In Cahoots with the Prickly Pear Posse (A Jackrabbit Junction Mystery--Book 5)

a big family—even one as crazy as Gramps’s.
“I wish it was just about Dad,” Claire said, hooking her hammer on her tool belt.
“Is he still here?” Natalie asked.
“No, he headed back to South Dakota right after Christmas.”
“Then what’s the deal?”
Claire looked at the peanut gallery. “Should I tell her?”
Gramps’s grimace spread clear to his ears.
“Sí. She’s familia.” Manny winked at Natalie. “We share and share alike.”
Chester burped loud enough to scare a couple of ravens from a nearby cottonwood tree. “Does she feel like parachuting into an erupting volcano with the rest of us?”
Claire sent Natalie a raised brow. “Do you?”
Did she? Natalie looked down at her leather gloves. She’d rushed down to Jackrabbit Junction from Deadwood to escape one hell of a sticky mess, wanting to recharge down here in the desert and figure out what she wanted out of life … and who. Or not.
After leaving one clusterfuck, did she want to race into another one?
A camper door slammed shut across the RV park’s gravel drive. Out of the corner of her eye, Natalie saw Claire flinch and frown in the direction of the camper.
Whatever this diamond killer business was, it was giving her cousin a severe case of the heebie-jeebies. No stranger to hair-raising excitement, Natalie couldn’t think of a better way to forget about her problem up north than to dig into Claire’s situation here.
“I’m in. Tell me what’s going on.”
For the next few minutes, Claire whispered sweet nothings in Natalie’s ears. Only the truth was more sour than sweet, and the “nothings” turned out to be a big problem that made Natalie’s blood pressure spike.
“Holy shit, Claire.” She shook her head. “You should have told me this sooner.”
After a glance left and right, Claire tugged off her hat and brushed some loose strands of dark hair out of her face. She stuck the cap back on, pulling it low on her forehead. “Would you have come down if you knew?”
“Hell, yes, and I would’ve been here a lot sooner, too.”
Natalie scanned the surrounding campers, wondering if the killer was already here, waiting for the right moment to strike. It was no wonder Claire was acting like a hen in a coyote den.
“Don’t be getting any ideas, Natalie,” Gramps said. “With any luck, you’ll be on your merry way back to the Black Hills before shit hits the fan. I have enough to worry about with Ronnie and Claire at the moment.”
“Don’t forget Crazy Kate,” Chester said.
Manny chuckled. “The poor chica is muy loca these days, thanks to that baby.”
Natalie had heard all about Kate’s temporary insanity due to pregnancy. Claire’s trip to jail this morning because of her younger sister was one of many incidents that had been gossiped about by the old guys while watching the deck demolition comedy show.
As troubling as Claire’s tale of diamonds and death was, Natalie smiled. “Don’t worry, Gramps. This won’t be my first rodeo with a killer.” She’d had some practice up in Deadwood with sharp-clawed foes and more lately.
Claire did a double take. “Really?”
And here Natalie had thought she was coming south to run from trouble. “You’d be surprised.”
She finished her glass of lemonade and picked up her drill again. Back to work. “It sounds like we need to reconnoiter later at The Shaft with Ronnie and come up with a plan to find this killer before he finds either of you.”
“Or she,” Chester said, pointing his cigar at Claire. “We can’t rule out the purtier sex. That Husky babe left you with some nasty bruises, if I remember right.”
“And one hell of a sore head,” Manny added.
Gramps groaned, aiming a glower at Natalie. “Your mother is going to murder me if she finds out what I let Claire drag you into.”
“Me?” Claire put her hands on her hips. “You guys are the ones who opened your big mouths about it.”
Natalie returned to her end of the deck, her thoughts churning but her heart happy. Her cousins needed her help fixing this mess, and fixing shit was one thing she knew how to do well.
Besides, a game of cat and mouse with a killer would take her mind off the alligators she’d been wading hip-deep in for the last month.

Chapter Three
Mac Garner pulled into The Shaft’s parking lot, scoping out the lay of the land under the orange streetlights. Pickups won the popularity contest three to one, most of them local, judging by the license plates. The Shaft’s business had grown considerably in the last couple of months, periodically requiring the use of the lot across the street that had belonged to Wheeler’s Diner before it went out of business.
Claire’s theory for the increase in customers was Butch’s new menu specializing in gourmet burgers and local craft beers. Mac suspected the clientele growth had more to do with three unmarried Morgan sisters waiting tables—one of them being his girlfriend, damn it.
He’d like to take Claire entirely off the meat market, but the woman had a history of relationship issues. Kate and Ronnie liked to joke that Claire didn’t need to exercise because she stayed in great shape running from commitment. Their grandfather agreed, swearing Mac would have more luck saddling an angry mule than putting a ring on her finger.
Mac steered his truck behind the bar and grill, pulling into a spot between Claire’s Jeep and Kate’s Volvo. The halogen light Butch had installed outside the back door cast long shadows across the gravel lot.
Hell, these days, he couldn’t even get Claire to spend more than a few nights a week in the same bed with him. The part-time handywoman job she had taken at his aunt Ruby’s RV park last spring had become a full-time lifestyle for her. No amount of begging or scheming could shoehorn Claire from this dusty corner of the state.
Killing the pickup’s engine and lights, Mac sat in the glow from the dash and let the soothing quiet of the desert night loosen his shoulders.
How had it