Stepbrother Cowboy: A Western Romance Read Free Page A

of ATV’s closed in. I heard the crunch of gravel as they stopped outside the main doors. The big door rolled open letting in a shaft of light, and three figures hurried through. It took me a moment to take them all in. Bill, Mom and Jackson stood stock still as they analyzed the scene.
    “Dammit, Cameron. I told you I’d like you to talk to him, not kill him,” Bill almost shouted, his face a mask of surprise and anger.
    “Daddy.” The girl hurried from my arms and buried her face into Bill’s chest.
    “Alison?” I asked, stunned.

Chapter 4 –
     
    “How long are you going to hold me here, sheriff?” I asked him, having already been at the station for two hours.
    “You understand that you’re in a lot of trouble here, Cameron, don’t you?” The sheriff gave me a stern glare.
    “I only attacked when he was trying to rape her. Ask her,” I nodded towards Alison who was visible outside the interrogation room window.
    “Oh? He says you tore him away from a make-out session with your little sister and beat him unconscious. The doctor says he has broken ribs, too. Maybe some internal bleeding.”
    “That’s all?” I asked him, irritated at being held up, or even detained for that matter.
    “What do you mean, ‘that’s all’? You just beat a high school kid half to death.”
    “That guy wasn’t in high school.”
    “He graduates in a couple of months, but he’s still in school.”
    “Is he 18?”
    “Yes, but, I’m asking the questions here. Do you deny his claims?” he asked, anger in his voice.
    “Sure do. It’s like I told you.”
    “That you walked in, saw him attacking Alison Masterson, your sister and…?”
    “She’s not my sister.” I rubbed my arms, hating the chill in the interrogation room but not wanting to ask him to turn up the temperature.
    “Stepsister then—.”
    “Not even that.”
    “You attacked her boyfriend,” he finished, tired of my interruptions.
    “Pretty much.”
    “So, by your own admission, you intended bodily injury to this boy?”
    “Sure, he was trying to rape Ali…had slapped her. He’s lucky I wasn’t angry.”
    “What? You think you’re some kind of badass?” He leaned in so close to me that I could smell the garlic on his breath from his lunch.
    I didn’t look away. If anything, I got closer, closing the distance so we stood nose to nose. I held both hands out.
    “So you want the cuffs?” he asked me.
    “No, I’m not cuffed. That’s the point. So unless you pull a gun on me, yes, I’m the baddest of the bad asses in this room. I was defending Alison, and when he bum rushed me, I put him down hard. I don’t like having to beat on people, but in this case…rapists are on a list of exceptions,” I knew I was pushing my luck here, but this guy had been grilling me for two hours now.
    The cop pushed me back, hard. I didn’t really want to fight him, but I understood all about power and perception. I didn’t broken eye contact. I got into his comfort zone, and the fact that he pushed me without swinging or pulling the cuffs showed his fear. He made the distance between us. The way he came after me troubled me. I was no hero, but I didn’t expect to be hauled downtown and treated like the criminal.
    I sat down, about to confront the sheriff about that. The door of the office slammed open, and an older woman in a business suit came in amidst a cloud of cigarette smoke. She gave me a wan smile before turning her attention to the sheriff. An unfiltered Camel smoldered in her clenched hand.
    “Is he under arrest?”
    “I’m investigating, and—.”
    “Don’t talk to him,” she told me, interrupting the sheriff.
    “I’m trying to get to the bottom of—.”
    “So you have two witnesses who say your nephew tried to rape Alison Masterson and my client fought him off. Why isn’t your nephew in here instead of Cameron?” She waved her hand at the desk I was sitting at.
    “Your nephew?” My eyebrows raised.
    “Shut up,” they both