Journey of Discovery
Hixon
HIX OPENED HIS eyes to a dark room and laid still.
Then he felt his lips curving up in a smile.
Christ, he totally wrapped himself around Greta.
Then again, she hadn’t shared she wrapped herself around him too, front to front, arms around each other, legs tangled, her face tucked in his throat, his face in her hair.
He drew her in with a deep breath.
After that, he gave her a gentle squeeze and called, “Greta.”
She shifted a little, pressed close, her arm over him flexed, and she murmured, “Mm?”
“Gotta get up and get the kids going. You can sleep but it’s pandemonium and bathroom space is at a premium. For the next hour and a half, you won’t have your shot if you don’t take it now.”
“Thans, bubby, bu’ ’m goo’,” she mumbled, ran her hand up his back but it dropped, and he knew she had slipped back to sleep.
Still smiling, he kissed her hair, carefully extricated his limbs from hers and slid out from under the covers, making sure they were over her before he moved out of the room.
She was in his bed again because last night, when it became obvious to all of them the pain wasn’t being overcome by Tylenol, he’d urged her to take a pain pill and she’d passed out on the couch with her head on his thigh.
The kids hadn’t blinked when he’d carried her to his bed, and Greta hadn’t moved when he’d joined her in it hours later.
Even if that hadn’t happened, she’d be there not only because that was where he wanted her but that was where she needed to be until they could both go to her house and he could see where she was at being back in a place that was her place but it had been violated in the way it had.
She seemed okay but she was also with him and his kids after they’d gotten back together at the same time she was those right after she got attacked in her kitchen. She had a lot going on.
Today might be a different story.
Hix did his thing in the bathroom, and on the way to the kitchen, he bent over his older girl and shook her gently awake.
“Up, honey. Time to get ready for school.”
“Guh,” she replied, turning her head away from him.
“Up, Cor, hit the shower so I can get everyone moving,” he pressed, giving her shoulder a squeeze.
“All right, Daddy,” she muttered, turning her head again then pushing up on a forearm and shoving aside the bedclothes.
Corinne was always up first because she took more time getting ready.
She was also always the one who rarely fought it.
The other two, the battle would soon commence. So even when he was with Hope, seeing as she worked for her dad and made her own hours, and he did not, he let her sleep in and it was him who got the kids moving in the morning.
Therefore, even in the days before Corinne’s makeup and hair regime added forty-five minutes to her get-ready time, he always started with the easy one first.
Hix went to the kitchen to start coffee to fortify his upcoming efforts.
Then he began the process by informing both Shaw and Mamie in two different ways they had to get up soon so they could hit the Dad Snooze and mostly ignore him until he had to threaten them to get them to move their asses.
As usual, pandemonium struck when Mamie got up because she pushed it to the final moments, and then had to act like a crazy kid while getting ready to go to school. It didn’t help matters that Hix had to take orders for what his girls wanted to wear that day so he could get it from his room, and Mamie changed her mind three times.
After she made her final decision, or more accurately Hix declared it was that, with Shaw horking down Cream of Wheat at the table and Corinne eating it between doing shit to her eyelids with some applicator, her makeup bag having exploded all over the dining room table, Corinne asked her mirror, “Is Greta coming to my volleyball game on Tuesday?”
Hix stood in the kitchen with his coffee mug held up, his bowl of hot cereal on the counter beside him and looked at his girl who did not look at him. He glanced to his son who was staring at him. When Shaw got Hix’s attention, his son gave a slight shrug.
Hix looked back to Corinne. “You okay with that?”
She didn’t look from her mirror when she replied unfathomably, “It’s whatever.”
Hix and Shaw exchanged glances again before he told his girl, “I think for Greta, and your mom, honey, that maybe we’ll wait on that.”
“Yeah, like I said. Whatever,” Corinne returned, dropped her mirror in her makeup bag and started gathering her makeup and shoving it in.
When she got up to return it to the bathroom, he called her name.
She looked to him.
“I really appreciate you being cool with Greta this weekend.”
“Greta didn’t date some chick like, right after she divorced my mom,” she returned and immediately commenced storming off.
Hix blew out a sigh.
Shaw called after his sister, “Uncool, Cor.”
“Whatever, Shaw,” she called back.
Shaw looked to his dad. “I’ll talk to her again.”
“Maybe we should let her get where she needs to go on her own, kid.”
