CHAPTER NINETEEN
Jagger
Holy fucking shit.
That’s all I could say about that.
Raina was the strongest, fiercest woman I’d ever met.
No wonder she held everybody at arm’s length, had Elsa vibes, and reminded me of a cactus.
The woman had been dealt a shitty fucking first quarter of her life, and was still trying to sort out the second quarter.
Because honestly, that woman was living until at least a hundred.
She was as tough as nails and made Chuck Norris look like the sickly runt of a naked mole rat litter.
If that motherfucker of a husband didn’t kill her spirit, nothing could.
She offered up some sorbet to Marco. While the two of them were in the kitchen, I took the opportunity of their distraction to duck outside and send a quick text to my brothers.
I also scoped out the property and walked down the road a bit to see if Soloman the Sanctimonious was hiding in the ditch like the trash that he was.
I walked all the way down to the stop sign and back and didn’t see any sign of him. That didn’t mean much. We were on a small fucking island. He was still within walkie-talkie range, which was too close for comfort.
I was nearly back to Raina’s house when my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Clint.
“Hey,” I answered.
“What the fuck happened?”
“Not my story to tell. But they can’t be left alone tonight. The guy’s not small, and he’s angry and desperate. A very scary combination.”
“So it’s Raina’s dead husband’s brother?”
“Yeah.”
“And he … what?”
“He wants custody of Marco.”
“Does he even have a leg to stand on?” Clint asked. “She’s his mother.”
“Gabrielle said anybody can try to petition for custody, but the likelihood of him winning is slim. He’ll just drag them through court, which will be costly and exhausting. Honestly, the man needs to be twelve feet underground. An extra six feet for safe measure.”
Clint snorted. “So much for your date, hmm?”
“Still gonna have it. We’re just adapting.”
“What can we do?” my brother asked. “Just say the word. You know that.”
“I do,” I replied. “Mind bringing me my toothbrush and some pajama pants and stuff?”
“On it. We should put out a BOLO on the island too. That fucker’s gotta be staying somewhere. And when we find out where, we can pay him a little visit. Escort him off the island in the morning.”
“I’m not leaving Raina and Marco.” I reached the vineyard again, but stopped in the carport.
“Didn’t ask you to. There are more than enough of us here. We’ll call Burke, give Hawke and Wolfe a shout too. He might even be staying at Hawke’s hostel. Just let Raina know the island has her back.”
“I will. Thanks,” I said, the hair on the back of my neck prickling when I felt the presence of someone nearby. “Gotta go.”
“See you shortly.”
“Hello?” I said out into the darkness after ending the call with my brother.
A slight figure appeared from the shadows.
I didn’t think it was Soloman. I expected it to be one of Raina’s cousins, or nieces, or nephews.
During the harvesting and tourist months, they had seasonal staff that stayed in a bunkhouse on the property, but as far as I knew, there wasn’t any staff staying there right now.
Gabrielle appeared, her face mostly hidden in the shadows.
“You going for a dramatic effect?” I asked her, rubbing my hands together to stay warm.
“Raina said she told you what happened. How Josiah died.”
I nodded as Gabrielle, the matriarch of the Vino Vixens, came into view. “She did.”
“And?”
“And what? Josiah should have died long before that heart attack took him out. She could have told me she gutted him taint to tongue like a fish one night while he slept and I would have offered her a high five. The man is rotting in hell, and his brother should join him.”
A hint of a smile lifted one corner of Gabrielle’s mouth. “Good.”
“Clint’s bringing me some stuff. I’m gonna crash on the couch, or Raina mentioned a futon. I don’t like the idea of that motherfucker being on the island and nobody being here to barricade the door, or toss his ass into the gutter.”
She nodded. “We appreciate that, Jagger. We do.” Glancing away for a moment, she took a deep inhale through her nose before meeting my gaze again.
“We’re not proud of where we came from. We’re ashamed.
Ashamed that none of us ran from that life sooner.
Before we had children. Before we let our fathers marry us off to men that we didn’t love.
To men who treated us like maids and baby machines.
It’s why we’ve all kept that part of ourselves a secret from the island.
We came here to start over. Aunt Dolores offered us a clean break, a fresh start, and we all took it. ”
I shrugged, my breath noticeable in the air with each exhale.
“It’s nobody else’s business. But for the record, I don’t think any islander would see you women as anything but incredibly brave and strong.
