The Bribe (Calamity Montana)

“HEY, BABE.”

“Hey.” I grinned into the phone, loving the way babe sounded in Lucy’s voice. “I was gonna pick up pizza on my way over. What do you feel like?”

“Is there like a meat medley or something?”

“Christ, you are perfect.”

She giggled. “I’ll make us a salad.”

“I need to swing by Travis’s house. If I can convince him to come along, would you mind?”

“Not at all.”

“’Kay. See you in a bit.” I ended the call and put my phone aside as I parked in front of Melanie’s house.

It had been two days since Lucy’s confession. Yesterday, I’d remained close, spending most of Sunday in bed with her since I hadn’t had to work. Truthfully, I was scared, and letting Lucy out of my sight this morning had been hard. But I couldn’t avoid the station today, so I’d made her promise to keep the doors locked. Then I’d texted her constantly to check in.

She’d been a good sport. She’d teased me about being overprotective when I hadn’t let her stand in the doorway like she normally did and wave goodbye. But she’d still closed it while I stood on the other side, waiting to leave until the dead bolt had clicked.

Slowly, I’d come to terms with my fears, especially now that I knew what I was up against. If Lucy couldn’t be by my side every minute, at least she was safe at the farmhouse while I worked. And while I checked on Travis.

I rang the bell at Melanie’s, hoping Travis would answer. These days, Mel and I rarely talked without it ending in an argument, but as the footsteps came my way, lighter than those of a growing sixteen-year-old boy, I braced for my ex.

“Hey, Duke.” She crossed her arms over her chest after opening the door. “What’s up?”

“Hey. I just wanted to see how Travis’s doing.”

“Fine. He’s upstairs in his room. I guess his Spanish teacher gave him a bunch of homework today.”

“Mind if I go say hi?”

She shook her head, standing aside to let me in.

“Thanks.” I headed straight for the stairs, hoping this would be the end of my exchange with Mel. But before I could escape, she stopped me.

“Heard you’ve got a new girlfriend.”

Damn. So close. “Yeah. Travis tell you?”

“No. I heard it from Jane on Saturday.”

Of course she’d heard it from Jane and not her own son. Part of Travis’s problem was that his mother didn’t talk to him—and vice versa. Melanie didn’t seem interested in developing a bond with Travis, maybe because she’d never been close with her own parents.

Mel and Travis coexisted and I didn’t doubt that she loved him. But there was no underlying friendship like the one I had with my parents. Melanie didn’t confide in Travis, and therefore, he didn’t confide in her.

Travis was bothered by the fact that I had Lucy. But instead of telling his mother about it, he bottled it up inside.

“Her name is Jade, right?” Melanie asked.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“And she’s new in town?”

“Yes.” I was sure she’d gotten the whole story from Jane. Melanie often went dancing on Saturday nights at the bar whenever Travis was sleeping over with her parents.

“I thought you preferred blondes.”

No, Melanie was blond. And the woman I’d dated for a few months before Mel had been blond. Yes, technically Lucy was blond too, but I didn’t give a shit about her hair color. I was attracted to her heart and personality.

“Can we not do this?” I asked.

“I’m just being polite.”

“Uh-huh,” I deadpanned.

Melanie and I’d had a bad breakup. She hadn’t wanted to call it quits. I hadn’t been in love with her but had loved Travis. She’d refused to let me see him for two months after the breakup. She’d called me every name in the book and had spread rumors at the bar that I’d cheated.

Eventually, she’d apologized and come around with Travis, but even after we’d built a civil relationship, she’d been jealous of the few women I’d dated. Hell, she’d even gotten annoyed when I’d taken Kerrigan Hale on one and only one lunch date at the café.

Melanie wasn’t a bad person. She wasn’t a bad mother. She had a good job, worked hard and had a lot of friends in town.

She just wasn’t the woman for me.

“Jade’s a nice person, Melanie, and I really like her. We’ve got something serious brewing. Let’s just leave it at that.”

Her face flashed with irritation but then she shrugged, turning and walking away. “Travis’s upstairs.”

“Thanks,” I muttered and jogged up to the second floor.

I knocked on his door and turned the knob, expecting him to be playing video games or on his phone. I didn’t expect to find him with his headphones on and a vape pen in his mouth. “What the fuck?”

He leapt off his bed, blowing out a puff of vapor and hurrying to shove the pen in his pocket, but he wasn’t fast enough.

I flew across the room and yanked the pen from his hand. “What is this?”

He pulled his headphones free. “It’s nothing.”

“Bullshit. Where did you get this?”

He clamped his mouth shut and gave me that defiant, blank stare he’d perfected over the past year. Where had the sweet and loveable boy who wouldn’t have dared speak back to an adult gone?

