by K. C. Crowne
“News like that.” Silence. I took my beer from the table and pulled a swig. “You want one of these?” I asked. “Sure as hell know I do.”
Travis shook his head. “I’ll pass. Thinkin’ if Skye can’t, then I won’t.”
It was a good point. Maybe I’d join them. But right then, I needed some booze. So, bottle in hand, I took a seat on the chair across from Travis.
“How’s she takin’ it?” I asked.
“Didn’t learn nothin’ from walkin’ her to the bedroom that I didn’t already know. She’s shook up as all hell. I doubt she’d know what to say if you pinned her down on it.” Travis locked eyes with me. “And what do you think about it?”
“Me? Don’t even know what to say.”
“Say somethin’.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t fuckin’ know,” he said, irritation in his tone. “You gotta have some thoughts on the subject.”
Another swig as I sat back in my chair. I did my best to let my mind unspool, to get some kind of grip on the situation. “Alright. You wanna know what I think? Here it is. I’m not a young man anymore, bud. Now, I ain’t exactly an old codger, but I’m not as spry as I used to be back in the day. And when you start gettin’ to be my age – our age – you start thinkin’ about things beyond what bar you wanna drink at that night and which girl you wanna take home.”
“I know what you mean.”
“So, naturally, I’ve been thinkin’ about what my life might look like in a few years. My business is doin’ alright, and settlin’ down’s been in the back of my head. But you gotta find the right woman for somethin’ like that.”
“Sure. The right woman.” He nodded his head slowly.
“And…maybe this is me bein’ some kinda stupid romantic, but I’ve been wonderin’ if Skye just might be that woman.”
Travis didn’t say anything at first. His eyes flashed with what looked like…anger.
I went on before he could speak. “Skye’s a good woman. Sure, she’s on the younger side, but when you meet someone, you feel how you feel. And I know how I feel with her. I care about her, Travis. And with each passin’ day, I’m more sure of it.”
More silence from Travis, more staring straight ahead.
“Hell, part of me’s been thinkin’ what if she’s the one? What if she’s the woman I’ve been waitin’ for? She’s beautiful, smart as a whip, got passion like crazy. Pretty fine set of traits in a woman you might spend the rest of your life with.”
Nothing in response. I had to get to the heart of the matter.
“But I’ll tell you this much – I sure as shit didn’t imagine that when I met the right woman I’d have to share her with another man. And I sure as fuckin’ shit didn’t ever imagine I’d be sharin’ her with another man and get to the point where she’s carryin’ a kid that I don’t even know if it’s mine.”
More silence.
“So, I don’t know that the hell to do. That girl’s scared, and she’s scared for a damn good reason. She’s probably wonderin’ whether either of us are gonna be able to be there for her, or if she’s up shit creek without a paddle.”
Silence. I waited a solid minute before I spoke again.
“Come on now, Travis. This ain’t the time to be the strong, silent type. You gotta say somethin’.”
He took a deep breath before finally speaking. “You wanna know what I think?”
“I do.”
“I’m thinkin’ we might not be in this damn situation if you could’ve shown some fuckin’ restraint.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “The hell?”
“You heard me. I’m into Skye, and I know you are too. And we both knew we had a hell of a situation on our hands, one that we should’ve puzzled out before jumpin’ headfirst into bed with her. But you couldn’t do that. The second you were alone with her, you had your hands all over her.”
“Alright now,” I said slowly, lifting my hands defensively. “That ain’t the right way to look at this situation.”
“It ain’t? Because we wouldn’t be in this damn mess if you could keep it in your fuckin’ jeans.”
He was getting close to the line. I knew I should’ve kept it cool – Travis could be a bit of a hothead. But I didn’t care to sit there and have him drag me over the coals like that.
“That’s a load of bullshit and you know it. Yeah, Skye’s hard to resist. And she’s made no secret about bein’ into me. But you’ve had your share of time with her too. You can’t go blamin’ me for doing what I did when you’ve been doin’ the same.”
