Cowboy Casanova - Lorelei James [109]
Stunned silence.
“Are you fuckin’ serious?” Brandt said.
“Yes.”
“When? How?”
“He called me.” Colt rubbed the back of his neck. “Actually he called Indy because she’s one of the only family members Casper hasn’t crossed. But I ended up answering her phone and talking to him.”
“When was this?” Tell demanded.
“A couple weeks ago. He was drunk as hell. I told him no one could help him until he walked away from the booze. I didn’t figure he would. If you knew how many phone calls I’ve gotten, from folks wantin’ my help…” He sighed. “So to be honest, I didn’t put much store in it. Until he showed up at my house.”
“When?” Dalton barked.
“Five days ago.”
“Where’d you take him?”
“To get dried out.”
Tell wouldn’t let it go. “Where?”
Colt remained mute.
When it appeared all three of Casper’s sons intended to beat the answers out of Colt, Ben stepped in. “This macho bullshit posturing is pointless.” He addressed Brandt, Tell and Dalton. “Jesus, guys, stop and think. Colt can’t tell you because of AA confidentiality rules.”
“Without bein’ a dick, if Casper would’ve wanted you guys to know where he was, he would’ve told you,” Kane added.
“Wouldn’t be the first fuckin’ time Dad’s kept us in the dark,” Dalton retorted.
“You just…helped him? No questions asked?” Brandt asked Colt. “After all the bad shit he’s done to the family?”
Colt simply said, “Yes.”
“Don’t matter where he is, ’cause you can bet he won’t make it through treatment. He’ll be back home, same mean SOB as before, same drunken asshole as before,” Tell said.
Colt shoved Ben aside and pushed Tell with enough force he almost fell on his ass. “That’s how you react after your father acknowledges he has a problem? By expecting he’ll fail? Fuck you. This is why he didn’t—wouldn’t—come to his sons. It’s why he came to me, because I travel this path every fuckin’ day. I know exactly where he is, in more ways than one. It’s also why I’m goin’ in the goddammed house, getting his bible and getting the hell outta here. But you can bet your ass I won’t burden him with tales of your overwhelming concern.” Colt shouldered his way through Brandt and Dalton and stormed up the porch.
Kane followed him.
Ben really didn’t know what to say. This family shit tore him up. He and his brothers never had the volatile relationship with each other and their father that Uncle Casper had with his boys, and to some extent that Uncle Carson had with his. Because Ben hated conflict and tried to cut through it as quickly as possible, he’d gotten the reputation in the family as the peacemaker. He felt far from that today.
Colt wasn’t inside long. He bounded down the porch, holding a burgundy book.
“So who knows about Dad bein’ in rehab?” Brandt asked Colt.
“My dad, Uncle Cal and Uncle Charlie. Casper asked me to tell them.”
“But not us,” Dalton said.
“It ain’t like our dads said anything to us either,” Kane pointed out.
“And now that I think about it, you sneaky bastards have no right to get up in my face about keeping secrets,” Colt said. “Did you really think we wouldn’t find out that the three of you planned to buy Rielle’s place? Without discussing it with the rest of us?”
Brandt frowned. “What the hell are you babbling about, Colt?”
It took Colt all of four seconds to see the guilt on Tell and Dalton’s faces. “You didn’t include Brandt in on this scheme?”
“Scheme is a little harsh,” Ben said.
Colt whirled on him. “What about Quinn? Does he know?”
“There’s nothin’ to know. Just something that Tell, Dalton and I discussed.”
“Since you’ve been squawking about wanting an equal say in the operation, this is the type of thing that oughta be discussed by all of us,” Colt said.
Pissed off, Ben shot back, “Like the acquisition of the Foster place was discussed by all of us? Or how about the acquisition of the Hackerly place? Or the acquisition of the Borden place? Or how about the separate section up north that Kade ran for a year? Were we part of that discussion, or did Carson and Cal decide to do that on their own? Oh, right, they didn’t even