Jed made a growling sound in his throat, and his hands clenched into fists. "I don't likeyou, young man. Be very careful with what you say about my family."
Logan held his hands up in a show of surrender. "Just making an observation that Dead End seems to have welcomed Jack with open arms. Guess they don't know about the things you did in the war, do they? You're an awfully violent man for such a quaint small town."
Susan snorted, and Jed and I both started laughing.
"Clearly, you do not understand Dead End," I said, thinking of the time everybody in the diner had pulled out weapons when some out-of-town mob guys had threatened Tess. Even tiny old Mrs. Frost had pulled a mini crossbow out of her giant purse and pointed an arrow at them.
"Quaint," Susan said, shaking her head. "If only. I bet quaint towns get a lot fewer dead bodies."
"Anyway," I said, before the conversation we needed to have got derailed. "How about some coffee? We need to talk."
We headed into the comfortable old farmhouse that my Uncle Jeremiah had left me when he'd died far too young. Jed stared at everything as we walked through the family room, wide-eyed and narrow-lipped, seeming to be fascinated and disapproving all at the same time. He stopped in front of the coffee table, loaded with piles of books I was reading and a few of Tess's, stopped again next to the big-screen TV, currently off, and then turned to me.
"This is an enormous home, grandson. Yet it seems you live here by yourself. Why is that?"
"I'm alone," I murmured, feeling a muscle in my jaw tighten. "My uncle died fairly recently, and my parents passed a long time ago. It's just me."
A shimmer of pain shadowed his gaze. "My wife and all but one of my babes died from illness, and my only surviving son and I were estranged when he was an adult, over an argument that seems insignificant now. When the Fae queen came to take me, I was alone, and I no longer cared if I lived or died."
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Shepherd," Susan said, compassion in her voice and expression. "It must have been so hard to live back then, with so many dangers around every corner."
"Coffee," I said, and led the way back to the spacious kitchen. Flourishing plants lined the windowsill—tigers are good with plants—and the sun streamed into the bright, homey room from two large windows. The three of them took seats at the old, wooden, farmhouse table—almost a twin to the one at Tess's house—and I made coffee in the new machine I'd recently bought.
Tigers are also good with gadgets.
When mugs of coffee were on the table, and everyone had the sugar or cream they wanted, I finally spoke again.
"Okay. It's time for the whole story, Jed. If—"
My great, great—oh, let's just call him grandfather for simplicity's sake—my grandfather shot me a look.
"You can call me Grandfather, youngster."
I felt the grin tugging at my lips. "Yes, okay, Grandpa. Let's hear it."
He sighed and took a long sip of coffee. Then he put the mug down and sighed again, studying each of us. "Am I to understand Miss Gonzalez—"
"Sheriff Gonzalez," Susan gently but firmly corrected.
"Sheriff Gonzalez is your law enforcement?"
"Yes, you are," she said, less gently this time. "And you can't pretend you don't know what a sheriff is. We derive the word from the Angle-Saxon Shire-Reef, one who collected taxes and enforced order as far back as the late 800s."
Logan grinned at her. "Who's your source? Robin Hood? If the sheriff of Nottingham had looked like you, we'd never have heard anything about Maid Marian."
"King Alfred the Great of England," she said coolly. "Some of us like history."
"The legend of Robin of Loxley came from ballads much further back than my day," Jed said.
"And, you know, the Disney cartoon," Logan offered.
I closed my eyes and wished for Tess. She was much better at talking to people. I mostly just wanted to roar at them or maybe hold them down with a paw—while showing them my teeth—until they quit annoying me.
"Enough," I growled. "Jed—Grandfather. Talk."
"All right. All right." The old man's shoulders slumped, and I had a moment of regret that this was how we met—under threat of destruction. But we'd have plenty of time to catch upafterwe saved Dead End.
"As you probably know, I am the one who negotiated the original treaty with the Fae that granted us the lands that became Dead End and Black Cypress County."
