Complicated Read online

  And right then, it occurring to him, it also occurred to him that had to be rough on Greta and she lived that. She had for years.

  And he’d walked into her house, laying her out about a mother who put her brother right where he was, also putting Greta in the position to look out for him for the rest of his days.

  Christ.

  Christ.

  “I’m not telling you any of this as a break in confidence,” Gemini shared, pulling him from his thoughts. “Everyone in town knows, except, it would seem, you.” He lifted his hand and gave Hix another smile before Hix could speak. “I know. It’s complicated. But I also know it’s not my business.” He dropped his hand and the smile changed. “I further know, and am happy to do so, that you’re about to embark on a fabulous journey of discovery. Enjoy, my friend, and while you do, take care of our girl.”

  Hix’s mind full of all he’d learned, he could do nothing but lift his chin.

  Gemini gave him a low wave, turned and walked away.

  At one o’clock, Hix walked into the salon, his gaze on Greta who was folding something at her chair.

  She looked wiped. Dead on her feet.

  She should have taken the day off.

  “Hey, sweetheart. Ready?” he asked.

  “Yeah, let me grab my purse.”

  His eyes moved through the room and he dipped his head to the woman sitting in a dryer chair, the one in Lou’s chair, and he murmured, “Ladies.”

  He got a “Hixon,” and a “Sheriff,” before his gaze hit Lou.

  She tried to hide it but she looked uneasy.

  He got why.

  He was there getting Greta, but there might have been times since he last saw Lou that Lou, being a good friend who looked out for her girl, a girl Hix had asked to think about trying to make a go of it with him after what he’d done to her, had stated her case against Hix.

  But it was more.

  The last time he saw Lou she’d been out of line in a variety of ways and now that things had come around with Hix and Greta, she had a good friend who was seeing the man who she’d instigated him learning something about his ex-wife that another man might wrongfully lay blame on her just because she did it.

  So it was his job to get them at least past that.

  “Lou, you good?” he asked.

  It seemed her entire body drooped with relief when she replied, “Yeah, Hix. Thanks.”

  He felt Greta come up to his side, her fingers start to touch his, and he turned his own to lace them through hers and looked down at her.

  “Ready,” she said.

  “Right,” he replied, bent in and touched his mouth to hers.

  He could swear he heard a fluttering, female sigh coming from the dryer chairs.

  So he was grinning when he pulled away.

  She was grinning too and her fingers were tight in his.

  “Do me a favor, lawman,” Lou called out, and Hix turned his attention to her to see her jerk her head Greta’s way. “Get that one to cancel her clients tomorrow. She might look like a Charlie’s Angel but she’s not, and even Charlie would let one of his angels sit out a day, she got her nose busted by an asswipe . . . sorry, ladies,” she said to the women in the room.

  “No apology necessary, Lou,” the one in her chair declared.

  “He is an a-wipe,” the one at the dryer decreed.

  Lou looked to Hix. “Seein’ as I’m her Charlie, she should listen to me. But she’s not. Now if I gotta get a speaker to talk to her through, I will. Though I’d rather someone else talk sense to her so I don’t have to go through that effort.”

  “I rent my chair from you, Lou, you’re not my boss,” Greta chimed in.

  “Girlfriend, I’m totally the boss of you when you’re bein’ plum nutty.”

  “I’m not being nutty. I’m totally fine,” Greta returned, sounding like she was getting heated.

  She also lied, because anyone looking at her could tell she wasn’t fine, and not only due to the bandage covering her nose.

  “You do know I’m the mother of two girls, don’t you?” Lou asked sarcastically.

  “Neither of them are thirty-eight years of age,” Greta retorted.

  “And when they’re thirty-eight and bein’ stubborn in a way that makes them stupid, I’ll share my wisdom with them too.”

  Hix felt Greta’s body tighten at his side, so instead of laughing his ass off at their exchange, he intervened.

