Page 54 of Heaven Help Me

I tip my head. “Why’s that?”

Silas just shrugs. “I’ve never met a sharpshooter named Landry is all.”

I can’t help but grin. Yeah, I did kick their asses out on the range. Deuce puts his arm back around my shoulder and faces the group.

“Let me explain.”

And then he does, telling them absolutely everything. Well, almost everything. He left out the sex in his car and storage room. Oh, and the stabbing when we were seventeen. Which I’ll have to thank him for. He’s really painting me in a nice light in front of these people.

“Dude, that’s freaking awesome.” Betsy stands up when Deuce is done and gives me a high five. “Does the mob have, like, a special handshake or something you can teach us?”

I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing. “No, but we do have a blood oath.”

I reach under my skirt for my knife. I barely get it in my hand before Deuce is pulling it away from me. He dumps it in the drawer of the coffee table and shuts it while giving me “the look.” The one that says “behave yourself.”

Silas jumps up and pulls Betsy away from me. I hold my hands up.

“I was just kidding.”

Betsy’s grinning at me like we just became besties. Silas’s smile is a little more waxy, like he’s not sure about me yet and will do everything in his power to keep his wife away from me until he figures me out.

Mary London sways back and forth with the baby sleeping on her shoulder. “Hey, I think I saw that guy you’re talking about. He wasn’t from around here and he looked suspicious in his T-shirt and jeans. Who doesn’t wear a polo?”

Indeed. Every man around here either wore a button-down or a polo shirt when out and about.

“When did you see him?” Deuce asks.

“On Thursday. I went out to lunch with my girlfriends and he was coming out of the bookstore.”

Deuce and I look at each other. I know exactly what he’s thinking. We’d hoped no further violence meant he’d left town. I guess not.

“Maybe with all of us watching, we can catch him.” Rhett stands up and takes the baby off Mary London. “Do you have a picture of his car or anything?”

Deuce holds up his finger, then heads for the kitchen where we have a printout from the security camera. He comes back with the pictures and passes them around the living room. Rhett and Silas take pictures with their cell phones, then devise a schedule for the next week of being around town and driving by Saint’s Suits.

Mary London leaves for a second, then comes back with beers for the guys and mocktails for the girls, passing them out. “Sounds like you might need the alcoholic version, honey.” She pats my arm with a warm smile, not at all mad that we lied to them about my identity for weeks now.

“You’re not upset we lied?”

Betsy and Mary London just laugh. “Girl, half the town lies about who they are. Everyone’s dressing a part. Wearing fancy church clothes when they’re cheating on their spouse. Would we rather you be honest? Definitely. But we can see why you lied. Now that we know the truth, we can all pitch in and keep you safe.”

I stare at these two women, both of whom have babies and responsibilities and a life to lead that doesn’t include babysitting a woman they barely know. It amazes me how they’ve just welcomed me in, no questions asked.

Frankly, it’s bizarre.

“You’re not afraid I’ll bring danger to your town?”

Mary London winks. “You went to the range with the wrong people, darlin.’ Betsy and I are the sharpshooters around here. We can protect our own just fine, don’t you worry your pretty lil’ head.”

Well, fuck.

I really like these women.

I hold up my mocktail can and they raise theirs, all of us grinning at the knowledge that we’re not weak little ladies who need saving.

And then I switch to beer to avoid those sickly sweet mocktails.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE