“He knows how you feel about this shit. He has to.” Jake shook his head. “Maybe he was staying away so you didn’t figure out what he was up to.”
“Now that would be the Lou I know.” Shane sounded wry. “It wouldn’t be the first time he tried to pull that shit. How’s Anita doing?”
“Upset. Like you’d expect.”
“She going to try to work it out?”
“Nope. According to her, she’s done.”
“Well, shit.” Sad pain flickered across Shane’s expression. “They’ve been together a long time. I hate to hell that it’s ending. But you know I’ve got to ask, Jake.”
One of Jake’s eyebrows went up. “Ask what?”
“You two sleep together?” Shane leveled an even stare, one that didn’t brook any bullshit.
Jake stared right back. “No.”
“I can smell her on you, even from here.”
“I said no, Shane. Won’t say we didn’t think about it, but she wanted to square things away in her head and with Lou. Wouldn’t have been respectful to him, to her, or to you otherwise.” Jake didn’t look away. Now, he was glad they’d listened to their better judgement. He could meet his alpha’s eyes without a flinch.
After a moment, Shane nodded. “All right. I believe you. Though you do smell like her.”
“We heard that pack of Ferals you ran down last night. Woke her up and scared her. So I told her to come sleep in my bed with me.” He quirked a small smile. “Guess that means we did technically sleep together, but it wasn’t more than that.”
Shane gave a grim chuckle. “Guess you did. Honestly, Jake, I couldn’t say ‘boo’ if you two did hook up. Lou started it. However she wants to end it is her business. I shouldn’t even have asked, but... Just want to make sure I have all the information. You’ve got to know I’m worried.”
“Oh, I know.” Jake folded his arms over his chest. “Lou takes this the wrong way, and we’re out not just our mechanic, but the best mechanic in town. I’m not putting it around about how she stayed here last night, if that makes you feel any better.”
“It does.” Shane’s lips set into a thin line. “If she’s leaving him, I can’t blame her for it. You two get together, then I hope you’ll both be happier than they were. But let’s be smart about it. Lou fucked up. He can sit on that and spin. I just don’t want the pack to end up as collateral damage.”
“I get it.” Jake eyed his alpha. “So it’s said, I’m not too fond of dancing around his temper like this.”
Another frown. “Neither am I. It bothers me that I’m not sure I could trust our friendship to keep him from taking this out on us. Until now, I hadn’t needed to think about it. Now that I do? Maybe you’re right, Jake. People change.”
“People change,” Jake echoed. “Sucks, but there it is.”
“Either way, he’s going to call me about it eventually. Probably after Anita tells him they’re through. I’ll have a word with him. See if maybe the old Lou’s still in that thick skull.” Shane straightened. “Nicole wanted to go to breakfast. Lunch, now. I told her we ought to swing by and see if you wanted to go along.”
“Thanks, but I think I’d better not.” Jake glanced toward the blonde. She hadn’t spared either man a glance since she’d pulled out her phone. “You even slept since last night?”
“No. When I got in, she wanted food, then she wanted to go by Lou’s garage to check on her bike. He’s working the engine over. She’s really excited about it. I’m pretty sure she goes by Lou’s place more than I do. Every time I see her, she smells like the place.” Shane chuckled. “Guess that’s fair. I smell like bike all the time.”
Jake suppressed his irritation. The Bullies had fought hard last night, he knew, and Nicole had dragged Shane out without any sleep. “He’s had her damn bike a while, hasn’t he?”
“Had to order parts.”
“Ah.” Jake let it drop. “Everyone okay after last night?”
“No wounds, all Ferals we found are dead. Travis’s bike sounds like hell after he drove through a prickly pear, but that shouldn’t be tough to fix. Not a bad run.” Shane picked up his helmet. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s hit the road.”
“Great! I’m starving!” Suddenly, Nicole was all smiles. She tucked her phone into her pocket as she walked over to the bike. “See you later, Jake.”
“Have a good lunch,” he said, with a half-hearted wave. “And get some rest, Shane!”
“I’ll try,” he said. Then the bike roared to life, and the conversation ended.
