state argued that Asher should have stopped before the guy died, especially because of his martial arts training. They charged him with murder, but he took a plea bargain for a lesser charge, so it didn’t go to trial. He served seven years. Came home about a year ago.”
“Wow. That must have been terrible for everyone.”
He met my eyes and my breath caught at the hurt in his expression. “It was fucking awful.”
This time, the temptation to reach out and touch him was too strong to ignore. I put my hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”
We stared at each other for a long moment and my heart fluttered.
He turned away and finished the last of his beer. “He’s home now, so it’s fine.”
Realizing I was still touching him, I jerked my hand away, leaving me with the memory of his warm skin.
Warm and inviting.
Maybe I shouldn’t have had that second beer after all.
But the moment—if there had even been one—had passed. He was back to being as closed-off as ever. Although for a second, I’d seen through his barriers. I didn’t want to admit it, but every time that happened, I really liked what I saw.
21
Evan
My phone was ringing way too early for a Monday morning.
I was already up and working on the Pontiac, but I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. Granted, I’d talked to Fiona, but that was different. Why? I had no idea.
Didn’t matter.
It was Levi, so I turned down the music and answered. “Yeah?”
“We have a problem.”
It was hard to hear him through the background noise on his end. “What’s going on?”
“The Havens hit the Caboose. Gav and Logan are on duty today, so we could use a hand getting this cleaned up.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Fuck. What’d they do now?”
“You won’t believe me. Just get your ass down here. And bring your truck.” He ended the call.
Fiona poked her head out of the office. She was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of leggings that made it very difficult to think about anything but her ass.
Her existence in my world made it difficult to think about anything but her ass. Apparently that was just my life now.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Haven prank. They did something to the Caboose.”
“You mean the feud thing?”
“Yeah. My brother Levi needs help cleaning it up.”
“Cleaning it up? What did they do?”
I shrugged and slipped my phone in my back pocket. “He didn’t say.”
She rocked up onto her tiptoes, then back to her heels. And it wasn’t one of the cutest things I’d ever seen when she did that. Not at all.
“Can I come with you?”
Yes, because it’s impossible to say no to you when you look at me like that. “If you want.”
She bounced on her toes again and clapped. “Yay.”
Leaving Sasquatch at home, we got in the truck and headed into town.
“So, why did they pull a prank at the Caboose?” she asked. “Is the owner a Bailey?”
“Hank? No. But the Caboose is our territory—where we hang out a lot. It’s not the first time.”
“Do they have a place where they hang out? The Havens, I mean.”
“Timberbeast Tavern.”
“Have you guys pranked that place?”
“Yeah, a bunch of times.”
She tilted her head. “Doesn’t anyone get in trouble for this stuff?”
“Not usually. The cops ignore it as long as no one does any real damage.”
“So it’s not serious?”
I glanced at her. “No, it’s serious. But there are unspoken rules. No injuries or property damage. And nothing too personal.”
“What was the last prank you guys pulled on them?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. My brothers are usually the ones doing it.”
We pulled into the parking lot of the Caboose to absolute chaos.
“What the fuck?” I muttered.
In front of the restaurant was a structure built of hay bales. Some of the hay had spilled out into a wide arc and at least a dozen goats meandered around, happily munching.
But that wasn’t even the weirdest part.
Birds were everywhere. There had to be at least a hundred of them flying around, sitting on the roof of the restaurant, or dive bombing the goats. They circled, flitted around, and darted in, picking at something on the goats’ backs, then flew up again, out of reach.
In the midst of the birds inexplicably trying to land on the goats were more squirrels than I’d ever seen in my life. They appeared to be in a battle with the birds for… the goats?
As if that weren’t enough, people were trying to herd the goats—goats that clearly