“I didn’t—”
“Shh... We don’t gotta talk about it.” He made ac’mongesture and then disappeared around the side of the bunkhouse.
I hunched back over my food and ate. Things would probably be better if I kept some distance.
And not just because apparently Tad was sharing my story and getting it all wrong.
I pushed my plate away and let my head rest on my arms.
Murder is complex to define. In Texas, there’s capital murder, murder, voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter. In reality it’s like a judicial television with a rabbit-ear antenna. Your lawyer and a prosecutor for the Great State of Texas hold up the wires and twist the dials between them until the picture looks enough like what you did.
Every murder is different and every bad guy has his reasons. But you can’t bring a dead man back to life and people don’t forget.
Between my full belly and the sunshine coming through the leaves of the trees, my second lunch acted like a sleeping pill.
When a gentle hand touched my arm, I jumped. “Huh?”
“I’m sorry for startling you,” Elena said coolly. “I’m looking for Rocky. Have you seen him?”
“No.”Rocky?He’d asked me to call him Rock. “I must have drifted off. Can you tell me what time it is?”
She glanced at her watch. “Almost two. If you see him will you tell him I need to talk to him?”
“Yes.”
“Be careful with those dishes.”
“Yes’m.” I steadied the pile before picking it up.
She continued to glare at me in an unnerving, side-eyed way. I stopped where I was. “Did I do something?”
She kept her gaze on me for a few seconds more, and then she held her hand out.
“Look,” she said while we shook. “The thing with Rocky is he’s not used to being around...”
“Desperados?” I gave her the word.
“Don’t make a joke out of this.” She tucked both sides of her hair behind her ears and pushed her sleeves up. “My godson says I baby him too much but—”
“You’re just looking out for him. I understand.”
“How old are you?” Her voice was soft. Her tone unhappy.
“Twenty-six.”
“I’ll bet you’ve lived a lot in those years. Rock is a very young twenty-three. He’s been here since he graduated high school. He isn’t worldly. He doesn’t know what he wants. He’s eager for life but his limitations—”
“Wait.” We were both embarrassed by this point. “I’m really just here to work, ma’am.”
But when I said the words, they only felt half-true.
Rock was safe from me, but was I safe from Rock and his boy-smile and his adorable goddamn dog?
Rock’s image lit up my memory.
“I’m not a bad guy.”
“Then you’ll understand why I want something better for him than a hookup with some guy who’s already got a big strike against him. I want him to marry. Have a family.”
