The Wright Mistake

by K. A. Linde

  Landon nodded seriously. “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”

  “No concussion. Just a fucked up body. I’ll be fine. Go home to your girl and…and take care of mine, okay?”

  Landon sympathetically touched my shoulder once before departing.

  At least Landon’s place had a state-of-the-art security system. Julia should feel safe there. Or safer at least.

  Safer without me.

  The next morning, my face was the size of a balloon, and I couldn’t tell where the pain started or ended. After a delirious, pain-riddled phone call, Jensen showed up bright and early. Thank fuck he was a vampire.

  Jensen whistled when he saw me passed out on the couch. “You look like shit.”

  “Thanks,” I said, dripping with sarcasm.

  “Much worse than last night.” Jensen said. He’d shown up around the same time the cops had gotten there and dealt with the aftermath at the bar.

  “Are you just here to make fun of me?”

  “Isn’t that what older brothers do?”

  I flipped him off and then winced, reaching for my fractured ribs.

  He laughed. “Come on. We need to get you to a doctor. Noah’s at the hospital today. He said he’d fit you in.”

  “Great. Can we go see Julia on the way?”

  “Let’s get you something to help with the pain first. Figure out Julia after.”

  I grumbled but let him help me off the couch and into his huge truck. Noah was Emery’s sister’s husband. He worked at the Texas Tech Medical Center and was an all-around great guy. I liked him. I liked him even more after he stopped prodding at my injuries.

  “We could do an X-ray, but that rib is definitely fractured,” Noah said. “You’ll need a lot of rest and ice. Try not to breathe too shallowly. We want to make sure this doesn’t turn into something worse.”

  “Rest. My forte,” I said with a sigh.

  “I’ll write you a prescription for the pain. Your face has to feel horrible.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  “Kimber told me what happened,” Noah said with a shake of his head. “I hope you’re pressing charges against that guy.”

  “Oh, I am. As soon as they find him, I’ll do everything I can to see him behind bars for what he did to Julia.”

  “No less than he deserves.”

  Noah handed me the prescription, we shook hands, and then I headed out. Jensen was still waiting for me, talking to one of the nurses he knew. Jensen knew fucking everyone.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Let’s get this filled. Fuck.”

  We finished the rest of the errands, and as soon as I popped a pill, I felt the worst of the bite of the pain subside. With a couple of weeks’ recovery staring me in my destroyed face, I was glad to have the pills.

  “Be careful with those,” Jensen said.

  “I’m using them as indicated.”

  “Make sure you do.”

  I rolled my eyes as he drove me to Flips to collect my car.

  “Austin…”

  “What?” I asked, halfway out of the truck.

  “Be careful with Julia. She might need some time.”

  “I’ll give her all the time she needs. But she went through one of the most traumatic experiences of her life. Would you have let Emery walk away after that?”

  The answer was written all over his face. No, of course not. We were Wright men. We didn’t back down from anything, and we certainly didn’t walk away from our women just because they were hurting.

  “Let me know if you need anything.”

  “Sure, man. Thanks,” I said. Then, I shut the door and headed to my car.

  I made it to Landon’s house in record time. I tried the door handle and was glad to see it was locked. I didn’t want Dillon to show up here and have easy access to Julia again.

  Landon appeared a couple of seconds after I rang the doorbell. He wiped his hand down his face and yawned. “Hey. It’s early.”

  “Yeah, Jensen picked me up at the ass-crack of dawn. How’s she doing?”

  “She hasn’t come out of the guest room.”

  I started to cross the threshold, but Landon put his hand out.

  “She’s a guest here, Austin. If she wants you to leave, then you’re going to have to listen to her.”

  “I’m your brother.”

  “And, as your brother, I’m telling you not to do anything stupid to that broken girl in there.”

  “I’m not going to do anything stupid,” I told him.

  Landon gave me a disbelieving look, but he moved his arm. Heidi came out of the master bedroom in one of Landon’s golf T-shirts and short shorts. Her eyes were wary as they followed my progress toward the guest bedroom. It seemed that everyone thought it was a bad idea for me to talk to Julia.

  I knocked twice and waited for her to say something. But there was no response. Maybe she was still sleeping.

  “Julia?”

  “Go away,” she said through the door.

  “Can we talk?”

  “What do we have to talk about?”

  “Last night.”

  “No,” she said firmly.

  I sighed in frustration. “I’d prefer to talk to your face than through a door.”

  “Go away, Austin.”

  “Please, Julia.”

  No response came from the other side of the door. She wasn’t going to talk to me. After everything, it was as I’d thought. She really meant what she’d said last night.

  Then, slowly, the door cracked open, and beautiful dark eyes stared back up at me.

  “You have five minutes,” she said. Then, she opened the door for me.

  I could work with that.

  Julia shut the door behind us once I was in the room. She went and sat down on the bed, but I could tell that sitting next to her would be pushing it.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked.

  “Tired.”

  “Didn’t get much sleep?”

  “No.”

  “Have you heard anything else about Dillon?”

  “No.”

