We got to the SUV at the same time.
Barr went to the driver’s side a couple seconds later.
“It’s still running,” Barr said. “And look…”
He pointed to her cellphone in the cupholder.
“Fuck!” I yelled.
I turned and ran my hands through my hair.
“Why is this door open then?” Kip asked.
“I have no fucking clue,” Barr yelled. “I’m not a fucking detective. Where the fuck is our girl?”
I looked left to right and wasn’t sure what to do next.
When I got my hands on Cole…
I turned back to the SUV and saw Kip and Barr meeting each other at the front of the SUV, ready to fight each other.
I grabbed the open door and started to shake it back and forth.
I wanted to slam the door shut as much as I wanted to rip the fucking thing off the SUV.
Behind me I heard something make a snap sound.
Like a tree branch cracking.
When I spun around, I had my fists ready for a war.
It was Tinsley.
Walking from the woods.
“Tinsley,” I said.
She looked at me.
And then she looked at Barr and Kip.
She ran to them, breaking down into tears.
She collapsed a few steps before them and they both picked her up.
They hugged her and looked at me.
She wasn’t missing… but I still lost her.
Chapter 20
Barr pointed to the tea kettle on the stove as it let out a weak whine.
I nodded to him.
He poured the boiling water into a white mug and then carried the mug to the counter behind him.
On the other side of that counter, Tinsley sat bundled up in one of my hoodies, Kip sitting next to her, his hand gently rising and falling along her back.
I put my back against the fridge and waited as patiently as I could.
“It’s okay, love,” Barr said. “We’re here. We’re not going anywhere.”
Tinsley glared at me then looked down at her steaming cup of tea.
“But we do need to know what happened, girl,” Kip said.
Kip drove Tinsley back to the guesthouse. She had been curled up in the front seat and refused to talk.
Not that I could blame her.
The entire situation had to have been scary.
Even though it wasn’t the first time Cole went after Tinsley.
Last time he pulled this kind of stunt, he made it seem as though it were us… the Rulz… threatening her.
I reminded myself to stay calm and let Tinsley talk.
“I don’t even know what happened,” she said. “It was just so fast. I was driving down the street. I was going to go visit Claire. I wanted to thank her for helping Pres…” Tinsley looked at me again and then looked away. “I wanted to get some advice from her. Just life stuff. Girl stuff.”
Advice from the woman who has no problem fucking a married man whose wife is home dying?
“What happened when you were driving, love?” Barr asked.
I hated seeing Tinsley so afraid. It was my job to make her feel safe. To make her feel comfortable. To make her feel loved. The kind of love that made all her worries and fears go away.
And I had fucked that up with one comment.
Truth or not, it didn’t matter.
My words were more powerful than anything my fists had ever done to someone.
“This SUV came up on me,” Tinsley said. “Really fast. I thought it was Pres. Thought he was trying to do something stupid.” She looked at me again. “But it wasn’t Pres. And when I realized it… it was too late. They were along side of me and they wanted to run me off the road. So I slammed on my brakes and pulled over. I climbed across the seat and opened the passenger door and ran. I thought about everything that had been happening. And everything that had happened before. You know?”
“You did awesome, girl,” Kip said. “That was a genius move.”
“I ran into the woods,” she said. “One of them came after me. Doe? Don? Maybe…”
“Ado,” I said.
“Yeah,” she said. “Him. One of them yelled ‘Go get her, Ado!’ and I ran faster. I could hear him coming after me too. The sound of his steps in the woods.”
“You’re a smart one,” Barr said. “Damn, love. So smart.”
“Yeah right,” Tinsley said. “I didn’t know what to do then. I heard his footsteps go away. Like fade away. You know? And then I just stood there and waited. I thought I heard your voices. All three…” Her eyes met mine again and she looked so beautiful and sad. “That’s when I knew I had to risk it. I had to come out of the woods. I didn’t want you to think I was hurt or taken or some kind of crazy thing.”
Tinsley started to cry again and Kip slid an arm around her.
He pulled her close.
I pushed from the fridge and walked to the counter.
I put my hands on the counter and eased them toward Tinsley’s.
“Look, sugar, that won’t happen again,” I said. “Cole is trying to take a stand. He’s doing this outside of BC. He thinks he can take over. He’s a dead man no matter what happens here. The truth is, he wants Claire.”
“Claire?” Tinsley asked, finally addressing me.
“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t know what her deal is but she’s into some really dark stuff, Tinsley. I don’t want you near her. I’m sorry if that pisses you off. My guess is it has to do with the same shit that almost killed your mother and almost killed your best friend.”
Tinsley shut her eyes.
My fingertips grazed her hands but she pulled them away.
Her eyes popped open and she looked at Barr.
“Can you do something for me?” she asked.
“What’s that, love?” Barr asked.
“Play piano for me.”
“What?”
“I need to calm down. I can’t do that here.”
“Take her to the house,” Kip said.
Barr looked at me for approval.
There was no approval needed.
Tinsley was going to do whatever she wanted. And she was going to take stabs at my heart in any way possible.
