Page 31 of Things Left Unsaid

“Bull.”

“We still hire seventy-five percent of the town, sure, but the Rock Eagle Casino opened twenty minutes away from here four years ago. Whoever we don’t hire, or Our Lady of Sorrows, they have on staff.”

My brow puckers at the mention of the nearby boarding school, but I only remark, “Grand-mèretold me about the casino.”

“She didn’t approve?”

“She didn’t. Her grandfather was an inveterate gambler. She also said it was on Korhonen land.”

He hums. “I choose to believe that it was reserve land. We sectioned off the northwestern acreage for the Métis?*.”

That has me blinking. “Did you have to drug Clyde to get him to agree to that?”

“No. I blinded him with science.”

I have no idea what that means and I don’t have a chance to pick his brains either as he’s reversing into a parking space outside Harold’s Baked Goods. Which is when he turns to me and tosses me the keys.

“Put these in the glove compartment for me, would you?”

Before I can tell him to do it his damn self, he jumps out of the truck.

Water splashes as he lands in a puddle, but he doesn’t grumble or grouse. Have a tantrum and stick out his boot then shout at the clouds for daring to lay rain where he was going to stand. Nah, he reminds me of the Colt I remembered by shaking his foot and closing the door.

Chill—that’s Colt.

Very little riles him.

It’d be annoying if that hadn’t always attracted me to him.

He’s the kind of man who’ll weather any storm, and for a kid raised in the chaos of loss and grief, that was something I appreciated. Then and now.

When I open the glove compartment to store the keys, a couple sheets of paper fall out.

One looks like a bill. The amount of zeroes on it makes my heart palpitate—ranching isn’t cheap.

A truck pulls up beside Colt’s and after he rounds the fender, he ambles over to it.

While he talks to the driver, I quickly glance at the other letter, eyes widening with every word.

You Korhonens are all the same. You think you can hurt people and get away with it.

Well, I’m not letting you get away with ANYTHING.

Your day of reckoning is coming, Korhonen, and I can’t wait to ruin your life like you ruined mine.

People of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry. One of the three recognized Aboriginal peoples inCanada

Zee

Lion - Saint Mesa

When Larry drives off, it gives me just enough time to shove the glove compartment shut.

A gust of wind blows into the cab as he opens the door, but it doesn’t blow the memory of those words away.

Your day of reckoning is coming.

What in the actual hell?

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