“And maybe I’ll give her the shot to do that, say, she’s got this week, and then I’ll talk some sense into her,” Shaw retorted.
“Son, we’re all getting used to a lot of new things.”
“And Dad, life is gonna throw a lot uglier things her way and she needs to learn to deal with it without bein’ a pain in the butt,” Shaw replied. “I mean, it isn’t like it’s lost on her that that woman’s husband got dead helpin’ some guy out and she was there right after Greta got attacked in her own kitchen. She needs to clue in. Stuff happens. You deal. Then you move on. The end.”
“Gotta admit, it’s freakin’ me out how smart you are,” Hix murmured, and Shaw shot him a big grin.
“Yeah. I’m like Yoda except taller, younger and hotter.”
Hix started chuckling.
Mamie made an appearance on a sideways skid that didn’t go too well on the carpet so Hix tensed to jump if she went down.
She didn’t go down.
She declared, “I left my backpack in your room, Dad,” like this was the end of the world.
“Then I’ll go get it, baby,” he told her, sipping his coffee, putting it down then moving out to do that.
His kids got themselves sorted out, and Hix stood outside at the top of the stairs watching them get into Shaw’s car so he could take them to school.
Mamie waved at him through the back window.
Shaw gave him a wrist flick before he folded into the driver’s seat.
Corinne kept her head bent to fiddling with her backpack in her lap, and she did this meticulously.
Hix watched them back out and take off and then he went inside.
To give Greta more time to sleep, he got his own shower in, got dressed and only then did he wake Greta.
Sitting in the bend of her hips, he watched her turn to her back, stretch and open her eyes to look up at him.
How she could look cute with that big bandage on her nose, he didn’t know, but thank Christ she did or seeing it would remind him he’d very much like to murder somebody.
He had the light on in the hall but he switched the one on beside the bed, watching her blink against it even as he bent into her to block some of it out.
“I need to get you home and then get to work, baby,” he said.
“Right,” she mumbled, still looking sleepy but now adding unhappy.
“I’m gonna be there, Greta.”
She pushed up on her elbows, looking down at her body in the bed. “Mm-hmm.”
“Babe.”
Her head turned to him.
“He’s in a cell. I get you home. You’re there with me. I leave when you settle and I know you’re good. I do my thing. You do yours. I pick you up from work, take you to the hospital to get your dressing changed. And tonight is Monday Night Football. Shaw’s with me full-time now so we make that night a thing. Tonight, you’re gonna be our special guest.”
Her eyes grew more alert as the sleep left her and she replied, “I can’t horn in on your and Shaw’s thing.”
“If you don’t, he’ll probably go to your house and get you himself.”
“Hixon—”
“Babe, you agreed to complicated. You might as well give it all it’s worth.”
Her pretty lips quirked under that big white bandage. “I have noted your son is much like his father when it comes to kicking in when a damsel is in distress.”
“Don’t say shit that might mean they’ll have to reset your nose seein’ as I’m wantin’ to kiss you and do it hard,” he warned and exited the bed before he did something else. “Get up, sweetheart. Let’s get you home.”
“All right,” she said like she didn’t want to and tossed the covers aside.
Hix looked away because he hadn’t just carried her to bed the night before.
She’d woken up groggy in the middle of him trying to help her put on his tee before he’d put her in his bed.
And she looked way too good in it.
“I need my dress back, Hix,” she told him as he moved toward the door to get her a travel mug of coffee.
“Just wear Cor’s stuff again,” he told the door.
“You know, you’re depriving me of my Halloween costume,” she joked.
He stopped at the door and looked back at her.
Standing by his bed, her hair a beautiful mess from sleep, her eyes still lazy from the same, wearing his shirt, outside deciding to start a family, Hix knew in that instant she was the best decision he’d made in his life.
“I’ll give it back for trick or treat,” he returned. “Now you want coffee?”
“Am I breathing?”
“Yup.”
“Then yup.”
He grinned.
She gave that back.
Then Hix went to get his woman coffee.
“It’s a kitchen.”
“Unh-hunh.”
“It’s your kitchen.”
“Yep.”
“With your stuff. Where you make great pancakes. And look amazing wearing a robe.”
Greta was standing in his arms in her kitchen, now wearing his daughter’s clothes and a pair of Corinne’s flip-flops.
