It Was Family
THE MORNING AFTER THE FIRE, early, we got visits from Shim and Roan. Roan on his way to work, Shim with the flatbed of his pickup filled with horse feed and hay. This was kind since ours went up in smoke, something they both obviously knew (thus the visits) since news travels fast in a small town even through the night. It was also a testimony to the kind of man my cowboy rancher was that he accepted it considering Shim was still a ranch hand on Jeb Sharp’s land. It was too early for the feed store to be open so it was likely this was given to us by Sharp, not Shim.
For reasons unknown to me, regardless of the fact I was exhausted and dragging, I started the day by tricking myself out. I didn’t put on one of my fabulous dresses but I did the hair, makeup, designer jeans, complicated but casual (and expensive) top routine. I didn’t strap on high heels, however. Instead I slipped on some fabulous flip-flops. But I went for the gusto with everything else. It could be I needed my armor for the day after a tragedy. It could be that was just me.
In the end with who came calling, I was glad I did.
The night before, after the fireman and cops left, they cordoned off the barn with police tape. One could say waking up and looking out your window to see part of your property lined with yellow police tape was not a sight you wanted to see in the morning.
Or ever.
After I fed my man and served coffee to him and his friends, I dug out the insurance papers. I called Gray’s insurance company and left them a message stating that, after the police and arson investigators released the scene, we needed an urgent visit because we had seven dead horse carcasses fifty yards away from our house and we needed to put those bodies in the ground so we could put those souls at peace.
The arson investigator showed shortly after Shim and Roan left and Gray asked, while he was dealing with things on the ranch, if I would go to the nursing home to break the news to Grandma Miriam. Seeing as our phone was ringing off the hook already and it was just eight o’clock, he was worried news would travel and she’d learn from someone else.
So I hightailed it into town, and in a futile effort to soften the blow, I bought her another book, some magazines and a shed load of candy bars. I figured a nursing home was kind of like prison, you had to have the proper currency to make your way and garner favors, and for oldies it wasn’t cigarettes. So I bought enough candy bars to make Grandma Miriam the queen of the swanky retirement estate. I also got some for Gray since there was a reason there were so many candy bar wrappers in his truck. Gray did not reach for a Power Bar or a banana when he got puckish, and considering his day was physical activity from dawn practically to dusk, he got the munchies often. Though I did make sure most of his had peanuts so he had protein.
I was dreading my task and once the news was delivered I felt little relief. Grandma Miriam was stunned, scared for Gray and me and heartbroken that the barn built by her husband’s father—a barn she saw out the back window while she was doing the dishes every day for over fifty years—no longer existed. Not to mention how she reacted when I told her we lost seven horses.
I was right, she was happy for her book, magazines and candy bars. But they did not do one thing to soften the blow.
Before I left, her hand clutched mine with a surprising strength borne of fear, her fading blue eyes locked to me, and she whispered fervently, “You and Gray stay safe, child. Promise me, please, you two will stay safe.”
I promised her yet again that Lenny was on it, Jeb Sharp was on it and that her grandson would never let anything happen to him or me. It was this last that got her hand to relax in mine. Then again, it would. She knew Gray so she knew this was the truth.
I drove home to see an SUV and pickup parked by the house and to find out from Gray that his morning had been busy. Half of Mustang had been by and I knew this was a fact when I hit the kitchen and found the farm table practically covered in dishes, pans and plates filled with casseroles, pies, cakes and brownies. Gray said his big shed where he kept tools, equipment and peach tree things was now filled near to overflowing with horse feed, hay and used bridles and saddles that folks had popped by to bring.
For the next hour, I would experience this same thing as folks brought food, pop, beer and equipment but I was surprised to see these folks were not lookee-loos. They came, they gave us their sentiments, they dropped off their generosity and they left. They knew Gray and I had things to do and other things to occupy our minds. They knew they’d be underfoot. They knew it was taxing to have unexpected company. So they shared their kindness and they got the hell out of there.
I’d never experienced anything like it.
It was like experiencing beauty.
It was early afternoon and Gray and I had just had huge plates filled with Ang’s, the waitress (still!) at the diner, Mexican chicken, cheese and tortilla casserole. We were still at the table when his head came up and turned. Mine did too and we looked out the big window over the cabinet at the side of the kitchen.
There we saw coming down the lane another SUV followed by a pickup, and as they careened closer at what appeared to be high speed, I saw they were followed by a sedan.
