Calder Promise (Calder Saga 8)

The boy seemed to shrink back. “Mom said I was to tell you supper’s almost ready,” he said in a small voice.

“You’ve told me. Now git.” Instant obedience was something the man clearly expected. When the boy failed to immediately move, he raged at him. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of a game? Now get the hell out of here.”

The young boy threw up an arm as if to shield himself from a blow. The man grabbed it and shoved him toward the exit with a force that sent the boy sprawling against an empty chair.

In a cold fury, Laura sprang to her feet and ran to the boy’s side. The minute she touched him, the boy scooted away from her hand.

“The kid’s not hurt.” The man’s voice was almost on top of her.

Laura threw him an angry glare. “No thanks to you.”

Just for an instant the man faltered, then recovered. “The kid’s got no business bein’ in a bar, and he knows it,” he declared as if that somehow justified his actions.

By then the boy had scrambled to his feet, moving with an alacrity that told Laura he had probably suffered nothing more serious than a bruise. She stood up and swung around to confront the man.

“That’s no excuse to be so rough with him.” Her voice vibrated with the heat of her temper.

“Are you blamin’ me for him runnin’ into that chair?” The man drew his head back in a great show of innocence.

“He didn’t run into that chair. You pushed him,” Laura stated.

“Like hell I did.”

“You can deny it all you want,” she said with contempt. “But I know what I saw, and you pushed him.”

He took a threatening step closer, gripping the cue stick in front of him like a potential weapon, his arm muscles bulging. “Listen, you smart-mouthed little bitch. Somebody needs to teach you to quit stickin’ your nose into other people’s affairs.”

Suddenly Trey was there, placing an arm in front of her and pushing her behind him. “Lay a hand on her and it’s the last thing you’ll ever do.” His voice was as steely with warning as his look. “Any problem you’ve got with her, you’ll settle with me.”

The man wisely backed up. “I don’t have any problems as long as you damned Calders mind your own business and stay out of mine,” he said with some of his former bluster, then swung back toward the pool table.

Too angry to let him have the last word, Laura took a step after him. Trey grabbed her by the arm and forcibly turned her toward their table.

“Just shut up,” he muttered.

Reluctantly Laura acknowledged the wisdom of his advice and let him steer her to where Quint still sat with his casted leg propped on a chair seat.

“Who is that guy, anyway?” she demanded, her temper still simmering

“I think his name’s Mitchell. He used to work at the coal mine until he got laid off when it closed down. He had a job for a while stringing fence at the old Connors Ranch. I don’t know what he’s doing now. Hustling pool, I guess.”

“The man should be horsewhipped,” she said with conviction.

“Laura,” Trey began in a placating tone.

She whirled on him. “Don’t you ‘Laura’ me! I saw the way that little boy tried to protect himself. He’s been knocked around before by that bastard who claims to be his father.” Just as abruptly, Laura pivoted away from her brother and headed for the table. “What I should do,” she muttered to herself, “is turn him in for child abuse.”

With the thought still rolling around in her mind, Laura sat down in her chair and glared in the direction of the pool table. Trey followed her, swung a leg over his chair and lowered himself onto it, then reached for his beer.

“For a minute, I thought I was going to have to hobble over there,” Quint remarked. “What happened?”

“Nothing really,” Trey replied.

“Bullies like that one only pick on women and children.” Laura made no attempt to conceal her loathing for such men.

A small smile crooked Quint’s mouth. “It might interest you two to know that while you were trading words with your would-be pool shark, the kid was stuffing his pockets with mints from that basket by the cash register. What he couldn’t get into his pockets, he shoved in his mouth, paper and all.”

“You’re kidding,” Laura said, shocked.