“Nope. He’s not around. Must have gone out to play some pool. We need to talk.”

He reached for the opened can of beer on the coffee table. He smiled as he brought it to his mouth. “Bottom’s up.” He dropped his head back and gulped down the flat beer, finishing with a satisfied sigh. He squinted at the movie on the television. “Damn, did I sleep through the good part?” He lifted his hand to point at the monitor, and it struck me that he suddenly had old man hands. Ten years ago, I’d been ducking away from his massive fist when he was pissed and ready to smack me around. Those hands were gone for good. “That brunette with the giant tits loves to take it in the ass. Love that part when he folds her over the kitchen chair and—”

I reached forward and grabbed the remote off the table. I turned it off. The room was bathed in shadows. The pallor of his skin glowed as if he was sitting under a florescent light, instead of in an unlit room.

“What’s in your craw this time, Son?”

“Why’d you take the newspaper from Aunt Alice’s shop?”

He forced a weak grin and leaned his head back against the couch. We’d had the same damn furniture my whole life, and every cushion smelled and looked like stale smoke. “Don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” He closed his eyes. “Hey, can you get me my pills off the kitchen counter. I forgot to take them.”

I stayed put, but he kept his eyes closed, pretending I was no longer in the room. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed the pills. I shook them in his ear. “Here, see if you can breathe some life back into that pickled liver.”

He lifted his head and reached for the pills.

I stared down at him. It made him uneasy enough that he finally had to look at me. “Fuck, Jem, I’m a dying man. Leave me to my beer and that brunette and her shaved pussy.” He searched around for the remote.

I held it up just out of his reach.

I was getting nowhere and decided on a more direct approach. “Did you have something to do with that trucker going off the side of the road? Let me rephrase that. Did you send all those trucks off the road?”

“What? You’re fucking nuts. Your mom was crazy too, you know? Guess that’s where you get it from.”

He was testing my patience. I reached down and grabbed his shirt to force him to look at me. People had always told me I looked like my dad, and for a brief second, I could see my own face staring back at me.

He scowled angrily up at me. “Don’t go sticking your nose into shit that doesn’t concern you, Jem. You stir up the wrong people, and you’ll have to watch over your shoulder for every fucking shadow. How the hell do you think I kept you two alive all this time? By keeping my business to myself. Now let go of my shirt, and put my brunette back on the television.”

I released his shirt and glared down at him, wanting to shake the life out of the man.

He seemed to read my mind. A sad smile crossed his face. “Bet you’re regretting that day you saved me from the noose, huh?”

“Every fucking day.” I turned on the television, threw the remote at him and walked out. I climbed on my bike and fired it up. I knew where I was headed before the final decision had even entered my mind. Tashlyn had invaded my soul. I couldn’t get through a decent breath without thinking about her, and after the frustrating scene with my old man, I needed to clear my head just to keep from going crazy. I needed to see her. The weird fucking thing was that Tashlyn’s arrival in town had pushed the first domino, and the rest, it seemed, would follow. She’d opened the fucking Pandora’s Box, and there was no going back.

I pulled up to Everly’s house. It was dark. I got back on the bike and headed to Gregor’s Market, a place I rarely stepped into. With any luck, Landon wouldn’t be around. He was the last asshole I needed to face tonight.

The parking lot was filled with people stopping in to pick up sandwiches and fried chicken for a quick dinner. I didn’t give a shit who was inside.

As if he had Wolfe radar, Landon Gregor’s face shot up from behind the register. If he’d had the ability, he would have been shooting fire from his nostrils at the sight of me. Rumor was, that the old, self-righteous bastard, the honorable Mayor Gregor, was sick with something. He sure didn’t look sick as he scowled at me across the store.

“Find what you need, Wolfe, and be on your way.”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Every nosy customer in the store turned to look. Everly poked her head around a display to see where her uncle’s rage had been directed. Her face fell, but it was more disappointment than anger.

Tashlyn was sitting at one of the small tables in the corner by the sandwich counter. Her blue eyes rounded with surprise when she spotted me. I walked straight toward her and thought about just how shitty it would feel if she turned me down.

I reached the table, and without a word, I offered her my hand. There was only the slightest hesitation before she placed her hand in mine.

I popped her to her feet. She had just enough time to stick her trash in the can as I pulled her past it. It seemed as if the only sounds in the market were the whirring motors of the refrigerators as I led Tashlyn through the store to the exit.

“What the hell are you about, Wolfe?” Landon barked from behind his counter.

I ignored him as I slammed open the door. I glanced back at Tashlyn in her faded and thin denim jacket. I took off my hooded sweatshirt and handed it to her. “Put this on. It’s cold tonight.”

She pushed her arm through but her hand never reached the end of the sleeve. She smiled as she curled her fingers around the end of it. “It’s got built in mittens.” She blinked up at me before glancing back at the store. Several people were staring out the window watching us. “Everly will be mad at me.”

Not giving a damn about the audience in the shop window I took hold of Tashlyn’s face and kissed her. A satisfied sigh ushered from her plump lips when I pulled my mouth away. “Do you want to go back inside?”

The blue of her eyes was like turquoise under the full moon sky. “No, I want to go with you.”

I couldn’t hold back my smile as I threw my leg over the bike. Tashlyn climbed on behind and wrapped her arms around me. All I could think was how badly I just wanted to ride off with her tucked in behind me and never look back at this place. Instead, I swung around and headed north on Main. The houses and stores were a blur of wavering porch lights and dirty white stucco facades as I twisted the throttle and rode through town.

Tashlyn held me tighter, pushing her breasts against my back as she propped her chin on my shoulder. I knew I didn’t deserve someone like her, but I was done standing on the fucking dark side of the moon. Sometimes you had to find the light or just drown in the blackness of it all.

I knew exactly where to head. It was only a few miles out of town, but it was far enough away from Blackthorn to forget that the town existed for a few hours.

I pulled the bike onto a tractor plowed road. I parked in the clearing next to the wood structure overlooking a steep ravine. The moon was glowing like a massive flashlight in the sky, showering yellow light over the valley below.

Tashlyn could have wrapped my sweatshirt around her twice as she pulled it closed. She reached back and pulled up the hood. “I feel bad about taking your sweatshirt. Of course, I’m not planning to give it up anytime soon, but I just wanted you to know that I was feeling some remorse about wearing it.”

I grabbed some of the loose material and yanked her against me. “Could you be any fucking cuter with your remorse and everything.” I kissed her again.

“Hmm,” she sighed, “is that long, hard and getting down to business?”

My mouth hovered over her lips. “Darlin’, trust me, you’ll know when I’m getting down to business.”