Rekindling the Flame (Smoky Heights #1)

Chapter 28

TWENTY-EIGHT

WYATT

When her text came in, I didn’t know what the fuck to think.

Aurora

Bring any SWAT gear you can get your hands on and be here in thirty.

*pin drop*

Now that I’m here, pulling up to the old bowling alley that had a tradition of playing records while patrons gamed, Pins + Needles—the big “DO NOT ENTER” sign across the door, the “Property of Brown Stone Bank” sign across the exterior wall facing the road—I have more questions than I did when she sent the text.

Aurora and Laura Lee are around the back, by the old employee entrance. I know, ’cause I was one in high school. Had a lot of fun sneaking Rory in this door and keeping quiet in the back corners, behind the lanes, when I was supposed to be working.

It was kind of a local ritual, actually. Sneak in, fool around, carve your initials in the wall to the side of the mechanical area. You’d add a / for spare if you fooled around without getting caught, and an X for a strike if you went all the way.

I bet our initials are still there. Probably several sets of them. With a lot of Xs.

Not sure what to make of that same girl tapping her foot at me as I approach them now, her mom seated on a walker as they wait.

Shame this place got closed down not too long ago. Not too many other places for people to hang out around here.

“Was a B&E on that list of yours, Ms. Weiss?”

But then the sun glints on Aurora’s hair, blinding me, and I lose the train of thought I was on. It’s like a spotlight is on me in an interrogation. I throw an arm over my eyes and stagger backward. “Whoa.”

“Don’t you dare say a word,” she threatens me, finger in my face as I step closer.

“About how your head looks like a safety vest a litter crew would wear on the side of the highway, or something else?”

“I told you!” Aurora scowls at her mother, like the hair is her fault, and Laura Lee just chuckles breathily.

“And I told you , that hair’s not going to keep him away, dove.”

Aurora leans her head back, pulling her hair together in her hands in some sort of ponytail that looks fancier than the ones I’m used to seeing around here before tying it up with a band she pulls off her wrist, and then glares at me angrily.

One hand holds the back of her head as I lean forward and kiss her on the top of it, right on that hair that’s nothing like her, and let her know her mom was right.

“You look as gorgeous as ever, Hellcat,” I reassure her. “From the forehead down.”

She punches my shoulder, and, good for her, it hurts.

“If Duke wasn’t working right now, I’d send you right back where you came from, Grady, and do this without your ass.” Well, damn. Some of her twang came out on that little vent. I thought it was gone for good.

“Well, sucks for you, I’m all you got. So why don’t you show me what law we’re breaking today and maybe tell me why? Or do I not want to know? Am I supposed to have deniability or whatever the official word for that is.”

“Not sure we can argue plausible deniability when you’re the one that brought us the gear to break in with, but if you stay on the only lawyer you know’s good side, maybe you’ll get lucky,” Aurora shoots at me.

“I already got lucky,” I whisper the words in a growl against her ear with a tap to her ass, and I think we’re both going to pretend her mom didn’t catch both of those things from a few feet away. I watch Aurora’s cheeks heat, and it gives me satisfaction to know I can affect her like that with a single line, one touch.

My eyes flick to the camera on the corner of the building. “We worried about that?”

Laura Lee pipes up, vehemently. “They should be worried about a lot bigger matters than an abandoned building they forced a foreclosure on and did nothing with after that. Scum, these people. Scum!” she shouts the word at the camera, and I expect her to spit, or maybe a shake a fist or something.

“We’ve been here for an hour already. Thanks for that, by the way,” Rory says, cutting a harsh glance at me again. “And nobody has shown up or anything, so here’s to hoping this place is unmonitored and we’re safe. Either way, what are they going to do? The violation calls for a minor fine at best. All she wants to do is retrieve an earring she lost here, they can suck a fat one if they call that a crime.”

She leans in close to whisper so only I can hear her, “This is the second-to-last major thing on her list, getting this earring back.” Excited eyes, wide and full of that untamed passion I’m obsessed with are locked on mine and for a second I forget about anything else, heart in my throat as I let her exhilaration sweep through me.

“Can you two hurry up already? I’m freezing to death out here.” Laura Lee wraps her giant jacket around herself tighter and then lets out a dry laugh. “That’s not far from the truth, is it?” She laughs again, and Rory stares on, horrified at first. But the longer she watches her mom laugh, sees her double over in the walker, legs crossed and howling, she eventually cracks, joining in.

