Grey appeared disgusted and defeated. "Did you want a ride to town this afternoon?" he asked then hesitated. "I could run you back now, if you're in a hurry."

Vaughn remained peacefully reclined, smiled, and shook his head. "No, I think I'll wait until my head stops spinning. I have nowhere to be."

"All right then," Grey announced with a little too much enthusiasm. "I should probably get some coffee started. Sounds like we're going to need it around here today."

Grey entered the kitchen and approached the coffeemaker on the counter. He hesitated, leaned on the counter with both hands, and appeared to sink deep into thought. He finally straightened, removed a bag of coffee from the cupboard and tossed it onto the counter near the coffeemaker. He again hesitated. Vaughn and Casey were heard talking softly on the porch. Grey's lips curved into a sneer. He violently and repeatedly punched the bag of coffee on the counter while grunting with anger and rage. After the tenth hit, the st.u.r.dy bag ruptured, sending coffee grounds scattering along the counter. Grey again placed both hands firmly on the counter, hunched over the spilled coffee grounds, and attempted to control his breathing as his psychotic look remained fixed on the ruptured bag of coffee. Dina wearily entered the kitchen and stared at the scattered coffee grounds. He saw her and quickly straightened. His look immediately turned innocent and possibly charming.

"What happened?" she asked with surprise.

"It slipped from my hand," he replied timidly.

It was early evening. Dina removed clothing on hangers and hung them in the closet of the spare bedroom while Casey removed clothing from a box and placed them in dresser drawers. They busily worked in near silence. Dina looked back at Casey several times between trips to the closet. She bypa.s.sed the box, sat on the foot end of the bed, and watched Casey.

"I really appreciate you doing this for me, you know," Dina announced softly.

Casey glanced at Dina and shrugged but kept her attention on filling the drawers. "We have the room, and after what happened at the tavern, it didn't seem right to let you stay in your apartment alone."

"I've been thinking about your routine for the talent show," she announced.

Casey snorted a laugh without looking at her. "I'm glad someone is," she announced. "I'm certainly not."

"They're letting us practice on stage tomorrow afternoon," Dina informed her. "You should come along and practice, you know, get a feel for the stage. It's different being on stage."

"I don't know," Casey announced then shut the drawer and finally turned to face Dina. "I'm having stage jitters as it is."

"All the more reason to practice on stage," Dina informed her then smiled deviously. "We'll also get a chance to scope out the compet.i.tion."

"I know Melanie is good," Casey snorted. "I don't need to be reminded of it."

Grey entered the bedroom and set a box down on the floor with a grunt. "What do you have in here? Bowling b.a.l.l.s?"

"Close," she replied. "They're family photo alb.u.ms."

She received odd stares from both.

"From my grandparents," Dina replied to their silent question. "When they were still living and before my father took off, there were a lot of fond memories."

Casey glanced at her brother and appeared curious. "I thought you left with the guys," she said to Grey.

"Ruger and Diesel can handle the rest of the boxes in Dina's apartment," he announced. "I thought I'd pick up a few pizzas for dinner."

"I thought I saw both cars leave," Casey remarked.

"Yeah, last trip," Grey replied.

"Then what do you intend to drive to get pizza?"

Grey suddenly grinned and raised his brows suggestively.

Casey appeared horrified and shook her head. "Oh, no," she said defensively. "You're not driving my car."

"Oh, come on," Grey pouted childishly. "You never let me drive your car."

"You own a car?" Dina asked her friend with a look of near surprise.

Grey looked at Dina and grinned. "Not just a car," he announced. "It's a 1969 Chevy Camaro Z/28 cla.s.sic muscle car with an engine the size of a freight train."

Casey rolled her eyes as Grey boasted about her car. Grey seemed disappointed that neither shared his enthusiasm for the car. He sounded oddly like their father for one fleeting moment.

"Sheriff Holt was drooling over it when I showed it to him in the garage," Grey announced proudly.

"You were showing him my car? Why?"

He stared at her with an oddly dumbfounded look. "Because, it's the only cool thing about you."

She again rolled her eyes. Dina hid her smile to keep from laughing.

"Fine, take the car," Casey scoffed. "I don't know why Dad gave it to me in the first place."

"Yeah, he knew you drove like an old lady," Grey announced and appeared to pout. He then looked at Dina and flashed a smile. "It was supposed to be a surprise high school graduation gift, but it took him longer than antic.i.p.ated. It turned into her college graduation gift. He worked on restoring that car every weekend for seven years."

Casey sank against the dresser, appeared distant, and frowned. "It was a surprise all right," she said with a sigh. "Ruger found my graduation card on the dashboard of the car when he was packing up things the day we moved out." She glared at Grey. "You know where to find the keys."

