Chapter 50
Chapter Fifty
Following the direction of Beau’s glare, I spot Ryker and Kane charging across the field, my father and Mayor García trailing behind them—Dad in full uniform, his hand extended as he shouts something I’m too far away to hear.
Hundreds of eyes stare at the unfolding scene, each of their faces cast in various degrees of light and shadow, like a baroque painting, while a storm brews above them, the sun barely peeking through the purple-gray sky.
Beau laughs, muttering something under his rancid breath about what an idiot Ryker is to think he can be a cop, and that’s when it dawns on me what my dad is shouting.
“Get Charlie out of here,” I hiss at Beau, the sound of my father bellowing for Ryker not to do anything stupid finally reaching my ears, growing louder by the second. “Beau, please. You’ve already won. Just take her and leave. She doesn’t need to see her dad and brothers fight.”
“And miss all the fun?” Beau clicks his tongue. “No, I don’t think I will. You and those boys need to learn what happens when you fuck with the Blackthornes, and my daughter needs to understand that no one comes for us and walks away. Even if that someone is her own half brother or… you .”
Movement catches my attention when another group breaks away from the larger crowd, this one with Cooper and his cousin Houston at their lead . My pulse stutters. If this turns into a brawl, Ryker will never get guardianship of Charlie and he and his sister will be stuck in this cursed fucking town forever.
“Excuse me, Mr. Beau?”
My head whips toward the small voice weaving its way through the weathered tombstones.
The tendons in Beau’s neck strain. “How many times do I have to tell you to call me papa ?”
“ Papa ,” Charlie says, the tiniest hint of sass leaking through as she climbs up onto the stone wall and takes a seat. “When are we going to Grandma Dorothy’s? I’m really hungry.”
Beau’s nostrils flare, his fists opening and closing at his sides in a way that has my stomach trembling on his daughter’s behalf. “You can wait until my business here is done.”
“Oh,” Charlie says, eyes connecting with mine before she removes a notepad from the pocket of her pink jean shorts that have adorable little green dinosaurs embroidered into them.
“What are you writing?” Beau snaps, attention flitting from his daughter to the angry mob headed our way.
She kicks her feet and releases her lower lip from her teeth to respond. “The caseworker lady told me to write down everything that happens. She wanted to know when I was happy or sad…or hungry . She also told me to write down why I felt that way.” Charlie gets a very serious look on her face as she sounds out each word she’s transcribing. “ Papa and a teenage girl were arguing. The girl fell. She was bleeding, and I was so hungry, but Papa said…”
I have to bite my lip from smiling. She is definitely Ryker’s sister, the sneaky little shit.
But then my insides sour. She’ll be alone with Beau after this, and now he’ll be even more pissed .
“Fuckin’ hell, girl. Get in the damn truck. I’ll take you to Grandma Dorothy’s in a minute.”
As soon as Charlie is out of earshot, he whirls on me, mouth contorted like he’s about to start yelling, but then the clouds clear overhead and a bright stream of sun beats down on us so fiercely through the patch of open sky that I can feel the heat radiating off the crown of my head.
Beau’s chin tilts to the side as his gaze bounces between my mouth and hair before he abruptly turns to stare at his daughter. There’s a flash of something in his side profile, the look only intensifying when his gaze lands back on me, his eyes so big there’s white visible around his entire iris.
I take another tentative step away. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Beau doesn’t answer, already halfway to his truck by the time I finish asking. Without a single glance backward, he throws himself into the cab and peels off down the dirt road as a little hand waves at me from the passenger window.
My shoulders slump, knees nearly buckling as the overwhelming weight of impending doom weighs down on me. Charlie’s quick thinking might have gotten Beau out of here before Ryker had the chance to ruin his future, but now she’s alone with him…and I just let them go.
“What the hell was Charlie doing here?” Ryker pants, a note of confusion clinging to his unchecked anger as he skitters to a stop behind me. “Where the fuck is Beau taking her?”
I can’t bring myself to look at him, not even when a soft cloth is pressed to the bloody scrapes on my palm. Unsure what to say, I keep my eyes on the road and don’t answer.
Ryker brushes past me, his forearm held above his brow while he peers down the dusty road. I take a single step to follow, but a tug on my hand stops me.
What the hell…
Old parchment and something earthy floods my senses as I attempt to extricate myself from the person holding onto me—the person I thought was Ryker. When I whip around, Kane increases the pressure of the cloth on my palm until little stabs of pain shoot into my fingertips and forearm.
My instinct is to lash out and push him off, but I’m almost certain Ryker will escalate the situation if he sees that I’m uncomfortable. Since I already screwed up by letting Charlie leave with Beau, I refuse to make this any worse.
“Kane, let go,” I hiss, keeping my voice low as I pry his fingers off. “You’re hurting me.”
Much to my surprise, he loosens his grip, gently peeling back the fabric from my palm. “Look at that,” he murmurs, voice full of wonder as he examines the bloody handprint I left on his stark white handkerchief.
