Wrong Place Wrong Time #4
We left about a quarter til midnight. The truck was thick and heavy with unspoken tension as Mav drove us home.
I hated silence. Like, fucking hated it, but Maverick reveled in it.
Guy didn’t even put the damn radio on when he drove.
If I didn’t love him so much—and know every damn thing about him—I’d think he was a psychopath for that alone.
Each second that passed left my nerves coiling tighter and tighter, the only release in the incessant tapping of my boot on the floorboards. But even that didn’t help after a while. Blowing out a breath, I aimed my gaze on him.
“I’m breakin’ up with her.”
He didn’t look at me as he drove, but his right brow rose, disappearing beneath his cowboy hat. “Tonight?” Disbelief rang in his deep timbre.
“Well, yeah,” I said with a shrug, doubt suddenly taking root in my chest. “Or is that, like, a shitty thing to do? Should I wait ‘til mornin’? Do it then?”
He shook his head, a hushed huff escaping his lips. “So you’ll just sleep with her one more time, then break her heart?”
I bit back the anger replacing the doubt within me. “I ain’t slept with her.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, you callin’ it somethin’ else now? Somethin’ suave that sounds more endearin’?”
His words stung, but, okay. Fair. It’s not like I hadn’t given him every reason to think that of me. But I was telling the truth. “I ain’t lyin’. I haven’t slept with her, Mav.”
His jade gaze flicked to me for a moment before settling on the dark road before us once more. He blew out a breath. “Why?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to find the right words. But there were no right words, in the end. “She’s uh…well. She’s a virgin.”
Maverick’s bark of laughter forced a frown to my lips. “Well, ain’t that fuckin’ ironic. The man whore winds up with a damn virgin.”
I rolled my eyes, shoving at his shoulder. “It ain’t like I fuckin’ planned it. I had no idea.”
“Is that why you wanna break up with her?” Maverick asked, though there wasn’t an ounce of judgment in his tone, merely curiosity.
“No. I don’t know. Maybe.” I shrugged, shame welling up inside me. “I don’t wanna ruin her.”
“That’s awful presumptive of you. You think that highly of yourself?”
Another nudge to his shoulder. “It ain’t got nothin’ to do with me thinkin’ highly of myself.
She’s waitin’ for her happily ever after, her future husband, and I sure as hell ain’t the guy for that.
She deserves to find that someone.” I pulled my hat off and ran a hand through my hair. “I don’t wanna ruin her dreams.”
“That is…” Maverick nodded, blowing out a deep breath, “...the most unselfish, honest reason I’ve ever heard you come up with for somethin’ like this.”
I nodded, not really knowing what else to say.
I might not be a top-notch guy, but I did have a heart.
I wasn’t the damn Tin Man, for fuck’s sakes.
Or was it the scarecrow who didn’t have a heart?
No, he was the one with no brain. I guess you could argue I was him too.
Shit, you might as well call me the damn cowardly lion as well.
A long moment of stilted silence passed. “Why the hell did you stay with her for so long?” Mav finally asked with a sigh.
I blew out a breath. “When I first found out, I…well, I thought I wanted to be that guy for her. She was pretty and sweet and everyone loved her—especially Mama. She’s the type of person who’d be easy to love.”
“But…”
I huffed. Mav didn’t miss a fucking beat. “But more and more I’ve realized I don’t think I’ll ever be able to love her the way she wants—no, deserves. I don’t deserve her. And she sure as fuck deserves better than me.”
I wasn’t, nor could I ever be, the right man for Jacie Lynn. I’d gone after her for all the wrong reasons. I just hadn’t expected those reasons to catch up so quickly.
Mav glanced over at me. “You shouldn’t have to pretend to be somethin’ you ain’t to make things work.”
“I know.”
“So,why’d you try so hard?”
I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat.
Somehow telling Mav that I wanted what he and Ryder had with their girls felt like the hardest thing in the world.
I’d rather ride the rankest damn bucking horse than face his scrutinizing stare.
Instead, I settled on the most obvious answer I could think of. “I was tryin’ to change.”
“A tiger can’t change its stripes, Cash.” Maverick’s words cut to the bone. Deep and brutal.
It sucked when even my family didn’t expect much from me. Not that I made them believe anything but that, but, fuck.
A wave of defensiveness sparked within me, his words like kindling to the flames of my growing anger.
I should never have said anything. I didn’t need another lesson.
I didn’t need to be reminded I was a piece of shit.
So, I did what I did best, I shut down and let the words roll off me like they meant nothing.
Nothing mattered if you didn’t take anything seriously, right?
Besides, we were almost home, and then I’d have another fucking problem to deal with all together.
I prepared a smart-ass comment, when I noticed something out of the corner of my right eye. A frown tugged on my lips as I watched the burning red and orange glow on the horizon. “You know of any of our neighbors plannin’ on doin’ a burn?” I asked, turning to look at Maverick.
“What’re you talkin’ abo—” His words drifted off into nothingness, his lips pulling down into a scowl as he followed my finger that I pointed toward the window. Something flickered in his eyes. Not something—fear. Cold, unbridled fear. “That ain’t the neighbors.”
The car lurched forward as he gunned the truck, one of his hands fishing into his front pocket to grab his cellphone. “You call Ryder,” he barked out at me, as he unlocked his phone and pressed on a number before the cab was filled with the loud dial tone of his phone’s bluetooth.
Two rings and then a tired, feminine voice answered. “Mav?”
“Chey, baby? Where are you?”
“In bed? Why?”
“Somethin’s on fire.”
Fear clawed its way through my insides as I called Ryder, but no answer. I tried Charlie instead, who picked up on the first ring. I could always count on my Charlie girl. “Cash, what’s up?”
“There’s a fire on the property.” The words felt thick and heavy in my chest.
“What’re you talking about? How do you kn—”
“We’re almost to the front gates. We can see it.”
A second later and a deeper voice responded, “Fuck, okay. I’m on it. I’ll see you in a minute.”
Fear ignited in my chest. Was Jacie okay? Oh God, what if she wasn’t? I clicked on her name in my contacts, each ring sounding more and more like a death knell. What the fuck was on fire? Better yet, why was there a fire at all?
The gates of Mercenary Ranch came into view and we fishtailed into the dirt driveway. Her voicemail came onto the phone. “Fuck!” I growled, already pressing on her name again before looking over at Maverick. “Call Dad. Now!”