Page 95 of Cowboy Heat

Lee’sglad I’m alive. He’s not glad about the cluster we’ve gotten into. He says all of that fast before he’s off the phone and back on mission. That mission being Detective Ally Wayland.

“Far as I can tell, there’s no connection between her and Everett Guidry, and her records and reputation look right as rain,” Lee had said before wrapping our call up. “Since I can’t magically teleport there, and I don’t want you getting arrested for a murder you didn’t commit, I’m saying we trust her. For now. Keep the gun on you just in case.”

The way he said “we” felt a lot different than the man I spoke to before going to Renard Cemetery. He and Kissy went through it. Something he spoke to only when he made sure I left Kissy in the Jeep outside of the animal shelter.

“I can’t make you do anything, Beau,” he said. “But you better take damn good care of that woman. She didn’t leave you when she well could have, and, Beau, she didn’t just protect you. I’m pretty sure she killed for you.”

He promised to call back after he called Detective Wayland again. If I wasn’t so tired and hurting, I would have done it myself.

Instead, I look at Kissy through the Jeep’s window with a new sense of awe.

I already knew she’d protected me, probably killed for my sake, too, but to hear such admiration in Lee’s voice—someone who went through it with her—makes me take a beat.

That beat doesn’t last long. She’s out of the car, a few bangles I saw her scoop up from the center console clinking along her arms, and talking fast.

“There’s a first aid in the back and Mimi wants a picture of you.” She has her phone back and shakes it at me, making the bangles dance even more. I like seeing them again, I realize. Hearing them too.

“What did you tell her?”

Kissy opens the rear Jeep door and points at me to sit on the lip of the back.

“That we ran into some trouble, and you got a little hurt.” She makes a face. “I wanted to wait to see what Detective Wayland was going to do and say before I tell her, well,everything. I did tell Wyatt, though, to keep a lookout. And his shotgun handy.”

“What didhesay to that?”

“He told me to be careful.” A brief smile flits over her lips. “Wyatt isn’t exactly a mild-mannered man when it comes to the family’s well-being. Heisstrategic, though, when it comes to corralling Mimi. Poor woman is as stubborn as they come.”

“I guess every family has a Wyatt and a Mimi.”

Sure enough, Kissy has a small box labeled FIRST AID under the seat. She pulls it out and checks the contents.

“I bet Lee is a Wyatt,” she guesses.

I nod.

“The Mimi of our group would be Maximus. He’ll travel to the depths of Hell for us and take the world with him if he thinks it’ll help us. The rest of my brothers and I judge a situation based on a sliding scale ofwhen do we tell Maximus?”

“And where does this situation land on that?”

I’ve already thought it through, but Lee and I haven’t said anything about it out loud yet.

“Figure it out first, then loop him in when it’s settled, I think,” I say. “Deal with what’s on our plate before passing out extras.”

She seems okay with that. Then again, Kissy’s attention seems to have gone fully to my shirt.

“I hate to say it but this shirt isn’t making it out of this,” she says, eyeing the tear the knife made. “Mind if I take it off?”

I settle on the vehicle and shake my head.

“I don’t mind at all.”

It might be the sun or my imagination, but I think she goes a little rosy at that.

I can’t deny I’m a bit warm as her fingers brush against my sides while grabbing the bottom of said shirt. I don’t even mind the pain of lifting my arms as she slides it up and over my head.

The shirt drops to the ground, but Kissy’s gaze stays on me.

It starts at my wound and then goes over the rest of my chest.