TWICE SHY (A SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE)

by Ivy Spears

  I was just starting to calm down again when I felt something hard and square between the seats of Asher’s truck. It wasn’t until I had a good grip on it and pulled my hand back up that I realized what it was.

  A nine-millimeter.

  I jumped back, startled. A gun! What the hell was Asher doing with a gun in his car? I looked back up at the door to where Asher was standing with Paul and one of his sons now. All three of them were looking down at me and Asher was waving me forward.

  But, still, something felt wrong.

  Something felt off.

  I didn’t want to be here anymore and I really didn’t want Asher to be here anymore. I shook my head and tried to wave Asher back to the car, trying to get him out of there. This was something we needed to let the cops handle, even if it would cause extra drama.

  Asher squinted his eyes, struggling to see me in the sun and kept waving to me, putting his hands over his head now, wanting me to come forward.

  I sighed and opened the door, jumping down and slamming it shut behind me before I smoothed out my jeans and took a few steps toward the house.

  But not before I grabbed the gun and shoved it into my sweater pocket.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The inside of the house smelled like stale trees and old pizza. There was cheerios, soda bottles, and a flood of other trash all over the kitchen counter and table. A sink full of dishes overflowed the sink and empty cardboard boxes overwhelmed the floor.

  The house didn't look good, in other words.

  The whole scene depressed me and I felt even worse about being there than I did back in the car. But now that I was inside I wasn’t turning back. I was going to find out what had happened to my dad or I was gong to go down in flames trying.

  “If I had known we were going to have company I would have cleaned up a little bit.” Paul said as he pushed a bunch of newspapers off one of the kitchen chairs.

  His son laughed. “Who are you trying to fool?”

  “You remember Trevor, right Asher? Always a charmer.” He looked back at us but the toothy grin on his face faded when he saw Asher’s stone expression. “Although, sometimes tells me this isn’t a social call.”

  “You remember Bella Reynolds, don’t you, Paul?” Asher asked him, looking over at me instead of answering his question. “She just got back into town a few nights ago.”

  Paul looked at me. “Sure, sure I do. I was sorry to hear about your dad.”

  “Were you?” The words were out of my mouth before I had a chance to question them. I knew I was coming off as a bitch but I didn’t care. Suddenly, I didn’t care about much. So what if I had a bad feeling? Having a bad feeling didn’t necessarily mean that we had the wrong guy, maybe it meant we had the right one.

  I felt Asher’s hand wrap around mine, reminding me he was there.

  “What’s going on here, dad?” Trevor asked, his eyes growing suspicious.

  “What do you know about a red Chevy pick up, Paul?” Asher ran his fingers back and forth over mine a few times and then he dropped my hand, turning his body toward Paul and his son.

  Paul glanced at his son. “What’s this about, Asher?”

  “Just answer the question, Paul.” Asher wasn’t yelling or anything but his voice was serious, business like and laced with a deep chill that almost made the whole thing creepier.

  “It’s Trevor’s truck. It’s in the shop right now, he hit a deer coming home from work a few nights ago.” He moved closer to his son, crossing his arms over his chest. “Do you mind telling me what this is all about?”

  I looked at Trevor. His face had turned white, a worried expression washed over it. It was the kind of expression that a man would only get if he were lying about something or keeping something from someone.

  “Around what time was that?” Asher asked.

  “What are you a cop now?” Trevor snapped, breaking out of his trance.

  “If that’s what you need.” Asher took a step toward him, his fists curled up at the sides. There were few things Asher wouldn’t put up with in his life and talking back to him was one of them.

  He hated to be disrespected.

  And if he had to show you just how much he hated it then he would.

  Paul moved forward, putting a space between Asher and his son. “Someone better tell me what the hell is going on around here and fast.” He looked back and forth between the two of them, waiting for one of them to speak up.

  Trevor looked terrified and Asher just looked pissed.

  The room was so silent that I could hear the dog snoring soundly in the next room. No one was moving or saying anything, it was like we were all in a silent stand off, waiting to see who would break first.

  In the end; it was me.

  “You didn’t hit a deer the other night, did you, Trevor?” I moved closer to him, searching his eyes for any type of regret or sadness. “You hit something else.” I was hoping he would break down, cry, or yell. Do something that would make me feel a fraction of a bit better. To show me that he was feeling even a tiny bit as shitty as I did.

  But I got nothing.

  His eyes looked dead. Like there was nothing behind them. He wasn’t sorry or upset. He wasn’t anything. He was just indifferent. He looked scared, sure, but not the kind of scared that came with pain or guilt.

  No, it was the kind of scared that came with getting caught. The kind of scared that came with the consequences of your actions, especially when they were shitty ones. Trevor Ryan didn’t give a fuck about my dad, he only gave a fuck about himself.

  “You didn’t hit a deer, did you?” I asked him again, louder this time. “You hit something else.” I moved closer to him, letting the tears that were building up behind my eyes came to an overflow. “Say it, I want to hear you say it.”

  “What is she talking about, Trevor?” His father looked confused.

