Maverick (Star Valley Book 3) (22 page)

“It’s fine. I took care of it,” said Austin flexing his hand which was beginning to swell.

Ian looked around, wide-eyed, then back to him. “Shit, I called the sheriff, Austin.”

Austin shrugged and clapped the man on the shoulder. “It’s all right, Ian. Let him come. Palmer’s been trespassing on Snake River.”

Ian’s eyes narrowed at the men struggling to their feet in the parking lot. Trespassing in Wyoming was a Shoot First offense. Palmer would win no loyalties being found out. “Well, hell,” said Ian, spitting onto the gravel. “Oughta fill your ass full of rock salt right now.”

Palmer and Roark scrambled away, headed toward Palmer’s truck. Owen sort of rolled a bit down the ramp, like the dough boy he was, until he could hoist himself (and his pants) up and follow them. Austin didn’t bother to chase them down to hold them till Sheriff Langley came. Star Valley wasn’t that big. There was nowhere to hide. They peeled out, kicking up rocks and dust on their way out of the parking lot.

Austin turned to Leah whose eyes were nearly popping out of their sockets. “Are you okay?” he asked her.

Leah voice was shaky as she stared at him. “Are you going to get arrested?”

He shook his head, brushing off his jeans. “I doubt it.”

“
You doubt it?
”

“Probably not. Though it wouldn’t be the first time a Barlow had to cool off in a cell for scuffling with Palmer Conroy.”

Leah grabbed his arm. “Wait. Conroy?”

He nodded grimly. “That was Cassidy’s brother, not that he deserves to be related to her at all.”

They all turned to see the sheriff’s car pulling into the lot with no lights and no sirens. There had been enough fights at The Silver Spur over the years that it no longer constituted an actual emergency. It rolled to a stop in front of the doors and the aging but still lean and muscled Sheriff Tucker Langley stepped out from behind the wheel. He zeroed in on Austin and Ian immediately and came around the front of the vehicle. “Break that, son,” he ordered. “Let’s have some law and order around here.”

Ian nodded and thumbed the lever on the Remington. The hinge popped and it bent in half, rendering it incapable of being fired. “Just rock salt, sheriff.”

Langley merely grunted. He looked tired, too, and his clothes were rumpled as though he’d been in bed and thrown them on when he’d gotten the call. Hell at his age, he probably
had
been in bed, asleep. He hadn’t even bothered with the uniform. He was in jeans and a button down shirt. A pair of work boots crunched the stones while he walked.

Austin was sorry to trouble him.

The old man spotted him and arched an eyebrow. “One more’s a pattern,” he declared, coming up on to the boardwalk.

“Hopefully this’ll be the last time,” said Austin.

“Well, what was it this time?”

“Palmer again. But a different problem.”

Langley snorted. “Boy’s got plenty of ’em. What now?”

“He’s been coming onto our land, out on the old mine we just bought. I wasn’t sure who was leaving the tracks until I ran into Palmer and got a good look at his boots. I don’t know what he’s doing out there but I don’t like it. And I told him so.”

The sheriff eyed Austin’s knuckles in the electric light shining above their heads, then inspected Austin’s face again. “One sided conversation?”

“Yes, sir.”

The man grunted. “Don’t suppose you have anything more than a boot print?” he asked.

Austin was forced to shake his head. “No, sir. I don’t.”

The old man sighed. “Well, I’ll talk to his probation officer, have him brought in for questioning. Can’t promise much. Can I get him on assault again?”

Austin shook his head. “I threw the first punch.”

“I didn’t hear that,” Langley replied turning back to his car. “Forgot to put my hearing aid in. Head on home, now. And keep your paws to yourself till you get there.”

“Yes, sir,” Austin repeated.

Once the sheriff was gone, Austin gave Ian a nod and put an arm around Leah, walking her across the lot and to the truck. After helping her in, he slid behind the wheel and headed for home.

“I can’t believe you did that!” said Leah, turning in her seat and looking out the back, as though someone might be following them.

Austin was already periodically checking the rearview to make sure they weren’t.

“He had it coming.”

“But there were three of them!” she gasped, looking at him wide-eyed.