Greta’s purse was on the island. Her Cherokee in the drive. His Bronco behind it where he’d parked it after following her there.
As he’d asked, without bitching, Hal had gone to her place the day before and cleaned up the blood drips that had fallen on the kitchen island and the flagstone floors. How he managed it, Hix didn’t know. That porous stone would normally soak the blood and leave a stain.
But he’d done it.
Hix made a note to buy his deputy a bottle as Greta tipped her head back to look at him.
“What makes a man do something like that?” she asked.
He drew her deeper into his body and dipped his face closer to hers.
“I’m not that man so I don’t know. I also don’t care seein’ as there’s no excuse for it, no reason I’d believe that was even close to valid behind it. All I know is he did it and now he’ll pay for it.”
“He said I don’t matter,” she reminded him, because he’d heard her tell Hal that same thing while giving her statement at his dining room table the day before.
And yeah.
It was good she looked cute even with a broken nose or Hix would be fighting the urge to murder someone.
“If I don’t matter, why go through the trouble?” she asked.
“I wish I had answers but I’ve seen a lot of shit people have done that have no answers, sweetheart, so I’ve learned not to wreck my head and my peace of mind trying to figure it out. It’s their problem. He made it yours doin’ what he did. Don’t make the rest of it yours tryin’ to figure it out.”
“Good advice,” she muttered to his shoulder.
He gave her a careful shake and got her attention back.
“I need to know you’re good before I get to the department, Greta,” he told her quietly.
She looked from his eyes through the room then back to him.
“It’s my kitchen,” she replied.
He gave her a grin. “Yeah, it is.”
She suddenly looked hesitant.
“I can . . . uh, call you if I get, well . . . tweaked?”
“I’d be pissed if you didn’t.”
She relaxed against him. “Okay.”
“You’re good?” he pushed.
She nodded. “At least I think I can take a shower and get to work, and then I’ll tackle Monday Night Football with the two Drake men and after that, we’ll see.”
“Shaw won’t mind you spending the night tonight, baby,” he assured her.
“I don’t think he will and he seems very mature for his age but he’s still only seventeen, so as complicated as this is, darlin’, maybe we should do what we can to make it less complicated for your kids.”
When he opened his mouth to say something, she gave him a shake.
“I might not be able to do it, being here alone . . . uh, just now. So I might need to stay with you tonight. But I should also not let it go on too long.” Her lips tipped up. “And anyway, I can call you, right?”
His lips tipped up too. “Anytime.”
She moved her hands to bunch them in the fabric of his shirt at his sides and she swayed him, ordering, “Then get to work, Sheriff.”
He moved his hands to either side of her neck, bent in and took her mouth with a touch that included a touch of his tongue against her lips.
She parted them so his tongue touched hers.
He gave it that and necessarily pulled away before he felt compelled to give more.
“I’ll meet you at the salon at one to take you to the hospital.”
“Okay, Hix.”
“You want me to bring Harlequin?”
“Maybe we can go there later in the week when I don’t look like I went a round with Muhammed Ali.”
Fuck yes.
“I’d like that.”
She smiled. “Me too.”
He gave her neck a squeeze, kissed her forehead then let her go.
He felt her at his heels as he walked to the kitchen door.
Oh yeah.
That ass in a cell in his station without Greta around breathing and joking and being Greta, that urge he was fighting was going to get harder to hold back.
She had her hand on the door before he even cleared it.
He turned in it and looked deep in her eyes.
“You’re safe, sweetheart.”
She nodded and swallowed.
“One o’clock,” he said.
“See you then, darlin’.”
“Yeah, you will.”
She forced a smile.
He started moving to his truck, hearing the door close and the lock go before he was two feet into that journey.
He idled at the side of the road two houses down with his phone in his hand just in case.
She didn’t call.
So Hix went to work.
Hix walked into his department to see Reva in dispatch, Larry at the back at the copier, Bets at her desk and Hal at his.
He did not look to the cells at the back.
He would not look to the cells at the back.
That asshole existed but Hix didn’t need to remind himself that he did or waste even the energy it would take to aim his gaze at him, because he wasn’t worth it.
He walked right to Hal and stopped beside his desk.
“Weekend on call deputies get Monday off, Hal,” he reminded him.
Hal’s face got hard and he replied, “I wanna take that jackhole to his bail hearing.”
“Larry and Bets can do that.”
“I brought him in.”
