Kyron Read online

  “Have you talked to them?”

  “Nope, I sure haven’t. They told me that I’d get hurt and to not come back to them when I was all crippled up and in need of financial support,” he shared, his voice hard. “So, no, I haven’t reached out.”

  A shocked silence came from Allen’s side of the vehicle. “Jesus, I didn’t know that.”

  “Yeah, and they were pretty specific. So I’ve not had anything to do with them since then, now that, of course, I am injured and what they would think of as ‘in need of financial support.’ Therefore, you can damn well bet I won’t have anything to do with them now either.”

  “That’s a little harsh, isn’t it?”

  “Nope, it sure isn’t,” he snapped. “Not if you’re me. Not if, like Sandra, you’re protecting your health or your sanity, by keeping cynical and hateful people out of your life.”

  “They were trying to stop you from running away and dying in a far-off land.”

  “Maybe so, but you’re just as likely to get killed in law enforcement here in Aspen as I was in the military.”

  At that, Allen nodded. “Unfortunately it happens, but one was a little more honorable to them than the other.”

  “Of course. One kept you close, and I left to pursue the other,” Kyron replied. “I also think it had an awful lot to do with Granddad.”

  “You were always really close to Granddad too,” Allen murmured.

  “Always.”

  “It was just something they hated, but I never quite understood that either,” Allen murmured.

  “No, and I sure never got the reasons for it either, but, because they were mad at Granddad, they considered my friendship with him to be choosing sides.”

  “Maybe.” Allen pulled out of the traffic and headed down a side street.

  “No maybe about it. They were supposed to be the adults back then, and now.” With a huge sigh, Kyron asked, “Have things in town changed much?”

  “Nope, still big money, still big problems, and most of it under the counter, until something brings it to light, you know?” he replied. “We are getting two more patrol positions in the department, but, with tourist season on, it’s pretty rough sometimes. I do enjoy my days off, when I get them.”

  “Any thoughts on retiring, now that you have a family?”

  “Haven’t got enough years in for that,” he stated. “I’m looking for my twenty, and then we’ll discuss it.”

  “You still doing search and rescue?”

  “I am, indeed.” He looked over at his brother. “Are you interested in doing that again?” Then he frowned and added, “Jeez, sorry.”

  “Sorry why?” Kyron asked. “Because I’d have to learn how to ski and all that all over again? That’s true, but people do it all the time, so I won’t say I can’t.”

  “Me either,” Allen replied. “The last time I told you that you couldn’t do something, as I recall, you knocked me down a few times and broke my nose.”

  “That was your fault.” Kyron laughed. “I’d forgotten all about that.”

  “Well, you can bet I haven’t.” Allen chuckled. “And, yes, you’re probably right. I deserved it. I was being that nasty older brother who didn’t want the younger kid tagging along.”

  “Hey, that was my life.” Kyron sighed. “I didn’t want to tag along behind you in law enforcement either.”

  “No, and I think sometimes that you deliberately went into the military to get away from us all.”

  “Not so much to get away from all of you but away from being part of that whole clone system that you guys seemed to have down pat.”

  “You’re really into being the second son, aren’t you?”

  “I struggled because the first son was obviously the favorite, because the person I was closest to in all the world was Granddad, who was well and truly hated. I mean, I had to sneak off to see him after work and after school and not tell Mom and Dad about it. And then, if they did find out, I’d get grounded,” he snapped. “So, yeah, definitely hard feelings existed, which undoubtedly pushed me into enlisting.”

  “I mentioned that to them in the ensuing years, and they really didn’t like me pointing it out,” Allen noted.

  “Of course not.” Kyron stared out the window, streets passing by in an endless stream. “Not a whole lot they like about anything to do with me.” He looked over at his brother, frowning. “But I want you to know that I’m not bitter. I was at one time, but I just don’t have the time or energy for it now.”

  “Good, and I am glad to hear that because life is too damn short.” And, with that, he navigated around several sharp corners, then pulled up in front of a house.

  “Look at that,” Kyron said. “You’re also the only one of us who owns property. Jeez, you did all the right things. You married your high school sweetheart, and you got a job locally in a career your family approves of, and look at this. You have your own house, even though property prices are out of this world.”

  “And you also know that I only got the house because Mom and Dad helped me.”

  “Oh, yeah, don’t worry. I heard all about that too,” he confirmed.

  Kyron was surprised that he really wasn’t bitter about it. It had been made very clear to him a long time ago that his brother was the favorite son, and, if Kyron wanted to come anywhere close to measuring up, he needed to toe the line, but toeing the line wasn’t something Kyron did well. It just wasn’t him. Instead he’d chosen to be a bit of a maverick, and he’d hightailed it out of here, knowing that he would never compete and certain that he didn’t want to. What he and his brother had shared at one time hadn’t survived while they had gotten older. As his brother became more and more the favorite, Kyron had willingly chosen a different pathway.

  “I’m really sorry about a lot of things,” his brother said, as he pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine. “And that’s one of them.”

  “Yeah, but I’m not sure it’s worth wasting time and energy on now.” Kyron looked at the house, shook his head. “You know what? I won’t stay. I’ll grab a rental vehicle and a hotel close by—or maybe a bed-and-breakfast. I don’t know.”

