by Jae Hood
“Why haven’t you told me about Levi Bridges?” he asked, eerily calm. “Why didn’t you call me? You should have called me the minute, no, the second he pulled you over.”
“I couldn’t call you.” Dread balled up inside my chest. “He jerked me from the car before I had the chance to do anything. I didn’t know what to do after that. I just knew that I had to get here and see you without giving away too much to my sister and Josie. They woulda never agreed to come here if they knew my true intentions. Besides, I wanted to tell you face to face. I could just imagine you getting pissed off and jumping in your car to hunt him down. That’s all I need on top of everything else going on in my life is for you to get hurt, arrested, or whatever.”
“I’ll kill him,” he said. “Josie told Bryce he threw you against the hood of the car and put his hands on you. Then he pulled a gun on her. Is that true?”
Tanner didn’t wait for me to respond. He removed my arms from his chest and flipped them over. Two long, red streaks ran up the inside of both my arms where the heat of the Jeep hood had scalded my tender skin. I tried pulling my arms away in a feeble attempt to calm him, but he held firm. Strong resolution played on his features, as though he had the calendar marked for the date and exact time Levi would die.
“You’re going to tell me everything that happened today. Then we’re leaving these woods.”
“And after that?”
“After that?” A slow, curling smile twisted on his face. “After that, I’m going to kill Levi Bridges.”
Chapter 13
I took a deep breath and released it before telling Tanner about what happened on our way to the beach. Tanner stared past me in the distance.
“Two things in this life are untouchable,” Tanner said. “Me and my family.”
Confused by his statement, I said, “I’m neither.”
“You’re both.” He grabbed my hands again, giving them an adamant squeeze. “You’re a part of me, and one day I hope you’ll become part of my family as well.”
The meaning behind his heartfelt words made my heart swell.
Images of Tanner murdering Levi played through my mind. Would he really do something like that? I was warned he wasn’t the man I thought he was, but I couldn’t imagine he would really commit such a heinous act as murder.
“You’re not really planning to kill him, are you? Maybe there’s some other way … someone we can tell about us, Levi, and Amos.”
“Who do we tell?” He shook his head with a dry chuckle. “Go to the police station and file a formal complaint against Levi? Wait, I’ve got an idea. We’ll call the FBI, because I’m sure they’ll believe anything we tell them.”
I sighed, agitated with his dry humor and the situation. “I’m just weighing any options.”
“Let me do the worrying for the both of us,” he said. “Why am I wasting the day worried about Levi Bridges when I’m alone in the woods with a gorgeous girl who’s wearing a little blue bikini?”
Tanner’s voice swept over me. His breath was minty and spicy all at once, tantalizing my skin, my heart. He drew me in closer against him, and all thoughts of Levi evaporated from my mind with his words and his touch.
Reaching up, I draped my sore arms over his shoulders and melded my lips against his. My fingers drifted from the back of his neck into his messy mop of hair. Tanner moaned as I gently tugged at the strands. The tip of his tongue teased my mouth, and I gingerly parted my lips.
“I want you.” His smooth, seductive voice washed over me like warm honey. “I want to show you how I feel inside every time I look at you, how crazy you make me feel. I want to possess every part of you like you possess my soul. I want to lay you down and worship you from the top of your head to your cute little toes.”
“You think my toes are cute?” I wiggled my toes, my heart hammering in the aftermath of his words.
“They’re perfect,” he said. “Just like you.”
I was far from perfect, but I could no longer argue. I was breathless. My face was pressed against his chest, the strum of his heartbeat singing a song I wished would never end.
Eventually we slipped out of the woods—me first, followed minutes later by Tanner. No one seemed to notice a lone girl wandering from the forest. The group of kids playing volleyball had long gone and a new group had taken their place. The beach was still crowded, yet slightly less than it had been earlier. There was no sign of the sadistic sheriff lurking anywhere around.
Josie and Bryce were nowhere to be found, but shockingly enough, I spotted my little sister sitting on the water’s edge with none other than Chance Hayes.