“I’ll stay here,” Kip said. “Figure this out with Pres.”
“Okay then,” Barr said. “Come on, love. Let’s go for a walk together.”
Tinsley made it a point to grab Barr’s hand too on the way out the door.
I turned and reached for one of the cabinets, knowing where the booze was.
Kip was there a second later, his hand shutting the door.
I looked at him. “You ready to fight again?”
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“Getting a fucking drink.”
“No you’re not, Pres. You need to be clearheaded right now. You think you’re losing her? If she wanted to be gone, she’d be gone. She’s fucking torturing you on purpose. To see how long until you break. To see if you really do love her the way you say you do. What do you think is going to happen in there? You think she’s going to try to put a move on Barr? You think he’s going to let her? We all love Tinsley. We all promised to protect her. But when it comes to her heart, it’s yours, Pres. Always has been. Now let’s figure this fucking shit out.”
“What I said to her…”
“Heat of the moment.”
“Honesty.”
Kip stepped back. “Honesty? You really think that, Pres? You’re really going to let your father’s words do this? Think about your mother. Do you think she wanted you there for that? Or do you think she would want you with the girl you love, helping her, protecting her, showing her what a real person does for someone they love?” Kip shook his head. “Maybe you should have a drink or two. Bury yourself in a bottle. Barr and I will take care of this mess. I have no fucking clue where your balls went, Pres. Tinsley sure as fuck didn’t take them.”
Kip left the guesthouse.
I was alone again.
I looked down at my hands. Swollen knuckles and scabbed cuts were evidence of what happened last time I was alone.
My eyes lifted to the bottles in the cabinet.
I slammed the door shut and gritted my teeth.
Kip was right.
About Barr. About everything.
But there was one catch.
If I didn’t make it back from this, one of them needed to love Tinsley the way she deserved.
* * *
I opened the door to Kip’s house and heard the soft sound of the piano playing.
Through the large open floor plan I followed the classical music until I saw Barr sitting at the piano, his back to a corner consisting of a wall and another wall of windows. Kip was there too. Arms crossed, staring out one of the windows.
Tinsley was on the floor, curled up, sound asleep.
Barr looked at me and nodded.
I made a cutting gesture at my neck and he stopped playing.
He carefully stepped over Tinsley and smacked Kip’s arms, getting his full attention.
They both walked to me.
“Can’t take her to the guesthouse,” I whispered. “What about a couch, Kip?”
“She’s fine here,” Kip said. “Safe too. I’ll make sure of it. Someone will watch the room. I’ll tell them she had too much to drink and I don’t want her leaving. It’ll be fine.”
“I’ll move her,” Barr said.
My right hand shot out and I grabbed Barr by the shirt.
I pulled him toward me. “The fuck you will. You put your hands on Tinsley ever again and I’ll break both your hands so bad you’ll never play piano again.”
Barr grinned. “Glad to see you’re back.”
I pushed him away and went to Tinsley.
I dropped to one knee next to her and carefully slid my hands under her body. As I lifted her, I brought her body close to me. For a second, I shut my eyes, remembering just how right it all felt. Not that I ever had a moment of doubt of what Tinsley meant to me, but carrying her through that room made it very clear who I was and who she was to me.
As I placed her down on the couch, I leaned into her.
I buried my face into her neck and took a deep breath, smelling her hair and skin.
“I love you, sugar,” I whispered. “I’m going to fix everything. Because you are everything to me.”
When I started to pull away, Tinsley wrapped her arms around me and hugged me.
Her eyes were still shut so I had no idea who she thought she was hugging, but it was something.
I stood up and nodded to Barr and Kip.
We walked from the room to the front door.
“What’s the plan?” Kip asked me.
“Not sure,” I said. “Maybe do what I should have done at the beginning. Call Cole. Meet up with him. And beat him until he thinks he’s going to die.”
“Works for me,” Barr said. He stuck an unlit cigarette between his lips.
“I’m in,” Kip said. “And if we play this right, we can get in touch with Mac. Let him know what’s happening and that we took care of Cole. I’m sure he’ll want Cole and the others to handle their way too.”
“Then that’s what we do,” I said. “Track down Cole. Head right into BC if we have to. That would send one hell of a message.”
Kip elbowed Barr. “You good with that?”
“What the fuck do I care?” Barr asked.
“You know who’s still there…”
Barr curled his lip.
“Let’s get out of here first,” I said. “Let Tinsley get some sleep. I don’t want her to get involved any more than she is.”
“Too late,” a groggy voice said from behind me.
I spun around and Tinsley stood a few feet away, swimming in my hoodie, looking still half asleep but like a total badass.
“Sugar…”
“Don’t fuck this up more than you already have, Pres,” she said. “Wherever you three go, I’m going with you. I’m not going to be left alone.”
I stepped toward her. Towering over her. “If that’s what you want to do, then you’re going to listen to everything I say to do. Understand?”
“Oh, I hear everything you say, Pres,” she threw back at me.
I opened my mouth to throw something back at her when her phone started to ring.
She put up her pointer finger and slowly turned away to take the call.