“I ain’t been doin’ the same,” he negated. “She’s my employee, and I knew better than to get frisky with a girl workin’ under me. You could’ve taken notice of this and figured if I wasn’t gonna get with her, then maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea for you to, either.”
“Trav, we talked about this shit,” I reminded him. “You gave me your blessing. And now here you are tellin’ me that you were just testin’ me or some shit?”
“I wasn’t testin’ you, Adam,” he yelled. “I did the right thing, and I wasn’t about to tell you what to do. But you should’ve seen that hookin’ up with her while I was holdin’ back would only cause problems. And you did it anyway.”
I laughed. Not the smartest reaction in the world, but I couldn’t help myself. “So, let me get this straight. You said one thing, but you meant somethin’ totally different. That ain’t the Travis I know.”
“And it ain’t the Adam I know to screw around with some girl when he knew he shouldn’t. You made a dumbass call, and now we’re payin’ the price.”
“I made a dumbass call?” I scoffed, furious. “Bud, normally it takes two to tango, but in this case it took three. We both hooked up with her, and then we both did it again one-on-one. And then, though we all knew it might make things worse, we had a…fuckin’ threesome with her again. How the hell are you gonna drop this all on my fuckin’ feet?”
He rose, anger flashing in his eyes. “If you’d have stayed away, I would’ve too. But you had to pick the one damn girl you knew I wanted.”
“You don’t always get what you want, Travis. Sometimes you gotta man up and accept that.”
I finished the rest of my beer with a single swig. I was getting steamed, the taste for whiskey growing in my mouth by the second.
“I gotta man up? Big fuckin’ words from the guy who couldn’t keep his hands off her!”
I rose from my seat and met his eyes. “There wasn’t a damn thing wrong with what I did. And if you were gonna act like this, maybe you should’ve put some fuckin’ thought into your words before tellin’ me it was okay for me and her to get together.”
“Maybe you’re right, ‘cause I sure as shit regret sayin’ ‘em.”
Our voices were raised, two booming shouts.
“There’s a hell of a lot of things I’m startin’ to regret right about now.”
Travis smirked, his eyes still narrowed in anger. “That right? Well, let’s fuckin’ hear ‘em.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could get a word out that I was most certainly going to want to take back, Skye appeared in the hallway. She was crying.
“You two…” she sobbed, her eyes moving from one of us to the other. “I find out I’m pregnant and you can’t go five minutes without screamin’ at each other like a couple of teenage boys hopped up on testosterone.”
Travis and I regarded one another. We both knew we’d screwed up. Hell if either of us was going to admit it, though.
“Skye, go back to bed,” Travis ordered, his tone sharp and cutting. “We need to hash this shit out.”
“Don’t talk to her like that,” I quickly said.
“Like what?”
“Boys!” Skye’s voice boomed surprisingly loudly for a woman. It was enough to silence Travis and me. “I don’t know what you’re sayin’ to one another, only that it was loud enough to wake me up. Now, I just found out that I’m going to be a mother, and
I come out here and find the two of you at each other’s damn throats. You think this is helpin’ matters any?”
No words from Travis or me. But I was still steamed, still pissed that he’d had the stones to say what he had. “I’m outta here,” I said. “Not in the mood for this shit.”
They were the wrong words, and I knew it the moment they’d come out of my mouth. But more than that, I knew I needed some time to think. Hell, maybe the kind of thinking you can only do with a few shots of whiskey in your belly. I snatched my keys up, storming out and shutting the door hard behind me. Moments later I was in my truck, pulling off the property and getting as far away from the situation as possible.
Fucking hell, what a mess. And worse than that, no one but Skye seemed to be handling it well at all. She was right and I knew it – she’d gotten a hell of a piece of news dropped on her lap and all Travis and I could do was squabble about it.