“Yeah, and I get why you’d wanna see that through. So you and me will sit in the gallery during the hearing.”
Hal stared at him.
Hix ignored it.
“Greta was hesitant about bein’ back at her place this morning. Think that’s gonna take some time,” he told Hal. “She didn’t mention it because she probably didn’t notice it because she’s not there in her head but I know for a fact it helped, not seein’ her own blood on her island and all over the floor. You mighta done that because I asked you to do it as my deputy, but mostly you did it because you’re a good man. And I appreciate it. So, it’s Macallan, right?”
Hal stared at him a second, lifted the side of his fist to his mouth and coughed in it and dropped his hand before he answered, “Yeah. It is. But you don’t have to do that.”
Hix felt his lips curl up. “I know. If you thought I did, I wouldn’t drop a hundred bucks on a bottle of single malt.”
“It’s only fifty, Hix.”
“You cleanin’ blood from flagstone is worth the fifteen-year, man.”
Hal smiled at him.
“We’ll walk over to the courthouse together, drop by and get a coffee at Babycakes on the way back, and then you need to go home and take your day off, Hal.”
“Right, boss.”
Hix nodded.
Larry gave him a grin and a shake of his head as Hix walked by him on his way to his office.
Bets muttered under her breath, “You’re the shit, boss,” as he walked past her desk, but she did it with her eyes studiously fixed to her computer screen so he replied, “Mornin’ to you too, Bets.”
Her lips quirked.
Hix’s cell beeped as he was walking through the door to his office.
He pulled it out of his breast pocket and felt the warm hit to his chest when he saw Greta’s name above the text on the screen.
He stopped and took it.
It said, Reporting in, I’ve survived the first fifteen minutes. I made coffee and everything. All good.
Hix replied, Great, babe. Keep it up. See you at one.
He hit send and waited.
It sent immediately, no block, and he had only turned on his computer when he got back, One, and until then, pray my next bandage isn’t also the size of a mini diaper.
Getting that, Hix didn’t set the phone aside and tap in his password.
He busted out laughing.
“Bail set at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” Judge Bereford announced.
The defense attorney jumped up, shouting, “Two hundred and fifty thousand? That’s twenty-five thousand in bond!”
“I do understand the bond percentage, councilor,” Bereford replied.
“Your honor, that’s outrageous! My client has never been arrested in his life. He has a business in Sheridan County with clients who count on him and employees who need him on the job, so he’s not a flight risk. He—” the defense attorney began.
Bereford cut him off. “I hazard to say those thoughts should have occurred to him before this weekend’s events.”
“Your honor—”
Sitting in the gallery beside Hal watching this, Hix tensed as, uncharacteristically, Bereford swiftly lost patience, lifted a finger and jabbed it at the attorney.
“Listen to me, councilor.” His finger curled in, his thumb came out and he thrust it toward himself. “This is my county. And I’ll share with you right now that in my county men don’t shoot young fathers on the side of the road and they also don’t attack women in their kitchens. If they do, the message will be relayed with a clarity that cannot be missed that they should not.”
When the defense attorney was screwing up to say something, Bereford slapped his hand on his bench, lifted up a piece of paper and kept talking.
“Now, I’ve read the victim’s statement.” He slapped it down and lifted up another piece of paper. “And I’ve read the witness statement.” Again with the slapping and the lifting, this time the blank side out. “And I’ve seen the pictures the hospital sent to our sheriff’s deputy of the victim after the attack.” Another slap down and lift. “And right here I have details of why this man has a protection order on him as lodged by his ex-wife.” He also slapped that down. “Now, he may not have been arrested in the past, councilor, but I assume you have passed the bar. So I’ll advise you to have a conversation with your client. Because, you see, if this court is forced to convene a jury to look into this matter, wasting time and county resources, during sentencing I’m going to be in a very bad mood.”
“You’ve tried and convicted him yourself, Judge,” the defense attorney spat.
“It’s not my job to try and convict him, sir,” Bereford returned. “What I’m trying to communicate to you is that you’ll have to wring miracles to come through with what I’m assuming with what’s been laid before me this morning is a very foolhardy promise you’ve made your client.”
“There are glaring issues with this case. He was held at gunpoint by a civilian, for God’s sake,” the attorney retorted.
