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Chapter One
“Aja Marie Everett, you’d better get your hind parts down here before this food you had me cook gets cold.”
Had her cook? Aja rolled her eyes from the safety of her bedroom, knowing dog-gone well she wouldn’t dare display that level of disrespect in front of any witnesses. Not just because she was liable to catch a boomerang slipper up against her head if Aunt Jo saw her. But also because she was raised right and loved that old woman bellowing her name to pieces. Aja laughed knowing she hadn’t asked her aunt to cook. No one asked Aunt Jo to cook. It was simple fact that her aunt never met a kitchen she didn’t love, and if her elder found herself in a kitchen, there wasn’t a devil in hell that could stop her from whipping up something good and hearty for the people in her presence.
Once Aja finished getting dressed, she rushed into the kitchen to the stove and placed a gentle kiss on her aunt’s cheek. “Morning, Auntie. Smells like heaven in here.” Aja pulled a mug from the cabinet and poured herself a cup of coffee before sitting at the eat-in counter.
As she sipped, Aunt Jo placed a piping hot bowl of creamy grits in front of Aja. She took a long sniff of the buttery scent wafting up at her and hummed in appreciation.
“I didn’t make biscuits and sausage because you said you had to get an early start.”
Aja waved a hand. “This is more than fine. The girls and I have a lot on our agenda this morning.”
That was a daily truth that would continue for the long foreseeable future.
Ever since Aja came back to her family’s ancestral home on Restoration Ranch, she’d known she’d have to give it all she had to restore this place to its former glory. To make it once again a place where folks at a crossroads in their lives could start their second chance. Where Aja could start the second chance she was so desperate for.
When it was done, it would be a spa resort and a wellness center where people could reconnect to themselves surrounded by the soothing quiet of the ranch.
“You sure it’s safe out there for y’all to be working after yesterday?”
Aja grabbed her cup of coffee and took a long sip to avoid answering her aunt’s question.
Without warning, and while she was standing way to close for comfort, one of the construction scaffolds collapsed. The memory of how close she’d come to being injured or worse made her insides quake with cold. Determined to chase the chill away, she blew on the steaming spoonful of grits and slowly slurped them into her mouth.
“I swear you make the best grits in Texas, Auntie.” She let a satisfied moan slip, then tucked into the dish. She was halfway through her meal when she looked up and caught sight of the bright smile lighting up Jo’s face that let her know the old woman wasn’t no way fooled by her attempt at changing the subject.
“What are you smiling about?”
“You.” The single word spoke volumes. “Helping those girls has done you a world of good, hasn’t it?”
Another truth Aja couldn’t deny. Two years ago, Aja ran from the pain of her younger sister’s death in Brooklyn and showed up on Jo’s doorstep. It had taken three months of Jo’s tender care for her to do more than shuffle from the bed to the couch. To go from that to spearheading a major reconstruction of her family’s land and turning it into a wellness center that allowed its guests to work with nature while they worked through their demons was an unbelievable accomplishment. But the best part was that Aja had found a way to help even more people by hiring women down on their luck to help her bring her dream to life.
“Sure has,” she answered with a smile. “And if I’m going to continue to help them, I’ve got to get to my office—”
“You mean that old empty barn?”
Aja smiled at her aunt’s sass. It was no wonder Aja never met a smart comment she didn’t love. Sarcasm was a hereditary trait it seemed.
“My temporary office. I need to make a few calls.”
“I assume to the sheriff. Has he decided to do his job yet?”
Aja’s spoon was midway to her mouth when her appetite soured. She placed the utensil back in the bowl and sat straight. Fighting on a full stomach would do terrible things to her digestion, so she pushed the unfinished meal away and decided breakfast was over.
“I called him twice yesterday after the scaffolding came down. He said to make sure I wanted him to come out here, because if he did, chances are any investigation he opens will focus on the two people he believes most likely to be responsible—Seneca and Brooklyn.”
Jo huffed and sucked her teeth before responding to Aja. “That no-count man is unbelievable.”
Aja slumped her shoulders. “Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice but to deal with him.”
“You have a choice, Aja. You’re just choosing to ignore it.”
Aja pressed the first two fingers of her right hand to her temple and rubbed. She was about to close her eyes to give into the soothing comfort, but the sight of her aunt fiddling with the frayed edge of a dish towel made her focus sharpen instead. Josephine Henry was the epitome of calm and collected. The only time she wasn’t was when she was up to no good.
