“Let go of her. We don’t want any more trouble. She didn’t do anything to you,” Lane said. “This is my house. Fight me, you coward.”
I held my hand over my mouth as my knees started to buckle. Deliah’s face said it all. She wasn’t going to let him get away with it.
Gabe leapt off the stairs and ran at Douglas just as Deliah elbowed him in the ribs as hard as she could. Gabe kicked Douglas in the shin and slugged his shoulder. Deliah fell to the ground, and Douglas lunged at Gabe’s middle and toppled him.
I screamed and then grabbed Deliah’s hand to help drag her away as she tried to stand. Caleb and Lane joined Gabe on the ground. I heard kicking and grunts and tried not to look.
“Gabe,” I whimpered.
The commotion ended following the loudest hit. It sounded just like a bat smacking a watermelon, but when I opened my eyes, I spotted the small log at my feet. Everyone stood up panting while Douglas stayed prone, face down in the grass.
Caleb laughed and bent over to catch his breath. “You’re my hero, farm boy.”
“Is he dead?” I whispered through my hands.
“No. He’s out cold. He’s gonna have a hell of a headache,” said Gabe as he slapped Travis on the back.
“Should you tie him up?” I asked.
“That would be unlawful restraint. We could go to jail for that,” said Caleb.
“Pat him down,” I said.
Caleb rolled him over and frisked him up and down his legs and then checked his pockets. Slowly, he lifted a pistol out of his jeans and showed all of us.
“Good save, legs. Good thinking.”
Travis keeled over. The poor kid looked as though he was going to throw up. Erika ran down the steps and hugged him. “Trav, are you okay? You didn’t have to do that.”
The color had drained out of his face. He stood perfectly still.
“He’s a jerk. I’m so sorry he ruined everyone’s night,” Erika apologized.
“Meggie must not have known he was an asshole,” Lane said.
“I didn’t know Douglas lived at your aunt’s place. I would’ve warned your family about him.”
Erika held up Gabe’s hand and examined his bloody knuckles. He laughed but didn’t attempt to pull his arm away.
“I’ve wanted to do that ever since you told me about him,” he said.
“I can’t get away from him. He shows up where I work to harass anyone who talks to me.”
I continued to watch her until she released Gabe’s hand. “I think he was made from the same mold as Hunt Barrett,” I said.
“I’d start with a restraining order,” Lane told Erika. “He won’t have a job or a home in about twenty-four hours. You can trust me on that.”
She smiled a small smile and brushed her hair behind her shoulder.
“What do we do with him?” I asked. “Should we call the police?”
“Legs, we don’t call the police if we don’t have to,” Caleb replied. “We’ll wait until dark. Drag him to his truck and drive it somewhere.”
“I know the perfect cliff,” said Travis.
Caleb clapped his hands once. “Get in line to shake this boy’s hand,” he joked. “He’s got some gumption after all.”
“Sounds like a plan and a half,” Lane replied. “Let’s have some pizza first.”
“Isn’t Shelly coming?” I asked Deliah after everything calmed down. She nibbled on her pizza beside Travis. They were sharing the same lawn chair. Gabe was staring them down from the porch where he and Caleb and Lane were drinking beer and discussing a plan for Douglas.
“I didn’t invite her. We’re not friends anymore.”
When she got up, I followed her into Lane’s house. She walked fast as if she knew I wanted to catch her alone.
“Wait up,” I said as she tore down the stairs to the basement. “You were brave out there. What happened with Shelly?”
Deliah opened the basement refrigerator and let her hair fall over her face so I couldn’t see her. The refrigerator was empty. She shut the door and took off for the stairs. I snatched her hand and stopped her. I had a feeling she was pushing her friend away on purpose.
“How did you get that motel card?” I asked.
She dropped her chin. I had her cornered. “I found it.”
“You found it? Where?”
She yanked her hand out of mine and continued to the kitchen.
“Deliah, where?”