  “Maybe you two can make a mud pit and sell tickets for the football boosters while wrestling this out after Greta’s nose sets. But now, I need to get her to the hospital so we can make sure her nose will set properly.”

  “That’s disturbingly sexist, Sheriff Drake,” Lou shot at him.

  “And it would totally buy us a big screen, Lou, and don’t argue, you know it would.”

  “It would. I’d buy tickets to that,” the woman at the dryer put in.

  “And I’d absolutely take you,” Greta announced.

  Lou’s eyes grew huge. “You would not.”

  “It would be embarrassing,” Greta taunted.

  Hix fought chuckling as he started pulling her to do the door.

  “Right! You’re on!” Lou shouted as they moved.

  Hix stopped chuckling.

  “Don’t think I won’t do it,” Greta retorted.

  That was when Hix frowned.

  “As soon as that bandage is off, the gloves are off,” Lou returned.

  He stopped at the door and turned back. “You’re gonna both get over it and not in a mud pit. I was jokin’, Lou. Greta’s getting nowhere near a mud pit with an audience or without one, but definitely not with one.”

  Greta jumped right on that. “That’s only because Hix doesn’t want me to embarrass you.”

  Lou opened her mouth but Hix spoke.

  “Say goodbye, Lou.”

  She snapped her mouth shut and narrowed her eyes at him.

  He looked down at Greta, and not just to hold back the impending storm of him laying an order on a woman like Lou, to declare, “And you’re takin’ the day off tomorrow.”

  She glared up at him. “I am not.”

  He dipped close and said softly, “Baby, you’re dead on your feet. Lou’s right. You need to look after yourself.”

  “She is right, you know, and so is Hixon,” the woman in Lou’s chair called. “Hair usually won’t wait for another day, but, Greta, honey, your girls will wait for you.”

  Greta kept glaring up at him as she ignored that and asked, “Can we go to the hospital?”

  He grinned. “Sure.”

  She looked away with a roll of her eyes.

  He looked over his shoulders and tipped down his chin.

  They got goodbyes as he walked her out.

  He took her right to his Bronco and helped her in the passenger side before he swung in the driver’s seat.

  He started her up, backed her out and had them on their way before he asked, “You get lunch?”

  “Yes,” she said shortly.

  He grinned again and asked, “You pissed at me?”

  It took her a second to reply and she did it after he heard her push out a breath. “No. I’m just tired and a little achy, so I’m also just annoyed you and Lou are right, but I’m not pissed.”

  He reached out, took her hand and rested both on her thigh. “Good. Now you want the good news or the good news?”

  He felt her gaze so he glanced her way before he looked back at the road.

  “If it’s that way, I want all the news,” she answered.

  “Well, to say the judge was not a big fan of a woman being attacked in her kitchen in his county is an understatement. During the bail hearing, he laid that asshole out. Essentially told him to make a deal or, if it got to him having the chance to announce a sentencing, he’d give him the maximum.”

  “Ohmigod,” she breathed.

  He unconsciously adjusted his hand from lacing with hers to glide his fingertips along the insides of her fin
gers as he smiled and continued to give it to her.

  “So his attorney smartened up and sat down with our prosecutor. Unfortunately for that asshole, the prosecutor was handed all he needed to drive a hard bargain, this being something he did. This means that guy signed a deal admitting he committed three felonies. They dropped the breaking and entering to focus on trespass and stalking, mostly because trespass is much the same crime and holds the same punishment as breaking and entering and stalking will mean he can’t come near you even after he’s out. Not to mention, the prosecutor wanted to push that the sentences would be served non-concurrently. This means the man is out on a twenty-five-thousand-dollar bond and has to a week to get his affairs in order before he turns himself in to serve non-concurrent terms of two and a half years each for trespass and assault, one year mandatory protection order after he’s out, and in the meantime he’s not allowed within one hundred yards of you.”

  She gasped and her fingers curled back into his hand.

  “Five years?”

