Chapter Thirty-Two
Grady drovewith Sam to the Colson ranch. It was located on a country road at the entrance to a large valley wedged between the mountain tops of the Sierra Nevadarange.
He passed under the traditional wooden entrance of the ranch, consisting of two vertical logs and a horizontal one across the top with the word “Colson” burnedin.
Large, metallic sculptures, similar to the one on Linx’s porch, lined the way—monsters, horses, gargoyles, and other odd pieces welded together in a disturbingfashion.
Grady gaped at one that looked like half the face of a woman with shiny metal tears trailing down one side, and jagged cuts and wild zigzag hair on theother.
A twisted and torn heart was perched precariously in a bone-dry ribcage of a cow, with a rusted railroad spike drilled throughit.
Grady narrowed his eyes at the railroad spikes. What if Linx’s mother was mixed up with the fires? Hadn’t that man mentioned scrap metal disappearing from the burn sites and sold toartists?
Also, who else could have left the crude cross at his parents’cabin?
They could call it art all they wanted, but to Grady these heaps were no more than torturedtrash.
These were not the kinds of artwork that soothed and expressed peaceful emotions—the way his sister-in-law Nadine’s artwork conveyed, but the product of a strange and dementedmind.
After passing the grove of grotesque sculptures, Grady drove by a pasture holding horses and an empty training corral and parked on the circular driveway in front of the ranchhouse.
Linx and Cedar had made it there before him, but barely, judging from the tinkling sound her SUV’s engine gave as itcooled.
Grady let himself and Sam through the gate, and the dog took off across the field when he saw Cedar running around with another dog he didn’trecognize.
Linx welcomed him at the door with a kiss. She led him inside, introducing him to the few siblings he hadn’t gotten to know—mainly, Scott, the fireman and Vivi from the generalstore.
Grady waved to Todd, Chad, and his cousin Kevin, and Joey from the diner. He could sense the tension in the room and the awkwardness of making small talk with people who barely tolerated him, and he wished his family were gathered around as abuffer.
Fortunately, the news that Salem had caused a rift between Linx and him during her pregnancy seemed to have diminished the hostility from the Colsons, and Linx’s father welcomed him with openarms.
“So, you’re the man who knocked up my baby girl.” Joe Colson gripped Grady’s hand with his big, beefy one. “Guess I’m too late with the shotgun, but welcome to the family. I know you’ll do the rightthing.”
“Thanks for the confidence,” Grady said, not sure at all what Linx’s father meant. Did he want him to retroactively marry his daughter? That way, once he gained custody of Jessie, Linx would also be able to be themother.
The Colson brothers gathered around—all big men, sizing himup.
“You here to stay or going back to smokejumping?” Scottasked.
“I’m staying around,” Grady said. “Might stick to ground crewwork.”
“Good, we can always use more hands,” Scottsaid.
“Think you’ll get your kid back?” another brother, Chad,asked.
“Hopeso.”
An awkward silence descended on the gathering, as no one had much to say. Instead, they looked at him and he glanced away fromthem.
Grady sighed with relief when he heard car doors closing outside and a horde of footsteps coming toward the entrance. His family washere.
His parents stepped through the door first, followed by all his siblings and some of theirspouses.
Grady’s family milled around Linx’s brothers and sister, with Cait remaking their connections from the past Christmas when they helped with rescuing her from akidnapper.
Even though they insulated him from the Colsons, it soon got too loud and stifling for him, the way everyone carried on about family and looking after eachother.
They couldn’t help giving him concerned looks and wondered out loud where the lawyerwas.
