"It's time to change this town," I decided. "Indigo offered some influence for the vote on Southwind. Blaze is coming home. You know Cobalt's going to be pissed."
"And Teal has his little hacktivists digging," Cy assured me. "Brick's currently in some security class, but said he'll take a leave of absence if we need some muscle. I know Ash talked to Scarlet, and she's in if we need her."
"Fuck Paul Simmons," I declared. "Fuck him and his cronies. Fuck them and their small-minded, bigoted ideas. Southwind is bigger than that."
Luke leaned his head back onto Cy's shoulder. "So, how about we go count tools before I start getting distracted, hm?"
"Oh, but I like you when you're distracted," Cy said, grinding hard enough to push Luke into me. "We also need to figure out the sleeping arrangements now, because damn if I don't miss having a woman in my bed."
"Barn!" I ordered, letting go of Luke and stepping back. "The cops are on their way, so try to keep your clothes on?"
"Promise!" Luke said, sounding a little too amused as he headed that way.
Cy was right there with him. Neither one of them was dressed for the barn. They were still in the suits they'd worn to court. Luke had lost his coat at some point, and Cy's hung open. Both men wore dress shoes instead of boots. They also walked a little too close.
I half expected them to hold hands, but I wasn't sure Luke was there yet. He'd been hiding his sexuality for so long that some habits were going to be hard to break. It also didn't matter. We all knew how he felt, and he wasn't shy about his attempts, even if they were sometimes fumbling.
Which meant today was still a good day. It had to be. Faith was a permanent part of the family now. She was Lilac, and with Luke's sexuality coming out in court and the judge not caring, that meant Meredith couldn't try to get custody back because of it. Evidently, Luke's judge had been more liberal-minded than most in this area.
Wait.
Cats Peak, Texas, was a blip on the map at best. There was a feed store, Bev's Grill, a mechanic's shop, a vet clinic, and a gas station in town. That was it. We didn't even have a post office - that was the next town over. The population was just over three hundred people, so not exactly a big place, and everyone out here was desperate. The kind of desperation that brewed too much hate.
People might wave as they passed on the road, and everyone knew everyone else, but that didn't necessarily make things easy. Beef prices were down, hay prices were up, and things were hard in small-town Texas. God made it better, so church was the hub of life around here. Conservative values were the norm, since change was terrifying to those who were already struggling with what they knew.
Around here, liberal minds were rare. The entire county was like this. Our "big town" was still pretty small. The average income was less than thirty thousand a year, and most of these people lived on a lot less. No one had anything left to spare, especially not a care. People like me were pariahs, which was why I'd never fit in. All of that added up to Luke's judge being an outlier, and what were the chances of that?
I decided to ask Blaze about it when he got here, because I wasn't the kind of person who got lucky. None of us were. We worked hard for everything we'd earned, and harder for the things we still wanted. Luke? He was right at the top of my list. I wanted that cowboy and the family he came with. His daughter was amazing. She was living proof of why we did the things we did.
I was still thinking about that when the first car pulled into the drive. It was Luke's new truck, which meant Darnell was back, and I could see Cessily sitting in the passenger seat. They paused down by the gate. Crimson rolled down his window, Ash looked up, and the pair said something, but I couldn't hear it from up here. Then Ash snapped a few more pictures and climbed into the back seat.
They'd barely made it up to the house when the police's SUV showed up. I watched as Chartreuse stepped out, turning to look at the cops. Darnell and Ash just began gathering up bags from the backseat.
"We're taking these inside," Darnell said as the pair headed up the stairs and onto the porch. "Don't want to overwhelm the cops."
"You're with me," Cessily told me.
Bracing for the worst - since the cops in this town already hated me - I headed down to stand beside her. When the police's SUV parked in front of the barn next to Luke's truck and the pair of officers climbed out, I was a little disappointed that one of the officers wasn't Dan. Instead, it was two men I'd never met before.
"We received a call about vandalism?" the first man asked.
I gestured back towards the door. "Someone broke down the gate at the front to leave a threat on my door."
"Uh huh." The man pulled out a small notepad. "And you are..."
"Violet Dawson," I said. "The owner of the property."
He looked over at Cessily. "And you, ma'am?"
"Cessily Blackburn, her attorney."
The officer nodded. "Ok. And do you know when this happened?"
"Sometime after seven this morning and before we got back this afternoon, about thirty minutes ago," I told him.
Behind the first officer, the other cop was looking around the place, but not the way I'd expected. He wasn't investigating anything. The man was checking my gutters. No - he was probably looking for cameras. I glanced over at Cessily only to find her looking back. Evidently, she was thinking something too, possibly the same thing.
"So, is this the only damage?" the first officer asked.