  “He’ll be due for parole a lot earlier, sweetheart, but criminal trespass and assault hold up to twenty years each, and if Judge Bereford was feeling any more ornery than he was today, something he said he would be if they forced a jury trial, he could have that.”

  “Ohmigod . . . I . . . ohmigod, that’s . . .”

  She trailed off in order to bust out laughing.

  He twisted her hand in his and brought it to his thigh, giving himself the added gift of looking at her a couple of times while she laughed.

  When her laughter died down, he noted, “I take it you like that.”

  “Not thinkin’ I’ll be scared of my kitchen anymore,” she said as reply.

  “Good,” he muttered.

  She grew silent but ended it to remark quietly, “It’s Nat, isn’t it?”

  He drew in breath and let it out, thinking he’d never thought she was stupid but not knowing until then how smart she was.

  “Yeah,” he confirmed.

  “That’s sad,” she said.

  “It is. It’s also a deterrent,” he replied. “Two serious felonies committed in his county in a short period of time when that shit doesn’t happen here, the judge is sending a message that anyone else thinks they can pull something like that, they should think again.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed.

  “A lot of the time the system is a mess, sweetheart. Twisted up with plea deals and cops screwing around, not doing their jobs right or havin’ the need to prove who’s got the biggest dick and judges worried about their next elections. It’s not only good that it worked this time, it’s good that it worked the time it needed to so you can move on. So that’s it. You take tomorrow off, give yourself a day to start the process of healing, then you heal and move on. You with me on that?”

  “Yeah, Hix.”

  He lifted her hand, touched it to his chest then put it back to his thigh relieved she’d agreed to take a day off.

  Once he did that, and her fingers had tightened in his hold after he did, he told her, “You should know, Gemini was at the hearing.”

  “So word got out before I showed at Lou’s with my nose like this,” she murmured.

  “Actually, no,” he replied. “I asked Hal to call him yesterday.”

  He felt her eyes so he glanced at her before looking back to the road and he kept talking.

  “Did that for a variety of reasons, baby,” he said quietly. “First, it’s about you and how I know Gemini is with you. Second, it’s about Gemini and how he runs his business. This started in his club, and as a courtesy, not so much as the man in your life who holds the position I hold so I was in the position to make sure he knew, but more as the sheriff of this county who should extend a courtesy like that to a man like him who runs the business where this all began.”

  “That makes sense.”

  He was glad she thought so.

  “You need to call him,” he said. “He’s worried about you.”

  “I need to call a lot of people,” she muttered. “I cleared this afternoon but I have a full schedule tomorrow. Think I’ll keep Mrs. Whitney’s appointment tomorrow night, though. She’ll freak at the bandage but she’ll get over it and she needs the company.”

  “Mrs. Whitney?”

  “My at-home client. I go see her every other Tuesday.”

  “You take at-home clients?”

  Her hand moved in his as an extension of her shrug. “Just her.”

  “She sick or somethin’?” he asked.

  “No. Her husband has zero brain function so he’s essentially in a coma, dying a very sad, very slow death in their bedroom upstairs.”

  “Jesus,” he muttered.

  “I know. It’s awful. She doesn’t get out much. She’d be okay with me rescheduling but, you know, after a day and a half of rest, I should be good to do a wash, rinse and set so she’ll have someone to talk to who can actually talk back for an hour or so.”

  Taking care of her brother.

  Taking Lou up on a challenge of mud wrestling.

  Going to the home of a lonely client to do her hair and give her a little company.

  You’re about to embark on a fabulous journey of discovery.

  Gemini had been right.

  And Hix had been a total moron, putting at risk a future that included having Greta’s ass in his Bronco at his side.

  “Hix?” she called when he fell silent.

  His voice was gruff when he pushed out, “Yeah?”

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “Yup. All good,” he said, squeezing her hand.

  “Can I tell you something?” she asked.

  He wanted to learn everything about her.

  “Absolutely.”

  “If this doesn’t work, you know, between you and me . . .” she began.