Bereford leaned into his bench. “Son, if you think for one second a jury of Nebraskans is gonna have an issue with a neighbor hearin’ their female neighbor screamin’ and they see her racin’ away with a face full of blood then that neighbor joggin’ out with his pistol to see to things, you obviously come from somewhere else.” He waved his hand to the prosecution table. “Talk. Be smart. Do right by your client. And just to make things even more clear, if this gentleman posts bond and he’s within one hundred yards of the victim, he’ll be accommodated by McCook County for some time seein’ as he’ll be held without bail until this matter is settled.” Before the defense lawyer could say another word, Bereford stood while slamming down his gavel and shouting, “Adjourned!”
“All rise!” the bailiff called.
Hix had barely got his ass off the bench before Bereford disappeared through the side door, his robes flapping behind him.
Larry and Bets came forward to get the defendant while Gemini moved from his seat two rows back and approached Hix and Hal.
Gemini stopped and looked up at them.
“I’ll just wait for you outside, Hix,” Hal murmured and said, “Jones,” as greeting to Gemini while he shifted by him.
“Deputy,” Gemini replied.
They watched Hal go, and he was halfway down the aisle when Gemini turned back to Hix.
“It would seem I made you a promise I unintentionally didn’t keep, Sheriff.”
“You’re about as much to blame for that asshole attacking Greta as I am,” Hix returned, finishing with, “And it’s Hix.”
Gemini smiled but it died as his gaze shifted to the defense table.
“There are some who listen and learn and there are some who need to experience harder lessons.”
“Yup,” Hix agreed.
Gemini looked back to him. “He’ll make bail.”
That morning Hix had learned the man who attacked Greta was some rich muckity-muck who did something with construction over in Sheridan County. This, maybe, being why he thought his shit didn’t stink enough to shovel a colossal amount of it his ex-wife’s way during their divorce.
This also, maybe, why he thought he could sit in his car and face off against Gemini, his man and Hix in staking a claim to Greta he’d never have, thinking, maybe, if she knew who he was and how loaded, she’d feel flattered. Or thinking he had the money to elevate himself above any shit they piled on him, thus convincing himself he was untouchable.
He could just be psychotic.
He just was an asshole.
And until he made bail, he was now incarcerated and things would go worse for him if he approached Greta again.
It wasn’t a guarantee.
But he’d have to be an asshole, a moron and a tool not to catch Bereford’s message just now, and he didn’t get as loaded as he was being the middle of those.
The other two were a given.
“She’ll be all right,” Hix assured.
Gemini’s focus intensified. “Will she?”
That was when Hix’s focus intensified. “Yes.”
Gemini studied him a beat before he murmured, “I see.”
Hix suspected Gemini saw a lot.
So he confirmed, “Yup.”
Gemini smiled again but said, “I’m sorry you’ll need to be keeping his company at your department until he posts bond and scurries back to Sheridan County.”
“Not a lot of folk who take temporary residence in one of our cells are a bundle of laughs so me and my deputies will survive.”
Still smiling, Gemini nodded.
The smile died again when he asked, “Is she okay?”
“You may need to find another act for a week or two, Gemini. She’s okay but he did a number on her nose. I’m sure she’ll call and talk to you about it.”
“Call me and try to explain how she can still sing so she doesn’t lose her weekly installments to her keep-Andy-settled pot.”
“Sorry?” Hix asked.
“She looks after her brother,” Gemini told him.
“I know.”
“I mean financially as well. She’s his guardian.”
That wasn’t a surprise, knowing what little he knew about her mother, but that little was enough.
“So she sings because she loves it and she sings because she has to,” he murmured mostly to himself.
“I try to focus on the first part,” Gemini said.
Hix wanted to as well.
He knew Sunnydown. It was a nice place. But any of those places cost a whack.
“She’s a hairstylist,” he noted.
“Yes, but before that, well before that, Hix, Greta is a loving sister.”
“Shit,” he whispered.
With all that was going on, none of this had occurred to him.
And right then, it occurring to him, it also occurred to him that had to be rough on Greta and she lived that. She had for years.
And he’d walked into her house, laying her out about a mother who put her brother right where he was, also putting Greta in the position to look out for him for the rest of his days.
Christ.
Christ.