  Trevor looked back and forth between the two of us, shaking his head. “I don’t know, she’s crazy, look at her, she’s barely keeping it together. I hit a deer on my way home from work the other night, lady, end of story.” He forced a laugh, still trying to play dumb.

  “No!” I yelled, shaking my head. “You hit my dad! You were drunk and you ran a red light and rammed into his car! And then you left him there to die!”

  Paul looked stunned. “Now, just wait a minute…”

  “It’s true, Paul,” Asher told him. “We saw the truck.”

  “You didn’t see shit!” Trevor yelled. “Because I didn’t do shit!”

  “Yes, you did,” I whispered. “You crashed into my dad and then you left him on the side of the road like he was a piece of trash, like he didn’t even matter.” The more I said the words out loud the deeper they sank into my mind, reminding me just how true they really were.

  “Look,” Paul said, shaking his head back and forth with sadness. “I’m sorry about your father, I really am, but blaming my son isn’t going to do you any good. He didn’t have anything to do with this… I think it’s best if you all get on your way now.”

  Trevor nodded after his father, still not owning up to anything. “Yeah, I think you should get the hell out of here before we call the cops on your crazy ass’s!”

  “Trevor,” Paul Ryan said sternly. “I’ll take care of this.”

  Asher looked back and forth between the two of them and for a second I was sure he was going to flip out, grab one of them by the neck and throw them up against the wall ringing their neck until they told us what had happened that night.

  I knew he was capable of getting anything out of anyone. All I had to do was think about what he had done to Lance that night. The look on his face when he had been pounding his face into the ground had been intensely scary. Not an ounce of remorse or ability to stop written anywhere on it.

  But after a few more seconds he just shook his head and started to move backwards. “This isn’t over, Paul. I hate to tell you but it hasn’t even started yet. We came over here to give you the benefit of t
he doubt but it’s clear you guys are hiding something and if you aren’t going to tell us what it is then maybe you’ll tell the cops.”

  Asher moved toward me and guided my body toward the door, trying to get me out of there before Paul or Trevor could say anything in return. But my body went numb, it was like my feet were stuck in place, unable to move no matter how much my brain told them to. I felt completely paralyzed, if I tried to move it would make me fall flat on my face and I knew it.

  “It’s time for you to go!” Paul said, anger inching into his tone now.

  Trevor forced a laugh, trying to come off like he wasn’t scared but I could hear the underlining fear. “What do you think the cops are going to do? Arrest me for a crime I never committed? Get real, dude.”

  Asher swung around and moved toward Trevor, taking him by the throat before Paul even had a chance to react. “Who the fuck do you think you’re calling dude?” He pushed his hands further and further into his throat, his face turning red with anger.

  Paul tried to jump on Asher’s back, desperate to pull him off of his son but it was no use, Asher was in a rage and way too strong for Paul and Trevor to fight off.

  Asher released Trevor after a few seconds and pushed him into the kitchen table, causing him to stumble all over the place. “You’re a fucking punk and the only thing that’s going to snap you out of it is a good kick to the head.”

  Trevor struggled to regain his breath. “You’re lucky my dad pulled you off of me.” He was keeping up a deep front but I could see the fear in his eyes, he knew Asher could kill him in a matter of seconds if he really wanted to.

  And I knew it, too. But I also knew Asher wouldn’t. He wasn’t out to kill Trevor he just wanted to scare him enough to own up to what he had done, he just wanted him to learn a lesson.

  “Don’t kid yourself,” Asher was still seething.

  I knew we had to leave, I knew we had to go and call the cops and tell them what we knew. But, somehow, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t bring myself to walk out of there without having answers. This kid wasn’t going to admit what he had done anytime soon that much was clear. What if my dad never got any justice?

  All I wanted was the truth. Was that so much to ask for?

  Asher was breathing heavily, trying to calm down the beating in his chest. I looked at him, he was so handsome even when he was mad. I cared about him so much. He didn’t have to take on this fight with me, he hadn’t had to come and make all of this his problem, too.

  He had done it because he cared about me.

  And we had come too close to not get answers now.

  I didn’t know what was going to happen but I knew I wasn’t going anywhere until everything that had been done in the darkness that night came into the light. I reached into the pocket of my sweater and held onto the handle of the gun tightly, turning it back and forth over and over in my hands. I’d never held a gun before today, never even shot one, but just the knowledge that it was so close made me feel powerful.

  “You need to go! Now!” Paul yelled. “Before I call the sheriff.”

  I looked around the room, taking in everyone’s scattered expressions, and then I closed my eyes and brought the gun out of my pocket and pointed it right at Trevor. “No one is going anywhere.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Bella!” Asher sounded stunned. “Where the hell did you get that?”

  “You know where I got it, Asher!” I shook the barrel of the gun up and down carelessly. “I got it from your truck! What are you doing with a gun, anyway, Asher? Are you planning on doing something you aren’t telling me about?”

  The cocky and sure of himself look was gone from Trevor’s face for the first time since we walked in the door. “Look, Ms. Reynolds, you got it all wrong, I swear.”

  “Oh, so it’s Ms. Reynolds now? I’m not so crazy anymore is that it?” I moved closer to him, pointing the gun at his chest. “Shut up! You’re done talking! Now I’m going to be the one doing the talking! And the only thing I want to hear out of your mouth is what happened the night you hit my father and left him there to fucking die!”

