90. Chapter 90
“Would he really find me?” Jase asked about the man who might’ve been a Marine in his living room.
Wait—was he a Marine? With his pants only partially deflated, though fully zipped, and after the several near-death experiences he’d somehow survived in the last half hour, Jase couldn’t remember what branch of service Lindsey’s dad had retired from.
“He’d find you,” she confirmed.
Disappearing had certainly crossed his mind. It was either meet the man who probably wanted to string Jase up by his balls or get on his bike and leave Lindsey alone to deal with the aftermath of her dad showing up at the worst possible time.
He’d washed his hands and splashed water on his face in the hall bathroom, and bid farewell to his balls.
Apparently left them on display too.
Dark clouds were rolling in. His dad used to stand on the patio a few feet from where Jase and Lindsey were sitting and watch the sky at the first hint of bad weather. Jase had always thought it was batty but never asked his old man why he did it.
Another kind of storm rattled the dining room windows from inside. Jase was jealous, if he was honest. Luke was getting jacked up by a father who loved him and was alive and capable of doing the jacking.
What would his old man have said about today? Lost babies, anchors, sex on his workbench.
Six million dollars going to the dogs.
Sweat dripping in Jase’s eyes explained why they were stinging. It had been happening a lot today, and no wonder. It was so fucking hot his new T-shirt, fresh from a tumble dry, was already damp under the arms and clinging to his back.
“Jase, I’m sorry,” Lindsey said out of nowhere.
“What do you have to be sorry for?” he asked.
“My dad is…kind of intense,” she said.
Understatement. If Jase was lucky, he’d only lose his balls today.
“And about Chloe and the baby,” she added.
He expected Lindsey to lay a hand on his knee, or another comforting girlfriend thing she would’ve done if he hadn’t torn her to pieces and then tried putting her back together in the garage. She didn’t, and he stared at her hand wishing she would.
“I didn’t mean the playing house thing,” he said.
“Hm.”
“I meant everything else, though.”
The patio door opened, and Leroy Adams came out in a flurry of plaid and khaki to stand in front of them.
“Sir,” Jase said.
“Sir? That’s a good start. But it’s not your turn.” He shook his head at Lindsey. “I expected more from you. What were you thinking letting Luke vegetate here?”
“As opposed to what?” she asked.
“You should’ve called me. I would’ve picked him up.”
“If he wanted to go home, don’t you think that’s where he would’ve gone?”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
Lindsey stood and her father straightened his back.
“You don’t get to decide that either, Dad. He was breaking down. I wanted to give him time so he could tell you on his own terms.”
“I expected more from you. With his injuries and the way he’s drinking—”
“He’s a doctor!”
“He’s not in his right mind, Lindsey. He could’ve been seriously hurt, and I’m not ruling out brain damage, since he’s been hiding out here, letting the rest of his life crumble around him while you covered for him.”
“How is any of this her fault?”
Lindsey and her father looked down at Jase in the patio chair.
He should’ve kept his mouth shut.
He should’ve slipped away quietly while they hashed it out, but the longer he listened, the higher his haunches lifted until he couldn’t sit there letting Lindsey take another beating.
“Excuse me?” Leroy said.
Jase stood and was eye level with the wiry yet solid man who didn’t give an inch.
“How is any of this her problem?” Jase demanded. “Luke is an adult.”
“Who’s acting like a child. We’ve established this.”
“He fits right in here,” Lindsey mumbled.
Jase shot her a look, letting her comment slide in the heat of the moment—and it was sweltering. A Desert Demon from Not Your Oasis might’ve been breathing down his neck.
“It still isn’t her problem,” he insisted. “All she did was give him room and board, because you don’t turn away family.”
“I agree. You don’t turn away family. You also don’t blatantly lie to them.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry for lying,” Lindsey said. “It wasn’t my place to tell you about Luke. I was going to make sure he called you today, but I got caught up.”
“Caught up.” Leroy homed in on Jase with a look that probably had his underlings pissing in their boots. “That’s another thing. What’s happening here? No, no, don’t bother explaining. It’s written all over your faces…and your neck.”
Lindsey’s hand covered the hickey that had turned an ugly shade of purple overnight.
“Did everyone in my whole family go nuts this summer?” Leroy asked.
“Join the club,” Jase said.
“You think this is funny?”
“No, sir,” Jase said. “I think you should ease up on Lindsey, though. She’s been holding our dumb asses together, and we haven’t made it easy. However mad you are, she doesn’t need to be given any more shit than she already has.”
“If you’ve been making her life difficult, then that’s on you,” Leroy said. “You’re right. She deserves better.”
She deserves better…than you. Leroy didn’t have to say the last part. Jase already knew. A bolt of lightning sent its long, white tendrils across the sky.
“Yes sir,” he said over a low rumble of thunder and the reeds around the pond whistling in the growing wind.
“Your mother and I want you to come home,” Leroy told his daughter. “We can’t help you if you keep shutting us out.”
“I can’t just come home,” she argued. “We’re in the middle of this—”
“He’s right, Linds,” Jase said. Her eyes shot right to him, and she saw it before he realized he was going to take it.
His exit.
“What?” she breathed.
“What my dad did wasn’t fair. He took you out of your life and made you play his game,” Jase said. “You should go home.”
“I can’t just leave,” she insisted in the same begging tone as I just want you. Her eyes swung between Jase and her father. “This isn’t over.”
He was a bastard, the worst of the worst, when he said the two words he knew would break her.
“It is.”
Goddamn it. He’d been man enough to square up to her dad but not withstand the moment he snuffed the light in her eyes.
“What is?” she forced through clenched teeth. Her eyes were already glossy with tears he didn’t want to be there to see.
“The house—everything’ll still be here,” Jase said quickly, as if stone walls and a roof were a salve instead of another wound delivered by the Young men. “It’s still yours.”
“Not everything,” she said, this time barely a whisper.
He nodded at Leroy, who didn’t seem to need any more of an explanation.
She deserves better. Than you. As long as Jase kept reminding himself, he would be able to walk away. This time, he wasn’t running to save his own ass from something he didn’t really want. He was saving hers from the man who would ruin her.
It was the last thing he wanted.
“Go home, Lindsey,” Jase said.
The second to last was walking away.
For good.