Page 18 of Austin (The K9 Files #29)

T ogether Rox and Austin raced after the horse.

A few minutes later Austin tugged Rox tight up against him. “Listen,” he whispered.

She tilted her head, straining to hear what he’d picked up.

He’d always had phenomenal hearing, leaving her with what she thought of as her great hearing in the dust. And there it was,…

a faint bark. Her eyes opened wide, she stared at him, excitement evident in her expression. “You think that’s Cowboy?”

“I don’t know, but Charlie obviously picked up on something, and that’s what we need to follow up on. However, we don’t know whether they’re alone.” Hearing those words made her halt and stare at him, shocked. He looked at her and nodded. “Let’s just go slow and be as quiet as we can.”

Together, they walked, keeping an eye on the world around them and looking for anything that would explain what was up ahead. He turned to her and asked, “Did you have a rifle on your saddle?”

“It’s tied up crosswise, yes. I wasn’t exactly looking for trouble, but I always bring one.”

The problem is, when you weren’t looking for trouble is often when you found it.

She also knew better than to leave it on her horse because, if anybody up there got a hold of Charlie, her weapon was right there for the taking.

With that in mind, she picked up the pace just enough to let Austin know that she was beyond concerned, but he held her back just enough that she couldn’t race forward.

She glared at him, and he nodded. “I know. You want to charge into battle, but let’s ensure there even is a battle first.”

“What else could there be?”

“I’m not sure because I don’t know what happened to Cowboy in the first place,” he said, “and that is something that concerns me.”

He’d always been the kind of guy who was not overly cautious but very realistic about what was out there in the world. He moved forward a few more steps, then he slowed again.

“Now what?” she asked.

“I don’t like anything about this,” he whispered.

“If they’ll hurt Charlie or Cowboy, or if they have another dog, we need to rescue them.”

“I know. I understand what you’re saying, but I’m just telling you that something is off about this, and I don’t like anything about it.”

She nodded. “You’re saying exactly what Dad and I have been saying for a while.

Something’s off, and we don’t know why .

We don’t know who , and we haven’t been able to figure it out,” she shared in frustration, “and believe me,… that’s been pissing us both off.

” She looked over at him. “Do you really think it could be Chris?”

“I hope not,” he said, “because that would be a whole new low for him,… down more than I would ever want to see him fall, but we also know that we have very little control over somebody who’s as angry as Chris is.”

“I’m still not sure why he’s so angry though. It’s not as if we didn’t talk about the ranch passing down on Jake’s side of the family the whole time we were growing up. Chris knew. All along he knew.”

“Knew what though?”

“He knew that he would get a share in the place, but not how much or what exactly he would get. He was always considered to be family, and it was clear there was always a place for him here.”

“But not quite the same as you.”

“Maybe not,” she said, “but that’s not my fault.”

“Nope, it isn’t, but Chris also might not give a crap about whose fault it is as long as he could lay the blame on somebody.”

She nodded because of course she’d considered that more than a few times herself. “It’s frustrating that he treats Mom and Dad that way though,” she shared. “They’ve done nothing but be good to him.”

“I wonder about his biological father though.”

“I don’t know much about him,” she replied, with a shrug. “Mom’s never really been open about him.”

“That’s one of the reasons I want to know more. It’s one of those potential surprise elements that I’m not happy about.”

She snorted. “Yeah, you want everything locked down and confirmed, don’t you?”

He glanced at her sideways and asked, “Don’t you?”

She flushed at that comment. As they walked forward, she added, “I never expected to see you here again, you know?”

“I’m not sure I expected that either, but a good friend of mine suggested I come and find a way to make amends or at least find closure, so I could move on.”

Her heart sank at that. Of course that’s exactly what she needed to do too, but she really didn’t want the reminder that they should be moving on.

It was hard to move on when your heart was still stuck with that one person, the one you still loved, and, in these moments, it hit her between the eyes all over again.

She’d never really gotten over him, and she’d never pursued a divorce because she still loved him.

