Down Home Cowboy

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Liam complied and about thirty seconds later, Cain dialed the mobile number and got a voice mail. Which wasn’t that surprising, considering she probably had to get up about as early in the morning as he did.

He bit back a curse and left a brief message all while driving down the main street scanning every building—for what, he didn’t know.

“Just keep driving,” Liam said. “Trust me. I’m pretty sure we can figure out where everybody congregates these days.”

“You really think nothing has changed since you were here getting drunk and banging local girls?” As soon as he said that, he cringed. Because his daughter could very well be getting drunk. And at this point, she was a local girl.

“I think kids are kids, and unless that old barn has been knocked down, it probably serves just as well as a party place as it did back in the day.”

He dialed Alison again. “Alison, this is Cain. I’m looking for Violet. She sneaked out tonight. I don’t know who any of her friends are, I don’t know who she talks to. So if you’ve seen anybody coming in and talking with her, I would appreciate information. Thanks.”

He left his phone number and threw the phone down onto the seat, cursing as he continued to drive. He followed Liam’s instructions, but wasn’t exactly aware of doing so. When they turned onto a dirt road, and he saw the old barn up ahead, light visible through the cracks in the boards, he knew that his brother had been right.

“How do you know these things I don’t?” he muttered as he pulled up to the barn.

“I just know what the troubled kids get up to.”

Great. That meant his daughter was a troubled kid. Just perfect.

He cut off the truck engine, pausing when his brothers climbed out after him. “I should probably go in alone, don’t you think?” Cain asked.

“Hell no,” Alex returned. “This is what family is for.”

Liam smiled at that, and the three of them walked up the dirt driveway to the barn. There was music thumping out from the old wooden structure, and he could hear laughter and high-pitched squeals.

He hoped that Violet was in there. He really did. Even though he was going to be angry, he really wanted her to be here. Because he didn’t know where else to look. Didn’t know where else to even begin. He didn’t want her to be here, but he so very desperately needed her to be.

“This is kind of exciting,” Liam said, smiling broadly. “I’ve never been on this side of a party being broken up before.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying this,” Cain responded.

“One of us has to.” And then Liam broke away from the group, striding to the barn and shoving the door open like he was Hawaii Fuckin’-Five-0. “All right. Break it up.” He turned back around and smiled at Cain. “Fun,” he said.

Cain moved deeper into the barn, along with Alex. There were kids everywhere, drinking, making out, doing God knew what else. He was trying not to look too closely.

“Are you the police, man?” Some kid with bloodshot eyes pointed that question at Liam.

“You wish I were the police,” Liam said. “As it is, I’m just a guy looking for his niece. And I’m probably meaner than any cop you’ve ever met. Her name is Violet. Dark hair, about this tall.” Liam held his hand up just beneath his chin.

“Look, man,” the guy said, “if you aren’t the police...”

And Cain was officially done with this bullshit.

He grabbed hold of the kid, turning and slamming him up against the barn wall. “Violet Donnelly. Do you know who she is? Do you know where she is?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know a girl named Violet.” The kid looked scared now, and Cain felt satisfied by that. Because he should be. Every little bastard in here should.

“There she is,” Alex said, pointing toward the back of the barn.

Some of the other kids had picked up on the fact that they were busted and were starting to flee the building like rats off a sinking ship. But not Violet. Because she was half reclining on a beanbag in the back, with some jackass plastered to her face.

Cain saw red.

“Violet Donnelly,” he shouted from across the barn, taking long strides over to where she was and grabbing the back of the kid’s T-shirt, hauling him off his daughter. “You get your ass out to the truck,” he said, ignoring the protests of the young man whose shirt he was still holding on to.

She blinked. “Dad?”

And that was when he realized that she was drunk. His daughter was drunk. And this guy had been kissing her.

“She’s been drinking,” he said, pushing the little dickhead pawing his daughter back. The kid swayed, and Cain figured he was drunk too. But that wasn’t going to stop Cain from teaching him a lesson he’d remember. “Let me tell you something, you little earthworm, if a woman’s not fully in her right mind, then you better back off. And if you have to get a woman drunk to get her into you? There’s something wrong with you in that case. And if you enjoy taking advantage of women, then you’re beyond help. Is that what you like?”

“No,” the kid said, “no.” He was visibly shaken and Cain was more than okay with that.

“Also, the issue here is, she is a girl. Not a woman. She’s sixteen, so I sure as hell hope you’re drinking underage in here.”

“I just... She likes me.”

“Well, that’s too bad for both of you, because you’re never going to see her again.” Maybe he was being unreasonable. At this point, he couldn’t tell. But he didn’t care either. All he wanted to do was light the place on fire, burn it to the ground. He wanted to leave nothing but ash and ruin in his wake.

Reasonable was for another day. Reasonable was for another moment. Reasonable was for another man.

“Dad,” Violet said, “you’re embarrassing me.” She wrapped her arms around her midsection and looked down, her dark hair falling into her face.

She was wearing some ridiculously tight minidress and chunky boots, and showing way too much skin for his liking.

He didn’t even know where to begin lecturing her.

“Oh, I have just started to embarrass you.” He turned around and faced the group of teenagers that remained. “All of you go home. All of you. Before I call the police and have you arrested for underage drinking. And, just in case you didn’t know, I’m Violet Donnelly’s father. That’s right. I’m her dad,” he said, pointing to her. “So, if you intend to hang out with her, you have to contend with me. I’m sure most of you won’t, but I feel like she won’t have lost any good friends.”