The two were in some sort of deep conversation. Lucy stared at her feet emerged in the water in front of her, arms wrapped around her legs. She’d turn her head occasionally, resting it on her knees while Chance spoke. Lucy continued to hold an expression of wariness and distrust, but I was happy she wasn’t attacking him.
I said Lucy’s name three times before she noticed me. The sight of her dilated pupils reminded me that she remained high. It was possibly the only reason she was giving Chance the time of day.
Chance greeted me with a lopsided grin. His presence continued to make me somewhat uneasy, but I brushed the feeling aside.
“Hey, Rue,” he greeted in a friendly tone.
“Hey, Chance. Tanner wants us to meet at the boat ramp down the highway. Where’s Josie?”
“The last time I saw them, they were sneaking off to Bryce’s truck,” Chance replied.
“Great.” Our belongings lay scattered about, abandoned for me to collect while Josie snuck around with Bryce and Lucy stared blankly at me in her weed-induced trance.
Chance surprised me by joining me in gathering our belongings, working silently by my side. He smiled at me, shaking the sand from Lucy’s towel, folding it perfectly, and slipping it inside her beach bag.
Lucy crawled over to where we worked. Chance pulled a cold bottle of water from our cooler and offered it to my sister. He twisted the cap for her when she had trouble, and she gave him a small, hesitant smile. It was odd witnessing a stranger being so kind to my sister. Hell, it was strange seeing anyone be so thoughtful to her.
Levi’s words continued to haunt me as Chance helped me lug all our belongings, and Lucy as well, to the Jeep. There were no familiar faces among the throng of adults, teens, and children, and I relaxed somewhat, hoping we wouldn’t run into anyone we knew.
“Tanner doesn’t care.” Chance helped hoist my sister into the Jeep. I bunched my brow at his remark. “He doesn’t care if we get caught,” he added, closing the door behind Lucy. “He’s just looking for an excuse to kick someone’s ass over you. That’s just Tanner. It’s his nature.”
“He doesn’t seem anything like that.”
“You only know one side of Tanner.” Chance smirked, annoying me by ruffling my Tanner-mussed hair. “Bryce and Josie told me about Levi. It’s just a matter of time now before you see the Tanner Montgomery we’ve known all these years.”
*
Once we arrived at the dock, I got my first good look at Bryce’s pontoon. I found myself staring in awe at the monstrosity of a brand-spanking-new twenty-two-foot Party Barge.
The sight of Bryce offering Josie his assistance onto the boat, and Josie responding with a smack to the back of his head, brought me out of my stupor. The two fussed and squabbled, and I shook my head with a smirk. Tanner offered me his hand and I took it without hesitation, allowing him to help me up onto the boat.
We left the dock and the boat glided through the dark water with Bryce manning the steering wheel. Josie hesitantly allowed him to pull her onto his lap. Bryce gave her the infamous Montgomery grin, snickering at her scowl.
My sister was sitting at the stern of the boat with her bare feet dangling over the edge. The sloppy bun on the top of her head was no longer there. Instead, her long, auburn locks danced in the humid breeze. Chance approached her with his hands deep in the pockets of his green swim trunk
s and eased down beside her. Lucy turned her head away from him as we passed limestone cliffs. Chance dropped his feet off the edge as well. He spoke, and Lucy appraised him with a blank expression until I finally saw her lips moving.
It killed me, not hearing the conversation they were engaged in. I wondered if Chance would win her trust, as he’d already won her heart.
Tanner brushed his lips against my temple. “What are you thinking so hard about?”
We were lounging on a beige leather chair surrounding a large round table. My body was pressed flush against his. The breeze stroked our hot skin, and I found myself playing with the soft hair on his legs. His thumbs were pressed in the top of my shorts on both sides of my waist.
I chuckled. “Just wondering if our stubborn relatives will cave in after this expedition or if they’ll kill each other first.”
