Chapter 2
Crystal watched as Ashton hit town and now drove with almost exquisite slowness, as if trying very hard to get himself under control.
Meanwhile he continued straight up to the bank, where he parked with a sure fierceness to his movements that had her reaching out.
“Look. Maybe you need to calm down first.”
He glanced at her briefly and gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white as bones.
“Yeah, that’s a great idea,” he snapped.
“But first I need to make sure she hasn’t done something completely beyond repair.
” And, with that, he hopped out, Crystal trailing behind him as fast as she could, as he walked into the bank.
He scanned the area quickly, while everyone seemed to be busy with clients.
But then he saw Grandma and strode toward the older woman, sitting in the bank manager’s office, leaning in to say something with an earnestness that Crystal had seen from her many times.
What was happening here wasn’t clear at all, but obviously it was major.
Crystal just didn’t know what it could be.
She was also unsure of this new version of Ashton, when she thought she’d known him very well.
Now he was walking forward as if ready to slay dragons.
And not in a good way. She grabbed his arm as he headed toward the manager’s office, even as other people also came to him to see if they could help.
“Ashton, slow down. Maybe this isn’t the best time to be doing what you intend to do here. ”
He looked at her and muttered, “There is no good time.”
“I get it, but you don’t know what this is about.”
“But I can tell you that she does,” he noted, “and if she sees me—”
“There’ll be all hell to pay,” she interjected. By the expression on his face, he knew that too.
He got to the door and pushed it open. Crystal stepped in front of the other employees, who were trying to stop him. With an apologetic smile to those she had blocked, she stepped in behind him, just in time to hear Johanna Nelson, thanking the manager, before she looked back and gasped in horror.
“You!” she cried out, bolting to her feet. She backed up to the windows, as if looking for an outlet. And there was none, at least nothing open. Grandmother looked from Ashton to Crystal, her face pale.
Ashton asked the bank manager, “How far did she get?” When the man didn’t immediately speak up, Ashton asked again, his tone angry, “How far, Roger?”
The bank manager sighed. “Not far, not for the lack of trying,” he added. “She’s been in here for the last forty-five minutes, trying to get me to release the money.”
Ashton just nodded at Roger. Then he faced his grandmother. “Out … now.”
Johanna frowned at him, shaking her head. “No. … I’m not leaving.” And then she turned to Crystal. “I’m not going anywhere—”
“Yes, you are,” Ashton declared, his tone bitter. “Otherwise we’re calling the sheriff.”
She paled at that and stared at him. “How dare you come back like this?”
“Yeah, well, we’ll talk about all the potential how dare you scenarios soon enough, Grandma,” he spat. “But right now you decide whether you’re coming peaceably or I’m calling the sheriff on behalf of the bank.” He turned to the manager. “Sorry, Roger.”
“Maybe you need to do a little bit more in this instance,” Roger admitted, with a meaningful look.
“Oh, I’m working on it,” Ashton declared. “Do you have any update on my grandfather?”
Roger frowned at him, then glanced over at his grandmother, who was staring at Ashton sullenly. “Update? Johanna just told me how he was at home and just not feeling well.”
Crystal turned to her. “Why would you lie about that?” she asked.
The older woman glared at her and stated, “This has nothing to do with you.”
Crystal winced because being reminded of her place was something she was well accustomed to. Know her place, sit and be pretty, mind her Ps and Qs. She was adopted after all, not even formally at that, according to everybody who thought it mattered.
That attitude was a major part of her plan to leave this year. She’d been trying to complete her education, looking to set up her own business, so she had someplace to call her own. And every time she turned around, it seemed like there was hell to pay from somebody.
She turned to Ashton, who even now glared back at Johanna.
“Crystal’s family. Don’t speak to her that way. Now make up your mind right now—leave or the sheriff?” He pulled out his phone and presumably proceeded to call the sheriff.
Johanna flushed. “Fine, I’m leaving.” She glared at Ashton. “But you haven’t heard the end of this. I have a lawyer now.”
“Good,” he replied, bitterness in his tone. “You’ll need one. And your husband has a lawyer too, but first we need to find him.”
Roger gasped.
Crystal nodded and shared, “Grandpa’s been missing for better than three days now.”
