Page 30 of Cowboy Heat

I slow down next to Rhonda Cline’s old Mazda and make sure to keep nice with my words. Damien isn’t his brother, but that doesn’t mean you go at him like he’s harmless. “What do you mean he’s gone? Who’s gone?”

He drops his voice low. “Everett. I can’t find him anywhere. Not onLa Lumiereand not anywhere else I usually check.”

I give him my best incredulous look.

I’m surprised Guidry is missing, but I’m more surprised that Damien thinks I might know where his brother is.

June’s claim that Guidry is obsessed with me ruffles its feathers beneath my skin.

Damien being so upset isn’t helping.

He’s a young buck in the normal world. Twenty-two, lean but in shape, attractive in a stereotypical jock type of way. He has blue eyes and dark blond hair, and his accent has a drawl that makes you stop and think about it for a time. If letterman jackets were still a statement, he’d probably wear one.

And if his brother wasn’t Everett Guidry.

Instead, he wears plain, dark shirts, cargo pants that conceal whatever they can, and a stress I’m sure has been aging him prematurely since Guidry startedLa Lumiere.

I used to feel bad for Damien. After their grandfather passed, Everett raised him with the occasional trip to his mother somewhere out in Tennessee. Neither Guidry brother talks about their families or where they come from, though. Not for any length of time. It’s part of Everett Guidry’s power, I suspect.

He’s a mystery, and no one is looking for the clues to solve it.

“Why would I know where he is?” I ask. “I haven’t laid eyes on him since the morning of Alice’s attack.”

“He said he was coming to see you,” Damien says, running a hand through his hair. “You sure he hasn’t?”

I don’t like being questioned like this. I put my hands on my hips. I might move quick to talk to Damien, but I’m not as cautious of him as his brother. “Like I said, I haven’t seen him. And I don’t appreciate repeating that while my party is sitting inside waiting on me.”

Damien wants to say a few things and looks like he’s flipping through a catalogue of comments to find the right one. He’s stressed—really stressed—and I’m starting to feel it too. “He was hellbent on talking to you when I saw him two days ago,” he says. “Real hellbent onnit.”

“Hellbent or not, I’ve been easy to find and haven’t seen him.” I lower my hands from my hips. That stress he’s exuding really is all over him.

I worry about Micah all at once. The last time I talked to him was the night I was summoned toLa Lumiere.He’d gotten into trouble, and Guidry wasn’t for it.

I was able to talk him down.

Sometimes, I hated being the one Guidry would listen to. Then again, when it came to Micah, that had been our situation for years.

“Do you knowwhyhe wanted to talk?”

Damien shakes his head. “He just kept saying he had to have some words with you.”

I almost ask about Micah outright, but Damien cusses low.

He’sreallyworried about something.

“Surely, it’s not unheard of to not see him for a time,” I say. “I’ve seen some men around here go fishing from dawn to dawn before. Guidry’s been one of them.”

Damien shakes his head this time. He’s gone deep into thinking again. “He gave me something, and he wouldn’t up and leave it right now. Not when—” He stops himself. Then goes again. “He’d at least answer his phone.”

Damien gives me a long look. For a moment, I see the small boy I met when I was a teenager.

I soften my tone because of it. “I’m sorry you’re worried, but there’s nothing I can do about it other than tell you, again, that I haven’t seen or spoken to your brother since last week. Whatever he’s up to, I’m not a part of it.”

I hear the door open behind us. We’ve made it a few feet away by now.

Damien eyes the leaving patron. He audibly growls. “You see him, you tell him to call me,” he says to me fast. “Got it?”

I’m so taken aback by the fierceness in his order that I nod. “I will.”