Chapter 25
Raylan comes in the back door and Winona greets him, stretching up on her toes to give him a kiss. "Thank you." She says. She slips her arms around his neck and gives him a much more serious kiss. "You made my day."
"Um, how exactly?" Raylan asks. "Not that I mind the welcome, but all I did was come home."
"Well, there is that." She agrees. "But the roses were awfully nice, too." She tugs at his tie to loosen it and undoes the top button on his shirt. Flowers are rare, in her experience with Raylan, and deserve a reward. She's been planning an appropriate one all day.
"Roses? I don't know what you're talking about." He says, puzzled.
She stops with her fingers on the second button, tilts her head and stares at him. "The roses, Raylan. Red ones. One on my desk when I got to work this morning, one in the car, and one on the kitchen table when I got home a few minutes ago. What did you do, sneak in before me and double back?" She gives him a smile. She can't tell if he's just trying to play this out a bit longer, or if he's really as confused as he looks.
He pushes her out to arms length, his hands resting on her hips, his face serious. "Roses? Winona, I didn't leave you any roses."
"Well, if it wasn't you, then who was it?"
"Someone who wants to show me how easily they can get to you." Raylan says grimly. The gun is out and he motions to the last rose, now sitting on the counter. "This was here when you got home?"
Winona nods.
"Stay here." He's alert and tense as he moves into the living room. Ignoring his words, she automatically takes a step to follow him.
"I told you to stay in the kitchen." He snaps.
Chagrined, Winona stands by the sink, arms crossed, waiting for him to finish his inspection. He walks back into the kitchen slipping the gun into the holster. "It's clear."
"I coulda told you that." She says. "I've been home for ten or fifteen minutes."
"They mighta been waitin' to get both of us."
"Who are 'they'?" She thinks he's probably being paranoid, as usual, but if she's honest, the thing with the roses is giving her the creeps.
"Duffy. Carroll. Who the hell knows?" His jaw twitches. "We're getting you out of here. Out of town. I want you to go to Louisville and stay with Cooper for a few days."
"No." Winona shakes her head. "No. I'm not going anywhere. I can't take more time off work anyway, Raylan. I'd be driving back and forth and I'm exhausted as it is. Besides, the doctor's appointment is coming up remember? I'm staying here and that's final." She pushes past him, headed into the bedroom.
"Fine." He follows her. "Change clothes. We're goin' to the range. Now."
All at once she's incredibly tired, and the thought of firing round after round at the target while Raylan critiques her form just further exhausts her. "I don't have a gun." She tells him.
"What the hell happened to the .38?"
"After that night you found him, Gary tossed it. He said he didn't want it in the house."
"Then we're getting you another one." He says.
The determined set of his jaw tells her that any arguing is doomed to failure. She kicks off her heels, sheds her skirt, and pulls on the only old pair of jeans that still fit and a long-sleeved t-shirt with UK Wildcats stenciled down the sleeve. She leaves the shirt untucked. Glancing in the mirror, she whips her hair back into a quick ponytail.
"Come on, quit stalling. Let's go." Raylan grabs her boots out of the closet with one hand and her arm with the other and practically drags her to the car.
They drive in steely silence, first to the sporting goods store where Raylan tells her to stay put, locks the doors, and takes the keys, leaving her to fume in the car like she's some kind of prisoner. He's out a few minutes later with three boxes he throws on the backseat and a handful of papers that he shoves at her.
"Fill these out. It'll take a week or two to get the concealed carry permit, but carry it anyway. I'd rather have you pay a fine than not have the gun and need it."
"You're scaring me, Raylan."
"Good." His gaze is straight ahead and his grip on the steering wheel is tight enough to whiten his knuckles.
Winona stares out the side window at the landscape streaking by. "The damn gun's not going to do me any good if you kill us all on the highway."
He lets up on the accelerator and one hand leaves the steering wheel to rest on her leg. "I'm sorry." He says quietly. "But I love you. That's my baby you're carrying. These guys don't mess around. Gary's dead, remember?"
"That'd be a little hard for me to forget." She says without looking at him.
"If you're too stubborn to go somewhere safer, then I'm gonna do all I can to make sure you're both safe here and if that means scaring you into taking this seriously, well, then, that's what I'm gonna do. That and make damn sure you can shoot if you need to."
She turns back to face him. "I can shoot. You know that."
"When was the last time you went to the range?"
"I don't remember." She admits.
"Like I said." Raylan takes the turn-off. "You're gonna practice."