He walked into the brightly lit store and nodded at the teenager behind the counter.
“Hi, Mr. Duncan,” she said.
“Morning, Luanne. How are things?”
Code for “How is Kathy today?”
“Good. She’s good.”
He tried to remember when his mother had changed to “Kathy.” Because that was how he thought of her now. He had for years. She didn’t mind. To her, their relationship was in the past tense, as if it were a story someone had told her. She used to have a son. He didn’t know what he was to her now or how she thought of him. She was always happy to see him, but she was happy to see everyone. It wasn’t personal.
He heard voices in the back of the store and walked toward them. He would guess that Kathy was interviewing someone to discover if they were worthy of a bird or a kitten. But when he stepped around a large display of cat litter, he saw a tall woman in a familiar uniform. She looked up at him, raised an eyebrow, then returned her attention to Kathy.
“You have a visitor,” Dana Birch, Titanville deputy, said.
Kathy turned toward him. Her whole face lit up as she smiled broadly. “You came to see me.”
She always sounded surprised, as if each visit were a treat.
“Hi, Kathy,” he said as he approached. He kissed her cheek, then handed her the coffee. “Just how you like it.”
Kathy took the container in both hands and sighed. “He always brings me coffee. Isn’t Garth nice?”
Dana eyed him with all the affection one would give a colony of ants at a picnic. “He’s just swell.” She nodded. “Garth.”
“Dana.”
She tapped the name tag on her dark blue shirt. “Deputy Birch.”
“But we’re so close now.”
He didn’t like that she was here. The need to protect his own made him want to lash out. He held back because this wasn’t the time.
While he and Dana had never been officially introduced, he knew who she was. She was more than one of the deputies in town, she was close friends with the Titan sisters. She knew all about his plan to take down the family and was determined to stop him. Objectively he knew that her perseverance and loyalty were a testament to her good character. But if she got in his way, he would crush her just like he planned to crush Jed Titan and his daughters.
“Dana is my friend,” Kathy said between sips of her latte.
“Yes, I am,” Dana said. “But now that Garth’s here, you’ll want to talk to him, so I’m going to go. I’ll see you in a few days.”
Garth touched Kathy’s hand. “I’ll walk Dana to her car. Be right back.”
Kathy nodded happily.
Garth followed Dana out of the pet store.
“How unexpected,” she said cheerfully, when the door had closed behind them. “I never thought of you as the gentleman type.”
He grabbed her elbow hard enough to bruise and stepped in front of her. “What the hell are you doing?”
She put her hand on his wrist and pressed with two fingers. Pain shot through his arm. “You’ll let me go right now or I’ll change you from a stallion to a gelding with a single shot and swear on a stack of Bibles that it was an accidental discharge.”
Her brown eyes flashed with temper and a promise to follow through. He knew she would happily take him on. Not just because of her position as a deputy but because she was loyal to the Titan sisters. They were her friends and she protected what was hers.
Something they had in common, he thought, noting the shape of her mouth was surprisingly sensual for a woman who wore no makeup and obviously thought acting girly meant being weak.
“You think you can take me?” he asked, releasing her.
She did the same, letting up the pressure on his arm. Whatever nerve she’d irritated continued to tingle. He ignored it.
“I’m more than confident,” she told him.
“Confidence is good,” he said. “But don’t get cocky. I always get what I want.”
“All you’re going to have in the end is some guy chasing your ass all around your prison cell. You won’t like being Bubba’s bitch, but you will have earned it.”
He chuckled. “Very visual. I’m impressed.”
She poked him in the chest. “You don’t get it. I will take you down. I don’t care about money or mind games. All I know is you’re hurting people I care about. They’re my family, as much as Kathy is yours. I can’t wait for the day I get to drag your sorry self to jail. And I’ll be the one, Garth. I don’t care how many favors I have to call in. I’ll be the one.”
“I’m counting the minutes,” he told her, meaning the words. Dana was a formidable adversary. He could respect that. And her. Which didn’t change his mind about what he was doing.