I pray this isn’t just a fleeting moment. I pray it’s the family I know we can be….
CHAPTER 30
sarah
Not wanting to risk Eunice being a bitch again, I forego the Horseshoe Diner and go grocery shopping at Buck’s Mercantile. The owner is a new resident of Wildflower Canyon and a true businessman. He doesn’t care who I am and has treated me with the same respect as any other customer.
It’s early evening, and I am tired.
It has been a busy day, with giving statements about what happened to Ranger at Cade’s ranch. And for some reason, despite washing and showering, I can still smell kerosene on my hands, and it’s making me nauseous.
Kids spill out of the soda shop, laughing, while Jay Buck sweeps the front stoop of the mercantile.
I push my cart up to my truck and open the passenger seat, ready to put my bags in there. It takes a moment before I see what’s on the seat—the scream rips out of me before I can stop it.
A mangled dog lies sprawled across my driver’s seat.Its glassy eyes stare blank and wrong, tongue lolling. The stench rolling out is metallic and sour. There’s a scrap of paper pinned to its fur with a hunting knife.
KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.
My grocery bags slip from my hands, bottles clattering across the asphalt. I stagger back, hand clamped over my mouth, bile rising. My stomach pitches.
“Dove?”
Cade’s voice rings through, sharp and urgent. I spin, half-sobbing, and he’s already running toward me. He must’ve been across the street—there’s a bag of feed slung over his shoulder, a ballcap pulled low against the sun.
“What’s wrong?” He reaches me in three long strides, eyes narrowing as he follows my trembling hand toward the truck. His whole body goes rigid.
“Jesus Christ.” His voice is low, dangerous. With his jaw locked tight, he slams the truck door shut. “Motherfuckers.”
My knees nearly give out, but he catches me.
I feel the iron tension inside me, the rage simmering just under his skin.
“They killed a…d…dog,” I stammer.
“Shh.” His hand cradles the back of my head. “It’s gonna be okay.”
A couple of dogs start barking, hackles raised like they know evil’s been here. People start to gather, whispers buzzing like flies.
“Back up, y’all,” Cade orders without looking awayfrom me.
His command is so sharp, so fierce, that the small crowd scatters as quickly as cattle from a whip crack.
I press my face into the solid warmth of him, my heart breaking for the little dog.
This is so, so awful.
I hear him talk to someone on the phone. “Outside Buck’s. Yeah.” Pause. “We’ll be here. But hurry, I need her away from here.”
“Cade….” My voice cracks. “What…why?”
His jaw ticks, fury etched across his face. “Because you’re telling the truth. And someone’s scared as hell of you doing it loud enough that folks listen.”
He’s thinking, as I am, that this is Landon.
He looks at the carcass again, and I swear, for a second, he’s about to put his fist through the glass. “Cowards. Hiding behind dead animals and notes.”
I shiver, and he hugs me tighter. “But to kill an innocent….”