“Dad.” Violet pulled away from him, crossing her arms and walking out of the barn with her head down. She was scowling. He couldn’t see her face, but he sensed it. And he was glad. He was glad she was angry, he was even a little bit glad that none of these delinquents would probably ever speak to her again.

He was angry, and he wasn’t thinking straight. She had scared the ever-loving hell out of him, and now that he had seen for himself she was safe, he was just mad.

“We’ll ride in the back,” Liam said, hopping into the bed of the truck. Alex followed suit.

He didn’t really know if they were doing it for his benefit or their own, but he was happy to go with it either way. Although, happy might be overstating it at this point. “Suit yourselves,” he said, opening the passenger side door and gesturing for Violet to get inside.

She stumbled on her way in, crawling into the seat and groaning. And something in his heart twisted, something in his stomach tumbling right along with it. His daughter was drunk.

He slammed the door shut and leaned against it for a second, pressing his hands to his forehead and counting to ten. Like he had done when she was a toddler and she was frustrating him. But she wasn’t a toddler. She was sixteen, and she was drunk. She had been making out with some guy. She had sneaked out. She had friends here, and he didn’t know who any of them were, but he had just yelled at all of them.

“Damn you, Kathleen,” he said. “Damn you to hell.” He cursed his ex-wife as he rounded the front of the truck and made his way to the driver’s side. She had left him here to do this by himself. Had left both him and Violet in over their heads.

He was angry. So angry. And he wasn’t sure he had fully realized how angry until this moment. He took a deep breath, then got into the truck. He and Violet were both silent until he turned out onto the main road.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” she said, the words petulant, and slightly slurred.

“I don’t care,” he said, raising his voice slightly. “I didn’t want to have to come track you down in the middle of the night. I didn’t want to open your bedroom door to find you gone, with no idea where you might be. So right now, what you want is low on my list of priorities, Violet.”

“I’m sorry, now you care where I am? Why? Just because you noticed I was gone? Do you really think that was the first time I sneaked out?”

Her words cracked over him like a whip. Of course it wasn’t the first time she had sneaked out. He was an idiot. He was a damn idiot.

“Why? Why didn’t you talk to me?”

“We don’t talk,” she said. “Ever. So why are you acting like you care about who I hang out with or what I do?”

“Of course I care. That’s a stupid thing to say.”

“Maybe I’m stupid, then.”

“Choose your words carefully, kid,” he said. “I’m not in the mood. And you’re giving me your phone.”

“What the hell? Dad, that’s not fair.”

“I don’t care what’s fair. It doesn’t have to be fair. You just have to do what I say.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. That’s how you uprooted my entire life and brought me out to this shithole!” She was getting shrill now to go with the slurring.

“Because I am your father and I make the decisions about what happens in our lives. You do as I say, when I say it, because you don’t know what the hell to do with yourself. And if that was in question at all before, it isn’t now. I didn’t know where you were tonight, Violet. I went upstairs and you were gone.”

“That was kind of the idea.”

He was ready to explode, God help him. “Anything could have happened to you, don’t you understand that?”

“Now nothing ever will. I think you scared Reed off forever.”

“I hope I scared his punk ass. It will save me the trouble of killing him. He was drunk. You’re drunk. What the hell would have happened if I hadn’t showed up?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s the problem,” he bit out. “You don’t know. I can think of a thousand things, Violet. Would he have tried to drive you home? Would he have stopped somewhere and tried to take things further?”

“What?”

“Sex, Violet. I’m not going to baby you. You’re out here doing this stuff, and you have to understand what it all might lead to.”

Silence settled between them and heat prickled the back of his neck as he realized that he actually didn’t know if she’d had sex or not. He’d assumed not. She’d never had a boyfriend. But clearly there was a lot happening he didn’t know about.

They’d kind of had The Talk a few years ago. He’d bought her a book and said if she’d had any questions, she could ask. And she hadn’t asked. Which in hindsight...yeah, he wouldn’t have asked any questions either in her position.

Had he royally screwed this up? He didn’t know how to deal with this on his own. It would probably help her to have a woman to talk to and she didn’t have one. She had him. And he sucked.

“I didn’t like the way he was touching you,” he said, his voice low, gravelly. His emotions were on edge and he didn’t know how to get hold of them again.

“I did.”

“You’re drunk.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“The hell it doesn’t, Violet. It affects your decision-making ability. God knows it’s going to affect his. Especially when you’re both too young to be drinking. And when you’re in a position like that, you’re vulnerable. If he had decided to keep going, and you didn’t want him to...”

“I can handle myself.” She curled up into a little ball and leaned against the passenger door, her cheek against the window.

It reminded him of when she was little, and she’d fallen asleep like that in the truck on the way home from swimming in the river.

Why couldn’t it be simple like that anymore?

His chest tightened, every muscle tense.

“No. That’s the thing, in a situation like that you couldn’t. I understand it feels good to think you could control it, but he’s stronger than you. And he’s also not my asshole kid, so I can’t yell at him, I can only yell at you. I’m scared,” he admitted finally. “I’m scared about what’s going to happen to you, and what might have happened to you tonight. And the only thing that scares me more is that you aren’t. At all. You think it was fine, and you know what? That’s why you need someone to tell you what to do. Because you aren’t old enough to understand the consequences of your damned actions.”

She didn’t say anything. And when they pulled into the driveway and up to the house, he realized it was because she’d fallen asleep. The scowl that usually marred her brow was absent now, her cheek still pressed against the glass.

His stomach twisted hard, his past and present colliding like freight trains, with all the mayhem you’d expect a crash like that to cause.