Josh and I had served together. During a failed op, he abandoned his post to save his own hide while two of mymen died—one of them burned alive trying to carry the other out. Josh swooped in after the fact, dragged the body out, and took credit for the heroics. I called him out.
Almost got discharged for it.
But Daddy Davis had more pull than a parade float. Josh walked away with a bronze star and a clean military record—discharged honorably and handed a cushy job running his daddy’s construction empire.
So yeah, when I heard someone was spreading my business around town, Josh was the first person who came to mind.
Apparently, Gage thought the same.
I met my brother’s gaze, eyes hard. “What happened next, Gage?”
The corner of his lip curled into a cocky little smirk.
“Let’s just say he won’t be able to make it into town for a while to spread your business.”
“You slit his tires?”
He snorted a laugh. “Come on. Child’s play. What am I, eight?”
“No, you were eight when you slit principal Mortensen’s tires.”
“Teach him to confiscate my slingshot. I sweetened his gasoline.”
“You put sugar in his gas tank?”
“His, and…”
“And?”
“You know that subdivision he’s building down Apple Ridge road?”
“Tell me you didn’t…”
“Every backhoe, bulldozer, and truck on that site, bro.”
“Dammit, Gage.”
With a triumphant smirk, he tossed me a beer fromthe cooler and opened one for himself. “Sit,” he said. “Cold chili is blasphemous in this house. Or barn, I guess.”
I shook my head. What was done was done, and couldn’t say I wouldn’t have done the same for him. So, I sat and sipped, as he began scooping out the chili. We dug in like a pair of starved war prisoners.
“So. How was therapy?”
I swallowed the half-chewed bite, a fireball of chili sliding down my throat.I cleared my throat. “It was therapy.”
“Girl or boy therapist?”
“Female.”
“Was she hot?”
Rose Flower’s image flashed before my eyes, as it had done a million times since I’d acted like an idiot in her office. I took another bite of chili, her body materializing in my thoughts like smoke, until I realized I’d forgotten Gage’s question.
“Yo, bro. She’s hot, isn’t she?” Gage grinned around a mouthful of chili.
“Who said anything about her being hot?”
“You called her afemale.Notgirl.And you’re deflecting.”