“No,” Gray whispered, then I tensed when he clipped, “fuck no.”
His chair scraped back and he was out of it like a shot, stalking to the back door.
I had no idea who owned those vehicles but I did know whoever it was really wasn’t welcome so I shot to my feet and ran after Gray.
When I got down the back steps I saw he was striding, long legs eating the distance, across the side yard that was dotted with big, shady trees toward the now parked trucks and car. And it was then I saw who was in them.
The SUV held Gray’s uncles Olly and Charlie, the two I’d met. In the pickup was a man I’d never seen but his looks were unmistakably Cody. And in the car was Macy.
As they exited their vehicles I quickly took them in.
Back in the day during my first stay in Mustang, I noticed Charlie had gone soft and carried extra weight. I had met and been around Olly when he was home during my cooking lessons with Macy but (wisely) he avoided the kitchen during those times and I only shared greetings, farewells and a handful of words in between. Olly, then and now, and the man who had to be Frank had not gone soft. They were tall, their burnished, dark blond hair only sprinkled with gray and they were still lean, fit and handsome. They wore their age, definitely, but they wore it well.
“Get gone.” I heard Gray growl dangerously, still striding toward them as they lined up a few feet in front of their vehicles.
It was Frank—eyes narrowed on the remains of the barn, his face carrying an easily read emotion of being extremely pissed off—who cut his gaze to Gray and asked weirdly, “What you doin’ ’bout this shit, boy?” Then he gave an irate jerk of his chin toward the barn.
“I said, get gone,” Gray semi-repeated, stopping four feet in front of them.
I hustled to his side.
“And I said,” Frank leaned in, “what you doin’ ’bout this shit, boy?”
I did not have a good feeling about this.
“All right, guys, let’s all calm down, go inside, open a beer and talk calmly,” Macy, arriving at the pack, put in, and I knew by her bossy yet soothing tone she trailed the brothers in her own car because she’d tried to talk them out of coming, failed but followed them in order to play peacemaker.
“Stay outta this, Macy,” Olly rumbled, not taking his eyes off Gray.
“You haven’t answered my question,” Frank prompted ominously.
“And you haven’t moved your ass off my goddamned land,” Gray shot back. “Now get . . . the fuck . . . gone.”
“Maybe you guys can come back in a day or two?” I suggested, but none of them even looked at me.
“Bud Sharp needs to learn a lesson,” Charlie told Gray, and I tensed.
“My problem, not yours. Get gone,” Gray returned.
“Sittin’ here, sittin’ on your hands when you got fucked?” Olly asked, then went on to state, “That’s not Cody.”
“You wouldn’t know what Cody is, you asshole. Now get gone,” Gray clipped, and all of them tensed and it was more than a little scary.
“Seems we know more ’bout bein’ a Cody than you, boy. Fuck. Half a day’s gone and there’s no Sharp swingin’ from no tree,” Frank remarked and my tense went ultra-tense.
Frank wasn’t done.
“Your daddy, my daddy, my daddy’s daddy would not get his goddamned barn burned down right under his fuckin’ nose and then delay to seein’ someone pays.”
At that, something clicked in me. I felt it. I could swear I even heard it.
And when it did, I lost it.
“How dare you?” I whispered, but that whisper vibrated with a feeling so strong it shimmered in the air and everyone present felt it. I knew this when all eyes came to me. “How dare you?” I repeated, then I shrieked, “How fucking dare you?”
I took three fast steps to the Brothers Cody and got a steel-band-like arm wrapped around my belly, which hauled me back into Gray’s body and cut off my advance.
But it didn’t stop my tirade.
“Buddy Sharp’s been playing with Gray for years and you didn’t have his back then. I’ve been home for weeks and not a one of you,” my eyes moved to Macy, “even you, came to see me. You live in this town. You know what happened to us. And you know Gray nearly lost this land, this house, that barn,” I swung an arm out behind me, “because he was taking care of your mother.”
I jabbed an angry finger at them and kept ranting.
“And you didn’t do shit. His trees were poisoned, his horses were poisoned and where were you then? Now you have the balls to show up here when you left your nephew blowing in the breeze and try to tell him how to deal with a tragedy? How he should handle that sick, jealous piece of shit in town whose entire life focus is taking Grayson Cody down? You show up here after we spent a sleepless night after being in a barn that was collapsing around us, taking our lives in our hands to save your legacy, a legacy you have given nothing to for decades but still you have the nerve to drive up here and get in Gray’s face about it? How dare you?”
