Solid Gold Seduction (The Drakes of California) by Zuri Day

that he’d just heard. “That’s good stuff.”
    Griff knocked back the second shot and placed the glass on the table. Warren finished another shot and set down his glass, too. Thankfully.
    “Have a seat,” Griff said, walking over to the recliner.
    After taking a tentative step to make sure his leg didn’t wobble, Warren followed him into the living room, taking a seat on the well-worn brown couch. He wasn’t much of a drinker. Which might explain why after two shots of Griff’s brew he felt he needed coffee, or sleep.
    “What was that?” he asked.
    “The drink?”
    Warren nodded.
    “Corn liquor, my special brew.” Griff smiled, revealing a row of white teeth interrupted by a gold one on the side. “It’ll put hair on your chest.”
    “If that’s the case, I probably could pass for an ape right about now.”
    “Ha!” Griff reached for a tobacco pouch on the table beside him, turned it back and forth in his hand. “Most folk can’t handle the first sip. They either spit or gag.” He gave Warren a look that came precariously close to respectful.
    Quiet ensued. Warren again looked around the room where Charli spent time, where he imagined she’d grown up. But had she? He wasn’t sure and in this moment realized just how little he knew about his neighbor. Then, remembering Griff’s reaction the last time she was mentioned, he decided on a different line of conversation.
    “What happened between Mr. Reed and my grandfather?”
    Griff’s mouth set into a hard line. He looked away from Warren, out the plate-glass window into the expansive backyard. “Walter still living?”
    “Yes.”
    “Ask him.”
    “That’s fair.” More silence and then Warren bit the bullet—talking about the person who was really on his mind. “I mean no harm to Charli.”
    The pause was so long that Warren wondered whether Griff had heard, or if he’d answer. But he finally did. “Time will tell.”
    “Yes, it will. And I hope that when time proves that I’m a gentleman, you’ll be around to see it.”
    “Oh, I’ll be here,” Griff said, his eyes narrowing as he fixed an unflinching gaze on Warren. “It was Charles’s dying request for me to look after her. I gave him my word. My word is my bond.”
    “So is mine.” Warren’s gaze was unwavering as well.
    “Fair enough.” Griff stood. “Another shot?”
    Warren reared back against the couch and crossed his right ankle over his left knee. He knew that later he would pay for it, knew that there was a good chance that after today he’d never be able to taste anything for the rest of his life. Not with fried taste buds. But he knew what Griff was doing and was determined to match him round for round. That’s why as much as he still felt his insides rumbling from the last one, he gave a slow smile and answered, “Sure.”

Chapter 17
    B lasted bum battery! Charli thanked the man who’d helped her push her truck back from the two-lane road before he used his cables to jump it. She barely allowed him time to get the hood closed before she put the jalopy into gear and was flying back down the street. Gravel flew everywhere as she turned onto the paved lane, racing the short distance to Reed Ranch. Various scenarios and images played in her head, none of them good. With two men as proud and stubborn as Griff and Warren, she had no doubt that she’d arrive to spilled blood. The only question in her mind was which one would get the worst of the fight. Warren was younger but when it came to stamina and determination, Griff took that hands down.
    She sped up, pushed the old Ford to its limit. When she reached the turn into the Reed Ranch drive, she banged her hand against the wheel as a tractor pulling a thirty-foot bed of steel pipes, going all of thirty-five miles an hour, chose this exact time to pass her driveway. As soon as she could get around it she turned left, half of the truck on pavement and half on grass. Her heart skittered around inside her chest like a