Page 16 of Lucky Cowboy

“Did they ever catch whoever was responsible for hitting him?”

“No,” Mark told her, his voice giving out midway through the word.

Nothing had enraged him more than that fact. He’d personally spent whatever resources he could on tracking down the mystery vehicle that had slammed into Alec Talbot. His dad had been standing outside the driver’s side of a man he’d just cited for being above the legal alcohol limit. The driver had been so plastered he couldn’t remember anything but that the car who struck his father had been a darkly hued muscle car.

That was it.

“Everyone in town knows what happened to my father,” Mark finally went on. “But despite all those eyes and ears, no one’s ever been brought to justice for killing him.”

“How long ago was this?”

He calculated it in his head. “Seventeen years ago.”

She fell silent, and so did he. Somehow, the tone of their talk had gone from friendly and carefree to serious and heavy. Mark had just come to the conclusion that he’d admitted too much to someone he barely knew when she confessed something of her own.

“Biggs wasn’t just my manager,” she said so quietly that his ears had to strain to hear. “He was… He talked me into having a relationship with him. I resisted, but he can be persuasive when he wants. Or maybe I was just so young and gullible I let him lead me around by the nose. I shouldn’t have. I can’t believe I fell for his lies now.”

Every muscle in Mark’s body locked up. “Did he abuse you, Val?”

“Don’t picture him beating me, if that’s what’s going through your head. He was nicer to me than to anyone else for quite a while, actually. It caused me to be blind to how he treated others for so long. Longer than it should’ve. I didn’t agree with the decisions he made with my career, but I didn’t protest because I saw how easy it was for him to fly off the handle. Not that it was any excuse to stay with him.”

“You were afraid of him.”

“When I finally did stand up to him we had this bitter argument. I walked into the barn and found him screaming at my mare. I was so angry.” Mark didn’t miss that she avoided his question. “He was so loud and standing so close that I felt the need to get away from him. I ran, and my friend Mitzi helped me get away. I went straight home to my dad.

“Dad chose him to take over as my manager because Biggs is so capable of putting up a convincing front. But Dad doesn’t know half of what Biggs did. I don’t want to tell him either, not with his health being so precarious. So, I’ve been hiding things from him. Dad doesn’t even know about the relationship, and… and I can’t believe I just told you all of that.”

Mark couldn’t believe it, either. Maybe it’d been because of how he’d been so open with her that she felt the need to return the favor. Or maybe she simply felt safe enough while on the phone with Mark to confide in him.

“It’s okay,” he said. “We all have our messed-up pasts. The things we don’t readily volunteer to others. I don’t regale people with my stuff usually, either.”

“You’re extremely easy to talk to, Mark.”

A warm sensation at this declaration filled him from head to foot. There was something about Val offering him such a compliment that meant more than if it’d been anyone else.

“You’re obviously easy to talk to, too, Val.”

“It’s late,” she said. “Are you on duty?”

Oops. Yes, actually. Yes, he was. Thankfully, this happened sometimes in his small town. There were lulls with nothing much going on.

“I am, but that’s okay. I would’ve interrupted you had something hadNow come up.”

“Good. Biggs liked to complain that I rambled on too much.”

“Biggs has earned all five of my knuckles crashing into his weak-chinned jaw,” Mark blurted without thinking. Great. That wasn’t overly professional. But the better he got to know Val Bernard, the more his professionalism seemed to take a backseat to defending her. To being there for her.

Odd that he’d just that instant realized it.

But she giggled.Giggled. It was a sound he’d never once heard from her. “I’d pay real money to see that. Others who’ve had to deal with him might, as well.”

“Maybe I’ll sell tickets and make it a spectacle, then,” he joked.

She giggled again. “I’ll video it for posterity’s sake. It’s something I’d like to watch over and over.”

Nowdriveway,,helaughed. He couldn’t help it. They’d again switched the tone of their conversation, only this time back from the dreary and somber to the humorous. He didn’t regret it, though. Not one bit. They spoke for a few more minutes before at last ending the call. Mark caught up on the duties he’d let slide by the wayside, and by the time his head hit the pillow that night, it was well after midnight.

This meant it was far too short a time after he nodded off that his phone rang.

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