Austin's Revenge (The Townsends Book 4) Read online

  Austin’s

  Revenge

  The Townsends

  Book 4

  Angie

  Campbell

  Copyright 2018 by Angela Campbell

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons,

  living or dead, or events is merely coincidence.

  Any unauthorized distribution of this work

  or its characters is not permitted.

  Cover by:

  Erin Dameron-Hill

  Award-Winning Cover Artist

  www.edhgraphics.blogspot.com

  Other Books

  Contemporary (In reading order.)

  Summer Obsession

  Oh, Baby!

  The Rodeo Star’s Return (Sapphire Springs Series)

  Married in Vegas

  Austin’s Revenge

  Historical

  His Unexpected Mail-Order Bride

  This book is dedicated to my husband.

  The soul inspiration for Zane’s ornery streak.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue – Part 1

  Epilogue – Part 2

  Excerpt from Married by Christmas:

  Prologue

  Friday, March 12, 2004

  Amanda’s date had bombed out, and he had left her sitting at the Sapphire Café by herself. He hadn’t liked it when he tried to get a little too familiar, and she had smacked his hand away. He had actually gotten down right nasty and asked her why she would put out for everybody else but not him. When she had told him ‘she had never put out’, he just got angrier and accused her of lying.

  Zane had tried to talk her out of going out with him. Now she was wishing she had listened to him. If she was honest with herself, she had been trying to make him jealous is the reason she hadn’t heeded his warning. Maybe she should tell him how she truly felt. It would certainly put an end to her constant back and forth with her emotions. She’d know how he felt then. She was just so terrified if he didn’t feel the same way, it would put an end to their friendship and that was something she didn’t think she could ever live without.

  She hadn’t been able to get a hold of her mom and dad to come and get her and she’d ended up calling Zane. He had picked up on the first ring. He had always told her if she needed anything, she could call him, but if he didn’t get here soon, she was seriously thinking about walking home. It was getting late and she knew the café would be closing soon. Not to mention, she didn’t want to deal with the embarrassment of her failed date.

  She had known the Townsends siblings all her life. Her older brother, Adrian and she had practically grown up with them. Their father had been best friends with Carl Townsend since high school. He and Jamie had helped save her father’s life once. To hear Carl tell it, it was more the doctor her father had been working for at the time, but if you asked her father, he’d tell you if it hadn’t been for Carl and Jamie he wouldn’t have made it.

  She sat there for a few minutes longer, deciding she wasn’t going to wait around for him to get there. She had probably interrupted a date, and she figured he’d be in a bad mood. Between that and her not doing as he had asked, she figured he give her a lecture to sting her ears all the way to her mom and dad’s house. It was something she’d had to live through several times already. The man was extremely funny and a big cut up, but when he felt the need, he could really let his serious streak out.

  She sighed and finally got up from her seat. “Mrs. Beach, I’m going to go ahead and walk home. When Zane Townsend gets here, can you let him know?”

  “Sure, Sweetie, but do you think that’s a good idea?” she scowled, feeling very concerned. “We’ll be happy to sit here with you until he gets here. I know Zane. He’s not going to be happy when he hears you walked home, and I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m going to go ahead and go. I’ll be okay. Just let him know please,” She quickly pushed the door open, determined to make her escape before the older lady said anything else in her attempt to delay her.

  “Okay,” Catherine mumbled, watching her head toward the road, her concern growing. She turned to her husband behind her. “I hope Zane gets here soon. I didn’t like the way that guy was acting. He may have left her here, but I’m afraid he may be lying in wait for her to leave on her own. I really wish she would have waited. He’ll be here soon, I’m sure.”

  “Catherine, you can’t mother the whole town,” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and giving her a reassuring smile. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

  “I sure hope so,” she whispered before going back to cleaning up for close.

  Not even five minutes later Zane walked in the same door Amanda had just walked out. He looked around the empty restaurant, thinking she must have gone to the bathroom. He started to ask Catherine Beach when she walked out to the counter but didn’t get the chance.

  “Thank God, Zane,” she breathed, coming around the counter to take his hands. “You’re here. Amanda just left. She said she was going to walk home. You need to find her. I didn’t like the way that guy was acting, and he was really angry with her when he left.”

  Zane didn’t even answer back. He just scowled deeply and spun around to head quickly back out to his jeep. When he turned on to the road, he turned in the direction Amanda would have most likely gone, to go home on foot. He had his windows down, with the radio off and he hadn’t gotten a mile down the road when he heard her screaming at someone to leave her alone. Two seconds later the beams from his headlights landed on them a little farther up the road. He could see Adam Sharp trying to force her into his car.

  He skidded to a stop in the middle of the road and threw the jeep into neutral and jammed on the emergency brake. By the time he had made it out of the jeep, Adam had become aware of who it was that had drove up on them.