“Travis, you either tell me here or I haul your ass down to the station and you can tell me there.”

“You can’t arrest me.”

“Like hell I can’t.” I turned my gaze to the door and bellowed, “Melanie!”

It didn’t take her long to come up. She knew exactly how I sounded when I was hot and at the moment, I was molten.

“What?” She looked between me and Travis.

“Did you know he was vaping?” I held up the pen.

“Travis.” Melanie shook her head. “Seriously? What about baseball? You’ll get kicked off the team.”

“Who cares?” He rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I’m going pro or something.”

“You’re grounded.” She planted her hands on her hips. “Again.”

“Not good enough.” Grounding Travis hadn’t worked in two years. He’d sneak out anyway. I glared down at Travis and jerked my chin to the door. “Outside.”

His face paled. “You’re arresting me?”

“What?” Melanie gasped at the same time I said, “Yep.”

“But—”

“Travis Reid, you’re under arrest for the possession of contraband as a minor.”

Being in possession of the pen wasn’t exactly against the law. Kids under twenty-one weren’t allowed to buy tobacco products or e-cigarettes in Montana, but I doubted he knew the technicalities. And this was more about proving a point.

I recited his Miranda rights as I took his elbow and escorted him downstairs.

“Duke, please.” Melanie rushed after us. “Don’t. He’s going to get kicked off the baseball team.”

“Guess he should have thought of that first.”

“Duke,” Travis pleaded, giving me those big dark eyes that I’d fallen for when he’d been younger.

Goddamn, it was hard to punish him. But I forced one foot in front of the other, not stopping until we were at my truck. I opened the back door and pointed for him to get in so he was behind the screen, then slammed him inside.

“What are you doing?” Melanie hissed, dragging me by the arm away from Travis’s window.

“Trying to get through to him. When’s the last time you went into his room? When’s the last time you asked him how he was doing?”

“Don’t make this my fault. I love my son.”

“So do I.” I raked a hand through my hair. “I’m doing this because I love him too. He’s spiraling, Mel.”

The Travis I knew wasn’t a kid who vaped or drank. He wasn’t one to fail a class and have to retake it in summer school.

“I know.” Melanie closed her eyes, the anger in both of us deflating. “I’m trying. I don’t know what to do to get through to him.”

“Neither do I.”

Fuck, I’d just thrown the closest thing I had to a kid in the back of my truck. I’d read him his rights. If that hadn’t scared him, I didn’t know what else to do because it sure as hell had scared me.

“I’m never going to jeopardize his future. But he has to see that this”—I held up the pen—“and sneaking out and doing stupid shit is not the way.”

“Do I need to call a lawyer?”

“No. I’m going to take him for a drive. When I bring him back, sit down. Talk to him.”

She nodded, and I walked away, climbing in the truck and slamming the door so hard the whole vehicle rocked.

My hands strangled the wheel as I spoke to the rearview mirror. “Swear to God, if you were my son—”

“But I’m not.”

“No, I’m not your father. Doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

“Whatever,” he mumbled.

Travis’s father was a mystery.

Melanie had gotten pregnant from a one-night stand in college. She’d partied too much her freshman year and after telling the guy, he’d told her to make it go away. Instead, she’d just come home to Calamity to live with her parents and raise Travis, then finished her degree online. She worked as a loan officer at one of the banks in town.

I revved the engine and pulled away from the curb. All I could do was try to teach him. And it was up to him to learn.

Travis sat perfectly still and silent in the backseat, his eyes glued to his lap.

I drove across town to the station without a word, and the silence was punishing—for us both. When I pulled into the parking lot and parked in my usual space, I twisted to speak through the steel grate in the clear partition between the back and front.

“Travis.”

His shoulders were hunched forward and he wouldn’t look at me.

“Hey,” I said gently. “Look at me.”

He glanced up and his eyes, glassy with unshed tears, were so full of remorse it broke me.

“What is going on with you, kid?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long have you been vaping?”

“Couple months.” He shrugged. “Everyone does. It’s not like I’m smoking.”

“It’ll ruin your lungs all the same.”

“Are you arresting me?” His gaze bounced between me and the station.

I counted six heartbeats, making him sweat it out for a long moment, then I reversed the truck and drove us to the pizza place. When I parked, I sent Lucy a text.

Had some trouble with Travis. Gonna be late.

Her reply came as I was opening the back door for Travis to get out.

Take your time. I’ll be here. The door is locked.

God, she was incredible. The sheriff before me, my predecessor, had told me once to find a woman who’d understand the long days and crazy situations. A woman who’d roll with the punches and was strong enough to take the ones that didn’t bounce off.

Lucy was stronger than any person I’d met in my life.

“I promised L”—fuck—“Jade pizza,” I told Travis as we stood in line to place our order. That was the first time I’d fumbled her name.

