13. AVERY #2
“It’s a gift,” she snickers, pausing to sniff the air as we reach the back of the house. The upturn of her mouth falls, and my heart instantly begins to race at the look on her face.
“What’s wrong? Jo, you okay?” I drop the basket and grasp her arms, making certain that she’s all right while Wave comes bounding down from the end of the orchard with Breeze and Ship on her tail.
“Can you smell that?”
“What?”
“Something’s burning.” She pushes me to the side and almost falls over when she can’t keep up with her own pace, and without another thought, I catch her just as Rhett looks our way, Iris at his side.
The three dogs run circles around us before heading toward the front yard. I only catch the scent when the breeze picks up, but Rhett’s already running toward it as he points Iris back to me and Jo.
“Mommy!” She runs straight into me, hugging me tight.
“Here, let’s get you both inside, and I can go help Doc figure out what’s going on.”
There’s a horrible feeling churning inside me that’s making me think something is severely wrong. And the fact that Rhett’s on his own is filling me with a dread I haven’t felt since the night Carl beat the crap out of me.
“Don’t be stupid—none of this is worth either of you getting hurt,” Jo tells me when I’ve sat her with Iris on the couch by the back door.
I’m opening the front door and telling them, “I’ll be right back,” when I catch sight of the Ferrari parked on the drive.
I knew he was going to strike at some point. I wasn’t expecting it to be today. Just as I’m getting my head together over everything with Rhett.
The minute I’m at the bottom of the porch steps, Carl gets out of the car and leans on its side like this is his land and he has every right to be here.
Then I see the papers on the floor, half-burnt to cinders that flutter away in the bluster.
The court insignia on one of the less charred parts makes me take a step back.
I could run inside and lock myself and Iris away, but that would just make him think that he’s won whatever game he’s playing by being here. I’m not going to let that happen, not today.
Barely halfway to where he’s standing, Rhett pulls me back.
“Get back in the house,” he grits out at me, fury deepening his voice as Wave circles around us. I remember what Callie told me the first time I met them. They’re good judges of character, and apparently, like Rhett, she thinks I’m in danger.
“I got this,” he tells me a little softer, his hand squeezing my arm like he wants to haul me to him.
“No, Doc.” It’s all I can say as I pull away from him and carry on.
My heart is pounding, and there are so many voices in my head that I can’t make heads or tails of what I’m actually doing when I stop a few feet away from the man I ran from over a month ago. Wave stands in front of me, Breeze and Ship pacing to the side.
“You need to leave.”
A dark laugh rumbles from him, and all the storm that’s been silently brewing inside me roars so loud that the voices in my head silence for the first time since I found out my father was gone.
For a second I feel lost and deserted in limbo, until Wave nudges me with her snout, pulling back as though she’s warning me to retreat.
“I’m not leaving until you and Iris get in the car.
” As always, I’d forgotten how tall he is.
I don’t know why, but in my head he’s never this tall or broad.
“Get in the car and I’ll pretend this never happened.
” Carl gestures around us with disgust pinching his face, until his eyes flicker over my shoulder.
Although I can’t see Rhett, I know he’s there. I can feel his closeness, and maybe I’m imagining it or it’s plain wishful thinking, but I swear I feel his anger radiate to me.
“I got a call from a friend today, telling me that you were filing for divorce and sole custody.”
“If you want to talk about it, your lawyer can reach out to mine.”
I’m hoping Rowan won’t mind me calling Alison up. She’s the only attorney I know here. She was so amazing and quick with the paperwork for the custody filing.
I swallow down the urge to yell at him all the reasons he’s never going to see my daughter again and turn to find Rhett only a few feet behind me.
There’s a sharpness to his features that doesn’t soften even when I smile at him.
And I realize that he’s in protector mode—the reason he’s not softening at my expression is because he’s not looking at me.
His eyes are firmly behind me, hard and glacial.
“Nice touch with the farmhand, but I think he’s missing his pitchfork.” I feel a hand ghost my arm at the same time as Rhett’s fist flies past my face, and the sudden crack of bone has me flinching away.
It’s just the one sound that keeps echoing in my head, again and again as I spin fast enough to catch sight of Rhett, pulling back for another hit, underarm, straight to Carl’s ribs.
And another and another as Carl tries to stop him but fails miserably.
All three dogs are growling and howling as they pace frantically between me and the two men.
Carl might be tall and broad, and he might pay the best personal trainer to keep him in shape, but the reality is that his muscles are all show. They haven’t hardened from any kind of labor like Rhett’s. He stands no chance because Rhett is taller and broader.
A loud gunshot rings through the air, making all three of us look back to find Jo on the porch with a shotgun I didn’t even know she owned. It’s enough to break them apart and send the dogs flying toward her.
“I don’t need a pitchfork, jackass,” Rhett growls behind me. “You ever touch Avery again and I’ll break every fucking bone in your body.”
The pounding of my heart is almost deafening as Carl’s eyes meet mine. A scuff shadows his cheekbone, and his lip is bust too. All injuries he gave me. I should feel venerated by it, but I’m still resentful and enraged. I still want to hurt him myself. I want to make him hurt, like he did me.
It’s the fuss in the background that has me turning back toward the house. Iris comes running outside aimlessly, wide, terrified eyes on me as she gets closer, and then she looks behind me and stops. Frozen. It’s not until I reach her and pick her up that she thaws and clings to me.
“I don’t wanna leave. I don’t wanna go back, Mommy.” She keeps crying into the crook of my neck while I try to calm her. “Please, Mommy.”
“You don’t get a choice.” Carl spits his blood on Rhett’s boots with a victorious grin on his face. “This isn’t your—” Another loud shot cuts off his words, closer this time and barely missing the back of Carl’s Ferrari.
All I can do is hold on to Iris as tight as I can, holding my ground with the dogs returning to stand in between us,
“Leave,” I yell at him, the sound ripping my throat to shreds and leaving me hoarse.
“You heard,” Jo snarls as Cap’s deep howl fills the air. “Get!”
Carl has the audacity to laugh as he tries to make it past Rhett, but he trusses him up by the bloody collar of his white shirt, dragging him back to his pride and joy.
“Get in your limp-dick mobile and get the fuck out of here,” he tells him coolly while he opens the door to his car and throws him in haphazardly.
“You’ll regret this.”
“Not a fucking chance, asshole.” Rhett slams his door shut, taking a step back to watch Carl rev his engine so loud that I feel it run through me even when he disappears into the distance.
Jo and I huddle as my relief that Carl’s gone is overwhelmed by my shock at Rhett’s actions.
He’s always been so gentle, even when he’s been pushy with me.
Always so tempered, that I’m still surprised at the way he beat on Carl.
And I think that he’s taken aback by it too because he doesn’t say a single word as he walks away toward the paddock.