Chapter Ten
Rhett
I often wish I was a nicer man. The kind of guy who’d let someone they love make their own choices. Hell, some days I wish I’d been a fucking astronaut, but that’s not gonna happen either.
I tuck my phone in my pocket and grab my forty-five off the rack by the door and shoot before I think, sending two bullets into the tires of Nathan’s shiny, silver Tesla. Given the price of that damn thing, I’m sure the tires self-heal or something, but at least now I have time to get my girl.
Pepper whips her gaze back toward me, her voice louder than I’ve heard it yet as she screams, “You’re insane! Oh my God! You’re actually insane!”
She’s mad, for real this time.
The early morning breeze blows across the lake, sending her hair flying as she continues. “I want to leave! I need to leave right now! You’re an asshole! I can’t believe I trusted you!”
“I tried to tell you he wasn’t a good man.” Nathan wraps his arm around my girl as though he’s got the upper fucking hand.
I should take out his knee right here. Better yet, shoot him in the fucking heart and watch him bleed out before the sun comes up. I could if I wanted to. I was a sharpshooter long before I settled on Combat Craftsman. One squeeze of my finger and he’d drop clean.
I hesitate over the trigger for a long moment, muscle memory and instinct battling with the reality of the woman I love standing there scared and watching my every move. It shouldn’t be like this. I shouldn’t have to protect her from this asshole. She told him it was over… so it’s over!
Charlie ambles out onto the front porch with me, his old body taking a moment to wake up and rationalize all the drama interrupting his nap.
“Why are you doing this?” Pepper cries, wiping tears away quickly. “My mom is in the hospital. It’s my fault, and she needs me.”
“Call her.” I glance toward Nathan. “Call her mother and prove she’s in the hospital.”
The lanky, slimeball of a bastard narrows his brows and laughs under his breath. “I don’t have to prove anything to you. You’re a violent asshole who thinks he can get what he wants with intimidation. I won’t play that game.”
“Right.” I fire a shot into the air and nod toward him again.
“Here’s how this is gonna go. You’re going to pick up that fancy fucking phone and you’re going to put it on speaker.
Then you’re going to call her mother. If she picks up and tells everyone she’s in the hospital, I’ll take Pepper to see her mom.
If you’re full of shit, I’m going to watch the life in your body drain slowly right here in the goddamn driveway. ”
Pepper stiffens, and I hate that she’s in the middle of all this, but she needs to know the truth. Nathan is a manipulative fuck.
“We should call Mom,” she says toward Nathan. “I want to hear her voice.”
The asshole draws in a heavy breath and lets it out slowly before putting his hands in the air. “I’m just going to get my phone, hillbilly. Don’t shoot me.”
I cock the gun and aim it straight at his head, holding it there as he dials her mother. Hell, even Charlie picks up on the shit vibes in the air. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him growl, and he’s going to town.
“You can put that thing down and put your fuckin’ horse away,” Nathan groans. “You’re scaring Pepper.”
Right, I’m scaring Pepper.
The last thing I want in this whole world is to scare that little girl, but right now, whether she likes it or not, I’m protecting her. Plus, Pepper doesn’t look that scared. It’s the asshole I’m scaring.
The line rings four times, and no one answers. He hangs up. “She’s probably in with the doctors.” He tucks his phone back into his pocket.
“Bullshit. Dial the number again. This time, let it ring until the voicemail picks up.” A crack of thunder rolls in the distance.
“We’re wasting time! It’s over an hour drive to the Springs. Her mother could die in surgery. You’re robbing the girl you claim you care for of the last moments she could ever have with her mother? Haven’t you stolen enough already?”
I grip the barrel of the gun tighter and grin through my teeth. “These aren’t the last months she’ll have, because you’re full of shit. Dial the number again. Prove me wrong.”
“I’ll call her,” Pepper says, taking Nathan’s phone from his hand. She dials the number, her knees shaking as she waits.
“Hello?” The voice on the other end of the line is groggy. “Nathan? Is everything okay?”
“Mom, it’s Pepper. Where are you?”
“Where am I? Honey, I’m at home… in bed. The sun’s not even up yet. Where are you? Are you with Nathan because that was the right choice, sweetheart?”
Pepper holds the phone in her hand and draws her gaze toward Nathan slowly.
I knew this fuck was a liar!
“I’m good, Mom. Just had a bad dream and wanted to make sure you were okay. I’ll be over in a bit. Love you.” She hangs up the line and backs away from her ex-fiancé. “Where were you going to take me?”
He lowers his head, the wind pushing his tie to the side as lightning flashes. “I’m sorry it had to be this way, Pepper, but you’re not thinking straight. I needed a way to get out of here, and this was the only thing I could think of that would get you moving.”
“A lie about my mom possibly dying? That’s all you could think of? That’s so messed up.”
“I was going to tell you the truth when you were in the car.”
She narrows her brows and shakes her head as rain begins to fall. “You told me you paid for fancy doctors and got her a special room. You’re,” she huffs out a response, “you’re both crazy.”
