Outlaw's Honor

“It’s pretty. Onyx, right?”

She nodded, still running her fingertips over the stone. “My grandmother gave it to me. For luck. And,” she said with a laugh, “to ward off the evil eye.”

“The evil eye?” he repeated.

“I come from a very superstitious family. If you wrong someone they can put the evil eye on you. Once the curse is on you, well, it’s almost impossible to get it removed. Often you take it to your grave. At least according to my grandmother. Just better to always wear the evil eye pendant to counteract evil.”

“Almost impossible?” he said, looking as if he wasn’t sure he believed any of what she was saying.

She laughed. “Do you have a curse you need removed?”

“Maybe.”

“I’m afraid I can’t help you. I should get to work,” she said as a pickup pulled up out front.

“You can put your name on your locker,” Darby said as if uncomfortable with the topic of curses. “You might want to get a lock for it if you’re worried about someone taking your things.”

She laughed. “Strange, but few people steal from a Romani. The consequences, you know...” She touched the pendant again. Her laugh echoed through the bar as she went to unlock the saloon’s front door for their first customers.

* * *

FLINT STOPPED BY the clothing store—the only place in town that sold the type of tennis shoes that had left the tracks outside the latest crime scene. What made the tread unique other than the pattern on the bottom was that both pairs worn by the culprits appeared to come from brand-new shoes that showed no wear at all.

It didn’t take him long to find the ones he was looking for. He was surprised by both the type of tennis shoe—and the price. But the biggest surprise was yet to come.

“Do boys buy these?” he asked the owner of the store.

“They’re women’s sneakers,” she told him.

“Have you sold many of them?”

“They’re really popular with teens.”

“I need to know who in town has purchased them. Is that possible?”

The owner shook her head. “I wasn’t here. Maybe the clerk might remember who bought them.”

He was still processing the fact that his thieves were more than likely girls. “Is the clerk around?” he asked.

The owner hesitated before she said, “In the back helping with the shipment we got this morning. I suppose you could talk to her. If it doesn’t take too long. I have customers coming in. They’ve been waiting for some of the new dresses.”

“I’ll be brief,” he promised as he grabbed one of the tennis shoes and stepped back into the employees-only area. It was dusty and a little dark back there, the area crammed with loaded shelves. He found a young woman tearing into a stack of boxes by the open back door.

“Sheriff?” Finn Marsh said in surprise as she looked up.

He hadn’t realized she was back in town since, not only had he gone to school with her, she’d also dated his brother Hawk. “Finn, I didn’t know you were working here.”

“Again,” she said ruefully. “Just like in high school.”

He knew she’d gone away to college and gotten a job. He couldn’t remember doing what. Strange that she was back, he thought. “I know you’re busy. I just need to ask you if you remember selling three local girls these shoes?”

Finn smiled and nodded. “Funny you should ask. They bought them at the same time. The reason I remember is that Tori and Wendy used their mother’s credit cards and the other girl paid with what looked like her piggy bank money—mostly small bills and coins. It was painful to watch.”

“Is that unusual for a kid to pay with money they’ve saved?”

“No, but it was strange. I got the feeling that Tori and Wendy were forcing her to buy the shoes.” Finn shook her head. “I know it sounds crazy, but I was thinking they might be bullying her since the girl wasn’t one of them, you know what I mean?”

“Who was the girl?”

“Laralee Fraser.”

He knew the Fraser family. The father was a truck driver on the road a lot. The mother took in laundry. The family barely scraped by. So what was Laralee doing buying expensive tennis shoes with Tori and Wendy? He didn’t like the sound of this at all given that the shoe prints had turned up at three of the four break-ins. This sounded like the three were in some kind of cahoots. Or that the two were setting Laralee up to take the fall for the break-ins.

He thanked Finn and walked back up front to replace the tennis shoe he’d borrowed.

“I don’t think they have those in your size,” said a familiar female voice behind him. He turned to find his ex-wife, Celeste, smiling up at him.

One of the things that had attracted him to her in the first place was that she was adorable, from her button nose and her big green eyes to her bow-shaped mouth and her blond bob. Celeste had been a cheerleader, one of the popular girls in school, the girl most likely to marry well.

Her only misstep had been marrying him. But she’d rectified that by having an affair with Wayne Duma, one of the movers and shakers in town. The now Mrs. Wayne Duma was the last person he wanted to see.

“Celeste.”

“It’s good to see you, Flint. I’ve been thinking about you a lot.”

This was definitely not what he wanted to hear.

“I didn’t like the way we left it, the last time we saw each other,” she said, actually sounding nervous. But that, like so much of her, could be an act.

Keeping his voice down, he said, “The last time we saw each other, I made it clear I wanted nothing to do with you.”

“I know you were angry—”

“Celeste, why can’t you leave me alone?”

Her eyes filled with tears. “You really don’t know?”

“I know you can’t stand the thought that I might move on, might find some happiness with someone other than you.”

“You can’t think you’ll find happiness with Maggie” She scoffed at the idea.

What had it been about Maggie that had made Celeste come after him again? He’d dated other women and Celeste hadn’t seemed to care one way or another. But Maggie had set her off. Was it because she saw that he had true feelings for the woman?

“I’m not discussing this with you. I can be with anyone I want.”

“But Maggie? She’s so wrong for you.”

He glanced toward the owner of the store, knowing she was probably listening to all of this. He lowered his voice. “It’s none of your business, but I’m not seeing Maggie anymore.”