"I'll be back in an hour," he announced and darted from the room.

"That means he'll drive around half the county before getting pizza," Casey informed Dina.

"I wasn't really hungry anyway," Dina announced gently.

Casey straightened and sighed. "I'm going to make some tea. Did you want some?"

"Actually, I'd like to take a bath before the guys return," Dina informed her. "I've been feeling grimy all day."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Casey replied. "I might take a shower myself. I'll make tea afterwards. Just come downstairs when you're finished."

Casey left the bedroom, shutting the door behind her.

Chapter Twenty-two.

The black Chevy Camaro appeared at the end of the dimly lit gravel driveway from the Remington farm. The engine revved as the car burned out in the dirt and the tires squealed on the paved road. The Camaro jetted down the road with a roar. A truck's headlights suddenly came on. The pickup truck drove along the road and turned into the Remington farm driveway. The headlights went out as the truck pulled off to the side of the driveway just out of view of the house. Wayne and Ryan got out of the truck and looked at the house in the near distance beyond the barn. There were several inside and outside lights on.

"Was that all of them?" Ryan asked.

"Except for Casey and Dina," Wayne announced. "The others should be gone at least an hour."

"Remember," Ryan said firmly. "We're just sending a message. If anyone gets hurt, Uncle Lance will have our heads."

Wayne removed a cord of rope from the back of the truck, glared at his brother, and shook his head. "You're starting to sound like a little girl. If I wanted to hear nagging, I would have let Fred tag along."

"Let's just get this over with," Ryan snapped. "I'm not thrilled hanging around out here."

"Relax," Wayne snorted. "We need to case the place first. Make sure they're both inside."

Both men stood near the front of the truck and watched the house in the distance. Everything seemed quiet. There appeared to be no signs of life within the big farmhouse.

"Someone's in the upstairs bedroom," Wayne announced. "I didn't see anyone else moving around." Both hurried around the back of the truck. "We have to do this quick. Once I catch Casey's horse, you need to tranquilize it."

"Yeah, I know what I'm supposed to do," he huffed.

"We'll leave the horse's head on the porch," Wayne said while grinning. "That should send them running out of Darwood Falls."

Ryan removed an ax from the back of the truck and took a deep breath. "Let's go."

Both men hurried along the darkened driveway while keeping in the shadows. They approached the barn with its vapor light brightening the entire paddock. Both peered around the corner of the barn to the horses grazing in the pasture. Casey's gray horse stood near the fence separating him from the mares and attempted to get female attention. The mares weren't interested tonight. Storm's head suddenly lifted. He looked toward the barn and snorted. Nothing moved. The horse minded his own business and returned to snickering at the mares. Wayne and Ryan kept their backs to the barn and appeared to contemplate their next move.

"I swear, that horse knows what we're up to," Ryan said softly to Wayne.

"It's just a dumb animal," Wayne scoffed.

"I remember that dumb animal kicking our a.s.s once before," Ryan reminded him. "Maybe we should go after one of the others."

"No, it has to be Casey's horse," Wayne insisted and looked back around the edge of the barn toward the gray horse in the paddock. "The message has to hit her where it counts."

Wayne looked back alongside him. Ryan was gone. The barn door gently swayed. Wayne looked around and appeared bewildered.

"Ryan?" he asked. "Where'd you go? Now's not the time to be taking a p.i.s.s."

There was no response. Wayne stared at the open barn door and the darkness beyond it. He slowly approached the barn door, set the rope down, and clutched the ax in his hand.

"Ryan, you'd better answer me," Wayne snorted softly.

Someone moved within the darkened barn. Wayne lifted the ax to his shoulder and slowly entered through the open barn door. He looked around the near darkness of the wide aisle. Stall doors on either side lined the dark barn. Each stall door was open to dark stalls. Ryan wasn't seen.

"Ryan?" Wayne whispered.

The sound of a tiny whinny was heard from one of the nearby stalls. Wayne clutched his ax and approached the stall. The sounds of a small animal thumping around within the stall was heard along with what sounded like a foul snickering softly. Wayne paused by the closed stall door, peered inside, and grinned.

It was over an hour later. Casey entered the kitchen in a pair of comfortable shorts and a worn tank top. She looked out the kitchen window toward the well-lit barn and wondered where all her guys were. At the very least, Ruger and Diesel should have returned with the rest of Dina's belongings. There was no telling when or if she'd ever see Grey again. He was probably in the next county with her car by now. A car's headlights appeared in the driveway. She couldn't make out the car, but it was driving too slowly to be Grey in her car. She appeared relieved that someone had finally returned. Dina entered the kitchen wearing a thin t-shirt and shorts that left little to the imagination. One look at Dina, and Casey knew Grey was going to be tripping over his tongue.

