“He’s got our siblings trapped in a compound,” I hissed to Officer Susie. “Arrest him.”
“Everyone in my family is free to come and go as they please,” Leif said casually to Susie.
Her face was unreadable.
“The members of your family in Wyoming are far outside of our jurisdiction,” Susie said to me. “If Wyoming doesn’t have a problem with him, then I can’t do anything. Mr. Svensson, you and your wife are free to go.”
She sighed when he left. “Sorry. I didn’t have anything to hold him on. We were trying to get Sadie’s father to turn, but no luck. He’s taking the fall.”
“Our father is nothing if not manipulative,” Garrett said.
“If he keeps hanging around here,” Detective Brown said, “we might be able to get him on loitering charges. We’ll have someone tail him.”
“He’ll leave town,” Garrett said, staring out the window.
* * *
“Woo!”Archer yelled when we arrived home. “Parker’s not going to prison!”
All my little brothers cheered from the dining room. “How does it feel to be a free man? What was jail like? Did they feed you?”
“He was never in a jail cell,” Garrett said.
“At least if I was, I wouldn’t have to listen to you,” I said.
“I’m sorry, did I inconvenience you by lying about Dad and almost getting your former girlfriend kidnapped? Oh wait, no I didn’t. That was you,” Garrett said.
Remy set a cinnamon bun in front of each of us. It looked slightly burned and smelled weird. I glared at it.
“At least if Parker had been in jail,” Greg said, pushing the plate away, “we could have convinced Sadie to stay on at the Rural Trust.”
“She’smyassistant.”
“Former assistant,” Garrett said. “She sent in her resignation letter early this morning.”
Fuck.I closed my eyes.
“Have a bun,” Davy said. “They’re really good. It will make you feel better.”
I bit into the cinnamon bun. “Blech, Remy, what is this? It tastes like…” I sniffed it. “Meat?”
“I know you all don’t like sweets, so I made cinnamon buns with pulled pork and BBQ sauce,” he said proudly.
“It’s disgusting.”
“Yes, it is so disappointing when you think you’re being given this amazing gift that will let you churn out developments and simultaneously make the Holbrooks look bad, and then someone snatches it away from you,” Greg said coldly.
“The foundation was going fine before Sadie,” I countered.
“No it wasn’t,” Garrett said. “It was Remy and a handful of half-cracked veterans brewing beer and randomly throwing cash at farmers. There was no structure, no brand, and no flagship projects. Sadie brought all of that under control in a nice package in an impressively short amount of time. And you just lost her.”
“What am I going to do? How am I going to get her back? I love her. I can’t live without her.”
“I have an answer,” Garrett said. “Give me your phone.”
Hopeful, I handed it to him. He tapped it, waited, then swiped.
“Here. I downloaded Tinder for you. Forget Sadie and find a new girlfriend.”