His jaw clenched. “’Kay.”

“I asked her what she wanted and she said the meat medley.” That was Travis’s favorite too. “Then I told her I was going to invite you along to the farmhouse. See if you wanted to eat with us. Hang out for a while.”

“I have homework.”

“You get your grade today?” I asked and he nodded. “What was it?”

“D.” He looked at the floor. “I suck at Spanish.”

He was so smart. It wasn’t that he couldn’t understand the language, it was that he didn’t try. That was why he was in summer school in the first place. Because he’d flunked Spanish and this was his chance to fix his grade so he could earn the credits to graduate. That and to play sports. He’d be off the baseball team if his GPA didn’t improve.

But he was distracted. This anger in him was growing and unless we figured out how to deal with it, we’d sink further and further down this rabbit hole.

“What can I get you guys?” The clerk waved us forward and I placed our order to-go. Then Travis and I stood in the waiting area, both silently letting go of the fumes, until we had our box of pizza and were outside.

But instead of driving us both to the farmhouse, I popped the tailgate, hopped on and flipped the lid open on the pizza, diving in for a slice.

“Want one?” I offered up the box.

He sat beside me and took a piece, devouring it like he hadn’t eaten in days. It had probably been an hour.

Then we each ate another and when he started in on his third, I set the box behind us in the bed of the truck and leaned my elbows onto my thighs. “All right. Let’s talk.”

He groaned. “Fine.”

“First up. Jade.”

He groaned again.

“She’s important to me. I’d appreciate it if you gave her a chance, simply because I’m asking you to. One day, you’ll meet a woman who’ll be important to you. And when that happens and you bring her to meet me, I’ll be respectful. I’ll do my best to get to know her because she means something special to you. Think you can give me the same?”

He sighed and nodded. “Yeah.”

“Next. Vaping.” I reached behind us and smacked the back of his head.

“Ouch.”

“That’s for being a dumbass.”

Travis glared at me and rubbed the spot where I’d smacked him. “I’m sorry.”

“Take care of your body, kid. You only get one.”

“I won’t do it again.”

“Hell no, you won’t. I catch you vaping again, I’ll make jail seem like a summer vacation. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Now what’s going on at home?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“Nothing. I’m just . . . I don’t know.” He blew out a long breath. “I can’t explain it.”

“Okay.” The kid was sixteen. He was adjusting to new hormones and figuring out where he fit. I’d cut him some slack as long as he wasn’t causing himself any harm. “Make me a deal. When you can explain it, come talk to me. Day or night. All right?”

“Yeah.”

I held out my hand and shook his, then grabbed the pizza box from behind us. “Another?”

We each ate another slice before hopping down from the tailgate and getting in the truck. Travis seemed glad to be in the passenger seat, not even glancing behind us through the partition.

Melanie was sitting on the porch stoop when we pulled up and she shot to her feet, jogging to the sidewalk.

Her forehead was furrowed and her eyes were red from crying.

“You owe your mother an apology.”

Travis nodded and pushed the door open as she rushed down the sidewalk to meet us. “Sorry, Mom.”

Melanie stopped in front of him and swallowed hard. “You’re in so much trouble. Go inside.”

She waited for him to sulk past her before she looked at me and mouthed, “Thanks.”

I held up a hand, then drove away.

Maybe I’d scared him enough to shape up. Maybe not. For tonight, I’d say a prayer that Melanie could get through to him while I pushed my worries aside and unwound at Lucy’s.

I pulled into her driveway and took the pizza inside, using my key to unlock the door. I’d brought a spare toothbrush to leave behind and some clothes so I didn’t have to keep hauling a change with me.

“Baby, I’m here,” I called, toeing off my boots.

There was a rustling noise upstairs, then footsteps, but she didn’t answer.

“Lucy?”

Still no answer. I took the pizza to the kitchen, tossing the box on the island, then hustled upstairs.

What I saw from the door of her bedroom made me freeze.

Lucy was racing between her closet and the bed, where a suitcase was splayed open. Clothes had been shoved inside and some had toppled over the edge, spilling onto the floor.

For the second time tonight, I walked into a bedroom and asked, “What the fuck?”

She flinched, her hand slapping to her chest as she spun from the closet, where she’d been stripping clothes from hangers. “Oh my God, you scared me.”

“What is going on?” What had happened to the calm, cool woman who’d wanted the meat medley and salad for dinner?

Her eyes were overflowing with tears. Her chin quivered as she crossed the room, dropping another armful of clothes onto the pile. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“What’s wrong? What is all this?”

She sniffled and dried her cheeks. Then she looked at me and my heart broke in two. “I was worried you wouldn’t make it here in time.”

“In time for what?”

“In time for me to say goodbye.”