by Jillian Neal
“I’ve spent every single day of the last three years living with them like that. You’re never there. You go see Dad at the station where he has to act civil, and you call and coax mom to go shopping with you or to have lunch at the club because that’s easy. They put on a show for everyone else. But you aren’t there when a commercial for the Army comes on and she bursts into tears again and sits in Keith’s room for days at a time. Or when Dad hurls the mashed potatoes you just made against the wall and shatters the bowl because I told him again that Mom needs some real help. Or when he screams at me for no reason at all. Or takes your cookbooks out to the garbage can and sets them on fire because you’re a lawyer now, not a cook, and he doesn’t like it when you make foods we didn’t eat before Keith died. Tell me what it’s like to have to hide where you work because it’s not the law firm Daddy mandated. Tell me what it’s like to have to date a guy you can’t stand because dating him is easier than sending your own parents further into the hell where they exist.
“That’s exactly how I ran away and how I’m that irresponsible. And you know what, I deserved to run away. I deserve a fucking break. I should have been irresponsible a long, long time ago, but I had to hold everything together. No one else knows what it’s like to live there, walking around on pins and needles trying to make sure you never accidentally do or say anything wrong. And then there was Seth, whose favorite thing to do was to act like he was some kind of show piece that I should be proud to be with. That was when he wasn’t telling me how stupid he thinks I am or talking over me when he had time for me at all. I am so sick of him and his passive aggressive shit.
“So don’t you dare stand there and tell me I’m being irresponsible, or selfish, or anything else you came here to say. In fact, just go. I’m not leaving.”
Her sister stood before her speechless.
“You’re telling us that you’re just gonna stay here with him?” Josh accused on Sophie’s behalf.
“No, I’m telling you I’m going to stay here because it’s where I want to be, and for the first time in my life, I’m giving myself a chance.” With her own declaration, a little of her fury cooled. “I am sorry I never turned my phone back on. I should have, but, my God, Soph, I needed a break.”
“Your father isn’t going to just let you stay here, Kit-kat. He’s got the whole force out looking for both of you. I told him you were with some cowboy. I didn’t tell him I had the tag number. I wanted to check on you first, but as soon as I do he’ll have you both arrested. Now do as I say and get in the car.”
“Or you could crawl outta her daddy’s ass and keep your trap shut. Let her come home whenever she fucking well pleases, seein’ as it’s our life and not yours.” Indignation perforated Grant’s threat, but still his voice steadied her. She reached back and he was right there. His hands in hers and then his strength right beside her.
“I’m going to tell Seth you’re out here with some other man, Kaitlyn. You’re cheating on him. He made a mistake and this is how you’re going to treat him. Keith would be ashamed.”
“Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare even say his name to me!” Kaitlyn screamed.
“What the hell is going on out here?” Luke, Austin, Indie, and Summer took position on either side of Grant.
“I could arrest all of you for harboring a fugitive or a runaway, you know,” Josh’s tenor voice lost a great deal of its earlier confidence.
“You could but you ain’t,” Austin challenged.
“Bring it city-boy,” Indie drawled. “Cowboys around here aren’t the only ones who know how to skin a live snake.”
“Ain’t nobody tellin’ Kaitlyn to do anything she don’t wanna do,” Summer menaced. “Just where the hell do you get off, thinkin’ you’re in charge of her? I have plenty of experience letting whiny little bitches just like you and her daddy know what I think of ‘em.”
“Believe I heard you say something about somebody dropping the charges. Meaning, she ain’t a fugitive, and she’s a grown woman not a runaway. I gotta tell ya, son, we don’t much like uppity city-police who think they can drive into town and start ordering people around.” Luke upped the ante and all of the Camden family looked like they had no issue using their fists to drive home his point.
Suddenly her sister located her voice. “Kit-kat, you don’t even know what you’re saying. You don’t even know these people. They are clearly insane. I never should have told you to run. I’m sorry. You’re not thinking straight. You’re not strong enough to be out here with people like this. Do you even hear what you’re saying? Just get in the car and let us take you home.”
