Page 32 of Live Love Lasso

Sucking at my teeth, I glance at my Second. “Ek, Let’s get back to the office. I wanna dive into what land Varek’s bought at this point and the plans he’s shared about that community he wants to build. Let’s figure out if there are holdouts and talk to those folks.”

We part ways, Echo heading back to the office to make calls. I head to the auction house to make use of their computer system. Given that they predate almost everything else in town, they’ve got better access to the Gulch’s public record system, an irony since I often need to investigate.

I call the sheriff on my way in. To my surprise, he answers with a gruff growl. When I share my suspicion, he promises to join me. He shows up a few minutes later, limping into the auction house’s archives and flopping onto the chair opposite mine.

He rests a muscular arm over the back of the adjacent chair, tucking his wings up behind his back as he lets out a heavy sigh. “You think that asshole Varek’s involved?”

I shrug, waving a hand at the printouts in front of me. “Ain’t sure. I know folks around here don’t agree with his vision of mini ranches and expanding the community the way he’s thinkin’ of, but it’s hard to imagine him purposefully injuring any of the animals. Still, what’s happening ain’t natural causes. It’s being done to them; that’s the only thing I’m relatively sure of.”

Bishop grunts, running a hand through his unruly waves. “Alright, you keep lookin’ through the computer records, and I’ll go over the printouts for anything weird.”

It takes us all of forty minutes to discover a couple things—Varek has spent a significant amount of money buying up ranches just north of downtown. There are just four holdout parcels of land that seem like he’d need them to build anything cohesive. Mykel’s ranch is one of those.

That sense of something amiss raises the hair on my nape, concern and worry filling me in equal measure.

“Shit, Furyon,” Bishop says with a growl. “Varek’s got reason to want the land to be worthless for a time, at least. If he can’t get those couple of plots, he’s got nothin’.”

We sit in silence for a moment. I still find it hard to believe Varek would do this. While I don’t love the idea of mini ranches and townhomes any more than the rest of the Gulchers, I’ve never known him to be cruel. It goes firmly against minotaur values to uphold the sanctity of the land.

“We need more info,” Bishop says. “Something more than just happenstance. He’s got motive, but that ain’t enough for us to do anything more than question him.”

“Agreed.” I rise and grab a comm disk from its spot on the wall by the door. The disk allows us to call monsters in other havens from our own. Dropping it on the table between us, I ask it to call FJ Zayle.

While it rings, Bishop rises. “I’m gonna leave you to that, but let me know what comes of it.”

Nodding, I watch as he limps out of the archives and up toward the main floor.

With a snap, my older brother’s hologram rises up out of the disk. His dark brows lift. “Furyon, this is a surprise. It’s been what, twenty years?”

I nod, threading my fingers together as I lean over the desk. “I need your help, FJ. You still got access to the havenwide financial database?”

He crosses his arms and scowls. “Why, hello, FJ. Good to see you. How’s everyone at home? Glad you asked, brother. We’re doing just fine, thank you.”

I sigh. “FJ, I’m practically dead to our father. In fact, last I heard, he’s actually telling monsters I died. Doesn’t seem like you’ve been correcting him, either.”

“Lies,” FJ spits, his scowl deepening. Then he smirks. “I always correct him when he says you’re dead. For real, though, how are you? And, yeah, I’ve still got database access.”

I resist the urge to tell my brother all about Lemon and the spark of happiness that’s suddenly blowing life into my fire. Now ain’t the time, and he’s right about one thing—we don’t keep up with one another much since I opted out of the family business.

“I need you to look into the financials of a minotaur who lives out here—Varek Longhorn. Came from Hearth Headquarters originally.”

“That name sounds familiar,” FJ muses. “I’ll look into it and see what I can find.” He smirks at me again. “You want me to tell Father you said hello?”

I snort out a laugh, “We both know he couldn’t care less.”

FJ’s smile falls. “I’ll do this for you, Furyon. But I want to come see you soon. You asked me not to in the past, but you look good, brother. I wanna know what’s going on in your life if you’ll allow it after all this time.”

I think about it for a second, unsure if I wanna open the can of worms that is my family. It’s been nice not having any of their expectations choking me for the last fifty years. “I’ll consider it,” I say finally.

“Good,” FJ says. “Check in soon.” He clicks off without another word.

I sit with the conversation for a minute, mulling over how it felt to see my brother for the first time in two decades. Despite my fallout with our father, FJ’s the only one of my brothers who tried to keep up with me, even when I lived with the vampire coven. He told me then they were bad news, and he was right. I didn’t listen then, but I should have. I could’ve avoided some heartache if I’d taken his advice to leave the coven in my rearview.

Setting that aside, I head to Lemon’s cottage to see if she’s home. She ain’t there, and even though I wait around for a half hour to see, she doesn’t show up. It’s past quittin’ time by the time I get back to downtown. I go to Whiskey Business to see if she’s on the karaoke stage. It doesn’t surprise me at all to find her there with a Jell-O shot in one hand and a microphone in the other.

I slide onto the barstool, smiling at Oz as I watch her. She’s belting out a country song about yet another human truck driver.

Oz laughs when he sees me. “If it isn’t our hometown heartthrob himself.”