Her shoulders fell, and she turned around. “God, you’re nosy.”
“Where did you find the card?”
“It was in Jud’s back pocket. I picked his wallet. I also found an Oklahoma driver license and a picture of a redhead, but I put them back.”
“You picked his pocket?”
“Do you not listen?” she said.
“So you don’t know anything about him staying in a motel?”
“Is he?” she responded as she walked to the garage door and peered out to see if Lane had any soft drinks sitting around. When she was satisfied there weren’t any, she turned to the refrigerator, opened it, and removed a bottle of beer.
“You can’t drink that. Seriously, Deliah. They can get in trouble.”
“Watch me. They’re already in trouble. I don’t have any parents. I do as I please.”
I lifted two red cups off a stack and handed them to her. “We’ll share.”
“Finally, Avery, you’re acting your age.” She divided the beer and then walked off with both cups. “Travis needs a drink.”
The doorbell rang, and for a moment, I debated running out back to get Lane in case it was the police. A small knock followed, so I answered it.
“Molly?” She was hiding behind a grocery bag.
“Hi, Avery. Caleb said I should stop by. I don’t know if it’s a good idea. I haven’t talked to Lane yet, and I still don’t know where Gabe stands.”
“Come on in. Maybe I can get Lane inside so you can talk alone. We sort of have an issue we’re dealing with.”
Gabe shut the sliding door to the kitchen and dropped his empty bottle in the sink. He turned around to find me and Molly.
She started to say something to him. He held up his hand. His knuckles were bloody. “Save it,” he said and went into the basement.
“What happened to his hand?”
I explained about Erika’s ex-husband and how the boys were waiting for it to get dark so they could drag his body into the front yard and put him in the back of his truck.
Lane walked into the kitchen and stopped in his tracks. “Hey,” he said a little too cheery for seeing Molly for the first time since she took the child he thought was his. “Wanna beer?”
“You know I don’t drink,” she said. “Can we talk?”
He glanced up and met her eyes. “You know I don’t talk.”
“Why don’t you give her a minute?” I said.
“Why don’t you take your clothes off for me?”
“I’ll leave,” I whispered as I let it slip. I snuck away to look for Gabe in the basement.
The cool air hit me as I stepped off the stairs. Gabe was in the spare bedroom where he kept the last of his belongings. I stepped over a stack of books in front of the door.
“Looks like you’re moving out,” I said.
He was on his side with a book in his hand. He had washed the blood off his knuckles.
“Do you feel okay?”
He didn’t answer.
I backtracked over his book hill, and he grabbed my wrist. “Where ya going?”
“Back upstairs to see if Lane and Molly are okay.”
“Don’t leave me alone,” he said as he rolled onto his back. He was wearing his glasses.
I sat on the bed and made a stack of books tip over. Gabe’s hand slid up my leg.
“You smell like beer,” I said and then held my breath when he grabbed my neck and pulled down my head. Our lips touched, and he lifted me on top of him. His hands and lips electrified my entire body. Gabe kissed me hard and f
ast as if he’d been holding it in all day and couldn’t wait another minute. It felt wonderful and exciting to be wanted.
He rolled me off of his chest and jumped up to kick the door shut with his heel and pull his T-shirt over his head at the same time. He ran his hand through his hair and made every muscle in his torso move for my pleasure.
“Simon says do what I do,” he ordered in a way that caused chills to tighten my skin.
To be funny, I ran my hand through my hair.
Gabe pulled off each of my boots and then crawled up me, dragging my dress along with him. “Simon says lift your other arm.”
“Not another repeat of this morning. You better lock that door, Simon.” I covered up with the edge of the quilt and waited to see what he would do.
Gabe bounced off me again and turned the lock. The doorknob fell off in his hand and the door opened. “What the hell? This house is falling apart.”
“Leave it. We’ll hear anyone who comes down the stairs,” I said.
