Page 41 of Austin
“Not until you’re off the property, you’re not.”
“Going,” Austin said, wrapping his arm around Braden’s neck in a choke hold and moving toward the door. Kristen started after them, but he was in no position to control Braden and convince Kristen all was well, so he just kept walking.
“Like fuck we’re going,” Braden choked out close to his ear. Austin moved his head so he didn’t get bit. Drunk bull riders could be unpredictable creatures. The security guy followed them until Austin dragged Braden to the public sidewalk twenty yards away from the hotel.
“See you again and I’m calling the police.”
“Officer…?”
Austin glanced over his shoulder to see Kristen catch up with the security man and start talking earnestly to him, then he continued down the sidewalk with the flailing and struggling bull rider, glad that he had a few inches and several pounds on the wiry kid.
When they were a safe distance away, he let go, then ducked the roundhouse punch the kid threw. “Stop, or I’ll have to get serious,” he growled.
“Took my fucking job!” Braden backed up a few steps, his face screwed up in an angry grimace. “I was going to make it back to the top. I’m not staying in the minors forever!”
“Yeah. I know.” Braden was also drinking too much and getting himself into too much trouble. His sponsor had taken notice. Cut him loose. Offered Austin the sponsorship, which he had accepted today.
He looked over his shoulder, saw the security guy heading back to the hotel and Kristen still standing at the edge of the parking lot.
“Go back to the room,” he called to her. “I’ll be up shortly.”
“No.”
Austin rolled his eyes at the stubbornly protective note in her voice. “Please go. Braden and I will talk and then I’ll be up.” Braden launched himself at him while he was talking, but Austin easily wrangled him back into a hold. The guy was so drunk that he could barely keep his feet under him.
“I got this,” he said as Braden grunted. “Go.”
“I’ll wait in the lobby,” she said stubbornly.
“Thank you.”
“The security man said that he’s calling the cops if you don’t get clear of the property.”
“Noted.”
Kristen headed across the parking lot, her shoes making soft noises on the asphalt, and Austin turned back to Braden, who’d stopped struggling. Austin loosened his hold and then jerked his head toward the park across the wide street. “Come on, man. We’re going to talk in a place where we won’t be arrested.”
*
Kristen turned whenshe reached the hotel and saw Austin guiding the drunk man across the street. She watched for several minutes after they sat down, and when no violence ensued, she went into the lobby and took a seat in one of the cream-colored leather chairs. Once settled, she looked over her shoulder toward the park. Austin and Braden were just visible from where she sat and it appeared that Austin had the situation under control. He’d had it under control from the moment the man had called him an asshole.
People skills. Maybe she should be taking notes.
The security man walked past her and she smiled at him. He nodded back before casting a frowning look through the glass doors toward where Austin and the other guy were deep in conversation, across the street from hotel property.
“Are you waiting for them?” the security man asked.
“For one of them.”
The man gave her a stern look. “I don’t know that either of them are welcome back.”
Kristen channeled the cool confidence/arrogance that had protected her so well and caused her so much trouble. “The manI’mwaiting for was accosted at dinner. He’s an American Extreme Bull Rider, with national sponsors, and he has an image to maintain. I promise you that he’s just trying to get this guy under control so that he can take him to wherever he’s staying.”
The guard blinked at her, as if debating the truthfulness of her story, so Kristen let her expression ice over just a little more. “You can check the registration. Austin Harding. Bull rider.”
The guard gave a small cough, making her wonder if he was a bull-riding fan. “That other guy had better not be stayinghere.”
“I’m certain he’s not.”
