“The bull?” I ask, and see Olivia and Casey come in the door followed by Kallie who is dragging in Jacob.
“I told him it was a bad idea,” Olivia says. “But Mr. Rodeo King over here thought it would be a good idea to get the kids excited about the new rodeo courses he is going to be offering at the new farm.”
“If they last on the bull, they get free lessons,” Casey says. “It’s a win-win for everyone.”
“We should get out there,” Beau says. I look at one of the waitresses inside and motion that I’m going outside and she should take over the bar. We have the bar open for anyone who wants to get out of the heat.
We walk outside, and I have to stop. There are so many people, and it looks legit like a carnival. “Look at all these people.” I look around.
“Mom, I’m going to go ride the bull and see if I can win the lessons,” Ethan says, running toward the fake bull.
“If he breaks anything,” Jacob says, putting his hands on his hips. “Casey, you are taking him to the ER.”
“If he breaks anything,” Beau says, “I’m blowing it up.” My heart fills with so much love to see how much my son is loved. I watch Billy walking with him, his arm around his shoulder while he holds Cristine’s hand.
“Shit,” Beau says from beside me. “I forgot the ribbon at the house.” Another thing he wanted to do was the official cutting of the ribbon for the bar. “It was on my desk, and I even told myself not to forget it.”
“You can call Grady,” Jacob says. “He’s on duty now, and he said he’ll be swinging by when he can.”
“Great idea,” Beau says and sends him a message. “Okay, Mrs. Mayor, it’s time to greet the people.” He grabs my hand, and we walk around, saying hello to everyone. Beau poses for some pictures while people actually talk to me. It is nothing like the dinner that I attended.
I get more hugs that day than I have ever gotten in all this town. I have men coming up to me, telling me they miss the bar and that they are excited it’s reopening. I have the women asking me if I would ever think about having ladies’ night where some of them are talking about having dancers come in.
I laugh and look over at Beau, who is looking down at his phone. “What’s up, Grady?” The smile on his face disappears. “What? Where?” He looks at me, and then I see Jacob running over to us.
“Don’t make a scene.” I hear Jacob beside Beau, my eyes going from one to the other.
“What’s happening?” I ask, and Beau looks at Jacob.
“We have to go, and it has to be quiet,” he says, and the two of them are walking away. I run to keep up with them, and it’s like we are young all over again. Me chasing them.
“You are not coming with us,” Jacob says over his shoulder, and then Beau looks over his.
“You stay here, and I’ll call you as soon as we know something,” he says, and I glare at him. “Don’t look at me like that, Savannah.” He stops right next to Jacob’s car, and now Kallie is walking over to us followed by Casey and Olivia. “You have all these people here.” He points at the crowd. “You can’t just leave.”
“One-half of these people are here to meet the ‘hot mayor’ as one of the women said. Two, there is something going on, and you are hiding it from me, and …” I fold my hands over my chest. “I don’t like it.”
“What’s going on?” Kallie asks from beside me.
“I have no idea,” I say to her. “But these two got phone calls and were off running to leave.”
“Listen,” Jacob says. “We don’t have time for this.” He looks at Kallie. “I have to go; it’s police business.”
“Then why is Beau going?” she asks the question I want to ask.
“It’s better for everyone that you just tell them or else …” Casey says. “I’ll be the one left here with three pissed-off ladies.” He looks at them. “I can barely handle that one.” He points at Olivia who just shrugs. “I can’t handle the other two as well. Especially Kallie who will get back at me, and Savannah, well, she pours my drinks when I come here. I don’t want her to poison me.”
“Oh my God,” Beau says, pulling at his hair. “We need to go, so get in the truck.”
“You could have saved all this time,” I say, getting into the back and squeezing in when Kallie gets in followed by Casey and Olivia sits on his lap.
“This is so illegal,” Olivia says, but she flies back when Jacob backs up and speeds off.
