Page 11 of Long Hard Fall

“I got a visitor today,” Cash said. Oh fuck. Telling Dillon about Abbi was bad enough, but he might as well come clean about how they’d met. As if anyone needed more proof that he was a poster child for commitment phobia. “Let me start at the beginning. I met a woman last night.”

Dillon snorted and Cash scowled at him.

“This one left me in the dust.”

“Seriously?” Dillon’s surprised tone matched what Cash had felt watching Abbi walk out the door.

“Yeah. Ran out as soon as she woke, but here’s the thing.” Cash drew in a weighted breath and blew it out. “She shows up again at my place looking for Reno Walker.”

“What? Wait, she didn’t know you were Reno when you two…”

“Nope.” Didn’t even remember my name. “And we didn’t swap last names. You know how it goes.” Cash smiled easily. “If your memory goes back that far.”

The corner of Dillon’s mouth lifted, but he remained serious, waiting for the bad news.

“Yeah, so,” Cash said gruffly, “she introduced herself as Abbi Daniels.”

Color leeched from Dillon’s face. Cash had known what was coming, but his heart rate sped up anyway.

“Damn, Cash. What’s she doing in Moore?”

“Looking for us—me. Mostly me. Thinks she didn’t get the whole story behind her brother’s death.”

Dillon’s head tipped back.

“Yeah.”

Dillon took his hat off and shoved a hand through his hair. “What’d you tell her?”

“I asked her what she’d been told. She knew we’d been clearing a building and he’d set off an IED. But she didn’t seem to believe me when I said that was it.”

His cousin’s mouth twisted. “I hope you were a little gentler than that.”

“Of course. I’m not an ass.”

Dillon grunted. “Not at all.” Cash flipped him off. Dillon shooed him over on the tailgate and settled down next to him. “She’s looking for closure then.”

“She won’t find it with me. What am I going to say? ‘Your brother was kind of a flake and died because he didn’t listen to orders’?”

“Maybe she heard mutterings when they went through all his paperwork with the army. What are you going to tell her?”

“You know I can’t say anything. I’m not going to be responsible for tarnishing the image of her big bro. And as for the other…I’m not going there. It wasn’t my business.”

“The hell it wasn’t. It almost got you killed with him.”

“But it didn’t.” The day replayed in front of Cash’s eyes. Searing-hot temperatures. Sand in his eyes, his gear, clogging his pores. Yelling at Daniels to leave. The guy looking at him, looking away, and purposely charging into that room. A dull throb settled in Cash’s temples. Great. A long afternoon by himself in an enclosed space with nothing but memories, remorse, and guilt. “If I go saying shit like that, what if it causes a rift in the family?”

“No. I agree. There’s honesty and there’s hurting his family.”

They fell quiet, both of them staring at the red combine.

“You doing okay?” Dillon asked quietly.

Good question. After his talk, he planned to call Bunny. If he lost Patsy Cline on top of getting his emotional Band-Aid ripped off, it’d be a shitty few weeks. “Peachy. You?”

“Brings up some memories I’d rather forget, but it’s not like they leave anyway.”

“She might want to talk to you, too.” She might get distraught, and he didn’t like thinking of that. The easy laughter they’d shared over drinks shouldn’t be dulled.

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