He climbed back on the bed, sat on my legs, and removed the quilt from my clutch. I sat up and met his next kiss. He was warm, his lips warmer.
“This is the room where you bring all of the girls and charm them out of their boots.”
“It’s my favorite room,” he murmured at my mouth.
“Why?” I played along.
“You need me to remind you?” His hand pushed me back down while he worked his shorts down his hips using the other hand. I squirmed under his touch and then burst into laughter when he tickled me.
He leaned in and whispered into my face, “Simon says be quiet, Av’ry.”
“Simon doesn’t play fair when he’s drunk. Simon still has half of his clothes on,” I said as I snapped the elastic on his underwear.
Gabe smirked and sat up tall. “Do that again.”
I tried to sit up, but he wouldn’t let me. “You didn’t say Simon says.”
I reached for his glasses and pulled them off his face, folded them, and stretched my arm as far as I could reach to set the pair in a safe place. Just as Gabe slid off my legs to help me, I fell off the bed and landed on a pile of books.
* * *
The lamp on the dresser went on and off until I sat up. Then it stayed on.
“Gabe, wake up,” I whispered from the floor where we were wrapped up in a quilt in Lane’s basement. “We fell asleep.”
He slid a hand around my waist and pulled me back and spooned me tightly. His scruffy chin irritated the back of my shoulder while his hand slid down my middle.
“We should get up.” I tried to dislodge his other hand from my throat. He was doing things I couldn’t describe.
The light turned off and on again.
“Who’s flicking the light?” Gabe grumbled.
“I did it,” said Deliah. “You have to see this.”
She walked in holding the newspaper.
“Gimme that,” Gabe said as he kicked off the quilt.
“Put some clothes on,” she shouted and disappeared around the wall.
“Mona Deliah, gimme the paper.”
She walked in backward and set the paper on the bed, then ran out. Gabe reached up and snatched it. He rested on an elbow beside me, and I read the headline.
“Brother of Halden-Remington Oil Tycoon Hired for Murder,” I said over Gabe’s arm.
He stood up and then pulled on his shorts. I was wearing his T-shirt.
“It’s the paper. It’s always full of lies,” I told him.
“Where would they get that lie?” Deliah asked from the other room. “Meggie said Judson wasn’t charged.”
“Why are you still here?” I asked Deliah.
“I slept over.”
“I need breakfast,” Gabe said as he lifted his nose into the air and then patted his stomach.
I crawled to the door and shut it with my back. I slid my spine up and stood blocking Gabe’s exit. “Can we talk about this before you do something crazy?”
“Like pour milk in a bowl of Lucky Charms and discuss my birth father’s reputation as a contract killer?”
“Gabe, he’s not a contract killer.”
“You think he’s underhanded. Maybe you’re right.”
“It’s just a lot of things point that way. I don’t want you to get hurt.” I set my hands on his chest. His heart was pounding. “I have something to tell you about him. I should have told you al—”
“I think something happened in Oklahoma,” he blurted. He didn’t hear what I said.
My eyes spread so wide they hurt. I waited a minute to refine my thoughts before I responded. I needed to confess what I knew about Judson and the woman named Elizabeth.
I shook his broad shoulders. “Did you really just say that? After all the times I asked? Now you admit there was more.”
“Hell, Av’ry. I just found out he was my dad. I deserve a few months to think he’s something great.”
“What happened there?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
I dropped my chin to my chest. Gabe stepped closer and pressed his body into mine. His hands slid behind my head, and we locked our lips as if the conversation never happened.
“Start over,” he drawled into the kiss.
“This isn’t going to go away, Gabe.”
“I’m not gonna do anything crazy.”
He grabbed the back of my thighs, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. The groan deep in his throat made me kiss him harder. We continued to kiss against the door until Deliah bothered us again.
“Lane won’t like that you’re down here making out. I can see with my ears.”
Gabe pulled away to take a breath. He covered my ear with his hand. “Go ask him if he minds,” he shouted through the door. Then he nuzzled my neck with his nose. “Let’s go home and finish this.”
