Hearths of Fire (16 page)

“Have you heard anything on what Ashes to Dirt believes in or what they are doing out there with all that land? Has Sheriff Plinkton kept an eye on them?” Neal was well aware of how Hearth’s citizens shared every bit of gossip there was and this was no exception. The sheriff told his wife what went on during the day and by sixteen hundred hours, the rest of the town knew who’d been in trouble. “Have any of the followers done anything illegal?”

“The only thing that I’ve heard came from Thelma a few weeks back,” Charlotte said, crossing her arms. Neal gritted his teeth to prevent his gaze from lowering to her breasts. Her figure was downright sinful and he’d always enjoyed the ample size of her…shit, he needed to stick to the topic at hand. “She mentioned that the Ashes thought their son was the messiah or something like that. It didn’t make much sense and honestly, Ashes to Dirt hasn’t done anything illegal that I know of. You remember—they keep to themselves even when they come into town.”

The second Char mentioned the word messiah an ominous feeling came over Neal. Cults had been known to do some sick shit in the name of a homegrown messiah and normally he didn’t generalize, but it was something to look into. He mentally started making a list of people he wanted to speak with tomorrow and old Sheriff Plinkton was first on Neal’s list. In the meantime he needed to get through this meal without any further talk about the past and then head over to the football game, which brought another round of questions.

“Is Mandy with Garreth right now?” Neal asked, suppressing a sigh of relief when Sally returned with his coffee and Char’s hot chocolate. He moved his arm to allow the waitress to set the mug down in front of him. “Thank you, Sally.”

“Anytime, sugar. Your plates are up now, so let me go grab them.”

“Yes, they were at the pep rally although I’m not so sure where they are now. I was heading home to change into warmer clothes for tonight’s game.” Charlotte lifted the cup of hot chocolate to her mouth and blew lightly, pursing her pink lips that brought back those unwanted thoughts he was thinking earlier. “Mandy didn’t call after school like she usually does, which means that she was with Garreth. I thought if I was at the game I could at least keep an eye on them from afar.”

“Invite him over for dinner tomorrow,” Neal suggested, knowing Char wouldn’t be too happy with the idea. “It’ll give me a chance to talk to the boy and get a sense of where things have gotten to and to know him a little better.”

“No threats?” Charlotte asked, raising her right eyebrow. Her blue eyes finally had a hint of sparkle to them as she resorted to her natural way of teasing him. Neal didn’t want the previous tension to return, so he allowed her to continue with the good-natured ribbing and lifted the corner of his mouth in a smile. “And trust me, he isn’t a boy. He’s close to six feet tall and appears rather intelligent. It’s the way he carries himself, I guess. It’s almost as if he thinks he’s smarter than everyone around him. Who knows…maybe Thelma is right and the entire cult thinks he’s the messiah. Maybe even he believes it.”

“I don’t threaten boys,” Neal replied wryly, taking a sip of his coffee. He placed it back on the table when he saw Sally walking toward them with their dinners. “He does need to know that there are some ground rules when it comes to dating Mandy. I’m not saying you didn’t go over those policies with them, but if he were as smart as you make him sound, he’d be encouraging her to go to nursing school before making any life altering decisions. Maybe hearing it from a man will drive that point home.”

Neal saw the vivacity in her blue eyes fade as his words reminded her of their own past.
Anything
that was said could be related back to them. He hadn’t done it on purpose, but the damage had already been done. So much for thinking the rest of the meal could be done in harmony. Sally set their dinners in front of them, the delicious smell of barbeque pulled pork wafting up from the plates. Unfortunately his appetite had fled the moment he’d arrived in town.

“Much appreciated, Sally.” Neal picked up his fork and moved some of the meat around on his dish. “Who are we playing tonight, anyway?”

Just as Neal had intended, that got Sally, Fred and the other diners in a discussion about the high school football team. It didn’t go unnoticed that the man who had been sitting at the counter chose that moment to pay his bill and leave. Neal followed his movements, and it wasn’t until the man had gotten to the door that he turned his head and met Neal’s stare. He’d only ever seen vacant soulless pits like that once before, and that was when he’d been engaged in battle during one of his combat tours and they’d taken two of the Taliban prisoner. There was something innately missing from their moral conduct and when the man’s eyes drifted to Charlotte, Neal’s gut tightened.

“Neal?”

Charlotte had called out his name softly, so no one had noticed that he hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation. Fred was debating with Carl and Sally over whether or not their team had it together defensively for tonight’s game. Neal looked back toward the door but the man had already vacated the premises. Scanning the windows to see which direction he’d taken proved fruitless as dusk was starting to settle in. The impending darkness didn’t ease Neal’s discomfort. Something in the air had changed since he’d left two months ago and it had everything to do with Ashes to Dirt.

*

Charlotte heard the
knock at the door and she knew it was Neal arriving to pick her up for the game. She’d tried to argue with him earlier that she could drive over to the field, or for that matter walk, but her arguments proved useless. He’d become more contemplative halfway through their dinner and she wasn’t sure what had changed. They’d both tried to stay away from the topic of their past and it had gotten harder with each passing hour.

