21. AVERY
AVERY
He danced with me in the rain. The thought makes me grin broader as we turn into the ranch. The lights are all out, and the sheeting of rain makes it impossible to see anything beyond the nose of the vehicle.
“No wonder you could smell the fucking rain,” Rhett groans as we come to a stop and a slash of thunder cuts through the dark closely followed by a loud reverberating crack of thunder.
“I love the rain,” I tell him, still incapable of hiding my happiness.
“There’s that at least.”
“Are you coming in? We can watch a movie while we wait for the rain to ease.”
“Sweetheart, the rain may be freezing, but my blood is lava right now. If I go in there…” Rhett stops himself with a rough bite of his lip.
“If you follow me inside…”
“All bets are off.”
Shrugging, I take his hand from the steering wheel and place it on my thigh. “We have one night without having to worry about anything else.”
“One night is normally my thing, but with you, it’ll never be enough, Avery.”
“Why one night?”
“Because no one gets attached that way. One and done.” The sound of that makes me feel for him, even without the explanation that follows. “Every woman I’ve ever given more to has wanted nothing more than money and a plush lifestyle. The best way to stop people using you is to use them instead.”
“I don’t want your money. I have plenty of my own, and my vision of grandeur isn’t a fancy lifestyle.”
With a nod, he cups my face and leans in to kiss me softly on the lips before he pulls away, eyes boring into mine. “You don’t have to tell me that. I already know, and it’s why you’re so easy to l—”
“Jesus!” I jump as another bright flash of lightning strikes, and I see the movement in my peripheral vision.
My chest constricts while I intently stare out of the windshield waiting for the next strobe. Sure enough, when it hits, my blood freezes in my veins.
“Motherfucker!” Rhett is getting out of the car before I can tell him that I’ll handle Carl this time.
Jumping out after him, I almost fall flat on my ass when my bare feet slip on the wet dirt. The rain is still so heavy that it’s impossible to see what’s going on until I reach the porch steps.
Carl is standing on the stoop, glaring down at Rhett, who is so clearly holding on to every vestige of his control.
“I don’t know what you’re doing here, and I don’t care. Not unless you’re bringing me signed divorce papers. If not, get lost.” Although I want to stand close to Rhett, to hold on to him for dear life, I stand my ground, bare muddy feet and all.
With a grimacing glance from my head to my toes, he shakes his head at me. “I want to see my daughter.”
His daughter? Until now she’s always been my daughter, yet all of a sudden, he wants to set a claim he relinquished a long time ago. I don’t think so, and I won’t play whatever bullshit game he’s come here with.
“Where is she?”
“At a friend’s house.”
The withering look he gives would normally make me take a step back, but instead I keep holding my ground in the pouring rain. I might resemble a drowned rat by the time we’re done, but I don’t care.
“You’re shipping her off to other people so you can fuck your boyfriend now?”
Rhett steps between us the second Carl comes toward me.
His hands are fisted at his sides, and there’s that mean look again.
Sharp and severe. Protective and possessive, even, and I find solace in that one small detail.
Rhett Reynolds is possessive of me, and I love it.
Which throws me because of how controlling Carl was over every aspect of mine and Iris’s life.
“Nice, Avery.” He looks Rhett up and down as though he’s somehow beneath him. How wrong he is.
Slipping beside Rhett, I move forward a little to stand in front of him.
I know he won’t make any brash moves with me in the way, and as great as it was having him fight my corner, I need to do this for myself.
If not to show Carl that he has nothing over me, then to protect Rhett from both of their tempers.
Carl is a snake, and him showing up here like this…pretending he wants to see Iris…it’s all an act. A guise for a trick he has up his sleeve.
“Look at you,” he sneers, reaching toward me.
Rhett slaps his hand away hard enough that the sound cuts through the storm.
“Classy.”
“Oh, you know me, Carl, I’m all class.”
“More like high-class whore,” he retorts sourly.
Without pause, I hold my arm out to stop Rhett from falling for his antagonistic crap.
But before I can stop him from lunging forward, Carl is drawing a gun from the inside of his suit jacket.
Frozen by the chill that courses through me, I can’t push Rhett away when he pulls me behind him.
All the threats Carl’s ever made come back to haunt me, and cold terror racks through me.
“I’d put that away if I were you. Shooting on someone else’s property isn’t a good career move. For you.” Jesse appears from the darkness behind Carl. His firearm is steady in his hand, and he doesn’t look like he would miss a single shot if a wrong move was made.
“Got any other tin soldiers in the wings?” Carl turns, coming down a step closer to us and away from Jesse.
