Deployed Read Free

always seemed to know just where things were. And he knew where Bekah was right now too.
    “That boy’s not my responsibility. She had him while I was on the road playing baseball.” Billy Roy sipped his beer. “I wasn’t home to father a child.”
    Bekah regretted giving in to Connie’s invitation. Her private life was becoming a spectacle, a sideshow in Callum’s Creek, where such things happened a lot unless a person lived really small. Billy Roy didn’t live small. He loved the attention, and he counted bad attention just as worthy as good attention. In a town that ran on rumors and half-lies, a lively personal life made someone a rock star.
    “She had your son while you were on the road because you were out there cheating on her with every pretty little thing that looked your way.” Connie had her hands on her hips now, and Bekah knew her friend had lost it. “There’s a lot of girls out there that don’t have a brain in their pretty little heads.” She looked meaningfully at the bartender, who had backed off a little.
    Bekah silently turned and made herself walk toward the exit. There was nothing graceful about leaving, but stayingwas pointless. She told herself this was a parade drill at the Corps, that she was going to execute it and be gone.
    “You going to just sneak on out of here, Rebecca Ann? That how you going to do this while your friend runs her mouth and talks trash about me?” Billy Roy’s tone carried that old, familiar taunt. “Let your friend slander my good name while you walk out with your holier-than-thou attitude?”
    Don’t turn around. Don’t talk to him. He’s not worth it. You’ve already had this fight hundreds of times, and you can’t win. There’s nothing you can do tonight to change that. Bekah kept her focus on the door. It was less than ten feet away. She’d be gone by the time she drew another breath.
    Connie didn’t lighten up on her tirade. “You’re a loser, Billy Roy. You’re a wannabe baseball player, and you’re a no-account daddy.”
    Bekah had her hand on the doorknob when she heard the rapid footsteps behind her, the squealed curse from Connie, and the sudden scrape of chairs as the bar patrons cleared a path. Turning around, she fully expected to see Billy Roy making a beeline toward Connie even though she’d never seen him strike a woman in her life.
    Instead, Buck Miller stopped just in front of Connie, grabbed her by the wrist with one hand, and backhanded her across the face with the other. Buck’s face was florid, and Bekah knew the man had been drinking even before he’d come to Darlton’s.
    Blood sprayed from Connie’s nose and mouth at the impact, and she sagged to her knees on the floor. Buck kepthold of her arm and didn’t let her go. He leaned over her and shouted into her shocked, frightened face.
    The crowd drew back. A couple of men acted like they were going to intervene, but they easily let their friends haul them back. Buck Miller had a reputation as a fighter, and most of the crowd in Darlton’s that night probably hadn’t ever been in a real fight. One of the men protested and threatened to call the cops, but Buck glared the man to silence, then turned his attention back to Connie.
    “You never did know when to shut your mouth! That was your biggest problem! Always had to have the last word! Well, you ain’t getting the last word tonight!”
    Methodically, Buck slapped Connie in the face again and rocked her head back.
    By the time she realized that no one in the place was going to do anything to stop Buck, Bekah was already in motion. She stepped around the tables and chairs and made straight for the man.
    Buck saw her coming and grinned. He stood up a little straighter, putting himself a full head taller than Bekah. He was broader and heavier too, and that gave Bekah some pause, but she regularly trained with male Marines in hand-to-hand combat who were bigger and heavier than her. Granted, that was under the supervision