Page 145 of Fire Fight

“Good.”

Lifting my head, our lips met softly. I tilted my face to deepen it, apparently ready for round two—or was it three?—but a knock came at the door.

“If you’re hungry, you better come eat before the ranch hands get here!” Birdie shouted through.

“Oh, God,” I groaned, covering my face as my cheeks heated. “Do you think she…?”

Crew shrugged, unperturbed by the idea that his mom had heard us having sex. “Does it matter?”

“I suppose not,” I giggled as I pulled away from him.

Crew caught me and gave me a final, hard kiss. A promise of all the things he still wanted to do to me.

Then we quickly got dressed and freshened up before heading downstairs for lunch.

thirty-eight

. . .

CREW

Lifeon the ranch was surprisingly enjoyable considering the fact that me and my…girlfriend? had moved in with my mother despite being in our thirties.

Aspen adjusted well, and I supposed it helped that she was used to uprooting her life and moving from place to place at the drop of a hat. Even on mornings when I didn’t have to work, and we could sleep in—or spend those hours lazily exploring each other’s bodies—she was routinely up before me. I’d always find her in the kitchen, helping Mama prep meals for the ranch hands. Then we’d venture outside, either heading to the barn so Aspen could learn more about Finn’s rescue operation, or down to the dude ranch with West, where she’d jump at the chance to help turnover cabins for the next set of guests.

I’d known she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty, but I thought there was more to it than that. Most likely, she was trying to keep herself busy. If she stopped moving, she’d think about all the things that had gone wrong since she’d arrived in town—and she’d run. So I let her do her thing, let her burn off that anxious energy during the day and reward her hard work with orgasms at night.

We spent the Fourth of July on the ranch, surrounded by family—both blood and found. Each of my brothers, Mama, Aria, Aspen, and I pitched in to put together an impressive buffet style spread of summer staples for the ranch hands and their families to enjoy. There were lawn games, pony rides for the littles in the corral under the intense supervision of Finn, and Mama’s signature margaritas flowing endlessly for the adults. We ended the night with an impressive fireworks show curated by West, who had blocked off reservations for his cabins to let ranch hands who lived off the property to stay the night.

The day was perfect, and things on the investigative front had been eerily quiet since the break-in at my house two weeks earlier, so it made sense that not three days later, something finally popped.

I’d been on shift the night before, so when the ringing of my phone dragged me from sleep, I swore heartily.

Blindly, I groped around on the nightstand for the infernal device, answering without looking at the screen.

“You were still sleeping?” Lane asked.

“What time is it?”

“Nearly four.”

“Jesus,” I breathed, rubbing the thumb and pointer of my free hand into my eyes before blinking them open.

Lanetsked. “Get up, baby bro. We’ve got work to do.”

“You do realize I worked last night, hence the reason I’m still sleeping.AndI’m not a cop.”

“I’m going to interview Missy Plano today,” he supplied. “Thought you’d want to come along.”

Fuck yeah I did.

Since the day Chris had passed along Missy’s name, Lane and the department had attempted to contact her several times with no luck.

“She’s back in town?”

“Johns saw her at the Swallow last night.”

“You call ahead?”