Bounty (Colorado Mountain 7)

“How’s the tour?” I asked.

“Insane. But good. We rocked LA last night and it was a blast. We got four days off in a few weeks, thought I’d fly out to Bumfuck and spend it with you.”

“Oh…my…God! My great day just got better!” I yelled.

There was happiness in her voice when she said, “Love to hear that.” Pause, then she went on and the happiness was muted. “Which makes it suck that I gotta tell you that Mav was backstage at my show last night.”

Shit.

“Oh, Lace,” I muttered, knowing this would not be good.

“Yeah. He was a jackass. Then he became a loud jackass. Then Jiggy had to get security to eject him. This he did after I begged him to go that route, rather than having Mav’s ass arrested.”

“Shit.” I was still muttering, surprised Lacey’s manager Jiggy allowed her to talk him into that. Jiggy didn’t take a lot of shit and he allowed Lacey to take less (this being zero, if he could help it). “What was Mav on about?” I asked, not really wanting to know because I had a feeling I already knew.

“Wanted me to get you off his ass, mostly. But totally whacked, Jussy, if you can believe this, he also wanted me to corroborate that Dana is what him and his demon-from-hell mom think she is. After your dad’s money. Told me he was gonna hunt down Bianca and get that shit from her too. Considering Dana is a fuckin’ angel compared to the demon-from-hell Luna and the Satan’s spawn she produced, I told him that shit was not happening. Jus, babe, I hate to tell you this but I figure you already know. Luna’s got Mav totally brainwashed. He could be an asshole but this was off the charts. There was none of that okay Mav he could sometimes be in him. It was all her. That’s all that’s left of him.”

She said the words and I automatically shoved them aside because I couldn’t even think of this possibility. Outside my mom, he was the only blood family I had that I was even marginally close to.

This was because Joss’s family disapproved of her path way before I was born and never jumped on board, even if it made her (for the most part, when she hadn’t locked horns with Dad) happy.

Because of this, Joss wasn’t super-hot on letting me in their lives when she and Dad had me, so she didn’t. I’d never really gotten to know them and the only times I did, when I was older and they saw the merits of having a relationship with me (these not being because they wanted to get to know their grandchild or niece), it had been me who’d made the decision not to get to know them.

As for Dad’s family, they were Dad’s family. The way they were, the way they’d been for three generations, they were gypsies scattered to the wind.

It wasn’t easy keeping in touch with a gypsy.

Luna was nothing to me, except Mav’s mom, my dad’s second wife, and the woman who taught me the important, but difficult lessons of precisely how not to be.

“They’re being dicks to Mr. T too,” I shared with Lacey. “And he’s this close to letting Mav fuck up his life.”

Lace didn’t even hesitate before she advised, “Jus, you should just let Mav fuck up his life too. He’s never been cool with you. Not really. Luna’s been a downright bitch since before Mav was even born. We know people like that and they aren’t worth the effort.”

“He’s my brother, Lace.”

“I know that, Justice, but the terms of your father’s will were not a secret. He shared them with you a long time ago. He shared them with Mav too. Your brother is an asshole but he understands the English language.”

I felt the slash through my heart at the reminder Dad was gone, something else I was knowingly (and unhealthily) doing my damnedest to set aside.

Dad, gone from this earth. Ash settling into the rich Kentucky dirt where Dana and I had scattered him.

Four months and it felt like yesterday I’d sat with him, laughing and being goofy.

Four months and it felt like an eternity he’d been gone.

And I felt that eternity settle in my bones. If I allowed myself to think about it, it weighed me down.

So I didn’t think about it.

I thought about the laughing and being goofy part.

“This is true, but when he shared that with us, Dana was not part of that picture,” I pointed out. “And Mav was a little kid.”

“Not that little. And Dana had been dating him for three years and married him not long after. She was married to him longer than your mom, even, and we both know Joss was the love of his life. Dana knew it too but she gave him good that came from deep in her heart. Your dad was Dana’s Joss, and I don’t give a shit she’s only five years older than you. She treated him that way without all the fighting and bullshit and star-crossed lovers crap your parents never grew up enough to sort out.”

I stared at the river rushing past and said nothing.

Even so, I felt a lot.

“Sorry, Jussy,” Lacey said softly in my ear, knowing better than even my mom and dad how much I was feeling. “I love you and I’m about you and I always have been. I have zero tolerance for Mav’s bullshit because he’s not my brother and I’ve had to watch for years as he shoved it down you and your dad’s throats. Your father split his estate three ways, you, Mav and Dana, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s more generosity than Mav ever earned. But that’s what your dad wanted. He was of sound mind when he decided that and everyone knows it, even Mav and Luna. He was also of sound mind when he knew Luna would go after it so he made it that, if any one of you contested his wishes, they’d be blocked out, disinherited, get nothing and their third would be split between the other two.”