Roping Ray McCullen

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Authors: Rita Herron
fourteen. He had just hit puberty and was brooding and sullen.”
    Ray had been angry himself at that age. Angry because his father had cheated on his mother. And because his mother was gone. Killed by a drunk driver. But he hadn’t set fire to things.
    â€œWere my father and Barbara still involved then?”
    Her eyes flickered with uncertainty. “Are you sure you want to hear this?”
    â€œMy mother was dead by then, Scarlet. I’m surprised he didn’t marry Barbara after that.”
    â€œI think the guilt ate at him,” Scarlet said. “Joe once told me your mother was the only woman he ever loved.”
    Emotions crowded Ray’s chest, but he cleared his throat, determined not to let them show. Anger had been his best friend for so long that he didn’t know what he’d do without it. It kept him strong.
    â€œThen why did he keep seeing Barbara?”
    Scarlet shrugged. “Barbara was in love with Joe,” Scarlet said. “She could be charming and hard to resist. I think she met Joe in a weak moment, maybe when he and your mother were having some trouble, and he slept with her. When she gave birth to Bobby, he felt tied to her.”
    â€œBut he kept coming back,” Ray said, his voice hard.
    â€œI can’t explain, Ray. I don’t understand myself. There was something there. Joe cared about Barbara. After all, she had his child. And he couldn’t just desert her.”
    But he couldn’t bring her into his family, either. He’d kept them separate, a secret from Maddox and Brett.
    God , Ray dreaded telling them. Had hoped he’d at least understand the problem more when he did.
    â€œDid Barbara pressure Dad to marry her?”
    Scarlet massaged her temple. “Maybe before I came along. As I grew older, I realized that she took me in to please Joe. That she thought he might marry her if she did.”
    â€œBut then he didn’t marry her,” Ray said. “Did she resent you for that?”
    Scarlet closed her eyes on a sigh. “Some, I think. Honestly, I’d been shuffled through so many foster homes before I wound up in the group home that I was simply glad to have a home without an abusive man in it.”
    Ray gripped his coffee cup so hard he thought he might break it. He didn’t know if he wanted to hear the rest of her story, at least not that part.
    â€œBut then Bobby turned out to be just as bad.”
    He sat up straighter. “What do you mean?”
    â€œHe used to taunt me when no one was around. Play mean tricks on me. Put snakes in my bed. Lock me in the closet.” She hesitated. “His animosity escalated when he started drinking, and he got rough.”
    He sucked in a breath. “How rough?”
    â€œHe knocked me around a few times, but usually the bruises weren’t visible.”
    â€œWhat about Barbara? Didn’t she do anything?”
    Scarlet made a sarcastic sound in her throat. “She didn’t know. As far as she was concerned, Bobby hung the moon. He was like a chameleon—he could put on an act when she was around that made him look like a saint.”
    Ray gripped his hands by his sides. Damn, he was beginning to detest his half brother.
    â€œDid my father spend time with Bobby?”
    â€œHe tried,” Scarlet said. “But Bobby was difficult. He was always getting in trouble, and he was belligerent with Joe.”
    So he and Bobby had both given his father hell.
    â€œDid he get in trouble with the law?”
    Scarlet nodded. “I think Joe paid someone to seal his juvenile record.”
    â€œWhat was he arrested for?”
    â€œVandalism, carrying a weapon to school, breaking and entering, DUI.”
    â€œGood grief,” Ray muttered.
    She fiddled with her hair. “I think he pulled a knife on a guy in a bar one night, too.”
    Ray contemplated all she’d said. “You said Bobby smokes and that he likes to burn

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