Chapter Ten #2
“Let me come with you.” She passed her ladle to another woman, told her goodbye, and joined me.
I downed the punch then chucked the empty paper cup into an overflowing trash can.
My brothers were deeply engrossed in some talk about fall plantings when we arrived at their little cluster.
Half the men treated Bella like a lady by nodding as they would any woman who walked up to them.
The other half were awkwardly unsure, so they did nothing.
“Granny is ready to go. Shall we meet up at Jumping Pony in, say, forty minutes or so?”
“Sounds good,” Dodge said. “We’ll grab Dahn and Phil and ferry them to Phil’s house. They’ve both eaten so much candy, they’ll be bouncing off the ceiling. As a dentist, may I just say how much I dislike Halloween?”
“Seems you’d like it what with all the cavities all that junk will bring about,” Linc said, his gaze resting on Bella.
We all chuckled. With a wave, we left, Granny in tow, and had an enjoyable ride to the ranch. Things were quiet when we arrived. No ghosts or zombies shambling about. Once we had Granny inside, we jumped back into the old truck.
“This should be fun!” Bella said while buckling her belt.
“I’ve been so excited to do Taylor’s rendition of “Haunted” for someone other than Lincoln.
He’s so biased. Every time I practice the moves, he says I’m fantastic and Taylor needs to watch out.
” She patted the old guitar she had found in the attic.
She was no Jimmy Page, but she could pluck a tune well enough.
“Lincoln is goofy over you. I think you could poke him in the eye and he’d tell you what amazing form your eye poke had.”
That made her laugh. For a moment. Then she got quiet as we rumbled along the dirt driveway out of our land. “Sorry.” I felt her sadness. “I shouldn’t tease you about him.”
“No, it’s fine.” She sighed as her eyes drifted to her side window, her expression melancholy. “If we weren’t who we were…”
She let it drift off. “Yeah.” That was all I could say.
I was starting to feel the same about Aiden.
If life were different. If we weren’t who we were.
I could see myself being happy with him.
If he wasn’t a known player, of course. “Do you think people can be addicted to other people?” She glanced at me.
I hurried to return my attention to the road.
Any number of animals could leap out in front of a car out here.
Her nose, covered with pasty white and gray makeup, crinkled. “Are you asking me if I think one person can be compulsive over another, then yes. Obviously. Look at why we ran.”
Oh. Oh, yeah. “Sorry, that was stupid of me. Forget I asked.” I took a sharp right to head to Jumping Pony.
“No, I don’t want to forget. Are you worried you’re falling for Aiden?”
I snuck a peek. She was watching me closely. I had a thought to lie, but she knew me too well.
“I think maybe I’m starting to think of him in ways that would be future romance thoughts. Like me, him, and Lady living together in his house, and it freaks me out on one hand, but on the other…”
“On the other, it seems like a dream come true?” I nodded, forcing myself to slow down in case the high beams missed a deer or antelope stepping out into the road. “Can I tell you something that must stay between us?”
“Sure.” Drying corn stalks lined both sides of the country lane we were traveling.
“I feel the same about Linc.”
I shot her a look. “I knew that.”
“Did you?” She seemed surprised.
“Yeah, it’s obvious.”
Her exhale was hearty. “I try so hard to not let myself feel anything more than brotherly affection for him, but he’s just so perfect. Big, strong, gentle, protective. I dream of curling up with him wrapped around me, keeping me safe from him.”
“He would be happy to do that,” I said, slowing to make a left turn. The radio was turned down, but I could still hear the soft strains of an old Patsy Cline song. Patsy was singing about falling to pieces every time she saw someone who only wanted friendship. Man, fate was a cruel bitch at times.
“Yes, I know, and yet I can’t allow him to. We cannot bring danger to this family we’ve found. I will not allow my mistakes to harm any of the Bastians.” Her sad green eyes lifted from her hands as they lay in her lap. “But you—”
“No. We made a pact. We stay together. No matter what.”
She wearily nodded, the heater blowing in her face to tickle her wildly teased blond hair. She was far too pretty to be a monster. The real monsters were the ones who lingered outside fire halls with whiskey on their breath and hate in their hearts.
“Yes, we did. And your veterinarian might be a heartbreaker.”
“Maybe.” I had to concede the point.
“Or maybe he just hasn’t met the right man yet.”
Her voice held such hope that I had to smile a little. “Yeah, maybe. Guess we’ll never know how things will work out.”