The life you’ve built here for your children, it’s incredible.
The four of you should be nothing but proud of all that you’ve achieved. ”
It was tough to see her eyes in the dim light of the carport, but her smile was a bit bigger this time. “I still think we’d prefer if this stayed between our family and yours, if you don’t mind?”
“Of course.” I nodded. “However, I did just speak with Clint, and he thinks we should put a BOLO out on the island for Soloman. He and my brothers, along with Logan and Burke, are going to see if Hawke and Wolfe will come too, and they’re going to go searching for him.
Soloman will still be on the island, and it’d be nice to know where he’s staying so he can have a formal escort to the mainland in the morning.
” I lifted one shoulder and cocked a half smile.
“You know, just show him some of that island hospitality and all.”
Gabrielle smirked. “Okay.” She turned to go, but I still had one more question.
“Can I ask …”
She faced me again.
“If Raina really wanted to be free of that family, why didn’t she change her name? Or at least her last name?”
Gabrielle’s head bobbed. “Josiah didn’t have a will, but as his two surviving beneficiaries, Raina and Marco are entitled to his estate, pension, and life insurance.
His pension pays out monthly, and she kept her name so it would be easier to collect since Soloman petitioned the courts to take that inheritance away from her, and put it into a trust for Marco.
He didn’t think Raina should be able to touch it. I’m sure that’s how he found her.”
“That makes sense.”
All she did was nod some more.
I had several more burning questions, but they could wait for another time. Another day. Right now, I just wanted to get back into the house with Raina and Marco, and check on Raina’s eye and cheek.
“I’m glad you and Raina are no longer enemies,” Gabrielle said. “It makes things easier.” She snorted. “Though, it might make things tougher when we win Bonn Remmen’s land.”
I grinned widely, my hand on the doorknob. “We’ll see about that. Have a good night, Gabrielle.”
Raina and Marco were in the living room, and the television was on. Some wildlife documentary on with David Attenborough narrating. Each of them cradled a bowl of sorbet as the blue flickering light of the television flashed on their faces in the dark.
“Clint’s gonna bring me some stuff,” I said, taking the chair adjacent to the couch. “He’s also going to put out an island-wide BOLO for Soloman.”
Raina glanced at me, and that’s when I saw the big bruise on her face. I was unable to stop myself from reacting. But I steeled myself quickly, grabbed my phone out of my pocket, and shot off another text to Clint, asking him to grab the bruise balm from my nightstand.
“I called the cops,” Raina said, scooping more sorbet from her bowl and putting it in her mouth. “Officer Bruce said she’ll be here in about ten minutes.”
“Good.”
“There’s a bowl of rainbow sorbet for you in the freezer if you’d like.” She glanced toward the kitchen before snuggling in deeper toward Marco whose eyes were glued to the screen.
I went to the kitchen and grabbed my sorbet, rejoining them in the living room, but sitting in the chair, rather than on the couch with them.
Just because Marco seemed to be less averse to me than he was before, didn’t mean I wanted to push my luck with the kid.
Also, something seriously traumatic just happened to him and his mom.
This was a time for the two of them to reconnect and feel safe together.
I was fine just sitting in the shadows like a bodyguard.
None of us said anything, we just ate our frozen treat and watched Blue Planet . It was convenient and hilarious, not to mention, sent me jumping nearly clean out of my skin when at the same time the shark leaped out of the water to grab the seal, there was a knock at the door.
Marco snorted a laugh and shook his head. “Jagger’s jumpy, Mom.”
Smirking at the kid, I rolled my eyes and set my empty bowl down on the table before rising out of my seat to answer the door. It was Officer Myla Bruce and Clint.
I welcomed them both inside, but decided that Clint and I would give Myla and Raina some space. So we took Marco outside with us.
“You like living on a vineyard?” I asked him, all of us bundled up in jackets, our hands stuffed into our pockets as Raina’s son lead us down a row of grapevines. Come summer, these bunches of sticks would be lush and green and teeming with little grape clusters.
Marco nodded. “Yeah. It’s fun. My cousins and I play hide-and-seek.”
“That must take hours. This place is huge,” Clint commented, staring up at the patches of stars blinking at us through the clouds.
“We have rules about how far we can hide. Especially after Austin and I hid from Mom and Aunt Naomi for hours when we were little and they couldn’t find us.”
Clint and I both snorted. We’d definitely pulled that crap on our parents as kids. Drove them mental.