“What did you do, Aunt Jo?”
By now she was nearly tearing the poor towel to shreds. “I called Ricky.”
“Really, Aunt Jo?” Aja threw up her hands in defeat. “After I specifically asked you not to?”
“He can help. If the sheriff won’t do his job, Ricky can make him.”
As a Hays County sitting judge, Aja didn’t doubt he could. But having her uncle involved meant him coming in and taking over. Aja couldn’t deal with that.
“You know how your brother is. He’s gonna make it worse, Aunt Jo.”
“Chile, somebody seems bent on hurting, maybe even killing you. It don’t get much worse than that.”
“Auntie,” Aja moaned.
“He’ll fix it, chile. You’ll see.”
Aja stood and walked around to her aunt. She wrapped her arms around Jo and reveled in the peace one only knew when they were surrounded by love. She may not agree with her aunt’s method of handling things, but she knew her actions came from a good place.
Headed for her office, Aja stepped out onto her front porch. She closed her eyes and breathed in as much of the sweet country air as she could, then opened them again. The deep green and earthy-brown hues covering the expanse of her land was breathtaking. Restoration Ranch, or the idea of it, had helped Aja heal when the loss of her sister made her survival in this world questionable. It would soon be finished. She wouldn’t let anyone keep that dream from becoming reality.
“Hey, boss.”
A year of rebuilding and it was still strange to hear someone call her “boss.” Aja turned her head and watched the two women as they approached.
Brooklyn Osborn had short pixie-cut cropped dark curls and deep brown skin with glowing honey undertones. She was a tall, fit Black woman with her lean tight muscles on display in her A-line T-shirt and her fitted jeans. The serious lines of her face were a stark contrast of the woman walking beside her—Seneca Daniels. Like Brooklyn, Seneca was a thirty-something Black woman. But that’s where their similarities ended. Seneca was average height with a curvy build, and reddish-brown skin that seemed to radiate in the Texas heat. Where Brooklyn’s steps were even and methodical, Seneca waved an excited arm as she made her way from the side of the house to the front steps and climbed to greet her.
These two women had become the solid wall holding Aja up when sometimes, all she wanted to do was crumble into a heap on the grass. They were her first chance at redemption. They, like Aja, were trying to become more than their pasts, so hiring them to help her build her dream was the perfect solution for all of them. Helping them the way she couldn’t help her sister eased some of the ache of her loss. Her giving them a chance when the rest of the world turned its back on them meant all three women got what they needed, a soft placed to land after walking through hell and living to tell the tale.
“What’s got her so excited this early in the morning?” Aja posed the question to Brooklyn, knowing she’d get a direct answer. She didn’t mind Seneca’s round-the-mulberry-bush method of storytelling, but with her shortage of time and Seneca practically vibrating with excitement as she took her place next to Aja, Brooklyn’s straight-no-chaser reporting style was definitely the way to go.
“You know it doesn’t take much to excite her. But she honestly has reason to be excited today. Let her tell you.”
This was true. Seneca was the bright spot of seemingly unending joy in their makeshift family. As long as she smiled, there was always hope.
Aja smiled at Seneca and gave her a reluctant wave of her hand. “Gon’ and tell me,” she huffed, feigning lack of interest, knowing full well the sight of Seneca clapping her hands together in excitement pretty much made it impossible for Aja to be disinterested at this point. “I don’t have all day.”
Seneca continued to smile as warmth radiated off of her and reached out to tug at the remnants of Aja’s somber mood. “While I was working on updates on some external terminals,” she took a deep breath and shared a conspiratorial glance with Brooklyn before she continued, “that contractor in Austin you contacted sent in a bid. It’s under budget, and they can start the job in the next two weeks.”
Aja squealed as equal parts relief and joy spread through her. Seneca’s announcement was a much-needed bit of good news.
After their contractor Earl quit in the wake of the ranch’s latest life-threatening accident, Aja worried she wouldn’t be able to keep to schedule if it took too long to find his replacement. But Seneca, in her usual, “don’t sweat it” fashion, had curated a list of contractors in the surrounding area for Aja to send out queries to last night.
Aja grabbed Seneca and Brooklyn’s hands, and they whooped and hollered in celebration. It didn’t matter that the new contractor hadn’t begun yet. Her dream of Restoration Ranch becoming a road to rehabilitation was no longer on pause.
