Austin's Revenge (The Townsends Book 4)

by Angie Campbell

Chapter 12

  Friday, August 8

  Zane was still in the bathroom getting ready for work and had just finished brushing his teeth. He was getting ready to put his uniform shirt on when he heard Amanda scream, “Zane!” at the top of her lungs. When he heard the terror in her voice, he was convinced Austin had somehow managed to get in, despite the patrol car he had already seen pass the house several times in the last hour.

  He came running into the kitchen and immediately stopped dead in his tracks, his jaw dropping open. He found her standing on one of the dining room chairs, with nothing but a towel wrapped around her. He stood there staring at her, unable to speak for several seconds.

  “Don’t just stand there. Kill it,” she said, screaming once again.

  “Kill what?” he asked, feeling a little dazed and still unable to take his eyes off her. She might have noticed how he was reacting if she had been looking at him instead of the spider in the floor.

  “That,” she said, pointing at the floor by his feet.

  When he finally looked down, he noticed a spider no bigger than a dime by the toe of his boot. “You want me to kill that tiny little spider?” he asked, trying not to laugh.

  “It is not tiny,” she said, sounding indignant. She had started to stomp her foot, but the chair shook, reminding her of her precarious position. She finally looked up at him, clutching her towel tighter to herself and glared at him. “It’s also not funny.”

  “What were you doing in here before the monstrous spider came out and tried to attack you?” He was trying hard not to laugh but couldn’t seem to help the huge grin that seemed permanently glued to his face. He wasn’t sure if the grin was from finding her in her towel or the situation. He was finding a lot of delight in both.

  “I was starting your coffee. The least you could do is kill that thing,” she huffed, pointing at the tiny spider once again.

  “Okay, I’ll kill it,” he said, still grinning at her. “But you have to give me your towel first,” he said, sticking his hand out, as if to take it.

  At first, she just grinned at him. He should have realized he was in trouble the second her demeanor changed so drastically. If he’d had any idea she would do it, he would never have asked. He could have told you without it ever happening, he was going to pay for it for the rest of the day. He could tell by the look on her face, she knew it as well.

  When she unwrapped the towel from around her body and dropped it in his outstretched hand, he just groaned and closed his eyes. I’m going to be seeing that sexy body of hers in my sleep for several nights to come.

  He dropped his head before he opened his eyes, so he would be looking at the floor when they opened. He stepped on the spider with the toe of his boot, then turned around and left the kitchen as fast as he could. There’s no way he would have made it to work on time, if he had gotten another look at her in the altogether. He wouldn’t have been able to resist the temptation to throw her over his shoulder and cart her back to bed.

  ******

  Jeff shook his head at his partner and crawled in the passenger side of their patrol car. “Okay, Grumpy. What’s your problem? As if I didn’t already know.”

  Zane jammed the key in the ignition and gave the other man a dirty look. “Shut up, Jeff.”

  “Wow,” he exclaimed, unable to hold back the grin spreading across his face. “You’re worse than normal.”

  “And?” he asked, rolling his eyes.

  “What happened? Did Amanda and you have a fight this morning?”

  “Amanda and I don’t fight,” he growled.

  “Maybe that’s your problem,” the other man snorted with a shake of his head. “Maybe you should.”

  “Leave me alone, Jeff,” he grumbled, turning out onto the road.

  He shook his head, laughing. “Not going to happen, Man. And you know it. So, you might as well tell me what your problem is.” Zane looked over at him with a glare, not bothering to give a response.

  “Still don’t want to talk?” he asked, shaking his head. “Maybe someone should just tell that woman you’re in love with her, for you.”

  “What the heck?” Zane grumbled, smacking the steering wheel. “Have you been talking to Luke?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing,” he replied, refusing to look over at him.

  “What? Are you going to try and tell me you’re not in love with her?”

  They were sitting at one of the two stop lights in town, waiting for a green light, so Zane dropped his head back and closed his eyes. “Shut up, Jeff.”