Jake watched the trail of dust behind them wind toward town. He wondered if he ought to text Anita and tell her about the visit. She’s probably got enough on her mind right now. I’ll go by the bar and tell her in person later. Then I can make sure Lou didn’t get out of hand when she told him to get lost.
By the time she got home again, Lou should have long since left for the garage. Yet his distinct muscle car, emblazoned with the garage’s logo and information, sat in the driveway when she arrived. Her stomach knotted. She’d intended to pack the first batch of her belongings and have them loaded in her truck by the time he got home. Then she could have the necessary conversation and leave without more stress than necessary.
So he’ll be here. So what. This is his fault anyway, and he knows it. Irritated, Anita hopped out of the truck to go inside. He’ll beg me to stay, try to smooth it all over, then I’ll go. It will be fine, I’m sure.
Though she was less sure when she walked inside. Tension hung heavy in the air from the first squeak of the door’s hinges. Lou sat on their couch, one leg over the other, an arm extended along the back. “Where were you last night?” he asked, voice flat.
“I told you I was staying somewhere else,” she said, fighting to sound firm instead of nervous. Her keys clattered into the bowl on the front table as she tossed them out of habit.
“You told me you were going to Linda’s. Or to a motel.” Lou didn’t move. He followed her with his gaze as she walked across the room. “Linda says you didn’t stay there last night. And your truck wasn’t at any of the motels around town.”
Her nerves prickled again. She turned to go into the bedroom. “You were checking up on me?”
“You’re my wife. Of course I was checking on you. Don’t fucking leave the room when I’m talking to you, Anita,” he snarled.
She paused in the bedroom doorway. Maybe I should go. “I’m not your wife, Lou. Did you forget? I told you yesterday. We’re over.”
“We’re not over. I won’t accept that.” The couch creaked as he stood up. “You’re my wife. You think I’m giving up that easy?”
“You got into someone else’s bed that easy. Cheated on me like I didn’t mean anything to you.”
“So what? So I got my dick wet. It was a mistake. Do you really want to throw away everything we’ve got over that?” He crossed his arms over his chest, defiant in the face of her indignation. A dominant stance.
She stepped back into the living room, in a place with a clear path to the door. “I’m not the one who threw it away. You did that. But I’m not even mad anymore. I just want to be done. We should have called it quits a long time ago.”
“You just want to be done. What about what I want?”
“It seems to me it’s always been about what you want.” She lifted her left hand to show the ring, and pointed at it with her right. “You wanted everyone to see you could buy me a big ring. So I wore it. You wanted to start a garage. I spent the money my grandmother left me so you could. You wanted that car for ‘advertising’. I picked up a job to help with the payments. You wanted a girl you weren’t married to? Fine. You have her. But now, I’m getting what I want. I’m moving on.”
With quick steps, she headed for the door. Her fingers had barely touched her keys in the bowl when she heard him say, “Does what you want include a little revenge? Making me explain why my wife fucked one of my friends last night?”
She froze. “What?”
“Oh, yeah, I know about last night. My phone’s been blowing up with messages the last hour or so.” When she looked at him, she could see the fiery temper burning in his eyes. His expression had turned hard. “The whole fucking town knows who I am. What I do. So you think they’re not going to tell me when you whore off with one of the Bullies, and ask me what the hell?”
In the last hour? Just after I left Jake’s. But he said he’d keep it quiet… She took a deep breath. “Maybe you should have told them the truth. You cheated. I left you. It’s none of their business. I can’t feel sorry for you if that makes you look like an asshole.”
“Fortunately, I don’t have to.” His smirk twisted his lips. “See, I told people you wouldn’t do that to me. They believe me. Know why? Because I’m important in this town. They’ll keep right on believing me, no matter what I tell them next. I tell them it’s all a misunderstanding? This will go away. I tell them you fucked one of the pack? You’re not gonna be real popular around here. And neither will your boytoy.”
