Katie snorted. “Penny, your FBI jerk sounds like Ronnie’s ex-husband.”
“Does he still live back in South Dakota?” Penny asked.
“Sort of.” Ronnie cringed at her sordid, crime-laced history.
“He lives in prison,” Katie blabbed. “Although it’s one of the fancier resort-style lock-ups, we’re told.”
Ronnie growled at her sister. “While you’re busy giving your tell-all about my past, why don’t you spill about your ex-criminal boyfriends?”
Katie chuckled. “I’d rather tell them about your aversion to wearing underwear.”
Millie cackled again. “It’s no wonder Grady gets all googly-eyed when you’re around.”
“The sheriff of Cholla County does not get googly-eyed,” Ronnie said. Although he did get very handsy when they were alone, which tended to make her get lippy back. “And I don’t have an aversion to them. I skip wearing underwear because my yoga pants have a built-in crotch.”
“Don’t we all.” Katie giggled. “And mine currently has a baby in it.”
“That’s enough with you, Mr. Hyde. Let Dr. Jekyll come back out to play.”
“As you wish.” Katie ran her hand down her face, smiling innocently at Ronnie when she was finished.
“That’s creepy,” Ronnie told her.
She shrugged. “What about Claire and Natalie?”
“What about them?”
“We need to give them a job to do.”
“They have their hands full building Ruby’s back deck in the day and working at The Shaft at night.”
“That’s true. Besides, Claire needs to keep Mac distracted.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because he’s onto us,” Katie said. “I can tell by the way he’s watching us when he’s working behind the bar.”
Hmmm. Mac was very clever that way. “I’ll talk to her.” Ronnie looked at Penny and then Millie. “So, are we done here? Because I need to go back to Ruby’s and shower before I head to work.”
Penny nodded. “We should exchange phone numbers before you two leave so that we can keep in touch. Otherwise, we each have our assignments.”
“Listen, I can’t thank you two enough for helping Claire and me like this,” Ronnie said. “You’re putting yourselves in danger and don’t think that I’m oblivious to that. If there is anything I can do in return, don’t hesitate to let me know.”
“There is one thing,” Penny said as she lowered herself onto the arm of the couch next to her aunt.
“What’s that?”
“My mom wants to meet you. Come to her birthday party with Grady.”
Ronnie gulped. No! Not the mother. That was the real-relationship-deal stuff. “Is there anything else that I could do instead?”
Millie snickered. “Don’t be such a puss. My sister just wants to sniff around you a bit. I promise she doesn’t bite.”
“Not usually, anyway,” Penny added, and then the two of them laughed and laughed.
Chapter Nineteen
Mac climbed the porch steps to the General Store, pausing at the top to look to the east. The greens of Jackrabbit Creek’s riparian vegetation snaked through the alluvial valley, which stretched wide as it sloped upward from the RV park to the purplish-blue Tres Dedos Mountains in the distance. Overhead, the vast blue sky made him want to lie on the sandy ground with his hands behind his head and soak up the fresh desert air.
It was a nice view.
It was a new year.
“It’s time to shake things up,” he said under his breath, feeling the certainty in the notion with a rush that made him eager to return to Tucson and set changes in motion.
But first, he needed to clear a landing strip on this end.
His aunt, the very person he needed to talk to, was leaning on the counter next to the cash register in the General Store, reading a magazine.
Kismet? Maybe so.
“Morning, darlin’,” Ruby called out.
“I thought Harley and you were heading to Tucson today,” Mac said as he walked to the back of the store and grabbed a bottle of iced tea from the cooler. He picked up a bag of trail mix on his way to the counter.
Ruby’s curly red hair was pulled back in a ponytail today, her denim shirt rolled up at the sleeves. “We are, but not for another hour or so. We’re fixin’ to spend the night. Which reminds me, can we camp at your place if we do?”
“Of course.” He set the tea and trail mix on the counter. “You know you don’t even need to ask.”
She looked up from the magazine. Her green-eyed gaze searched his face, her freckled forehead lining at whatever she saw there. “What’s going on with you, hon?”
Mac decided to ease into the truth. “I tried to go up to the mine this morning.”
“Which one?”
“Humdigger.” He threw a few dollar bills on the counter.
She pushed his money away. “You don’t need to pay.”
“We’ve had this discussion before.” He pushed it back toward her.
With a sigh, she took his money and put it in the cash drawer. “What do you mean, ‘tried’ to go up to the mine?”
“Natalie’s friend Coop was with me. He got shot before we could hit the trail.”
Her green eyes widened. “What?!”
Mac explained what had happened, including the hour wait at the ER while Coop was being patched up, and ended with dropping the detective off at his camper a few minutes ago. Coop had told Mac he planned to clean up, change his clothes, and maybe sleep for a couple of hours after their late-night partying and early morning shoot-’em-up fun.
“Does Natalie know about this?” Ruby asked, her hand on her chest.
“Probably. I called Claire from the ER. I’m assuming she told her cousin.”
“Holy smokes. I’m sure glad that boy is okay.” She sat on the stool behind the counter. “Maybe you should just stay out of that mine, darlin’. First you end up in the ER with a dislocated shoulder and bruised ribs because of it, and now this.”
His aunt didn’t know about the odd sounds Claire and he had heard when they went inside the mine’s back entrance last time, nor the cavern with the cots and other evidence of possible human trafficking, and she didn’t need to as far as Mac was concerned.
“That isn’t going to happen.” He tore
