Chapter 22
J ackson’s narrowed stare slid to Lainey before locking on me again as he quickly erased the distance between us. His hands clenched into tight fists. Jaw twitching in a telling way.
Reaching out, I gently curled a hand around Lainey’s hip and pulled her and Kaia a step behind me, passing off the basket of berries as I did. Even though I was sure Lainey only let me for my niece’s sake, the action—the subtle claim—brought Jackson up short for a split second before his anger flared hotter.
“Yeah, you don’t touch her,” he seethed.
“You’re right. Those bruises weren’t from me.”
“Asher,” Lainey wheezed, nearly choking over my name at my harsh reply.
For a second, I wondered if I’d had it all wrong. Because Lainey sounded horrified, and Jackson looked taken aback and genuinely confused before his frustration took over again. But I’d known it the morning I’d seen the marks on her jaw, and I knew it as I stared him down then. Lainey would’ve corrected my assumption long ago if it hadn’t been him.
“What’s he talking about, Lainey, and where’ve you been?” Jackson demanded as he tried moving around me to better see her. When I shifted ever so slightly with him, an edgy laugh left him. “Whoever you are, this isn’t a conversation for you. And I really don’t appreciate how close you are to my fiancée.”
“Not,” Lainey snapped from behind me. “I am not your fiancée.”
I tried to keep my expression neutral when her response had that earlier hope exploding in my chest.
All week, I’d been dreading the day I’d see a ring on her finger. Not only had she just shut that down, but she also sounded like she had no intention of making that a reality with Jackson McCoy.
“And you aren’t getting any closer to them,” I added with a subtle tilt of my head. “You’re not allowed anywhere near my niece, and I won’t let you near Lainey when you’re like this.”
A sharp, berating sound burst from Jackson as he sneered, “Who are you?”
“This is Asher,” Lainey hurried to say, almost sounding as if she was worried for what I would’ve answered with. “Asher Briggs—my boss.”
At that, Jackson took me in as if just seeing me for the first time. Suspicion, understanding, and a whisper of betrayal burned in his eyes as they darted back to what he could see of Lainey. “I get it now,” he murmured, his lip curling. “Why you won’t quit.”
A mocking laugh crept up my throat. “I doubt it’s whatever you’re coming up with. You haven’t seen her with my niece.”
“You’re messing with things you don’t understand,” he ground out. “You and your meaningless job are ruining things that have been in the works for decades. Find someone else because Lainey’s done. She’s needed here.”
I waited for a response from her, but when I only felt a wall of uncertainty and pain pushing against me, I shrugged. “She’ll tell me when she’s done.”
Jackson smiled, all bared teeth and frustration, making him look feral before he blew out a sharp breath and tried looking around me again. “Lainey, we need to talk. It’s been nearly a week, you can’t keep doing this—I don’t even know where you’re staying.” When she didn’t respond in any way, he practically sneered her name. “ Lainey .”
I slanted my head enough to speak to her but keep Jackson in my line of sight. “Do you wanna talk to him?”
After another handful of seconds, a muted sigh left her as she stepped around to my side. “I said what I needed to,” she told him with a small shrug. “If you need someone to talk to, you should probably head over to the General Store.”
A horrified awareness fell over Jackson’s expression before determination replaced it all as he charged forward. “Lainey, you don’t?—”
“No, see, I said you weren’t getting near them,” I seethed as I forced him back a handful of feet, his hands clasped together and useless between mine as I dug into pressure points there. “And unless you want me to drop you right now, I suggest you walk away and leave her alone until she’s ready to deal with you.”
Jackson’s chest pitched and his eyebrows slanted low over his eyes as he studied his restrained hands before his glare snapped to me.
“I can think of at least a dozen different ways to knock you out and even more to kill you, Mr. McCoy,” I said when he started speaking. “And if you think I haven’t thought of doing every one of them ever since I saw the marks on her jaw and side, you’d be mistaken.”
There it was.
The realization of what he’d done.
“Now...” I jerked my head toward the food trucks and booths behind him. “Do the smart thing and go back the way you came. Wait for her to come to you.”
Jackson didn’t move to leave or agree. He just stared me down before saying, “After all this, I can’t figure out if she’s refusing to quit because of you or because she’s afraid of you.”
“I’ll never give her a reason to be afraid of me. But considering I know every single thing about you, it’s safe to say you should be a little afraid of me.”
At the roll of his eyes as he tried ripping his hands free, I lowered my voice and started listing off every piece of information I had on him and had memorized over the week. His birth date and social, his number and address, the details of his truck.
