Chapter Nine

Collin

I guessed it was about time.

For the first time, I’d actually been arrested . Not detained. Not held. Not questioned.

Arrested.

Sure, it was a bogus charge. That didn’t matter. It was Eugene’s word against mine, and I had been at the bar and had ordered a double. Sometimes that was all it would take. Especially with the Andersons.

The damned Anderson brothers. They’d been a thorn in our side since before I was born. Something happened between our grandfather and theirs, and our dad and their dad were mortal enemies over it. Now the Andersons all went into law enforcement, and we ran the ranch, and they made our lives hell as often as possible.

Until recently, we just had to deal with it. But now Arn was off the force and unable to be rehired despite getting a major plea deal in his case, and Oland was looking at possibly doing some prison time when his trial was over. That only left Eugene and their sister, who wasn’t a cop but worked in the office as a receptionist.

Eugene was clearly taking revenge for his brothers. That’s what this was. I was the easy one to pick on, presumably, because no one had ever really seen me do much fighting. Usually, it was me being the one to settle the tabs at the bar, coordinate who would drive where, get the money out for bail, and make sure all the legal stuff was done. I tended to stay out of the fisticuffs as best I could.

My knee throbbed where Eugene had taken it out. The back of my leg was bruised and sore, but the kneecap itself was swollen from where I’d landed hard on the road. I might have a torn meniscus again. I’d done that once when I was a teenager, and it had felt just like this.

So often I’d seen this cell and had to be the one coming into it to get one of my brothers out. I was the one to break them out of the slammer, not go in it, and I knew Luke or Jesse or Logan, if they came to get me, were going to needle me over it for a while. It had been a bone of contention that I’d never been arrested. Almost like I’d skipped some rite of passage.

I still hadn’t gotten my call yet, but that wasn’t a surprise. Anything Eugene could do to hassle me, he would. Now that the majority of the county police were rookies who were from out of town, there was a bit of chaos in the area, and I had no idea what to expect. Somehow, the incompetence was worse than knowing the Andersons were in complete control. At least then I knew they’d do everything they could to torture me, but they’d be done after twenty-four hours.

A door opened, and I looked up to see a fresh-faced deputy walk in, barely old enough to have a wispy mustache and acne around his nose. He looked at me, then down at a clipboard.

“Col-Collin? Colon?”

“Collin,” I said.

“Collin, Collin Galloway?”

“That’s me.”

“Wait, like Jesse Galloway?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, hey, is that your brother?”

I huffed a laugh. Was this how it was going to be now? If Jesse got even more famous, how was this going to play out?

“Yeah, that’s my brother, all right,” I said. “You know him?”

“I’ve seen him perform,” he said, grinning widely. “He’s really good. Great band. A buddy of mine’s brother was in his old band.”

“Cool.”

“Yeah,” he said, still high on his tangential connection to west-Texas barroom rocker fame. “Anyway, I see you’re here for a DUI?”

“That’s the charge,” I said.

He looked at me curiously. I could see the arithmetic going on behind his eyes. I didn’t look or sound drunk. I didn’t have any of the telltale signs. I didn’t seem high, either. And he was bound to have heard some of the stories about the Andersons at this point. Maybe even their feud with ‘Jesse’s family.’

“Uh, well, uh, it’s protocol to come check, make sure you aren’t getting sick everywhere or anything.”

“I’m not inebriated,” I said. “I’m perfectly sober. I had one whiskey and Coke. Granted it was a double, but still, that had to be six hours ago by now.”

“Says here you failed the field sobriety test,” he muttered.

“Because Eugene Anderson clipped my knee with his nightstick thing. I have a witness. Gene has it out for my family. Maybe you’ve heard about what happened with his brothers.”

“I, uh…”

He trailed off, and I knew I had him. He knew something was wrong, but he was likely in a bind. Eugene technically outranked him, and even if he knew the arrest was bullshit, he wasn’t going to be able to do anything about it. But at the same time, he seemed like the kind of kid who got into the police force because he sincerely believed in law and order.

“Look, I don’t expect you to spring me,” I said. “I get it. But it’s important for you to know what’s going on because I am going to come after Eugene in court, and when I do, they’re going to call for you as a witness as to my disposition. I’d gladly do another field sobriety test with you if you’d like.”

“Did he do a breath test?”

I shook my head.

“Dammit,” he said. “All right, see that line in the middle of the cell? Where the concrete is cracked?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Walk that line, heel to toe,” he said.

Nodding, I stood, hobbling a bit to the starting point.

“Forgive my knee. It’s still swollen where he clipped me.”

I walked the line easily, though my grimaces of pain were pretty obvious.

“All right, sit down,” he said. “Can you roll up your pantleg there so I can see your knee?”

I did what he asked, and he peered through the black bars at me, making a clicking sound with his tongue and writing something down on his clipboard.

