Page 49 of River Wild

HOLDENWARNEDHIMSELFto keep his temper, even as he felt his heart racing and sweat making his shirt stick to the seat of his pickup. He’d had a run-in with the large Savage family in the past, a dispute over a horse. Frank Savage and his brothers worked on the Durham place, had a passel of kids, and often ended up fist fighting out behind the bar in town on Friday and Saturday nights.

As Holden pulled up in the ranch hand’s yard, a half dozen little kids scattered. The screen door on the large, sprawling former main house swung open, and the oldest Savage stepped out. Frank squinted as the dust settled around the McKenna Ranch pickup and Holden stepped out.

“I need to talk to you about your son,” he said as he stalked toward the house.

“Which son would that be?” Frank said lazily, still standing in his doorway.

“Buck. Seems he’s been using my daughter, Holly Jo.”

“That right?” Frank let the screen door slam behind him as he walked to the top of the porch steps. “I heard you were adopting her but didn’t think it had gone through yet.”

Holden waved that away. “He’s using Holly Jo to do his homework, pretending to be her boyfriend, and I’m not going to stand for it,” Holden said, glaring up at the man.

The ranch hand frowned, then turned and yelled back into the house. “Buck! Get your scrawny behind out here.”

The lanky teenager who came out of the house was just what Holden had expected. He could see right away what Holly Jo saw in the surly expression on the boy’s face, the too-long blond hair the sixteen-year-old flipped back nonchalantly, the confident way he leaned against the porch pillar to glare down at him.

“Have you been getting someone else to do your homework?” Frank asked.

“Why would I do that?” Buck asked.

“Either because you’re lazy or you’re not all that bright,” Holden said, and Frank shot him a warning look before turning that look on the boy.

Suddenly not looking so confident, Buck said, “She’s been helping me with my math.”

“You need help with your math, your mama will help you,” Frank said, and looked at Holden. “That all?”

“One more thing,” he said. “Holly Jo won’t be riding with your son from now on. She’ll be taking the bus.” Buck shrugged like it was no big deal and headed back inside. Holden shook his head and started to walk away.

“Now that we got my kid straightened out, how about you do the same with your daughter,” Frank said from the porch.

Holden turned to look back at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Bailey. Maybe you should have a talk with her about what she’d been up to before she gets hurt.”

He felt his pulse punch up at the threat and started to take a step back toward the house when Frank went inside, slamming the door behind him.

BAILEYDROVEAWAYfrom the sheriff’s department, planning to go straight to Stuart’s house. But she remembered that they were out of beer. She wasn’t looking forward to the discussion they were about to have. She knew she was going to need at least one beer, maybe more, to get through it.

She hadn’t been kidding about her concern. Once she told him, she didn’t fear so much that he would resign and move away from town and leave her high and dry. She feared he would never look at her again with such pure love in his eyes. The thought of losing that love would maim her in a way not even her attacker had.

After hurrying into the local general store and coming out with a twelve-pack, she climbed behind the wheel and started to drive to the sheriff’s house. But when she looked into the rearview mirror, she saw a familiar gray SUV parked down the street, the engine idling.

With a curse, she jumped out and stalked down the street toward the vehicle. Why was Ralph Jones still following her? She couldn’t see his face with the afternoon sun glinting off the windshield, but she wasn’t surprised when he hurriedly tried to back up and get away.

She picked up a rock from the edge of the road as she reached the driver’s side door, ready to break out the window. But as she grabbed the door handle with one hand and lifted the rock with the other, she saw that it wasn’t Ralph Jones.

It was Norma, his wife, and her expression gave her away.

Apparently realizing that she couldn’t escape, Norma put the SUV into Park and tried to put the window up before Bailey could stop her.

Bailey tapped on the window and waited as Norma put it back down. “It was you. Why have you been following me?” she demanded, feeling a little off balance as she saw the woman’s obvious fury.

“I know about you and my husband, you homewrecker,” Norma spat as she glared at her.

Bailey took a step back. “What?”

“Don’t bother to lie. I saw how shook up he was when he thought you were the one who was lying in that creek. He couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. I’d never seen him like that. He’d been acting strangely for months. The way he got all slicked up to take a horse to Wyoming. Nicking some of my fudge to take to you since he’d never liked it.” Her voice broke. “You’d have thought the old fool would know better than to fall for a...a...woman like you, and at his age!” Tears filled her eyes. She wiped at them. “After all these years of marriage.”

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