Belonging to Bandera. Tina Leonard

his head. “I need to talk to Hawk, and maybe Jellyfish.”

      “The phone’s in the kitchen,” Bandera said helpfully. “Or you can use my cell if yours is dead.”

      “Gotta be in person.” Mason cranked the truck engine.

      “A duffel means more than one or two days.” Bandera blinked, thinking fast. What if Mason decided not to come back for months? His brother was under a lot of stress. It wasn’t just the ranch—it was Mimi, too. Mason had never fully retrieved his heart from Mimi’s clutches, and Mimi asking him to be her deputy wasn’t sitting well. For Mason, it was temptation of the highest order, the thought of working daily with the woman he couldn’t get off of his mind.

      “Don’t you leave this driveway,” Bandera said. “I’m grabbing my stuff and going with you.” Someone had to bring Mason back from the edge of madness.

      “No.” He began backing up the truck. Out of the window he said, “You need to stay here. There’s work to be done.”

      But there was a brother to lose. There wasn’t time to call a family council, and Bandera knew an emergency when he saw one. None of the other brothers would allow Mason to go off like this, not with him acting all secretive. A day or two of ranch-work minus two brothers was better than six months of Mason being off in the wilds, nursing his obtuse heart.

      “If you move from here,” Bandera said, standing up to his brother for maybe the first time in his life, “I will follow you in my truck. You will see me in your rearview mirror like a hound from hell on your tail.”

      Mason sighed, putting his vehicle in Park. “You’re an idiot.”

      “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me,” Bandera said.

      “And if you recite one thing while we’re gone,” Mason said, “I promise to do you some type of harm.”

      Bandera loped off to get his stuff. In the hallway of the main house, he ran into his brother Crockett. “I just discovered Mason in the midst of another Houdini,” Bandera said. “Not much time to talk, but go out there and stall him, okay? Just in case he decides not to buy my threats.”

      “What?” Crockett looked out the window.

      “Just go keep him occupied!” Bandera ran up the stairs. He tossed jeans, boots, socks, a passport just in case—

      His youngest brother, Last, came into the room. “Running away from home?”

      “No, but I think Mason is. He’s got his duffel in the truck and he’s heading off to see Hawk.” Bandera threw a toothbrush into his bag and dug around in his drawers for other things he might need.

      “Why?” Last asked. “Can’t he just call him?”

      “Apparently not. Which is why I’m riding shotgun. Unless you want to go?”

      “No, thanks.” Last backed up. “I’ll pack a cooler for you.”

      “Thanks.” Running down the stairs and crossing the lawn, Bandera jumped into Mason’s truck. “Crockett, you’re a good man.”

      Crockett shrugged his shoulders as he leaned his forearms on Mason’s window. “I’d go with you, but someone’s got to work around here.”

      Mason grunted. “’Bout time you did something.”

      Crockett slapped his brother’s hat down over his face. Mason moved it back into position.

      Last slammed the truck bed after he put the cooler in. “Here’s snacks. Stop and get more ice.”

      “Jeez.” Mason looked at Bandera. “We’re only going a few hours down the road. Do you think you’ll need much more survival gear?”

      Bandera pulled licorice strings from his pocket. “I’m good to go on the road less traveled. Frost, of course, again. I really like the wintry old poet.”

      “Damn it!” Mason gunned the truck, making Crockett jump back and Last hustle to the side of the driveway. “I swear I’ll strangle you with your licorice. And then you’ll die by your own sword.”

      “I can tell it’s gonna be fun,” Crockett called. “Goodbye, Huck Finn! See ya, Tom Sawyer!”

      “Just a regular bunch of comedians,” Mason mumbled as he pulled away from the ranch.

      “So what’s the adventure all about?”

      “Maverick, our long-lost father,” Mason said. “Why else would I need Hawk’s detective talents and the help of his erstwhile loony sidekick, Jellyfish?”

      “Jelly isn’t loony,” Bandera said. “He’s existential, man.”

      Mason grunted.

      “So what does Maverick have to do with anything? What do you think you can find now that you didn’t before?”

      “Nothing. But Hawk will be better at turning over rocks and running through dead-end signs than I was. I’m hiring him. Or them. Professionalism is what we need.”

      “Whatever.” Bandera looked out the window as they passed the many miles of their ranch. “Mason, maybe we should just accept the fact that we’re never going to know what happened to Dad.”

      He knew it was the wrong thing to say the second he said it, and Mason’s silence was loud with disapproval. Only Mason could communicate censure so effectively without making a sound. Bandera sighed as he took in the picturesque view speeding past his window. “We have one pretty spread of land. I’m going to miss Malfunction Junction.”

      “We’re only going to be gone a few days,” Mason said. “It’s not like you need your teddy bear or anything.”

      “I wouldn’t make fun of sleeping with teddy bears,” Bandera said. “If you were sleeping with your little Mimi-bear, you’d not be off trolling after the past.”

      “Lovely,” Mason said. “Why don’t you find your own bear and keep your nose out of my business?”

      “Because I like your business,” Bandera replied. “It’s much more interesting than mine. All I know about my corner of the world is that I like it the way it is. Women only bring chaos, though I can sometimes appreciate a little lowbrow chaos.”

      “What are you talking about?”

      “I like my women on the rowdy side,” Bandera said. “Not too sweet, not too sour. Not too good and not too bad. Like a white frilly dress with a polka-dotted thong underneath—hey, look at that!”

      Bandera craned his head to see the woman on the side of the road waving a large sign. She was wearing blue-jean shorts and a white halter top. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the halter had polka dots on it, big ones. “Probably a car wash,” he murmured. “Slow down, Mason.”

      “No,” Mason said. “There’s no time. This is going to be a fast trip. It’s an information-seeking venture, not a woman hunt. Nor do I need a car wash.”

      They whizzed past so fast Bandera could barely read her sign. The blonde flashed it at him, holding it up high so that he got a dizzying look at her jiggling breasts. White teeth, laughing blue eyes and legs so cute he was sure the fanny she was packing had to be just as sweet. “Stop, Mason!”

      His brother stomped on the brake, sighing. “Why couldn’t you have stayed home?”

      “That woman’s sign says she needs assistance,” Bandera said righteously, although he really thought it had read I’m Holly.

      “And Lord only knows we never leave a lady without assistance.” Mason glanced into the rearview mirror. “I sense trouble in a big way.”

      The lady bounced up to Mason’s door. “Hi,” she said.

      “Howdy,” Mason and Bandera said together. “Can we help