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They looked up at Tri’s barks, and Cody saw his brother searching the sky. As he’d expected he spotted the drone quickly and waved. Cody dipped the drone in answer, then sent it off in another direction so as not to rattle the newcomer. The dog was no doubt used to drones—they were in such common usage now—but Cody knew Chance tried to give them a break from any reminders when they first got here. And Cody wasn’t about to argue with his brother’s success rate with the animals the military had written off as unsalvageable.
He veered the drone to the west, toward the wall of limestone they called the ridge even though it was barely taller than he was. The rain had begun up there, but he thought he had time to finish the run.
He let out a weary breath, as if all the changes in the last year had worn him out. Mom, on the other hand, was delighted. She was the one who kept track of all those things that tended to slide right past him. Including Roth and her future goals and plans. While he’d been half convinced her main goal in life was to make his miserable.
The rain was getting heavier. He frowned. The front had picked up speed. He decided this would be the last loop before bringing it home. Better early than sorry.
He grabbed one of Mom’s famous butter pecan cookies that he’d snagged and hidden here last night during the screening, knowing how fast they always disappeared. An image of their pain-in-the-backside neighbor, watching and cheering his video just like everyone else, formed in his mind. She hadn’t let the lifetime of friction between them get in the way. He felt a little jab; he wasn’t sure he would be able to be as fair-minded.
He slid into more tangled thoughts. Could she do it? Could Brittany Roth make her big dreams come true? He knew, sometimes to his dismay, that once she seized on an idea she rarely gave up. If she applied the same kind of determination and ingenuity to her business plans as she did to driving him crazy, she’d probably get it done. Which would mean she really would be the girl next door for the foreseeable future, no relief for him, no hopes that she’d strike out on her own somewhere else? Why would she, when she had the perfect setup for it already?
Just like you do, here. She’s no more going to leave than you would. This place was paid for with the blood of your ancestors. It’s in your soul, Rafferty, and you’re not going anywhere.
And neither was she. His mouth twisted as he realized the truth of that. The Roths might not have been rooted in this Hill Country soil as long as the Raffertys, but they were solidly here just the same. And she—
An abrupt acceleration of the image on the main screen snapped him out of his unexpected and unwanted reverie.
The sky had opened up and rain had begun to pour up at the ridgeline, but he barely noticed as he stared at the camera image from the drone.
Sideways. The image was sliding sideways.
He shifted the controller to adjust.
The video image kept sliding. Toward that solid wall of pitted stone.
He tried another adjustment.
It kept sliding.
He went for up, just wanting it higher for more space to maneuver.
Sideways.
“Shit.” He knew what was coming. He could feel it. He had no control. The momentum had outpaced his ability to pull it back. He heard a loud scrape. Then a shattering loud enough to make him yank his headphones off.
The monitor flashed white for a split second.
Then dark.
Blank.
Dead.
He dropped the headphones on the table as he let out a fouler, louder oath. Then repeated it.
He’d have to go get the pieces. And hope something was salvageable, for parts at least. Problem was, he’d had his head in the clouds so long he wasn’t sure exactly how far along the wall it had been when it crashed.
If you’d pulled your head out sooner, maybe it wouldn’t have crashed at all.
He’d been going down rabbit holes in his head, which wasn’t that unusual. He and Sean often joked about it. But going down the one named Britt Roth was. He checked the weather radar. Swore again, harsher this time. The heart of the cell was right there at the ridge. It would be here to the house soon. He wouldn’t be going anywhere for a while.
“Welcome to spring,” he muttered under his breath.
“Cody? Do you have a flyer out? I think you need to bring it back now, if you do. I was just in town and that storm’s moving fast.”
He turned back to the door and saw his mother standing there. “I did,” he said in exasperation. “It crashed. Up near the ridge. Where the storm has already hit, and hard.”
“Ouch. Not the new one you did the bluebonnets video with?”