“I get it,” he broke when I started listing the names of his family. Hardened eyes shifted past me for a moment before snapping back to me. “Look, I don’t care what you say or what you know; you being a deranged stalker isn’t gonna stop anything. She belongs here. She belongs with me. And she knows it.”
I let the corner of my mouth tip up. “We’ll see,” I murmured as I released him.
With nothing more than a scathing glare, Jackson left.
“People were looking,” Lainey whispered as she stepped up beside me, sounding somewhat awed, slightly embarrassed, and wholly unsure.
“I don’t care,” I muttered as I continued watching Jackson’s retreating figure. “He wasn’t respecting you. He came charging after you and Kaia.”
A soft hum came from my side, pulling my attention to Lainey long enough to see Kaia asleep in her arms, and the basket clinging to her fingertips.
“Let me take Kaia,” I offered as I reached for my niece.
“I’ve got her,” she assured me as she handed me the berries instead, a small smile tipping up the corners of her mouth as her gaze briefly settled on me. “I love these moments with her.”
Agreement rumbled in my chest.
As difficult as anything was for me when it came to Kaia, the few times she’d fallen asleep when I’d been holding her were something I’d come to cherish.
“What’d you say to him?” Lainey asked as she started in the direction Jackson had left.
I thought over what all to tell her before finally saying, “Things that might bother you. If you want, I’ll tell you everything. But I told him enough for him to know how I feel about what he did to you. I made sure he knew what I thought about him trying to contact you before you’re ready to talk.”
Lainey was silent for so long that I almost apologized for how I’d responded to her boyfriend, but she eventually said, “Thank you.”
“You’re not mad?”
An unconvincing sound left her. “No, I just hadn’t decided if I was gonna tell him about the...you know...bruises,” she said so softly, I almost couldn’t make out the word over the crowd we were walking into, then hurried to assure me, “Nothing like that had ever happened before, and I’m not sure he realized how hard he was gripping me.”
“Doesn’t change that it happened, Lainey.”
“I know,” she whispered, sounding ashamed. A tone I’d heard too many times in the past. One that had always infuriated me, but coming from her?
“That wasn’t your fault,” I told her, once again bringing her to a stop with me. Only that time, my hand slid to her waist and stayed there. That time, her nearly inaudible gasp betrayed her as her wide gaze darted from my hand before locking on my eyes, trapping me in place and making me want so many things in that moment.
To pull her closer. To capture those full lips. To confess more than I already had.
But I just forced myself to ask, “You know that, right?”
She quickly blinked before tearing her stare away, her delicate throat shifting with her forced swallow. “I—” A short, self-deprecating huff burst from her. “I mean, I do. Of course I do. But there’s those parts of me that think this is all because I stopped doing what was expected of me. So, I spiral down and?—”
“Nothing,” I said fiercely, my hand flexing against her and shifting her ever so slightly closer. “You did nothing to deserve that. Even if he hadn’t left marks, he doesn’t get to talk to you the way he does. He doesn’t get to control you the way he’s trying to. Men like that shouldn’t be in relationships. Men like him don’t deserve women like you.”
Her head bobbed unsteadily before she whispered, “Right.” A few tense seconds passed as we stood there, staring at each other, before she rocked back a step and flippantly rolled her eyes. “Really, I think he’s so mad because he’s in love with someone else, and he’s trying to ignore it for the sake of our parents’ plan for us...which I’m not going along with anymore.”
For someone who’d been dating Jackson most her life and was supposed to have gotten engaged to him recently, she said the news surprisingly calmly.
“And you knew about this?”
“Monday was an eye-opening day for many reasons,” she said meaningfully.
My mouth parted to once again ask her to let me explain the conversation she’d overheard, but I knew she would shut it down, so I forced the words back and instead asked, “Wouldn’t that be better then? For him?”
“I’ve been thinking about it,” she said with a tilt of her head as she turned to continue walking. “I think he feels just as trapped as I do—not in the work; he loves what he does. But the merging of our companies has been the plan for so long, and our parents’ dream has turned into his dream. But he’s mentioned that he’s given up his life for me, so I think he’s been ignoring whatever has or hasn’t been happening between him and this other girl to ensure the merge happens.”
“And you no longer wanna work here, which means no merger.”
“Right,” she said on a sigh.
“Why can’t they merge without you and Jackson?”
At that, an exasperated laugh left her. “They can,” Lainey said as if she didn’t know why anyone else didn’t understand that fact. “They could’ve merged so long ago; that’s what’s so frustrating about this. But our parents have always acted like it all hinges on Jackson and me getting married and taking over the companies. And that...”—she made an uncomfortable sound, her words getting softer when she continued—“that would be my sister.”