“Pretty sure it’s just going to end up being a bad bruise,” I said. “I tore my meniscus when I was fifteen, and it felt a lot like that, but I have more mobility right now than I did then. I’ll have to get it checked out to be sure, but…”

“Thank you,” he said. “I’ll be back.”

“Sure,” I said. “Hey, wait.”

“Yeah?”

“What’s your name, Officer?”

“Walker. Chris Walker,” he said.

“Thanks, Officer Walker,” I said.

He nodded and continued through the door to the lobby area.

My knee was throbbing now, but it still wasn’t as bad as I remembered the tear. I would be fine, I figured, with just a little ice and rest. As soon as I got out of here, that was.

I lay back on the hard mattress and put one hand behind my head in lieu of a pillow, stretching my legs out slowly. They didn’t fit all the way, and my feet hung off the end of the bed, but I could at least not have my knees folded. I started to go over the events of the night, how it had gone from such a wonderful experience, transformative in a lot of ways, to one of the worst of my life.

Brandy had been left in possession of my truck, which didn’t bother me per se. I trusted her to get it somewhere safe, and one of my brothers would go get it. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was that she had to do it at all. That any of this happened, and most certainly ruined any relationship we might have had. How in the world could she trust me and want to be with me if I got arrested on our first date?

Arrested and beat up.

I looked like a fool. I hated it. I couldn’t even begin to think of what had gone through her mind when she watched me get kicked in the stomach and thrown into the back of a squad car. Hopefully, even if nothing else came of our date, she’d be able to testify to what she saw. Getting rid of Eugene Anderson from law enforcement was a net positive, even if it meant I lost out on the first girl I’d dated since I was a teenager.

Closing my eyes, I tried to relax as best I could and found myself dozing off.

The sound of the door opening again woke me up. Disoriented, I thought I was at home at first and tried to swing my legs off the bed. Immediately, the pain went up my leg from my knee, and I was reminded of where I was and how I’d gotten there in the rudest way possible.

Officer Walker came through the door, only this time he was followed by Jesse, who was wearing the world’s most annoying smile. I hung my head, remembering that Luke was out of town on his honeymoon, which left Logan, Owen, and Jesse, and Owen probably had no idea what happened. But everybody talked to Jesse.

“Well, well, well,” Jesse said.

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “I’m prepared. Lay the jokes on me.”

“I got no jokes,” he said. “But Luke is a bit shocked. Owen is going to grab your truck, though.”

“Luke? I thought he was on his honeymoon.”

“He is,” Jesse said. “But they came back through town before heading to California for the week. He just so happened to be at home when Officer Walker called.”

“You called?” I asked.

He nodded.

“I checked the log books and saw you hadn’t made your call yet, but since it was so late, I didn’t want you to potentially waste it. So I found Jesse’s number in there and gave it a ring.”

“And here I am,” Jesse said, still looking like the cat that caught the canary.

“Well, I’d sure appreciate if you bailed me out. I’ll get you the money from the safe when we get home.”

“Oh, you’re already posted and everything,” Officer Walker said.

“I took care of that first,” Jesse said. “No worries. But, boy, do you have a story to tell when you get back to the house.”

“It isn’t a fun one,” I said. “It’s not like your war stories.”

“It’s a story that ends with Collin Galloway sitting behind bars and having to be bailed out by his good-for-nothing jailbird of a brother Jesse. It’s going to be a decent story.”

Officer Walker stuck the key in the lock and opened the iron door. I stood up gingerly and hobbled out.

“I’m fine,” I said before Jesse could ask. “Just a swollen knee. I’ll tell you about it in the car.”

“Let me guess,” he said, suddenly looking far more serious than he had been. “Eugene?”

I nodded.

“That son of a bitch. Is he still here?”

Officer Walker shook his head. “He left hours ago. His shift technically ended at two.”

“But he didn’t pull me over until two-fifteen,” I said.

“Correct,” Officer Walker said.

“So he intentionally stuck around to follow me out. Or one of us at least.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Officer Walker said.

“I would,” Jesse grumbled. “If it wasn’t going to be you, it’d be me. Or Owen. Though I don’t know if he’d try anything on Owen by himself. He’d need a tank.”

“He clipped me from behind,” I said. “Hit a tree with the ax low, and it will come down.”

“That’s what Dad always said,” Jesse said.

“And it’s true. I went down like an oak. Sounded like branches snapping too.”

“That bastard. That rat bastard.”

“Come on, let’s go home,” I said. “I’ve had a pretty shitty day so far, and I would like to go to bed.”

“All right, Bubba,” Jesse said, his former playfulness long gone. “Thanks, Officer Walker.”

“Umm, one thing,” Walker said. “Do you… uh… do you mind… uh…”

“He wants a picture,” I said. “Or an autograph. He’s a big fan.”

“Oh. Oh, yeah, sure. Can we get him out to the lobby first?”

“Of course.”

“Sorry,” Jesse said as he held the door open for me and I limped through.

“Nothing to be sorry about,” I said. “I’m happy for you. But make sure he has a good memory. A lawyer might need to pick at it later.”