"Okay, now I'm hungry," Dina reported. "Where's the pizza delivery boy?"

"Daytona, probably," Casey retorted. "One of the guys just pulled up though."

"Oh, f.u.c.k!" Diesel was heard yelling from outside.

Both women were suddenly alerted by the sounds coming from the usually unflappable man. They ran for the front door. Casey opened the door and stepped onto the porch. She stared off the porch and appeared horrified. Dina stared past her and suddenly gasped. The baby horse had Diesel's jacket sleeve in its tiny teeth while tugging on his arm. Diesel attempted to hold the box he held while fighting off the frisky foul.

"It's attacking me!" Diesel shouted. "Get it off me!"

Casey suddenly laughed then ran off the porch for the little foal. She gathered the baby horse around the chest and hindquarters and gently pulled it away from the big man. It finally released his jacket sleeve and attempted to pull free from her. She struggled to contain the baby horse while Storm snorted playfully at his little boy from his front row view at the gate.

"Isn't that thing supposed to be on a leash or something?" Diesel demanded while juggling the box in his arms.

"He's just a baby," she informed him and tried not to laugh. She then appeared curious. "I wonder how he got out of his stall."

Casey kept her arms around the baby horse and scooted him toward the barn. She disappeared inside the darkened barn. Diesel carried his box to the house and set it on the porch. He returned to the car for another box and glanced at the silent, dark barn. He removed another box from the car and again looked at the dark barn. His head tilted as he stared suspiciously. A moment pa.s.sed before Casey finally came out of the barn. Diesel returned to acting disinterested. Casey approached Dina on the porch.

"Is everything alright?" Dina asked.

"I guess," Casey replied but wasn't convinced. "Mom was in the aisle eating hay. I don't know how they got out of their stall, but the door was wide open."

"Maybe you didn't latch it right," Dina replied.

"I don't make those mistakes," she replied dryly. "That's more Grey's department. He must have gone in there for some reason and didn't latch the door right." She shrugged. "No harm done, I suppose."

"I hope there's something for dinner," Diesel announced as he pa.s.sed them with a box and no longer paid attention to Casey's dilemma. "I'm starving."

Casey eyed him and shook her head. "When aren't you starving?"

Ruger carried a large box down the outside steps from Dina's second floor apartment and onto the sidewalk. He approached Grey's jeep parked out front and placed the box in the back with the rest. Several people ran down the sidewalk toward Town Square while chattering excitedly. Ruger watched the people rushing past him. On the other side of the street, more people ran in the same direction. The commotion was louder now. Ruger appeared curious and followed the crowd. There were dozens of people collected around Town Square.

Ruger saw Wiley and approached him. "What's happening?" he asked, faking a serious tone. "Did someone's cow go into labor?"

Wiley glanced at Ruger and gave him an odd look. Ruger grinned in response. Wiley shook his head and pointed in front of Town Hall.

"No, I'd say it's a little more entertaining than that," Wiley reported.

Ruger moved through the crowd to see what had everyone's attention. He found a part in the crowd and suddenly stopped to stare at the sight. Ryan and Wayne were bound and naked facing each other on either side of the old cannon in front of Town Hall. They attempted to scream through their socks stuffed in their mouths. Deputy Mitch.e.l.l attempted to untie them while Ernest screamed at him and the crowd, who took pictures with their cell phones. Ruger stared at the sight with a look of mild shock. He suddenly grinned and laughed while shaking his head. He removed his cell phone and snapped his own picture.

It was Thursday morning. There was a lot of activity around town with the fair coming up on Sat.u.r.day. Vendors filled the streets on their way to and from the fairgrounds in preparation for the upcoming events. Traffic jams and loud horns blowing awoke the town early. Larger vehicles were having difficulty navigating the streets to get safely to the fairgrounds. Two temporary police officers attempted to direct traffic alongside Mitch.e.l.l, who appeared frantic. The sheriff's police blazer pulled alongside the road several yards away. Sheriff Holt joined Mitch.e.l.l and helped the temporary officers direct traffic so the larger trailer could pa.s.s through the intersection. Several locals stood on their porches and enjoyed the free show. Most of the people in town were easily amused, and the annual fair brought plenty of entertainment, particularly the week before and the days after the fair. Once the large trailer was able to pa.s.s through and traffic began moving again, the onlookers from their porches teasingly applauded Sheriff Holt and Deputy Mitch.e.l.l. Vaughn smirked and waved back at them.

Vaughn left his blazer parked in front of the pharmacy and walked the two blocks back to the police station. It would take longer to navigate traffic and wasn't worth the effort. He crossed the traffic and headed into the police station. Vaughn entered the mostly quiet office and approached Jeannie's desk before his office with a pleasant smile.