Roy was on his feet when I turned to him and swung a big, arcing left at his jaw. I knew it was telegraphed, but he didn’t seem to catch it, and it hit him like a stack of bricks. He stumbled back into the grassy area of the lot, where the weeds had grown between the decades old lot rocks. He knew I was coming for him and I wasn’t going to stop until I was too worn out to punch him anymore, and he was panicking.
Suddenly, he spun at me, flinging a handful of dirt and rocks at me. His distraction worked a little, as I didn’t see him trying to tackle me around the waist like we were kids back on the football field.
I let him hit me with his shoulder, but I was ready for him. Instead of going down or moving back, I just absorbed the blow and reached down to wrap my arms around his waist. The momentum was still pushing me back, but I wrenched him up, heels over his head, and drove him down into the gravel hard on the back of his neck. I landed hard on my ass and let go of him so he would fall away. As soon as his boots hit the ground, I rolled toward him, grabbing him by the shirt collar and pulling him up to my face.
His eyes spun as he tried to focus. I wanted to wait for them, for him to see me and know what was happening to him. It wouldn’t be any damn good if he didn’t remember every bit of pain I put his body through tonight, and why. I waited for those eyes to focus on me and his expression to change from stupefied incomprehension, to hatred, deep and pure, to terror. I liked the last one most of all.
Rearing back, I slammed my fist into his face, not letting go of his shirt collar. I pulled him up again and wailed another shot. From the corner of my eye, I saw Benjamin moving toward me and I let go of Roy, letting him slam back into the gravel unceremoniously. I tackled the other brother before he could even form a fist. He stumbled back again toward his own truck, and I looked over at Roy who was trying to get to his feet.
“Come on, Roy,” Benjamin called, snapping the driver’s door open. “Let’s get out of here.”
I stalked Roy as he crawled, daring him to get up again. When he noticed I was behind him, he kicked out at me and I stepped back. It was enough space for him to scramble unsteadily to his feet and take another wild swing at me. I ducked it easily and landed another hard shot to his stomach. He bent over and I squared up again, picking my shot. I had one more chance to hit him before Benjamin made his way over from the driver’s door, and I wanted to make it count. I let loose a hellacious punch, leaving every bit of my energy in that blow, and it crashed into Roy’s skull with a thud.
He spun in place and sprawled against the hood of the truck. Then he slid down onto his ass. The only thing holding him upright was the truck itself.
“That’s enough, dammit,” Benjamin yelled as he ran to collect his brother.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I said, rubbing the back of my hand across my lip. Blood smeared across it and onto my shirt, indicating one of their shots had split it.
Benjamin was pulling the deputy away toward the passenger’s seat. He hauled him in with only the most modest of cooperation from the clearly dazed Roy. Benjamin stalked around the truck to get in the driver’s seat, keeping his eye on me as he breathed heavily. He looked like he wanted to say something but thought better of it. Finally, he slammed the door of the truck and revved the engine loudly. Gravel flew up as the truck peeled off.
I stood my ground as the tiny bits of rock and finely ground stone stung on my face and embedded themselves in the cut on my mouth. The tires screamed as the truck sped down the street away from The Junction and I felt the sound on my skin and down into the depths of my being.
It went into my head as the sound of the engine and the tires being forced under the heavy foot of the furious Hayes brothers, but it buried itself into my brain as something else. I heard the sound of the tanks and the roar of explosions. The gravel spit up by the spinning wheels became hot sand raining down on my skin.
Falling back a step, I slumped against the side of Clayton’s truck and slid down the length of it onto the ground. Bending my legs up, I draped my forearms across my knees and spit blood out onto the gravel beside me.
Sara paced angrily back and forth in front of me like she was still wired up from the adrenaline of the fight. A few feet away, she stopped and gave an angry, forceful kick into the ground, sending another spray of gravel through the air along with an aggressive growl of exasperation.
“Fucking Hayes brothers,” she finally managed to bite out.
I felt the exact same way. Fucking Hayes brothers. It was the way I’d felt about them my whole life and the way I would feel about them until someone closed a coffin down over me and put me six feet under.
There was nothing good, nothing redeemable about a Hayes. This was just a small taste of what these men were like—if I could even call them men. That was a word I took seriously and it was hard to apply to either Roy or Benjamin. Both of them were slimy, deceitful, cruel, and willing to stomp on the face of anyone who might be in the way of them getting exactly what they wanted. Figuratively and literally.
And anyone who had ever even slightly gotten in their way could attest that they wanted everything that wasn’t theirs. Including other people’s land and everything they ever worked for.
I looked over at Shannon. She wiped dirt away and bent down to check on a scrape along the side of her thigh from where the sharp edge of a rock had caught her skin when she fell.
She made eye contact with me and sighed heavily. “You couldn’t get through one damn week in Green Valley without a brawl, could you?”
Chapter 22
Shannon
The handful of locals who had stayed around for the fight between Jesse and the Hayes Brothers started to slowly back up from where we were standing. It was that gradual, hesitant movement that said they wanted to get the hell away but also wanted to look like they were still supportive.
