Page 98 of Tempting Fate
“Gabe saved my life,” she blurted. Bless her lying heart.
“Nope,” Gabe said. “She saved herself, whacked ’em with a pickax. By the way, we owe you a new one.”
“Let’s go inside.” Logan still had on some jacked-up Hawaiian shirt and it was forty degrees outside. “Tell Annie and me everything that happened.”
An hour later, Raylene and Gabe told them about Ray bragging about Levi’s Gold in prison and Rufus Hawkins and his two psycho friends.
“The dude’s actually wanted in a Utah homicide?” Logan asked, and Gabe saw him walk through the what-ifs in his head. Gabe had done it a thousand times and could safely say it wasn’t productive. The truth was it made his blood run cold.
“On a good note, you’re roughly three hundred dollars richer,” Gabe said.
“According to Donna Thurston, Raylene donated her share of the gold to the railroad museum,” Annie said, and once again, Gabe was reminded how fast news traveled in Nugget. Like a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. “We want to do the same.” Annie looked at Logan, and they shared a sloppy love-struck smile that made Gabe throw up a little in his mouth. “Right, hon?”
“Whatever you want to do, babe.”
“Ah, Jesus, the honeymoon’s over, folks.” The whole love thing was making Gabe feel on edge.
I don’t ever want to be responsible for someone’s happiness. Ever.
“I’m going to take off and let you all have some family time.” Gabe rose, even though Raylene’s blue eyes implored him to stay.
What did she care? She was leaving anyway.
“I’ll walk you out,” Raylene said, but Logan blocked her way.
“I’ll do it, you stay warm.” Logan gave Raylene a gentle squeeze.
Logan grabbed a coat off the hall tree and followed Gabe outside. “Anything else I ought to know?”
“Like what?”I’ve got feelings for your sister.
There was a long pause while Logan shuffled his feet in a patch of semi-melted snow. “Uh…anything else happen to her in that fishing shack?”
It took a few seconds for Gabe to absorb what Logan was getting at. “Ah, jeez, Jenk. No. Hell no!”
Logan sagged against Gabe’s truck and let out a breath. “Thank God. Ray and his goddamn big mouth. Why do you think he just left the gold in the safe like that? Why didn’t he tell Flynn about it…make it part of his estate? Hell, he could’ve cashed it in and put the money on his prison books.”
Gabe hitched his shoulders. “To a guy like Ray Rosser, it was chump change. He probably forgot about it. Or he liked the idea of the legend so much he wanted to preserve it for the next generation. Who knows? There was a picture of you in one of the safes…BUD/S graduation. I don’t know if he shot it himself, but it clearly meant something to him. Raylene took it to give to you.”
“I made my peace with the late SOB a while ago,” Logan said. He toed the dirt. “Still, there’s no love lost. But if it hadn’t been for Ray I never would’ve met Annie…or my half sister. Thanks for taking care of her, man.”
“Yeah, I didn’t do so good with that.”
“She’s here in one piece.” Logan turned away so Gabe wouldn’t see him choke up.
“She’s tough. Reminds me of an ex-SEAL I know. She saved Emily’s kid, Harper, who was able to flee the barn unscathed.” Gabe opened his truck door. “People sure are less pissy about her now. Donna and Emily made her soup, and Cecilia has been clucking around her like a mother hen. Who knows if it’ll last.” Gabe suspected that once the sale to Moto Entertainment was final, Raylene would go back to being public enemy number one. “She’s leaving town soon anyway.”
Logan nodded. Gabe considered telling him that Raylene was broke and had promised a good portion of her earnings from the sale of her property to a woman’s shelter. But he’d sworn to keep her secret. Besides, she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. He supposed he was looking for an excuse to get her to stay, then tried to convince himself that he was merely sleep deprived.
“I’ll talk to you later.” He climbed into the driver’s seat and watched through his rearview as Logan went back inside the house.
Instead of going home, he headed to the Ponderosa for a beer, a decision he reevaluated after four people in succession plied him with questions about Raylene’s abduction and Levi’s Gold.
“Heard that gold didn’t turn out to be much.” Owen took the empty stool next to Gabe’s.
“Nope.”
“Ray always did like his tall tales. How’s Raylene?”
