Chapter 18
Garrett threw his hand up to shield his eyes from the headlights, his heart racing beneath his T-shirt. He never meant to kiss her. He shouldn’t have let it happen, and with all the vehicle tracks he had found when he got home, he shouldn’t have let his guard down.
“Well, guess the rumors are true,” a voice called from behind a now-open driver’s side door. “Ole Garrett Myers is shooting his shot with Beth Young. Again. ”
A chill ran down Garrett’s spine as he turned to Beth. “Go inside.”
“Who is it?” she choked out, her voice still raspy from their kiss.
He shook his head, this time lowering his voice to get the point across as he gestured to the door. “ Go inside. Now. ”
“I—”
“Just go,” he snapped once more at her, heading down the porch steps to confront Ty Miller head on, without the haze of the lights on his truck. “What do you want, Ty?” He approached the dark figure, not missing the bat in his hand.
“Lucas told me that Beth Young tried to run him over today.” Ty, a gym rat and blond, tapped the bat against his cowboy boot. “You know anything about that?”
“Nope,” he answered flatly, keeping his eyes on the bat. “Is that why you keep driving past my house? Or are you just lost?”
Ty grinned, his smile slightly crooked under his neatly trimmed beard. “You’re sober as a preacher, lately. What’s up with that? You worried about getting drunk and spilling truths?”
“You need to go home.” Garrett glanced back at the house, relieved that Beth was no longer on the porch. “There’s no reason for you to be here.”
“Why’d you kill her?” Ty took a step forward, but Garrett didn’t budge.
“Kill who?”
“You know who,” Ty growled, swinging the bat up to rest on his shoulder. “You were always with Sarah when you were drunk, trying to get some.”
Garrett chuckled. “Unlike the rest of this town, I had no interest in her.”
“Yeah, right. You ain’t gettin’ it from your old lady, so you went searching for it. She cut you off till you quit drinking, didn’t she?”
Garrett frowned, tempted to tell him it was the other way around, but instead he chose to stay quiet. “I’ll call the cops if you don’t get out of here.”
Ty burst into laughter. “Yeah, your daddy would love to watch me beat some sense into you. Needed to be done a long time ago.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with Sarah’s death,” he said coolly, gesturing to the still running white three-quarter ton. “Go home. What happened to Sarah really sucked, and I lost a friend. But handling things like this ain’t gonna fix the pain.”
Ty glared at him. “Yeah? For a drunk murderer, you’re sure full of wisdom, ain’t you? You know, the only reason I ever put up with you is ‘cause Sam was a good guy. You were always a sleaze, running around behind his back to bang his sister.” Garrett remained silent as Ty audibly popped his jaw and walked up to the back of Beth’s Lexus. “This Beth’s?” Ty leaned down to look at the Illinois plate.
“Get out of here,” Garrett growled, taking a step toward him this time. “You ain’t got a reason to be at my house on my property, harassing me about something I know nothing about.”
“Yeah, but Beth did try to run over my best friend, and the two of you seem close again,” Ty stood up straight again, a malicious gleam in his eye. “And you know, I bet your wife would love to know that the two of you were locking lips.”
“Tell her whatever you want.”
“I will, thanks.” Ty reared back with the bat aimed at Beth’s car, and Garrett sighed, reaching into the back of his waist band. His Smith and Wesson .45 was pointed at Ty within seconds, and that stopped the idiot in his tracks.
Ty reared back. “You gonna shoot me, too?”
“You gonna get the hell off my property?” He held the gun with a steady hand. “I don’t want to have to put one between your eyes, Ty.”
Ty dropped the bat, a wicked grin stretching across his face. “Always knew you had a mean streak a mile wide, Garrett. Knew it the night you killed your best friend over the girl watching us through your window right now. You beat him, then tossed him in that truck—all for what? ‘Cause he didn’t like you puttin’ it between her legs? What did Sarah do to you? Turn you down?”
Garrett’s vision grew red, and he squeezed the trigger, a shot resounding in the still of the night. Ty Miller dropped, covering his face with his hands as the bullet struck the ground adjacent to where he was standing, a good twenty feet away from both men.
“Guess you can tell everyone in town I tried to kill you, too.” Garrett gestured to Ty’s pickup with the pistol. “Better go make the report while Blaze is there. He’s the only one who’s gonna take you seriously when you’re this tweaked out.”
“You’re a psycho,” Ty spat at him, and as he passed by, Garrett caught sight of his hands shaking. He wasn’t sure whether or not Ty was actually high on anything, but he knew he’d just started a war with Ty and his friends—all of which clearly thought he’d done something he hadn’t.
As tires threw gravel, Garrett flipped the safety on his pistol and waited until Ty was at the road before heading back up the porch steps. He set the gun on the top rail, just as the front door swung open, and Beth, wide-eyed and pale, stood in the threshold.
“What did you do?” Her voice shook.
Garrett’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? What did I do?”
“I saw you point a gun at him,” she argued as she peeled off his jacket and shoved it into his arms, blowing past him.
“He was going to?—”
“I saw the bat,” Beth cut him off, her voice sharp. “I’m not a freaking idiot, but you can’t take a gun to knife fight. You’ll get charged, and you shot at him.” She spun around as she made it to her driver’s side door and ripped it open. “What were you thinking?”
Garrett stared at her, all upset at him—like she had been the last night he saw her before she left. “He wouldn’t leave. I didn’t shoot at him, either. I shot over there.” He gestured to the ground off to his right.”
“You just want everyone to think you killed her, don’t you? Your dad even left you off the statement I gave, G.” The use of his nickname on her lips made his chest grow tight. “Why? Why is he trying to cover for you? What did you do? ” Her voice broke as she shook her head, her auburn hair cascading past her shoulders as it came loose from the hair tie.
