Page 39 of Stripping Bare

He hauled his ass out of the chair his siblings liked to call histhrone.

In the hallway connecting his tech cave and garage to the rest of the house, he caught sight of movement outside the windows. Someone was on hisproperty.

He quickly backtracked and retrieved the handgun he kept stashed in a drawer. He clicked the magazine into place and shoved his feet into a pair ofboots.

Using the external door off the hallway, he slipped outside into the darkness. His sense of hearing seemed heightened in the early-morning mountain chill. An owl hooted and from around the side of the garage, he heard what sounded like wood scraping against wood. Was someone trying to jimmy one of the windows into hishouse?

Aw, fuck no. Not gonnahappen.

Jonah crept around the side of the house. Sure enough, a bulky figure was hunched down near the door that opened from the great room onto his backdeck.

So help him, if this was the same guy who’d painted all over Tessa’s living room wall, he’d put a bullet in each of his kneecaps. Then they’d sit down and have a friendly little chat while the shitheadbled.

Jonah dashed up the stairs, grabbed the intruder around the neck, and jammed the gun against his cheek. “What the fuck are youdoing?”

The intruder’s empty hands rose above his head. “Jonah,” he rasped, “It’s me, yourdad.”

Sounded a lot like him and the height was right, but the guy was bulked up in a coat and had a hood pulled over his head. “Who was the 1989 NASCAR Rookie of the Year?” Jonah askedhim.

He and his dad were far from best buds, but everyone knew Eddy Steele loved him some carracing.

“Dick Trickle. He was forty-eight at thetime.”

Jonah withdrew the gun and dropped his arm from around his dad’sthroat.

His dad turned, hands still in the surrender position, but he was clearly wearing a grin. “You been taking lessons fromReid?”

“I know exactly how to defend what’s mine,” Jonah said. “And I can shoot a real gun just as well as an imaginary one. You might want to remember that the next time you’re skulking around my house in the middle of thenight.”

His dad had never much understood him, the son more interested in the make-believe worlds of video games than tracking, killing, and skinning a deer. Sometimes he’d caught his dad looking at him, studying him as if trying to figure out where Jonah had come from. If he’d ever be a real man like his olderbrothers.

“Why are you here,anyway?”

“Just dropping off some stuff I had laying around.” His dad jerked his chin to indicate something behindhim.

At least a cord of firewood, perfectly stacked. “You brought mewood?”

Stupid question seeing as the evidence was right in front ofhim.

His dad’s shoulders moved under his coat, and he glanced toward Jonah’s outdoor fireplace. “You know I ain’t much for Christmas gifts and the like, but I figured all you kids could use some with the weather turningcolder.”

Mixed feelings clashed inside Jonah. Part of him wanted to give his dad a big hug, but another part of him wanted to reject the gift. Eddy Steele showed up when and where he wanted. He hadn’t been there for his family day in and dayout.

Not like Jonah’s mom had. She’d worked her ass off to afford birthday and Christmas presents for her kids. She’d always been the stable one, the one who made sure they were fed and educated. This man just popped in like an uninvitedguest.

Dropping off wood in the middle of the night was the perfect example of hisMO.

“So you decided to drop it off before sane people areawake?”

“You ain’t exactly in your pajamas,” his dad shot back. “Besides, didn’t see a reason to make a big hullabaloo aboutit.”

More like he didn’t want to have to talk to his own kids. But maybe bringing wood was his own hermit way of showing hecared.

“This your firststop?”

“Yeah, figured I’d do a couple loads a night. Tonight, it’s you and Britt. Tomorrow, I’ll catch Evie andMicki.”

“You might want to give the others a heads-up. Otherwise someone will put a bullet inyou.”

“I see your point.” He squeezed Jonah’s shoulder and gave a rusty chuckle, both of which brought a warmth to Jonah’s chest he didn’t really want to feel. “Happy holidays,son.”

And with that, he strode off the deck and into thewoods.

“Happy friggin’ holidays,Dad.”