“You’re … so … fucking … morbid!” Aurora gets the words out between cries of laughter, and it just makes Laura Lee laugh even harder.

Rory’s mom tries to talk, tries to explain why it’s funny, but she can’t get out a single word without laughing harder, and I’d be lying if I said watching this entire exchange didn’t pull some rare laughter out of me too.

“I’m gonna pee!” Laura Lee howls, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Please stop!”

“I told you I’d end up wiping your ass while I was here!” Rory crows, and it sets off a fresh round.

“Over my dead body!” her mom quips back, and they’re just done for. Neither woman can stand up, Aurora is leaning against the wall, staggering as she tries to get herself upright again, but these women are just making each other laugh harder every time they make eye contact, or even look at the other.

Eventually, the cackles turn into heavy sighs, and they (even more eventually) quiet down.

“My cheeks hurt,” Aurora says, touching them gingerly, testing them out.

“Not used to taking me yet?”

I whisper it, but Aurora’s eyes go completely round as her mouth thins into a line. Damn, am I glad looks can’t actually kill. She’d be toasting her mom over my casket right now.

“Are you gonna get us in this damn building, or are you just here as eye candy?”

Didn’t expect that from Ms. Weiss, give her a small chuckle at that sass I normally see primarily from her daughter, but I take the hint.

“All right, what’s the issue here?”

Aurora shows me the door, the various padlocks they have on it (three feels excessive for a town with so little crime and no vagrancy to speak of, but then again, here we are about to pop them all off anyway, so maybe they were right to be overprotective). I grab what we need from my truck—thankful she didn’t really want me to bring a battering ram or anything—and make quick work of getting the locks out of our way.

The door looks a little crusty from disuse, but when I go to kick it open for the girls, Laura Lee stops me.

“Allow me,” she says, chin held high, as she stands from the walker on shaky legs and pushes the door forward with both hands. It looks like it takes all her waning strength, but her triumphant smile says it was worth it.

Once she steps through the door, she seems to lose her balance, wobbling a bit, and Aurora catches her, swooping in behind her with gentle arms that steady her, and placing the walker there so she can rest on it again. “Easy does it there, SEAL Team Six. Take a breather, get your balance back, and then we’ll go get your earring back in the name of justice.”

I step in behind Aurora and place a hand on her low back after closing the door behind us. My thumb traces a circle on the small of her back and she leans into me ever so slightly. Try not to be too obvious about how I inhale her scent when she does.

“All right, let’s blow this popsicle stand,” Laura Lee says, standing back up and marching forward, phone acting as a flashlight to lead our way in the blackness.

“I still don’t know how you think you’re going to find this earring, Mom. Where do you think it would be at this point?”

“Oh, there’s no earring, don’t be gullible, Aurora,” Laura Lee spits out over her shoulder.

I hear the breath leave Aurora in surprise at that.

“Well, what the hell are we here for then?”

“Unfinished business,” she says simply.

Rory and I follow her, she seems to know where she’s going, which is the back route to that wall I mentioned earlier. Sure enough, when we pass it by, Aurora’s hand comes out to trace some of the carved initials we go by.

RW + WG X

I smirk when I spot it and sneak the tips of my fingers in the waistband of the burnt orange pants she’s got on, skim them along her delicate skin there until I see her shiver and shoot me a look to cool it over her shoulder. Give her a wink that promises to get much, much hotter later, and withdraw my hand after one final pinch for good luck. She squeaks, and her mom doesn’t miss a beat.

“What is it?”

“I think I saw a mouse,” Rory says, clearing her throat.

“Must be the same mouse that visited your bedroom late at night all throughout your teen years,” Laura Lee says knowingly.

“Mom!” Rory yelps, and I can’t help it. I let out a laugh, a hearty one.

“You ever get that infestation taken care of, Aurora?” I ask her.

“Pretty sure Duke’s seen that mouse still sneaking into her room at the bar,” Laura Lee muses, coming to a stop at a spot close to the end of the wall in question. “She must have the cheese that particular mouse is after.”

“Okay, stop ,” Rory orders, holding up her hands. “There’s been a lot of weird euphemisms for my vagina in our household, but cheese has to be the worst of them. Please, just stop.”

“Hand me your pocketknife, Wyatt.” Laura Lee holds her hand out to me expectantly, eyes still on the wall in front of her.

Dig around in my front pocket, hand it over to her and watch in astonishment as she opens up the screwdriver with ease and begins carving into the wall.

