Page 12 of Austin (The K9 Files #29)

R ox woke up the next morning, wondering if she’d gotten any sleep in between all the times she had woken up.

After Austin had left last night, she and her dad had talked some about where he might be going and what he might be up to, but neither of them had any freaking idea.

Austin had come home and had gone straight to bed, without saying anything to anybody.

She was fully prepared to brace him about it this morning.

As she got down early enough to set up coffee and to arrive first, she found him sitting in the kitchen, talking to her father, and obviously the conversation wasn’t going well.

She stepped in and glared at Austin. “You sure know how to cause trouble when you get home.”

Jake sucked in his breath. “That ain’t fair,” he snapped. “You don’t even know what the hell’s going on.”

“Maybe not”—she glared back at her dad—“but it’s obvious that you’re upset.”

Jake’s gaze softened, and he shrugged. “Sure, I’m pissed off, and I’m upset, but I’m not upset at Austin. There’s a big difference. You need to know the truth and to direct your anger where it belongs.”

As it was a rebuke that was probably well deserved, she flushed and tried to hide it, then walked over to the kitchen area to put on coffee, only to find a fresh pot already sitting there.

She poured herself a cup and headed back to the men.

“In that case, maybe you should tell me exactly what’s going on. ”

“I met with Chris last night,” Austin shared.

“Chris?” She stared at him. “He texted you?”

Austin nodded. “Yeah, he sent me a text to meet him down at Rusty’s Pub.”

She shook her head. “Why the hell it’s called Rusty’s Pub when it’s Harry’s,… I don’t know.”

“I don’t know either,” Austin noted, “but it doesn’t matter because some things never change. Harry is still a wife-hater, and the pub is still for his select few clientele.”

“I think they keep that place going just fine,” she muttered, staring at him, “and, honest to God, they’re all misfits in there anyway.”

“Maybe, but that’s where Chris was. And several of his cronies.”

“Of course he was.” She groaned, then frowned at Austin, curiosity in her eyes. “What did he have to say?”

“I’m not sure what’s going on, but he told me how this is all about revenge and didn’t have a whole lot else to say.”

“Revenge for what?” she asked, staring at him.

“I don’t know, but he’s hanging out with two strange characters, both very unfriendly, and when they found out I was still family, one got up and walked out, clearly quite pissed off. Apparently Chris hadn’t told him.”

Rox frowned. “Interesting.… I guess technically you are still family.”

“Yeah, technically I am,” he confirmed casually, “so it wasn’t a lie. Of course that set them off because Chris hadn’t told them about the relationship,”

“What did they want though?” she asked.

“I’m not sure about what they want, but Chris wanted to send me a not-so-friendly warning to get the hell out of town.”

At that, Jake and Rox both stared at him dumbly. “Seriously?” Jake asked, still looking at him but not seeing him.

Austin nodded. “Yes, seriously, and I’m not sure what they’re planning, but Chris has got some kind of hate going for this family.”

“Yeah, I’m not surprised,” she muttered, “but I didn’t think it extended to me.”

“I’m not sure it does. Yet, if push comes to shove, will it or won’t it? I don’t know. What I can tell you is that I wouldn’t trust him or any of his so-called friends right now.”

She slumped in her chair. “I don’t know when the hell everything blew up, but, man, Chris is not the forgiving kind.”

“No, and in a way he’s very much like your old man here,” Austin pointed out, with a nod toward the man sitting silently in front of him.

Jake snorted. “You’re the only one who ever talks to me like that.”

“That’s because I spent a lot of time in the military,” Austin explained. “I’ve been yelled at by the best of them, and I’m not afraid of you, never have been.”

“Christ, I don’t want anybody afraid of me,” Jake muttered, reaching up a huge, calloused hand and rubbing his face.

Austin smiled at the older man. “You’re looking for what you used to have,” he offered in a quiet voice.

“Ranch hands you can count on, as in the olden days. When they stayed at the ranch, when they worked for decades, sometimes retiring here on the property and embracing the life that went along with that,” Austin described, “but times have changed. It doesn’t mean that they’re any better or worse, but they’re definitely different. ”

Jake looked at him reluctantly and nodded. “We also don’t have the money we used to earn from ranching,” he shared, “and it’s really burning my boat to think we might lose it all.”