“I’m not telling you any of this as a break in confidence,” Gemini shared, pulling him from his thoughts. “Everyone in town knows, except, it would seem, you.” He lifted his hand and gave Hix another smile before Hix could speak. “I know. It’s complicated. But I also know it’s not my business.” He dropped his hand and the smile changed. “I further know, and am happy to do so, that you’re about to embark on a fabulous journey of discovery. Enjoy, my friend, and while you do, take care of our girl.”
Hix’s mind full of all he’d learned, he could do nothing but lift his chin.
Gemini gave him a low wave, turned and walked away.
At one o’clock, Hix walked into the salon, his gaze on Greta who was folding something at her chair.
She looked wiped. Dead on her feet.
She should have taken the day off.
“Hey, sweetheart. Ready?” he asked.
“Yeah, let me grab my purse.”
His eyes moved through the room and he dipped his head to the woman sitting in a dryer chair, the one in Lou’s chair, and he murmured, “Ladies.”
He got a “Hixon,” and a “Sheriff,” before his gaze hit Lou.
She tried to hide it but she looked uneasy.
He got why.
He was there getting Greta, but there might have been times since he last saw Lou that Lou, being a good friend who looked out for her girl, a girl Hix had asked to think about trying to make a go of it with him after what he’d done to her, had stated her case against Hix.
But it was more.
The last time he saw Lou she’d been out of line in a variety of ways and now that things had come around with Hix and Greta, she had a good friend who was seeing the man who she’d instigated him learning something about his ex-wife that another man might wrongfully lay blame on her just because she did it.
So it was his job to get them at least past that.
“Lou, you good?” he asked.
It seemed her entire body drooped with relief when she replied, “Yeah, Hix. Thanks.”
He felt Greta come up to his side, her fingers start to touch his, and he turned his own to lace them through hers and looked down at her.
“Ready,” she said.
“Right,” he replied, bent in and touched his mouth to hers.
He could swear he heard a fluttering, female sigh coming from the dryer chairs.
So he was grinning when he pulled away.
She was grinning too and her fingers were tight in his.
“Do me a favor, lawman,” Lou called out, and Hix turned his attention to her to see her jerk her head Greta’s way. “Get that one to cancel her clients tomorrow. She might look like a Charlie’s Angel but she’s not, and even Charlie would let one of his angels sit out a day, she got her nose busted by an asswipe . . . sorry, ladies,” she said to the women in the room.
“No apology necessary, Lou,” the one in her chair declared.
“He is an a-wipe,” the one at the dryer decreed.
Lou looked to Hix. “Seein’ as I’m her Charlie, she should listen to me. But she’s not. Now if I gotta get a speaker to talk to her through, I will. Though I’d rather someone else talk sense to her so I don’t have to go through that effort.”
“I rent my chair from you, Lou, you’re not my boss,” Greta chimed in.
“Girlfriend, I’m totally the boss of you when you’re bein’ plum nutty.”
“I’m not being nutty. I’m totally fine,” Greta returned, sounding like she was getting heated.
She also lied, because anyone looking at her could tell she wasn’t fine, and not only due to the bandage covering her nose.
“You do know I’m the mother of two girls, don’t you?” Lou asked sarcastically.
“Neither of them are thirty-eight years of age,” Greta retorted.
“And when they’re thirty-eight and bein’ stubborn in a way that makes them stupid, I’ll share my wisdom with them too.”
Hix felt Greta’s body tighten at his side, so instead of laughing his ass off at their exchange, he intervened.
“Maybe you two can make a mud pit and sell tickets for the football boosters while wrestling this out after Greta’s nose sets. But now, I need to get her to the hospital so we can make sure her nose will set properly.”
“That’s disturbingly sexist, Sheriff Drake,” Lou shot at him.
“And it would totally buy us a big screen, Lou, and don’t argue, you know it would.”
“It would. I’d buy tickets to that,” the woman at the dryer put in.
“And I’d absolutely take you,” Greta announced.
Lou’s eyes grew huge. “You would not.”
“It would be embarrassing,” Greta taunted.
Hix fought chuckling as he started pulling her to do the door.
“Right! You’re on!” Lou shouted as they moved.
Hix stopped chuckling.
“Don’t think I won’t do it,” Greta retorted.
That was when Hix frowned.
“As soon as that bandage is off, the gloves are off,” Lou returned.
He stopped at the door and turned back. “You’re gonna both get over it and not in a mud pit. I was jokin’, Lou. Greta’s getting nowhere near a mud pit with an audience or without one, but definitely not with one.”
