Chapter 28 #2
It hadn’t been long after dropping the news that Vin wasn’t coming back that Sean had unleashed another bomb on her life.
When he told her of his deal with Chainz, how he had offered up their home to a crime lord in order to guarantee their safety, she had wanted to scream, cry, hit something, and vomit all at the same time.
She had done none of those things. Instead, she felt a dark void open in her chest, one that sucked away all of her emotions and hopes for the future. She had grown numb and distant, cold to the very concept of love as she watched the lowest lowlifes on Earth pour into her family’s property.
She had viewed Chainz’s cold execution of Rose and the total transformation of their idyllic ranch into a fortress of dread with empty eyes and an empty heart.
She had turned coldly from Sean every time he tried to offer her any affection, any words of affirmation.
She knew why he had done it. She could even respect his commitment to their family and Jimmy’s safety.
But she endlessly wondered if there could have been another way. Her father’s dream was destroyed. Her dreams were buried in the earth now alongside him. Their family legacy was now being used to spread oppression and violence throughout the area.
Deb wondered, not for the first time, if they had been better off with the government remnant. She had even voiced that thought to Sean once, and he had reacted with a lot of anger. He reminded her that the remnant had killed Vin and taken Jimmy from her arms.
He was right, of course, but she wondered if they had just traded one evil for another.
She had even contemplated leaving once. Just taking Jimmy and running off into the night.
None of the ranch workers were allowed to leave the Fortress.
Chainz had said they knew too much about his operation and were confined to the property, so leaving was going to be difficult, if not completely impossible.
But still, she had wanted to try it. But then she thought about what would happen if she were caught.
They might kill her on the spot. They might kill Jimmy.
Or, if they escaped, Chainz might have taken his anger out on the ranch workers like he had on Rose.
And if she died and Jimmy lived on, then his sole role model in this world would be Sean, and Deb no longer believed Sean was someone worth following.
“Sorry to hear you’re so unhappy,” a silken voice said from behind her.
Deb spun around, pulling Jimmy from Buttercup to look at Jessie, standing across from her, watching her as she leaned against one of the stable walls.
“Jessie,” Deb said by way of greeting. Though it was not a warm greeting in the slightest. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The woman rolled her eyes and stood up straight, sauntering a few steps toward Deb as though she owned the ground that they stood on.
“Please,” Jessie said, waving Deb’s deflection out of the air with a hand as though trying to clear out an unpleasant smell.
“Your little spectacle with your hubby caught my attention as I was walking by. Sounds like you’re unhappy with this arrangement. ”
Deb realized she had been caught and cursed herself for having such a loud and bold conversation where Chain Gang members could hear. “It is what it is,” Deb said, no longer denying what Jessie had clearly heard. “This is the situation, and I’m living with it.”
“Maybe for now,” Jessie said, her voice hard and sharp like the tip of a blade. “But keep talking like that and maybe you won’t have to live with it much longer.”
Deb felt the cold edge of fear grip her spine.
Jessie was a seasoned fighter and was romantically involved with Chainz.
Having this conversation with her was like having it with Chainz himself.
But at that moment, Deb thought about Vin and how he would react to a statement like that.
He wouldn’t cower or cow-tow to this criminal.
He would stand his ground, look this bitch in the eye, and tell her what he really thought.
She didn’t want her son to see her cower and shrink before a threat like this. She realized that if Jimmy were to have any role model in his life, it would have to be her.
“Is that a threat, Jessie?” Deb asked, straightening her spine and trying to keep her lip and knees from shaking.
Jessie raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “What’s this?” Jessie remarked, a sly smile slowly spreading along her face. “Are you stepping up to me? Are you showing a backbone? This is new. I kinda like it.”
She stopped only a few steps away from Deb and Jimmy, and Deb put the baby down on the stable floor. Jimmy toddled off behind her, and Deb adjusted herself to keep her body between this horrible woman and her baby.
“Your being here offends me on every level,” Deb spat back, locking her knees underneath her as her heart beat furiously within her chest. “You don’t belong here. None of you do.”
“Don’t belong,” Jessie said, contemplating this for a moment.
“Well, I don’t think that matters much, now does it?
Your husband made a deal with my man, and now we’re here, whether we belong or not.
And I don’t know if I like this backbone of yours anymore.
” The mocking false respect had dropped from her voice, and the hard edge of violent threats was back in Jessie’s tone.
“I don’t care what you like or don’t like,” Deb spat back, glaring in hatred at this woman.
She was fairly certain that Jessie wasn’t going to murder her right here in the stables. It would cause a massive chain reaction among the ranch workers, and Sean, despite their issues, would never stand for it.
Jessie moved with the speed of the wind itself, driving the sole of her boot into Deb’s stomach. Deb felt the air push from her lungs as she fell back, landing hard on the concrete, hay-strewn floor. Jessie was on her in a second, pressing a knee into her sternum and holding her in place.
She drew a knife from her belt and crouched over Deb, pressing the edge of the blade against her throat and bringing her face down mere inches from Deb’s.
“You don’t get a say here in anything ever again,” Jessie hissed in anger, her eyes narrowed dangerously.
“This may have been your daddy’s home, but it’s our house now.
Any claim you had to this land or the people on it is buried deeper than your daddy and your ex-husband.
And if you ever talk to me like that again, I’ll make you pay. ”
“I’m not afraid to die,” Deb said, her voice betraying those words as it quaked with fear.
“Oh, I won’t kill you,” Jessie said, with some amusement in her voice. “There are much worse ways to hurt you.” Her gaze slowly turned to the left, and Deb followed her stare to see Jimmy, standing perfectly still and wide-eyed.
“Don’t you touch my son!” Deb cried out, struggling so fiercely that the blade of Jessie’s knife nicked her throat a tiny bit.
“I won’t,” Jessie said, “as long as you remember your fucking place, bitch.” Jessie pulled the knife away from Deb’s throat and stood, removing the pressure from her chest.
Deb gasped, pulling in a sharp breath as she scurried back toward Jimmy. The baby hadn’t moved an inch, frozen with fear. She clutched at him, pulling him against her chest protectively.
“What the fuck?” a familiar voice cried out. Sean stormed into the barn and marched up to Jessie with so much momentum that Deb was almost sure he was going to hit her. “You keep your hands off my wife!”
Jessie simply laughed at Sean’s outburst, completely unafraid as she mocked him with her stare. She smiled wickedly at him as though him striking her was completely outside the realm of possibility.
“You need to teach your bitch how to heel, lap dog,” Jessie said, walking past Sean slowly as she moved out of the barn.
Sean ran to Deb and Jimmy, crouching in front of them, a look of concern on his face. As their eyes met, Deb was filled with feelings of revulsion and utter contempt. It was Sean’s fault they were in this situation. It was Sean who had opened their doors to this horror.
“Are you okay?” he asked, reaching a hand for them.
“Get away from me!” Deb shrieked at him, rising to her feet and lifting Jimmy into the air. “Just…get away!”
She stormed out of the barn, moving with her son into the afternoon sun, leaving her husband behind to stew in his failures.