he saw he was late for a meeting with his brothers.
He swore as he hurried outside, climbed behind the wheel of his rental SUV and drove toward the small strip shopping mall in Meadow Village, all the time worrying about the woman he’d left in the hospital.
* * *
THE BUILDING WAS wood framed with stone across the front. It looked nothing like a Texas barbecue joint. As Austin climbed out of the SUV and walked through the snow toward the end unit with the Texas Boys Barbecue sign out front, he thought of their first barbecue joint.
It had been in an old small house. They’d done the barbecuing out back and packed diners in every afternoon and evening at mismatched tables and chairs to eat on paper plates. Just the smell of the wonderfully smoked meats brought people in. He and his brothers didn’t even have to advertise. Their barbecue had kept people coming back for more.
Austin missed those days, sitting out back having a cold beer after the night was over and counting their money and laughing at what a fluke it had been. They’d grown up barbecuing so it hadn’t felt like work at all.
As he pushed open the door to the building his brothers had bought, he saw by the way it was laid out that the space had started out as another restaurant. Whatever had been here, though, had been replaced with the Texas Boys Barbecue decor, a mix of rustic wood and galvanized aluminum. The fabric of the cushy red booths was the same as that on the chairs, and red-checked tablecloths covered the tables. The walls were covered with old photos of Texas family barbecues—just like in their other restaurants.
Through the pass-through he could see a gleaming kitchen at the back. Hearing his brothers—Tag, Jackson, Laramie and Hayes—visiting back there, he walked in that direction.
“Well, what do you think?” Tag asked excitedly.
Austin shrugged. “It looks fine.”
“The equipment is all new,” Jackson said. “We had to add a few things, but other than that, the remodel was mostly cosmetic.”
Austin nodded. “What happened to the restaurant that was here?”
“It didn’t serve the best barbecue in Texas,” Tag said.
“We’d hoped for a little more enthusiasm,” Laramie said.
“Sorry.”
“What about the space?” Hayes asked.
“Looks good to me.” He saw them share a glance at each other before they laughed and, almost in unison, said, “Same ol’ Austin.”
He didn’t take offense. It was actually good to see his brothers. There was no mistaking they were related either since they’d all inherited the Cardwell dark good looks. A curse and a blessing. When they were teens they used to argue over who was the ugliest. He smiled at the memory.
“Okay, we’re opening a Texas Boys Barbecue in Big Sky,” he said to them. “So buy me some lunch. I’m starved.”
They went to a small sandwich shop in the shadow of Lone Mountain in what was called Mountain Village. As hungry as he was, Austin still had trouble getting down even half of a sandwich and a bowl of soup.
During lunch, his brothers talked enthusiastically about the January 1 opening. They planned two grand openings, one on January 1 and another on July 4, since Big Sky had two distinct tourist seasons.
Apparently the entire canyon was excited about the Cardwell brothers’ brand of barbecue. His brothers Tag, Hayes and Jackson now had all made their homes in Montana. Only he and Laramie still lived in Texas, but Laramie would be flying back up for the grand opening whenever that schedule was confirmed. None of them asked if Austin would be coming back for that one. They knew him too well.
Austin only half listened, too anxious for a call from the marshal. When his cell phone finally did ring, he quickly excused himself and went out to the closed-in deck. It was freezing out here, but he didn’t want his brothers to hear. He could actually see his breath. He’d never admit it, but he couldn’t imagine why they would want to live here, as cold and nasty as winter was. Sure, it was beautiful, but he’d take Texas and the heat any day.
“I just left her hospital room,” the marshal said without preamble the moment Austin answered.
“So what do you think?”
“Apparently she has some loss of memory because of the concussion she suffered, according to her husband, which could explain some of your misgivings.”
“Did you see the bruises on her arms?”
The marshal sighed. “I did. Her husband said they’d had a disagreement before she took off. He said he’d grabbed her a little too hard, trying to keep her from leaving, afraid in her state what might happen to her. As it was, she ended up in a car wreck.”
“What does she say?”
“She doesn’t seem to recall the twenty-four hours before ending up upside down in her car in the middle of the highway—and even that is fuzzy.”
“You think she’s lying?” Austin asked, hearing something in the marshal’s voice.
Hud took his time in answering. “I think she might remember more than she’s letting on. I had some misgivings as well until Marc Stewart showed me a photograph of the four of them on his cell phone.”
“Four of them?”
“Rebecca and her sister, a woman named Gillian Cooper, Marc and the baby. In the photo, the woman in the hospital is holding the baby and Marc is standing next to her, his arm around her and her sister.”
Austin sighed. Gillian Cooper. Her sister. That could explain the watch. Maybe her sister had lent it to her. Or even given it to her.
“The doctor is releasing her tomorrow. I asked her if she wanted to return home with her husband.”
Austin figured he already knew the answer. “She said yes.”
“I also asked him to step out of the room. I then asked her if she was afraid of him. She said she wasn’t.”
So that was that, Austin thought. “Thanks for going by the hospital for me.”
“You realize there is nothing we can do if she doesn’t want to leave him,” Hud said.
Austin knew that from experience, even though he’d never understood why a woman stayed in an abusive marriage. Disconnecting, he went back into the restaurant, where his brothers were debating promotion for the new restaurant. He was in no mood for this.
“I really should get going,” he said, not that he really had anywhere to go, though he’d agreed to stay until the opening.
Christmas was only a few days away, he realized. Normally, he didn’t do much for Christmas. Since he didn’t have his own family, he always volunteered to work.
“Where are you going?” Tag asked.
“I’ve got some Christmas shopping to do.” That, at least, was true.
“Dana
