Page 48 of Refuge for Flora

“The point is to play cards, not to take our clothes off! Holy hell, I think this was a bad idea.” Flora gathered up the cards as fast as she could and slipped them into her pocket before either of the other two poker geniuses could reach them.

“Well, if’n we ain’t gonna play strip poker, what’re we gonna do?” the old woman asked, and Flora could tell she was genuinely disappointed. Nice. Very nice. Barrett was still laughing in the kitchen. At least the old bag hadn’t gotten her shirt all the way off. Barrett would’ve been scarred for life.

“We can watch TV.”

“Ain’t nothin’ good on there.”

“I bet we can find something.” Then Flora remembered something else. “Hey, you told me you were going to tell me about growing up out here, remember? I want to hear about that.”

“Me? Growing up out here? Y’all wanna hear ‘bout that?”

Flora nodded. “Yeah. I want to hear all about it. Don’t you want to hear all about it, Barrett?”

He’d finally stopped laughing and was standing in the kitchen doorway, a beer in his hand. “Oh, yeah. I definitely want to hear all about it.”

“Oh, well, okay. Um, I’m-a need some liquor for that,” Mrs.Murphy said and pointed to the cabinet where she kept the whiskey.

They listened to two hours of her rambling, but Flora found it pretty entertaining. She told them some tall tales about some of the things they did on the farm where she grew up nearby. It sounded a lot like the nonsense that went on in Pike County.

Thinking about her hometown made her sad. She’d lived there all her life, and it took an asshole like Darryl Stevens to make her leave, but she really didn’t have a choice. If she’d stayed, he would’ve expected her to go wherever he was going anyway, and if she was going to leave, she wanted to wind up somewhere she liked, not somewhere he told her she had to live.

A whispering voice brought her out of her thoughts. “Flora?” When she turned to see what Barrett wanted, he was pointing at Mrs.Murphy.

She was sound asleep.

Barrett leaned toward her ear. “Should you help her to bed?”

“Nah. She sleeps in that damn thing off and on all day every day. Might as well just let her be. You about ready to turn in?”

Barrett stood without making a sound. “Yeah. It’s been a long-ass day and I’m beat.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in just a minute.” She set about picking up cups and snack bowls they’d used as he wandered down the hallway and disappeared into the bedroom.

By the time she got there, he was already changed into pajama pants and a tee shirt, so Flora grabbed a little gown she’d worn the night before, slipped off her clothes, and pulled the gown on over her head. Then she turned to Barrett. “You finished in the bathroom?”

He nodded and bared his teeth. “Minty fresh.”

“Nice. Okay. Be right back.” She brushed her teeth, brushed her hair, and was back in the bedroom in just a few minutes. As soon as she lifted the sheet and scooted into the bed, Barrett’s arms wrapped around her and drew her toward him. “So what time do you have to go to work tomorrow?”

“I was out there all day today in the rain, so CaptainMoss told me to take tomorrow off. Kirby too. Poor guy?his teeth were chattering by the time we got out of there.”

“I bet.” Lying there beside him was heaven. He smelled good, and he was warm and strong. “So you said you got the guys you were chasing?”

“We got one of them, but the other two got away. Doesn’t matter. He’ll turn on his buddies. It’s just a matter of time when he finds out what the charges will be and he wants to bargain.” She was about to ask him something else when he said, “I need to talk to you about something.”

“Okay.”

“I called the PikeCounty Sheriff’s Department today.”

She felt her heartbeat double. “Why?”

“To ask about a missing person. The woman you told me about.”

Panic was filling every cell in her body. “Shit, Barrett. Please say you didn’t tell them about me!”

“No. I wouldn’t do that.”

“Did you say Velma’s name?” Queasiness hit her belly so hard that she thought she might throw up.

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