“I need the truth from you. I’m here at the store. Tyler and I have been visiting with this fellow you know as Handsome.” He sniffed. God, she’d always hated that. When Jax sniffed, it was typically a tell-all sign. He was mad as hell.
“Brianna, did you fuck him willingly?”
Flint jerked. Apparently he’d heard the question from a couple of feet away.
“Did I…” Brianna gasped. Then she nearly gagged. She was unable to comprehend what or why Jax would ask such a question. She shook her head over and over again. No, she could lie to other people but she couldn’t lie to herself.
She swallowed as the truth hit her square in the face. Brianna couldn’t lie to them.
“He asked you a question.” Flint’s burning gaze bore into her.
Her stomach rumbled. Her palms were sweaty. How did she tell the men she’d always viewed as “her” men that what happened to her was a direct result of what she’d invited? She shook her head again, feeling nearly mechanical in her movements. No, she’d invited a romp, but she hadn’t welcomed abuse.
“Brianna?” Jax’s voice echoed in her ears.
They wouldn’t let her escape them. The Jackson brothers had known her too long and somewhere deep inside, she understood the magnitude of the question and why Jax had chosen to ask her right then and there.
A man’s life was on the line.
At that moment, on the rarest of occasions, she imagined her father there. What would he say if he were there to advise her? She understood well because she’d often heard Drina quote their father. Without thinking, without even meaning to speak, she whispered, “We take care of our own. We’ll handle this in our own time, in our own way.”
Flint cursed under his breath and marched to her. Holding out his hand, he said, “Give me the phone.”
Brianna was dazed and confused then. She studied Flint’s expression and couldn’t help but notice the difference in him. Normally warm and compassionate, Flint was angry and his fury was soul deep. “Answer him now, Brianna.”
She swallowed. She hated this. She hated it because somewhere deep inside her, she understood what admitting the truth could cost the Jackson brothers. Perhaps in the back of her mind she came to terms with something else, too. The Jackson brothers may have denied their feelings for her in the past, but their actions then proved much stronger than words. Their feelings were well understood.
They cared for her. They were willing to fight a man they didn’t know because of her.
Gripping the phone, her hand trembled. Drina had told her about the Jackson brothers coming to the hospital. They’d been there and they’d gone to that roadside motel, too. Drina and Gemma had agreed—they were enraged, but more importantly they were hurt.
“Answer him now or give me the phone.” Flint looked harder, colder, and more determined.
“Damn it, baby. I don’t have all day here.”
Baby? She swallowed. Jax didn’t typically call her pet names. He’d spent most of his life running from her and yet now he wanted to know something so personal, so intimate and embarrassing.
The silence was deafening. How could she—
“Did. You. Fuck. Him?”
“Yes.” Her response was barely audible. It was as if his demanding voice had literally stripped her reply from her parched lips, her dry mouth.
“Of your own free will?” Jax asked.
Brianna turned away from Flint. She thought back to the night when her entire life had changed. Just a few short days ago, she’d been happy, or at least happy enough. She’d reached a place in her life where she could honestly say she was content and contentment had felt pretty good. It had taken her years to reach that point. Then, in a blink of an eye, a stranger had rushed in and turned her world upside down. To make matters worse, she’d not only invited the trouble, she’d chased it down. She’d thrown a lasso around its beastly neck and had him wrapped and slapped, so to speak, without a second spared.
“Yes, Jax. It was my choice.”
“So you’re telling me this bastard is right? You’re just a wildcat in bed and things got out of hand?”
“That’s what happened,” she said, squeezing her eyes closed in an attempt to shut out the bad memories, the moments when Handsome had stuffed his shirt in her mouth and squeezed the ever-loving daylights out of her throat. Gasping for air, she dropped the phone and quickly scooped it up. “Here. You tell him.” She glared at Flint. “Tell him everything he was told was exactly the way that guy says. I asked for it. Do you hear me? I begged, groveled!” With the final words tumbling from her lips, she turned and ran.