As they’d walked out of the diner, Charlotte had inquired as to where he was going to stay. She was certain the house his parents had deeded over to him was still rented by the Orlins and Neal been gone for so long that the majority of the friends that he’d had back in high school hadn’t been around these parts in a very long time. Nothing had really changed along those lines…once a person left Hearth they didn’t come back. That wasn’t likely to change anytime soon.

The temperature dropped in the evenings this time of year, so Charlotte had layered up and was now decked out in jeans and a thick red poncho type sweater with a long sleeved thermal shirt underneath. She was starting to rethink her attire as a hot flash came over her that had everything to do with the man knocking on her door. What she needed to do was concentrate on why she’d asked him here and not on the
what ifs
that she found herself ruminating in.

Inhaling deeply, Charlotte steadied her nerves and greeted him with a smile on her face. It faltered slightly as she saw that he, too, had changed clothes. The navy blue sweater he was wearing hugged his wide chest and left little to the imagination while making the color of his green eyes richer. Had he gotten even bigger since leaving town this last time? A flush stole across her cheeks as he raised an eyebrow at her silence and she hoped like hell he didn’t know the cause.

“It’s really cold out here,” Charlotte exclaimed, snatching her house key and a twenty-dollar bill off of the side table. She stuffed both in her back pocket so she wouldn’t have to carry a purse and stepped out onto the porch. She’d already had her cell phone in her other back pocket, just in case Mandy called. When Neal didn’t back up right away, her body came within inches of his and she felt like she’d been placed directly next to a blazing fire. Her mind went back to that one clear memory of them standing in the rectory and of how cold she’d been during that time. Had her heart and soul ever truly thawed out? She hadn’t thought about what the ramifications would be for her when she’d asked for his help, but she was quickly comprehending them. “Let me lock up and then we can be on our way.”

“I noticed a few of the cult members walking around town,” Neal said, seemingly oblivious to her body’s reaction. Charlotte breathed a sigh of relief as she followed him down off of her porch. He was noticeably looking around the neighborhood as they walked down the stone path she’d put in this past spring. She was proud of the way it turned out, but since he hadn’t mentioned the remodeling she’d done on the outside she didn’t think he’d noticed or cared. Music from the high school stadium could be heard from a few blocks over, indicating the game was getting ready to start. “They seem to be loitering around town with no destination in mind. Is that a new thing?”

“Sort of. It started October first but the sheriff said there wasn’t much he could do about it since they weren’t causing any real trouble. Two of the members always seem to be walking down Main Street, although neither one of them ever enter any of the shops.” Charlotte waited to say anything else until she was sitting in his truck and his hand was still on the door, looking down the road. She twisted around and saw a dark figure standing on the corner. It was the first that she’d seen a follower this deep into the neighborhoods and a chill ran through her. “Neal?”

“Were they by the bookstore at all?”

“I see them outside the window every now and then, but it’s not like they come inside.” Charlotte was starting to rethink her opinion about the original intention of why the members were walking through town. What did they want? “I think we should go now.”

“Stay inside and lock the door,” Neal instructed in a deadpan voice as he tossed her the truck keys. He reached behind her seat and within a few seconds pulled out a pistol in a leather clip-on holster, which he fastened onto his belt in less time than it took for him to retrieve the gun. She knew that her lips were parted in astonishment, but she couldn’t get them to close. What did he think he was going to do? “If you hear any shots, call the sheriff.”

And with those final words Neal slammed the door shut. When he didn’t move right away, but instead stood there looking at her through the window, it dawned on her he was waiting for the sound of the locks catching. Charlotte fumbled with the set of keys while trying to find the right button. Finally locating it, she pressed and winced as the activation sound echoed throughout the cab. When she looked back through the window Neal was gone.

Charlotte quickly turned in her seat and saw that he was heading in the direction of where the dark figure had been…but who was there no longer. She didn’t like that Neal was outside by himself with no back up. She’d seen enough crime drama television shows to know what happened in situations like these. She didn’t want to place herself in danger, but she also didn’t want Neal to get snuck up on from behind. Ignoring her racing heart, the perspiration underneath her sweater, and the fact that her stomach felt like she’d just been plunged down a ninety-foot drop, her hand settled over the handle.

‡

N
eal made sure
he kept to the far side of the road where the street lamps wouldn’t make him so visible. When he’d caught sight of the figure standing on the corner, he knew immediately from the dark clothing that the person was a member of Ashes to Dirt. Had he or she been sent to Charlotte’s house due to the fact that Neal had made it known he was here to see Mandy? Whatever the reason, this dawdling shit the cult was doing was about to come to an end.

By the time Neal had walked past three houses he’d accepted the fact that he wasn’t going to find out who had been watching them or the reason why. The moment he’d told Charlotte to lock herself in the truck the person had slid into the shadows. Son of a bitch. He strained to hear anything other than the music blaring from the stadium, but not even the crickets were making a sound. He turned around to head back to Charlotte when he saw the dome light in his cab light up, indicating that she’d opened the door. Red-hot anger tore through him and he quickly made his way back.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Neal asked harshly, knowing by the way Charlotte had jumped that she hadn’t expected him to return so fast. She was already standing on the road, her brows in a V at the fact that he’d taken her by surprise. That was just tough shit. “I told you to stay in the truck. That was for your safety. You—”