We needed time. Each one of us needed time to process what had happened. And more than that, I needed a drink. I headed to Crawford, ready to throw back a few and calm my ass down. I needed to play it smart, though. A few slams of whiskey might end with me throwing punches at whoever looked at me the wrong way. Last thing I needed was to wake up the next morning with a hangover in some holding cell.
As if right on cue, I spotted the flashing whites and blues of a police car behind me.
“Fuckin’ hell,” I growled to the empty interior of my truck.
I had no idea why I was being pulled over. Sure, I was steamed, but I was driving the damn speed limit. I pulled the truck over to the side of the road, the police car trailing behind me and coming to a stop. After taking out my ID and insurance card, I gripped the wheel and hoped to get my ticket and get back on the road.
But the moment I spotted the officer step out of the car and swagger toward me, I knew it wasn’t going to be that simple.
Officer Mayer had a grin on his face as he approached the truck, his thumbs hooked into his belt. He sauntered up to the side of my ride, a smirk on his face like he didn’t have a damn care in the world.
“Evening, officer,” I said.
It was dark, but he had on those mirrored shades. “Evening, Mr. Carter,” he said. “Would you be so kind as to let me see those?” He nodded towards my information. Slowly, I picked them up and handed them over. “Why, thank you. I’ll be just a second.” My papers in hand, he flashed me one last smirk before returning to his squad car.
Time passed by slowly. Twenty minutes later, he hadn’t returned. I knew what he was doing – making me wait, letting me know I was powerless, that he was the big man in charge. Finally, he returned. Once he was back, he whipped the information onto the passenger seat, the papers and ID scattering to the floorboard.
“You know, you coulda just handed them to me.” My words came out edged with anger, and I knew I’d said something stupid.
“You’re not takin’ a tone with me, are you, pal?”
I bit my tongue. “No. Just wanna know why you pulled me over, is all.”
“You’re not really in a position to be demandin’ information, buddy.”
“I ain’t demanding nothin’. But I’d like to know why you pulled me over, Officer.”
Another smirk. The fucker was playing a game with me, and I didn’t like it one bit.
“First, I’m gonna need you to step out of the truck.”
“What? Why? I was drivin’ proper. I didn’t do nothin’.”
“You disobeying a direct order from an officer of the law?”
I sucked in a breath and released it. “No.”
“Then step out of the damn truck.”
“I’ll step out of the truck when you tell me what’s goin’ on.”
He shook his head, almost sadly. “There you go again. You sure don’t know how to make a situation easy for yourself, do ya? Here, let me help.”
Officer Mayer opened the door, and before I could react, he unhooked my seatbelt and grabbed my arm, yanking me out of the truck with surprising strength. I stumbled as I got pulled out, falling on my ass in the dirt.
“What the shit?” Without thinking, I scrambled to my feet and got right up close to him. “What’re you doin’?”
He grabbed my wrist, squeezing it tightly. “None of your damn business. All you gotta do is listen and obey, got it?”
I yanked my hand out of his grasp. What happened next was all in slow motion. Accidently, my hand brushed his chest. I didn’t think I’d touched him all that hard, but Officer Mayer stumbled back a few inches. When he regained his composure, he glanced down at my chest and then back at me.
“That…” he said with another pleased smirk “…sure as hell looked like assaulting an officer to me.” Mayer rushed me fast, tackling me to the ground, my face slamming into the dirt.
“What the hell?”
Before I knew what was going on, he had cuffs on my wrists as he dragged me to my feet. Once I was standing, he pushed me toward his car. Seconds later, I was in the back, the door shutting hard behind me.
“Don’t know how to be smart,” he grumbled once he was in the driver’s seat. “That’s your damn problem. Let’s get you down to the station. We can talk this out like grownups.”
I had a pretty damn good feeling that wasn’t what would happen. Mayer pulled back onto the road, and all I could think was that I’d just made a bad situation a hell of a lot worse.
Skye
I was still shaken up from the fight between Adam and Travis. Getting yanked out of sleep by two men screaming at each other right after you’ve just found out you’re pregnant will do that to you.