She didn’t stop at her car. She didn’t stop by the house to grab a jacket. She just took off through the pastures, running wild and free like the renegade she’d become.
Like her father, Brianna had always bucked authority. She’d always wanted to be that rebel without a cause, a vixen without a worry.
So yes! She had asked for it! She had played with fire and she had been burned! She couldn’t blame anyone but herself!
Before Handsome had taken away her confidence, she’d been a seductress, a curious young woman who had wanted adventures and good times. Sure, she’d borrowed trouble every now and again, but it wasn’t like she’d tried to live in the throes of danger. Still, if the experience with Handsome had taught her anything at all, it had taught her how to survive.
She was her father’s daughter.
The bad memories continued to play out in front of her mind’s eyes. Handsome’s voice resounded in her ears. After he’d released her neck and tossed her aside like yesterday’s garbage, he’d said, “Your dad owes us big bucks and I intend to collect from you Brianna. The others will take your sisters. One at a time, we’ll make every last one of Alberto’s daughters pay. Understand me?” He’d kicked her in the gut and left her on her knees.
The door had slammed and dust mites had stirred as the morning sun cast a ray of beams on the bed where he’d taken her, where she’d given herself freely to one of her father’s enemies. She vaguely remembered collapsing on the floor, muttering, “You’ll have to kill me. I am my father’s daughter.”
She still believed and stood by her convictions. She could exert her own revenge. If Handsome and his thugs were coming after her or any of her sisters, she would do whatever it took to protect them. The sooner the Jackson brothers accepted the fact that she lived on the edge and she didn’t need a man to keep her safe, the sooner they could all go on with their lives!
A hundred thoughts ran rampant through her head as she ran through greener pastures. Why had she answered Jax? Why had she felt the need to tell him anything? He didn’t own her. The Jackson brothers had toyed with her for years and now suddenly they wanted to be her saving grace?
Well they were too late.
She stopped to catch her breath. Bending over, she planted her palms on her knees. As soon as she took the position, another memory flashed in her mind. When she and Handsome had first started fooling around, he’d pushed her forward with his palm against the small of her back. Her hands had landed on her thighs and she’d thrown her hips back and asked for a spanking.
God help her. She must’ve been out of her mind. A spanking?
Shaking off the recollection for fear it would lead to others, she took off again, acknowledging the stretch of empty land in front of her. An hour or so later, Brianna ran upon the Nolichucky River.
The dangerous rapids often lured folks to the area for whitewater adventures, but in early spring, the crowds weren’t there. Other than the occasional wildlife sighting, the area was pretty much deserted. The year before Brianna had discovered a cabin on the riverbanks. Surrounded by natural beauty, the two-story rustic home was often used by overnight guests exploring the Nolichucky or The Appalachian Trail.
Whoever owned the cabin worked on the honor system. There were four separate entrances and each of the private quarters had one bedroom, a small kitchenette, tiny bathroom, and a spacious liv
ing room with beanbags and futon beds. There was a machine to swipe a credit card and the brass sign above it read, “Pay what you think you owe or what you’d like to donate to keep this facility available 365 days a year.”
Brianna walked across the rickety front porch and took a seat on the far end, watching the rushing waters as they cascaded over a number of river rocks. On the other side of the river, an overgrowth of trees and brush led to one portion of the two hundred and ninety mile stretch known as The Appalachian Trail.
Her phone beeped and she acknowledged the low battery and the time. It was nearly noon. She leaned against the log home and took in the serenity of nature’s best—the green mountains, the tall whispering grass, and the uninhibited rapids. If she could only stay there for a little while.
Maybe it would be long enough to forget the recent past. Perhaps then she could recall the distant memories that once made her smile.
* * * *
Jax and Tyler met Flint on the Baldinis’ front porch. By the look on Flint’s face, Jax could guess the news he’d receive. Brianna had lived up to her name and his expectations.
She’d taken off.