  He was really starting to get a better idea of how out-of-it Zane was this morning. He hadn’t threatened even once yet to tell Hannah he was in love with her to try and get him to drop the subject. “You know, Zane, your whole family knows. They think you haven’t realized it yet. I would think, as well as they know you, they would know better. Of course, I don’t think they realize just how good at covering up your true feelings you are, when you really want to, either. I’ve heard your mom say more than once, ‘You can’t do innocent no matter how hard you try. You always look guilty of something.’ She should realize, that’s just because you usually are guilty of something. Not because you can’t act.”

  This time when Zane looked over at his partner he literally snarled. “Drop it, Jeff. I don’t want to talk about this.”

  “However, I know you,” he continued as if the other man hadn’t spoken. “Most likely, you’ve always known.”

  “If I tell you what my problem is, will you shut up?” he growled, gripping the wheel so tight, his knuckles turned white.

  “It couldn’t hurt.”

  “I saw her naked this morning,” he groaned as if merely mentioning it, intensified the memory. “And she knew what she was doing to me. Worst of all, I asked for it.”

  “Wow,” Jeff said, actually feeling sympathy for the guy. He knew for a fact he wouldn’t have been really easy to work with if he had seen Hannah in the buff. He’d have been like a bear with a thorn in his paw. “What do you mean, you asked for it?”

  “She was in the kitchen in a towel and saw a spider,” he started, rubbing his hand over his forehead where a headache started to form. “She’s always been extremely afraid of the things. When I got to the kitchen she was standing on one of the chairs. I told her she had to give me the towel first if she wanted me to kill it,” he continued, groaning at the memory. “She did.”

  “Oohhh,” his partner mumbled, wiping a hand over his mouth.

  “What’s that mean?”

  He chuckled, shaking his head. “It means, your days are number.”

  “What?” he asked, nearly swerving off the road.

  “Somehow, and I have no clue how, she knows you’re in love with her. My guess is she’s not sure how to go about things. And if whoever told her, told her you haven’t realized it yet, she may be waiting on you to figure it out for yourself. She may just be trying to slowly push you in the right direction.”

  “Right? Not likely. I couldn’t get that lucky,” he grumbled, almost feeling a need to punch his partner in the face. “And so help me, if you tell anyone about this conversation, I’m going to tell you know who how you feel about her.”

  “Wait a minute,” Jeff chuckled, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead. “What do you mean you couldn’t get that lucky?”

  “Shut up, Jeff.”

  “You mean you haven’t realized she’s in love with you?”

  “That’s not even possible.”

  Jeff looked over at Zane for a second, then decided to try a different tactic. “What would you do about it, if you found out she was in love with you?”

  “Probably disappear for a whole week. It would take me that long just to let her out of my bed,” he groaned, shaking his head to clear it. “Hopefully by the time the week was up, Mom and Bethany would already have a wedding planned.”

  “Wow,” he whispered, not sure if he was surprised or not. “Zane, she is in
love with you.”

  “Right,” he snarled sarcastically, smacking the wheel for a second time.

  ******

  “Zane, have you seen my cell phone?” Amanda asked, frustration in her tone.

  “Didn’t you leave it on the end table over by the door?” Zane asked, walking back in the kitchen.

  “Yeah, but I was on it just a little bit ago. Now I don’t remember what I did with it. It rang about two minutes after you kissed me, and I was a little out of it,” she said, flushing bright red at her accidental honesty, and causing Zane to chuckle.

  “Here,” he said, pulling his own cell out of his pocket, thinking about kissing her again. “I’ll try calling it.”

  He had moved over and was standing beside the refrigerator and he just barely heard what sounded like ‘Crazy Train’ coming from it. When he looked down, he saw the bright pink lanyard from her keys sticking out of the door, holding it open.