Greta jumped right on that. “That’s only because Hix doesn’t want me to embarrass you.”
Lou opened her mouth but Hix spoke.
“Say goodbye, Lou.”
She snapped her mouth shut and narrowed her eyes at him.
He looked down at Greta, and not just to hold back the impending storm of him laying an order on a woman like Lou, to declare, “And you’re takin’ the day off tomorrow.”
She glared up at him. “I am not.”
He dipped close and said softly, “Baby, you’re dead on your feet. Lou’s right. You need to look after yourself.”
“She is right, you know, and so is Hixon,” the woman in Lou’s chair called. “Hair usually won’t wait for another day, but, Greta, honey, your girls will wait for you.”
Greta kept glaring up at him as she ignored that and asked, “Can we go to the hospital?”
He grinned. “Sure.”
She looked away with a roll of her eyes.
He looked over his shoulders and tipped down his chin.
They got goodbyes as he walked her out.
He took her right to his Bronco and helped her in the passenger side before he swung in the driver’s seat.
He started her up, backed her out and had them on their way before he asked, “You get lunch?”
“Yes,” she said shortly.
He grinned again and asked, “You pissed at me?”
It took her a second to reply and she did it after he heard her push out a breath. “No. I’m just tired and a little achy, so I’m also just annoyed you and Lou are right, but I’m not pissed.”
He reached out, took her hand and rested both on her thigh. “Good. Now you want the good news or the good news?”
He felt her gaze so he glanced her way before he looked back at the road.
“If it’s that way, I want all the news,” she answered.
“Well, to say the judge was not a big fan of a woman being attacked in her kitchen in his county is an understatement. During the bail hearing, he laid that asshole out. Essentially told him to make a deal or, if it got to him having the chance to announce a sentencing, he’d give him the maximum.”
“Ohmigod,” she breathed.
He unconsciously adjusted his hand from lacing with hers to glide his fingertips along the insides of her fingers as he smiled and continued to give it to her.
“So his attorney smartened up and sat down with our prosecutor. Unfortunately for that asshole, the prosecutor was handed all he needed to drive a hard bargain, this being something he did. This means that guy signed a deal admitting he committed three felonies. They dropped the breaking and entering to focus on trespass and stalking, mostly because trespass is much the same crime and holds the same punishment as breaking and entering and stalking will mean he can’t come near you even after he’s out. Not to mention, the prosecutor wanted to push that the sentences would be served non-concurrently. This means the man is out on a twenty-five-thousand-dollar bond and has to a week to get his affairs in order before he turns himself in to serve non-concurrent terms of two and a half years each for trespass and assault, one year mandatory protection order after he’s out, and in the meantime he’s not allowed within one hundred yards of you.”
She gasped and her fingers curled back into his hand.
“Five years?”
“He’ll be due for parole a lot earlier, sweetheart, but criminal trespass and assault hold up to twenty years each, and if Judge Bereford was feeling any more ornery than he was today, something he said he would be if they forced a jury trial, he could have that.”
“Ohmigod . . . I . . . ohmigod, that’s . . .”
She trailed off in order to bust out laughing.
He twisted her hand in his and brought it to his thigh, giving himself the added gift of looking at her a couple of times while she laughed.
When her laughter died down, he noted, “I take it you like that.”
“Not thinkin’ I’ll be scared of my kitchen anymore,” she said as reply.
“Good,” he muttered.
She grew silent but ended it to remark quietly, “It’s Nat, isn’t it?”
He drew in breath and let it out, thinking he’d never thought she was stupid but not knowing until then how smart she was.
“Yeah,” he confirmed.
“That’s sad,” she said.
“It is. It’s also a deterrent,” he replied. “Two serious felonies committed in his county in a short period of time when that shit doesn’t happen here, the judge is sending a message that anyone else thinks they can pull something like that, they should think again.”
“Yeah,” she agreed.
“A lot of the time the system is a mess, sweetheart. Twisted up with plea deals and cops screwing around, not doing their jobs right or havin’ the need to prove who’s got the biggest dick and judges worried about their next elections. It’s not only good that it worked this time, it’s good that it worked the time it needed to so you can move on. So that’s it. You take tomorrow off, give yourself a day to start the process of healing, then you heal and move on. You with me on that?”
“Yeah, Hix.”
He lifted her hand, touched it to his chest then put it back to his thigh relieved she’d agreed to take a day off.