  Okay…one-worded answers. I needed a way to draw my Julia out of there. She looked so run-down and bedraggled. I’d be shocked if she’d slept at all. And, still…she was everything I wanted in one package.

  “I want to make this right between us. Tell me what to do. What do you want me to do?”

  She’d been staring down at her clasped hands. A million thoughts seemed to be running through her mind at once. Finally, she looked back up at me. “Leave.”

  “Why do you push me away? Why can’t you accept that someone is going to be here? Because I’m here. I’m not going to just go away,” I said. I wanted her to fight me, to fight back, to show some ounce of life. “You said I wasn’t Dillon, and you’re right. Show me you’re more than that girl who got hurt by him.”

  “I don’t have to show you anything,” she said quietly, calmly. “We’re not together.”

  “I can’t accept that,” I said, dropping to my knees in front of her. “I’d take that beating a hundred times over if it meant that it didn’t end where we are right now. You’re fire and energy and passion. You’re not…dead inside.”

  She turned her face away from me. No emotions clouded her eyes. I wasn’t even sure if she was in pain over my words. She seemed so resigned. As if the night had solidified everything that she’d said to me, as if she’d set cement.

  “Your five minutes are up.”

  “Julia, you’re not even listening to me.”

  She held her hand up. “You’re trying to start an argument with me, Austin, and it’s not going to work. I made my decision last night. I’d appreciate it if you respected it. You told me once that love and hate were powerful emotions. You said that you had to work for indifference. So…that’s where I’m at.”

  I stared, slack-jawed, up at her.

  I’d always felt like, even when Julia and I had been apart, there was this link between us.
That, when I could get her riled up, I knew she still had feelings for me. But, overnight, that had all disappeared. She wanted nothing to do with me, and I didn’t know how to fight for something that wasn’t there.

  A vibration from the side table fractured her attention. She immediately lunged for her phone and answered it, “Yes. This is Julia.” She listened on the other end for a few seconds and then gasped. “I’ll…I’ll be right down.”

  “What happened?” I asked once she hung up the phone.

  She looked sick to her stomach. “The police found Dillon.”

  Thirty-Two

  Julia

  I was going to be sick.

  Definitely, definitely sick.

  I was standing outside of the police station with Landon, Heidi, and Austin. They’d already called Jensen and Morgan, and Jensen had assured them that he’d have his attorney there as soon as possible. I knew that he’d said I shouldn’t say anything until the attorney got there, but I worried. What if something had happened? What if I was somehow at fault?

  I couldn’t shake the feeling. Dillon could charm the cops. Sure, he had a warrant out for his arrest and now had aggravated assault and battery charges from Austin. They wanted to press for kidnapping and domestic violence for me. But is it still kidnapping if I had gone willingly? And would the assault charges hold up if Austin had hit him first?

  I wouldn’t put it past Dillon to have already figured a way to get out of all of this.

  “Are you ready?” Heidi asked, coming up to my side.

  “Yeah. I think so.”

  My eyes darted to Austin’s for a split second before I walked through the front door. I could do this. I didn’t need to think about what had happened with Austin last night or the desperation in his voice this morning. I was hurting him. I didn’t want to. But I couldn’t seem to stop.

  We spoke with a man at the front desk before he directed us to a detective’s office. I had Heidi, Austin, and Landon wait outside the office.

  Heidi squeezed my hand and nodded. “We’ll be right here,” she said, pointing at a group of folding chairs across the hall.

  “Thanks, Heidi.”

  “Of course. Good luck.”

  I nodded and then entered the room. The detective was an athletic woman with frizzy ginger curls and freckles. She had a shrewd appearance about her. I wouldn’t want to fuck with her.

  “Uh, hi. I’m Julia Banner. I’m here about the Dillon Jenkins arrest.”

  “Of course, Miss Banner,” she said, “please take a seat. I’m Detective Taylor.”

  “Thank you, Detective,” I said, sitting.

  “We want to thank you for your confidence in this situation and everyone’s help. The information about Dillon Jenkins led us straight to a place on the east side of Lubbock. He was arrested with the possession of a stolen vehicle, and his premises, where he was illegally living under the false name of Evan Brown, had cases of cocaine stashed, presumably after crossing the Mexican border.”

  I sighed. Of course he hadn’t just been harassing me. He’d been working, too. Setting up a run between the Mexican border and probably going all the way back to home.

  “You don’t seem surprised,” she said.

  “How can I be? He just got out of prison on good behavior. They couldn’t crack him for dealing drugs even though he’d been doing it since he was twelve.”

  “I read your statement. You were very brave, coming forward,” she said, rifling through a stack of papers. “You have a long history with this man.”

  “Yes. Where is he now?”

  “Jail. And he’ll stay there. I can’t think of a judge alive who would let him out on bond. Maybe if it had just been the violation of probation charge, but with everything—”

  “I…I don’t have to see him? To identify him?” I gasped out.

  The detective looked at me, startled. “No, we found him in record time. We just wanted to speak with you and let you know the details since you were under a temporary order of protection.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s…that’s really good.”