  “Oh, look here. Big man to the rescue,” the creep snarled.

  “Leave her alone, Adam,” he growled back.

  “This is none of your business, Townsend. You need to go on home before you get yourself hurt. You wouldn’t want to screw up your reputation before you even get a chance to join the police force,” the guy sneered, not bothering to hide his laughter. He had a lot of confidence, considering the situation, but he had been part of the high school wrestling team and had never lost a street fight, even once. Besides the fact he out-weighed Zane by at least fifty pounds. Zane may have been on the football team in high school, but he had been their best kicker. He had always been muscular, but lean. The creep soon realized he had been over confident.

  When Adam tried again to shove Amanda into his car, Zane didn’t even bother trying to reason with the bully. He darted across the street at him and slammed his fist into his face. He blacked out, and only came to, because he heard Amanda screaming at him. “Zane, no! You have to stop. You’re going to kill him.”

  His head j
erked up and he looked over where Amanda stood leaning on his jeep, her hands flat against the hood. She looked terrified and like she needed to lean against the jeep to keep her knees from buckling and dropping her to the ground. His surroundings had started to come back into focus, and he looked down where the guy lay on the ground. He stood up and backed away still looking at the guy like he would like to kill him.

  “Come on, Zane,” Amanda pleaded. “I think you got your point across.” He glanced over at her, taking a deep breath and nodded.

  Adam was lying on the road with blood streaming from his nose and mouth. He looked like his nose was broken and he was going to be sporting two black eyes by tomorrow morning. When he went to sit up, he was holding his side. Apparently, he had gotten a few body shots in as well.

  “Zane, just take me home, please.” He could still hear the fear in her voice and nodded once more.

  He looked back down at Adam to growl, “The next time a girl tells you no, you better listen. And stay away from Amanda.”

  From the look on his face, Adam had heard the unspoken threat in Zane’s voice. Mess with her again, and this will seem like good times. He had just enough smarts to realize he might not be walking away from the fight if the guy came after him again. It took him some serious effort, but he managed to pull himself to his feet to make his way to his car.

  Amanda was shaking but took a few steps in Adam’s direction. She had something she needed to say to him and she wanted to make sure he heard her. “If you try to ruin his chance to join the police force later, I’ll make sure the whole town knows what you were trying to do. They’ll know he was defending me. It’ll all backfire on you. You won’t be able to do anything without people watching you and you’ll never get another real date. Keep that in mind.”

  She didn’t bother to mention with her dad being Mayor of Sapphire Springs, it wouldn’t take much for word to get around what he had tried to do to her. It would make it to the town’s newspaper before supper, tomorrow evening. She was right. His life would be completely turned upside down by the time she was done, if he pushed her. Catching her full meaning, he decided not to press his luck. He just nodded his head and crawled in his car and left.

  After watching the guy pull off, she finally turned to look at her rescuer with a sheepish expression on her face. “Sorry,” was all she could manage to mumble before she dropped her eyes to the ground.

  He sighed, raising her chin with a gentle hand so he could look her in the eyes. “Mandy, why did you go out with him? I asked you not to. I told you he was like this.”

  She just shook her head, knowing he would be furious if she told him why she really went out with the guy. “I know, Zane. I’m sorry,” she said, sounding really small.

  He sighed, reaching out to take her hand. “Whatever. Just come here,” he said, pulling her into his arms and hugging her close. He figured she had been through enough with the scare the guy had gave her and decided against giving her a lecture. He just added, “Please, be more selective in the future,” in a gruff voice instead.

  “I’ll try,” she mumbled, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Did I interrupt a date?”

  “No. The girl I want keeps dating everybody else. I’ve never gotten a chance to ask her out.” If she could have seen the way he was looking down at her, she might have picked up on the clue. As it was, she just held on tighter, not wanting to ever let go.

  Chapter 1

  Friday, July 4 (ten years later)

  “Zane, this is not the place for this argument. You’re going to ruin Mark and Jenny’s day,” she huffed, turning away from him. She tried to walk off, but he grabbed her upper arm and gently pulled her back. Somewhere in her mind she noted, that even as angry as he was, he was still more gentle than Austin had ever been.

  “Come off it, Amanda,” he said, leaning down to growl in her ear. “You know you can’t keep this up. What are you going to do? Let him kill you?”

  She flinched, giving him a shocked look. “Come on, Zane. That’s a poor joke, even for you.”

  “I’m not joking,” he said stressing each word. He almost sounded desperate to get her to listen to him.

  She took a deep breath, silently trying to remind herself he just wanted to keep her safe. “Seriously, I don’t want to ruin your sister’s reception. I’m going to go sit down. Don’t follow me,” she said, for once in her life actually snapping at him.

