Page 7 of Austin (The K9 Files #29)

R ox stood on the porch, tapping her foot impatiently. When Jake and Austin finally came in from the barn, she barked, “Well?”

“What the hell was that?” Glaring, her father brushed past her and went inside, as she turned and stared in astonishment. That didn’t bode well.

With Jake in the house, she watched Austin moving toward her at a rapid pace. She stepped aside to let him in, and, as he went by, she whispered, “What the hell is going on?”

“Not exactly sure, but it wasn’t good.” He headed in toward the kitchen, with her trailing behind.

“What was it?” she snapped. She glared at Austin. “Come on. Give me a straight answer.”

He shrugged. “I saw the driver, didn’t recognize him.… It was dark, with only the lights of the vehicle and their spotlights and my phone’s flash camera, but”—he turned to face Jake and Amie—“I think Chris was in the passenger seat.”

Immediately Rox’s heart stopped. She stared at Amie, then at Jake, as she turned back to Austin. “You have to be wrong.”

He replied in a tight tone of voice, “I wish I was wrong, but all I can tell you is what I saw, and it looked to be Chris.” He pulled out his phone and started bringing up the photographs.

Rox snatched the phone from his hand and studied the pictures, her heart sinking. She looked over to see her mom staring at her, with fear in her eyes, but Rox nodded slowly. “Shit, it does look to be Chris.”

Her mom closed her eyes and leaned back on the counter for support, as if everything in her world had just collapsed. She turned to Austin. “Was anyone else with him?”

Austin shrugged. “You can’t really see from the photos, but he had at least one if not two other people with him.” She just bit her bottom lip and nodded. “I gather things have gotten way worse?” Austin asked her.

“Oh yeah, way worse, not that it was ever very good to begin with.”

Austin didn’t know the whole story. Only that Chris was Amie’s son, not Jake’s.

Even as siblings growing up together, Rox and Chris used to get along so well for many, many years, until the more recent ones.

She had tried to talk to Chris several times, but it had always turned into a mockery, siccing his friends on her, calling her the poor little rich girl.

Chris had changed, never really adapting past the point of learning that he would inherit a 25 percent share of ownership in the ranch.

That had broken Rox’s heart to see him so angry all the time because the last thing Rox wanted was to come between Chris and his mother.

For Amie, he was still her firstborn, a child she absolutely adored, but one who appeared to have no love for his mother at all.

Rox had wanted to kick Chris’s butt so many times just for mistreating Amie, for not loving the wonderful mother he had, yet Rox could not do anything with him, not now, not after the inherit talk Jake had had with Chris.

He was stubborn, he was arrogant, and he was hurting and lashing out.

If she understood one thing, it was hurting.

She walked over and wrapped her arms around her mother and held her close.

Amie shook with pain, frustration, and anger, but mostly hurt.

Rox held her close and murmured, “It’ll be okay.”

Amie just shook her head, then looked at her. “You know it won’t be okay. This won’t end well for anybody,” she murmured.

At that, Rox nodded. “I’m afraid so too,” she admitted, “but I’m not sure what else we can do. Somehow we have to talk to Chris.”

“We just can’t get through to him,” Amie stated in frustration.

“You think I haven’t tried?” She pushed back her hair and stepped out of her daughter’s reach, always needing to be in control, trying so hard to make everything perfect in the world around her.

When somebody didn’t conform and refused to follow suit it, it broke all the molds of everything that Amie had always done for them.

It hurt Rox to see her mother in so much pain.

She turned back to Jake and asked, “Ideas?”

He shook his head. “Nope. I’m hamstrung. If it wasn’t for your mother, I would have called the cops a long time ago.”

Austin spoke up, resolute and firm. “You’ll have to now, Jake.

” Amie turned on him with a harsh gasp, and he shook his head.

“You and I both know that the time for being nice is long over. I don’t know how far Chris has gone off the reservation doing crap like this,” he pointed out, “but it is definitely not something you can allow him to continue to do. He’ll just get into more and more trouble.

Joyriding is one thing, but lighting fires is another,” he declared, staring Amie right in her eyes.

“He’s deliberately trying to hurt you. I don’t know any way forward on that, but he obviously needs some help—or at least some new friends. ”

“He definitely needs new friends,” Amie agreed, shaking her head. “He’s only thirty.”

Austin stared at her. “Thirty? Did you say only thirty ?”

Amie winced and then nodded. “I know, in your world, thirty is a man.”

