The church was packed. People filled every corner, and Brad knew that everyone had turned out to have their say in the matter of Buchanan land.
Cubby was to chair the meeting. Annabelle and Newman were to talk and present the facts as they now knew them. They'd requested a copy of the will, but as yet it had not arrived.
Newman's friend whom he'd first heard the news from said Ms. Buchanan hadn't had the land listed for sale, but was more than happy to sell to the Falkirk Consortium when they presented their offer.
Brad and Ethan had no doubts EG was the driving force behind this entire thing, and the reasons behind it were not sound business ones. Hell no. EG wanted to get at his two sons. As far as Brad could see, it was purely and simply revenge, and the asshole had the money to throw at it. What worried him and Ethan the most though, was that EG had openly said he’d do what he could to destroy Lake Howling, and he wasn’t a man to make idle threats. He had the money behind him and could do a power of damage with it if he chose to.
“TJ.”
“Mac.” Brad nodded to the proprietor of the Roar.
In the two weeks Brad had been in Howling, he'd become familiar with many of the locals. It was hard not to. They pretty much forced him to interact, and he had to admit he didn't hate it so much now.
“TJ.”
“Mr. Heath.”
“Walt, boy.”
Brad nodded, remembering the day he'd arrived in Howling, and how Walt Heath had urged him into the church. Was it only two weeks ago? It felt like a lifetime.
Scanning the seats, he told himself he wasn't looking for Macy, and found her in the middle of the aisle across from him. She was wedged between Buster and Militant Lawrence, the woman who had offered him a ride the day after he’d bought groceries.
She was a member to the infamous Lake Howling book club, and from what he gathered, the women in it pretty much ran the town.
“TJ.”
“Sheriff.” Cubby strolled past in uniform.
He'd been digging, but had come up with no news on who had fired those shots at him and Macy. Brad and Ethan had a theory, and that included someone being left behind when those two helicopters had left.
“Psst, TJ!”
Brad looked for the owner of that voice and found Billy's head poking out of a door just a few feet from where he stood. Checking Macy’s eyes were somewhere else, he casually walked closer.
“What's up, bud?”
“I'm getting a dog.”
“Yeah, that's pretty cool.”
The boy's face was alive with excitement, his small body moving from foot to foot.
“I'm gonna name him Razzle.”
“You don't want to see him first?”
Billy shook his head, and the determined expression on his face was so Macy.
“It's one of Mac's pups. I get to pick the one I want tomorrow. You want to come with me?”
He didn't, because that would put him up close and personal with Macy again, but how could he refuse that face?
“Ah, sure, if you think it'll be okay with your mom.”
“Yeah, she likes you.”
He did not feel good about that fact, Brad told himself.