  She knew his concern that Austin would one day kill her was real and truly founded. She just couldn’t tell him the reason she couldn’t leave the creep was, he had threatened to kill her if she even tried. Her luck, he would manage to get the job done one of these days.

  She had always had the worst luck with her love life. She always managed to pick the type of guy who would drink too much and work too little. And to top it off, Austin was abusive when he was drunk. He had never hit her when he was sober, but even then, he was a complete jerk most of the time.

  Zane let her walk off. At first, it even looked like he might honor her request. He waited until she had taken a seat by Mrs. Slater, the Townsends babysitter, before he followed. When he pulled the chair out next to her and sat down, she looked up at him and glared. He just gave her a smug grin, because he knew she wouldn’t get up for fear of appearing rude.

  “If my sister knew you were back with that scumbag, believe me, she’d be on my side,” he hissed low, leaning close to her ear, so his voice wouldn’t carry to the others around the table. “For that matter, so would Mark.”

  “Drop it, Zane. Please,” she said, barely biting back the need to scream. She knew she had no right to blame him, but what she really wanted to tell him was, if he had ever bothered to ask her out himself, maybe she wouldn’t be in this mess.

  “Why did you go back to him? Please, tell me,” he said, sounding almost desperate.

  “I love him,” she said, her head down, refusing to look him in the eyes for fear he would see the lie.

  Apparently, he didn’t need to see it in her eyes. He had heard it in her voice. “That wasn’t very convincing,” he said, giving her a disgusted look. “Honestly, it wasn’t convincing at all. Try to remember what I do for a living. It’s my job to pick up on people telling me lies.”

  “I don’t want to discuss this with you here,” she said, nearly pleading with him.

  “Fine,” he shrugged, appearing far more nonchalant than he really felt. “I’ll come by and see you tomorrow.”

  “No, Zane,” she said, sounding almost panicked. “He’ll be off work. He might be there.”

  “Good. I’d like to talk to him,” he said, giving her a hard look.

  “Zane,” she snapped, letting her voice raise, drawing the attention from his mom across the yard. She took a deep calming breath before continuing in a much lower volume. “You’re going to make my life incredibly difficult.”

  “Fine,” he growled close to her ear again. “Come and see me Monday. Go to the station and ask for me. If you don’t show up, I’m coming after you.” With that said, he got up and walked away, finally leaving her alone to stew in her anger.

  ******

  “Where have you been?” was the first thing she heard growled at her when she entered her apartment.

  She sighed, feeling only slightly relieved to find Austin didn’t appear drunk. “I was at Mark and Jenny’s wedding. I told you last night where I was going.”

  He grunted, giving her a furious look. “Did you spend the whole time making goo-goo eyes at Zane Townsend?”

  “If you must know, Zane isn’t too happy with me,” she mumbled, feeling the tears starting to well up. She knew what he was unhappy about was her putting herself in danger. That didn’t change the fact she had never liked the feeling of having him upset with her.

  “Huh,” he grunted again, adding a small smirk before going back to the subject of where she had been. “What did Mark and Jenny have another wedding for, anyway?” he asked, apparently happy enough with her answer ab
out Zane to let that topic go for now.

  “They got married in Vegas,” she sighed, knowing no matter what she told him, he was never going to fully understand. She didn’t believe the man had a romantic bone in his whole body and subsequently felt romantic jesters were unnecessary. “They didn’t have a real wedding. Mark wanted to give Jenny a real wedding for their anniversary. Besides the fact, it was so their families could be there with them to celebrate.”

  As usual, he grunted in response. Sometimes she thought that was the only way he knew to carry on a conversation. “They’re throwing money away, if you ask me. If he wants to throw money around that much, I wouldn’t mind taking a little of it off his hands.”

  “Austin, no one is going to just give you their money,” she huffed, not thinking about what she was saying. “That’s ridiculous.”

  He jumped up, raising his hand as if he planned to smack her across the face. “What did you say to me?”

  “Nothing,” she said, taking a step back. “I’m sorry. I think I may still be a little agitated over my argument with Zane. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

  He grunted, hitching his pants up with both hands. He wouldn’t wear a belt, but his beer gut was always pushing his pants down his hips. “That’s right, you won’t. Now, how much money do you have on you? I want to go to the bar?”

  “I don’t know,” she whimpered, pointing at her purse. “Whatever I have is in the inside pocket.”

  He snatched her purse up and dug around in it till he found what he was looking for. When he pulled the cash out, his eyes showed his anger. She obviously hadn’t had enough in there to truly make him happy. He grunted and tossed the purse down before making his way out the door. She was just glad she had managed to pay her rent for the month, already. There had been a few times over the last year she’d had to ask her dad for a loan to get it paid after Austin had taken the money she had for it. She’d learned quickly to get it paid immediately to avoid such an occurrence.