  He opened the door, giving her an amused look and saw her keys and phone laying on the top shelf. When he looked over at the counter, he noticed the milk was still sitting there.

  He picked the keys and phone up and looked at her, trying not to laugh. “Were you trying to put the milk up?”

  “Oh,” she mumbled, turning red all over again. “Yeah, I was.”

  “Were you going somewhere?”

  “I need to go to the store. We’re out of eggs, bacon and sausage. I figured you’d want them for breakfast in the morning. You seem to eat more on Saturdays and Sundays when you don’t have to work.”

  He stepped toward her, pushing her up against the counter and trapping her between his arms. “I probably ought to go with you. I don’t want you losing your keys and phone in the store. You and Joe would probably be looking for them all night.”

  “Funny, Zane. My senses have...”

  He didn’t give her a chance to finish. He cupped her chin in his hand and leaned down to kiss her. At first, it was slow and gentle, but soon turned very heated and he could feel his control slipping away. When he heard her moan, he yanked her up in his arms, lifting her up off the floor. He knew he needed to stop immediately, or he wasn’t going to be stopping till early morning, but it took all the will power he had in his being to sit her back down and back away.

  “Mandy, we have to stop.” He turned around to face the empty room. He took a few deep breaths, working to calm himself back down.

  He didn’t know what his deal was. He had no control with her. He felt like a randy teenager, getting laid for the first time. He’d had no warning that being in love with someone could make such a difference in the effect they could have on your self-control. He had never had this much trouble before. Not even when he was a teenager.

  She reached out to touch him and felt him vibrating under her hand. “The store can wait till morning. I’m okay with this, Zane. I can handle it.”

  “No, you can’t. You’ve just convinced yourself you can. We need to get out of this house for a little while. The store is the perfect place. Is there anything else we need?”

  She sighed softly. She knew it was going to take a while, but it didn’t stop her from being disappointed. “Not unless you want to get something special for supper tomorrow night.”

  “I don’t know. We can think about it. We might eat at Mom and Dad’s tomorrow night.” He was thinking if he were in the house with her all day by themselves tomorrow, he was going to give in, and do exactly what she had just asked him to. Especially if she kept trying to push him to that end.

  Less than five minutes later they were on the road, heading to the store. “Do you use ‘Crazy Train’ as everyone’s ring tone?”

  “No,” she said, trying not to laugh.

  “So why do you use it for me?”’

  “It just fits.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Sometimes when I’m around you, I feel like I’m on an out of control train with no breaks,” she said, flushing scarlet for about the hundredth time that night.

  “Okay,” he said, trying not to laugh. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

  She shook her head, unable to find the right words without just coming out and telling him she was in love with him. Unfortunately, that was still going to have to wait a while longer.

  ******

  Ashley walked into the Bayheart Bar in Ruby Falls and immediately spotted her target. She quickly made her way across the floor strewn with peanut shells and bits of pretzel. She was so intent on her objective, she never noticed the big burly man that had started to follow her, or she might have turned and made a run for the door.

  When she reached Austin Green’s table, she ran the tip of a well-manicured fingernail across his shoulders before taking the stool beside him. “I was wondering if I might find you here.”

  He turned only enough to the left to see who it was. “Ashley Mullins,” he snorted, immediately turning back to the beer in front of him. “What do you want?”

  “I thought maybe we could work together on fixing a little problem we share,” she shrugged as if what he had to say in response didn’t matter.

  “What could that possibly be?” he asked, staring at her in the mirror behind the bar.

  “I would think that would be obvious.”

  He spun his stool, so he could face her and gave her a hard look. “Humor me.”

  “Fine,” she huffed, throwing her hands up in frustration. “Getting Amanda away from Zane. Or in my case, getting Zane away from Amanda.”

  He snorted again, turning his back to the bar to prop against it. “Why would you want to help me? Even if we manage to get them to split up, you’re not likely to get Zane back. Even I know once he moves on from one woman, he never goes back for seconds.”