  At that, his brother opened his mouth and argued, “Come on. Don’t be a fool. You know you don’t have to do that.”

  “Maybe I don’t have to,” he agreed, “but you know what will happen the minute Mom and Dad find out I’m here.”

  “Well, I would hope”—Allen stared at him—“that maybe you guys could mend the rift.”

  “The rift of me officially being the black sheep who went into the service instead of law enforcement, even though we all know those are two sides of the same coin?”

  His brother winced at that. “I never really saw it from your point of view before. But, even as I look at my house from your perspective, I can see that it’s also a result of my relationship with them. I guess there are a lot of reasons for hard feelings. I hadn’t really seen it before.”

  “Hey, they wouldn’t even talk to me, so at least one of us has a better deal with the parents.” With that, Kyron got out of the vehicle and slammed the door shut. Just then the front door opened, and Sandra stepped out. She took one look at him and burst into tears. He walked to her, his arms out, and he immediately held her close.

  “Why the tears?” he asked against her hair. She was round and obviously emotional, but then what did he expect from somebody who was pregnant and trying so hard for a successful pregnancy after struggling with the issue for the whole of her married life?

  She leaned back and looked up at him. “Because it’s good to see you,” she stated firmly. Then she reached up, kissed him on his cheek, and whispered, “You have no idea how much Allen wanted you to come. Thank you.” And, with that, he knew his plans of escaping to a hotel were about to crumble into dust around him.

  Sometimes Miranda Galloway thought she’d somehow taken a vow of poverty. Except she wasn’t religious, and she certainly hadn’t gone down that pathway deliberately, scraping
by just to get food for all the animals. But somehow she’d ended up with an animal rescue that wasn’t on anybody’s radar, so she worked a full-time paying position, plus a Saturday job, just to keep the food flowing at her rescue.

  Her family had often told her that she needed to stop that “foolishness,” and either get animal control in to put them down or to find “real” rescue organizations for these animals to go to. And she had done some of the latter—never the former—as she farmed out as many as she could on an ongoing basis, and she’d adopted out as many as she possibly could too.

  Yet she always seemed to have more mouths to feed. It drove her crazy that so much big corporate money was here in this town, and yet it seemed like so little help was available. She didn’t even know for sure if that was true; it’s just that she couldn’t seem to find a way to access the people with the money, much less get them to loosen up and to spend it on the animals in her care.

  She also worked part-time at the local vet’s office to pay off the bills she constantly incurred, when the animals needed shots, surgeries, and the like. It was an agreement between them that worked well, but, at the same time, she also had that full-time hourly job as well. And she needed both jobs just to keep the animals cared for.

  She’d heard about animal rescues with a steady income, and, for her, at least right now, that was just not a possibility. Getting some of the animal numbers under control would help. She’d just found new homes for twelve of her fostered animals, and that had helped, but she still had fourteen cats, three horses, a goat, and a llama.

  And then there were the dogs. It seemed like the incoming dogs never ended. However, they were also often the easiest to move to better homes. She did have a network of animal-loving people from her two jobs, although most people would hold up their hands and cry uncle, saying they couldn’t take any more home, even to foster.

  Miranda had talked several out of money as well, but she’d pushed that as far as she could, for now at least. At the same time, she still needed to find a way to tap into more money, so that some of these animals—unlikely to do well in other settings—could live out their days in better conditions than she could provide for them now.

  She posted newsletters around town; she tapped the local charities, and she regularly worked with one of the cat coalitions because it always seemed that cats were the first to get dumped. And, in a place like Aspen, Colorado, that was a death sentence in the winter. Which was one of the reasons Miranda kept a supply of cat food outside for feral cats.

  Plus, she kept bundles of hay in the shed, with multiple pet doors for the feral or skittish cats to come and go, so they could at least get in out of the cold. For some of them that was all she could do, as they were too wild to domesticate. Yet she knew, if she had the time and the money, then she could rehabilitate quite a few of them and potentially bring them in from the cold on a permanent basis.

  As it was, when she could get close enough to trap them, she took them in to get spayed or neutered, which would keep their numbers down, but it was still an ongoing problem here. So many people just didn’t give a crap about any animals, whereas Miranda seemed to care far too much.

  She walked back inside, her breath finally warming, as she took off her boots and her gloves and her big heavy coat and scarf. She wasn’t always so cold, but, this last year or two, it seemed like she was always freezing. Then she’d also been on a tight budget, had cut down the house heat, diverting those savings in a desperate attempt to make ends meet.

  She sat down at the kitchen table and hugged her cup of coffee, wondering what her next option was. She knew more animals out there needed help, but she was kind of tapped out. Yet she could do nothing but continue on this pathway, until something imploded. Of course what she was afraid of was that the inevitable implosion would be way more than she could handle.

  If it wasn’t for her grandmother, Miranda didn’t know what she’d do. Her grandmother had been a life force, even when Miranda’s parents got angry and fed up with her. But then her parents didn’t seem to give a crap about animals. They only cared about people. Whereas Miranda could have happily left people behind and would do anything to save the animals.

