Page 20 of Brett and Rowdy (Gomillion High Reunion #5)

“All right, you sit here, and I’ll be right back.

” He had no idea how long he was going to be gone, so he just decided that he would pack enough stuff for a couple of weeks, and then if he stayed longer than that, he would just do laundry.

He also needed to make sure he took a pair of boots, because this was a ranch.

He threw in a couple gimme caps, and then he pondered grabbing his necessary tools.

He figured, since they were driving, he could overpack maybe.

He’d just finished getting his bag together and getting Mr. Mann’s bed and leashes and bowls all stacked up when they heard a vehicle rumbling down the drive. Unfortunately, it didn’t sound like it was a truck with a trailer. It sounded more like a fast car.

“Shit, is that the cops?” Rowdy asked.

“Well, it is a police vehicle, but I can tell you it is not your average cop.”

Rowdy raised an eyebrow at him. He could see it pop up from behind the glasses. “Then who is it?”

“Oh, it’s the sheriff…”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Rowdy rolled his head back on his neck like it was bothering him. As if maybe he was getting a headache.

Brett chuckled. “Nope, I don’t care about that kind of stuff, but don’t worry. I know him.”

“Well, of course you do, right?” Rowdy shook his head. “Not that it’s fair of me to say that because I know the sheriff in my area too.”

“Yep, we’re those kind of guys, you and me.”

“What happened to panicky idiot?” Rowdy asked, his lips quirking in a grin.

“That was about our relationship. This is about stuff in town here, and I am an expert at dealing with people who don’t particularly like me, or who don’t really know how to deal with me.

But if there’s one thing I do know how to fake, at least, it’s the old boy system, so don’t worry.

I got this. You just need to keep your mouth shut,” Brett warned.

“You’re telling me to sit down and shut up, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m just telling you not to start something with the sheriff. Unlike the good teacher last night, this guy’s no pushover with a glass jaw.”

“I’ll do it, but if I need to speak up?—”

“I know you will.” The sound of another vehicle coming down the drive told him Madison was arriving, and he tried not to roll his eyes even though Rowdy couldn’t see him. The timing of this was just sucking up some sucky sucky suck.

Rowdy’s phone rang almost immediately, and he grabbed it.

“I know. I know. Just keep driving, baby. Just keep going straight. I will call you when you can come pick me up. Yeah, call your momma. Tell her to wait for my phone call. Don’t go far.

Okay. Yeah, I love you. Don’t worry, I got this.

” Rowdy hung up the phone about the time the sheriff knocked on the door, and bit out, “Mother fucker.”

“Don’t worry about it, babe. I got this.”

Lionel Reacher banged on the door, no doubt trying to sound all official. He opened the door and nodded to Lionel.

“Brett, I hear there’s somebody here at this house I need to talk to. I’m going to take him into the sheriff’s office and speak to him.”

He heard Rowdy from the kitchen, just barely.

“Like hell you will.”

He smiled. Shut up, Rowdy. Let me deal with this. “ Now, Lionel, what the hell’s going on?”

“You know full well what’s going on. You were there.” The sheriff didn’t look terribly amused. “Your friend coldcocked Jason Avery and left him for dead right there on the high school parking lot. That was not a very friendly thing to do. Avery is pressing charges, and I gotta take him in.”

He cocked his head. “You have any witnesses? Any proof?”

“I’ve got you and Ashley and Dan. And surely not all three of you are going to ruin your reputations for some outsider from fucking God knows where out West.”

Not only was Brett not too sure about that fact, Brett was incredibly sure the sheriff was vastly misinformed about that.

There was absolutely one hundred percent of a chance that all three of them would put their reputations on the line for this particular son of a bitch from God knew where out West. In fact, when push came to shove, he was sure that Ashley would die for Rowdy, no questions. He’d saved her when nobody else would.

“So you’re going to take Jason Avery’s word over all four of us?”

“Why would he lie?”

Brett let his expression go icy cold, even as he was praying to God that Rowdy just kept his ass in the kitchen.

