Free Texas Fall by RJ Scott Page B

accused of rape and molestation of
underage kids, but Vaughn had sat through the same thing.
    Darren near whispered, “Are
you really going to leave me?”
    “I can’t work for Yuri
anymore. I need to have Laredo in my rearview mirror. I have to.” There, he’d
laid it all out again, as clear as he could.
    “You could stay and help
me at the Bar Five.” Darren’s voice was small and contained hope, but Vaughn
couldn’t listen to it without cringing.
    Vaughn stopped pacing and
crouched in front of Darren. “You don’t want to stay at the Five. It kills you
every day you’re there. Leave and come with me.”
    “Where?” Darren sounded
desperate now. “Where can you go?”
    Hell if Vaughn knew where
he was going. “Anywhere. We can go anywhere, do anything, together. I could
even talk to Campbell-Hayes, see if he needs a hand.”
    “You’d give up everything,
even me?”
    Vaughn grasped Darren’s
hand. “I’m not giving you up. I’m starting somewhere else. Sell the Five, come
with me.”
    Darren tugged his hands
free. “I can’t.”
    “You know I have feelings
for you, that this is more than just sex,” Vaughn pleaded. “I love you,
Darren.”
    “But, I have
responsibilities, people who need paying.” Darren wasn’t listening. He looked
at every point of the room except for at Vaughn.
    “Hank’s sold most of it,”
Vaughn pointed out. He had to make Darren see what was happening. “You know orders
fell off, he got rid of the horses, and you only have the land and three
hands.”
    Darren looked at him
directly. Inspiration had clearly hit him, even if it was inspiration tinged
with that same desperation. “Then come and work for me, with me, make the Five real
again.”
    “For him to come back and
wreck it?” Vaughn was shocked at how little his lover was getting this. “Did
you hear me say I love you? Tell me you don’t feel the same way.”
    Darren ran his hands
through his dark hair and grimaced. “My brother is on trial, he hurt those kids
and I didn’t see it… Vaughn…”
    Vaughn leaned up and
kissed him, and everything in that kiss pleaded for Darren to reconsider.
    “Just look me in the eyes
and tell me you love me,” Vaughn pleaded.
    Darren looked at him for a
brief moment, then his gaze slipped sideways. “I can't think,” he said.
    The knock on the door and
a quiet “jury’s back in” split them apart. Vaughn felt his heart break when
Darren wouldn’t even walk next to him back to the court room. He’d thought
Darren felt the same way as he did. Clearly he’d been wrong.
    When the verdict was read
out, it was almost anticlimactic. Within fifteen minutes of sitting down, there
was a guilty verdict handed down from the foreman. Hank cursed and blustered,
but he was led away in cuffs but not before he laid out a tirade against his faggot-ass
brother and how he would destroy the witnesses. The cops guarding him had him
out of the building through another door, and Darren stared at Vaughn with utter
desolation in his eyes.
    “I’ve got to go,” he said.
    “We need to talk,” Vaughn
pleaded.
    Darren backed away. “I can’t
do this,” he said.
    Vaughn grabbed at him but
caught nothing more than air. “We’ll talk later.”
    “No. No more talking,
Vaughn. What’s done is done. You go your way, I go mine, and we’ll see what
happens.” He turned and left. The cold finality in his words was ice to
Vaughn’s chest. They had never said they loved each other, never made what they
had more serious than friends with benefits, so why was Vaughn feeling so
sideswiped? Darren was set on rebuilding the Five, although why he was, Vaughn
didn’t know. And Vaughn? Well, he couldn’t bear the thought of staying anywhere
near Laredo. They were travelers whose paths had crossed for a while. Evidently
it couldn’t be anything else.
    He crossed to where Jack
and Robbie were standing, Liam stood to one side wrapped in his boyfriend’s
embrace, being held and comforted. Vaughn