Page 23 of Austin (The K9 Files #29)

“It might not break his heart, but I think it’ll be a tough thing for him to get past. He’s always been extremely proud but fair, and somehow there seems to be a lack of respect happening in this case.

I don’t know if it’s…” She turned to her mother, frowning, then asked, “That land, where the guns were stashed, was it always part of Dad’s family ranch? ”

Her mother shrugged. “I don’t know, not for sure. As far as I know it was. But you know how your father is. He’s buying up land adjoining ours as often as he can.”

“I just wonder if there was some dispute in the past or something, and maybe we have another family-owned-land-for-generations hating on Dad.”

“Maybe, but why would that have anything to do with your brother? Chris didn’t have anything to do with any of that.”

“No, but I’m starting to realize how anger can make someone very impressionable and how willing you are to step out of your normal behavior and do things you wouldn’t normally do just because you’re so fired up about being right—or at least about being wronged and not getting what you want.

In that state of anger, then you’re quite happy to let other people lead you astray. ”

“Chris was never that weak before,” Amie said, frowning, shaking her head.

“Maybe, but… I wonder if we ever really knew him. After all, I didn’t even know myself for the longest time, and I still don’t in many ways. I’ve come a long way, and I agree that I’ve certainly changed and grown, but I’ve got a lot more to go, and maybe Chris does too.”

“He absolutely does, but I want to ensure that he stays alive to do it,” Amie murmured.

“Nothing is worse than watching your children go down a pathway that you can’t follow, knowing that it’s theirs to destroy or to fix.

It’s their future to create as they want.

Yet, as parents, we are left doing nothing, other than providing words of advice and hoping they won’t just throw it out the window because they fail to care anymore. ”

Rox studied her mother intently. “I care,” she declared instantly, “but, back then, I was blind and hurt when it came to Austin. Only now have I come to realize that part of the reason I was so hurt was because I was jealous of the relationship he had with Dad.”

Her mother just shook her head, as she stared at her daughter. “And that is foolish,” she declared. “Your father loves you.”

“Yes, but I’m not his son. I am his daughter, and, as much as I hate to admit it, that matters to him. He is my father, and I love him, but I know he really wanted a son.”

Her mother’s face pinched, and she slowly nodded.

“Yes, it does matter because he always wanted a son. He wanted a son to carry on the legacy of the ranch. He had hopes for that, and I think, once he realized that Austin was as good of a man as he was, Jake was really proud of you and happy for you to marry Austin, plus ecstatic for himself because then he had somebody he could count on to help take the burden of the ranch, someone he could trust to do what was right.”

“But Dad couldn’t trust me,” Rox muttered, shaking her head.

“I won’t make any excuses for Jake, and I don’t know that it’s something you could ever understand, but I can tell you that there has always been a bloodline family member running this property. Even though your brother was rather desperate to own it, Jake didn’t ever fully trust Chris.”

“I don’t fully trust him myself,” Rox admitted bluntly. “I was always worried that Chris would end up with the controlling interest. If so, I would probably end up leaving.”

Amie stared at her in shock. “Why would you leave?”

“Because I’m not sure Chris and I would get along all that well when it came to running this ranch,” she clarified.

“I’ve got decades of experience here, while Chris was avoiding anything to do with work on this ranch.

So, if he had a controlling interest, then that meant he could do whatever he wanted to, with no rhyme or reason, and no one could stop him anyway.

Why would I put myself through that hell? ”

Amie sat down at the closest kitchen chair and just stared at her daughter.

“Maybe that’s what your father was always so worried about.

I know that he really struggled with Chris’s interest, and I tried hard to get Jake to understand where Chris was coming from.

Yet, to a large degree, I didn’t even understand where Chris was coming from myself.

He seemed to have his own ax to grind, and it was all about the ranch.

But it was never his, and, outside of joking when he was a small child, playing make believe, it was never about him getting the ranch. ”

“It may not have been about that from your point of view, but it could be something that Chris harbored over the years,” she pointed out, with a shrug.

“He never mentioned it,” Amie said, shaking her head.

She frowned and looked over at her mother. “Was there anybody else in his life who might have been pushing it?”