“Oh my God! Did you actually just ask me if I heard what I was saying?” Kaitlyn demanded vengefully. “I may not hear a lot of things, Soph, but I do know my own thoughts. I can’t believe you said that to me. I’m not a child and I’m not an invalid. I am perfectly capable of doing what I want when I want. And I don’t care anymore what Keith might think or what you think. He isn’t here and neither of you get to have any say over me anymore. I know these people a lot better than you think, and what’s more, they know me a lot better than you do.”
Her entire world shifted like the turn of the kaleidoscope she’d had as a kid. Everything around her was different. Aware of the world outside of her own misery, she noted numerous cowboys and cowgirls shifting and lurking in the shadows of the blue lights. Their eyes were all trained on Josh. Eager and edgy, they eased ever closer.
“Fair warning, cityboy, you go after Grant or any of the Camdens, you’ll answer to us all. If I was you, I’d git for you git gotten good,” a man Kaitlyn had never even seen before spit in the gravel between Josh’s feet. “Ain’t a man standing out here that wouldn’t beat the shit outta you on Grant’s behalf, even if we do end up in jail. Fact is, we all owe him a helluva lot more than that. Camdens are the backbone of this entire town.”
“Well, Miss High and Mighty just when are you coming home?” Sophie huffed.
“She’ll be home by noon tomorrow or I’m putting out a warrant for his arrest,” Josh thrust his finger Grant’s direction, accepting his own defeat. “Get in the car, Sophie. We’re leaving.”
Kaitlyn’s heart frantically leapt to her throat when Josh’s cruiser almost collided with a truck attempting to pull into the parking lot as he made his getaway.
Several rapid blinks did nothing to blur the memory of her own sister standing in the shadow of flashing blue lights asking her if she’d heard her own voice. She wasn’t backing down now. “Grant, I’m so sorry about all of this. I will not let my father arrest you. If you never wanted to see me again, I understand.” Of all the things she’d just screamed at her sister, that was the moment she choked. The words were putrid ash on her tongue. She fought not to gag.
“Come here to me.” He guided her back into his arms, wrapping her up in that sanctuary of muscle and heat. She buried her face in his chest, desperate to hear the gruff rumble of his voice. He didn’t hate her. He should hate her for all of the trouble she’d caused him.
“Bravest woman I have ever met.” He rocked them back and forth in the parking lot. With that, she knew nothing about her life before was ever going to be the same, but she had to figure out some way to mend the fabric of Old-Kaitlyn and New-Kaitlyn with the woman she actually wanted to be. She couldn’t start a new life while trying to bury the old one.
Having absolutely no right to ask him for anything at all, the plea still sprang forth from her lips, “Will you just keep talking to me for a minute? Please.”
She could have asked him to saw off his own arm after all of that, and he would’ve done it. All she wanted was to hear his voice. My God, had he known years ago that she existed nothing would’ve stopped him from finding her, from rescuing her from the hell she lived in. Her declaration that she was there because she wanted to be erased any remnant of doubt he’d had.
Not certain exactly what to say, he just spoke the first words that came to mind, “I’ve got you, sugar, and
I ain’t ever letting you go back to that. I’m right here.”
“Grant,” Dusty Sullivan nodded as he passed by. “You let us know if we’re needed. I got no time for some sonuvabitch that wants to tell a woman to go somewhere she don’t wanna be, cop or not.”
“Much obliged, Dusty.” Grant wished they would go, but they’d been all but promised a fight and were high on testosterone and stupidity at the moment.
“Your daddy sounds like a real piece ‘a work, sugar. You let any of us know if you need us, we’ll be there. We take care of our own,” Wes Kilroy vowed as he passed by. The only indication Grant had that she’d heard him was her strengthening her grip on him.
