Dakota leaned back into the hay. Her sapphire hair was spread out around her head in a wild halo. And she giggled, knowing there was no way she was going to lie about where she'd been with how much of the stuff was tangled into her hair. Even scrubbing her hair in the shower might not get all of it out. But at the moment, her hair was the least of her concerns.

Carter's mouth was pressed down against hers. And his hand was under the hem of her shirt, warm against the soft skin of her stomach. He pulled back, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as he sat up. Tossing his cowboy hat aside, he pulled at the buttons of his shirt before he gave up and shrugged it off over his head.

"Put your hat back on," Dakota suggested, pulling her phone out of her pocket. She swiped across the screen, opening her camera app and hitting record. "You look so hot," she told him with a giggle.

Plopping his hat down over his head, Carter displayed his naked chest as he lifted his arms and began to flex his muscles for Dakota's camera until both of them dissolved into a heap of giggles. He leaned back down, bumping her with the brim of his hat as he kissed her. Dakota kissed him back, parting her lips when she felt his tongue brush against them. She quickly forgot about her phone, letting her outstretched arm drop down into the hay. His hand slid back up under her shirt, rubbing dangerously close to the underside of her small pert breast.

Suddenly, Dakota felt his body go stiff. And Carter jerked his head up, slapping his hand down over her mouth. Her eyes widened as she heard the sound of approaching voices. Dakota dropped her phone, squealing against Carter's hand when it hit the wooden platform under them and bounced almost off the edge of the hayloft and down into the horse barn below. She moved to retrieve it. But Carter pulled her back and away from the edge where they wouldn't be spotted.

"Fuckin' hell," he whispered. "It's my dad and Jamie." Dakota clamped her hands over her own mouth to muffle her giggles. "Be quiet," Carter urged. "Yer gonna get us caught."

"Put your shirt back on," she suggested, mouthing the words so the men below wouldn't hear her. Dakota didn't really think there would be any serious consequences if Rip and Jamie caught them making out in the hayloft. But it would be worse if Carter was half dressed. Jamie would tell her mom. And then her mom would start watching her closer. And that would make it harder for them to keep sneaking around for their secret makeout sessions.

Carter jerked his shirt back on, fastening the buttons he'd loosened with such haste a few moments before. Once he was dressed, he leaned back against a pile of hay and wrapped his arm around Dakota, pressing a kiss into her hay covered hair. She took his hand, holding it in hers and rubbing her thumb back and forth over the back of it. She was so concerned with not being caught that it took her a moment to realize that the two men below them were having a heated argument.

"This is your fault," Jamie hissed. "Now the police are questioning Rachel." Rip narrowed his eyes at the other man.

"My fault?," he repeated. "This was your idea."

"It was my idea to kill him," Jamie admitted. "Not to slam his head against a brick wall and choke him out. You should have just let the drugs we gave him do their job. You were being reckless!"

"Fuck you and the horse you rode in on," Rip spit back. "You wanna call me reckless? After you killed that fucking news reporter?" Rip stepped forward into Jamie's space, nearly bumping chests with him. "That fucker got exactly what was coming to him."

"If you wanted to rough him up," Jamie argued, "...then we should have dropped him off at the train station instead of leaving him outside that dive bar."

"Yeah," Rip said, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "Well we didn't. What's done is done."

Jamie rubbed his hands through his hair, mussing his carefully combed and gelled style. He paced back and forth, sighing in exasperation. Rip was right. They did what they did. And there was nothing they could do to change it now. Jamie was just upset because Rachel was being treated like some sort of suspect. The whole point of killing that piece of shit was to protect Rachel. And now she was being questioned by the police.

"There's no way they can blame her for what happened," Rip added. "Rachel was all the way in Whitehall clearing her parents house out when we killed him."

"I know!," Jamie huffed.

Rip leaned back against the gate of an empty horse stall and adjusted his hat. He didn't appreciate the accusatory way Jamie came at him. But he did appreciate that Jamie was genuinely concerned about Rachel's well being. They seemed to care a lot about each other. And instead of causing more drama, like Rip suspected it would when he found out they were sleeping together, their relationship was slowly knitting the family back together.

"All we need to do is stay cool," Rip said. "This whole thing will blow over in a week or two."

Jamie nodded, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. He allowed Rip to toss an arm around his shoulders and lead him out of the barn. It was almost dinner time. And he needed to splash some cold water on his face and get his act together before everyone, including Rachel, figured out that the police visit had him sweating bullets.

Once they were finally out of the barn, Carter flopped back into the hay. He swiped at his brow, laughing at how close he and Dakota came to being caught.

"What were they talking about?," Dakota asked, running her hands through her hair in a vain attempt to shake some of the hay loose.

"Who cares," Carter said, "...at least they're gone."

Dakota laughed, leaning forward and giving him one more lingering kiss before she crawled towards the edge of the loft to retrieve her phone. It wasn't until she got the device back in her hand that she realized she'd accidentally recorded the entire conversation that went on below her and Carter in the barn. Her first instinct was to delete it. But something about the stuff Jamie and Rip were saying gave her a chill despite the warm stagnant air inside the barn. She turned her phone off instead and shoved it down into her pocket.

Carter stayed in the barn. He still had chores he needed to get done. Dakota headed for the house, sneaking in through the kitchen entrance. She was planning to sneak up to her room and brush the hay out of her hair before anyone saw her. Dakota made it almost all the way into her room before her mother caught her. But she could tell by the look on her mom's face that the last thing on her mind was how much hay Dakota had tangled up in her hair.

"What's wrong?," Dakota asked. Her mom didn't look hurt. But she had the weird wounded look she always got on her face when Dakota's dad was involved. It was the look Dakota was used to seeing right before she was going to have to pack up her things and move again. Beth was with her mom. And she looked sort of concerned too. Whatever happened, Dakota had a feeling she wasn't going to like it.

"I need to talk to you," Rachel said. She pulled Dakota into the bedroom, sitting down on the edge of the bed next to her and hugging her close.

"Just tell me what's going on," Dakota urged. She was sure that not knowing was worse than whatever happened. Her mom just hugged her again. It was her Aunt Beth that spoke up and told her what happened.

"Your dad died," Beth said. "I'm sorry honey."

"Oh," Dakota said, unsure of how she ought to react to the news. She and her mother had been living in constant fear of the man for years. Even before her mother packed up their things and left him, he was scary. But Dakota always secretly hoped that he might get better and be a real dad to her. "Was it the drugs that killed him?," Dakota asked. Her mom tried to shelter her from the situation as best she could. But no one could hide the fact that her father was an addict.

"The police think someone killed him," Rachel said, rubbing her hand gently over Dakota's back.

Dakota let that information sink in as she thought about the conversation she just heard in the barn between Rip and Jamie. Her mind was swirling. She almost felt dizzy. It couldn't be. Would Rip and Jamie really kill her dad? She supposed they might if they thought he was going to keep hurting her mom.

"Are you okay?," Beth asked, crouching down in front of Dakota and taking her hand. Dakota nodded, shifting her body and using the hand Beth wasn't holding to pull her phone from her pocket. She swiped her finger across it, opening her video gallery.

"I have something I think I better show you."