Beau let out a piercing whistle, and the ruckus died instantly, all heads turning to look at them. Great. Way to call attention to us.
Ethan took a moment to do a mental roll call, noticing that there weren’t any women present.
Good to know.
“What the hell is going on here?” Ethan barked, glancing from one man to another. His brothers were surrounding their father, but Gage had the good sense to stand off to the side of the room, a mischievous smirk on his lips.
At least this wasn’t a critical issue. If it had been, Ethan doubted Gage would be grinning like that.
“Not a damn thing. Your brothers need to learn to mind their own damn business,” Curtis bellowed, sinking into his chair.
“You are our damn business,” Travis argued. “And I’m not all that thrilled about having to come get your ass outta jail last night.”
“I warned you,” Curtis argued.
“True. I did get a warning call.”
Ethan turned his head to see Sheriff Endsley sitting on the couch right in the middle of the mayhem. He wasn’t in uniform, which Ethan considered a good sign. It wasn’t that the sheriff and his father were close friends, but they had started to chat more, ever since the incident with Zane.
“I told Mack to call him, did I not?” Curtis asked no one in particular.
Ethan lowered himself onto the arm of the couch, and Beau came to stand behind him. For some reason, having Beau there with him was comforting, not disturbing. He figured at this point, his family knew where he’d been so explaining himself wasn’t necessary. Not that he would tell them if they asked.
“What happened?” Jared asked, sitting on the edge of the fireplace, his hands hanging between his knees.
“Dad whooped up on Jimmy Reardon,” Zane offered and earned a round of shut the fuck ups from the rest of them.
“That’s not what happened,” Gage clarified, his eyes darting over to the sheriff.
“No, it’s not. Jimmy showed up at Moonshiners with his brass balls last night,” Sawyer growled. “The bastard thought he could start running off at the mouth, and Pa intervened. Unfortunately for Jimmy, Pa doesn’t do well with threats.”
Ethan watched the sheriff, wondering why his father had ended up in jail if that was the case.
“So why did Trav have to bail him out of jail?” Zane asked, sounding just as confused as Ethan felt.
“He didn’t,” Sheriff Endsley stated.
“We never said he bailed him out, you dipshit,” Sawyer groaned. “We said he had to go pick him up.”
“Same difference.”
“I wasn’t arrested, boys.” Curtis leaned forward in his chair and glanced around the room. “Regardless, I’d appreciate if you wouldn’t use my behavior last night as a guide to how to handle a situation like that.”
“You hit him?” Jared asked, a smug smile on his face. If Ethan had to guess, his cousin was impressed.
“Jimmy threw the first punch,” Travis intervened quickly. “Who knew Dad could move that fast?”
Ethan felt his father’s eyes on him, and he couldn’t look away.
Curtis sighed before explaining further. “Your mother and I have taught you not to judge people. You don’t look down on someone else, and by God, you don’t have the right to decide what is right or wrong for anyone else. That’s where Jimmy went wrong. His actions have hurt a lot of people. He should’ve been punished long ago and maybe he’d have had some time to sit and think about how his actions affected others.”
What was his father talking about? There was no way he knew what had happened. Could he? Ethan glanced over at Sawyer, anger and betrayal boiling deep in his gut. How could he tell their parents? No one was supposed to know.
“You sound as though you’re talking about something specific,” Brendon stated.
Ethan didn’t look at Brendon. He didn’t look at anyone but his father. Please don’t say it has anything to do with me.
“Bren, it’s not my story to tell,” Curtis said. “If and when the time comes then I promise you’ll understand.”
Ethan felt the heat of Beau’s body behind him, and he was the only reason Ethan didn’t make a run for it. That and he’d have to walk to his house because they’d arrived in Beau’s truck. It wasn’t because he was comforted by Beau’s presence, although there was that. But because he knew he wouldn’t get far. Beau would come after him and then he’d be forced to face the fact that he’d put his family in this situation.
It didn’t seem to matter that he had tried to protect them all these years. He had still failed.