Southern Heart (Southern 5)

"Did they take Gabriel?" Emily says, looking around, and neither of us makes eye contact with her.

"I’m going to kill your son." She looks at my mother, taking her phone out of her back pocket and calling him, walking away from us.

"Ten minutes," I give out a number. We started this betting thing as far back as I can remember. We would always bet to see how long it would take.

"Not coming," Amelia says. "He’s going to call her Sunrise, and she’ll be putty in his hand."

"You need to look into becoming a lawyer," my aunt Olivia says to her.

"I say five minutes," my aunt Kallie says. "I have to have faith in my boy." Amelia and I just look at her, shaking our heads.

Emily comes back, putting her phone in her back pocket. "So what did he say?" Amelia asks.

"Well…" she says.

“Called it,” Amelia says, clapping her hands together now.

“Oh, shut up," Emily says. "He is sitting on the horse with Jacob, so he’s fine."

"Lies," I say and then look over at my grandmother, who is walking back into the house. "I’m going to go and help." I walk away from the women and stop to say hello to a couple of people who always come over.

I open the screen door and walk in, smelling the pies right away. "What can I do to help?" I ask her, walking over to the sink and washing my hands, even before she says anything.

"You are glowing," she says, and I look over at her. "You were always beautiful." She walks over to the oven and opens it to peek in. “But these past couple of weeks, it’s just…"

"I feel like I’m complete." Does that make sense? "I know I don’t need a man to complete me, but going to bed in his arms every single night." I smile. "It’s the best thing in the world."

She smiles at me. "To this day, I can’t sleep if your grandfather isn’t next to me. He could be downstairs watching television, and I won’t be able to sleep without him.”

"That is so sweet." I smile now at her.

"Sweet but also annoying." She grabs her rag, opening the oven again as she takes out the first pie. "Where is the plate you took last week?" My grandmother looks over at me.

"I forgot it at home," I say to my grandmother. "I’m going to go quickly,” I say. "Can I take the truck?" I walk over to the table at the front door and grab the keys.

“Don’t be daft,” she says. “I have a million plates.”

“No, it’s fine," I say, opening the front door.

"Go and get Amelia to go with you," she says, and I shake my head.

"I’ll be ten minutes,” I say and walk out of the house, getting in the truck and making my way back to my house.

Chapter 29

Mayson

Fourteen of us got on horses and followed Quinn and Casey twenty-five minutes out, behind a forest of trees, coming out to a fenced-in opening. The sun is heating us up in record time.

A red barn sits there right at the front of the fenced area. Asher gets off his horse and walks over to the barn doors. He opens one door and then goes to open the other one. One by one, we ride in.

We all get off our horses, and I don’t know why I’m expecting a small barn, but nothing Casey does is small. There are twenty stalls all ready and prepared for the horses, buckets of water sitting in each stall filled with hay. "Each horse has its own stall," Asher says. "Load them up."

I hook up my horse and walk out just in time to see Quinn walking over to a solid silver door on the right-hand side. He puts his thumb on the keypad, and you hear a click, the door opening for him. "Gentlemen and little one." He winks at Gabriel. "Are you ready to have some fun?"

"Follow me." Asher walks past us to the doors in the back.

Once I make my way out, I put my hand up over my eyes to see what I’m looking at. It looks like a shooting range, except there are targets all over the place. It looks like over a hundred people all scattered around the place. A wooden table is set up where you would stand to shoot.

"Holy shit," Toby says. "I can see myself spending lots of time here." He claps his hands together happily.

"If you bring my son here without me"—Ethan looks over at them—"Dad isn’t going to be able to save you from my foot going in your ass."

"If you bring Gabriel here"—Beau looks over at us with his hands on his hips—"I’ll whip your asses myself."

"I’ll help your father." Jacob now pipes in, and Toby just nods his head.