My Father Gave Me a New Big Brother, and the Only Man I Could Run To Was the One Who Put Him There novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: Mateo's POV
Mateo's POV
I was washing a calf's wound at seven the next morning, with Rali asleep on the cot in the back.
The smell of her was still on my hands when a grey Ford came up my gravel drive.
I knew whose it was before I turned around.
I took out my phone, thumbed it to record, and slid it into my shirt pocket with the microphone up.
Detective Beitia got out slowly.
He wore the tan jacket and his badge on his belt, and in the morning light he looked every one of his fifty-two years.
"Dr. Salaverria."
"Detective. Coffee's on if you'd like some."
Gorka smiled thinly.
"I won't be long."
He stopped three feet from me and took in the drive, the barn, the calf in the sling.
His eyes went once to the Subaru parked by the clinic door.
"She's in there," he said.
"She's asleep."
"I'd like you to wake her and tell her I'm here."
I shook my head.
"No."
He looked at me.
He had a kind face.
That was what I couldn't get past, standing there with the calf bawling behind me.
He had a kind, tired, fatherly face, and he had used it on a nineteen-year-old.
"Son," he said. "You've had a very good week. I'd like it to continue."
"I appreciate that."
"There's been a complaint against your license."
I wiped my hands on a towel.
"I got the email."
"It's a serious one. Unsafe practice. The board takes these very seriously, and the investigations take months. During which you can't treat on the ranches that pay your rent." He spoke softly. "And your mother's grazing permit comes up for renewal in March. Those go through the same county office."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Father Gave Me a New Big Brother, and the Only Man I Could Run To Was the One Who Put Him There are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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