Bile rises in my throat as I rub my wrist and take a step away from him, smashing into something hard. “Did Beau do that?” Ryker’s chest rumbles against my spine, his shoulders encasing mine when he wraps his arms around me to inspect the scrapes.
I shake my head. “Beau didn’t touch me.”
“Did he say why my sister was here?”
I bite my lip, terrified of how he’ll react.
“Say it,” he grits through clenched teeth.
“Beau said the custody hearing is Wednesday.”
Ryker drops my hand and backs away, the devastation in his expression a knife to my heart.
It’s not like we didn’t know that’s where all this was headed, but—like me leaving Deadwood—it always seemed so far off. Time is funny like that. The more you’re looking forward to something, the slower the days trickle by. But when you’re dreading an event, it has a way of sneaking up from the shadows and dragging you into the abyss long before you’re ready.
“Fuck.” Ryker’s hands fly to his hair as he doubles over. “ Fuck !”
Kane tucks the blood-stained handkerchief into his lapel and moves to Ryker’s side. “I already told you, Beau will never get custody of Charlotte. You need to have faith, brother.”
A muscle in Ryker’s jaw ticks. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Being present isn’t enough. You need to prove yourself.” Kane turns a disdainful eye to my father, who’s only twenty feet away with what looks like the whole town behind him. “You’ll be tested. The same way I’ve been tested. If you make it through the trial, you’ll need to pick a side.”
Ryker catches my eye, his flat expression and slow blink telling me how much he despises this.
“Dammit, son,” Dad calls out. “What were you thinking running after Beau like that? And, Willa, what the hell are you doing here?”
“ Joel ,” Mayor García chastises, flashing him a disappointed look that would knock lesser men off their feet.
I lift my foot to move closer to Ryker, but Kane drops to my side, placing a wool-clad arm around my shoulder as the low murmur of the approaching crowd reaches my ear.
“Your daughter is more than welcome here, Officer Dunn. Our collective is open to all.” I don’t even have to look up to know there’s a smile on Kane’s face. His fingers dig into my sleeve, but when I try to shrug him off, he tightens his grip. “Unless, of course, there’s another reason you don’t want her here?”
My initial inclination is to brush the statement off as another one of Kane’s cryptic ramblings, but then I see the sweat pouring from beneath my father’s Stetson and the shifty way his gaze keeps dropping to the ground. I glance at Ryker for an answer, but he’s too busy staring at his brother’s arm slung over my shoulder to notice.
“Go on, tell your daughter what you’ve been hiding. Tell her where you really go on your so-called business trips to Austin .”
Acid bubbles up my throat, a newfound queasiness making my insides churn and twist.
“Dad? What’s he talking about?”
My father’s eyes soften as he shifts his weight to his opposite foot. “Please, go home, kiddo. ”
Kane leans over, the painful bite of his fingertips in my shoulder preventing me from moving as his sweat-slicked upper lip grazes the shell of my ear. “You don’t have to listen to your father anymore. You don’t even have to listen to me,” he whispers, low and seductive, like my own personal shoulder devil. “I think you’re going to want to hear what I have to say, though.”
A chill rakes down my spine when the crowd approaches, a familiar head of blond hair detaching from the mass to jog over and stand by our dad.
I hadn’t even realized Noah was here…
“Your father’s been lying to you, Willa. He’s been lying to all of us,” Kane says, raising his voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “Go on, Joel. Tell her where you go. Tell her what you’ve been hiding or I will.”
“Not like this.” My father’s pleading tone turns the contents of my stomach rancid, fear churning in my belly the likes of which I’ve never felt before. It’s in my blood and in my sweat, coursing through every fiber of my being until my knees shake.
“I’m sorry,” Kane laments, “but your daughter deserves to know the truth.” Keeping his arm around me, he shifts his attention to the assembly. “At the next town hall, Mayor García will announce that she’s appointed Officer Dunn as Deadwood’s next chief of police.”
My shoulders relax. I already knew that. Why would Dad be nervous about?—
“What Mayor García won’t tell you,” Kane continues, a poorly suppressed smirk tugging at the corner of his lips, “is that she’s been sleeping with Joel Dunn for years.”
My eyes fly to my father right as he takes a step away from the equally guilty looking mayor. I want to be mad that he didn’t tell me, but the only feeling in my chest is relief.
Apparently, all three of the Dunns were keeping our romantic lives a secret. But unless Dad also had an affair with Cooper fucking Blackthorne, I don’t really care one way or another who he dates. If I wasn’t so frustrated, I might be happy for him. Luciana García is a badass.
Kane gives my shoulder an excited little shake. Confused, I glance up at him, sour dread filling my stomach again at his amused grin.
“Regardless of the legal concerns, there may be some who don’t take issue with the mayor appointing her lover as chief of police. They’re both single consenting adults after all, right?” He pauses, brow lowering dramatically as he stares out at the crowd. “But what if one of them isn’t as single as they claim? What if one of them has told everyone in this town his wife died in a fire when in reality, Annalee Dunn has been rotting in a prison cell for the past fourteen years?”