He felt one of his eyebrows raise up so high that it actually tugged at the corner of his mouth.

The simple fact was, he wasn’t an outsider.

In fact, he was about as inside as it got around here, and he wasn’t going to play this goddamn game.

“Lionel. Don’t be feeding me a line of bullshit.

Folks talk. And you know as well as I do that there’s not a girl who was in high school with Coach Avery back in the day, who didn’t know exactly what he was getting up to.

It came out about what he was getting up to, and still he has a job here at the school.

Even when law enforcement knew there was a problem.

Now, should something have happened—and I’m not saying it did, but if Coach Avery happened to threaten Ashley and Rowdy’s daughter, then it is perfectly reasonable for Rowdy to defend his daughter.

Although it’s going to be really, really difficult for anybody to convince a jury that a blind man went and coldcocked a perfectly healthy sixty-year-old man.

” He shook his head. “Rowdy Duran not only is a short son of a bitch and probably would have to stand on tiptoe to coldcock anybody, the man is goddamn blind.”

Lionel looked at him, and he looked back because he wasn’t putting up with his shit. “I want him gone.”

Now that wasn’t new. People had been wanting Rowdy Duran gone out of this town since the second he stepped foot in it.

Brett waved a hand. “That is not going to be a problem, I can assure you. Give us twenty minutes and you’ll never have to see him again.”

Lionel sighed, cleaning his mirrored shades. “I got your word on that?”

“Yep.” He figured if Rowdy ever came back to visit Ashley, which he doubted was going to happen because Ashley would probably go to New Mexico instead, well, Lionel would be out of office by then. “You got my word.”

“All right. I’ll call it in, say I didn’t find him, but I want him long gone in the next hour. Twenty minutes to get his shit together and out of here. An hour to be out of town.”

“I’m already packed, and his daughter’s in a holding pattern out there in the truck and trailer. We’ll be out of here for sure.”

Lionel raised an eyebrow. “You’re heading out too?”

“Yeah. I’m gonna go visit New Mexico for a while. I think it’ll be good to see new things.” He just stared the man down, daring him to say a word.

“Well, good deal. You got somebody watching your place?”

“I do especially since Mr. Mann’s not gonna be here.”

Lionel glanced at the big basset hound and made a face. “Not that he’s much of a guard dog anyway, but I’ll have somebody drive by here every so often too. Just in case you don’t want any squatters.”

“No. You’re right about that. I’ll make sure everything’s locked up tight too.”

“Good. Good deal. You be safe on the road.”

“Yes, sir.” He had to grin, and Lionel grinned back. The guy was the same age as his parents; sometimes that was a little bit weird, but at least he was a good man, and the guy was doing him a solid.

“I’m gonna go radio that in. You get a hold of his daughter and let her know it’s safe to come on in and pick you up.”

“Will do. Thanks, Sheriff.”

He heard Rowdy mumble something, but he knew that he just needed to shove Lionel out the door before anyone else heard it.

Lionel lifted a hand as he walked out the door, and Brett watched him go all the way to his vehicle, where he picked up his handheld and started calling in something. He was going to assume that the sheriff was keeping his word.

“Hey, honey, why don’t you get a hold of Madison and tell her to come on?”

“I already texted her.” Rowdy’s phone rang, and he answered. “Hey, baby. Yeah, no, he’s leaving. He says that you can come on down and pick us up. We’ve gotta be out of town in an hour.”

“I’m on my way, Daddy,” Madison said, her voice back to chirpy and way less scared.

“You gonna be all right here for a minute, babe?” Brett asked. “I need to go lock up all my stuff in the shed and grab some tools.” The last thing he needed was his workshop being broken into and all of his shit stolen. He had an alarm on the workshop, in fact.

“I’m right as rain,” Rowdy murmured. “Me and Barney, hanging out.”

“I’ll be right back.” He couldn’t believe he was doing this. Hell, he couldn’t believe he had just told the sheriff to fuck off, essentially, but it felt good, really damn good, and he was super optimistic about this road trip.

He only hoped it didn’t go to shit like tomorrow.