“In anybody’s world,” he stated, his tone hard. “Thirty is a man, and in this case it’s a man-size problem that needs to be fixed.”

“I don’t know how to fix it,” Amie shared simply. “I’ve tried talking to him, and he just won’t listen. He’s angry.”

“About what?”

“About the ranch,” Jake said, followed by a harsh grunt.

“I offered him a share—25 percent—and a working relationship as part of the ranch operation. Honestly, it never occurred to me that he wouldn’t want that or wouldn’t want to stay and work together, but he basically laughed and threw it in my face. He doesn’t want any part of it.”

“So, what does he want?” Austin asked.

“He wants all of it. Yet Rox is my daughter, related by blood,” he stated, “and I will not pass down the family legacy, generations upon generations to Chris, not without Rox being a part of it, and she would get the larger share at that,” he added firmly. “Otherwise it’ll go back to my cousin.”

Silence followed his words, and Austin knew that had been an issue prior to his separation from Rox.

It had never been an issue for Austin. It would obviously be Rox’s place—as a family legacy, of course it was.

He had also expected to eventually stay and work the land with her.

Back then he just hadn’t realized that, for Rox, the eventually was to be immediately , as far as she was concerned.

Austin nodded. “Of course Chris didn’t like the reality of your offer when he was expecting a handout, where his inheritance would cost Rox hers.”

“Exactly. His biological father is out there in the world and isn’t giving him shit, so…” Jake puffed up his cheeks and let out a sigh. “Chris is holding it against me that I’m not his natural father and that I won’t just hand over my family’s legacy to him.”

“He’s also never worked the ranch,” Rox pointed out. “He doesn’t want to work here. He doesn’t want to be part of it, and, when Dad told him that he could live and work here, Chris got angry and took off.”

Austin frowned at that. “I don’t remember him as being that angry before.”

She shook her head. “He wasn’t, but it happened somewhere around the same time as we broke up,” she admitted, “but I’m not sure what started it.

I just know that Chris made a point of making sure that he’s the one in control, and the rest of us really have no say.

He just bounces in and bounces out, upsets Mom, and goes on about his day, a smile on his face, as if that makes him the happiest man ever. ”

“So, he’s still lashing out at you then,” Austin noted, turning to look at Amie.

She had one fist up against her mouth, as if to hold back an inner scream, something he understood full well.

He walked over, wrapped her up in his arms, and just let her rock against him.

“I’m sorry.” He turned and looked at Jake.

“Are you thinking this is the only issue, or is something else going on?”

“Something else is going on,” he confirmed, with a shake of his head, “and it has to do with his girlfriend.”

“Ex-girlfriend,” Rox clarified.

Jake asked Austin, “Remember Danny, one ranch over? He has a daughter, Samantha. Do you remember her?”

He shrugged. “Vaguely, yes.”

“Danny didn’t approve of Chris dating Samantha and more or less kicked Chris off his place. He’d caught him in her bed a couple times, had some strong words, and kicked him out of the house. He hasn’t been allowed back and isn’t allowed to date Samantha anymore.”

Austin thought about that for a long moment and then nodded. “She’s a bit younger, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, quite a few years younger, if truth be told,” Jake confirmed. “I think she’s four or five years younger than you, isn’t she?” he asked, turning to look at Rox.

“Seven years younger than me. She’s eighteen,” she shared, “and she’s always been a handful. So, it’s not necessarily all Chris’s fault.”

Amie shook her head. “No, it’s not all his fault, but I’m sure, from Chris’s perspective, once again he wasn’t enough, and nobody was there for him.”

Austin sighed. “So, basically Chris had a chip on his shoulder already, then got into trouble with a young girl whose father didn’t approve, and that was it?”

“Pretty much,” Jake noted, “and now we have a very angry young man.”

“Who apparently has money,” Austin broke in, “if that set of wheels was anything to go by.”

“I think that truck is his buddy’s. Chris only works part-time at the mechanic’s shop,” Jake said cautiously. “I’m not sure if that’s a good thing for him or not, but at least it’s solid work, and it does keep him off the streets—at least some hours of the day.”

“Where is he living?” Austin asked.

“Above the gas station. Carmichael gave him a place when he was there last time.”

“That’s a good thing then because it could be worse.”

“It could be, but another kid stays there as well. As far as I know, that kid is pretty heavily into drugs, and I figure the fancy truck was probably his.”