“I guess not.” She returned to watching the dark night move past. The songs on the radio changed, but the mood in the cab stayed gloomy.
It wasn’t fun to discover you were falling for someone who probably was only interested in you for your body.
Maybe I was as dumb as the kids on the playground used to say I was.
A rotating sign with a big blue pony lit up the night sky.
Easing off the gas, I hit the blinker to pull into the parking lot of Jumping Pony.
There were dozens of trucks and cars in the massive parking lot, so I crept along looking for a spot when I spied Baker and Aiden having a pretty heated conversation outside the front door of the club.
Dodge, Linc, and Hanley were there as well, but it was my eldest brother shaking a finger at my… Aiden that pissed me off.
“God damn it,” I snarled, whipping into a space beside a rusty Dodge van that looked like last year’s loser at the Bastian Grange Fair’s demolition derby.
I flung the door open, cracking the sliding door of the van, my eyes on my meddling older brother.
The van door slid open with a squeal as I exited the truck, Bella’s pleas not to go off half-cocked falling on deaf ears.
If Aiden was going to fuck me and then forget me, that was my business. Not Baker’s.
A cloud of thick, sweet smoke rolled out of the van with four Learys. I found the one I wanted, Rip, the biggest and meanest. All those nights cleaning Lady’s wounds as she whimpered in pain roared into my already angry brain.
“Did you just dent my fucking van, you fa—”
My fist met his face before he could finish the slur. It was a good right, nice clean uppercut that snapped his head back. My hand hurt pretty badly, which was a good sign. It meant his hateful face had to be hurting too.
“That’s for shooting Lady!” I shouted before he shook off the punch. He and his brothers jumped on me. Bella screamed for help.
A fist clipped my right eye as one of them tried to get my arms behind my back.
I heard Linc bellow my name. Then one of them was trying to get me into a hammerlock, ala Bruno Sammartino.
Paul sure did love his old wrestlers. Someday, maybe, I’d be able to watch those classic matches with him again.
Not tonight. Tonight was a bar fight that never made it into the bar.
Rip took a lazy swing at me. I ducked, catching Dodge out of the corner of my eye delivering a jab to one of the Learys, causing him to double him over.
My fist then connected with Rip’s shoulder, the blow missing his jaw.
I could hear Bella somewhere behind us, shouting at someone to help Aiden.
Rip was a big man, but the booze and pot were slowing him down.
He dove at me, taking me down in the dirt with me on my back, and began pummeling me.
Before I could get my arms up to block it, his fist cracked my nose.
Hard. I saw stars. Blood ran into my mouth as Rip drew back to hit me again.
This time on the side of my head. Fireworks that time. Rip, mouth bloody, grinned down at me.
“All you Bastians are cocksuckers, and you know what happens to cocksuckers?” I spit in his face just as a lithe blond undead nurse appeared behind Rip, wielding a second-hand guitar.
I watched through a rapidly swelling eye as she swung that old six-string like it was a Louisville Slugger.
KWANG! Wood smashed into skull. Rip fell over me, out cold.
Bella stood over us, holding the broken neck of her guitar, her chest heaving.
“I know what happens to hateful bigots,” she snarled down at Rip before rolling him off me with a tiny boot to his side. Blinded in one eye and leaking blood, I slowly sat up. The world was now suddenly blue and red. Shit. Did I have a brain bleed?
“Break it up!” a firm male voice shouted.
I looked to the left. Ollie and his deputy had arrived and were yanking Linc off one of the Learys who was pinned against a truck.
The local law pulled the combatants apart and started handcuffing a few drunken Learys who were intent on hitting a few lawmen.
That was dumb, but no one ever said they were smart.
“I swear I leave you Bastians alone for a few hours and this is where we end up,” Ollie growled, stopping in front of Dodge to inspect his face.
He tutted over the busted lip his boyfriend was sporting then moved on down the row until he came to Bella still holding what was left of her guitar.
She handed it to the deputy. “Bella, I’m shocked you would join in with these morons.
” He jerked a thumb at us sitting on the ground, bloody and beaten but rather jolly.
We’d given as good as we’d got, that was for sure.
Aiden was led over to join us, his cheek busted and bleeding, but his smile was wide.
He sat beside me, trying to wink, but it was hard with a swollen eye.
Still, it made me want to kiss him, bloody lip or not.