“Ivey—” Macy started, her voice placating, but my eyes sliced to her.
“No,” I cut her off. “Actually, I don’t give a fuck how you dare. What I give a fuck about is that you, all of you,” I swung an arm out to indicate them all, “get out of my man’s space right now. He’s survived this. He’s survived the hits he took in his past. He’s bent over backward and twisted himself into knots making it so your mother survived and had as good a life as he could give her after her legs were taken and he’s still doing that. And he’s done all this without even a little help from you three.”
That time, I stabbed a finger in turn at the brothers three, and again kept going.
“You don’t get this so I’ll give it to you. You have nothing to say to Grayson Cody, not about what he does or this land. So get in your cars and,” I strained against Gray’s arm and screeched, “go!”
“I see, little lady, that you don’t get when your momma turns her back on you, that has consequences,” Frank informed me more than a little arrogantly.
“No, what I see is that Momma was disappointed in the sons she carried, she birthed and she raised when they acted like greedy jackasses after she lost her legs and her son. And then they didn’t set about doing everything they could to win back her trust, respect and affection. That shit was a result of your,” another finger jab from me, “actions and I find it laughable that you three would come here and demand Gray man up when not one of you has done that same thing for over a decade. Gray taking care of this land, that house and your mother while you lived your lives carrying your grudges makes him more man than the three of you combined and then some.”
“Ivey,” Gray murmured warningly with an arm squeeze.
I shook my head and didn’t tear my eyes off the Codys.
“You’ve lost her,” I said quietly. “The woman you know as mother is breathing but she’s gone. With the strength in her body went her fire. She doesn’t boss anymore. Doesn’t tell you what to do, doesn’t have an opinion about everything. You live just miles away from a mother who’s fading fast and soon everything, and that means everything about her will be a memory. Are you sure that in twenty, thirty years when you’ll be in the same place that she is now you’ll be secure in the knowledge you did the right thing by your mother? Because if you are, then there’s something wrong with you. And if you were real men, you’d take time to reflect on that and then you’d use the time you have left to mend bridges with your mother and give her what you’ve got to give in the time she’s got left.”
Although I was talking quietly and standing still, I ended my rant breathing heavily. And when I ended my rant, I had three Codys just staring at me.
When no one said anything for a while, I noted, “You aren’t leaving.”
Frank tore his eyes from me to look over my shoulder at Gray.
“Ma’s not doin’ good?”
Jeez.
Seriously?
“Frank, she was, she wouldn’t be in that fuckin’ home,” Gray replied, sounding as exasperated as I felt and then some.
“You said she couldn’t take care a’ her personal business,” Charlie put in.
“Yeah, I said that,” Gray agreed. “I also said she was deteriorating quickly.”
“How bad is it?” Olly asked.
“Bad,” I bit out and got all three Codys looking at me again.
Frank looked back at Gray and asked softly, “How much time’s she got?”
“Not much, God feels kind,” Gray answered.
These words spoke volumes and there was a moment of silence and some Cody men shuffling their feet. Then there was a very long moment of silence while all three Codys looked anywhere but at each other or Gray.
Men!
“God!” I cried, impatient and on edge. “Seriously?”
Again they all looked at me.
And again it was Frank who lifted his eyes to Gray, but this time their blue depths were twinkling with something familiar, something I saw often in Gray, something I used to see in Grandma Miriam, and he remarked, “Heard word, now see it’s true. Your girl’s quite the spitfire.”
I rolled my eyes to the nearly cloudless Colorado sky as Gray’s arm gave me a squeeze.
“A’ course,” Charlie said and I rolled my eyes to him to see him grinning, “Gray’s a Cody.” He leaned a bit toward me and shared, “Cody men like fire and not a little bit of it.”
“You’re still here,” I noted.
Olly ignored my comment and asked Gray, “Ang drop off her chicken Mexican thing?”
Charlie’s back straightened as he shot to attention.
“Fuck, yeah, that casserole could win awards,” Charlie muttered, breaking off from the pack and, to my utter disbelief, heading toward the house. “Tragedy strikes, Ang breaks out the tortillas.”
“Does he really think he can go to my kitchen and eat the casserole Ang made for you and me?” I hissed but I should have saved my breath seeing as all the Codys, including the one by name only, started toward the house.
