Page 13 of River Wild

“I’ve been giving that girl space for years,” Holden snapped.

“Try doing it a while longer. I think she’s working some things out.”

“About me?”

“Space,” Stuart repeated and glanced at the time. “I need to get to work, so if that’s all...” Today he was resigning. He felt lighter having confessed how he felt about Bailey. But mostly because while he might wish he and Bailey had a future, he didn’t believe it. He would be leaving town, leaving all this behind. He’d go to a place where no one knew him, knew his father or his mother or anything about the mistakes he’d made in life. Unfortunately, his scars and probably his nightmares would be going with him. Nothing he could do about that.

“Fine,” the rancher said as he readjusted his Stetson before looking at Stuart again. “Take care of my daughter.” His words were so filled with emotion that Stuart could only nod as Holden showed himself to the door.

Take care of my daughter.That’s exactly what he’d been trying to do, he told himself as he showered, dressed and headed to the office, determined to turn in his resignation and get it over with.

After that, Bailey would have to take care of herself. That worried him, but he’d come to realize that he’d been kidding himself thinking he was the answer to her problems.

CJ STAFFORDNEEDEDmoney bad. Even the lousy attorney he’d managed to hire from prison was refusing to work his case unless he paid him. And not unlike the world outside his barred cell, he required money to operate.

The moment he got his turn to use the hall phone, he made a call to the one man who could make that happen. For a moment, CJ thought Treyton McKenna wasn’t going to take his collect call. He balled his fists, a litany of swear words rising in him like hot water about to erupt out of Old Faithful. He’d seen the famous geyser a couple of times when their mother had taken him and his siblings to Yellowstone Park.

He’d been of the age that he hadn’t seen himself in the famous geyser. Instead, he’d been thinking about taking the wallet of a woman whose purse was right next him—wide open. He couldn’t believe that anyone could be so careless as to leave her purse open with a kid like him standing right by her. Clearly, she deserved to lose her money. Probably had too much of it to worry about what was in her wallet.

Turned out, there wasn’t all that much in the purse, but it had taught him a valuable lesson. CJ had been taking advantage of trusting souls ever since. He’d also learned that he could take what he wanted and often not get caught.

“What?” Treyton demanded after he’d finally accepted the charges from his least favorite felon.

“You’d better always take my calls,” CJ said, trying to rein in his earlier fury. He knew the cops would be listening to all his phone calls, so he had to be careful.

“Or what are you going to do about it?”

He laughed. “You really want to find out?” Silence. “Do you have something to write on? Take down this address. I need you to get two grand to my lawyer until I can afford someone better.”

Treyton swore. “You’re a ballsy son of a—”

“I don’t have much time. There’s a line waiting for this phone. Here’s the address.” He gave it to his so-called partner in crime. “You owe me, remember? You came to me, not the other way around, old buddy.”

“The worst day of my life, and you’re not my buddy.”

CJ laughed. The Staffords and McKennas had been at war for years because of their parents, making him and Treyton strange business partners. “Thanks to me, you’re doing quite well.”

“If you expect me to thank you—”

“You’renot in jail,Iam, and if you want to stay that way—”

“Don’t threaten me, CJ. I’ll get your lawyer money, but we both know no one can get you out of all the felonies you’re facing.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“Don’t call me again,” Treyton said, and disconnected.

CJ squeezed the phone so hard it cracked. The inmate behind him grabbed it and shoved him out of the way. He let the shove go. He had bigger fish to fry, he told himself, knowing who he would call the next time he got to use the phone.

Treyton needed to be reminded who was in charge—and what happened if he screwed with CJ. He hated ingratitude the most. He had let Treyton in on his operation. It wasn’t his fault it went south. It was his sister’s. Admittedly, trying to kill her had been a mistake, one he was already paying dearly for.

He’d lost the family ranch when his mother had turned on him, and now he was facing life in prison unless this new lawyer could spring him. He thought of the ranch he loved, that he’d fought to keep thriving, that he’d given his life to, and how his dear mother, Charlotte Stafford, now ignored his calls.

CJ had heard that she’d left not just the ranch, but the county, and possibly the state. Where had she gone? He didn’t have to guess why. That damned Holden McKenna. It had always been about him.

Yet he held out hope that she would return, forgive him, and get him the best lawyer that money could buy. He needed out of here. He had things to do.

BAILEYHADPASSEDher father’s SUV as she was leaving Stuart’s house this morning. She didn’t have to guess where he was going. The road dead-ended at the sheriff’s house. She told herself Holden McKenna might have business with the sheriff that had nothing to do with her.

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