Grandma stared at Ashton for a long moment. “Surely you don’t think I had something to do with that?” Apprehension filled her tone.
He looked up from his phone and studied her intently. “Maybe you need to convince me that you didn’t,” he replied, staring at her, “because what I’m seeing here is a woman trying to clean out the accounts of a man who has been declared missing.”
“But missing means I can’t access anything or have him legally declared dead,” she snapped, “for like seven freaking years.”
He nodded. “Guess you should have thought about that first then, huh?”
She blinked at that. “I don’t understand,” she muttered innocently.
“But you do understand,” he argued, “and it’s all part of the act you’re putting on for our friend Roger here. Now”—Ashton looked from Roger and back to Johanna—“if you’re leaving, we’re going now.”
She looked at him defiantly, and then her shoulders slumped. “Fine, we’re leaving.” She turned to the bank manager and muttered, “I won’t forget this.”
He gave her a resigned expression. “I’m sorry, Johanna, but there are legalities that I won’t bend or break, not even for you.”
It was the not even for you part that had Crystal staring at him. “I hope that means you wouldn’t do it for anybody,” she stated, frowning at him. “I’m really not sure what’s going on here.”
“And you don’t need to know,” Johanna snapped. “It’s none of your business.”
She sucked in her breath at that and stared at her grandmother.
“Yeah, you’ve made that abundantly clear.
Thank you very much,” she snapped, her tone bitter, despite not trying to antagonize her.
“Just so you know. I came here thinking maybe you would need, I don’t know, some help with mediation or protection even. ”
Johanna rolled her eyes at that, then sniffed, scrunching up her nose. “I don’t need protection from you. And, if Ashton has any sense, my grandson will see himself on the other side of the law on this one.”
He sighed and quipped, “Right, like last time?”
“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” she stated briskly. “I got rid of you for what—hasn’t it been six years?”
“Yeah, you did,” he agreed, “but yet you didn’t. I’ve been in the background the entire time. Then, of course, maybe Grandpa didn’t tell you that.”
She stared at him in shock. “What?”
He nodded. “Did you really think that we would let you take over and destroy the entire place, our home and Grandpa’s business, with your gambling debts?”
Crystal stared and tossed a quick glance over at the bank manager, who was trying hard to school his face, to make it not react the way it wanted to react. She was shocked as well.
Johanna hissed at him. “That’s just BS, and you know it.”
He shook his head. “Nope, it sure isn’t, and the real question is whether we’re going to keep you on this side of the jail cell or whether you’re going inside one,” he spelled out, eyeing her intently.
“Either you leave now or I call the sheriff, and we’ll just deal with all this right out here in the open. ”
She paled quickly and marched out.
“I’ll see you at home,” he called out behind her, as she exited the manager’s door.
She looked back at the door and shrugged. “No, you will not.”
He nodded. “That’s fine. I’ll just call the sheriff and have you picked up if you aren’t home in an hour.”
She froze, turned at the doorway, and stared at him in shock.
He grimaced. “Yes, that is where we’re at.”
She took several slow attempts at calming her breathing, glaring at him still, then turned to the bank manager and asked, “You heard him threaten me, didn’t you?”
He looked at her with sympathy. “No, not at all. That’s not a threat,” he stated.
“It appears that some legalities have been ignored. And, if that’s the case, those absolutely need to be straightened up.
I would highly suggest you deal with them.
” His tone was stiff, also edging on outrage that she would have involved him in whatever she had going on.
She stared at Ashton and then threw a fit. “This isn’t fair. This is abuse.”
“Right,” Crystal snorted. “Ashton hasn’t even been here for six years. Give it a rest, Grandma.”
“You can see what kind of trouble he’s causing me right now. He’s rude, inconsiderate, not to mention nosy. He just rides into town as if he owns the place.”
He looked at her with a quiet smile and shrugged. “Because I do.”
Ashton drove behind his grandmother, making sure she was fully aware that he was right there on her bumper, about to fulfill his promise to her that she needed to behave herself or else.
He was sorry that he had blurted that all out in front of Crystal. She was shocked, if nothing else. As they drove home, she finally broke the silence.
“I don’t understand what’s going on here.”