“Are you close to losing it all?” Austin asked in surprise. “You guys were doing very well when I left.”

“We were, but then you left,” Jake stated, cracking a smile, “and, no, not because you left. You were in the military even then.”

Austin nodded. “I was and still would be, if I hadn’t gotten hurt.”

“Something you don’t talk about,” she pointed out.

“Nothing to talk about. I was injured in the line of work, and I could have taken a desk job with the navy if I wanted to, but that wasn’t what I wanted to do,” he shared.

Jake nodded. “It would kill me.”

Austin laughed. “You think anything that stops you from riding a horse for sixteen hours a day would kill you.”

Jake grinned. “You’re not wrong,” he muttered, “not wrong at all.”

“So, why does Chris feel the need for revenge?” Austin asked.

“I don’t know, unless it’s literally got to do with not getting the ranch.”

“Why would he think he should get it anyway? That’s the part I don’t understand. If he’s never had that expectation, why would he be disappointed to hear it would be otherwise? And…” Austin turned to Rox. “I don’t remember there ever being any discord between the two of you.”

She shook her head. “I would have said there wasn’t, until the last few years. However, if he’s doing this to hurt the ranch,… then, of course, he’s also doing it to hurt me.”

Austin thought about it and then nodded. “It’s definitely targeted. What do you know about these other two guys he hangs around with?” He described Stubby and Skinny to Rox and Jake.

“Outside of being just straight-up trouble,” Jake replied, “I don’t know anything. One of them comes from a pretty wealthy family in town. His father passed away recently, and the uncle has just taken over.”

“So, maybe a case of sour grapes all around? Maybe that one expected to get his father’s ranch too?” Austin guessed.

Jake looked at him and then slowly nodded. “That could be it. Maybe they’re just triggering each other,” he suggested, then shook his head. “But what the hell? Since when is that a thing? What’s wrong with the younger generation today?”

Austin smiled at him. “The same thing that was wrong with them a long time ago,” he said, with a smirk. “It’s not that people have changed that much, but circumstances and times have changed, and there’s always that expectation of… entitlement.”

“That’s the thing that really gets me,…

that entitlement.” Jake snorted. “This place is all I have, and it’s been in my family since…

forever. Chris is a part of my family, and I certainly did not cut him out,” he stated.

“You’ve got to understand that. It’s not that Chris wouldn’t get anything, and nobody would get all of it at any time.

He would be a contributing partner and a part owner, living and working here,” he explained. “He just didn’t like the numbers.”

“And the numbers were?”

Jake looked over at Rox, then back at Austin, and reluctantly replied, “Seventy-five and twenty-five.”

He nodded. “So, 25 percent wasn’t enough for him?”

“I’m not sure anything would have been enough for him,” Rox interjected, “and I guess it probably would burn Chris to think that he wouldn’t even get half, but it’s also not something he wants to work at.

This isn’t where he wants to be, and I don’t think he really wants anything to do with the land. ”

“Did you consider, instead of offering that, potentially giving him a cash settlement instead?” Austin asked.

Jake shook his head. “We’re a little on the cash-shy side of the things right now,” he pointed out, “and I didn’t feel as if I owed him anything.

I married his mama, and I raised him. There was never any child support contributions made from that sorry, no-good father of his, and raising even one child isn’t cheap.

Chris was taught the value of a good day’s work.

He was offered the opportunity to go on for more education and declined, and he still would never come and help us work the ranch.

So, I don’t know what the hell he expected. ”

“He expected a handout apparently,” Austin replied. “I’m wondering why it came to this. Is there anybody else in his life who would have had that kind of influence on him?”

“Just his mother,” Jake noted, “and you know how Amie feels about handouts.”

Austin almost laughed at that because Amie was a hell of a worker herself, always had been, always would be.

She didn’t have any thought that the world owed her or anyone else a living, yet apparently, somewhere along the line, Chris had adopted this mind-set.

At some point in time Chris had decided that Jake owed him a living.

“I wonder how much of this is hurt, how much of this is that sense of entitlement, and how much of it is just anger in the moment. Maybe it’s all of that pushed into something that he’s not sure how to get out of right now, or even knows that he should get out of,” Austin murmured, thinking out loud.

Rox looked at him. “Sounds as if you do remember what Chris was like.”