Once he did that, and her fingers had tightened in his hold after he did, he told her, “You should know, Gemini was at the hearing.”
“So word got out before I showed at Lou’s with my nose like this,” she murmured.
“Actually, no,” he replied. “I asked Hal to call him yesterday.”
He felt her eyes so he glanced at her before looking back to the road and he kept talking.
“Did that for a variety of reasons, baby,” he said quietly. “First, it’s about you and how I know Gemini is with you. Second, it’s about Gemini and how he runs his business. This started in his club, and as a courtesy, not so much as the man in your life who holds the position I hold so I was in the position to make sure he knew, but more as the sheriff of this county who should extend a courtesy like that to a man like him who runs the business where this all began.”
“That makes sense.”
He was glad she thought so.
“You need to call him,” he said. “He’s worried about you.”
“I need to call a lot of people,” she muttered. “I cleared this afternoon but I have a full schedule tomorrow. Think I’ll keep Mrs. Whitney’s appointment tomorrow night, though. She’ll freak at the bandage but she’ll get over it and she needs the company.”
“Mrs. Whitney?”
“My at-home client. I go see her every other Tuesday.”
“You take at-home clients?”
Her hand moved in his as an extension of her shrug. “Just her.”
“She sick or somethin’?” he asked.
“No. Her husband has zero brain function so he’s essentially in a coma, dying a very sad, very slow death in their bedroom upstairs.”
“Jesus,” he muttered.
“I know. It’s awful. She doesn’t get out much. She’d be okay with me rescheduling but, you know, after a day and a half of rest, I should be good to do a wash, rinse and set so she’ll have someone to talk to who can actually talk back for an hour or so.”
Taking care of her brother.
Taking Lou up on a challenge of mud wrestling.
Going to the home of a lonely client to do her hair and give her a little company.
You’re about to embark on a fabulous journey of discovery.
Gemini had been right.
And Hix had been a total moron, putting at risk a future that included having Greta’s ass in his Bronco at his side.
“Hix?” she called when he fell silent.
His voice was gruff when he pushed out, “Yeah?”
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yup. All good,” he said, squeezing her hand.
“Can I tell you something?” she asked.
He wanted to learn everything about her.
“Absolutely.”
“If this doesn’t work, you know, between you and me . . .” she began.
His chest got instantly tight.
“Just sayin’, I’m totally stealing this Bronco, loading Andy up and we’re heading to Mexico. I feel safe in telling you this because you’ll never find us. But just so you know, we’ll keep her safe so you’ll at least have that,” she finished.
“And, you know, just sayin’, I lose this Bronco, sweetheart, I’ll go to the ends of the earth to find her,” he returned, the tightness disappearing from his chest.
He loved his Bronc, but he wouldn’t be looking for his truck.
“Hmm,” she mumbled.
“Seems it’s best we work on gettin’ along, baby,” he suggested.
“Maybe you’re right,” she replied then asked, “Can I drive her?”
“My ass isn’t in her, yes.”
“Is that an alpha-male thing?”
He bit back a surprised bark of laughter and asked back, “Is it a what?”
“An alpha-male thing, you know,” her voice dropped low, “me man, me drive, you woman, you ride.”
He chuckled. “No, it’s I own this beast so I drive it if I’m in it so she knows she always has my love, but I’m totally cool you wanna take her for a spin if I’m not around.”
“Okay then,” she said, sounding amused.
“Okay,” he replied.
With that, he drove Greta to the hospital.
Hix also chuckled a lot as he drove Greta to the hospital.
She ended up with only a piece of tape across the top of the bridge of her nose.
Unfortunately, this highlighted just how deep the bruising was coming down the sides from her inner eyes.
Also unfortunately, but in the end it worked in his favor, she was in enough pain, halfway into Monday Night Football with him and Shaw, she took a pill from the prescription they got at the hospital that they filled and she passed out with her head on his thigh on his couch like she had the night before.
So she slept in his bed.
And he woke up with her there too.
So yeah.
It worked in his favor.
And even better, when he dropped her in her kitchen the next morning, she didn’t even blink walking over the threshold.
So it was all good and Hix rode that high to the department not knowing it wouldn’t last a full day.
But now there was Greta and Hix’s journey of discovery.
So he would learn he was set up to deal with the hitches in goodness.
Because he was unblocked on her phone.