Shock and anger quickened her pulse. Her vision tunneled until all she could see was Lou’s warped, unpleasant smile and smoldering eyes. She had no doubt he would follow through on that threat. And Jake… Jake, who’d already lost a pack, who’d lost everything in the Los Angeles tragedy and had found life again here, would discover his new home had turned against him.
She licked her dry lips. “Are you listening to yourself right now? A couple minutes ago, you were begging me to stay. Why would I want to stay with you now?”
“Because you’ve got nowhere else to go.” He took a step forward. She took a step back. “This can go down a few ways, baby. You know I don’t like to lose. So you stay. We keep right on as we are. Maybe we even give a try to fixing this shit we’ve got ourselves in. You and me, husband and wife.”
“And your girl on the side?”
“I drop her. It was a fling. She goes away, you tell me who you fucked last night, and he goes away, too.” His tone remained casual, but she could hear the menace in it. “That’s the easy way. Otherwise? I ruin you in this town. Anytime you try to say I cheated, anytime you try to make me look bad? People will chalk it up to you trying to save your own skin. Who are they going to believe? A waitress? Or the man who keeps the Bullies on the road, who was wronged by his slut of a wife?”
She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “Scandals blow over, Lou. This isn’t high school.”
“And I’ve heard the Ferals are closing in on town,” he continued, as if she hadn’t said a word to interrupt him. “It would be a damn shame if I had to stop fixing up the Bullies’ bikes, wouldn’t it? Because I can’t trust them not to drive all over me. They fucked my wife. Who’s to say they wouldn’t keep right on fucking me over? Sure, they could find someone else to work on their bikes. Maybe. Maybe, no one wants to take the chance those dogs will fuck them over, too. If they don’t have bikes, they can’t chase down Ferals…” He rolled his hand to indicate how that thought snowballed.
“You would endanger the entire town because you can’t have what you want?” She stared at him, aghast.
He shook his head. “No. They wouldn’t let it go that far. They’ll serve me up your boytoy’s head on a fucking platter to keep it from happening. Because when it comes right down to it, baby, I matter here. And you are nothing without me. So let’s play nice with each other. It’s not so bad.”
Anita stared at him, aghast. A tempest of rage and fear churned through her, until her thoughts gusted helplessly around in her mind. She’d loved him. He’d loved her, or so she’d once thought. Now he frightened her by standing in the same house, and she wondered what had become of the man she’d known. How he had come to this. If he would hit her if she didn’t do as he told her.
When she opened her mouth, she intended to give him a calm reply, but what came out instead was, “How did I ever love you? How did I not know that, deep down, you were an arrogant boy? Stay away from me. Expect to hear from my attorney. You say I’m nothing without you? I say I’m nothing with you. I’ll come back for my shit later. I can’t stand the sight of you right now.”
A slow, ugly sneer spread across Lou’s face. Angry, he stalked two steps forward to snatch her truck keys out of the bowl. “You think you’re leaving me? Let’s see how far you get without that truck. It’s mine. You try to take it, I’ll have the cops on your ass faster than you can blink.”
“Yeah, you’re a big man,” she said. “I remember a time when you said a man handles his own problems, and doesn’t get the cops involved. Guess your balls shriveled up and dropped off. Maybe your side chick keeps them in a jar on her bedside table.”
He started to reply, but his phone chimed in his pocket. His searing gaze didn’t leave her as he pulled the device out of his pocket and glanced at the display. “And I remember a time when you were worth fucking,” he said, distracted as he read. “Seems I got some business at the garage I need to handle. Today’s awful busy thanks to you, baby. Go ahead and take whatever you can carry. Just don’t get real attached to anything you leave behind.”
“Don’t do anything you’ll regret, Lou,” she warned.
“Ain’t no such animal,” he said, with the last, vicious smile. “Only things I’ll regret not doing. And we can’t have that, can we?”
She stood there and stewed in her indignation as he disappeared out the door. When the latch clicked closed, she rushed forward to turn the deadbolt and slip the chain latch on the door so he couldn’t surprise her with an unexpected return. Ever since they’d met, she’d known he had a regrettable temper. Rash decisions made in the heat of fury had earned him a short stint in prison before they’d gotten married. He’d sworn he’d changed, changed because of his love for her, and she’d swallowed it, hook and all. All these years, she’d believed he would never turn that nasty temper on her. He’d never given her cause to doubt that.