She groaned out loud, and, when he looked at her, she shrugged and said, “It’s nothing. ”

“It’s obviously something.”

“It’s nothing I’ll share,” she snapped. He didn’t say anything, just continued to walk forward, and, she felt terrible. He could always bring out the worst in her, and she didn’t know why. Without even giving herself a moment to think or to change her mind about it, she asked him about it.

“I bring out the worst in you?” he repeated in wonder, staring at her, one eyebrow raised. “That’s not good,” he said. “Generally relationships are supposed to bring out the best in each other.”

“Yeah, generally,” she agreed, “but it never seems to work that way.”

He gave her a sideways glance, “Any idea why?”

“No idea at all. If I knew, I wouldn’t have asked you.” He snorted at that, and she groaned. “See? I did it again. Normally I would talk like a not-crazy person right now.”

At that, he laughed. “You’re not crazy,” he declared, “but I do understand. Conversation between us isn’t comfortable right now, which isn’t surprising, considering our history.”

“Do you? Understand, I mean. I’m the one who sent you away.

I’m the one who took the crap for everything I did and paid the price for everybody being pissed off at me over it,” she shared, her voice rising with each phrase, and then she huffed.

“Whereas, you on the other hand, didn’t have to deal with any of it. ”

“Not true,” he replied, shaking his head.

“I still had to deal with the loss, the guilt of walking away, not just from you, but from two other people I cared about very deeply and knew I was hurting them as well. There were all kinds of issues, not just the ones you had to deal with. We all dealt with the fallout, including your parents.”

“I know,” she muttered, as she stared out at the world, as they kept walking, talking quietly on the way. “It never occurred to me that this would even happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t think for a minute that you would stay away,” she admitted, trying to keep the tears at bay. “I was angry, furious really, and yes, I ordered you to get lost and to never come back and all that, but it never occurred to me that you would do it.”

He shot her a hard glance. “How could you not? I haven’t changed. I’ve always been one who wouldn’t play head games or deal with ultimatums. And,… for the record,… that hasn’t changed.”

“I know,” she muttered. “I can see that. Looking back, a lot of it was just plain jealousy, just being young and stupid.”

“More than that apparently,” he noted, with a groan. “It seems as if you were also very insecure, and for that I would have to take some of the blame.” She stopped, frowned at him, as he just shrugged and moved her forward. “Come on. We have things to do up here.”

She laughed. “I know, but you caught me by surprise. I think that’s the first I’ve ever heard you say anything about that.”

“It’s also the first time we’re talking about it,” he pointed out, “and whether it’s a good talk or a bad talk isn’t the issue, as long as we’re communicating.

As for how far it goes, I don’t know. We may not agree with a lot of what we each have to say because we both think we took the brunt of it, but hopefully we’re all a lot older and a lot wiser. ”

“I hope so too,” she whispered, “but it sure doesn’t feel that way.”

“I’m sure it doesn’t,” he said. “Nothing quite like knowing that you’ve done something that affects everybody, only to find out that maybe it’s not what you really wanted in the first place.”

“I didn’t even get a chance to take it back, did I?”

“Nope. You were pretty clear about what you wanted.”

“I know,” she said sadly. “It was one of those days, and I just lost it.”

“It was one of those days, and, when you lost it, I left on a mission.”

“And you didn’t come back.”

“Of course not,” he declared, giving her a hard glance. “I didn’t come back because you made things pretty clear.”

“I know I did,” she said in exasperation.

“And it’s not as if you had done that before, so I took it to heart, and I left.”

At that, they came to a clearing. He stopped, pointed a finger to the far corner, and then whispered, “Stay quiet. I’ll circle around and come back.”

She watched as he headed off to the side, moving silently. It was an eerie feeling knowing that he was heading into something that could be very dangerous, yet she was standing here and doing nothing.

It was almost a repeat of everything she’d gone through before. There was something so very capable about him, which she loved, yet at the same time she hated it. Knowing that she probably hated it out of jealousy made her feel even more like a fool. She had no idea how to quantify it all.