  She huffed, standing to her feet. “You know, if you didn’t want my help, all you had to do was say so. You didn’t have to get nasty about it.”

  When she started to flounce off, he grabbed her by the arm to pull her back. “Hey, I didn’t say I wasn’t willing to work with you. I just feel you need to understand your chances of getting him to take you back are very low,” he said, smirking at her.

  “I realize you must be one of those men who like chubby women,” she sneered, looking down her nose at him with disgust. “Considering how determined you are to get Amanda back, but I’m not without my wiles.”

  “Oh,” he chuckled. “You completely misunderstand my reasons for wanting Amanda back.” He eyed her with an appreciative eye before continuing on. “You’re much more to my liking.”

  She laughed, then gave him a very serious look. “While I agree with your taste, don’t get any ideas.”

  “Oh, come on, why not?” he cajoled.

  “You’re not my type,” she snorted.

  “What, I don’t have enough money?” he asked, bitterly.

  “Well, there is that,” she sighed. “Besides the fact my whole purpose in helping you is so I can get Zane back.”

  He shrugged, not really caring one way or the other. “Like I said, I don’t think you have any chance of getting him back, but I’ll work with you.”

  Jerimiah MacGregor slapped his hand down on the bar behind them and growled, “Are either of you going to order anything else? It’s Friday night. You can’t just take up space at the bar.”

  “Fine,” Ashley snapped, eyeing the big burly bartender with disdain. “Give him another round of whatever he’s having, and I’ll take a diet soda.”

  Jerimiah snorted, staring down at the rail-thin blonde. “You don’t need a diet soda.”

  “Why, thank you,” she said, patting her hair as she beamed up at him.

  “You need a bacon cheeseburger and an order of chili cheese fries with a big piece of chocolate cake for dessert. A big chocolate milk shake would be helpful as well. You’re so skinny, you got bones sticking out,” he added very dryly.

  She huffed, sitting up straighter. “Well, I never.”

  “You didn’t have to tell me th
at,” he snorted, placing another beer in front of Austin. “A person can tell by looking at you, you’ve not eaten a cheeseburger once, at least in the last ten or fifteen years. If you had even eaten one before then, I’d be surprised.” He placed her diet soda in front of her before turning to another customer.

  “Well, that was rude,” she huffed, turning her glare on Austin. “Is he always so unpleasant?”

  “This is a bar, Ashley,” he laughed, shaking his head at her. “Not a five-star restaurant.”

  “That doesn’t mean he has to be rude,” she scoffed. “I wonder what he would think if I complained to Jarrod?”

  “I wouldn’t bother doing that, if I were you,” he scoffed before taking a big swig of his beer.

  She gave him such a pinched look, her eyebrows completely disappeared under her bangs. “Why not?”

  “Jarrod Bayheart finds MacGregor’s attitude amusing. All he would do is laugh and ask you if you needed escorted out of the building. Then he’d probably get one of the younger MacGregors over there to haul you out,” he added, pointing to the two huge men standing on either side of the door. “Thrown over his shoulder, if necessary.”

  “You mean there’s more where he came from?” she asked, giving the two hulking figures at the door a disgusted look.

  “Yeah. They’re three of Lance MacGregors younger brothers,” he snarled. “You do know who the MacGregors of Sapphire Springs are, don’t you? There’s twelve of them all together. Nine of them are male. They’re almost as bad as the Townsends. It’s a little easier to compete against them. They don’t have the money the Townsends do. Jeremiah, over there,” he said, raising his beer in the direction of the cantankerous bartender, “has a day job as a construction worker. As a matter-of-fact, he works for Amanda’s boss, Randel Reese.”

  “Huh,” she huffed. “I couldn’t care less who he works for. This place is run by a bunch of insufferable louts.”

  “Insufferable louts?” he chuckled, shaking his head. “No wonder Zane dumped you. You might be a little too hoity toity for my taste, after all.”