn Dragon.





Years Ago





I had a fuck of a time coming home.

Civilian life has a lot of creature comforts and a whole lot less explosions and angry assholes trying to kill you, but it’s missing one thing – familiarity.

Maybe that’s why I clench onto every little bit of old life in Kinsleyville, Montana, before I left for the Army like a kid hugging a security blanket.

But that’s why there’s Timber’s, a hometown sports bar that’s always felt like a second home.

I had my first legal beers here with my buds between tours when I came home old enough to drink. Hell, I even drank with Dad a couple times, seeing how this was his favorite watering hole, before he had to give it up as his condition got worse.

Cheers, it damn sure isn’t, but the regulars do know everybody’s name.

There’s always something going down here, good or bad.

Some nights it’s whiskey therapy for Pete who’s going through his third divorce.

Others, it’s karaoke with Linda, who takes a break from the pull tab station to blow out her lungs doing wild renditions of eighties classics. That woman’s singing gave me stories to tell the guys back in camp on those dark nights in the deserts and windswept mountains, when we just needed to lighten the fuck up and laugh at something silly.

Mostly, though, it’s one quiet girl I still look forward to who blends into the background.

Winifred May. She’s the same small powerhouse who was the only one brave enough to save my ass back in seventh grade.

I thought she’d proven herself damn near every game growing up when we had each other’s backs. Then I got rowdy when I was older, and one day, she saved my ass for real.