Page 83 of The Moment They Can Never Forgive
She owed him for so many things, like Hudson’s tree house and what he’d done at the worker bee, but her middle finger still shot up.
He stood there smiling at her and looking far too good in his uniform, so she turned and walked away.
Chapter 23
“I’m not telling you anything, Sawyer.”
“Sure you are.”
“Nope. I’m your little brother, but you can’t beat shit out of me anymore because I’m as big and mean as you are now.”
Sawyer scoffed. “I can still take you.”
Dan drilled a finger into his brother’s belly. “You’re soft.”
“I know what you’re doing.”
“What?” Dan said, looking to the road, hoping he’d see his uncle’s cruiser appear.
“Trying to change the subject.”
“The truth is, I don’t know what I found in that barn, Sawyer.”
He looked at the four outbuildings in a row. “But you found something?”
Dan nodded. What he’d found were pieces of paper that looked like receipts for drug shipments that were possibly stored in that barn… or so he believed. Just like the ones that Old Mr. Lupton’s niece had found in his.
Had Chuck Reynolds been the next to profit from the Bandits’ cocaine? Had he brought drugs onto this property tohold before they were taken out and distributed, all the while knowing he was dealing with criminals who could hurt his daughters if he crossed them in any way?
Dan was tempted to go to the prison and beat the shit out of the man.
He’d never seen Chuck Reynolds flush with money, so where the hell had it all gone? Because the dollar amounts in that book were big.Did he gamble it away?Maybe he wasn’t involved?
He remembered the conversation he’d overheard in the Rollaway bathroom. The leads were all pointing somewhere, and that somewhere, Dan believed, was someone he and his uncle had wanted to take down for a long time.
What worried him now was, did anyone know that room was there? Possibly not, seeing as it had been Leah who charged that battery and moved the pickup off the door that led down to the secret room. Seven years, Dan reminded himself. Had no one been down there for seven years? He hoped that was the case.
“I can see fifty emotions running across your face about now, and none of them good,” Sawyer said.
He inhaled and exhaled. Dan was the calm Duke when he was on duty. Nothing ruffled him usually, but what was in that safe, and what he’d already found in that room, was trouble. He could feel it.
“So, have you seen some of her pottery?”
Dan nodded. “It’s good.”
“I wonder why she’s growing stuff, then, if she’s good at that?”
“Not everyone is like you, Sawyer. Some of us can be good at more than one thing.”
“Ha ha.”
“Birdie told me she did some kind of course about planting and stuff. So I guess it’s understandable she wants to start there.”
The sting of jealousy Dan felt was because Leah had told Birdie and not him, and he had no right to feel it because she didn’t confide in him anymore.
“So, how’s things between you and Leah after our talk the other night? Doesn’t look to me like it’s thawing any,” Sawyer said. “You need to talk to her. Sit down and be truthful.”
He looked at his big brother standing there in a ripped T-shirt and old, faded shorts. His beard was scruffy, and his hair hadn’t seen a brush for a while.
