Page 24 of Will (The Cowboys of Calamity, Texas #3)

Chapter Fifteen

Will wanted to reach out and hold her. He’d never seen her this angry before and wasn’t sure she’d give him time to state his case, but he had to try.

“I’m not looking for a fling, Honey.” He folded his hands into fists.

Her eyes flash in disbelief, and then she shook her head. “I saw you.”

“Yes, I was scrolling through a dating app—”

“Aha!”

“I wasn’t looking for a fling.” Will took a step closer to her, and she backed up. “You’re already more woman than I can handle, Honey. The only woman I want in my arms.”

“Huh?” She blinked and indecision flickered across her beautiful face. A face clearly torn between her feelings of betrayal and perhaps a desire to return to the easy trust they’d shared during their time together.

She folded her arms over her chest. “Why should I believe you?”

He reached out to brush a stray tendril of blond hair from her face, but she turned her head, blocking the gesture. Got it. Boundaries. He had some tall talking to do.

“You were also right about investigating those socks.”

One corner of her mouth lifted in a self-satisfied smile. “Oh?”

“Yeah, you got it right.”

“I’m glad you can admit it.”

He wanted to pull her into his arms and fall back into this bed of wildflowers with her, but not until he revealed everything. “I have something else to confess.”

“What?”

“I know where to find The Destroyer and...” He flipped the phone over in his hand. “It starts with this dating app.”

* * *

“This is my first stakeout.” Honey hunkered low in the driver’s seat of her car.

“What do you think of it so far?” Will asked. He sat in the passenger seat, munching on a small bag of pretzels he’d found in her glove compartment.

“It’s more boring than I expected,” she said, trying to tamp down her nerves. The waiting was the hard part.

Stakeout work is ninety-nine percent boredom, one percent high-octane action.”

It had a been a full hour since she and Will had arrived on this tree-lined street in the heart of Calamity. Dusk had settled over the town while she’d been keeping a close eye on the white split-level house with black shutters about four doors down the street.

The full moon supplied enough light for her to watch and wait. She had seen no unusual activity around the house yet, but that didn’t mean they weren’t being watched, too.

Will had gone over the plan with her several times, but that hadn’t helped settle her nerves and she knew Will was nervous as well, or he never would have agreed to let her call Steed for backup.

“Where is he?” Will looked at the time on his phone, then nervously tapped his fingers against the console. “We can’t wait for him all night.”

“Let’s give him ten more minutes,” she said, trying to ignore the butterflies in her stomach. “And tell me again how you figured this all out.”

He turned to look at her. “It hit me when we were at the Sunrise Shop. The salesclerk mentioned that Ronnie’s date had insisted on hiking together for their first date. The same thing had happened to me a couple of months earlier, in Austin, after I tried using a dating app.”

Honey couldn’t imagine a man like Will having difficulty finding a date, but it seemed to be a reality for people their age. Most likely, his job didn’t afford him trial-and-error for the standard way of dating.

By going online, he could filter out the women who were perfectly fine people but whose personalities and priorities did not mesh with his own, and zero in on those who were more closely aligned.

Honey speculated his inbox was full of interest from ladies who liked what they saw in his profile.

“I’m guessing you made quite a few matches.”

“I think you’re overestimating my charm. One of the women I matched with wanted to meet for coffee. I thought that seemed like a good plan for a first date.”

“It is,” she said. “A coffee shop is casual, and you’re not committing yourself to spending an entire evening together.”

“Exactly. So I said yes, but not long afterward, she changed her mind and insisted we go hiking instead. She was pretty adamant about it.”

Honey glanced over at him. “And you didn’t see that as a red flag? Or at least a yellow one?”

He shook his head. “Honestly, I was so busy, I didn’t give it that much thought at the time. Hiking is great exercise, and besides, if you don’t like your hiking partner, you can just take a different path.”

“True.” Despite her nerves, Honey enjoyed the cozy intimacy of the front seat. “Taking a different path sounds better than canceling your date.”

“I know,” he said. “But it’s not as bad as…”

A loud rapping on her driver’s side car window startled Honey out of her analysis of Will’s romantic options. A quick pivot in her seat and a heart-pounding second later, she was met with the image of a smiling Steed looming beside the car.