Known for running away whenever things didn’t suit her, Brianna had been quite the little hellion as a teenager. Apparently, she hadn’t changed much. Then again, maybe she had a reason to run this time. Perhaps she’d always owned that right.
Stories had often circulated in their small community. Some said the Baldini women would forever live under a cloud of danger, a cloud their father had deliberately lured when he’d left them to fend for themselves and pursued outside interests in the drug trade.
What folks in those parts didn’t realize was what more than ninety-nine percent of the country failed to understand, too. The drug trade was quite prominent in the livestock industry and Alberto Baldini hadn’t gone outside the area for business. He’d started his lucrative career right there in the town’s backyard. It had been quite simple, really.
Local cops and DTF rummaged through rigs, but they seldom searched the cattle on those eighteen wheelers. Not too many drug task force agents wanted to stick their arm up a cow’s behind to retrieve evidence.
In those parts, the cattle business and the drug trade were often one and the same. No one knew that better than Alberto Baldini, except maybe his girls and area farmers, particularly those who were dubbed livestock dealers. Still, the Baldini sisters had lived in the shadows of constant reminders, listening to their neighbors’ suspicious whispers and dodging their questions whenever they could.
“Did you just want to meet here so you could give me one of those blank stares?” Flint interrupted his thoughts.
Tyler swung his gaze to Jax. “He’s right. You look as distant as you did back there when you started beating the shit out of that guy.” He rubbed his knuckles. “What were you thinking?”
“He was armed,” Jax said, certain of it.
“Is that a fact?” Tyler shook his head. “If I’d been armed in that situation? I would’ve drawn my weapon of choice.” Tyler paced in front of the porch. “That fella wasn’t carrying, Jax. If he’d had a gun, he would’ve used it about the time the heel of your boot met his jaw.”
“I’m not wrong.”
Flint snorted at that. “To hear you tell it, you seldom are.”
“Is she inside?” Jax didn’t know why he bothered asking.
“Nope,” Flint replied.
“Anyone here?”
“I just walked up from the barn. Thought I’d see if Nory might know where she is.”
“Don’t involve Nory.” A man approached from the side of the house.
Immediately on the defensive, Jax stepped in front of his brothers, which lasted all of maybe two seconds. “Well you don’t look like the man I’ve seen in the Baldini family pictures so who are you? New employee?”
The man slapped a pair of work gloves against his leg. He hesitated for a moment, but then reached his right arm forward. “I’m Kane Cartwell. I’m the girls’ cousin. Their mother Ann was my first cousin.”
Suspicious, Jax shook and introduced himself only after his brothers had done the same. “What brings you to Erwin, Mr. Cartwell?”
“Family.” He swiped his chin with the back of his hand. “Your turn. What brings you out this way today, fellas?”
“A woman,” Jax said without missing a beat.
“Uh-huh,” Kane muttered. “I thought so.” He glanced back at the house. “You boys thirsty?”
“I could drink something,” Tyler said.
“Something or a good cold beer?” Kane asked.
“Beer’s fine,” Tyler replied.
“Be back in a minute. Make yourselves at home.”
Kane disappeared inside the house. About the same time Coco sped up the driveway and came to a screeching halt in her Volvo station wagon.
They all scattered and Tyler said, “I never have understood why all the rest of these girls drive around in sports cars and she’s still driving around in that old station wagon.”
“It was her mother’s,” Kane told them, returning to the porch and passing around bottles of beer.
Coco threw up her hand and made her way to the side of the house, likely entering the kitchen so she could avoid small talk with them. Jax didn’t really want to talk to Coco anyhow. On a good day she was a real bitch. The rest of the time, she was waiting around for Brandon, a man who wasn’t worth a cuss, much less a mention.
Kane took a long drag from his beer. “Take it the big sister doesn’t like you boys much.”
“She doesn’t like us or anyone else,” Tyler said.
“Any particular reason why?”
“We’ve never asked.” Jax exchanged quick glances with his brothers. “We’re interested in Brianna.”
