Page 28 of The Rogue (Four Corners Ranch #11)

for.”

Understanding passed between them. He had never talked to Denver about the things he’d done for their dad, and Denver had

never talked to him about his own place in all of it. Neither had Daughtry, though he knew Daughtry carried around some pretty

heavy demons considering the guy had gone into law enforcement like it might wash all his sins clean to outright join a different

team.

“I don’t have any advice for you,” Justice said. “Mostly because I haven’t figured out how I feel about any of it. I worked

the ranch, Denver. Because you love it, mostly. Because it matters. Because this is where we managed to make a little something

that looks like a family. But I think it’s atonement I’m after.”

There was something that made him angry. Viscerally angry for the young boy he’d been. That boy hadn’t hurt anybody. That

boy had been hurt by the people who were supposed to take care of them. It was noble, he supposed, Denver’s quest for atonement.

But it just wasn’t the same for Justice. He didn’t feel guilt. He felt rage. He felt like he had been used. Like his childhood

wonder and trust had been crushed before it ever had chance to really take root.

“You know what I resent? That we never really got to have a childhood. Because everything centered around Dad.” That was a simplistic way of saying it, but it was close enough to the truth.

“Yeah. I resent more being recruited to... to hurt the community.”

“I get that. Maybe that’s why I don’t want to grow up. I want to get something back for that kid. Doing what feels good...

it’s definitely not something I got to indulge in back then.”

“How’s that going for you?”

“Just perfect,” he said.

He thought about last night. Was that his problem? When he got seized with the urge to do something that felt good he couldn’t

just turn it off? Was that why he’d said those things to Rue? Lord Almighty. He hoped not. He hoped that he was better than

that; he just had a suspicion he might not be. Was that his real thing? Was he running around acting like a giant man-child

because when he was a kid he had been full of fear and uncertainty? Because he hadn’t had fun?

Well. Maybe. But then, there were other things about him that he supposed flew in the face of that. He also liked his house

to be in perfect order. And he liked to limit the traffic in it. Except for Rue, of course.

Though... the King household certainly had not been in order during his childhood. Which made him wonder how much of that

went straight back to control now.

A freak in the sheets, a control freak on his home turf.

It all painted a picture he didn’t think he liked very much.

It made him wonder how much of a right he had to be angry at Rue. Most of it, to be fair, was already directed at himself.

But she put up with a hell of a lot when it came to him. A lot of his own issues. A lot of his broken pieces. The last couple

of weeks had been devoted to her, and he didn’t think he was doing that great of a job.

“These done?” he asked, gesturing to the steaks.

“Yep,” said Denver.

“For what it’s worth,” he said to his brother. “You’ve done a good job.”

“I’m not Daughtry.”

“You’re handling it the way you see fit.”

“Yeah. For whatever that’s worth.”

“I think it’s worth a lot, actually.”

“Thanks, little brother. I appreciate it. Even if I am pathologically averse to showing it.”

“Well. How the hell would we know how to show any kind of appreciation?”

He took a plate of steaks into the house, and Rue was standing inside the living room, talking to Bix and Arizona. Fia and

Landry weren’t coming tonight, because they had gone down to the coast for the weekend with Lila. Of course Lila was thrilled

to be having a sibling, but Landry and Fia were now working overtime to make sure she didn’t feel sidelined. After all, she

might be their daughter, but she was still relatively new to living with them. They didn’t want her to think she was taking

second place to the baby they were going to raise from day one.

It amazed him that his brother thought of things like that, given their own terrible parenting situation.

Maybe that was the perk of being the youngest. Not that Landry hadn’t had his share of struggle. But their dad was more or

less identified as the hideous narcissist he was by then.

At least, that was how Justice saw it.

“They invited me to the next town hall,” Rue said.

“Do you need an invite?”

She shrugged. “I’m not Four Corners people.”

“You’ve been plenty of times.”

She wrinkled her nose. “It’s a special thing. Everybody’s making cookies.”

“Am I making cookies?” he asked, lifting a brow.

“I’ll bring cookies if it’s okay for them to have bacon in them,” Denver said, walking in.

“Nobody wants your cookies, Denver,” Bix said.

“Speak for yourself, Bix,” Denver said, grinning. “Many ladies like my cookies.”

“Ew,” Arizona and Bix said at the same time.

“Not the prevailing opinion,” Denver said.

Rue, for her part, was silent. He wondered if the double entendre was less amusing to her given their whole situation last

night. He knew that made it less amusing to him.

“I’ll happily make your portion of the cookies,” she said to Justice.

“Seems sexist,” he said.

“Sexist, or is it in the name of good taste?”

“I couldn’t say,” he responded.

“Somehow I think you can,” Bix said.

“All right. That sounds like a deal, given that you would have been completely invited to go either way. With or without an invitation from these two sprockets.”

“I don’t want to freeload,” she said. “I’ve been on my extended vacation here at the ranch, and it isn’t like I’m doing any

farm chores.”

“You aren’t invited to do farm chores,” said Denver. “Because the question becomes whether or not you have the credentials

to do farm chores.”

“She doesn’t,” said Justice.

“That’s just mean,” she said. “I could knit leg warmers for the cows.”

“Yeah. I’m sure they would appreciate it.”

Bix’s eyes suddenly went round. “Please do that. It would be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I mean, I could.”

“You do not need to knit anything for the cows. You might as well knit a turtleneck for that steak over there.”

All three women looked indignant about that, but Denver howled with laughter. And that was when Daughtry came in from his

work out on patrol, still dressed in his uniform. They caught him up on the joke as they all sat down to dinner, and this

at least felt somewhat normal.

This was why he was here. This thing they had made.

It had nothing to do with the King family name.

It had to do with getting something back.

This family life they never had. He hadn’t realized that about himself before, but it was true.

He wanted this. Genuinely. And it felt good to be back on even footing.

The whole thing with Rue would blow over.

It had to. Because she was one of the most important people in his life.

She was part of this family that he created.

He wouldn’t let anything disrupt that.

She looked up at him from across the table, her blue eyes shiny. And he felt something grab hold of him, low in his gut.

Hell.