“It looks like Fred is doing just fine with the gang. Come on in. I have drinks set up for you all and I'll take the dogs for a walk while you all work . . . if that’s okay with you, Gemma?” Katelyn asked.
“That would be great. Thank you,” Gemma smiled. Poor Fred had been pretty cooped up the last couple days.
“Excellent. We’re off then. Marshall, remember you’ve got two hours. Your mom wants us all at the farm for dinner. We’ll meet you there, won’t we, boys?” Fred yipped and danced on his hind legs as Justin’s big tongue hung happily out of his mouth. Chuck had already started ambling down the path as Bob grudgingly got off the cushioned chair and followed, keeping an eye out for any wildlife to chase.
Gemma took a seat in between Cy and Marshall on the couch. She'd never felt so small as broad shoulders towered on each side of her. Cole, Cade, and Annie sat on the other side of the table that was piled with papers and pictures.
“Here are all of the files on the dog-fighting case. Here are the mug shots of the people we arrested. And this final stack has the names and whatever information we have on those who were never caught. These names were in the black book we found on Nancy,” Marshall explained as he pointed out the papers and pictures on the table.
“I’m a little in the dark here. What is it that you have that relates to this old case?” Annie asked as she leaned forward in her chair.
“My sister Gia is . . . was an investigative reporter for International Press. It appears that she was investigating a man she called Lucifer and who Cy calls Mr. X. This man runs sex, guns, drugs, and more. Cy got wind of him during this dog-fighting case and I just found these pictures that my sister had hidden away.” Gemma handed Annie the first picture of Nancy taking bets and handed the picture of Paul Russell’s body to Marshall.
Marshall let out a low whistle as he traded photographs with Annie. “So, your sister was here in Keeneston during that dog-fight. And your sister was just killed because of this?”
“And this.” Gemma showed the group the pictures of the women and told them what Gia’s notes read about the sex trafficking and the dog-fights.
“Damn. I thought this was over. I thought I had cleaned up Keeneston,” Marshall cursed as he angrily stood and started pacing.
“This is so much bigger—but it all relates back to this mystery man. How much of our trouble relates back to him?” Cole asked himself as he flipped through the pictures.
“We don’t know yet. Obviously what happened with Pierce and Tammy, and then Gia and Gemma, are related to this man. What I think we need to do is dig through those files and see if we can draw more connections.”
Cy took the stack of pictures from Gemma and split them up before handing some to everyone. “These are all the pictures we found in Gia’s box. They have to be important. Let’s look through what you all have and see if we can put any names with these faces.”
Gemma was deep in research mode as she tried her best to be her sister. What would Gia think? What would she look for? The blast of text messages hitting Marshall and Cole’s phones broke her concentration.
“Crap!” Marshall and Cole both leapt up.
“We’re late for dinner.” Cole grabbed his black cowboy hat and slid it on as he picked up the notes and pictures he was working on. “Here are the pictures I was able to identify. Mostly they are of mid-level criminals. Some we picked up during the raid and some are still at large. I took notes to tell you everything I know about them.”
“Here are mine. I was only able to find the ones we caught in that raid and some were killed. Beyond that, I couldn’t find much else,” Marshall reported as he handed her his notes and pictures.
“Me too. I’m afraid it’s the same as Marshall. If you want, I can run some of these pictures by the DEA office,” Annie suggested.
“Let’s keep everything in the family right now. If these guys have infiltrated Congress, then I bet they’re in law enforcement. We run a picture through the FBI or DEA database and I guarantee an alert will be sent to Mr. X.”
Cy picked up the photos he had been going through and held one up. “This guy is a bad guy. He was in Russia as part of the arms deal that went down. He’s the one I arrested and he’s the one I bet somehow got information on me to Mr. X. Like Cole, I recognize some of these men from wanted posters. But I don’t have any specific information on them. Did you find anything?”
Gemma looked down at her notes. They weren’t much at all. “Not really. I was trying to find a certain name or something that would be the key, but I didn’t see anything like that. I guess that would've been too easy.”
“Don’t worry about it. Leave the identification of the photos to us. We need you to work on those notebooks. You’re the only one who can do that.” Cy helped her gather everything and gave her a little nudge. ”Don’t look so worried. We got a lot done and now you’ll be able to relax at my mom’s dinner.
* * *
Cy lied. This was not relaxing. The food was amazing. She had chicken-fried steak smothered in gravy and a side of homemade macaroni and cheese with chunks of country ham in it. The first bite made her alternately groan in delight and shake in fear at what the scale was going to read the next day. For the past month, she’d been living on salad, tofu, and yucky cleansing drinks.
While her stomach wanted to lick the plate, her mind kept flashing to the picture of the barely dressed actress Cy received early that day. She knew she wasn’t Cy’s type, but she would like to feel she had a fighting chance.
“Dear? Is something the matter with the dinner? Do you want me to make something else?” Marcy asked, her feelings clearly hurt that Gemma wasn’t eating.
“Don’t worry, Mom. She’s just trying to justify eating that many calories. Remember, she’s still on California food. Took me months to give in. Give in, Gemma—it’s delicious.” Katelyn winked as she took a big bite of her food.
Gemma gave in, and it was better than sex. At least the sex she’d had recently. In fact, she was so in love with the food that she didn’t even hear the conversation going on around her. When her plate was clean, she looked up and Katelyn gave her a knowing smile.
“You’re lucky you’re not dating Cy,” Annie said.
Gemma looked at her in confusion. Maybe she shouldn’t have eaten so eagerly?
“Yep, you're lucky. It would be bad,” Cole agreed.
“It definitely wouldn’t be an enjoyable dinner for you, to say the least,” Morgan added.
“Oh, yeah, it’s not fun then,” Katelyn smiled sweetly.
“Stop scaring her. It would be so cool if she was dating Cy,” Tammy giggled.
Gemma felt glued to her chair. She was stunned. She’d never been warned away from someone so blatantly and was too embarrassed to even be insulted.
“Well, of course we’d love for her to date Cy,” Marcy said with a sweet smile. “Don’t you dare scare her off.” Marcy narrowed her eyes at Pierce and he just grinned wider.
“Who? Me?” he asked innocently.
“And your sister and brothers.”
“Us?” they all asked in unison. Gemma was totally confused, but the way their faces all showed mocked innocence had her cracking up.
“Don’t try to act like y’all didn’t interrogate every date one of you brought home. I was grilled to well-done when I first came to dinner.” Cole stared at his brothers-in-law and shook his head.
“I think we all were. Although, I must say Miles and Pierce were the worst. Miles with all his serious questions about our stability and Pierce just shouting out randomness,” Annie said to Cole and the other wives.
“Totally agree with you there,” Katelyn laughed.
“For me it was Pierce and Marshall,” Morgan said with a smile.
“If I recall, y’all handled it like a pro. We’re happy to have each and every one of you in our family. Now that