I made fists, I had never felt so pissed off yet in love at the same time.
I didn’t need to worry about BC or any other bullshit stuff at BFH or in the world… Tinsley was going to be the actual death of me.
Her beauty. Her heart. Her attitude.
Hearing her scream WHAT?! snapped me out of my romantic trance.
She then spun back around and had tears in her eyes again.
“What is it now, sugar?” I asked.
“Someone is at Claire’s…”
* * *
Claire sat at the counter with a glass of wine that looked like it could hold the entire goddamn bottle. She was calm and almost radiant as she sat there. Next to her was Ado. And he had a gun on the counter. I pushed Tinsley behind me at the sight of the weapon.
“I have a visitor tonight,” Claire said. “This cute little thing with a gun.”
I walked behind the counter and stared at Ado.
He made no move to grab the gun.
Barr and Kip made sure to keep Tinsley behind them too.
She hated that, pushing her way to be seen.
Which I fucking hated.
“Sorry to bother you,” Claire said. “Didn’t want to get Tinsley scared.”
“What is this?” Tinsley asked. “Why are you so calm?”
“He’s not going to hurt anyone,” Claire said.
“That’s not my plan,” Ado said.
“Then what do you want?” I asked.
“To try and figure this out,” he said. “Cole is out of his element, man. Way out of it. Thinking he could make a play that was never there.”
“And you went along with it,” Barr said.
“As far as I could,” Ado said. “I’m not worried about me. I don’t want Cole to hurt anyone. Threatening you was one thing. I liked the idea of making the Rulz nervous. And no offense, but Pres having a girlfriend made it easy.”
“You threatened Tinsley?” Claire asked.
“They tried to kill me,” Tinsley said. “They tried to run me off the road!”
“Pieces of shit,” Kip growled.
“Wait a second,” Ado said. “Cole wanted to do more than that. I convinced him that we could grab her. And if we did, I was going to get her out of there. When she pulled over and jumped out, I went after her. Not to hurt her. I wanted to help her. Get her to safety. But I couldn’t find her. So I shot Cole a text and told him I was going to keep looking. He took off with Bain and I came here.”
“With a gun,” I said.
“It’s on the counter, man. I’m not going to do anything fucking crazy here. I want out of this shit.”
“Why even do it to begin with?” Barr asked.
“Already told you,” Ado said. “We wanted to push at you guys. Scare you a little. Then take it to Mac and see what he wanted us to do. Show that we had force.”
“Cole wants to break away,” I said. “Or overrun Mac.”
“That I didn’t know at first,” Ado said. “So I thought if I could get to you guys I could take it to Mac myself.”
“You’re just a fucking rat all around then,” Kip said.
“The worst kind,” Claire said. She sipped her wine. “The rat who rats and then rats on who he ratted on.”
“Why are you so calm?” Tinsley asked Claire again.
But in a way we all knew why.
We all knew Claire was deep in some kind of dark life. And the less we knew, the better.
It was the reason why Tinsley didn’t live with Claire.
Too dangerous.
“So what’s our plan, Ado?” I asked.
“Cole went back to BC to check in with Mac,” Ado said. “Just to keep up appearances. Then he’s coming full force with Bain. He knows he fucked up by listening to me and not being able to grab Tinsley. So his next play is here with Claire. He’ll do it himself. Then come after you hard. Or try to convince Mac to do it.”
“And we’re just all fucking best friends now?” Barr asked.
“I could have been hurt,” Tinsley said. “You were coming after me.”
“I couldn’t say why,” Ado said.
“Let’s just wrap this thing up,” Claire said. “Make your plans and go.”
I walked around the counter and Ado stood up tall.
I didn’t hesitate as I punched him.
He fell into the counter and Barr quickly slid the gun down the counter, out of his reach.
I hit him two more times, sending him to the floor.
“You know what that was for,” I said.
Claire stood up and kicked her right foot right against his ribs.
Ado cried out in pain.
“You know what that was for,” she said with a smirk.
I looked at Tinsley.
She shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“If you’re fucking around right now, Ado, I will put you in the ocean,” I said. “For good.”
Ado wiped his mouth and grabbed for his ribs. “I’m not fucking around.”
I walked away from him and exited the kitchen.
Barr, Kip, and Tinsley were hot after me.
“Pres,” Barr said.
“Wait up,” Kip said.
I didn’t wait up.
Once I was outside, Tinsley caught up and grabbed my hand.
That got me to stop.
Both of her hands squeezing my right hand.
“Pres,” she whispered.
“Sugar,” I said.
“Where are we going now?”
There was only one place to go now.
It was time to go visit BC and end this for good.
Chapter 21
There was no building for BC. There was a campus. A massive campus at that. Building after building, each one looking a brittle, red color with a black tin roof, almost like an old haunted hospital from some cheap scary movie. Each planted tree and blade of grass was purposely put in its place to give a tough and threatening appearance. Inside the living quarters were those who would have been in jail. Except their parents had checkbooks that could write a lot of zeros at the end, which gave their little ones one last chance to keep things under control before entering the real world for good.
PRES: a bay falls high novel Page 18