  People at least had choices; these animals did not. A lot of them had been dumped here, knowing she would care for them. Some were severely injured or sick, and many had been living in the nearby woods on their own, trying to do the best that they could. Sometimes they did well; and sometimes, well, they didn’t.

  She’d seen a dog that her neighbor, Old Man Brant Macintyre, had picked up somewhere along the road. It had been injured and was missing a leg, and the neighbor apparently thought it was a great talking point, but, when it had run away on him in the middle of the night, he’d been pissed. He’d told her that, if the dog had come around her place, it was his, and she was not to feed it.

  Regardless she’d been trying to get a hold of the dog and had caught a glimpse of it in the woods every once in a while. She thought that it might be eating the cat food she put out in the shed, but she couldn’t get anywhere near the three-legged dog. She also knew that, if she got close to it, she wasn’t bringing him back for her asshole of a neighbor to shoot. She could only wish he’d sell his house and disappear from her life. Wouldn’t that be nice?

  Just then her phone rang. She looked down and smiled. “Hey, Grandma,” she answered. “Yes, I’m doing fine.”

  Her grandmother gave a boisterous laugh. “You always say that. And you never give me a chance to actually ask if you’re really okay.”

  “That’s because it doesn’t matter. I’ll be fine,” Miranda stated firmly.

  Her grandmother sighed. “If only I could believe that. You’re running yourself ragged, burning a candle from both ends, like you are.”

  “It doesn’t matter if I am or not,” she muttered. “I can’t do anything less for the animals.”

  “I know that, dear. I really do. Oh, I did want to tell you that I got some money out of your great-uncle,” she shared. “I told him what you were doing, what you are working toward, and you know that he’s been a great animal lover all his life. Now that he’s back in the US, I decided to contact him and see if he was interested in helping out. He wants to come by and take a look at your place.”

  “Oh, crap. When?”

  “I don’t really know,” she murmured. “And I don’t know how serious he is about that aspect of it, but he is interested in helping.” Miranda wasn’t sure exactly how she felt about her grandma contacting people like that, though the sweet old dear had only the best of intentions. But people who wanted to exert control over Miranda’s life were precisely the ones she wanted to keep out.

  So, if her uncle, great-granduncle at that, wanted to see the place, he likely wouldn’t be happy because it was run-down and desperately in need of repairs. But still, how could she say no if he was willing to help?

  “Anyway,” her grandmother continued on cheerfully, “he cut me a check for you … for ten thousand dollars.”

  At that, she gasped in shock. “Seriously?” She bolted upright. “Don’t you find that strange?” she asked immediately.

  “Oh dear,” Grandma replied. “We really have to do something with your attitude toward humanity.”

  “Most people don’t give that kind of money without wanting something in return,” she stated immediately. “And you know how I feel about people wanting to be in control.”

  “I don’t think it’s a control issue,” she explained. “I think it’s just wanting to make sure that the animals will be cared for.”

  “Well, the animals are loved. There’s no problem with that, but their accommodations are a whole different story.” Miranda sat back down again with a heavy thud. Ten thousand dollars would be a huge help. “And do you actually have that check?”

  “Not only do I have it,” she said, “but I’m walking toward the bank right now. I’ll put it in your account. So, if you need food, dog food, cat food, whatever, go ah
ead and use the money,” she urged.

  “Wow, I will,” she agreed, “but now I need to sit down and make a priority list.”

  At that, her grandmother paused. “I guess it’s never quite enough, is it?”

  “It’s huge, Grandma, thank you,” she hurriedly reassured her. “It’s really huge,” she repeated. “I might get enough food to last through the winter on this.”

  Her grandmother sighed. “Well, could you make sure you buy a little food for yourself while you’re at it?”

  “I’m eating,” she replied defensively.

  “Sure you are, and how much weight have you lost this last year?”

  Miranda shrugged. “I don’t know, but I definitely had some to lose.”

  “No more,” her grandmother said shortly. “You might have had it to lose, but you don’t anymore. You are as lean as you ever should be, if not too lean. I’d feel much happier if you had an extra ten pounds on you.”

  “Hey, two jobs, mending outside fences, scrubbing buckets, and working outside in the cold all the time,” she argued, “I don’t know that I could put back on ten pounds if I wanted to. And I’m really not worried about it. You know I’m doing what I love.”

  “Sure, but do you sleep?”

  “I try,” she answered, “but money has been a huge nightmare, so trying to get sleep is a different story.”

  “Well, hopefully this check will help.”

  “Are you kidding? It’s massive. Like seriously massive.”

  “He also has acreage in town, did you know that?”

  “Who?”

  “My brother,” her grandmother replied. “I hadn’t realized that he owned it, but he’s apparently had it for a very long time. Now that he’s getting on in years, he’s looking at what he wants to do with his life. I told him that he was a little late, but he just told me to shove it.” And then she pealed off with laughter.

  “I like him already,” Miranda shared.

  “Well, it’s been decades since you’ve seen him. You were little, so you may not remember him at all,” her grandmother admitted. “We’ll meet up for lunch again next week, and we’ll talk some more.”