Chapter Ten #3
“Family sticks together,” she proudly said, sitting down with a huff.
The sheriff gave his boyfriend a long look. “I didn’t think you’d get involved in something this stupid.”
“Family sticks together,” Dodge said, echoing Bella’s reply.
Ollie rubbed his eyes with the tips of his fingers.
“As if one Bastian hadn’t been bad enough, now we got four.
” He glanced at Bella. “Five to deal with. So, who wants to tell me what kicked this off? Who threw the first punch?” No one said diddly.
Ollie got much sterner. “Okay, we can do this one of two ways. You dipshits can tell me what happened now, or I can cuff you and haul you to the station, where you’ll be booked for—”
“It was me, I think,” I spoke up. Bella and I did not want to get arrested and have our names pop up on some police page where someone could see them. “I pulled up and saw Baker fighting with Aiden, and it pissed me off.”
“We weren’t fighting,” Baker hurried to say. His speech was messy because his lip was swollen pretty badly. “We were discussing a personal situation.”
“No, you were telling me to back off dating Ford,” Aiden interjected, leaning up to glare around Linc picking gravel from his beard.
“You what?!” I shouted, making a few of the patrons who were gathered outside to watch the show startle. “How fucking dare you?!”
“I never told him to stop dating you. I told him his reputation as a tomcat made me worry about you two dating,” Baker barked and spit some blood to the dirt.
“You also said I was too old to be sniffing around your little brother,” Aiden fired back, his voice rising slightly. Oh man, he sounded really mad. Not madder than me, though. “The man is twenty-five years old. He’s not underage. And ten or so years isn’t that much.”
Baker snorted then winced. Hanley was poking at the bridge of his nose and grimacing.
“Seriously, I am getting tired of my family sticking their noses into my life. I’m old enough to know who I want to sleep with, Baker!” I yelled.
“Then maybe you should choose someone who’s—”
Baker’s reply was cut short by a sharp, loud whistle. We all looked up to see Ollie with his thumb and forefinger in the corners of his mouth. The only noises that were heard were the muffled sounds of the Learys packed like sardines into the back seat of the sheriff’s cruiser.
“Enough! Jesus. Do I look like Dr. Phil?” We all shook our heads. “I didn’t think so. If you chuckleheads have family issues, work them out at home. Now, Ford. What did you do to start this brawl?”
“I opened the truck door without really looking at the car next to me. I was too pissed at Baker pointing a finger at Aiden, so I pinged the van on my left. It may have made a dent. Who would know? Then the door opened, and the Learys piled out. They were really aggressive, Rip especially, and I owed him a punch in the face for shooting Lady so—”
“Wait.” Ollie held up a hand. “Rip Leary shot some lady?”
“Lady is a dog,” Aiden interjected. “The one you brought to me after being shot at by Rip.”
“The best dog,” I added because she was, and it needed to be said often.
“Oh, Okay. That dog. Dodge mentioned her. Should have recalled the name. Okay, so you threw the first punch, Ford?” Ollie asked, and I had to reply honestly.
I nodded. Ollie studied us all intently.
“I need to speak to some other folks here, get some witness testimony, and see if the owner wants to press charges. Sit tight. Do not move. Baker, are you solid?”
“Never got through the door, but thanks for your concern,” Baker fired back, clearly riled up with me, Aiden, and the whole world, it seemed. Other than Hanley, who Baker never seemed to get angry with. Guess that was what true love did.
“What a bunch of boneheads,” Ollie muttered and wandered off.
“Does anyone want to hear my version of “Haunted” before we get locked up for drunk and disorderly?” Bella asked while rewinding a loose wrap on her slim forearm.
“Can’t arrest you on a D and D if you’re not drunk. Ask me how I know,” Baker stated with zero emotion. He looked as tired as I felt. Getting into a bar fight was not as glamorous as it was in the movies.
“Good to know,” Bella whispered as she began to dab at Linc’s bloody knuckles. “You really tore them up,” she said to him.
“Yeah, caught them on the front teeth of that peckerhead who gave you shit at the front door back at the fire hall,” he said, staring at Bella’s small hand cradling his large one.
“Gary,” Baker threw out, carefully avoiding looking down my way. Hopefully, he was ashamed of his bullshit and couldn’t bear to glance at me or Aiden. “That’s Gary. A year or two younger than Rip.”
“Right, Gary. He may need your dental expertise, Dodge,” Linc called down to the ginger among us who was resting the back of his head against the barn-board-sided wall of Jumping Pony.
“Going by the amount of plaque I saw on his teeth tonight, dental care is low on Gary Leary’s list of important things,” Dodge mumbled softly.
“Gross,” Bella said before she started singing her song. Well, Taylor’s song.
I chewed on the corner of my mouth. My head itched inside.
Badly. If Ollie arrested me for assaulting Rip Leary, that would be so bad.
So very bad. We’d been as careful as we could be, and now I was going to blow everything to hell over one asshole.
An asshole who shot a dog, so maybe that was a point in my favor, but overall I may have just—
“Okay, so here’s what we’re going to do,” Ollie announced as he neared us, dark eyes roaming over each Bastian—and Bella was an honorary Bastian—as he slowly strolled up and stopped.
He was pretty imposing. “I have two witnesses who saw Ford pull up and open his door. They say there was a nominal impact with the Leary van. When Rip exited, they saw the flash of a blade, which corroborates with what was removed from his person during our little scrum to get him restrained.”
“He had a knife?” I asked. Ollie nodded. “Shit.”
“So, since you were acting to defend yourself from Mr. Leary, the witness testimony jibing with our removal of hidden weapons on the Leary combatants as well as several illegal firearms found in the van under probable cause searches, and the fact the owner is not pressing charges since the fight took place outside and no harm was done to his establishment, I am releasing you all with firm warnings. And I mean firm. Do not ever have me called out to break up another fight with you and the Learys. Also, you’re all permanently flagged from Jumping Pony. ”
“Even me?” Bella asked, her tone sweet as one of Granny’s yam pies.
“Even you. Now, haul your backsides home before I change my mind. Dodge, I have to work late and book these chumps, so I will see you later.”
“Love you,” Dodge called to his man.
“Mm-hmm, love you too.” Ollie gave us all a long, dark look before he helped Dodge off the ground and gave him a tender little pat on the rump. We all rose. We were dusty, bloody, and bruised.
I peeked at Bella. “You saved me from being pounded into mashed potatoes.”
She flung some of her loose hair over her shoulder. “And you once saved me from something far worse. Shame about that guitar, though.”
I’d save up to buy her a new one. Aiden gave me a nudge in the side. “You look sexy as hell right now.”
“You too,” I whispered while we all caught our breaths. I hoped Granny wouldn’t be too mad at us when she found out. Maybe we could keep it a secret from her.