  His chest got instantly tight.

  “Just sayin’, I’m totally stealing this Bronco, loading Andy up and we’re heading to Mexico. I feel safe in telling you this because you’ll never find us. But just so you know, we’ll keep her safe so you’ll at least have that,” she finished.

  “And, you know, just sayin’, I lose this Bronco, sweetheart, I’ll go to the ends of the earth to find her,” he returned, the tightness disappearing from his chest.

  He loved his Bronc, but he wouldn’t be looking for his truck.

  “Hmm,” she mumbled.

  “Seems it’s best we work on gettin’ along, baby,” he suggested.

  “Maybe you’re right,” she replied then asked, “Can I drive her?”

  “My ass isn’t in her, yes.”

  “Is that an alpha-male thing?”

  He bit back a surprised bark of laughter and asked back, “Is it a what?”

  “An alpha-male thing, you know,” her voice dropped low, “me man, me drive, you woman, you ride.”

  He chuckled. “No, it’s I own this beast so I drive it if I’m in it so she knows she always has my love, but I’m totally cool you wanna take her for a spin if I’m not around.”

  “Okay then,” she said, sounding amused.

  “Okay,” he replied.

  With that, he drove Greta to the hospital.

  Hix also chuckled a lot as he drove Greta to the hospital.

  She ended up with only a piece of tape across the top of the bridge of her nose.

  Unfortunately, this highlighted just how deep the bruising was coming down the sides from her inner eyes.

  Also unfortunately, but in the end it worked in his favor, she was in enough pain, halfway into Monday Night Football with him and Shaw, she took a pill from the prescription they got at the hospital that they filled and she passed out with her head on his thigh on his couch like she had the night before.

  So she slept in his bed.

  And he woke up with her there too.

  So yeah.

  It worked in his favor.

  And even better, when he dropped her in her kitchen the next morning, she didn’t even blink walking ov
er the threshold.

  So it was all good and Hix rode that high to the department not knowing it wouldn’t last a full day.

  But now there was Greta and Hix’s journey of discovery.

  So he would learn he was set up to deal with the hitches in goodness.

  Because he was unblocked on her phone.

  Put Me to the Test

  Hixon

  THE NEXT NIGHT, while Greta was with her at-home client doing a wash, rinse and set (whatever that was), Hix was walking into the high school’s basketball court in order to watch his daughter play volleyball.

  The minute he walked in, his eyes went to the team benches to see his daughter in her red and black Raiders uniform with its long sleeves, too tight shorts, black knee pads at her knees, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, standing with her coach and the rest of the team.

  He felt his lips form a grin.

  A grin that died immediately when Hope materialized in front of him.

  He stopped dead because she was blocking his way.

  “Hix, we need to talk.”

  He blew out a sigh and asked a question he knew the answer to because they’d been in Hope’s care for only a day and he’d seen one of them with his own eyes, “The girls okay?”

  “Yes, but,” she got closer and her expression changed to one that Hix had to work hard not to let annoy him, “they, well, they shared that . . . that . . . that woman spent the night at your apartment while they were there.”

  Hix stared down at her.

  “You know that isn’t right, Hixon, you know,” she hissed under her breath.

  He continued to stare down at her.

  “The girls also told me the unfortunate event that took place that was the reason she was at your house, but it’s not like the woman doesn’t have friends,” she carried on.

  Hix said nothing and just kept staring down at her.

  “If you must see her, don’t shove her in the kids’ faces,” she ordered.

  That was when Hix sidestepped her and walked right by her, along the front of the bleachers, knowing eyes were on him.

  His were on the wall at the opposite end where Toast had his back to the cinderblock, the sole of his boot up against it, arms crossed on his chest.

  This was the position he’d assumed when he came to watch his daughter play volleyball (that was how he and Hix had become friends, their daughters played sports together) shortly after his own ex made it impossible to sit in the bleachers without her finding opportunity from close proximity to harangue him.