Page 103 of The Wounded Warrior

Matt unloaded his chair and brought it into the house before kissing Momma’s cheek. “I got to get back. I have a loadof hay coming in today. Holler at me when you know something.” He took two muffins.

“You’re not staying?” Momma said.

“No, ma’am. I’ll hold down the fort, Luke will find him and help.” That was the way they worked.

Helen nodded. “Be safe,” she told Matt. “If Harris is on the warpath, who knows who he’ll come after.”

Matt nodded, his face set in stone. “I’ve got the shotgun. That bastard comes after anyone and I’ll give him what for.”

That was also how they worked. No one fucked with their family.

And Rory was his motherfucking family. Full stop.

“No news at all?” Luke asked after Matt left them.

“No. He won’t answer either one of us.” Helen pursed her lips. “That bastard sent it to the newspaper. Lori fielded calls all afternoon yesterday.”

“Why would he do that, Helen?” Momma asked. “That makes no sense. You can see him…violating Rory.”

“Yeah.” Luke nodded, that rage building up in him again. “That had to be one for his vaults. So who had a vested interest in sending it to all of us?” He had turned on the military part of his brain because he had to.

“Rory. Rory’s the only one that gains from this, Luke.” Rory’s dad looked like hammered shit, the big man brought low.

“No way. I mean, if he had this video all this time, why wouldn’t he take it to the police? So who else wants Harris out of the way?” He was being ruthlessly logical, but Luke had already eliminated Rory as the sender. Not his style at all.

Besides, Rory said he couldn’t remember any of it and he’d stared into his lover’s eyes. Rory had believed it.

His momma and Rory’s mom stared, both of them looking at each other with dawning horror. “What? What have you figuredout?”

“Jeanette. Jeanette Harris is getting dragged through the dirt,” Helen said, and Momma nodded.

“Word is she’s been to a divorce lawyer in Greenville.”

“This would take care of a lot of her troubles, Jim, if he got arrested for rape.”

Jim stood up. “We’re, what? A month off ten years? That’s the statute of limitations in Texas. She’s given us enough to have the son of a bitch sent to the pen.”

Momma shook her head. “Makes divorce easier for sure.”

Luke was going to lose his ever-loving shit. “Is she capable of digitizing this stuff?”

Jim snorted. “Hell, no. Her son, though, is an IT guy in Dallas.”

“Fuck!” He slammed his hands on his thighs. “I need to find Rory!”

“He won’t answer. I called Aislin down in Austin, but she hasn’t heard from him.”

“Where would he go?” Luke racked his brain. “He doesn’t have any other properties he stays at, does he? I know he owns a place in Greenville that Harris was going to subdivide.”

“Oh, honey, that place has to be stripped to the studs. It’s full of cat pee and mice.” Helen shook her head. “Not my Rory.”

“Momma! Momma, he’s in Round Rock. He’s real drunk, but he says he’s in a hotel and safe.” Rowenna ran into the kitchen wearing SpongeBob jammies, tears on her cheeks. “I talked to him. He’s so sad!”

“Oh, thank God,” Helen said. “Luke?”

“My old truck is not gonna make it. I can drive it if I can get a vehicle.”

Momma shot him a worried glance. “Are you sure? Preacher can call someone from church.”

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