“Grant, you know where we’ll be if you need us,” was echoed from several ranchers lookin’ to throw in.
“I’m much obliged to you all, but it ain’t gon’ come to blows. That don’t never fix nothing, and you all know it,” he gave his decree hoping everyone would find something else to do. “If they’ll shut the fuck up, I’ll keep talking to you.” He lowered his head and spoke directly in her left ear. The smile he felt against his chest righted most every wrong the night had held. “Pretty sure the whole town wants to adopt you.”
“I might let them,” she tried for a joke but missed the mark. “And I’m pretty sure it’s you they love. Would you mind if we went back to your house? I have a few phone calls I need to make.”
“Sure, sugar. Hop on in.”
Luke was waiting on him at the end of the truck after he got Kaitlyn up in the seat. “She okay?”
“She sound okay to you?”
“Sounded like she didn’t even realize what hell she’s been living in ‘til just then. And I’ll tell you this, we are lucky fucks Holly and Nat didn’t make a show just then or that cop’d already be tied and quartered with my wife holding the whip.”
“Don’t even pretend thinkin’ about Indie with a crop don’t make you hornier than a three-balled tomcat.”
Luke chuckled. “Trust me, I stay hornier than a tomcat, and she’s dangerous enough without a crop. Listen to me, though, he wasn’t shitting you. He’ll get that warrant if you don’t show up in Lincoln tomorrow. Might get it even if you do.”
“Yeah, I’m aware.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“If she wants to go face ‘em, I’ll take her back. I’m sure as hell not leaving her there, but I’ll take her back and let her tell ‘em all what she thinks of ‘em. If she wants to stay on the ranch, that’s where we’ll be. Tell you the truth, I’ve a good mind to take a crop to her daddy and her ex just ‘fore I get after ‘em with a tire iron.”
“Yeah, well, Indie could loan you a few of those, too.”
“You caught that her daddy is the chief of police, right?”
“I figured he was some kinda power-player in all this. But in my experience the best things in life never come easy, and some things are sure as hell worth fightin’ for. What I can’t quite figure is who Keith is.”
“He was her twin brother. Killed a few years ago in Afghanistan.”
“Jesus, poor kid.” Luke shook his head.
“Yeah. She’s tried so hard to keep the rest of her family from falling apart she ain’t even really had a chance to deal with it yet. Whole thing’s pretty fucked up.”
“Then you gotta get the herd up two hills and across a river. Will you do something for me?”
“What’s that?”
“For once in your life, will you not take this fight on by yourself? Let us help you.”
Gall singed Grant’s throat. The vow he’d made to himself when he was seventeen reverberated against his skull. He swore he’d never have to be bailed out again. Glancing at Kaitlyn huddled in the truck, already sitting in the middle waiting on him, he prayed to God he wouldn’t have to break his promise.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I cannot believe I just screamed all of that out at a parking lot at a honkytonk bar,” Kaitlyn whimpered as Grant made the turn off on the dirt road that would eventually lead to the ranch. “Your friends probably think I’m one of those crazy daytime television reality stars or something.”
Sinking his teeth into the side of his cheek to keep from laughing, Grant shook his head. “Sugar, the Glen is the kinda town everyone always swears they can’t wait to leave but then no one ever does ‘cause you’d just miss it too damn much. That was Wes Kilroy that told you we take care of our own, and that’s the truth. His daddy is the mayor, by the way. None of them thought anything bad about you. Now, your daddy and Josh on the other hand …” He refused to elaborate further.
“Did I embarrass you?” Devastation weighted her tone.
“Hell no. I’ve never been more proud of you.”
“You’ve only known me three days.”
“Yeah, and in the past three days I could name you a hundred dozen things I love about you, so I don’t really see how that matters.”
“You could not.”
