Chapter 7
CHAPTER
SEVEN
HUDSON
I slam my foot on the brake, bringing the car to a sudden and dramatic stop that throws the three of us into our tightening seat belts.
“Jesus, Hudson,” Hart snaps from behind me, but he stops there, and I assume he’s seen what I’ve already spotted.
The road back into town has been completely blocked off.
I focus on the wall that looks made up of rocks and tree trunks, stretching from the trees on one side of the single-lane road to the other, unable to work out where the fuck it came from. It has to be at least chest height too, which makes the whole thing even more unbelievable.
“Uh … who’s that?” Kennedy asks, and I follow where he’s pointing to the faded red pickup truck parked behind the roadblock. There are two men sitting in the cab, and leaning against the hood is Wilde.
“That mother fucker .” I thump the wheel before throwing the car in park and shoving out the door. I’m trying to stamp my anger down, because I don’t want this asshole knowing he’s gotten to me, but it’s not an easy thing to do when it feels like my brain is boiling.
“Hudson!” Kennedy calls after me, but I ignore him.
I wait until I’m close enough to the wall to speak with forced nonchalance. “So, this is new.” As calm as I’m trying to be, an edge still creeps into my voice.
Wilde straightens, and it reminds me of how he did it last night.
He’s not that much taller than me, but he has this intimidating presence that radiates from his every movement.
He’s solid muscle and broad shoulders, with a beard that almost completely hides his face and curls that cover his forehead.
His intense stare watches me from between both.
“That’s the wilderness for you. Unpredictable. Things change with no warning.”
“Yes.” I gesture to the wall. “And who could have predicted this?”
“Complete anomaly.”
“How the fuck are we supposed to get through?”
Wilde shrugs like he’s unconcerned. “Guess that’s your sign to pack it up, city boy. If you can’t handle this, you can’t handle Wilde’s End.”
I force a smirk that even I can tell is strained. Irritation is rattling at my bones, but I refuse to let him win. “Never said I couldn’t handle it.”
Something behind his forced friendly gaze snaps. “Don’t test me.”
Him dropping the act only gives me more confidence. It’s rare that I’m not the one to break first. “Why not? I’ve always loved a good challenge.” I lean in closer and grip the top of his fucked-up wall. “Looks like fun. Nothing else I’d rather spend my day on. ”
“You’ve caught me in a nice mood,” he bites back, sounding distinctly not nice. “But that won’t last.”
“Your nice looks a lot different to where I come from.”
“Then go back there!” He leans closer, right in my face like he was last night. If he thinks his size and wild-man glare are going to do anything but make me more stubborn, he’s going to learn the hard way. “Take your brothers and fuck off.”
“So much for small-town hospitality.”
“We don’t do that around here.”
“But your house visit was so wonderfully welcoming.” I swear I hear his teeth crunch.
“This isn’t a game.”
“You sure?” I drop my voice. “Because I’m having the most fun I’ve had in years.
” Fun is a stretch. I’d like nothing more than to pick up one of these boulders and cave his face in with it, but I keep my fists locked at my sides where they can’t do any damage.
Wilde can warn us away until he’s blue in the face because I have a feeling it’s all talk.
He won’t hurt us, and the two people he’s brought with him won’t even bother to get out of the car.
The most they can do is this.
Make our life hard.
Well, I’m used to a hard life, and if they want to start this, I’m going to meet them at their level.
“Lack of self-preservation skills won’t do you any good out here,” he says.
“We’ll see, I guess.” I tap the top of the wall and take a step back. “See you soon, cutie.”
Wilde bristles, and I bottle that victory for later. Big, burly mountain man doesn’t like being called cute. I’m not sure if it’s the nickname that got him or that it came from another man, but it doesn’t matter. I can use it.
For now, I have to deal with this fucking mess .
My mind is spinning out with solutions as I storm to the car and throw myself back into the driver’s side.
I sit there, trying to keep the anger from my face as I glare across at Wilde.
He hasn’t moved, and I know he’s waiting for whatever the hell I’m planning, but even I don’t know what my next step should be.
We need the wall moved.
