Read Online Montana Cowboy (Big Sky Mavericks Book 2) by Debra Salonen - Free Book Online

fought back. I refused to cop a deal when I had nothing to do with it. Jenny sank into a deep depression and wound up taking her own life."
    "That's terrible. But why does her father blame you when you were named as a defendant, too?"
    "Jenny came to me for help before everything went public. She told me about some of the expenses she'd been forced to fabricate. I told her she must have misunderstood or somebody else in the campaign made a mistake. I could have saved us both if I'd acted then instead of rubberstamping the party line."
    Serena shoved her hands in her pockets to keep them from shaking. "W-what will he do with the pictures he took?"
    Austen shrugged. "Post on his blog, probably. It's called The Ruination of Austen Zabrinski."
    Her three-figure meal nearly came up. Blogs. Photos. The World Wide Web. So much for her anonymity. Her safe new life.
    "I need to go, now."
    He nodded. "Yeah. I'm really sorry, Serena. I'll drive you home. Dillon went to get my ride." He gave a rueful chuckle. "One good thing about being born and raised in the same town is your high school buddy's younger brother doesn't think twice about helping out. Nobody messes with the Sheenans."
    She wouldn't know. She'd never belonged to a larger community. Her parents had raised her and her brother to be self-sufficient—something that came in handy most of the time, but actually had proven to be a detriment when someone violated her privacy. Where were her concerned, nosy neighbors when a stalker had gone through her garbage? At least, Serena assumed that was how he got her mailing address.
    How long would it be this time before her stalker found her? A week? A month, maybe? Depended on how persistent Austen's blogger was about getting her name. Where she might go from here, she had no idea. But she couldn't stay in Marietta.
    The biggest irony? She'd fallen—hard—for a man whose past might have blown her chance at a normal life.
    Austen's Land Rover—the vehicle she'd barely noticed when she got in at her house—double-parked in front of them. She noticed the car's license plate for the first time—ZLAWMN.
    She couldn't prevent a smirk from forming on her lips. Her parents had no respect for gratuitous displays of wealth. Mcmansions were objects of scorn. On family trips, fancy cars with vanity plates became the objective of a game called Find The Biggest Ego.
    No. Here was an even bigger irony, she thought, shaking off his hand when he opened the door and tried to assist her in. She'd fallen for a guy whose lifestyle was about as far from "normal" as possible. "I'm good, thank you."
    His hand dropped to his side.
    She watched through the windshield as Austen paused to talk to the young man who'd raced after the car. How could she have tripped herself up so badly? Her parents' oft-repeated mantra rang in her head. "Never forget, Serena, we create our own reality. Visualize your world as you want it to be and your vision—or something even better—will be manifest."
    She'd counted on anonymity in a new place with no connection to her old life to keep her safe. Thanks to Austen Zabrinski, her newly envisioned world was already screwed.

CHAPTER 5

    A fter doing his best to convince Dillon not to go after the old man and administer a healthy dose of whup-ass , Austen joined Serena in his car. He adjusted the glow of the dash lights to make it easier to tell his story as he drove her home. She deserved that much—even though he was sick of thinking about the stupid, sordid, predictable fiasco, much less repeating it out loud.
    "Do you want the long version or the short?"
    Serena startled, her attention apparently turned inward. She'd barely said a word the whole time they were in the bar waiting for his car to show up. The paparazzi thing had really shaken her up. He understood. He'd been in the limelight long enough, and often enough, that he'd become inured to the disruption, the invasion of privacy, and the cameras.
    "I'd like to