Page 6 of Cowboy Heat

Kissy—what a name—swats me away with her hand. “I know this town better than most. That road isn’t as long as it looks, and again, this’ll only take a minute. I just need to talk to someone.”

She might not know it, but there’s a change in her tone on that last part. A subtle shift she probably thinks she’s hiding. I can’t tell what emotion is pushing it, though. Kissy Lawson is either happy to go down that road alone, or she wants to do anything but.

Who am I to force the issue?

She tells me one more time that she’ll be right back and is off. She becomes a shadow halfway through, and I realize how little I can actually see out here. Orlando was never this dark. Not even the places I’d lived in Alabama. Well, except the basement. That darkness…

I stop that thought and focus on the clock.

If Kissy isn’t back in five minutes, stiff leg or not, I’ll find out what’s at the end of the road.

My brother must’ve realized I was in between stillness and action. I get a text on minute three. It’s Lee, and he’s asking my opinion about a brand of Taser that’s just come out.

I call him instead of text back. He answers on the first ring.

“Is a thousand bucks too much?” he greets before I fire off a word. Lee is older than me, but maturity wise, we’re right on target together. He’s also the only Montgomery to have a job that closely resembles mine. Or my former job.

Lee’s a bounty hunter. A good one, and one who apparently has a Taser budget concern.

“You’ve used the Taser you have now only, what, once in the past three years?” I ask him. “Is something wrong with it? Or are you just bored and catalogue surfing in your car?”

Lee isn’t introspective like me, maturity level matching or not. He’s quick to speak, quicker to grumble.

He does both in the opposite order. “I’m cruising through my social media ads while I’m staking out this Podunk diner my bounty seems to have a love-love relationship with.” He grumbles now. “So you’re saying I don’t need this thing and should put away my card.”

Minute four.

“That’s what I’m saying,” I confirm. “Put the card away.”

I hear movement. He’s putting his card away.

That Lee, he does what he says.

“Fine. I’ll just have to stare at these nice people eating fried foods and pie, I guess. What are you doing?”

I look down the road again. “Waiting on the relator to get back.” Minute five is coming up. “Actually, let me let you go.”

Lee doesn’t question my abruptness. He never does. He’s as close to carefree as the Montgomery brothers get. “Catch you later, Baby Beau.”

The call ends as minute five rolls around.

I go to open my door, already trying to coax my leg into submission, but Kissy appears at the passenger side window with a smile.

“Back,” is all she says before her bangles are clinking together and she’s settled in the seat. Other than a slight sag to her, she seems to be fine.

“Do what you needed to get done?” I ask.

She nods. I can’t read her, but again, not my place to read her at all.

I just want to take her to her town doctor. Something she seems to accept by giving me directions away from the road and its darkness.

The drive takes us to the opposite side of town and right to the middle of a long, curved street lined with a few houses. The lots are on the larger side and look nothing like one another. One has a gazebo covered in hanging lights on the front lawn; another has gator statues and a fountain next to the drive.

The place in question seems more standard, neat.

The only odd thing I can see is this house has a covered walkway attached to it and the house to its right. They’re joined by the walkway but are two completely detached homes.

Kissy—who hasn’t said much other than where to turn and some light explanations about where we were and what we were passing—catches my eye as I’m looking at the awning.