“Reed Ownstead,” he said in his deep, gravelly voice, stepping up to shake her hand, ever the gentleman with his country manners. “And this is my daughter, Penn.”
Hazel beamed, her gaze turning on me. “Well, Reed, if I know anything about the Larsens, once they claim you as one of their own, you’re practically family.”
Romy and Hazelsat around the firepit while the rest of us stood around the bar, their heads together, whispering and wiping tears from each other’s cheeks.
“To get it down from twenty-five years to three years is better than we’d hoped,” Dad was saying.
My eyes drifted down to Hazel’s ankle, where she wore a monitor. Since Thornbrush was her previous residency, and she was due to appear in court soon to receive her sentence, the judge decided she needed to return. Thanks to Oregon’s “stand your ground” laws regarding the act of self-defense, the lawyer was fighting for the sentence to be reduced even further to cover just the unlawful carry and use of a firearm and evading arrest, hoping the homicide charges would be dropped. While the verdict was still out, Hazel was under house arrest at the big house.
As a rodeo queen and barrel racing champ, I idolized her growing up. Seeing her go through all that shit last year, and now knowing the abuse she had endured at the hands of Jesse Matheus, my heart hurt for her.
“I’m glad she’s here, Dad. She’s been through enough shit. The least we can do is be the family she needs right now,” I said.
Dad’s eyes flicked to Romy and Hazel huddled together before returning his gaze to me. “I’m glad too, darlin’.”
“Can’t say Frank is much of a parent for her,” Jude commented, bringing his beer bottle to his lips.
Romy discovered her dad, Frank, was doing more than drinking when she found him and Junior in the stables last summer. Frank was getting painkillers from Junior, and apparently, he owed him. No one had spoken to him since. Last I heard, he wasn’t invited to the wedding.
“No, unfortunately he’s not. If I could go back and change things, I would.” Dad’s knuckles turned white around his bottle, and I reached out to soothe his grip.
“You can’t keep beating yourself up about this,” I told him. Dad had been making little comments like that since it happened, and it stung to know he was dealing with regret. There were very few signs Jesse was beating on her. I hadn’t seen it, either. I just thought it was a toxic relationship that would play out, and eventually, Hazel would dump him. I liked him just fine. He was always respectful to Dad and I, plus he was a hard worker. Maybe that was all a cover-up for what was really going on. If I’d known, I would have done something to stop it, too. But hindsight is twenty-twenty.
Alarm beeps started going off.
“What’s that?” Sage asked, her glass halfway to her lips.
We all stopped in our conversation to listen, but Dad and Jude wasted no time pulling out their phones from their pockets.
“What the fuck?” Jude said, opening his notifications.
“The game cams,” Dad announced.
“Shit! The game cams! Is someone fucking with the fence?” I asked, peering over Dad’s shoulder to look at his phone as he opened the app.
There, in night vision, was the herd running straight through a broken-down fence.
“Goddammit!” Dad stuffed his cell back in his pocket, turning to leave. “We gotta go!”
Jude was still staring at his screen. “There’s a group of riders driving them off!”
“Can you see who it is?” Reed asked, his eyes wide.
“They’re all in black clothing,” Jude said, returning his cell to his pocket and beginning to unstrap the carrier.
“I’ll take her,” Sage offered, removing Charli from his arms.
“What’s going on?” Romy asked, as she and Hazel returned to our group.
“Someone’s fucking with the herd,” I explained.
Romy took the infant carrier from Jude.
“Are there bad guys?” Penn asked, poking her head up from where she was playing with rocks, lining them up across a pile of salvaged wood.
“Sorry, ladies. I guess we’re going to have to cut this party short,” Dad called over his shoulder, heading to where his truck was parked by the house.
The men were already moving into action, Jude kissing Romy, and Kale and Christian jogging to their own respective vehicles.