“We should find out what happened with Douglas last night.”
Gabe set me down on the bed and whipped his T-shirt up and over my head. He shook it out and pulled it over his head. A grin spread across his face as he ran his attentive gaze all over me. I covered up with my hands. He kicked the door closed as it started to open, then bent down to pick up my discarded dress on the floor. He tossed it at my head.
* * *
The aroma of diner food led our noses straight into the kitchen. A frying pan was soaking in the sink. We found Caleb eating bacon at the kitchen table.
“Is he gone?” Gabe asked of Douglas as he looked out the front window.
“Me and Travis took him on a joyride. Probably the best night of that farm boy’s life thus far.”
“I don’t want to know,” I said as I yawned and pulled out a chair and sat down. “Was Erika okay last night?”
Caleb set an elbow on the table and rested his chin on his fist. “Now you care about the poor girl? You invited her and then you ditched her. She was a hot mess.”
Slightly ashamed, I closed my eyes and yawned again. “I’ll call her later. How is Lane?”
“Numb and dumb,” Caleb said as he flicked a beer cap into the air. “My guess—you got the day off, legs.”
Gabe helped himself to a waffle that was stacked on a plate on the counter. He took a seat on a kitchen stool and ate alone.
“How did things go with him and Molly?” I asked.
Caleb sat back and set his boots on a chair beside me. He raised his eyebrows.
“Has Lane seen the newspaper?” Gabe asked with a mouthful of waffle.
I glanced over my shoulder. “Didn’t he make all this food?”
Caleb snickered and didn’t answer either of us.
Deliah sat down at the table. She held the front page in her hand. She was staring at the photo of Judson and Joel. “I think they arrested him, and Joel is covering it up so no one knows the truth.”
“This would put a damper on the tower opening,” said Caleb. “Family skeletons, murder, big money.”
“It’s not true, Caleb—is it?” she asked. I could hear the heartbreak in her vo
ice.
“He wouldn’t murder anyone,” said Gabe. “Do you really need to ask that?”
“Explain the dead body in your field,” Caleb replied. “They’ve got some kind of evidence that he was involved.”
“Maybe he got framed. Maybe it’s a mistake,” she said in a hardly there voice.
Gabe got off the stool and marched through the living room and out the front door. I jumped up to follow, and Caleb grabbed my hand. He didn’t let go until I pinched his forearm.
“Don’t run after him, legs. He’s confused and pissed off. Not a good combo. We’ll get him some answers.”
“How?”
He scratched his jaw and glanced down his nose. “Meggie knows more than she’s saying.”
* * *
I found myself sitting in my Jeep in the dry cleaner’s parking lot that afternoon, next to the motel, listening to the local news discuss Judson and his alleged involvement in the murder of Oliver Remington’s partner. I flipped the room card over and over in my hands. Gabe’s pickup truck was parked on the side of the motel. I had the key to unlock the answers everyone had been searching for.
The familiar hallway was empty when I stood full of anxiety at the motel room door. My heart pounded in my chest. It felt like someone was beating on my back. I put the card away. I told myself if nobody answered, I wouldn’t let myself in.
I knocked. Then I regretted it. What would I say if Judson answered?
“Can I help you?” a woman asked. The chain was still on the door.
I didn’t say anything. She wouldn’t see me if I stepped aside. I could make a run for the exit, and she would never know who was there.
“If you’re a television reporter, I’m calling the police,” she threatened.
I set my hand on the door so she wouldn’t shut it.
“I promise I’m not a news reporter. I’m just looking for Judson.”
The door opened. She was probably curious why a girl would be looking for him. “How do you know him?” she asked as her face appeared.
“You know me,” I told her.
Elizabeth tipped her head and held a hand to her cheek. “I do. I met you in Lieutenant Halden’s office.”
The Luxury of Being Stubborn (The Stubborn Series Book 4) Page 23