Defending His Own

'Your daddy's family, not mine, and not yours. I think Johnny Joe took after his daddy and his Uncle JoJo, where Lee Roy reminds me a bit of your daddy's sister. She wasn't such a bad girl. She and your mama always got along.'

'You think Lee Roy and Johnny Joe know something about the threats against Deborah?' Ashe asked.

'Can't nobody prove nothing, but folks know that Buck Stansell was behind that killing Deborah witnessed. Whoever's been sending her those notes and making those phone calls, you can bet your bottom dollar that Buck's behind it all.'

'What do you know about this Lon Sparks? I don't remember him.'

'No reason you should. He showed up around these parts a few years back. I hear he came up from Corinth with a couple of other guys that Buck recruited when he expanded his drug dealings.'

'How do you know so much, old woman?' Ashe laid his hand over his grandmother's where it rested beside her coffee cup.

'Everybody hears things. I hear things. At the beauty shop. At the grocery store. At church.'

'After I've settled in and made my presence known, I'll take a ride out to Leighton and see how my cousins are doing.'

'You be careful, Ashe. Buck Stansell isn't the kind of man to roll over and play dead just because Deborah's got herself a bodyguard.'

'Don't you worry. I'm not stupid enough to underestimate Buck. I remember him and his old man. I've come up against their type all over the world.'

'While you're taking care of Deborah and Miss Carol and that precious little Allen, make sure you take care of yourself, too.' Mattie squeezed her grandson's big hand.

The back door swung open and a tall, thin young woman in a sedate gray pantsuit walked in and stopped dead still when she saw Ashe.'

'Oh, my goodness, it's really you!' Annie Laurie threw herself into Ashe's arms. 'Mama Mattie said you'd come home, but I wasn't so sure. You've been away forever and ever.'

Mr. Higgins sneaked into the kitchen, staring up at Annie Laurie, purring lightly.

Ashe held his cousin at arm's length, remembering the first time he'd seen her. She'd been a skinny eight- year-old whose parents had been killed in an automobile accident. Mama Mattie, Annie Laurie's mother's aunt, had been the child's closest relative and hadn't hesitated to open her home and heart to the girl, just as she had done for Ashe. 'Here, let me have a good look at you. My, my. You sure have grown. And into a right pretty young lady.'

Blushing, Annie Laurie shoved her slipping glasses back up her nose. 'You haven't seen me since I was thirteen.'

Hearing a car exit the driveway, Ashe glanced out the window in time to see a black Mercedes backing up, a familiar looking redheaded guy driving.

'Your boyfriend bring you home from work?' Ashe asked.

Annie Laurie's pink cheeks flamed bright red. She cast her gaze down toward the floor, then bent over, picked up Mr. Higgins and held him in her arms.

'Stop teasing the girl,' Mattie said.

'He's not your boyfriend?' Ashe lifted her chin.

'He's my boss.'

'Your boss?'

'That was Neil Posey,' Mattie said. 'You remember him. He's Archie Posey's son. He's partners with Deborah in their daddies' real estate firm.'

'You work for Vaughn & Posey Real Estate?' Ashe asked. 'I guess Mama Mattie told me and I'd just forgotten.'

'I'm Neil's … that is Mr. Posey's secretary. And he's not my boyfriend. He's Deborah's … I mean, he likes her.'

'What?' Ashe laughed aloud. Neil Posey was Deborah's boyfriend? That short, stocky egghead with carrot red hair and trillions of freckles.

'I've tried to tell Annie Laurie that Deborah isn't interested in Neil just because he follows her around like a lovesick puppy dog.' Mattie shook her head, motioning for Ashe to let the subject drop. 'Are you staying for supper? I've got some chicken all thawed out. It won't take me long to fry it up.'

'Sorry, Mama Mattie. I'm expected for dinner at the Vaughns', but I'm looking forward to some of your fried chicken while I'm home.'

'You be sure and tell Deborah and Miss Carol I asked about them,' Mattie said. 'And, here, take Allen some of my tea cakes. He loves them as much as you used to when you were his age.'

Ashe caught an odd look in his grandmother's eyes. It was as if she knew something she wanted him to know, but for some reason didn't see fit to tell him. He shook off the notion, picked up his coffee mug and relaxed, enjoying being home. Back in his grandmother's house. Back with the only real family he'd ever known.

* * *

Deborah checked her appearance in the cheval mirror, tightened the backs of her pearl earrings and lifted the edge of her neckline so that her pearl necklace lay precisely right. Ashe McLaughlin's presence at their dinner table tonight had absolutely nothing to do with her concern about her appearance, she told herself, and knew it was a lie. Her undue concern was due to Ashe, and so was her nervousness.

Didn't she have enough problems without Ashe reappearing in her life after eleven years? How could her mother have thought that bringing that man back into their lives could actually help her? She'd almost rather face Buck Stansell alone than have to endure weeks with Ashe McLaughlin at her side twenty-four hours a day.

Of course, her mother had been right in hiring a personal bodyguard for her. She had to admit that she'd considered the possibility herself. But not Ashe!

Ever since she had inadvertently driven up on the scene of Corey Looney's execution, she had been plagued by nightmares. Both awake and asleep. Time and again she saw the gun, the blood, the man's body slump to the ground. Even in the quiet of her dark bedroom, alone at night, she could hear the sound of the gun firing.

Shivers racked Deborah's body. Chill bumps broke out on her arms. The letters and telephone calls had begun the day the sheriff arrested Lon Sparks. At first she had tried to dismiss them, but when they persisted, even the local authorities became concerned.

Colbert County's sheriff and an old family acquaintance, Charlie Blaylock, had assigned a deputy to her before and during the preliminary hearing, but couldn't spare a man for twenty-four-hour-a-day protection on an indefinite basis. Charlie had spoken to the state people, the FBI and the DEA, hoping one or more of the agencies' interest in Buck Stansell's dealings might bring in assistance and protection for Deborah.

But there was no proof Buck Stansell was involved, even though everyone knew Lon Sparks worked for Stansell. The federal boys wanted to step in, but murder in Colbert County was a local crime. They'd keep close tabs on the situation, but couldn't become officially involved.

Charlie had been the one to suggest hiring a private bodyguard. Deborah had agreed to consider the suggestion, never dreaming her mother would take matters into her own hands and hire Ashe McLaughlin.

Closing the door behind her, Deborah stepped out into the upstairs hallway, took a deep breath and ventured down the stairs. When she entered the foyer, she heard voices coming from the library, a room that had once been her father's private domain. Her mother had kept the masculine flavor of the room, but had turned it into a casual family retreat where she or Deborah often helped Allen with his homework. The old library was more a family room now.

She stood in the open doorway, watching and listening, totally unnoticed at first. Her mother sat in a tan- and-rust floral print chair, her current needlepoint project in her hand. She smiled, her gaze focused on Allen and Ashe, who were both sitting on the Tabriz rug, video-game controls in their hands as they fought out a battle on the television screen before them.

'You're good at this,' Allen said. 'Are you sure you don't have a kid of your own you play with all the time?'

Deborah sucked in a deep breath, the sting of her son's words piercing her heart. She couldn't bear the way Allen looked at Ashe, so in awe of the big, friendly man he must never know was his father.

'I don't have any kids of my own.' Ashe hadn't thought much about having a family. His life didn't include a