Ire already resided just under the surface after their run in with Josh and her sister. It quickly surged through him again. “One, I love the way you purse your lips when you stare up at me when you first see me after a while, and you’ve forgotten that you don’t have to concentrate so hard to hear me. As soon as I start talking, you grin when realize you can just relax and look at me. Two, I love the way you get fascinated with things like the tractor or how the ranch works. Three, I like the way you loop and twirl all them curls around your face with your fingers when you get a little nervous or when you’re thinkin’. Oh, and I like how you bite your lip, too. Four, I love how brave you are. You look life right in the face, call it a bitch, and dare it to come at you again. Five, I love how gentle you are, and this definitely makes me a bastard, but I love how innocent you are, too.
“Six through about twenty, I fucking love the way you come for me, love the look on your face, love the sounds you make, the way you taste, how rosy pink your nipples get when I suck ‘em, that you love it when I suck ‘em hard. I love that little sex kitten purr you have when I rub your ass, and Jesus Christ in Heaven, the way you groan out my name when I bring you.
“Twenty-one, I love the way you’ll argue with me even when you don’t want to just ‘cause you know I like it when you’re stubborn, which I’m counting as twenty-two, by the way. I love how hard you fought to keep your family from coming apart at the seams. I love how hard you love your brother, and I said love not loved. I ain’t that much of an idiot. I love how sweet you are even when you are bein’ stubborn. It’s like I love how you’re a fighter when you’re fighting and a lover when you’re loving.
“I love that you want kids and you ain’t afraid to admit that. Most chicks won’t come out and say what they want ‘cause they think they gotta play games. I hate that and I love that you don’t do it.”
“I didn’t admit that, exactly.”
“See, there you go, fightin’ even though you know I’m right. Now, what number was I on? I lost count, but I also fuckin’ love the way you feel in my arms, like the whole world could be going straight to shit in a basket and if I can put you in my lap everything feels like it’s gonna be all right.
“I love how you ask me to talk to you when that’s what you need. I love how we never run out of things to talk about, but even if we do, I like just being quiet with you. I love the way you cook and that you love to cook. I love how smart you are. As weak as it makes me, I love that you need me. And your ass. Fuck, and your tits. The way they bounce and swell when I’m pounding into you. I love pounding into you. Oh, and them sweet little squeaks and moans you make when I’ve got my head between your legs. The way you shiver. The way you taste, spicy and sweet on my tongue. Your whole damn body. I love them curves, darlin’. They drive me wild.”
Suddenly, she leaned up in the seat and planted a tender kiss on the stubble of his jaw. “Hey Grant,” her sweet breath teased at his lips, “I’m pretty sure I love you, too.”
Until the words left her lips, he wasn
’t aware that’s what he was after. She supplied them without him even knowing they were his end goal. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s a guy gotta do to make you damned sure?” He clamped his jaw shut tight enough for it to ache. That couldn’t have been the right thing to say.
“He has to let me officially end it with the idiot I was engaged to, and he needs to let me figure out how to make it up to him because I also said those words to that fiancée, and now I’m not sure what they mean at all.”
“He could probably let you do all of that. Might even help you figure it out if you wanted him to. He, uh, might’a said it a time or two when he didn’t really mean it either.” Grant eyed her cautiously, wondering what she’d make of that.
“Grant, I’m so sorry about Josh. I will not let my father arrest you.”
Well, that came outta left field. Disappointment crashed through him, but he kept his game face on. “I ain’t worried about it.”
“I’m still processing you telling other women you loved them. I’m trying not to act like a jealous bitch since I just acted like a crazy person in a parking lot.”
“You’re too damned good at figuring out what I’m thinking. I told you, you were smart, and you could never be a bitch or a crazy person.”
“Your face gives away your thoughts. Being deaf makes you pretty intuitive, and it’s weird that I automatically hate whoever you said that to. I don’t even know them.”
“I hate that SOB you were engaged to, so let’s call it even for now.”
“This is just really fast. Everyone’s going to think I was just on the rebound, but I swear to you I’m not.”
“You can’t run cattle on another man’s opinions.”