“Look who finally showed up,” Will said.

Steed opened the back car door and climbed inside. “What have I missed?”

“We don’t know who else might be in the house.” Honey nibbled her bottom lip. “I’m hoping Ronnie’s there. So, my job is to distract The Destroyer, which should hopefully give you and Will enough time to look for Ronnie. Or at least find clues about where he might be.”

“Got it,” Steed said. “Let’s go.”

* * *

Will was tired of hearing Steed’s incessant chatter before they even reached the chain-link fence in the backyard.

A small dog in the next yard began barking, and soon other dogs in the neighborhood joined in.

The chorus of barking helped conceal the sound of their movements as they jumped over the fence and made their way toward the back of the house.

“I’m surprised you didn’t call your friends in the sheriff’s office,” Steed said, “and let them oversee this.”

“Honey doesn’t want them involved. Not yet anyway. She has her reasons.”

“Then that’s good enough for me.” Steed took steps closer to Will and studied his face. “Looks like you’re going to be wearing my handiwork for a while. At least that black eye is finally beginning to fade.”

For a weird moment, it appeared his companion was proud of his so-called accomplishment.

“It’s been a fun discussion topic with strangers,” Will said. “But I’m ready for a little peace and quiet.”

Steed chuckled. “Except you can’t seem to stay away from Honey. That means your peace and quiet is about to go by the wayside, because that girl is a whirlwind.”

Before he could reply, a doorbell chimed from inside the house.

Will turned to Steed and in a low voice said, “It’s go time.”

“What’s the plan?” Steed asked.

“We split up, find a way into the house, then start looking for Ronnie. Or at the very least, hope find clues that shows he’s been here.”

“I know my assignment,” Steed said and deepened his scowl. “Cynthia misses her son and I promised her I’d find him.”

* * *

Honey rang the bell again, then inhaled a deep, calming breath. This would not be easy.

The front door opened. After a flicker of curiosity, Amber smiled a warm welcome. “Well, this is pleasant surprise! What brings you here?”

“I just needed to talk,” Honey said, “and hoped you wouldn’t mind if I stopped by.”

“Of course not.” Amber ushered her inside the house. “What’s going on?”

It took everything Honey had not to confront Amber right away, but she needed to give Will and Steed time to search for Ronnie. She studied the woman she had considered a casual friend. Not a close one, but certainly someone she trusted to mingle in her circle of friends and acquaintances.

She couldn't believe this pretty lady with the innocent expression was The Destroyer.

A part of Honey still hoped it wasn’t true, but all the pieces seemed to fit. She just didn’t understand Amber’s motivation.

The two of them had never enjoyed a close friendship, like Honey had with Maria. But they’d moved in similar circles and seen each other often around Calamity, ever since Amber had moved here a year ago.

“Honey?” Amber said, her expression growing wary. “I just asked you what’s going on.”

Before she could answer, a bloodcurdling scream reverberated throughout the house.

* * *

The scream made Will’s heart stand still.

He had split up from Steed to circle the house and look for an opening, but a woman’s screams catapulted him into action. He saw an open window on the basement level of the house, with only a window screen preventing his entrance.

Still fearful that Honey was facing imminent danger, Will kicked out the window screen and entered a basement room of the house. He landed with a soft thud on a sofa cushion as more screams split the surrounding air.

Just as suddenly as the shrieks had begun, the room abruptly grew silent, and a figure loomed over him. Will raised his arm to block the light of the bare bulb dangling from the ceiling.

“Who are you?” The male voice was demanding.

Although the scenario seemed to play out in slow motion, it took only a second for Will to get his bearings. He sat up on the sofa and blinked at the young man glaring at him.

“I asked who are you?”

“I’m Will Pierce,” he said, as calm as if they were meeting at a social event. “And you must be Ronnie. Honey’s upstairs and we’ve come to get you out of here.”

Ronnie folded his arms over his chest, his brown eyes gleaming with defiance. “Over my dead body.”

“That can be arranged.” Steed, having accessed the house through a separate entrance, and turned up in the open doorway. “Now get your stuff together, because I’m taking you home to your mom. And I don’t want to hear another word about it.”