“What—?” For once, Rory seems to be knocked speechless.

I lean forward, pressed in against Aurora’s back to look more closely at what her mom is doing.

LW + DE

“Laura Lee?” I say. “I’m not trying to get too personal here, but you do know what this wall is, right?”

“A little late to say you don’t wanna get too personal when you’ve been as personal as one can be with my youngest child. I’d say we’re pretty close by extension at this point, wouldn’t you, Wyatt?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Without moving her head she eyes me out of the corners of her eyes, cutting me a warning glare.

“Sorry, ma’am,” I mutter.

“Of course I know what this wall is,” she says flippantly.

“So why are your initials on it?” Aurora asks her.

“You think you kids are the only ones who get to have a good time?”

Aurora sputters, mouth open, as she watches on in disbelief.

“You and Duke ?”

“What other ‘DE’ do you know?”

I blow out a long whistle. “Damn, Mama Weiss. Respect.”

Laura Lee finishes carving the slash, for spare, into the wall right next to the initials that were already there, but takes the knuckles I’m holding out to her and indulges me in a pound. She turns back to the wall and puts the tip of the screwdriver back to it, starting to cross over her slash to turn it into an X.

“MOM!” Rory yells. “No, an X means you went all the way back here.”

Her mom looks at the girl I’ve always loved and smirks at her. “I know.” She goes back to scratching at the wall.

“Oh my God, I did not need to be here for this.” Aurora covers her eyes, then her ears, then her eyes once more, before finally speaking again. “If you knew all this, why didn’t you carve your initials in back then?”

“We were about to get caught, we had to run,” Laura Lee says with a shrug. “Never thought to go back before the place closed, but while we’re in the spirit of wrapping up unfinished business, as you’re so fond of saying, seemed like my only chance.”

“And you didn’t want Duke with you when you did this?” Aurora presses her for more.

“It’s gonna be my little surprise for him,” Laura Lee says with a wicked smile that is scarily similar to her daughter’s. “Wyatt, snap a picture, honey.” She poses next to the carving, and I take a picture that turns out surprisingly well in this dim lighting. Damn, I’m impressed with my phone.

But all of a sudden it gets super bright in here, and I know that’s not from my screen.

The beam of light bounces around the dark space, and I hear a door slam in the distance. Laura Lee turns off her flashlight.

“Put your hands where I can see them and make yourself known!” Wow, even the guy’s voice sounds douchey. That’s not one of our sheriffs, I know all our boys by name. Grew up with most of ’em, under the watch of the rest of ’em. Whoever the fuck this shitstain is, he’s got something major up his ass, but he’s about to get my foot up there too.

Aurora must come to the same conclusion I do, that there’s no path out of here we won’t run into this guy, and we won’t be able to do it in the pitch black. Plus, he’s probably already written down our plate numbers, and we’re likely on camera, anyway.

“Don’t say another word to my clients,” Aurora bluffs. She doesn’t practice criminal defense. She’s a corporate attorney specializing in contract law, and I bet that’s never gotten her in a situation like this before, but it doesn’t stop her from trying to protect us. “They’ve invoked their right to an attorney.”

“He’s not a cop,” I tell her, and say it loud enough for this jackass to hear.

“I’m a security guard,” he says, pompous as can be, but he’s breathing heavily, like the fifty-yard walk was a hike through the Smokies in the height of summer. “And you’re in violation of the no trespass sign on these premises.” He finally makes it to us, shining his flashlight in our faces, one by one, causing us to shut our eyes and jerk our heads away from the light. Aurora steps in front of her mom, to protect her eyes and her head from the discomfort of that light. Probably doesn’t want to risk triggering another seizure. Yep, this guy’s even shittier than he sounded when he first opened his mouth. An ugly fucker too. Like a bulldog gained a few hundred pounds and learned to walk upright.

“How about you stop playing Paul Blart and we’ll leave, then,” I say, shoulders back and back straight.

“What are you doing here in the first place?” he asks, instead of moving for us to pass him by.

“Looking for an earring,” I reply drolly.

“Right,” he scoffs. “You broke into the premises to get an earring.”

“Yep,” I answer quickly. “And now we found it, so if you’ll move out of our way, we’ll be on our way.”

“We’re going to wait right here,” the asshole says, thumbs in his front belt loops, beneath his sagging stomach.