“I didn’t do anything,” he urged, taking a step closer to her, close enough to catch the door as she tried to pull it shut. “Beth, I wouldn’t hurt Sarah. She was my… friend. She was one of the only allies I had in this stupid place.”
“Yeah, she mentioned you the night I saw her, along with all the other guys she was dating,” Beth shot back at him, her expression cold and eyes dark. “Again, I’m not an idiot.”
“You’re really gonna believe whatever people tell you, aren’t you?” Garrett fired back at her, his own exasperation hardening his voice. “You know why Sarah invited you to drinks, huh? Because she knew I couldn’t let you go, Elizabeth. I’ve never been able to let you go.” He couldn’t stop the words from pouring out. “Sarah was my only friend in this town, and the only person who could look at me and not think about the rumors that ruined my life. But you,” he looked away from her, shaking his head, “ You disappeared the moment you could, and left me to deal with the repercussions alone. ”
“It was an accident. ”
“It was your brother’s fault I wrecked that truck,” Garrett roared, his voice causing her to flinch. “Because your brother was pissed at me for being with you. He jerked that damn wheel as hard as he could, but you’ve chosen to forget that—or do you just not want to remember it? He was being an idiot, telling me that he was gonna get me back, wreck my brand-new truck for being with you behind his back.”
“He was drunk, Garrett,” Beth choked on a sob. “He didn’t know what he was doing.”
“You’re right,” Garrett leaned down, glaring at her. “But that didn’t stop them booking me for vehicular manslaughter, did it? I’m a felon. I didn’t have a license for ten years, and you know what you were doing in that time? Getting married, playing hot-shot criminal defense attorney, and living like nothing had happened—like you weren’t the one who made me put him in the front seat.”
“This is petty,” Beth snapped at him. “You got married, too.”
Garrett burst into dry laughter. “Out of everything I just said, you focus on the fact that I got married? Wow, yeah. I got married. I got married to the first woman who offered to give me the time of day, because I was lonely, drunk, and trying to forget about you. I didn’t get to move off and act like nothing happened. I had to stay and face it day in and day out.”
“Just because I wasn’t here, didn’t mean I didn’t face it,” Beth said quietly. “And none of that changes the fact that you shouldn’t have that gun.”
“Alright,” Garrett’s voice was curt. He pushed off the car door and stalked back across the yard, reaching up onto the railing and grabbing the pistol. He ejected the magazine and emptied the chamber, letting the bullet fall to the ground as he made his way back to her. “Here, Miss Lawyer.” He tossed it to her lap. “There you go. Now you can leave, too. Never mind the fact that Ty was going to destroy your hundred-thousand-dollar car.”
“Garrett…” Beth looked back up at him. “I…”
“No,” he stopped her. “You showed up here. You wanted to talk. You wanted to kiss me and wreck my head—and then you have the nerve to make me out to be the bad guy. I’ll never regret loving you, but I’ll always regret listening to you.”
Beth’s eyes dropped to the pistol in her lap. “I won’t turn it in.”
Garrett laughed, shaking his head. “Wow, thanks. I really appreciate that, honey, but I’m sure you’ll hand it to Blaze if he bats his lashes for it.”
“Stop being like that,” Beth sniffled, batting her tears away. “There’s just a lot happening right now.”
“Yeah, I get it. And as you noticed tonight, I have enough on my plate…” His voice trailed off as another pair of headlights passed his house. He still had a shotgun hidden under his bed, and he wouldn’t be giving that one up. He then shifted his gaze back to her, finding her watching him closely. He sighed, forever moved by those sea-green eyes. “You need to stay out of town, Beth. Whether fair or not, I’m linked to Sarah’s murder in the mind of a lot of people around here, and not a single one of them would be upset if I turned up dead.”
“Can’t you just tell the police where you were that night?” Beth’s question struck a nerve, and he swallowed hard, as he forced himself to admit the truth.
“I would, if I could remember. ”
Fresh tears rolled down Beth’s cheeks. “Why?”
Garrett gave her a pained look. “I don’t know. I was too drunk. Woke up at home in my bed. I never go home when I’ve been drinking…unless Sarah takes me.”
“Stop talking,” Beth groaned, starting her car. “Just stop. You need to get an attorney, sooner rather than later. With all the rumors…”
“Beth—"
“No, we can’t be around each other.” She shook her head. “I was one of the last people to see her, and everyone has always associated me with you.”
“Beth, please,” he reached out and touched her shoulder, gathering his courage. “I need you to do something for me. It might answer a lot of questions—and clear me—but it’s going to sound really bad.”
She sighed. “What is it?”
“There’s a cell phone down at Hollow Creek Bridge. I found it today?—”
“Why the hell were you there?” Beth demanded. “Why would you go to the scene of the murder…You have to be kidding me.”
“It’s not just about Sarah,” he snapped at her. “You know what that bridge is to us.”
“No, that bridge was something to me years ago, Garrett. That’s the problem with all this. You don’t remember what happened, she was killed at our spot, you admitted she takes you home, and now, you magically find a cell phone there? Come on.” Beth jerked at the door, tearing it from Garrett’s grip. “Get an attorney and leave me alone. You’re in over your head, and I don’t even know what I believe. I thought I could get peace of mind by coming to talk to you. Instead, I’m more freaking confused than ever.”
Garrett stared at her in disbelief as she slammed the door and reversed out of his driveway. She had come there with the same suspicions as everyone else.
And suddenly, Garrett had a strong urge to have a drink.