“We’re going on the run if we can’t clear her name, Cubby. You just need to know that, okay?”
“I’ll get you out,” Tex said from the rear, seated beside Buster.
“You Texans always got to go for big gestures,” Buster said.
“Make her a cake then. You could put a file in it.”
“There’s a thought.”
Cubby rolled his eyes. They were still smack talking as they pulled up in the parking lot below Tiger Point.
“That Blazer is a rental, and looks like the one I saw at the Wildlife house.” Cubby pointed to the silver vehicle.
“You think he’s still up there?”
“He may be digging a big hole,” Newman said, eyeing the car but thinking about how he was going to hurt Jay Herald.
“He just may be,” Cubby said. “You three need to behave yourselves, you got that?”
“Aww, dad, where’s the fun in that?” Buster said.
“Katie dug up some interesting stuff on Jay Herald, that to my mind points to him as the main suspect.”
“And you’re just telling us now?” Newman said.
“I’ve been processing it, bud. Now I have, I can see what he’s about. I think he got scared finding Hope here. Scared when she started talking about pressing charges about wrongful dismissal, and when she threatened him, it provoked him into setting her up.”
“By doing that she’d be locked away and couldn’t come after him again,” Tex said. “The man needs to be worked over, so he understands you can’t treat people like that.”
“We’re not working anyone over,” Cubby said. “We do this by the book.”
They all nodded as he looked at them, but Newman had other ideas. He wanted his fist in Jay Herald’s face, and no one was stopping him.
The climb was steep, because they took the shorter route for more experienced trampers. It cut off thirty minutes.
“Odds are that limp dick took the longer one,” Tex said.
Newman grunted his agreement. Thoughts churned inside his head, about Hope and the future he dared to dream of with her. She loved him. That one made him warm inside.
“You spoken with your parents yet, Newman?”
“About what, Buster?”
“That we know you were adopted.”
“I have actually. Mom’s okay, Dad not so much.”
“The thing is, bud, you don’t owe anyone anything, least of all your dad. I mean sure, he adopted you, but that was because he wanted a son. Seems to me he didn’t really understand the concept of how that’s supposed to work,” Cubby said.
“I’m getting my head around it slowly,” Newman said. “But the thing is, now I have Hope, I feel stronger somehow. Like I don’t give a shit about what anyone thinks anymore.”
“You burst into song, I’m shooting you,” Cubby said.
“Or tell us you love us. That’s gonna earn you a few bruises,” Buster added.
Newman snorted. These were his people, and they had never wanted anything from him but friendship. It had taken a few years, and Hope coming into his life, for him to realize that.
“So you’re not going to be Captain Do-gooder anymore?”