“Where are we going?” Kallie asks, and Beau looks over at me, and my stomach sinks.
“What happened now?” I ask him, ready for whatever good that was coming my way in the past two weeks is now going to be taken away from me.
“Someone was just caught trying to burn down the mayor’s house,” he says, and the gasps in the truck are mostly from the back seat. I feel Kallie’s arms around me. “Grady was there to pick up the stuff I forgot. He thought he saw something but wasn’t sure, but when he walked into the house, he smelled the gasoline.” The tears are now just running down my face.
“The good news is that after a little bit of a chase, he got the guy,” Jacob says. “But before we get there, you have to promise,” he says and then looks at me through the rearview mirror. “The both of you.” He looks now at Beau. “That you will not fly off the handle when we get there. This is still a police investigation, and we don’t really know anything right now.”
“Who is it?” Beau asks between clenched teeth. My body starts to shake, but I don’t have to wait long because we pull up to the mayor’s house, and there are five patrol cars with their lights all going. I get out of the truck as soon as he puts it in park, and I walk around. Beau grabs my hand before I can run and see who it is. I don’t have to see him, but I can hear him shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Get these fucking cuffs off me, you pig,” he says. My body starts to shake, and it takes Beau putting his arms around me to feel safe. “You can’t pin this shit on me. I didn’t do anything.” We walk just a few steps, and he sees us.
“She was supposed to be mine!” he shouts. “She was always supposed to be fucking mine.”
I just watch him as he’s being led to the car, his hands cuffed behind his back. He wears all black, and his face is streaked with dirt.
“Oh my God,” Kallie says from beside me. “It’s Chase.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Beau
“Chase.” I hear her voice next to me, but my eyes are glaring at him. I take a step forward, but Jacob pushes me back.
“This is a crime scene.” I look at him. “If you touch anything, the whole case can be thrown out due to tampering.” I am shaking with rage. This man dated Savannah, he pretended he cared, and all along, he was the one who tried to hurt her.
Grady bends him down and puts him in the back of the car. “You guys don’t have nothing on me!” he shouts just as Grady closes the door and then walks over to us. Chase is still yelling in the car, but I don’t understand what he is saying.
“What do you have?” Jacob asks Grady who looks down.
“I was here picking up the stuff you forgot,” Grady says to me. “I saw this movement on the side, and then he tore through the house. I had to chase him all the way through the back fields.” He looks at his arms that are all scratched up. “I spotted his car while I had him on the ground. He fought like a banshee,” he says, and it’s only then I notice that his mouth is bleeding from the side. “I haven’t checked out his car yet.”
“I’ll do that,” Jacob says. “You get him down to the station and get him booked. Read him his rights.”
“Or not,” Casey says, and everyone looks at him. “You caught him on the premises, and he started a fire. You pretty much have a slam dunk case.”
“This goes by the book.” Jacob glares at Casey.
“Got it,” Grady says. Walking back to the car, he gets in and you can hear Chase yelling and screaming now.
“Okay, you three,” Jacob says to Kallie, Olivia, and Casey “
You need to head back to the bar and make sure that no one knows what’s going on.” Then he turns to me. “You two.” He points at Savannah and me. “Are not going to listen to anything I have to say, so get in the truck, and we’ll go check out the car.”
Grabbing Savannah’s hand, we rush to the truck. “Are you okay?” I ask her quietly before Jacob gets in.
“No,” she answers. “If it wasn’t for my stupid dating to try to make you notice me, none of this would have happened.”
I brush away the tear on her face. “If I didn’t have my head so far up my ass, I would have told you I loved you a long time ago.” I smile at her when she smiles and then looks down. “So I am the one to blame.”
I put my arm around her shoulder and pull her to me, kissing her head. Jacob gets in the truck, and we head over to the truck. “There it is.” Savannah points at the silver truck. “That’s Chase’s truck.” Jacob pulls over and parks in front of it. I open the door and wait for Jacob to go ahead of us.