Until now. Fuck me, I was a young idiot. Adrenaline came in a rush with the realization. She hurried to the bedroom to shove more clothes into her backpack, as well as a duffel bag she found crammed in the back of the closet. Thoughts spun as she stuffed necessities into her bags. Get yourself together. So what if he tells people I slept with someone. There’ll be some loose talk. But there always is, in small towns. It usually blows over.
Usually. No one who’d lived in Coyote Trail a few years ago would forget Debbie Dawson. A sweet woman, and a kind one, but she’d made the wrong mistake with the wrong neighbor. The situation had escalated to such nasty proportions that Debbie had packed up her stuff to disappear overnight. Those in the know said she’d moved out to live with her sister in Laughlin rather than deal with the repercussions she’d found in Coyote Trail.
Everyone knows everyone else’s business. And everyone thinks it’s their job to be judge, jury, and executioner when they think someone’s done wrong. Doesn’t matter if others have already done a good enough job of handling it. We’ve got to keep piling on while we tell ourselves it’s only fair our voices be heard, too.
That won’t happen with me. Anita told herself that, and tried to believe it. Lou had a lot of sway in these parts, but not as much as he liked to believe he did. She had plenty of her own friends, not to mention a cachet of positive associations from years as Lou’s better half. It would insulate her from the worst, she hoped. But Jake…
The new kid in town. A Bully, but a recent one. He hadn’t built up enough personal goodwill with the town to protect him like the others. What if Shane decided Jake wasn’t worth the trouble? Or worse, if Shane got angry on his friend Lou’s behalf? Anita dug her cell phone out of her pocket to make a call, but Jake’s line went straight to voice mail. “It’s Jake. Leave a message.”
“Hey, Jake? It’s Anita. Ah, things have gotten strange. Give me a call when you can.”
She hung up, and went back to packing. Some of her clothes were in the hamper. Others, she’d tossed on the floor while dressing. As she collected them, she found a pair of
panties she didn’t recognize. Pretty, silk boyshorts, teal blue with lace accents. One of her eyebrows went up. In her mind, she saw the winky smile at the end of the text. I’ll wear your favorite panties. Winky smile. If these are the favorites, I have to say, Lou has good taste. They probably cost a bundle. She tossed them on the floor.
Inspired, she took a bit more time than she wanted to search through Lou’s belongings, and the house, to find any clues that might point her toward Lou’s mistress. Not that Anita cared to play dirty pool, but if Lou wanted information warfare, she needed ammunition to defend herself with. Nothing. She wondered if the woman had left the panties on purpose, as a message to Anita. So much for her inspiration. She went back to her preparations.
Then, she had no more room in her packs. Her grandmother’s decorative plates stared down at her from the walls with silent accusation. It broke her heart to leave them where Lou might destroy them. He knew how much they meant to her, the few tangible reminders of the woman who’d done her best to counteract the damage Anita’s mother did every day. And she’d tell you to leave them here, because clothes will do you more good. Don’t borrow trouble that hasn’t happened yet. Lou may yet leave them alone.
Still. She took them down and hid them in a box of old porn magazines from the Nineties that had taken up space in the closet forever. Lou hadn’t looked in it since the internet put porn in easy reach. Tomorrow, she’d come back with the police in tow so she could get anything else she wanted.
Bright sunlight baked down on her as headed out of the house. As a final insult, Lou had taken the truck instead of his own muscle car. The lack of vehicle would leave her sunburned, sweaty, and late for work. She put in a call to the Hungry Howler.
“Hungry Howler, this is Bill.” The owner answered the phone himself.
“Hey, Bill, it’s Anita,” she said. “I’ve got some vehicle troubles, so I’m going to be late for my shift. I need to find a ride, or call a cab, but that’ll take time.”
Dare the Wolf: A Bully Boys Novel of Paranormal Romance Page 4