“No.” I laugh and step down the stairs slowly, my girl in my vision, the asshole a blur beside her. “Look at Daddy.”
“Daddy?” Nathan laughs. “What the fuck?”
I ignore him and hold my gaze on Pepper, her long, dark hair blowing back in the breeze as her eyes meet mine reluctantly.
“We were happy. Nothing’s changed.”
“Except the ring is gone, and you took it.” Rain falls heavier as she crosses her arms over her chest and shakes her head. “I’m going to owe so much fucking money to this asshole, and you made that debt even bigger.”
“You don’t owe anything to him. He’s going to agree to that right now.” I press my gun to the side of his head and start barking orders. “Tell her she doesn’t owe you anything for this wedding.”
“That’s not going to happen. That whole wedding debacle was the biggest embarrassment of my life.
I had friends from outside the country in attendance.
Professional colleagues, my family, everyone.
People who’ll be talking about this mess for years.
Sure, you took her, but she broke up with me instead of asking to come home.
So, either she comes to her senses and we go through with the wedding while everyone is still in town, or she owes me half of everything. It’s as simple as that.”
“I can’t pay you half!” Pepper blurts. “I don’t have anything! I paint freaking walls, Nathan!”
“Should’ve thought about that before you started calling this stupid fuck daddy.”
Charlie growls again, the hair on his neck standing. I’ve never seen him like this. Usually, he’s incredibly docile, friendly with everyone. Fuck, some days I think he’d let an intruder straight into the house if it meant there was a ham bone waiting for him on the kitchen floor.
“And you.” Nathan glances back toward me. “You realize there’s no getting that client list back, right? It’s mine. You were stupid enough to let me take it, so you deserve what happened to you.”
“That’s right, you did take it. Nice you’re finally admitting it.” I hold up my cell phone, the conversation we’re having recording the whole time. “Anything else you’d like to say?”
“Fuck you, dude.” Nathan pouts and shuffles back toward his Tesla, though I don’t think he’s getting far. “I’m calling my lawyers. You can’t record me without my knowledge and use it however you’d like.”
I shake my head as he closes himself into the car like the little bitch boy he is.
“Baby girl,” I land my hand on her back, rain trickling down her face, “I did not take that ring. I promise you on Grandma’s biscuits. I don’t know where it is, but we’ll find it.”
She wipes a tear from her eyes and stares up at me as Charlie scrubs against her leg. “What if Grandma’s biscuits aren’t a real thing either? What if everything you said is a lie? I mean, Nathan’s lied about everything. I didn’t know he stole your client list. What else did he do?”
I shrug and wipe the rain from her forehead, though it’s a pointless effort. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“I need to know,” she says, twisting her sopping hair to the side as thunder rolls overhead.
I draw in a deep breath and exhale slowly.
“He stole our client list and used everything I taught him while I was his mentor to train that app he built. He recorded me, took pictures, then fed it all into that system. My buddies and I lost out on more than half our business afterward. We couldn’t compete with a service app that directed the work faster than we could even answer the phone.
” I take a big sigh as I brush my hand down my face.
“I thought that’s what mattered, and I was hell bent on doing anything to settle the score.
That first conversation we had weeks ago, I could see you were special and it killed me to think Nathan had that going for him too.
You were gorgeous, funny, and you saw things differently.
You had this way about you that was soft and kind. ”
A bolt of lightning flashes over the lake, the damp scent of earth surrounding us.
“But you were young and way out of my league, so I wrote you off and considered it an opportunity to take from Nathan what was owed to me.” I laugh to myself as I pull her tiny frame closer.
“But the second I lifted you up and put you in my truck, I knew I wouldn’t be able to let you go ever again.
It only got worse when you told me what he’d done to you, when you started calling me Daddy, and,” I ball my fist tight and lean into her forehead for a kiss, “I need you in my life, baby girl.”
She wipes away another tear, and for a long moment says nothing at all. Rain pours, thunder rolls, and lightning strikes, but there’s nothing coming from my everything.
I’m considering continuing on with my own ramblings to fill the space when she finally opens her mouth to speak.
“The last twenty-four hours have been the best of my life. It was like we were in a bubble and no one else could take it from us, but this is real life, and real life is complicated and hard. No matter what I feel for you, and no matter what little game we’re playing in there, I have to think about my future.
I can’t get wrapped up so deeply in another man that I lose myself again. ”
I stroke her cheek with my thumb. “Daddy won’t let you lose yourself, baby girl.
If you want to grow your painting business, we grow the painting business.
If you want Sunday supper and a greenhouse to spend the morning in, we’ll have Sunday supper and spend every morning in the greenhouse.
Hell, you want me to take out a loan, buy Moo’s and reopen the place for Sunday ice cream, I’ll do that too, but you belong to me.
You’re my sweet, delicate, little baby girl. ”
She stares down at the ground for a long moment. Long enough that police sirens interrupt our conversation, and I come to realize I should’ve shot the asshole when I had the chance.