“Are you keeping my clients here?” Rory goes full attorney on him, and, fuck, I’m half hard for her for it. “One of my clients has a health condition that I’m not required to disclose to you, but keeping her here when she needs medical care and her scheduled medications, is not going to work out well for you. Believe me when I say you do not want to be on my bad side.”

“You really don’t,” I pipe up, and her mom nods from behind her.

“We can step outside,” he says, like he’s doing us a favor. “But you’re not going anywhere until the deputies arrive.”

“Mmkay, lead the way,” Aurora clips. She can tell when the intelligence of her opponent doesn’t register on the same scale as hers, and there’s no point in arguing further.

Me? I’m not as smart as her, I wanna destroy this prick, even if that doesn’t accomplish much more than satisfaction for me.

“That ‘earring’ must’ve been mighty important,” the wannabe says, complete with air quotes because he sucks. “Took y’all long enough to get in here.”

“Took y’all long enough to show up,” I retort to his back.

He reaches the door, pulls it toward us to open it, and steps outside, but bars our path to leave beyond that, arms crossed over his massive chest.

Rory helps her mom out of the dark building and then gets her settled in on the seat of the walker along the outside wall, wrapped up in a couple layers to keep her warm enough as I face off with King Dong.

“Took me forty-five minutes to get to your shithole of a town,” he says, sneering down his nose at me. Guess it’ll be a bit easier when our outpost opens up here next year. We’ll be able to keep an eye on the miscreants here up close.”

“Why the hell would you need a location here ?”

I narrow my eyes on his gold nametag that glints in the last sun of golden hour. Bubba .

“Faster response time when our client needs us to keep their properties secure.” He somehow made response into four syllables, while popping his lips, and he said it while fingering the edge of his badge, like a fucking creep.

I step into his personal space, closer than I’d care to, but he needs to get the point. “You get yourself off with that plastic Temu badge, don’t you, you fucking rent-a-cop?”

“What did you just say to me?” Bubba breathes the words out around his underbite.

“Wyatt,” Aurora snaps my name. I feel like the Rory I grew up with would be right here by my side, taking this motherfucker’s legs out from beneath him, but I guess Aurora picks and chooses her battles. To be fair, I do, too, and I picked this one. I think we take turns these days.

Before anything can escalate further, a patrol vehicle, a Crown Victoria, rolls into the lot, a familiar face behind the wheel. One of those childhood friends I mentioned, Carlos. Once he’s out of the car and by our sides, Bubba opens his mouth again.

“Good. Another officer of the peace is here. Cameras caught these folks breaking and entering into this here property. When I apprehended them, they said they were ‘getting a lost earring.’” He uses air quotes on the words.

“Okay, well, they’re out of the building. I trust you helped them find that earring, so you can secure the property now, and I’ll make sure these ragamuffins skeedaddle.” Carlos stifles the smallest of smirks as he tries not to make eye contact with any of us.

Bubba isn’t happy with that. “Our client would like to press charges.”

Carlos glances at me, Laura Lee, and Aurora, uncertain. “Against these three?”

“Against anyone who breaks into their properties, yes.”

“Did they take anything valuable?”

“Not as far as I can tell.”

“Did you find spray paint? Did they deface the property?”

“Nope.”

“So you want me to book them for … walking into a building and not hurting anything or anyone, and being perfectly willing to vacate the premises when asked?”

“Yep.” This fuckwad’s fly is probably tight from the boner his micropenis is getting over this display of massive power he wields.

“As far as I can tell, there was no crime committed, no intention to commit a crime beyond trespassing, so that doesn’t qualify as breaking and entering.”

“Is your body cam recording?” Bubba asks Carlos.

The deputy does his best not to laugh directly in the other man’s face, but I can tell it’s a struggle. “Body cam? We don’t have body cams here, we don’t even have crime .”

“Well, our camera showed the crime of our property being broken into, and I’m asking you to hold the responsible parties accountable.”

“Trespassing is only a criminal offense when the persons don’t leave upon request, and we tried to leave,” Aurora says with more authority in her voice than anyone else in this parking lot. “This ‘guard,’” she uses his air quotes against him, “prevented us from leaving.”

“Are you going to do your job or not, Deputy?” A little speck of spit flies out when Bubba pops that p , and I cringe for Carlos’s poor face.

“It’s fine,” I jump in. “I’ll head over to the station, you can book me, and my lawyer will be right behind us to bail me out.” My eyes catch Rory’s, just to be sure, and hers soften in silent thank you.

