only fueled Luke’s anger. He shoved Russell away, rose to his feet, and went after him again. He heard people behind him shouting. He couldn’t make out the words. They were nothing but noise. He kept punching until Russell went down again, and then he leaped on top of him. Luke had the sense of people gathering around, more shouting, but he was beyond rationality. Beyond stopping. Beyond doing anything but making this bastard pay for what he’d said. He wanted the whole fucking town to pay for what it had done to him all those years ago, for ignoring him, for treating him as if he was a lowlife just because of an accident of birth, for turning the other way when they saw a bruise on his face or a bloody lip. The anger and bitterness he thought he’d shelved came roaring out from the dark recesses of his mind, making his vision blurry with rage and his fists shift into weapons he was beyond controlling.
Then somebody grabbed his wrist and yanked him backward.
“Hey! You two break it up! Now!”
When Luke looked up, he saw the sheriff standing over him. He came to his feet, breathing hard, pain slicing through his head. Russell stood a few feet away, his nose bleeding and his left eye already beginning to swell.
Luke leaned against his truck, breathing hard, his head spinning crazily, feeling as if it was about to split wide open. The sheriff took off his hat, wiped his brow with his forearm, and put it back on. “Okay,” he said wearily. “Who threw the first punch?”
Luke wiped blood off his nose. “I did.”
“You’re damned right you did,” Russell said. “I’m pressing charges!”
The sheriff sighed. “Now, Russell, I’d like you to think twice about that. If we just talk about this—”
“No! He assaulted me!”
“Looks to me like you both got your licks in pretty good,” the sheriff said. “Why don’t we just forget about this whole thing, everybody go home—”
“Hell, no,” Russell said, gritting his teeth. “I told you I’m pressing charges!”
“There’s no need to escalate this,” the sheriff said. “If you’ll just—”
“I said I want him to go to jail!”
Jail? Luke felt a shot of apprehension. No. Not that. No!
The sheriff turned to Luke. “If you threw the first punch, it’s assault. If he wants to press charges, I gotta take you in.”
Luke just stood there, his head pounding, unable to believe this was happening. He had no idea how long this would tie him up there. He was due in Denver soon. If this dragged out very long, he might even miss the first round of competition, and the dream he’d been chasing for the past decade would disintegrate before his eyes.
No. It was worse than that. He was being arrested for assault. If Russell carried that all the way to the end, he could actually go to prison.
Slowly Luke became aware of people surrounding him, whispering, pointing. He couldn’t make out their words, but he didn’t have to. He knew what they were saying.
I knew this would happen.
Of course it was his fault.
Bad seed.
Just like old times.
Guess he’s like his old man after all.
What happened next was a blur. The sheriff turned him around and cuffed his hands behind his back. Luke had a flashback to the humiliation of his teenage years, when these cuffs around his wrists had spurred him to spit out a string of curse words a mile long. But this time he didn’t say anything, even as a hot flame of resentment burned inside him.
The sheriff walked him to the patrol car. Put him in the backseat. Luke gazed around the inside of the car. His hazy memory of being in the back of a police car before became crystal clear, and he hated what he saw.
The sheriff started the car and pulled away. Luke looked out the window. Shannon was standing ten yards away, her hand against her chest, the most horrible mix of shock and disappointment on her face.
He turned away, unable to look any longer. Now he knew that the past few months had been an illusion. A cruel illusion that he was becoming part of this town somehow, but in the end, nothing had changed. Somehow he would get out of jail. Leave this town behind, just as he had all those years ago, but this time he’d stay gone. As far as he was concerned, they could all go straight to hell.
As Shannon watched the sheriff’s taillights disappear