Amie shrugged. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

Rox just nodded and let it go. What she needed was for the men to come back and to update them over exactly what the hell was going on and what they would do about it.

She was afraid her father would want to hang on to the weapons, just to antagonize whoever they were dealing with, eventually bringing the fight even closer to home.

That was something Rox didn’t want her mother involved in.

It didn’t mean that Austin would see it the same way though.

Rox just needed to calm down and to wash off the dirt from the ride.

As soon as she returned from a hot shower, she checked out front at the noise, seeing her father and Austin walking up the front steps.

She opened the front door and asked them, “And?”

Her father looked at her irritably. “And what?” he snapped.

“No need to be snappy. This concerns all of us.”

Jake nodded. “The sheriff is pissed at me because I didn’t go directly to him.

Some of Austin’s friends contacted him, saying they were getting involved, and he’s wondering why the hell I didn’t let him know what was going on, and I can’t say that I blame him.

Hell, I didn’t even know who contacted them and what they knew, so what could I say to him?

” he muttered, clearly annoyed. “So ridiculous.” He glared at Austin.

“And you still think Chris is involved?”

“I don’t know who’s involved, Jake,” he replied, looking over at him. “And that’s the problem. We have nothing. Yet there is no avoiding a significant cache of weapons hidden on your land. If it was a much larger stash, I would be more worried, so this just makes me worried .”

Jake stared at his son-in-law. “What the hell does worried mean?”

“I’m worried that there’s more,” he shared.

“More guns, more drugs, more of whatever’s out there.

And it must be going to someone local. I don’t know that for sure, but being off the beaten path here, I wouldn’t presume this was the normal drug-running, gun-running, people-running operation passing through your land.

So it would be good if we could use Cowboy to see if we can find more. ”

“I highly doubt Cowboy would find anything at this point in time,” Amie suggested. “You would think he would be pretty traumatized by now.”

“But you guys need to remember that Cowboy is a War Dog. He was trained to assist our military in war. I don’t know what Cowboy’s particular skills are, but I already contacted my boss and asked him to dig into that and to share that with me.

For all we know, Cowboy is a bomb-sniffing dog.

Plus, he did lead us right to the guns. So I think Cowboy held it together pretty well, after his weeks of captivity.

” Austin patted Cowboy, who had been stuck by his side since showing up to free him.

Austin smiled at the War Dog and gave him a bit of a cuddle.

“He’s been a really good boy out there.”

Jake nodded. “He did handle himself well,” he admitted reluctantly, “but he’s home now. So I think it’s fair that he retires.”

“Nobody here gets to retire until this is solved,” Austin declared, giving Jake a hard glance. “You and I both know that, once these guys find out their weapons are gone, there’s no guarantee they aren’t coming here looking for them.”

“I wish they would,” Jake grumbled.

“Yes, but you’re not alone,” Austin snapped at him. “Two women are here, and you’ve got a couple ranch hands, but they’re not gunmen.”

“Raul is,” he said, with a snort. “He can handle himself just fine.”

At that, Austin stared at him and asked, “And do you trust him?”

Jake frowned. “Of course I do.”

“There is no of course in this,” Austin muttered. “Somebody had access to the property, probably repeatedly. Somebody knew how much traffic would or would not be around that area,” he clarified, “so I don’t really trust anybody at this point.”

“ Right ,” Jake muttered. “If you think there is any issue, you’re welcome to question him. He won’t take it kindly though.”

“He might not, but surely he would understand.”

“No, I’m not so sure he would.” Jake looked over at his wife. “What do you think?”

“No, Raul won’t understand it at all. He would take it as a lack of loyalty or belief in him on our part,” she told Austin.

“Maybe,” Austin noted. “I’ll tailor any questions to at least find out if he’s seen anybody or knows anybody who may have been coming back and forth.

Your ranch may not be at the border, but your property is near enough to the border that this could be some side route, again pointing to some locals who may be involved in running these goods found on Jake’s property.

I don’t want to make this about illegal immigrants or worse, human trafficking.

I don’t want to make this about anything except the fact that you now have a problem on your land, particularly with guns and drugs, it seems.”