“Why don’t you two go on inside, I’ve got this.” Jesse nods toward the front door, gesturing for us to follow his instruction.
My bare feet are suckered to the ground as Rhett wraps his arm around me, urging me forward. Trembling as I take each remaining step up the porch, my only saving grace is Rhett’s hand on my hip, squeezing and kneading at my flesh, his silent way of telling me he’s got my back.
“Where is my daughter?” Carl grabs my wrist as I pass him.
“Don’t touch me!” The cry is garbled by my frayed nerves as I yank my arm back and Rhett pushes him away.
“I want to see her now!”
“No.”
Jesse comes closer at the advancement Carl makes toward me.
“She’s my daughter and you can’t—”
“No! You had every chance to be a father to her, but you didn’t care. After what you’ve done, I am never letting you near my daughter ever again.”
“You can’t keep her from me,” he calls after me as I walk away.
“Watch me.” Asshole! I add the last part silently. Rhett unlocks the door to let us in, and as I turn to follow him in, I pause at the sound of Carl’s laugh.
“First the congressman, and now the doctor…your standards are slipping.”
“Fuck off, Carl.”
“You even sound like a cheap, two-bit whore.”
Rhett doesn’t waste a single beat as he presses past me straight at Carl. The only thing that matters is that Carl still has his gun in his hand. My heart plummets to my feet with a sharp stab that robs me of my breath.
Jesse manages to stop him on the top step, exchanging something that I can’t make out over the rain and my thundering pulse. I’m so relieved when Rhett turns back to me that I practically leap to him.
“That’s what you want to be?” Carl calls as we go inside.
“Yeah,” I reply with more certainty than ever, meeting his glare as I close the door. “I would rather be his whore than your wife.”
I don’t give him a chance to hit back at me. Instead, I head straight to check on Jo in her room, pulling my phone from my pocket to find missed calls from Callie on it.
Jo’s snoring lightly when I open the door, and all four dogs peer up at me from the floor by her bed.
“She must have taken the sleeping pills,” Rhett tells me, closing her door quietly as I call Callie back.
Answering on the first ring, she blusters, “We’ve been trying to call you and Rhett for the last hour!”
“Is Iris okay?” She’s my only concern.
Iris has been my rainbow through my never-ending storm, and I’ll be damned if I fail her again.
“Of course. The girls were out pretty much after I sent you the last photo.”
“Good.” I pause at the bottom of the stairs, and sensing it, Rhett turns back to me.
“Adrian called to let us know Carl was heading our way when they hit the I-95. Rowan tried to call Rhett, but his phone was off, and you didn’t pick up.”
“I’m so sorry, I feel terrible. I should’ve checked my phone earlier. I…I…”
I should’ve been better.
Rhett takes my phone from me and places it on loudspeaker, telling me, “No one is hurt, Avery, and Iris is safe.”
“In fact, it’s a blessing in disguise that she was here.” Callie takes a deep audible breath, listening to whatever Rowan is telling her. “Jesse’s got Carl handled for tonight.”
“I’m not going anywhere either.”
I look at Rhett, who’s watching me carefully. He’s completely soaked through to the point that his shirt is translucent and stuck to his body, while his normally messily coiffed hair is slicked back. Warm fingertips stroke over the back of my hand as it hangs at my side, and all he does is smile.
While the world is falling away around me, he is the one thing I can hold on to. He’s my axis in this moment, keeping me tethered even when I’m spinning out of control.
“It’s going to be all right,” he mouths as Callie growls, “Wait, Carl had a fucking gun?”
“Yeah.”
“You need to do something about him, get an injunction that will force guardianship and possibly the divorce to be pushed through.”
“Callie…” Rhett cuts off her tirade, sensing that my headspace can’t deal with more.
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
“All right.”
“Try not to worry about it tonight.”
“Okay.” I nod to myself.
Rhett threads his hand with mine at my reply, aware that I am not okay. The last thing I want right now is to be separated from Iris, but she’s asleep and she’s safe, and I won’t put a dampener on her happiness to feel better about myself.
“Get some rest, Avery. It’s going to be okay.”
Trembling, I hang up. I have no idea if it’s because I’m frozen to the core or whether it’s the adrenaline of the confrontation I had with Carl wearing off, but my legs won’t be able to hold me up much longer with how violently I’m shivering.
Without a single word, Rhett deftly sweeps me up into his arms, carrying me up to my bedroom where he puts me back on my feet. He holds me as he peppers kisses into my dripping hair.