We were getting far closer to morning than we were night, and many of them would have to be up and working in just a few hours. In a ranching town, weekends off didn’t mean much. Animals still needed to eat, and ranch land still needed to be taken care of no matter what day of the week it was.
But it wasn’t just the work waiting for them in the morning or the promise of a hot shower and a comfortable bed that was drawing them away into the cars of designated drivers or to just walk down the street until somebody came along to pick them up. The Hayes brothers cast a wide net. The Montgomery boys might have been their favorite target, but plenty of others suffered because of them. They would protect Jesse and stand by his side during a fight, but they weren’t going to push their luck. Once the dust settled and the fight was over, they would clear off to make sure they didn’t get caught up in another round.
It was easy to blend into a crowd when fists were flying and rage made your vision go red. That wasn’t so much the case when things quieted. Everybody in Green Valley knew if you were around when the Hayes brothers got into a fray or got pissed off, you wanted to be gone before they came back down to Earth.
As soon as their minds started working almost clearly again, they started taking names and remembering faces. The next time there was an opportunity to harass one of them, the nearest Hayes would take it without a second of hesitation. It didn’t matter what the infraction was or even if there was one. A Hayes didn’t care. If they felt slighted or offended, embarrassed or disrespected, the person on the other end had a target on their back.
I was a long way from caring about that anymore. It wasn’t lost on me that Roy could turn on me whenever he wanted to. My rejection could earn me his wrath whenever he decided he didn’t want to deal with it anymore.
There had been a time when I worried about that. I had treaded carefully around him and did my best not to piss him off or hurt his feelings too much, even while I skated around his interest in me. My hope had been that he would let go. Eventually, he would have to just get over me. If I wasn’t leading him on or giving into him, then he wouldn’t have anything to keep him amused and there would
be no reason for him to keep pursuing me.
It definitely didn’t work out that way, but at least having him still hanging on seemed to keep me buffered from their particular brand of nastiness.
Only now, I wondered if that was making things harder for Jesse. The Hayes brothers were never going to hold hands and sing camp songs with the Montgomery boys, but I couldn’t help but think seeing me with Jesse just gave Roy another reason to hate him.
A few minutes after Roy and Benjamin left, another truck pulled into the parking lot. Jesse looked up at it and turned disbelieving eyes at me.
“You called my brothers?” he asked.
“Who did you think I was calling? The police? If you didn’t notice, you were kicking the ass of one of their own. As soon as I saw what was about to happen, I called the only people who were going to do any good in this situation.”
The truck pulled up a couple of parking spots down from where Jesse was still sitting on the ground beside Clayton’s truck. The doors opened and Cassidy and Clayton got out.
“Yep,” Jesse grumbled. “Help is on the way.”
Cassidy shook his head at Jesse, looking his little brother up and down and then glancing around the parking lot like he was trying to get a hold of what was happening.
“Fighting already, are we?” he asked.
Jesse didn’t bother getting up. He sat there in the gravel and turned his eyes up to peer at his brother. “They had it coming.”
Clayton went straight to his truck. He walked around it, running his hand along the side and inspecting it for any damage.
“He didn’t use the truck as a weapon, Clayton,” I said. “It’s not like he picked it up and whacked them over the heads with it.”
Clayton looked up at me, then at Jesse.
“Did you at least whoop their asses?” he asked.
I cocked my hip, my arms crossed over my chest. “He knocked Roy senseless.”
Cassidy let out a sigh. “Better than nothing, I guess. Come on. Let’s get you up.”
He walked up to Jesse and Clayton went to the other side of their younger brother. They each grabbed Jesse under his arms and hauled him up to his feet.
“Here we go,” Clayton grunted as they finally got him upright. “I’ll drive you back in my truck. Let’s get you inside.”
He supported Jesse as he walked him around to the passenger side and opened the door, then lifted Jesse up and guided him onto the bench.
“Shannon, Sara, why don’t you girls let me drive you home?” Cassidy asked.
“I have my car,” Sara said.
“After everything that went on tonight, I’d feel better if you let me drive you.”
She glanced down at the gravel and then back at him with a sheepish smile on her pink lips. Her long eyelashes fluttered at him and she seemed about two seconds away from a genuine giggle. This was the kind of thing guys ate up from Sara, and I remembered what she said about accepting the attention from any of the Montgomery boys. She couldn’t have Garrett since he was apparently MIA at the moment, but right now, she had Cassidy playing right into her hands.
“All right,” she said, her voice going a little softer. “If it would make you feel better.”
“Good,” Cassidy said, then looked over at me. “Shannon?”
I shook my head. “If it’s all right with Clayton, I’ll ride with Jesse.”
“Sure thing,” Clayton replied.
I climbed into the front of the truck with Jesse and noticed him glaring at me. “What?” I asked.
“You’re just all out there talking about me like I’m not even here,” he said.