Austin shrugged. Leah was pretty sheltered and he could see how a fist fight in a parking lot might make him look like some kind of superhero in her eyes. “Yes,” he told her, because as much as he liked the idea of her being impressed by him, he couldn’t deny the truth of the situation. “But two of them are mouth breathers and one’s a fat ass, honey.”

Three Barlows would be far more formidable than those three stooges.

“Still!”

Austin flexed his knuckles on the steering wheel. They were already starting to swell. “I don’t fight often, Leah, but I’ve been in tougher scrapes than you saw tonight. I’m sorry that you were scared, though. I lost my temper.”

“What’s Cassidy going to say?”

Austin barked a laugh. “She’ll be mad. Pissed, probably. She didn’t get to hit him herself and I didn’t go ahead and finish the job.”

“They don’t get along?”

Austin frowned and glanced at her. It wasn’t really his place to tell Cassidy’s business. “No,” was all he said.

They rolled down the driveway where Austin parked in front of the house. Austin found Sofia and Cassidy in the kitchen but no Walker.

“I thought you were going out,” said Cassidy. She looked up from the book she was reading and caught sight of Austin’s dirty, disheveled clothing. “What the hell?” She glanced at Leah and seemed relieved that the girl looked much better. “What happened?”

Leah grabbed a metal bowl from the cabinet and Sofia filled it with ice as Austin flexed his hand, trying to keep his muscles from tightening. “We ran into your brother.”

Cassidy leapt up, eyes wide, looking furious. “
What?
”

“We had some things to say to each other,” Austin told her.

“Come here,” said Leah, indicating the bowl. She lowered his bruised knuckles into the cold water.

“Oh my God,” said Cassidy. “I am so, so sorry. That asshole. I can’t believe he’d start something with you.”

“Well, not all of it was about you, and I’m not done with him yet. He ran off but I’m sure we’ll see each other again.”

Cassidy frowned. “And you got hurt, too.”

“Pffft. This? Barely.”

The younger woman came up next to him and put her arms around his waist. Austin threw his free arm over her shoulder.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she told him.

“Hey, now,” said Sawyer as he walked into the kitchen. “You’ve already got a woman. Take your hands off mi—Holy shit! What the hell happened to you?”

“Palmer,” Austin spat.

Sawyer’s face immediately twisted into rage. “Son of a bitch. Where was he?”

“
Here
,” said Austin. His brother recoiled. “Several times, over the last few weeks. Those tracks up on the Folly are his. I took Leah to the Spur and he was there, mouthing off. Then I looked at his boots, and sure enough…” He shoved his hand farther down into the ice bowl.

“That motherfucker.”

“Austin,” said Cassidy. “I am so, so sorry. I have no idea what’s going on. I don’t know why he’s up there, snooping around. I—”

Austin shook his head. “It’s not your fault, Cass.” He planted a kiss on top of her head. “No one’s blaming you. Not for a hot second. Don’t you worry about it. I sent him your regards. I should’ve hit him once for every year you had to live with him, but I had to get to Leah, get her home and get her safe.”

He looked at her now, standing just a few feet away and it wasn’t close enough to his liking.

Cassidy seemed to sense it and she stepped away gesturing for Leah to take her place against him. He closed his eyes for a moment as she leaned into him, smelling her hair and feeling her warmth.

“Was it awful?” Cassidy asked Leah. “Were you terrified?”

“I…I’ve never seen anything like that,” Leah told her. “But Austin was great. I had no idea it was your brother, though. Not until it was over.”

Cassidy’s nose wrinkled. “Believe me, I wish he wasn’t. I’m grateful any time anyone takes a swing at him, though. Palmer used to hit me and my dad let him.”

“Oh, my God!”

“Although, I’m not so sure now that my dad didn’t
ask
him to hurt me sometimes. So he could avoid getting his hands dirty.”

“Cassidy, that’s awful!” She looked up at Austin. “I’m glad you hit him then.”

Austin looked over her to his brother. “Langley’s going to question him, at least, about the trespassing.”

Sawyer grunted. “Makes me feel better about shooting first and asking questions later.”