I’d already spotted her hurrying through the crowd before Lainey had ever said anything. I’d just been hoping she was heading anywhere other than to us.
“Don’t be surprised if she asks again what time you’re picking her up tonight,” Lainey murmured.
“Not interested.”
This time, Lainey hesitated for a few beats before whispering, “I know.” The two words soft and thoughtful and not at all like they’d sounded when we’d had this conversation before.
“Hi, right, so,” Wren began, already talking before she reached us, “Mom and Dad know.”
“Know what?” Lainey asked when Wren didn’t elaborate.
Wren gestured to all of me, a teasing little smirk tugging at her lips as she eyed me before subtly shaking herself out and saying, “Apparently, it got back to Mom a few times that you were wandering around with a man—even in parts of the fields that weren’t open just yet. Which, I would say naughty but...”—she gave another flip of her hair—“this is Lainey we’re talking about, so I know nothing was happening.”
I stole a look at the girl beside me, noting Lainey’s wide eyes and the red creeping into her cheeks as if we’d been caught.
But Wren was right...nothing had happened other than Lainey and me arguing over our issues and her trusting me with what was happening in her life. But the blush on Lainey’s face then? I knew that had everything to do with me confessing to looking for her for nine months, and it had me fighting a smile.
“Anyway,” Wren went on, eyes widening as if to convey this is where things got bad, “I only know all this because Mom was trying to rope me into working the checkout with her, and she was going on and on about how this meant you and Jackson were making up. Then Jackson came storming up like an angry bull, ranting about our favorite jerk over here.” She reached out to grab my arm, but I shifted away.
“Long story short,” she went on, unfazed, “Mom called Dad. Dad’s looking for you.”
“Oh.” The word seemed to be forced out of Lainey’s lungs and had her face paling.
“Great,” I said with a shrug. “I’ve wanted to meet your dad.”
“No,” Wren said, drawing out the word as Lainey’s head snapped in my direction, already shaking as she echoed her sister. “No. No, I don’t think...no.”
“I’m not afraid of your dad, Lainey.”
A frantic laugh burst from her. “I’m more than aware. It’s just—please don’t,” she practically begged. “Not here. Not now.” When I started holding my ground, she took a few steps away from her sister and lowered her voice when I followed. “Asher, please . The few times I’ve seen him this week, we’ve fought—that’s all we do lately. About their expected place for me. About working for you.
“And if you thought Jackson was mad?” she asked, her body seeming to sag a little even as she tightened her grip on Kaia. “His thoughts and words are straight from my dad. And my dad won’t let this be a pleasant meeting. It’ll turn into a scene that he’ll use as more fire against me later.”
I ground my jaw as I took in her worry. “I hear you. But what do you want me to do? Run away? Hide? That isn’t me.”
“Lainey Ray,” a rough voice scratched out, making Lainey’s eyelids flutter shut.
I glanced to the side to see a tall, weathered man glaring directly at me as Wren slowly slipped away. “Mr. Pearson.”
He looked at my free hand when I extended it but never went to shake it. “Assuming you’re the main reason behind my daughter’s continued disobedience, I’d like to know exactly why you’re on my property.”
A hushed laugh bled from me as I brought my hand back to rub at my jaw. “There somewhere we can talk?”
“Nothing to talk about. I want you off my property.”
“Dad—”
“I’ll deal with you in a minute,” he said over Lainey, holding a hand up to silence her in a move that had the muscle in my jaw twitching.
I knew how I was. I knew I talked over people the way he’d just done. I knew I’d hurt Lainey more times than I could count, even without meaning to, because of the way I spoke to people. But I’d never spoken to her like that.
Like she was nothing.
“No, I think we should go somewhere and talk,” I said in a tone that left no room for argument. “Get to know each other. Understand where the other’s coming from.”
Mr. Pearson studied me, seeming more irate than wary, before jerking his head past me. “Office building’s back there.”
“What are you doing?” Lainey practically begged when I turned and reached for Kaia.
“He can’t do a lot if I’m holding a baby. Probably better for me to be holding onto something too,” I whispered, trying to force a tease into the words that I in no way felt.
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“I know,” I assured her as I switched the basket of berries for my sleeping niece. “Don’t wait for us.”
“Asher . . .”
“Trust me?”
She wavered, her stare bouncing between me and where her dad was waiting a few times before those stormy eyes locked on me as she confessed, “I’ve trusted you since that very first day.”
The corner of my mouth twitched as I reached out, trailing my fingers along her free hand and earning a shaky gasp from her. “We’ll see you in a few hours.” Turning, I met Mr. Pearson’s murderous glare head on and cradled Kaia closer against my chest. “After you.”