  Another knock came from the door, and a squat man stuck his head inside. My lawyer, I presumed.

  “Detective, I see you’re speaking with my client.”

  “Jake,” the woman said with a sigh. “And I thought you only worked for the Wrights.”

  He shrugged. “Seems she’s a Wright.”

  I frowned. No, I certainly was not.

  “Come on, Julia. Let’s go somewhere else and talk.”

  Jake hauled me out of the detective’s office and started speaking a million miles a minute. But my head was spinning with just one solid fact—Dillon was behind bars. And, if we played our cards right…he could be there for a very long time.

  A sob caught in my throat. It was far from over, but he wasn’t on the loose anymore. He wasn’t going to find me and kill me. He wasn’t going to go after all the people I loved here. He might have ruined so many things, but he wasn’t going to take this new life from me.

  I spent a few hours in a secluded office with Jake McCarty, going over everything that had happened. By the time I finished, I felt like I’d been wrung out.

  “How much is this all going to cost?” I asked finally.

  Jake grinned and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “I’m on retainer for Jensen. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

  But I did. I didn’t want to be indebted to the Wrights. I knew it was impossible to be rid of them, considering I worked for the company and each of my closest friends was dating a Wright brother. But it worried me that this was all related to Austin…that I never would have gotten this otherwise. And, if that was the case, then I’d rather just pay my own legal fees if need be.

  At the same time, I was unbelievably grateful. I never would have known where to start finding someone. Certainly not someone like Jake McCarty.

  “We have a long road ahead of us, Miss Banner. But I can assure you that I’ll do everything to see that Dillon Jenkins is behind bars for life. It would give me great pleasure to know that he could never harass you again.”

  I gave him a little half-smile at the notion. To be rid of Dillon forever? It seemed impossible.

  “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.”

  I left the room and found that only Austin was still waiting for me. God, he really looked fucked up. His face was a wreck. It’d been cleaned up some, but, Christ, it couldn’t be safe for him to be driving, could it?

  I wanted to be indifferent, like I’d told him I was, but I wasn’t indifferent to Austin. I was crazy about him and still brimming with anger. But the more I showed either of those emotions, the more he would think we could get back together. I wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t know if I’d ever be ready for that.

  “Hey,” he said, rising to his feet.

  “Hey.”

  “Can I take you back to Landon and Heidi’s?”

  I chewed on my lip and then nodded. I needed to get out of this police station. When we were back out in the hot, dusty Lubbock air, I finally felt like I could breathe again. It made no sense.

  “Where did Heidi and Landon go?” I asked.

  “I think they wanted to get a bite to eat and pick up the Tahoe from Flips.” He shrugged as we approached his car. “Apparently, Heidi snagged your keys earlier.”

  “That sounds like her.”

  “How do you feel? With Dillon back where he belongs?”

  I shrugged. “Numb.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I know it should feel like a victory, but it feels more like a joke.”

  “How so?”

  “Like I’ll wake up, and thinking I’m safe from him is the punch line to a joke.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

  “Doesn’t change how I feel.”

  I walked around to the passenger side of his shiny red car. But he paused before opening the door. He stared down at his keys and then tossed them ac
ross the roof of the car. I caught them with one hand.

  “You wanted to drive her, right?”

  I stared at him, momentarily in shock. “You never let anyone drive your car.”

  “I know.”

  That was all he said as he walked around to the passenger side of the car. He dropped a kiss onto my forehead and then sat down.

  I pulled myself out of the trance. What the hell was happening? I was getting to drive the Alfa Romeo?

  I sank into the driver’s seat and adjusted the seat for my short legs. He laughed when I had to pull the mirror all the way down if I was going to have any hope of seeing out the back. I thanked my dad for teaching me how to drive a stick the one time he’d been sober in my teen years. Then, I flew out of the police station.

  Landon and Heidi’s house was further out in the country, so I got to take her on long stretches of flat land. She really opened up then, and for those blissful minutes, I felt free.

  When I pulled into the driveway, a smile was plastered to my face. “Now, I get the car.”

  “Exhilarating, right?”

  “Like flying without the fear of heights that comes with actual flying.”

  Austin leaned across the seat as the soft rumble of the car sounded beneath us. His hand went to my cheek, and I flinched. He sat back.

  “I don’t understand, Julia. Dillon is behind bars. You’re safe again. You can move on with your life. You don’t have to be tied to his shadow.”

  “You know why I’m afraid of heights?”

  He looked intrigued by my change of direction. “No.”

  “Well, I always was. But it was really more the fear of falling. I had dreams of falling endlessly, like Alice when she went down a rabbit hole. But Dillon found out about my fear, about how much I hated heights. Then, he spent the next couple of years terrorizing me…apparently, in a way to get rid of my fear. Fear is weakness and all that.”

  Austin’s jaw clenched despite the pain I could see on his face.

  “What put me over the edge the day that I decided to get out was because he took me to the top of our apartment building at the time and dangled me there by my wrist.” I met his angry eyes. “My broken wrist. The wrist he’d broken.”