Page 45 of Reckoning with the Cowboy
Nana had looked at her for a few moments. “Cordell is a sweet boy, but he’s not right for you. At least not right now. He’s going to hurt you, but one day you’ll get another chance. You’ll just have to decide if you can trust him with your heart again.”
“He won’t hurt me,” Josie had argued. “He loves me. Please don’t tell me I can’t keep seeing him.”
“I wouldn’t do that because it wouldn’t do any good and we both know it. No,” her grandmother said. “You’re seeing Doc tomorrow. I want you to know how to protect yourself other than your heart. I can’t help you with that.” Nana had risen from the chair to pat Josie’s cheek. “You’re going to be all right, Miss Josie. Remember that and don’t close your heart off too much when he breaks it.”
Josie wished her grandmother was here now. She would know what to say to Amy Sue. Nana had always worried about Josie’s little sister. Had she seen far into the future and known this was coming? What would she have done?
She heard the motorcycle long before she saw it. Her sister’s SUV came into view, the cycle some distance behind to avoid the dust. Josie wanted to sit here on the porch and be calm and controlled like her grandmother had always been, but it wasn’t her nature.
Josie rose and rushed down the steps, hoping to talk to her sister before the biker arrived. “Amy Sue, we have to talk before he gets here.”
Her sister looked startled, and Josie saw the walls go up. “I beg your pardon, Counselor?”
“How did you meet this man?”
Amy Sue looked away. “I don’t understand why you’re so upset. You’ve always said that I need to get out more, meet some nice man—”
“Some nice man, yes. Where is he from?”
“Who cares? All over.”
“No one is from all over. Where was he born?”
“Is that really relevant?” her sister demanded. “You haven’t even met him and you’re already sounding like an old mother hen. Shaneisnice.”
“You’re avoiding my question,” Josie said, digging her heels in. “How did you meet him?”
“This is what I hate, when you go into lawyer mode. I’m not on the witness stand and I’m not going to let you treat me like I am. I’ve always known that you would be like this. It’s why I’ve never introduced you to anyone I dated.”
Josie tried to slow the frantic pounding of her heart. She wasn’t handling this well. She needed to calm down, go at this reasonably, or she was going to drive her sister even further into this man’s arms—and, ultimately, his control.
“He’s dangerous.”
Her sister’s eyes narrowed. “Have you been reading my letters?”
“Your letters?”The sound of the motorcycle grew louder. He would be here any moment. “What are you planning to do with him?”
“I don’t know yet, but in the meantime, he’s going to be staying over in the barn. I’m sorry if you have a problem with that.”
“You don’t know this man.”
Her sister shook her head. “I do and don’t you try to use that mumbo-jumbo voodoo stuff on me, I don’t want to hear it. If you don’t like him being here, you can stay at your office.”
He roared up in the yard and killed the engine on the motorcycle before dismounting and removing his helmet.
“And buy yourself a helmet,” Josie said before she came face-to-face with her worst nightmare.
* * *
“His name isShane Wagner. He’s twenty-eight. He did eleven years of a fifteen-year stint in Florida State Prison in Raiford for manslaughter. Driving drunk, he hit a pedestrian and killed the man. Model prisoner.” Max looked up at Josie. “What else can I tell you?”
She’d caught him right before he was leaving work for the day and asked for his help.
“What’s his rap sheet like?” She saw from the sheriff’s expression that he didn’t want to say. Josie had already done some digging on her own. What she really wanted was for Max to be aware of the problem. She didn’t expect him to be able to stop what was going to happen any more than Josie could herself.
“Fairly minor. Sounds like a troubled kid,” the sheriff said. “Arrests for breaking and entering, theft and several assaults, threats against bosses, couldn’t hold a job, that sort of thing. Why are you asking about him?”
Had Max really not heard? “Shane Wagner is Amy Sue’s boyfriend. She’s been writing him while he was in prison and now he’s living over the barn out on the farm.” It was just a matter of time before the man moved into the house with her sister. “He’s done a number on her. I suppose she thinks she’s saving him.”