“Oh my goodness,” Aja huffed. “When I sent out those blanket queries last night, I never thought we’d get a response this soon. Once we vet them, if this crew can get started in the next couple of weeks, we can still open by the start of travel season.”
Aja pulled them in for a celebratory hug before she pulled back and attempted to gather herself again. She needed to focus and stay on task. There was still a lot of work to do.
“Boss? You okay?”
Aja massaged the back of her neck, trying to take it all in. “I’m fine. Just…” She took a deep breath and let her lungs slowly expel it. “It’s really gonna happen, ladies. My dream hasn’t crumbled with that scaffold.”
With a wide grin plastered across her face, Seneca, declared, “There was never any doubt.”
Maybe not for them, but Aja couldn’t fix her lips to tell that lie, so she quietly smiled instead as they headed toward the front door. “Go get something to eat. We’ve got a busy day ahead.”
The ladies headed inside, and Aja leaned on the railing, letting the good new sink in. Hope filled the center of her chest and spread through her body like the rays of the Texas sun chasing away the shadows. “It’s gonna happen.”
With renewed faith that everything might turn out okay, she walked through the pasture of green grass with a little swing in her hips. Good news certainly could change the outlook of your day.
“Boss…boss!”
She stopped, turning to find Brooklyn running toward her. Her long legs and easy gait ate up the ground between them in a flash. “You left your phone in the kitchen.”
Aja patted her back pockets, realizing Brooklyn was right. “Thank you, doll. It would’ve been hard to make all the calls I need from the barn with no landlines out there yet.” She took the phone and slid it into her pocket before turning away. “Don’t take all day in that kitchen—we got work to do. We’ll be holed up in the barn until lunch.”
As she walked away, Brooklyn called, “You’re turning into a hard-ass tyrant. It’s too pretty outside to be cooped up in the barn all day.”
Aja kept walking, but tossed over her shoulder, “Just for that, we’ll work through lunch in the barn. How’s that for a tyrant?”
She stopped for a brief second to see the scowl she knew Brooklyn was probably wearing when the sound of breaking glass pulled her attention away. Aja stepped forward when she felt the ground rumble beneath her and a loud boom cracked the air, making her eardrums painfully vibrate. Before she could cover her ears, a blast of pressure knocked her off her feet.
She fought to orient herself while the smell of burning wood and smoke assaulted her. Her chest tight with fear as she struggled to breathe through the soot-tinged air. She couldn’t tell up from down and no matter how she tried to stand, her legs wouldn’t work.
You gotta get up Aja.
She tried to summon her strength and lift her head. When she moved no more than an inch from the ground, sharp pain sliced at the top of her forehead, forcing her to press her head into the cool grass searching for relief.
The gray-black clouds of smoke hovering over her were getting fuzzy and the only thing she could hear was ringing in her ears. Her senses were overwhelmed with panic and she was pretty certain she was about to pass out soon.
“Boss? Boss?”
The sound of a voice vibrating in and out of focus—loud, then soft, close then far with a disorienting echo clanging around in her head—made it hard to tell who was speaking.
“Hold on. I got you.”
Strong hands hooked themselves under her arms and pulled. The dirt and rocks hidden in the blades of grass scrapped against the backs of her thighs and calves through the heavy denim of her jeans. When the movement stopped, she could see sunlight breaking through the billows of black smoke and the air didn’t smell as strongly of acrid and dense dust and ash.
A fuzzy shadow closed into her line of vision. The closer it came, the sharper the image appeared and soon Brooklyn’s cynical face was filling her sight.
“Boss,” she called. “With the barn in flames, I kinda think your plans of us working all day in there are shot to shit.”
Aja blinked slowly as the pins and needles of numbness prickled her extremities, marking the return of feeling in her body. “Yeah, Brooklyn.” Aja’s voice cracked halfway through the woman’s name. “I think you might be right.” She tried to take a deep breath in, but her lungs protested and she coughed, making the pain in her head throb harder. “But,” she coughed again. “I think there’s something much worse than the barn burning down.”
“What?” Brooklyn asked.
Aja took a slow breath, determined not to disintegrate into a coughing fit. “I think Aunt Jo is right. Someone might really be trying to kill me.”
End of Excerpt
