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I pulled on my torn jeans and yesterday’s shirt and headed downstairs to see where the hell Virgil was. He put me on my last nerve.

There was nobody else up and Virge wasn’t in the house. I headed for the barn to start the chores and do what I could before Tammy got up. She’d been carrying the whole fuckin load since I’d been shot, and she was getting worn down. She never complained but I saw it in her eyes.

The double doors to the barn were standing open and the three horses were running around in the corral, feisty and full of energy, like they always did when they first got out of the barn.

I hadn’t heard Tammy get up and I figured she was still sleeping. That’s where I wanted her to be—in bed getting some rest.

When I walked in, it wasn’t Tammy in the barn at all, but Virgil mucking out the stalls and loading the wheelbarrow. “Hey, bro. I thought you’d run off again to hang with your friends.”

“Nope. I’ll be here from now on.”

That surprised me. “You and Travis have a little talk?”

“Something like that.”

I pitched in and did what I could one-handed to help my brother. Measured out the oats and toted a couple of slabs of hayout to the corral and put them in the manger. Filled the water trough with the hose.

When I’d done about all I could do, I lit up a smoke and waited for Virge to finish. I had no idea what was going on with Virgil and Travis, but it was something heavy. Yep. Heavy duty.

At breakfast Virgil was quiet. Sat at the table and drank coffee and made no move to run. Not antsy to get going like he’d been before. He was staying put—no question about that.

Huh.

Tammy came rushing into the kitchen with her hair damp and said, “I can’t believe I slept through chores. Never done that before.”

“You’re exhausted, girl,” said Travis. “Time for somebody else to take a turn.”

While we ate, Tammy glanced at Virgil more than once and I was sure she wondered what Travis had said to him. With Virge being so closed off like he was, we might never find out.

Savanna began clearing the table. “Sorry I can’t help with the dishes. I’ve got to get to the store and open up.”

“I’ll take care of the cleanup,” said Travis. “Me and Virge will be here all day. The kids and Billy have enough work at the station. They’ve got an overcrowding situation.” Travis laughed.

“Yeah, we do temporarily, but we might get more room when we shuffle some of the mutts to the courthouse. Hope we don’t get all of them back.”

“I hope that’s the way it works out,” said Tammy. “But when it comes to Mister Smollett, I hope his bail is set so fucking high he can’t raise the ten percent he needs. That maniac shouldn’t be wandering around loose.”

“Smollett is a prick,” mumbled Billy. He winced and rubbed the side of his head.

“Sure must be,” said Travis. “Harlan told me you heard Smollett say to his son that he told him not to get caught at the carnival.”

“Yeah,” said Billy. “A weird thing for him to say unless he’s running the pickpocket gang, then it makes perfect sense.”

“Yeah, it does,” said Travis.

“Smollett needs to be braced hard,” said Billy.

“His arraignment won’t show up on the docket for a couple of days,” said Travis. “I’ll take care of Smollett myself.”

Virgil raised his eyes from his coffee mug, and I saw it then. My brother wouldn’t be causing Travis or our family anymore trouble. He was like a prospect who had joined a bike gang. From now on, Virgil would be following the rules.

Billy nodded his head at Travis’s suggestion. Travis would be much more intimidating than Billy could ever be.

Sheriff’s Office. Coyote Creek.

“The busiest Monday morning we’ve ever had,” I said to Tammy. “I have to ask Molly who we need to transport first to the courthouse.”

“Earlier this morning,” said Tammy, “Molly had to make two trips to the diner for the breakfast containers because she didn’t know about the new prisoners we’d brought in on the weekend.”