32. Daisy #3
My stomach is tied in nauseating knots, and every hair on my body stands on end when the door to the house opens again. I look back to see my brothers striding over. Part of me knows their interference will make things worse. The other, larger part of me feels safer with them here.
Wayne notices them too, and he gives us an arrogant lift of his chin.
“Nice little arrangement you’ve got yourself here,” he says to Beau. He looks around at the property with a pointed air. “A ranch in California. A vineyard. Saw a picture on the news of the fancy-ass party you had here. Rubbing shoulders with rich hockey players and pop stars like Rosalie Thorne.”
Behind me, gravel crunches under someone’s boot, but I don’t have to look to know my brothers are holding back Finn right now. The way Wayne says Rosie’s name is loaded enough to make me shudder, and Beau is extra tense at my side. My ex-SEAL brother would be seeing danger signs everywhere.
It seems to be the reaction Wayne was hoping for because he grins. “I need a few dollars,” he says. “Just a little extra money to get your mother through this rough patch.”
Beau’s jaw clenches tight enough I hear it crack. “I only work here, Dad,” he says. “I’m on a wage like everyone else. And I’ve got a boy to raise. I don’t have any money to give you.”
Wayne’s eyes flicker to me, then my brothers, then over the house behind us, toward the farm fields and rows of vines and the cellar door in the distance. “You sure about that, Son?”
Beau inhales, eyes hot and nostrils flared, then drops my hand and crosses the few paces between him and Wayne. My heart jumps to my throat as I shadow him. So do my brothers.
But Beau just pulls out his wallet, extracts a handful of hundred-dollar bills, and smashes them against Wayne’s chest. “That’s it. That’s all I got. Take it and go.”
Wayne whistles and accepts the money, flicking through the notes before tucking them into his back pocket.
“You see?” he says. “Wasn’t that hard, was it?”
Beau leans into him. “Get—the fuck—out of here.”
“Without seeing my grandson?” Wayne’s eyes land on me, then on my brothers behind me. “Without so much as a coffee and a conversation with these fine gentlemen?”
“Get off this property,” Beau says, low and ominous, “before I drag you off.”
Wayne stares down his son, the most repulsive smirk on his mouth, and then he laughs. “This about the girl?” he asks. “You playin’ all big and tough to impress your woman?”
Wayne’s focus flickers to me and away again, and then he leans in to talk to his son.
“Enjoy the high life while you can, you selfish little prick, because it’ll all be over soon. Sooner or later, these people are going to figure out you’re not good enough for them or for this.”
“Leave,” Beau says again, eyes dark and neck corded with rage. “Now.”
“You think I’m wrong?” Wayne chuckles and moves closer, and it’s all I can do not to draw back with repulsion. “I’m never wrong, and I’m certainly never wrong about you.”
He looks at me again, and something evil lights his eyes as he turns back to Beau.
“The only way you’ll still be here in a month is if you find a way to make this girl believe you’re worth something,” he says gleefully, “and here’s the part you’re not going to like. Any woman who thinks a Covington boy is worth something can’t be worth all that much herself.”
Beau shakes me off, grabs his father by the collar of his shirt, and slams him against the side of his truck. I gasp, and my brothers close in, but I throw out an arm to hold them back.
“This woman is everything,” Beau yells. “Everything. I know what she’s worth, and I know I’ll never be enough to match it, but I’ll spend every day for the rest of my fucking life earning the right to call her my wife. You keep her name off your fucking tongue.”
Wayne gets off on the violence, and he laughs raucously at Beau’s anger. “You want to punch me, don’t you, Son? You want to show me what it means to be a real man?”
Beau hesitates, his fists tightening in his father’s shirt, and Finn ignores my arm this time, pushing forward to lay a hand on Beau’s shoulder.
“No, old man, you got that backward,” Beau grits out, fingers still twisted in Wayne’s clothes, still pinning his body to the side of his vehicle. “You’d love to see me sink as low as you, but I won’t. And you know why?”
Wayne’s smile falters a little. “Why?”
Beau leans in. “Because you’re not worth it.”
Beau releases him with a shove and steps back. “Get out of here.”
“You heard him,” Chord says behind us. “Get off our property. Now.”
Finn doesn’t leave anything to chance. He opens the truck door and shoves Wayne through, then slams it behind him. My brothers are a wall of determination as Beau’s dad revs the engine and tears down the drive.
I cling to Beau’s arm, fingers pinching into his bicep as he stares after his father, the tension in the air giving way to an aftermath of relief and confusion.
“Are you okay?” I whisper.
“I’m fine,” he says, staring off into the distance.
But his hands are shaking and he won’t look at me, and something about the way he says he’s fine tells me he’s not fine at all. Not by a long shot.