Tanner laughed lightly, gripping my waist and pulling me closer to him. We were silent for a long while, nothing but the wind, the soft murmur of the others, and the occasional passing engine breaking the quiet. Then, out of the blue, Tanner asked me about my happiest childhood memory.
“Hmmm … probably the time Daddy took us to Disney World.” Lost in the nostalgia, I stared at the puffy white clouds drifting in the startlingly blue sky. “Lucy was so excited. She dreamed about Cinderella’s Castle for months. I’ll never forget the smile on her face as the castle lit up in the night, fireworks exploding in the sky around it. I haven’t seen that expression on her face since then. It was pure joy, magic, and wonder, like all her fantasies came through in that exact moment.”
Tanner studied my face. “So your happiest memory is your sister’s happiness?”
I shrugged, slightly saddened by the fact. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Worst memory?” he asked.
“That’s tricky. Lucy has been sick so many times. If I had to choose a memory that didn’t involve her, or the moment I found out my father was dead, I’d say it was more of a bundle of memories.
“My life hasn’t always been trips to Cinderella’s castle. There were many times in my childhood when we were so broke we couldn’t keep the power on. Lucy and I would sleep together, clinging to one another to stay warm. Daddy was too proud to ask anyone for money, and it seemed like it took forever for him and my uncles to get their construction business up and running. We put on a good show though. People didn’t realize how destitute we were back then.”
“People think drug trafficking is a high-dollar way of life, don’t they?” he asked. “They don’t realize it’s like the stock market. It goes up, it goes down. That’s why you need to have a fallback plan.”
“Like owning a factory or becoming a doctor?” I asked. “Are you leaving for college in the fall?”
“No.” He raised an eyebrow at my disappointed frown. “I’m staying here, making sure you’re safe. When you graduate I’m taking you with me.”
“Is that so?” I quirked an eyebrow at his no-nonsense tone and stubborn audacity. “I don’t see how that’s going to happen. My family will kill me. Even if that wasn’t the case, I have Lucy, Nana, and the cake shop to take care of.”
“It’ll all work out,” he said, smooth and confident. “Maybe Lucy just needs someone else to take care of her for once.”
Lucy faced Chance, and I drew in a deep breath as she reached out, her fingers trailing up his scarred arm.
“Best memory?” I asked.
“Nothing like yours, that’s for sure.” He laughed, skimming his nose along the twist of my ear. “I’d say it’d have to be the look of pride on my father’s face when he took me on a drug run once. We stopped at his friend’s house. He left me in the truck and told me he’d be right back. When he got back to the truck his pocket was bulging out. My father reached in his pocket and handed me a stack of money wrapped up in a rubber band. He said, ‘How does that feel in your hands, boy?’ I told him it felt good, and it did. That’s not why he did it though, sold drugs I mean.
“I told you my father had epilepsy. Watching him have seizures … those are some of my worst memories. I was just a kid, but I felt so guilty with my inability to help him. Smoking marijuana relaxed him and it helped reduce the daily seizures. Before long, they were practically non-existent. One day he realized he could make a business out of it. He began selling it to other people suffering from seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, cancer patients in pain. Marijuana distribution didn’t begin or end as a way to make ends meet, but before long his business blew up. My father began raking in the money. He hired Graham to help him. It became an empire. And with empires come allies. With allies come enemies.”
“My family,” I said. “Except for my father.”
He nodded. “For a long while Graham believed Jeb murdered my father. But the pieces didn’t fit. Jeb was a trusted ally. Graham believes Jeb found something out, something that tied our families together, something Amos didn’t want revealed.”
“No Amos talk,” I said. “Not today. Tell me more about your father. He helped sick people feel better. That’s admirable.”
“He wasn’t a saint, Rue. He enjoyed the money and the power,” Tanner replied. “Power is a treacherous thing. It overshadows everything, making everything else in life seem meaningless. Frivolous. It becomes addictive like the money. Money is the root of all evil.”
“The love of money is the root of all evil.” I smirked. “Get your Bible verses right, Cash.”
