Page 6 of Cowboy's Last Stand
The Stoddard brothers chuckled at the dumb joke.
“Anytime you need areal man, let me know.”He pointed to his lap.
Natalie rested the tray on one hip and arched a brow.“That’s big talk for a guy with soggy pants.Tell me, did you piss yourself before or after you fell down?”
Billy scowled at the comeback, and his friends laughed harder.Natalie sashayed away, half wishing she hadn’t sent Jason packing.She didn’t want a boyfriend, and she’d never get over Mike, but damn.She wasn’tdead.Men like Jason didn’t come around often.Why hadn’t she given him a chance?Instead of having a sexy rendezvous with a stranger, she was stuck in a bar with the three stooges.
Billy and his friends left about thirty minutes before quitting time.Natalie cleaned up in a rush, eager to end the evening.She said goodbye to Buster and headed out.Her vintage Volkswagen bug glowed in the light of a street lamp.She unlocked the door, climbed inside, and tossed her purse on the passenger seat.
“Come on, baby,” she said as she turned the key in the ignition.
The old girl was temperamental.Sometimes, she refused to start or made strange noises.To Natalie’s relief, the engine fired up after a few sputters.She drove off in a puff of exhaust, distracted by thoughts of Jason.His intense gaze and gruff voice.The muscled arm flexing beneath her fingertips.
A slapping sound, like a flat tire hitting asphalt, brought her back to the present.Something had broken loose inside the engine.Cursing, she slowed the vehicle down to a crawl.She lived less than a mile away, so she could walk home, but she didn’t want to leave the safety of her vehicle.
Her car shuddered a few times and gave up the ghost.Dark smoke billowed from beneath the hood.She coasted to a park and scrambled out of the vehicle.She almost expected the bug to burst into flames.Instead, it sat there ticking like a cute little vintage time bomb.
Damn, damn, damn!
She grabbed her purse, locked the car, and started walking.Drizzle began to fall as she approached Gregory Park, a frequent haunt for Natalie and her son.Marcus called it Gargoyle Park because of the stone statues guarding the entrance.In the wee hours of the morning, surrounded by halos of mist, they looked downright sinister.Leaves skittered across the sidewalk, giving the impression of footsteps behind her.Natalie glanced over her shoulder.Although she didn’t see anyone, she noticed a sleek muscle car parked on the opposite side of the street.
One of the Stoddard brothers drove a car like that.
Natalie froze in her tracks as the sound of a braying laugh, unmistakably Billy’s, rang out in the still night.She squinted into the darkness ahead.There was a bus stop with a single metal bench about fifty feet away.
A man in a cowboy hat stood near the bench, his fists ready, while three figures surrounded him in a menacing circle.
Jason.
Chapter Two
One hundred andeighteen days.
That was how long Jason Reed had been walking: 118 days.
It was roughly two thousand miles from his starting point in Montana to his destination in Texas.He’d logged over a million steps on the Continental Divide Trail, a long-distance route that went from the Canadian border all the way to Mexico.Of the “Big Three” hikes in the United States, the Continental was the least traveled, which suited Jason just fine.He’d wanted to be alone as much as possible.
In New Mexico, he’d switched over to the Grand Enchantment Trail.When that trail ended, he’d walked on the side of the road.He’d trudged along the highway, breathing a mixture of road dust and gas fumes, for almost two weeks.West Texas boasted wide, open spaces of flat terrain.The vast lowlands on all sides had given him the unnerving impression of moving without getting anywhere.
Even so, it was pretty country, the fall weather had been mild, and he felt damned lucky to be alive after multiple tours overseas.Now that he’d arrived, however, the finality of his mission struck him.This wasn’t a pleasant errand.He’d taken the slowest, most labor-intensive route for a reason: he hadn’t wanted to come.
The urge to pass through town and keep on moving without fulfilling the promise he’d made to a dying man was hard to resist.Perhaps that was why he’d gone into the bar tonight.It was part reconnaissance, part procrastination.He’d wanted to scope out his target in a neutral environment and maybe bolster his courage with some manly suds.As soon as he entered the place, he’d realized his mistake.But had he made a quick detour?No, he hadn’t.He’d doubled down on his decision, and now he was stuck.He shouldn’t have shown up unannounced, without a single phone call or letter.He shouldn’t have come at all.
The Night Owl looked like a dive from the outside.The whitewashed brick exterior and posters advertising cheap beer didn’t inspire confidence.Inside, it was downright cozy, with twinkling starlights and a country-western theme.He’d grown up on a ranch in Montana, so he wasn’t immune to this aesthetic.
He wasn’t immune to the charms of a pretty waitress either.Natalie had outshone every other woman in the room without even trying.She was beautiful, with her luminous brown eyes and soft, dark curls.She’d caught his interest and held it.He liked the way she’d spoken to him and the genuine warmth in her tone.He hadn’t planned to ask her out.He’d been trying to have a friendly conversation with her, and his words had gotten tangled up.Four months in the woods hadn’t improved his social skills.The time alone had made him hungry for a woman, but not any woman.He’d felt nothing for the blonde with the icy finger.
His reaction to Natalie was different.His mind conjured every detail of her appearance, memorized on instinct.She had a dancer’s figure, slender and compact.Her basic black T-shirt had been tucked into dark blue jeans that fit her body like a glove.She’d worn shoes without socks, which was unfathomable to him after all the miles he’d traveled on foot.He’d stared at her bare ankles in fascination, struck by the novelty.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so enthralled by a woman.She was beautiful, but he’d seen beautiful women before.He’d dated a number of them.He didn’t get fixated, or assign himself protective duty, after one conversation.He hadn’t gone so far off the deep end that he couldn’t recognize his own strange behavior.
Right now, for example, he was lurking at the edge of the parking lot, thinking about her.It was creepy as hell.
He rose from the curb he’d been sitting on, determined to leave the area.Then three men walked out of the bar.It was Billy, the guy Jason had almost rumbled with, and his two friends.Jason watched them from a distance.
Billy wasn’t a big man, and he didn’t cut an intimidating figure.He wore black motorcycle boots, a baggy T-shirt, and blue jeans with a chain wallet.His shoulders were drawn back in a cocky stance, accentuating his soft midsection.A spray of blond hair gave him an unfortunate resemblance to a rooster.Billy’s two friends, while larger, had none of Billy’s natural swagger.Their slogging footsteps suggested clumsiness, dull wits, or inebriation.Perhaps a combination of the three.
Anger welled up within Jason at the sight of Billy and his entourage.The man had insulted Natalie.He’d insulted Jason too.Jason didn’t appreciate being treated like a bum just because he was traveling on foot.He was a war veteran on paid leave, not some drifter looking for a handout.