“Stop your rumbling,” Clayton chastised, getting into the truck behind the wheel so I was sandwiched in the center of the bench between the two men. “Shannon here is the only reason we came out here to find you. And she could be in Cassidy’s truck right now on her way back to her own apartment, but she’s not. She’s here with you. And when somebody decides to get into a brawl less than a week after showing back up at home, that person gets talked about like they aren’t there. It’s just how it is.”
I bit my lips to keep from laughing. I wasn’t so sure about that rule. It had never come up. But it worked to keep Jesse’s mouth closed for the rest of the time he was brooding in the seat beside me. By the time we were halfway to the Montgomery ranch, he seemed to have calmed down a bit, but that meant the pain was showing up more on his face. He kept shifting around on the seat, changing position to take the pressure off his injured ribs.
I expected Clayton to spend the drive scolding Jesse. Instead, he turned off the radio and we rode in silence with the older Montgomery boy staring ahead through the windshield as he drove without a word or even a glance in our direction.
I wanted to say something. There were words floating around at the base of my throat, and I had the compulsion to get them out, but I kept them there. It wasn’t that I had much to say. Or maybe it was that there was too much.
Either way, the urge to say something came from the awkwardness of the silence and wanting to put something in it so we didn’t have to go the rest of the ride like this. Anything I had to say was meant for Jesse, not for Clayton. So as much as I wanted to not have to listen to nothing but the tires crunching over the gravel along the driveway, I didn’t say anything.
Clayton didn’t ask where to bring me, and I didn’t tell him, but it didn’t take long after leaving the bar for me to see he wasn’t bringing me to my apartment. We headed straight for the ranch without a second thought.
Cassidy wasn’t there yet, and I had the immediate thought it might be a while before he showed up back at the ranch. Not that anything was going to happen between Sara and him, but it wouldn’t be for lack of my best friend’s trying. She wanted to sink her teeth into a Montgomery boy and I had a feeling she would do plenty of sweet talking and flirting on the ride home and finagle as many ways as she could to keep him close before he finally made his way back to the ranch.
Clayton pulled up close to the house and parked his truck. He climbed out and I slid over to get out behind him. Jesse already had the door open by the time we walked around to the other side. Clayton reached up for him, but Jesse waved him away.
“I can do it,” he said. “I don’t need help walking. They didn’t smash me up that bad.”
“Suit yourself,” Clayton said. “But since you’re doing that whole walking on your own thing, I suggest it brings you right upstairs and into the shower.”
He headed up to the porch and Jesse called a half-hearted thanks after his brother, who waved over his shoulder in return.
“You sure you’re okay?” I asked. “I can help if you just didn’t want your brother to see you.”
“I’m good,” Jesse said. “My ribs are hurting something fierce.”
“Tends to happen when you get a boot smashed into them,” I said with a nod.
“Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”
“All right, well you go on in and take a shower,” I told him.
“Will you be there when I get out?” he asked.
“Absolutely.”
While Jesse made his way slowly but surely up the stairs toward the shower, I went into the kitchen. Clayton was standing at the counter sipping a glass of iced tea.
He lifted his eyebrows at me when I entered the room. “He’s not butt-hurt enough to make you go away?”
“He doesn’t have a choice,” I said. “Is there an ice pack around here?”
“Should be a couple in the freezer,” Clayton said.
I nodded and crossed to the freezer. I pulled out an ice pack, then took a dish towel from the drawer beside the stove and wrapped it around the pack. Jesse came into the bedroom a few minutes after I’d changed the sheets for him and turned down his bed.
“You don’t have to take care of me,” Jesse said when he came in fresh and clean from his shower and saw everything I’d done.
“I know,” I told him. I patted the bed. “Come
on over. I have an ice pack for you.”
He looked at me incredulously for a few moments before coming over and sitting beside me.
“Just relax,” I said. “I’ll take care of you. Why don’t you lie down? You have clean sheets and your body needs some rest.”
Jesse shook his head. “No.”
I let out a sigh and stood up. My plan was to tip him over as carefully as I could. If all worked out, there would be a point of no return where it would be too painful for him to try to counteract the tipping motion by tightening his muscles. My hope was to get him to that point so he would just end up toppling back into the pillows and I could tuck him in so he’d be comfortable and safe.
“Just lie back and rest,” I encouraged, reaching for him.
Jesse suddenly caught me by the wrist. “I don’t deserve this,” he said.
At first, I wanted to laugh, but then I searched his eyes and saw genuine pain there.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“You. Your time. Your compassion. I don’t deserve it. Not after how I left you.”
My heart tightened. “Jesse, please. We don’t have to—”
“I have to,” he said as he turned his body to face me. “I need you to know why I left without saying goodbye.”
Chapter 23
Jesse
Ten Years Ago…
I came in from tilling, worn out, hot, sweaty and ready for a nice shower and a couple sandwiches. It was Thursday, which meant my brothers were out, most of them on errands before the weekend, but one or two were sure to be playing hooky somewhere. Probably at The Junction.
I just wanted to get into clean clothes, eat, and go to bed. To hell with doing anything more complicated than chewing.
His Reckless Heart (The Montgomery Boys Book 1) Page 13