Westmoreland's Way - Brenda Jackson [52]
“The judge has made a decision,” Sheriff Harper said as he came back into the conference room and got everyone’s attention. “Carl Newsome is willing to drop the charges as long as Bane agrees never to see Crystal again.”
Bane, who had been leaning against the wall, straightened and angrily yelled, “I won’t agree to a damn thing!”
Dillon rolled his eyes, shook his head and asked the sheriff, “And what if he doesn’t agree?”
“Then I will have to lock him up and, since he violated the last restraining order with the judge wherein he promised not to set foot on Carl’s property, we will transfer him to the farm for a year.”
Dillon nodded as he looked across the room at his baby brother, held Bane’s gaze a moment and then said to the sheriff, “He will agree.”
“Dil!”
“No, Bane, now listen to me,” Dillon said in a firm voice that got everyone’s attention in the room. He had lost time in returning to Gamble and he wasn’t too happy about it, especially now that he knew the attorney for Pam’s father had lied to her.
“Crystal is young. You are young. Both of you need to grow up. Carl mentioned he plans to send Crystal away to live with an aunt anyway. Use that time to finish college, get a job at Blue Ridge. Then in three to four years she will be old enough and mature enough to make her own decisions. Hopefully, by then the two of you will have college out of the way and can then decide what you want to do.”
He saw the misery in his brother’s features. “But I love her, Dil.”
Dillon felt Bane’s pain because he knew, thanks to Pamela Novak, the intensity of love. “I know you do, Bane. We all know you do. Hell, even the sheriff knows, which is why we’ve overlooked a lot of you and Crystal’s shenanigans over the years.”
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Crystal and Bane were sexually active. Hell, Dillon didn’t want to recall the number of times he’d come home from work unexpectedly to find the two had cut school, or how he would get a call in the middle of the night from the sheriff after finding Bane and Crystal parked somewhere when neither Dillon nor Carl had been aware they were out of their houses.
“But it’s time for you to finally grow up and accept responsibility for your actions. Go to college, make something of yourself and then be ready to reclaim your girl.”
Bane didn’t say anything for a moment as he switched his gaze from Dillon to stare down at the floor. Everyone in the room was quiet. And then he looked back at the sheriff. “Can I see her first?”
Sheriff Harper shook his head sadly. “Afraid not. Carl and Crystal and her mother left a short while ago. It’s my understanding they are taking her to the airport to put her on the next plane to an aunt living somewhere in the South.”
Bane, with shoulders slouched in defeat, didn’t say anything for the longest time and then he turned and walked out of the room.
Ramsey leaned against the door with a cup of hot coffee in his hand and watched Dillon pack. “You’re leaving again?”
Dillon nodded as he continued to throw items into his suitcase. “Yes, I should have been in Gamble long before now, and I haven’t been able to reach Pamela to explain my delay.”
That had bothered him. He had tried more than once to phone her but either she was out or was not taking his calls and he couldn’t understand why. He couldn’t wait to meet with her father’s attorney to find out just why he had lied to Pam, making her think that there was still an outstanding loan balance in her name. For some reason Dillon couldn’t dismiss, he had a feeling Mallard was behind Pam’s fictitious financial problems.
“Well, good luck. I hope your flight leaves on time. A snowstorm is headed this way.”
“I heard,” Dillon said, zipping up his suitcase.