Travis didn’t seem to be in the mood for talking. I didn’t blame him. I wondered if they’d have come to blows if I hadn’t stepped in to put a stop to the nonsense. He and I were now on the couch, sitting in silence until he broke it.
“Sorry you had to see that,” Travis mumbled.
“It’s fine. I get it. You guys got some serious damn news.”
“That’s no excuse. We need to put our shit aside and help you through this.” He shook his head, ashamed of his behavior. “We got at each other like a couple of kids, like you said.”
I was happy he seemed to be seeing reason. But that didn’t mean whatever bad blood was between them hadn’t been sorted out. The silence fell again. But before it could go on for too long, Travis’s phone rang. He snatched it up and answered.
“Hello? ...Yeah, this is him…Adam?...What? Are you fuckin’ serious?”
I frowned as I listened. I could tell it wasn’t good news.
“He’s there now? ...Shit, alright, alright…I’ll be down as fast as I can.” He hung up and without another word got out of his seat, going for his keys.
“Wait, what’s goin’ on?” I asked, watching him move.
“It’s Adam.”
“I got that, but what’s happening with him?”
“Dumbass got himself arrested.’
“What? Are you sure?”
“Unless this is some kinda fuckin’ prank, then yeah, I’m sure. Officer down at the station told me they had him in booking.”
My stomach sank. Adam had just told us he’d had a strange run-in with some cops driving outside of his house, and now he was arrested. Sure, there was a chance he’d gotten himself into some trouble, but he’d only been gone a half-hour. Not nearly enough time to get into some kind of drunken nonsense.
“What’re you gonna do?” I asked.
“I’m gonna go down to the station and find out what I can. And you’re gonna stay here until I know what’s what.”
“No way.”
Travis stopped and turned toward me. “No way?”
“No way,” I said as I rose to my feet.
“You heard what Adam said about the cops. They’re the law, but we sure as hell don’t know if we can trust them. You’re gonna stay here where it’s safe until I get to the bottom of what happened.”
“No,” I said. “I’m not gonna le
t you do that. If somethin’s happenin’, I wanna know about it.”
He took a slow, deep breath. “Skye, I know where you’re comin’ from, and I get it. But you gotta remember that you’re pregnant. Puttin’ yourself at risk means puttin’ the baby at risk.”
It was still surreal as hell, hearing him talk about the baby. Hard to believe I was actually pregnant. But I needed to put that aside for the moment. Adam could be in some serious trouble.
“Travis, we’re all in this together. If we’re gonna get through it, see the other side, we’re gonna need to stick by each other’s side. I might be pregnant, but I’m not helpless.” He opened his mouth as if to speak, but I continued before he could. “Now, maybe when I got a big ol’ baby bump to worry about, we can talk about me sittin around like a helpless waif. But for now, I’m not sittin’ at home like a good little girl.”
Travis said nothing at first, processing my words. But his face softened, and I got the impression he finally understood that when I got something into my mind, he wouldn’t be able to talk me out of it.
“I tell you to stay and you’re gonna start walkin’ into town the moment I’m gone,” he grumbled.
I smirked. “Now you’re gettin’ it. I don’t really take orders.”
“Alright, alright,” he said. “But we gotta be smart. No gettin’ into trouble if we can help it.”
I raised two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
He laughed. “Come on – move your stubborn, pregnant self. We got a friend in trouble.”
Adam was more than a friend, no doubt about that. But the point was made. Together, we headed out and were soon on our way off the property towards Crawford. I spent the drive wondering what the hell was going on. It was clear as a sunny day by that point that the cops weren’t on our side – not even a little. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were on Bryce’s payroll, doing his bidding like his private little army. It was a scary thought. But until we got down to the station and got some answers, worrying about what-ifs wouldn’t do us any good.
We were about halfway into town when I spotted a cop car behind us. “Travis,” I said, pointing at the rear-view mirror.