Page 98 of One Night

I quickly picked up the yarn blanket and attempted to drape it artfully across the chair. I fluffed my hair and planned to ditch Duke’s flannel, but his scent alone made me feel better, so I opted to keep it on.

True to their word, within minutes, car doors were closing, and laughter was floating up the porch steps. I opened after one loud knock, and they all filed inside, offering quick hugs as their voices overlapped one another.

Lark was last and gripped my shoulder. “Are you okay? Tell us everything.”

I smiled and scoffed. “It was probably nothing, but Ed was acting all agitated, and it turns out Duck was tangled up outside. But it was weird... the barn door was already open.”

Annie paused and lifted an eyebrow. She’d grown up with the Sullivans, so she was practically their adopted sister. “That doesn’t seem likely.”

I shook my head. “It’s not. Duke’s very careful with locking up his equipment. Then I saw a light or something... I figured I was about to catch one of my dumbass brothers mid-prank, so I went to check it out?—”

“Girl!” Kate’s eyes went wide. “Don’t you listen to true crime podcasts? Never go investigate!”

I laughed. “I know. Iknow. When I realized it wasn’t any of my brothers, I kind of panicked.”

“How did you get rid of him?” Annie’s blue eyes were wide as she worried her lip.

“I lied and said Duke was inside. Bootsy took off pretty quick after that.”

“Good thinking.” With snacks unloaded onto the table, they settled around the living room furniture.

Kate tucked her feet under herself as she sank into the couch. “Something similar happened when we were renovating Tootie’s house. I heard voices and someone even rattled the door handle.” She let an exaggerated shiver roll through her. “I didn’t want to be alone for weeks.”

“They never did figure out who that was, did they?” Lark opened a container of hummus and dragged a carrot through it.

Kate shook her head. “Nope. It was right after we found the speakeasy. General consensus was it was probably more nosy reporters, but I don’t know... that never really sat right with me.” Kate’s wary eyes moved over me.

“What?” I asked.

Kate hesitated before continuing, “Did Duke ever tell you about what we found down there?”

“The liquor bottle, right? The one with theKing Liquorlabel on it? Yes, he did, but I didn’t really know anything about it besides what we’d talked about at the Bluebirds.”

Annie leaned forward. “No old family stories? Tales of bootlegging and intrigue?”

A dry, humorless laugh rolled out of me. I grabbed a cookie before nibbling a bite. Shame rose and settled into my chest. The Kings weren’t like the Sullivans. We didn’t sit around and reminisce about old times or family stories that would make you laugh. Mostly we spent our early years surviving under Russell King’s rule in our mother’s absence. As an adult, I did what we could to stay off his radar.

I shrugged. “Nothing rings a bell. It certainly doesn’t add up to Bootsy Sinclair creeping around the barn...”

Annie sat up. “What did you say?”

I frowned at her. “What? That it was weird Bootsy was at the farm?”

Her hands ran down her black leggings. “No, no, no. The other part. His last name is Sinclair?”

I looked around as the Sullivan women stared at me. “Yes? Why is that a big deal? I thought everyone knew the Sinclair twins.”

“Dude...” Annie started flipping through her phone, and I looked at Kate and Lark.

Kate shrugged. “I had no idea what his last name was, and I’ve lived here my whole life.”

Lark shrugged. “I remember it being really odd that there wasn’t even a last name onanythingrelated to Bowlegs’s funeral, either, but once I got to know this town...” Lark shrugged. “At the time, the quirkiness kind of tracked for around here.”

“Okay,” Annie interrupted. “So when Kate and Beckett found the speakeasy, there was a lockbox, and this was inside.” She turned her phone to me to reveal a black-and-white picture of two men and a woman in a friendly embrace, smiling at the camera.

“When I was digging into the whole King–Sullivan feud, I found out they are Philo Sullivan, James King, and Helen Sinclair.” Annie handed me her phone so I could take a closer look. “The families were friends for a long,longtime. Like Miss Mabel said, Philo and Helen eventually got married.”

I grabbed her phone to take a closer look. “So what happened? How do they go from that to whatever this feud has become?”

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