“You are, huh?” Kane retrieved a pair of sunglasses from his shirt pocket and took great care putting them on. “Interested how?”
“Romantically,” Jax said without missing a beat.
Kane pulled on a poker face, a poker face that might have worked somewhere else, but long ago Brianna had tried to convince the Jackson brothers that she could handle them, that one day soon they’d realize there wasn’t anything wrong with their attraction to her or the way she felt about them. At that time, she’d thrown a name down like a played Ace of Spades—Cartwell. “You mean all of you are interested in Brianna?” Kane dragged his hand around his firmly set jaw. “Romantically?”
“Kane Cartwell, you stop it right now.” A little spitfire of a woman barreled outside and shook their hands. “I’m Peyton Cartwell. I’m married to Kane and two of his brothers.” She shook her head rapidly. “Don’t let him get the best of you.” She smiled. “You boys hungry?”
“No, ma’am,” Tyler said, removing his hat.
“Thank you, though,” Flint said, his hat already in his hands. Blushing like crazy, Flint was probably standing there trying to imagine the little woman sprawled out on the bed with three men towering over her in one way or another.
Jax looked away from them to keep from laughing outright. He’d bet enough to buy a year’s supply of condoms for a whorehouse that Peyton Cartwell had given her husband a run for his money back in the day.
“Is Brianna inside?” Kane asked out of the corner of his mouth.
“She told me she was going to the store.”
“We saw her at that feed and seed, Mrs. Cartwell,” Flint said, catching a sourly look from Tyler.
Kane frowned as he studied Jax with more interest. “Brianna have anything to do with that split lip?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie, son. We’ll get along a lot better if we start shooting straight with one another right from the beginning.”
“Brianna didn’t punch me if that’s what you’re asking,” Jax said.
“I’m not asking that,” Kane assured him. “Anyone with half a brain can take a look at your lip and your brother’s swollen hand and tell the two of you were in a recent brawl.�
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“We ran into a bit of trouble this morning. Nothing we can’t handle.”
“Anything I can help you handle?” Kane asked, motioning for Peyton.
“Nope.” Tyler answered this time. “Between the three of us we’ve got it under control.”
As if they weren’t even standing there, Kane wrapped his arm around Peyton and drew her ear against his mouth. She turned as red as the coloring in a stick of peppermint candy and whispered something back. “Boys, it was nice meeting you.”
“You, too,” they chimed, watching as she sashayed away.
“I’ll let you have that one,” Kane said, looking at Flint. “Since we just met, you obviously don’t know any better, but that booty you were ogling is branded like most of the livestock roaming these fields. You look again and it’ll be at your own risk.” Kane gave Flint another firm glare and walked away. With his hand on the screen door latch, he added, “Let me be sure Brianna isn’t inside. I’ll be right back.”
As soon as he left them alone again, Jax pointed at Flint. “That’s inexcusable.”
“Who would’ve thought he would’ve caught me.”
“Well, he did,” Tyler pointed out.
“He’s obviously a possessive old fuck,” Flint said. “Besides you can both guess what I was thinking.”
“Peyton Cartwell doesn’t look anything like Brianna,” Jax said.
“Maybe not, but she has an ass that won’t quit and works that walk like she wants a man’s attention.”
“That was probably for her old man, Flint,” Tyler pointed out. “She’s obviously smitten by the guy.”
Kane returned with another beer. “She’s not inside. Gemma and Coco are here and they both said she may have gone riding with Nory and Drina.”
“They were already gone when we stopped at the barn,” Flint said.
“Huh, well, I guess she doesn’t want to talk to you fellas. Did that ever occur to ya?”
“It crossed my mind,” Jax admitted. “But at the moment, Mr. Cartwell, I don’t care if she wants to talk to me or not. I have a few things I need to say. When I find her, all she needs to do is sit still, look real pretty, and pay close attention, but I will have a word with her.”
Sexual Healing [Contemporary Cowboys 1] (Siren Publishing LoveEdge) Page 5