Free Maverick (Star Valley Book 3) by Dahlia West

“Leah,” she said quietly.
    “ Come on ,” Leah demanded, shaking her head. Even from here Austin could see tears sprinkling her flamed cheeks. “It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t matter.”
    Candace’s brow furrowed. “But you haven’t worked anything out yet. Maybe we should all—”
    “He called me a whore,” Leah snapped, shooting him a hard look.
    The girl gasped. “No, he did not!” she insisted, clearly in disbelief.
    “Basically,” Leah muttered. “A whore, a gold digger.” She snorted. “Or a silver digger , I guess.”
    Candace turned her gaze on him and now he had two women who wanted to cut him off at the knees. He hadn’t said whore, or anything else, not really . All of this was way too much coming at him at once. “I didn’t—!” he called out, but Leah wasn’t interested.
    “Let’s go , Candace!” Leah snapped and headed back toward their dusty car. They sped away, kicking up rocks.
    Austin stormed into the house, feeling as though they’d just run him over. “They should’ve asked me about the mine instead of the irrigation system,” he said, tossing the paper onto the table. “I could’ve told them the silver was played out. Then no one would come sniffing around.” He was thinking as much of the new tracks on the ridge as the woman who’d just dropped a bombshell on him and left.
    Walker stopped it with a large hand just before it toppled over the far edge and onto the floor. “Maybe they weren’t sure how to spell your grunts.”
    Austin glared at him. “I’m not that bad.”
    His twin brother didn’t glare but returned an equally hard look, just the same. “Are you sure about that? Because you’ve just run off a girl who came to you for help. A girl who may or may not be carrying your child.”
    Austin’s eyebrows shot up. “It might not even be mine,” he insisted. “If she’s even pregnant at all! She’s just a girl from Cody I spent a few hours with.”
    Walker nodded. “True. But you didn’t exactly express any interest in finding out, did you?”
    “I…I…” Austin blew out a harsh breath and ran his hand through his hair. “ I will ,” he finally said firmly.
    “I know you will,” Walker replied. “Because if you don’t , I’ll kick your ass all the way from Star Valley to Cody and we’ll stay there until we do find out. She’s a kid, Austin. And she’s in trouble.”
    Austin frowned. “She might be playing us.”
    “She might be, but you don’t know she is. And don’t you think maybe you ought to find out first, before you start pointing pistols at her ?”
    Austin’s head whipped up. “I would never —!”
    “You might as well have, Austin, if the look on her face was anything to go by. Hell, shooting her might’ve been more humane than what you just did.”
    It wasn’t often that Austin so thoroughly screwed the pooch, that was more Court’s area of expertise. Having done it so spectacularly this time, he felt lower than dirt, worse, actually, than his twin brother’s gaze was trying to make him feel right now.
    “You’re right,” he declared, and turned toward the door.
    Walker reached out and snared his shoulder. “You need to pack a bag, get some sleep, and in the morning go find out if you’ve been planting more than just grass seed in Wyoming.” Walker smirked at him. “I’d send you tonight, but I think making you sit up straight at the dining room table with a knife and fork would go a long way to bringing back your manners before you try to talk to her again.”
    Ordinarily, Austin would argue with his twin, choosing to follow his own instincts rather than listen to anyone else’s opinion. But the truth was, he had no idea what to say to Leah when he finally tracked her down. And it might be a good idea to figure out what that would be before he showed up on her door.
    Sofia looked furious and suddenly Austin saw his mother’s face, rather than the woman standing in front of him. All the breath went out