  It was too late for him to be polite, I already knew what a little shit he was. He wanted to act like he hadn’t been laughing in our faces since the second we walked in. Well, it was a little late for that now.

  “Bella,” Asher moved behind me. “Listen to me, you don’t want to do this.” He put his hands on my shoulders and tried to move me away from Trevor.

  “Asher,” Paul’s voice was clipped, worried.

  “Just shut up, Paul,” Asher warned him. “Bella, listen to me…”

  “You’re right,” I told him between tears. “I don’t want to do this but I have to, it’s the only way to find out what really happened to my father.” I dodged toward Trevor and stuck the gun into his chest. “TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FATHER!”

  Paul made a move toward me but I stopped and turned the gun on him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He froze in his tracks, helpless. I knew I was being crazy, I felt it, but what did I have to lose anymore? Asher. Asher was what I had to lose, a voice reminded me.

  “Please, don’t do this,” Paul told me. “Don’t hurt my son.”

  “No one is hurting anyone.” Asher was next to me, his hands on my arms. “Bella, listen to me. I want you to give me the gun, I want you to give me the gun right now.”

  I could hear him and I knew what he was saying made sense but I felt frozen in place, unable to move my hands in his direction. A part of my soul was refusing to let me do the right thing until I found out the truth about the wrong things.

  “No, not until he tells the truth,” I whispered.

  “Bella,” Asher told me. “Look at me, look right at me, nowhere else, okay? I promise you that he will pay for this, he won’t get away with what he did, but not like this, okay? Not at the cost of you throwing away your life too.” He pushed a piece of hair behind my ear. “I can’t let you do that.”

  “You can’t?” I asked, still crying.

  He shook his head. “I need you too much.”

  The words sunk into my soul, snapping me out of my trance and soon I was letting Asher take the gun out of my hands. He emptied the bullets out onto the table and sighed in relief, pulling me into his chest and holding me tight. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again, do you understand me?”

  “I’m sorry,” I muffled into him, shaking. “I’m sorry.”

  “Shh,” he told me, petting my hair. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

  Maybe it was because the seriousness of the situation just hit him, or maybe it was because he was scared to death since I had just held a gun to his head, or maybe it was just that he felt bad that I looked like such a broken mess… but finally, Trevor cleared his throat and began to talk in a normal tone, a human tone.

  “I didn’t hit a deer, you guys are right…” He sounded too small, so worn down. When he saw the look on my face he rushed on. “I didn’t hit a deer but I didn’t hit your dad either! I swear to you!”

  “Trevor,” his father said, fearful. “Don’t say another word!”

  “No, dad, I didn’t… I didn’t hit him! I swear to you!” He looked at his father and started to pace back and forth a few steps, visibly stressed. “I just… I didn’t take the truck to work that night. Me and Jeff drove into the city to check out this new club that was supposed to be off the hook…” he swallowed, looking at his dad for a reaction.

  “You did what?” Paul shook his head, looking more shocked than angry and ran his large hands over the slightly wrinkled temples of his under chin. “Oh, Trevor, go on…”

  Trevor blew out a breath, looking more like the kid he was now and not the man he had been pretending to be. “I guess we were talking to these guy's girlfriends and we didn’t know it and before we realized what was happening the truck was getting trashed… I didn’t… we paid some guy to tow it to the garage and then made up the lie about hitting a deer so you woul
dn’t flip out on take away the truck…”

  “So, that’s why you’ve been acting so guilty?” Asher asked.

  I moved away from the safety of Asher’s chest and shook my head. “But why didn’t you just say that?” I didn’t want to believe that we were back to square one when it came to my father but something about the look on Trevor’s face made me think he was telling the truth. But was he? Could he really be? We had found specs of my dad’s paint on his car…

  “I was scared of getting in trouble but I swear I wasn’t the one who hit your dad, Bella.” He looked down at the ground. “I wouldn’t just… I wouldn’t have just left him there like that without any help. I might be a fuck up but I still have a heart.”

  I looked up at Asher, wanting to read what he thought was happening. Asher was pretty good at knowing when someone was lying or not and even though a part of me was screaming he was telling the truth I wasn’t sure I could trust myself to be rational right now. I mean, a few minutes ago a part of me was screaming that he was guilty as hell.

  Paul cleared his throat loudly, shaking his head. “Asher, Bella… I’m sorry for what’s going on, really, but… just like you have things going on in your family, I have things going on in mine. I’m going to have to ask you guys to leave so I can sort this out.”

  “But… you aren’t…” I cleared my throat. “You aren’t going to call the sheriff?” It was hard to believe that a guy like Paul and a kid like Trevor wouldn’t call the cops after I had just pulled a gun on them. They had a reputation around town for being screw-ups and low on moral standards, why would they just let me walk away without taking the chance to stick it to me? The action wouldn’t match their reputation.

  Paul shook his head, an exhausted and sad look plastered on his face. “Don’t you think we’ve all been through enough pain and trouble without adding on anything else, Ms. Reynolds?”