Bubba’s definitely gonna jerk it the second he’s back in his Chevy Aveo, judging by the look on his face when he speaks again. “According to the video surveillance, this woman is the one who forced entry and opened the door.” He jerks a thumb at Ms. Weiss.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Aurora’s jaw actually falls down.

“I think it’ll be enough of a message to the other dirtbags of this town if she’s held accountable for her crime. I’ll let you take it from here, Deputy.” Bubba lets a meaty hand fall on Carlos’s uniformed shoulder, thunking him more than patting him, and he steps back to watch, and probably fondle himself.

“I’m sorry about this,” Carlos whispers. “If you’ll just get in the car, I’ll drop you off at home, Laura Lee.”

“Are you kidding?” Laura Lee stands up off her walker and steps over to him. “I didn’t think I’d have a chance to get arrested too. I didn’t even bother to put that on my bucket list, but this is worth at least triple points, wouldn’t you say? Aurora, get a picture, will ya? Your old woman is wanted!”

Aurora covers her mouth with both hands to hide her laugh from the jerk off to the side, but I don’t bother hiding my smile from him. Let him know he didn’t defeat shit here. We’re making memories with her mom, having a day for the mental scrapbook, despite his best efforts to ruin it.

The theme song from the James Bond movies sounds from somewhere in the parking lot and Bubba answers his phone. “Yeah, I’m still in Smoky Farts.” He laughs at his own joke, belly and chins jiggling. “No problem, boss.” He stands straight, snapping to. “Be right there. About an hour. Okay, I’ll try.” He ends his call and puts the phone back in a holster on his belt that looks like the closest thing he’ll ever get to wearing a pistol for his job and gives us one final stink eye. “I trust you’ll keep this place on your patrol from now on, until the locks get replaced.”

Carlos rolls his eyes and turns his back on the guy, but my girl isn’t having it.

“Hey,” Aurora calls out, snapping her chin up toward him. “For the record, I hope every time you think you have to shit, nothing comes out. And then as soon as you get in a public place, it hits. And you never make it to the toilet in time. Ever.” She wriggles her fingers at him in goodbye and turns her back on him again. The view is better than he deserves, and I step in front of her to glare at him until he’s gone.

Laura Lee looks like she’s having the time of her life as Carlos loads her in the back of his Crown Vic, and Aurora documents the whole thing, letting her mom pose for funny shots, and ones that make her look like she’s been picked up on the lam after a crime spree, very mafia heyday.

Aurora makes sure her mom’s walker and cardigans go with them in case she needs them, and we agree to pick her up from the building that triples as city hall, the police station, and the fire department, then Carlos carts her away, Laura Lee cackling in the back. Aurora turns to wave at her the entire time, me at her back, watching as they go.

The second they’re out of sight, Rory’s on the phone with someone back at her firm in New York. “I want you to find every single offense they could be held accountable for. Not just the ones we’ve been focusing our efforts on. Every single violation we can nail them for. I want to drown them in legal fees, fines, and penalties. Rip their proverbial fingernails out one by fucking one. Let’s give them ten thousand cuts and let them gurgle and choke on their own blood until they pass out from the blood loss and never wake up again.”

I might be ten kinds of fucked up for getting a semi at that, but damn, I’ve always had a thing for this feisty woman bringing out her claws (metaphorical and literal). I call her Hellcat, after all.

She ends the call, slipping her phone in the small purse slung across her body, and I yank on her hair, pull her by the ponytail until her head is leaned all the way back, and I have full access to that gorgeous face. My other hand comes up to cup her chin, and then I claim her mouth, tongue sweeping in and showing her how much I need this woman, her determination, the fire she brings to everything she touches.

I’m with her. I’ll help however I can, and so will the rest of the Heights when they hear about this. Which, they probably already have.

“When this is all taken care of, I think it’s time you spent a night at my house for once,” I murmur against her lips.

“Maybe after I get my hair fixed. I think we’ll be relegated to quickies until I can bear for you to look at it.”

I chuckle, then nip at her lips with a tap to her ass.

“Hellcat, you could come over bald and I’d still want you.”

She hums against my mouth, and I pull back so she can look me in the eye.

“Kind of ironic, no?”

“What is?”

“That I left because I was scared to become my mom, or follow in her footsteps.”

“Why’s that ironic?”

“Did you see her today? If I end up like her, I’ll be one lucky bastard.”