The others finally left the room, calling it a night, leaving Austin and Leah by themselves in the kitchen. He sighed and pulled his hand from the bowl. Leah wrapped it in a dish towel. “Well, rabbit, we never got that dance, did we?”

“Maybe next time.”

“I don’t want to wait that long,” he told her. He leaned over and flipped on Sofia’s radio. Then he took her hand (as best he could with his swollen one) and placed the other behind her back.

“You’re hurt,” she pointed out but he guided her around the tiled floor anyway.

Austin scoffed. “No, I’m not. Not right this minute. Not with you.” He moved slowly with her, in time with the song. “You have your list and maybe I have mine.”

“You have dancing in your kitchen with a broken hand on your bucket list?”

He chuckled as he turned her. “It’s not broken. I wouldn’t break a perfectly good bone on a Conroy. And almost everything on my list involves a beautiful girl who smiles whenever she sees me.”

Leah laid her head on his shoulder and gave up arguing. The soft strains from the radio filled the darkened room, competing with the sound of the frogs and crickets outside. Austin loved the way she held him, like he was anchoring her in place.

“Hank may be lonesome but we’re not, are we?” he whispered.

‡

L
eah rose the
next morning thanking God she wasn’t lonely, not at all, and kissed him before he even had a chance to open his eyes. “I will miss you, though,” she said.

Austin looked up at her, thoroughly confused, and she realized, with embarrassment, that she hadn’t said that first part out loud. “I’ll miss you, too,” he said, returning her kiss. “But Jackson Hole’s not a bad drive from here.”

Downstairs in the kitchen, both Dakota and Cassidy were ready to go. Leah grabbed her bag and followed the two women out the front door to the Cassidy’s old, rusty truck. It had a back seat bench though, and that was good enough for Leah.

“It’s not my Mercedes,” the girl told her, “but I paid for it. With my own money.” She seemed proud of that fact, and since Leah herself didn’t own a car, it seemed a thing worthy of being proud
of
.

“I like it,” she declared and lifted her foot to climb in.

Austin called out, “Get some nice panties! But nothing too expensive, though. I don’t want you coming after me with that hammer when I rip them off you.”

Leah gasped and glanced at her friends, neither of whom seemed scandalized by Austin’s threat. Dakota even rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe he said that!” Leah cried.

“They’re all like that,” said Cassidy sliding behind the wheel.

“Not all of them,” Dakota grumbled from the back seat.

Cassidy frowned as she pressed the Start button. “True.”

Dakota sighed. “Do they make cellophane dresses? Totally see-through? I’d like to see what happens if I wear something like
that
.”

Cassidy laughed. “You want to wave a red flag in front of a bull like that, Dakota? Okay. We’ll find something. It won’t be see-through, but I agree we obviously need to take it up a notch.”

Leah felt sorry for the girl, who was obviously so totally smitten with the head of the Barlow household. Leah herself had never pursued a guy in her life. Before Austin, no man would’ve cared, and Austin had set his sights on her from the beginning and hunted her down like prey. She had little to contribute to the conversation. “Candace would say find a date to take with you,” she declared, though, wanting to be helpful. “That’d shake him up.” Quickly, though, Leah realized she wasn’t really a member of this group and probably shouldn’t be offering advice to anyone. “But I mean you—”

“That is a fantastic idea!” Dakota said loudly.

“Oh, God,” said Cassidy. “Seriously? There’s going to be a brawl at my wedding.”

Leah gaped at her. “You don’t think he’d really do that? Do you?
Walker?
He seems so…so…” Walker seemed like the epitome of the strong, silent type. Leah had trouble picturing him on a rampage on his brother’s wedding day.

“I think it’s safe to say I don’t have any idea what Walker Barlow will or won’t do,” replied Cassidy. “I thought for sure the last time would be all the push he needed. We got her the perfect dress and she asked him to take her home…but it was a total bust. Whatever happens, at least the wedding’s outside so there won’t be any blood to mop up.” She adjusted the mirror and looked at Dakota in it. “You better pick a fighter,” she warned. “Someone
big
. He’ll still lose, but at least the medical bills won’t be too high.”