Technically, the three of us could shift it piece by piece, but despite how long it will take, I get the feeling Wilde isn’t going to sit pretty and let us work. I’m still confident Kennedy could take him, but given my wimpy brothers also stayed planted in the car, I can’t rely on that.
I need to solve this. And it needs to be in a way that doesn’t ask for Wilde’s permission.
“Thanks for the support out there,” I snap.
Anxiousness rolls off Kennedy’s buzzing limbs. “That man is terrifying.”
“He’s just a man.”
“He looks like he wants to murder us all with his bare hands.”
“Well, until he does that, why don’t we focus on how to get the stupid road clear?” I glance back at Hart, but he’s lying across the back seat, Kennedy’s hat over his face. “Hartwell?”
“Sleeping.”
“You’re the smart one. Think you could attempt to be helpful once in your life?”
He sighs like my request is inconveniencing him. “We don’t have a car built for this.”
We don’t … ohhh. That gives me an idea. This SUV is technically able to go off road, but there’s no denying it’s a city car, not a work car. The trucks we drove back home could have handled this easily, but since we don’t have time to make the day-long round trip, we’re going to have to make do.
And I have an idea .
I throw the car in reverse, jerk the wheel strongly to the right, and when we’re facing the other way, I step on the gas.
“We should have bought those fucking guns,” I throw Kennedy’s way.
He ignores me, and I’m forced to make the long drive back the way we came.
“You sure about this?” Kennedy asks, white-knuckling the handle above his head as I stomp on the gas so hard it feels like I’m trying to put my foot through the floor.
“Nope.”
He lets out some kind of sound, but I ignore him. For what it’s worth, this should work. I checked and double-checked with the guy who fitted the grille guard, and while I share Kennedy’s worry, I’m holding it off for now.
Fuck Wilde.
And fuck that stupid barricade.
It comes into view maybe fifty yards away, and I spend every one of those yards making sure I’m lined up perfectly and braced for impact. Kennedy’s free hand flattens against the glove box, and my grip on the steering wheel gets bruising.
A split second before we hit, I almost chicken out, but then it’s too late.
The front of the car collides with the towering pile of debris, and the grille guard makes easy work of it.
Chunks of rock and timber burst out of the way, some rolling over the top of the hood and leaving huge craters behind in the metal.
We screech to a stop, my lungs burning with how hard I’m breathing, and Kennedy lets out a long “aaah …” that doesn’t stop as I shake the impact from my arms. Thankfully, the wall gave out easily enough that it didn’t set off the air bags, but fuck me.
My heart is racing so hard I might be sick.
I have a lot of act first, think later moments, and this has probably topped the list.
Through the dust cloud, the faded red pickup comes into view, and a moment later, so does Wilde. He’s only a few feet from my front bumper, and if I’d hit the brakes any later, I would have taken him out.
We size each other up for longer than I can measure, and the only thing that breaks our eye contact is the rumble of a motor bringing up the rear. The dirt bike Hart is riding slips through the gap I made with a loud vrooooom .
Wilde watches as Hart flings up dirt and rocks as he shoots by, and then the sound of the motorcycle fades into the distance.
I crack my window until it’s low enough for me to lean out. “What else do you have for me to handle?”
Wilde ignores the taunt, thank god, because I’m still struggling to breathe. He climbs back into his truck as the big guy in the middle waggles his fingers my way.
I wait as Wilde backs up and pulls away, and only once they disappear behind a bend do I let myself fold forward over the steering wheel, like all the fight has whooshed from me. “Fucking hell …”
“Petition for us to never, ever do that again,” Kennedy says. “Ever. My heart is still trying to jump out of my fucking chest.”
As much as I’d love to reassure him that it’s over now, I also refuse to lie to my own brother. “I get the feeling we haven’t even started. Wilde doesn’t seem like the kind of man who loses easily. ”
Kennedy mutters something under his breath.
“What was that?”
“I said I know the type.”
I lift my eyebrows his way, wanting him to elaborate.
“ You , Huddy. If this guy is anything like you, I’m scared for whatever comes next.”