“Don’t touch anything,” he says, putting on a pair of gloves. He opens the driver’s door, and it looks normal. There is no mess anywhere. It’s a clean truck. Jacob leans in and presses the button of the trunk, and we walk around. When he lifts the lid, we all gasp.
“Holy shit.” I look down and see that there are gasolines cans, sticks of dynamite, and binoculars.
I’m about to lean in and move things when Jacob’s phone rings. “Yeah,” he says and then looks over at us. “Okay, we can be there in ten.” He closes the phone. “Chase wants to talk, but he will only do it with Savannah there.”
“Fuck, no!” I roar out when she says, “Let’s go.”
“You are not going in there,” I say, and it’s her now who puts her hand on my cheek.
“He has the answers to all of our questions,” she says quietly. “I need to know why.”
“She is not going in there without me.” I look over at Jacob who just nods.
We get to the station, and I walk in holding Savannah’s hand. Grady is there waiting for us. “He is waiting for you guys. He has quite a story for you.” I follow Jacob into the room where Chase sits behind a brown table with his hands cuffed in front of him.
He looks up and gone is the cocky guy who got arrested and in his place is a guy who knows his time is up. “Good,” he says. “The gang is all here.”
Jacob sits down in front of him on the chair. “Well,” Jacob says. “We’re all here. What did you want to say?”
“I suggest you sit down because this is going to be a long one,” he says, looking over at us, and neither of us move. “Suit yourself. I guess I’m going to start at the beginning,” he starts. “Before I say anything, I only did this for you,” he says to Savannah.
“For me?” She points at her chest. “How is any of this for me?”
“When I first stepped into town and took one look at you, I knew that you were perfect for me,”
Chase tells her. “I’d come into the bar and watch you all night long.” He looks down. “But he would show up.” He points at me. “And ruin it. Then you didn’t come one night, and I waited in the parking lot, and I followed her home.”
“What?” Savannah whispers. “Oh my God.”
“I stayed out there watching until all the lights were off, and then the next day, I did it again,” he says. “This time, I waited for you to leave, and then I snuck into your house.”
“You were in her house?” Jacob says, shocked and his hands go into fists. “My son lives in that house.”
“I never would touch your son,” Chase says. “I liked being in your space.” He looks at Savannah, and I want to yell at him to look away. “Anyway, I finally got the courage up to talk to you more, and then I asked you out and you said yes.” He smiles. “I thought I had a chance.”
“One date, officially” Savannah says. “Half a date at that. Coming to visit me at work is not really a date.”
“You didn’t give me a chance!” he yells, and it takes everything I have not to jump over the table and attack him. “Anyway, I started following you more and more, and it just became a habit. I tried to get you to see me. I was right in front of you the whole time, but you were so in love with Beau you didn’t see me.” He looks down. “So I had to do what I did in order for you to see me.” His eyes fill with tears. “Can’t you see I did it all for you?” He goes on and on with the story, and when I walk out of the station, I’m raw.
“You need to calm down,” Savannah says, and I just shake my head. “What do you want to do?”
“The only thing that I can do,” I say, waiting for Jacob outside. He looks at me and tosses me the key. “Thank you.”
I sit in the truck, and she doesn’t say anything until we get there, and I shut off the truck. “You don’t have to do this,” she whispers, and I look over at her. “You don’t even have to say anything about it.”
“Then I’m just as bad as he is,” I say to her and look forward. “It ends now.”
I get out of the truck and walk around, and Savannah waits for me. There is a party going on not too far from here, where we should be, but now we are here. She links her fingers with mine, and we walk up the steps, and I ring the doorbell. I hold my breath when I hear the locks open and I come face-to-face with my mother. “Beau,” she says, smiling. “We didn’t know you would be coming.”
I push past her and look around. “Where is he?” I ask, and she turns and pretends to be confused. “I know he’s here, Mother. I saw his truck outside.”