“Who doesn’t love money?” he asked with an innocent grin. “Why do you think your father started selling drugs? It was love of money. He probably grew up just as poor and country as my father did.”
“Do you smoke weed?” I asked. “Do you sell it?”
Tanner raised an eyebrow. “I smoke occasionally. As for the selling part, there’re some things you just don’t need to know.”
I snickered. “Which means yes.”
“I know you smoke. You were high the night at the train station. You were high the night of that party.” His hands ghosted over my abdomen, his fingers creeping in the direction of my bikini top. “You were sitting on that bar with wide eyes, big pupils, and juicy pink lips begging to be kissed. Some loser was drooling all over you. It took everything within me not to pull you from that bar, throw you over my shoulder, and cut out running.”
I bit my lip, smiling around the sinking of my teeth into my flesh. “Caveman.”
“You make me animalistic.” His breath was hot, whispering in my ear, nipping the tender flesh. “You don’t know me, Rue. I’ve done things. I’ve done bad things to people. Levi Bridges made a horrible mistake today. He should never have touched what’s mine, what’s always been mine, and what will always be mine.”
Tanner’s voice was poison and pain. I should have been afraid of him, but I wasn’t. I was his, no matter what path he chose in life and no matter who he had to kill to claim that path. I’d told Graham I was in it for life, and I meant what I’d said.
“Get a room,” Josie hollered.
Tanner quietly laughed, removing his hands from my body. I grumbled at the loss of his touch.
The rest of my day was spent lounging against Tanner as the others fished. Josie and Bryce cat-called and teased us for the next several hours. Lucy and Chance seemed content to sit silently next to one another. My sister’s quiet mood was odd, and I worried over what was going on inside her head.
Once we arrived on shore, Bryce took the pontoon home and then met back up with Tanner and Chance before the boys followed us home from the lake. Not only to ensure we made it home without any trouble from Levi, but because there was a certain safe Tanner was suddenly anxious to unearth.
Our day spent drifting on the lake, beneath the sun with the Montgomery boys helped ease the tension of Levi’s presence earlier in the day. However, once we left the lake and arrived in Mayhaw, the reality of what happened between us and Levi set in once more.
Less than an hour later I found myself back home, leading the pack into th
e woods. A lone whip-poor-will sounded in the distance. The bird’s cry repeated methodically as I followed the beam of my flashlight through the trees and over the hard ground.
No one spoke. The situation was too serious, too important for Josie and Bryce to swap jabs with one another, too solemn for Lucy to make some bizarre remark. A rickety metallic sound joined in with the whip-poor-will cry as Tanner pushed Daddy’s old rusty wheelbarrow over the bracken beside me.
I spotted the pink ribbon hanging silent and dead from the barbed wire fence. The group came to a halt once I paused at the base of the tree and pointed a trembling finger at the ground.
“There.”
The guys started digging, taking turns using the two shovels I had. The safe wasn’t buried very deep. I heard the clink of metal upon metal as the blade hit its mark. They became excited, frantically digging around the safe with their hands, removing the dark soil encasing it.
It took the strength of the three of them, sweaty, shirtless, and smeared with mud, to remove the safe from the ground. Once it was above ground level, Tanner heaved it into the wheelbarrow. We crept across the forest floor and arrived back at the driveway.
Chance was the first one to speak. “We’ll take it back to Graham’s. That way it’s away from Amos and we can work on cracking it open. Rue, you should do your best to figure out the combination, just in case I can’t get it open. Maybe it’s a birthday? An anniversary?”
“Nuh uh, hold up.” Josie propped one hand on her hip. “What makes you think we’re just gonna hand over our Nana’s safe to the family enemy? You think one day on the lake and some casual boob groping wins our trust?”
“We have no reason to deceive y’all,” Bryce replied.
“You have every reason to deceive us,” Lucy said.
Lucy, Chance, Josie, and Bryce began bickering. Josie threw her hands up in emphasis as her face turned red, the color noticeable even in the pale moonlight. I stood still, quiet.