Ms Demeanor. Danica Winters
was forced and tight. “No worries, I just jumped the gun—” Her mouth gaped open for a moment as she must have realized what she had said.
“We just found something a little odd, and Ms. Blade thought it best if we got a crew out here to investigate it,” Rainier interjected.
“Investigate what?” Gwen asked. “And where’s your father?”
Rainier turned and looked toward the barn. “He was going to greet the deputies when they arrived. You don’t think it’s gonna be Wyatt, do you?”
Gwen frowned. “He wouldn’t come roaring out here with the sirens on. He’s been coming out here enough lately that he would know not to create any kind of scene for the neighbors. It’s gotta be somebody else,” she said, motioning toward the SUV hurtling their way. As it drew nearer, Rainier could see there was a patrol unit without its lights on following in its wake.
The SUV pulled to a sudden stop, skidding on the ice in the parking lot. A woman, her dark hair pulled into a tight ponytail, jumped out of the car and made her way over to them, with Merle hurrying after her.
“There’s Wyatt,” Gwen said, ignoring the woman and motioning toward the vehicle just pulling into the lot.
“Who’s she?” Rainier whispered.
“New recruit. Her name’s Penny Marshall.” Gwen frowned, and the look on her face held a trace of jealousy, but he wasn’t sure why his soon-to-be sister-in-law would have anything to worry about. Wyatt, above all things, was a good man.
His brother stepped out of the second car. “Penny, wait up. Jeez, woman, you seriously need to slow down. This is my family.”
The patrolwoman turned around. “Hey, if you want to drive like some old fart, that’s on you. For all you knew, someone’s life could have been in danger out here, and you were driving like it wasn’t some kind of emergency.”
“If someone’s life was in danger, Penny, we would have been told about it. That’s what dispatch is for. I’ve told you before, there’s no good reason to put our lives at risk when a situation doesn’t dictate it.”
“Okay, Deputy Fitzgerald,” the woman said, but from the tone of her voice Rainier could tell that she was just playing along and fully intended to keep living her way with or without Wyatt’s approval.
Rainier liked Penny already. From the looks of her, she was in her early twenties, and from the sound of his brother’s exasperated voice, straight out of the academy.
Wyatt’s lips puckered and his face darkened as he looked up and noticed him standing there. “So you made it back to the ranch?” He slammed his car door with a little too much force, clearly pissed off. “Is your homecoming the reason for our appearance?”
Rainier swallowed back the growl that percolated up from his core. He had known this was going to be the closest thing to a welcome he was going to get from his brother, but his expectations paled in comparison to the reality.
Or maybe it wasn’t the lack of welcome he was upset with, but rather the reality that his brother had been correct in his assessment—he was in fact the reason they had been called. But Rainier would never give Wyatt the satisfaction of once again being right in assuming the worst about him.
“It’s good to see you, too, brother,” he said, trying to temper his disappointment before it had the chance to pepper his voice.
“Wyatt, Penny,” Laura said, giving each an acknowledging wave. “Thank you so much for coming on such short notice. There was no reason for you to rush. In fact, if you have somewhere else to be, you are welcome to come back later.”
From the stress in her voice, even Laura had to have known how futile and ridiculous she sounded. If there was somewhere else for the deputies of Mystery to be, they would have been there, but it wasn’t a town that was usually fraught with crime.
“Laura, you know if you’re calling we’re going to come running.” Wyatt chuckled as he came closer and gave Gwen a quick peck on the cheek. “Though I have to admit, I did drive a little quicker knowing that my fiancée would be here waiting for me.”
Gwen smiled, the jealousy disappearing from her features.
It was nice to see his brother in a relationship, but it was strange to see him act so smitten. Wyatt had always been the serious kind, and watching him loosen up in his presence made Rainier wonder if there was still hope for them to fix their relationship. Then again, Gwen and Wyatt loved each other, and he wasn’t sure he could say his brother loved him.
“The dispatcher reported that there was some kind of disturbance, something about a parole violation?” Penny asked, looking directly at Rainier.
“No, no. Everything’s all right,” Laura said with a bit too much indifference. “Actually, it had nothing to do with parole violation. Your dispatcher must’ve gotten it all wrong.”
“Wyatt,” Merle exclaimed as he came walking around the side of the barn. “What took you so long?”
Wyatt laughed. “We were worried you fell down or something. Didn’t want you getting hurt,” he teased.
Their father answered with a long laugh. “Nah, I just found something behind the barn Laura thought you and your friend would want to check out. It’s probably nothing, just some old animal bones. In fact, if you guys want to get going, I’m sure we can sweep this right under the rug.”
“Why does everyone want us to leave all of a sudden? We just got here,” Penny said. “Is this always the way you guys greet one another?”
Eloise’s cheeks reddened. “Oh, dear, Penny, don’t start thinking that. We’re nothing like that around here. We love our boys. We just understand how busy you all can get, being the pillars of this community and all.”
“Laying it on a little thick, Mom, aren’t you?” Wyatt asked, raising a brow. “Dad, why don’t you go ahead and show me those ‘old animal bones.’”
Merle glanced over at him, as if trying to decide exactly what to say or not say to Wyatt about their discovery. Rainier shook his head ever so slightly, reaffirming their decision to keep his role in the findings quiet. It wasn’t that he was being selfish, no. It was just clear that his brother had so much resentment toward him that if he caught a single whiff of his involvement, Rainier’s hope for a life surrounded by family again would be as good as over.
Laura wasn’t sure she really believed that Rainier was as innocent as he and his father proclaimed him, but if she sent him back to prison, it would be an all-time record for the shortest turnaround. In her department, her friend Jim held the current record of three days before his parolee was sent back, after he’d been found in possession of a large amount of heroin. It was a running joke that the parolee had turned back to drugs after spending a day with Jim.
She could just imagine what the guys around the office would say if they learned that after only a matter of hours she’d found her parolee elbows deep in mud, holding a weapon with human remains at his feet. And that was nothing compared to what her father, the high-powered attorney Dennis Blade Esq., would say if he found out Rainier and the Fitzgerald clan were once again in trouble. He’d made it clear to her that he had nothing good to say about the Fitzgeralds.
She couldn’t understand her dad’s dislike of them. Though things were tense between Wyatt and Rainier, she could still feel a resounding warmth. And the fact that Merle would go to such lengths to help his son keep out of more trouble spoke volumes about his character.
Laura’s father hadn’t told her why he held such animosity toward the Fitzgeralds, only that they weren’t to be trusted.
Then again, she’d never been very good at following her dad’s advice.
Hopefully,