Page 101 of Ride or Die

I nod again, shifting in my chair.

“Some… creep left flowers on her windshield outside Meow’s but she thought it was you?”

“Not just flowers,” I argue. “Redbuds.”

Austin blinks at me like I done lost my damn mind.

“Maybe just some… admirer,” Cruz says with a casual shrug of his shoulders.

I spear him with daggers. “A fuckin’admirer?”

He holds his hands up in defense, shrugging once.

“We were talkin’ about the redbuds the other night in the yard,” I continue. “And Billie, the little girl, was sayin’ how sheand her mama love ’em. And the next damn night some assholes leaves a sprig of them on her windshield?” I snort incredulously. “That ain’t no fuckin’ coincidence.”

Austin nods slowly, rubbing his bearded chin with a look of contemplation in his eyes.

“And Rick said it looked like she had a faulty valve stem and that’s why her tire blew,” I tell them, looking at everyone around the table. “But she drove on those same damn tires all the way from West fuckin’ Virginia. Why would it only just blow now?” I throw my hands in the air. “What if someone went into the yard the night before and fucked with ’em.”

Cruz scoffs, shaking his head. “Why would the father of her kids?—”

“Kid,” I correct sternly. “He’s only Billie’s daddy.”

“Why would the father ofone ofher kids wanna risk hurtin’ ’em?” Cruz asks.

“I don’t know,” I bite back because frankly he’s startin’ to piss me off. “Maybe because he’s a fuckin’ psychopath who almost raped Clara in front of his kid.”

A tense silence settles around the metal table, and I push back on my chair, the adrenaline coursing through me making it unbearable to sit still any longer. I pace the length of the room, racking my brain as I stare down at the wet, concrete floor.

“I’ve got my best guys on it, Cole,” Butch says. “If that asshole even so much as considered stepping foot inside the state of Texas, I’ll be the first to know about it.”

“Maybe it’s not him,” Webber says after a moment.

I stop, about ready to give the old man a piece of my mind but then he holds a hand up placating me before I can let loose on him. “Maybe it’s someone he knows, someone he’s payin’ to do his dirty work for him.”

“How does he even know she’s here?” I almost shout, angry and incredulous. “She came here with nothin’. No credit cards. No cell phone to track. Fake fuckin’ plates on her car.”

“You check the car for a tracker?” Webber asks, arching a bushy brow.

I stop then, tugging on the back of my neck before falling back into my chair and slumping with the weight of defeat because what the fuck. I’m a goddamn amateur. “No.”

“Okay,” Austin says, slapping his big hand against the table and commanding the attention of the room in the way that he does so effortlessly. “This is what we’re gonna do…”

I don’t waste any time and head straight back to my place after leaving the slaughterhouse. We agreed not to tell Clara anything yet. We don’t know what’s really going on, if Cain is even in town, so Austin came up with a plan. Thankfully the kids are at school, which allows me the chance to create some urgency without scaring them.

“Hey,” Clara says with a smile that could light up the darkest night, walking out of the house after I hop out of my truck. “What are you doing back here?”

My palms are sweaty and I wipe them on the back of my jeans, unable to meet her eyes as I approach. Fuck. My gut roils with the need to throw up at the thought of lying to her.

“We just got word back at the ranch from the almanac,” I say, thumbing back in the direction of west where Rattlesnake is. “They’re predicting some pretty bad storm cells over the next few days. Maybe even a few twisters.”

Clara’s smile immediately falls. “T-twisters?” Her eyes widen. “You mean, like, tornados?”

I nod, tugging on the back of my neck.

“Oh my god…” She places a hand over her chest, looking around like at any moment a tornado’s about to drop out of the clear blue sky.

“This old place ain’t gonna hold up,” I say as casually as I can. “I been meanin’ to get the roof fixed, but?—”