“Seems like it,” Gray muttered.
I started to twist my neck to look back at him when I felt his arm and body tense around me and I knew why.
Coming down the lane was a police cruiser.
By the time Captain Lenny parked, got out of the car and approached a Gray who had wrapped his arm around my neck, pulling me in close, front to his side, I felt the Codys all standing at our backs.
It was long overdue.
But at least they were there.
Lenny took in Team Cody and continuing to do so muttered, “Good to see this shit’s had some good come outta it, you all workin’ out your crap.”
“Save the commentary, Len, you got news?” Frank barked.
Lenny studied him then his eyes came to me. I give him a wince-faced apologetic look and he sighed.
Then he looked at Gray. “Pete rolled over on Bud.”
Gray and I both got tense but Gray definitely was tenser and a wave of emotion came from behind us.
Lenny went on.
“Spent the mornin’ gettin’ a judge to get us warrants. Once we got those, we moved in on Pete’s place as well as Bud and Cecily’s. Boys are still at both places. Buddy’s been at the station since eight o’clock this mornin’ when we brought him in. We been talkin’ to him on and off since then and he denies any involvement. We pushed it, he’s lawyered up. We’re waitin’ for his attorney to get there so we can have another chat. That said, the warrants we got included lookin’ into his phone records and financials and we found he took a trip to Vegas not too long ago, stayed a single night, this corroborating a statement Ivey gave us about when he went there to have his chat with her. This is new evidence we just got about half an hour ago and we’ll be usin’ that when we sit down with him and his attorney.”
“Right,” Gray muttered, his voice tight, and Lenny held his eyes but shifted his feet in a way that was very un-Lenny.
I would know why when he said softly, “You know, Pete’s been outta work now for goin’ on two years.”
Oh God.
Gray’s body went solid, my arms slid around him and another wave of emotion hit us from the back.
“Do not defend that piece a’ shit,” Olly growled and Lenny looked to him.
“I’m not. I’m tryin’ to do the impossible and explain the unexplainable. Sometimes, folks get wronged, they like knowin’ what motivated the ones who wronged ’em.” Lenny’s eyes came to me. “He’s taken odd jobs but they weren’t makin’ ends meet. He was gettin’ desperate, thinkin’ he’d lose his place, his truck. He said Bud paid him. Unfortunately, this was with cash but we’re hopin’ we can string that line together.” Lenny looked back at Gray. “He knew about the shotgun, Gray, set the fire and then tripped the shotgun to give you warnin’. Boy’s never set a fire before, didn’t know the barn would go up that fast. Thought you’d have plenty of time to get those horses safe.”
“I think you can guess my response to that is, I don’t give a fuck,” Gray replied softly, his voice still tight with restrained impatience and controlled anger.
“Yep, I could guess that was your response,” Lenny muttered.
“He cop to poisoning my trees?” Gray asked. Lenny held his eyes a moment then nodded. “And, knowin’ about the shotgun, he did my horses,” Gray went on. Lenny’s jaw went hard and he nodded again. “All paid for by Buddy?” Gray finished and Lenny nodded again.
Gray held Lenny’s eyes and Lenny let him before Gray, his jaw now hard, looked to his boots, I knew, seeking control and patience.
“So what now?” Macy asked from behind us and Lenny looked at her then to Gray and me.
“We hope Bud confesses but I wouldn’t hold my breath. Had a number of boys take a shot at him and he’s not givin’ us anything. Which means we gotta hope we can find somethin’ at his house that ties him to this shit or find a trail that leads to him.” Lenny told Macy. His eyes went back to Gray. “You got my promise, Gray, swear on my momma, rest her soul, that me and all my boys at Mustang PD are doin’ everything we can. They don’t like a man and his woman woke in the middle of the night to take their lives in their hands savin’ horses. They don’t like dead horses. And they don’t like Buddy Sharp. You got a lotta motivation working for you, Gray. Trust in that.”
“The only thing I trust is that Bud’s lackey and fall guy is in the tank and stayin’ there awhile so my horses that have no barn to give them a minimal amount of safety won’t go poisoned until Bud gathers the money to find someone else to fuck with me,” Gray returned. “And maybe I can trust that knowin’ this shit, Bud doesn’t have the balls to do his own dirty work so me and Ivey got a window of time to feel safe. That could be a day, a week or a month, but we won’t know how long that is. So I think you can guess I won’t be hangin’ around waiting for whatever he plans next. I appreciate you’re doin’ what you gotta do how you gotta do it, and the way that is it takes time. But what I said last night stands, Len. You don’t take care of this shit, I will.”