“Now is not a good time.” She looks at me and then looks at Savannah. “Perhaps …” She continues talking, but I walk to my father’s study and push the door open. He sits on the couch leaning back while my brother’s wife sits in front of him on the single chair, and my brother stands looking out the back window.
“This is great,” I say and walk into the room with my mother behind us. “Family meeting time.”
“She isn’t family,” Liam says of Savannah, raising his hand to point at her. I notice now the empty glass in his hand.
“Is that the way to speak to the woman who had your child?” I say and look over to my mother to see if she knew about it. But her wringing her hands gives me my answer, and I shake my head. “It’s over.” I look at my father who just leers at me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says, glaring at me. “But if this is another tantrum you’re going to throw, I suggest you watch your tone with me.”
I laugh now bitterly while Savannah squeezes my hand. “Beau,” she says my name. “You aren’t one of them.”
“You,” my father says to her. “You need to learn when to talk and when not to talk.”
“I love you,” I whisper and lean forward to kiss her lips.
“What the fuck is this?” Liam says. “You barge in here acting all high and mighty and what?”
“The police just arrested Chase.” As I say his name, my eyes are on my father, but just like the poker player he is, he doesn’t even bat an eye. “I’m assuming you have no idea what I’m talking about.”
“Not a clue,” he says, his eyes never leaving mine. “Should I?”
“Well, considering you were going to pay him a million dollars to take out Savannah and Ethan.” I say the words that taste like acid in my mouth. My brother looks at me, his mouth open, and then looks back at my father. “You should know his name.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” my father says.
“Well, here is a surprise.” I let go of Savannah’s hand. “Chase said you might say that so he gave us this.” I take my phone out of my pocket and press play on the video that Chase secretly recorded of my father and him.
“That can be doctored. That proves nothing,” he says, and I want to grab him by his throat.
“The thing you did wrong this time,” I tell my father, “was hire someone who was unhinged to begin with.” I shake my head. “You see, you hired Chase to do a job, but what you didn’
t know is that Chase was already forming a case on you, Father. He has meetings of the two of you. He has all of the names of the women who you have fucked over during the years.” I look over at my mother who doesn’t say anything,
“I have a clean-cut record.” He leans forward now. “That man is on drugs.”
I laugh. “Twenty-five abortions. Twenty fucking five. Money taken to pay for these abortions. Money paid for apartments to keep your women close. Fifteen women all around the town all set up. That isn’t even counting the ones he keeps in town. Taking the town’s money to make sure your dick stayed wet.” I look at him. “You’re fucking pathetic. The thing you did wrong. Paper trail.”
“Okay,” Liam says. “So what? He cheats on Mom. That isn’t a surprise to anyone.” He looks at my mother, who is standing there with her hands to her mouth and tears running down her face. “Sorry, Mom. So what are you going to do, rat on your father? He’s your father.”
“Your wife,” I say, looking at him and then my sister-in-law, who sits there with a shocked look on her face.
“What?” Liam whispers.
“You see, dear old Dad,” I say to him, “I found the files.” He glares at me. “The files that you hid under the floor in my office.”
He slams his hand on the desk. “That’s enough of this shit. This is my house!” he shouts.
“My wife …” Liam says almost in shock.
“You are lying,” she finally says, getting out of her chair.
“You see …” I look at Liam, “what dear old Dad does is he gets what little dirt you have hidden away, and then he blackmails them. Pushes them until they have no choice but to give in. He’s been doing it for years.”
“My wife …” Liam says. “You slept with my father?” She turns and runs to him.
“Is it mine?” Liam asks, and she looks at him and then looks down, her hand going to her stomach. “God,” he says, holding his chest and looking over at my father. “How could you?”
“Oh, please,” my father says. “You were too drunk to get it up,” he says, and he’s about to say something else when a shot is fired. Liam grabs his wife, and I grab Savannah, but my eyes are on my father as blood starts to seep through his shoulder.
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