“Not smart to make an open threat to a police captain.” This warning from Lenny was gentle but it was still a warning.
“Probably not,” Olly put in from behind us, “but I’ll tell you too, you don’t take care of this shit, Gray doesn’t, I will.”
“And I’ll say,” Frank added, “you, Gray or Olly don’t do it or I get a wild hair up my ass waitin’ for this shit to get done, I’ll do it.”
“I don’t even need a wild hair. Bud Sharp’s an asshat. I’m already thinkin’ of doin’ it,” Charlie threw down.
“So there you go,” Frank summed it up. “Four Codys, four threats, four men in Mustang with fierce reason to carry them out. Somethin’ happens to Bud Sharp, you got four directions to turn.”
At that, Gray went solid again and I knew why.
By making open threats, they had Gray’s back by casting suspicion four ways.
It was clever, it was kind (in its way) and it was family.
Feeling something I didn’t think I’d ever feel—my heart warming to Gray’s uncles—I pressed closer to my man’s side.
“Though, sayin’ all that, somethin’ happened to Bud Sharp, you’d probably have to bring in most of Mustang for questioning,” Olly muttered.
Lenny stared at them a beat before he sighed.
As he was doing that, his phone rang. He grabbed it, looked at it, moved his glance through all of us and lifted a one minute finger. He took the call and put the phone to his ear. He talked and listened and we all waited.
Then he said, “Right, with Gray now, be back in around ten.”
He flipped his phone shut and looked at Gray.
“The station,” he explained. “Jeb Sharp just came in and asked to speak to his son.”
“About time Jeb had words with that boy,” Macy mumbled.
Lenny ignored Macy and noted softly to Gray, “This could be good, Gray.”
“We’ll see,” Gray replied and it was clear he felt Jeb Sharp had little sway over his son.
Lenny held his eyes and nodded. He looked to the devastation his nephew wreaked, shook his head, his jaw got tight again then he looked back at Team Cody.
“Tape comes down, you need help cleanin’ up, takin’ care of those dead horses, you call me and Whit. We’ll be here.”
No hard feelings with my man, communicating what Pete did didn’t reflect on Lenny, it reflected on Pete, he showed this by saying, “I’ll call, Len.”
Another nod from Lenny, a glance through us all, a lifted hand and he turned toward his cruiser.
And as he did I saw another car coming up the lane. More brownies or a casserole, undoubtedly.
Then I saw what kind of car was coming up the lane.
A shiny black Lincoln with shaded windows.
My body jerked before I smiled and tipped my head back to look at Gray who was staring with narrow eyes down the lane.
“Did you call him?” I asked excitedly. He dipped his chin to look down at me but shook his head. I looked back at the lane. “That has to be him.” My eyes went back to Gray who also had looked back down the lane. “Do you know anyone in Mustang with that car?”
Gray again gave me his eyes and said, “No.”
“Who’s that?” Frank asked from behind us as the Lincoln came closer, but Gray nor I answered, we just kept watching the Lincoln get closer.
Lenny couldn’t drive down the lane with the Lincoln coming up so he was standing in the cruiser’s opened door, watching the Lincoln approach.
It approached and I saw I was right.
Driver’s side, Brutus. Passenger side, Lash.
“Oh my God!” I cried, jumping a small jump against Gray’s body. I started to pull away to run toward my friends who were making a very well-timed surprise visit.
But I didn’t get very far. Gray’s arm locked around my shoulders and his other arm locked around my waist.
He also whispered, “No, baby.”
I struggled, looking back and forth between Gray and the car, thinking he was playing with me, wondering why, pulling to get away at the same time still jumping excitedly and crying out, “Gray, let me go!”
His arms got tighter and his voice dipped lower when he locked me to him and whispered, “Fuck, baby.”
At his tone, my head snapped back to the Lincoln to see Brutus had folded out, as had Lash. They were both wearing shades but I knew both their eyes were aimed at me and both their faces didn’t look happy.
But it was the back door opening that caught my attention, made my breath clean leave me, my stomach hollow out and my heart stop beating.
Because out of that door came my brother Casey.