Chapter 26
I t’s been hours since Garrett left. The ambulance has been, and since there was nothing they could do for Bill, they’ve taken him to the mortuary.
Mitch called Mom to break the news, and instead of taking him up on his offer to pick her up, she refused.
Apparently, she needs to be among friends.
Friends, she’s known for a matter of weeks.
Not her daughter, who was just held at gunpoint and just watched her stepfather die.
It hurts that she has no desire to comfort me, but it doesn’t come as a surprise.
My mother has always been good at putting herself first.
“Can you try calling him again?” I ask Mitch, when he hands me a whiskey. The liquid swishes in the glass from how much my hands are shaking, and no matter how hard I focus, I can’t make it stop.
“Cole’s out looking for him. He’ll find him,” he tries to reassure me, but it doesn’t work. I saw how savage he was when he left here. He had every intention of making those men suffer.
“You should go to bed. It’s late,”
“I can’t. The police might come and they’ll need to speak to me.”
“They won’t be here till morning, not in this storm,” Mitch tells me.
He’s probably right; it’s got even worse out there in the last hour, which makes me even more concerned about Garrett.
“I’ll sleep in Cole’s old room so you won’t be here alone. You need to rest,” he orders, and when I down what’s left in my glass and stand up, I pull the blanket that he wrapped around my shoulders earlier, a little tighter.
The rain’s beating hard against the windows, the thunder’s still crashing, and every now and then the whole house flashes blue.
“He shouldn’t be out there in this, especially when he’s so mad,” I stare outside and think about where he might be now, or worse, what those men could be doing to him.
“Garrett will be just fine,” Mitch’s low gravelly voice soothes me, as he leads me toward the stairs. “I’ll wake ya if there’s anything to tell,”
I’m about to do what Mitch says, but when his phone rings, I pause in case it’s an update.
“It’s Cole,” he tells me before answering, and I try hard to hear what he’s saying. It’s too muffled, but judging from the look on Mitch’s face, it’s not good.
“What is it? Where is he?” Tears stream from my eyes, and more panic starts to build in my chest when Mitch hangs up the phone and slams his fist into the banister.
“Damn it,” he growls, scrubbing both hands over his face in frustration.
“Mitch, tell me right now what’s happened,”
“Garrett just walked into a bar in Columbus looking for the person that did this. He ended up beating the souls out of half the men who were in there, waiting out the storm,” he let’s out an agitated sigh.
“Is he ok?”
“I don’t know, Wade got a call from the owner, and because he’s stuck in Tulsa, he sent Cole to check it out.
Apparently, when he got there, Garrett had already left.
This is gonna need some damage control. I better call Miles.
” He steps away from me, pressing the phone back to his ear, and I sink down onto the staircase and think about how mad Garrett must be.
What if after all the fighting stops, he blames me?
What if he’s got reason to? Was there something more I could have done to help Bill?
* * *
I must cry myself to sleep because the next thing I’m aware of is the hand on my shoulder stirring me awake, and I’m surprised when I see Cole staring down at me.
“Come on. Get upstairs and into bed,” he tells me in a much softer tone than I expect.
“Did you find him?” I stand up, searching the space around us hopefully, but Cole shakes his head.
“I drove out to the bar, but he’s already left. I had to come back, it’s gotten real rough out there.”
“Why did you come back without him? He’s your brother. Why aren't you out there looking for him?” I push past him and head for the door, grabbing the set of keys that are in the bowl.
“Whoa, little lady. I don’t think so. No one’s going out in that.
” He opens the door to prove his point, and it almost flies off the hinges.
The rain is coming down with such force it rattles the porch roof, and I can see the damage that’s already been done.
Half the corral's been destroyed, and there’s debris all over the yard.
“He can’t be out there in that,” I shake my head and grip the arm Cole’s using to hold me back.
“Garrett’s smart; he’d have found shelter.
He’ll be home when he’s ready. At least try to go to bed.
I promise as soon as the storm’s cleared, I’ll wake ya up, and we’ll go looking for him together,” he nods his head at Mitch, who comes up from behind us and lifting the collar of his jacket, he holds his hat tight to his head as he rushes out into the storm and back toward the bunkhouse.
“Come on. I need my beauty sleep too,” Cole leads me upstairs to my room, and I watch him from my door as he moves on to the room that I assume used to belong to him.
I don’t even attempt to sleep. Instead, I sit in my window watching the lightning strike and the rain fill the yard. My eyes don’t tire, my heart doesn't stop thumping, and after what seems like forever, I finally see headlights coming up the track.
I stand up and squint my eyes, and when the truck gets close enough for me to be sure it’s Garrett’s, I spin on my heels and rush down the stairs.
I don’t care that the wind almost puts me on my ass when I open the front door. I don’t care that the rain soaks my hair and chills my skin. And when Garrett gets out the truck, I don’t care that he’s covered in blood or worry that he’ll reject me.
I launch my body at him, giving him no other option than to catch me when I wrap my arms around his neck.
My lips crash onto his and when he pulls me tighter, lifting me onto him, I sense the desperation inside him, too.
The rain pelts against our skin as he steps us up onto the porch, and when he forces my back against the front of the house, not even the sky cracking with lightning can distract me from how good it feels to have his tongue dancing around mine.
This is Garrett without restraint, and he feels like heaven and hell combined. His hand pushes the wet hair from my face and holds my cheek in his palm, and for a few seconds, we just stare at each other, catching our breath and standing against the wind.
I’m so scared I’ll lose him again, especially since the look on his face is so unreadable.
“I need to get ya inside.” He speaks so softly that I almost forget all the questions I have for him, and when I shake my head and kiss him again, he does nothing to stop me.
He kisses me back with such force that it drowns out the storm, and I clench my thighs around his waist and grip at his hair to keep me grounded.
“I really have to get you inside,” he pulls away breathlessly and carries me in through the door, and when we're inside, and he places me back on my feet, I notice what a bad state he’s in.
“Are you hurt?” I look at all the blood on his skin and clothes.
“It’s not mine,” he shakes his head and takes me by surprise when he grabs my head in both his hands, kissing me again like he’s been deprived.
And I don’t care that the blood belongs to someone else. I don’t care that there’s blood at all. I’m learning real quick that Garrett Carson doesn’t kiss, he steals your soul, and now I know what that feels like I never want him to stop.
He leads me silently up the stairs to my room, and when he follows me inside, I don’t know if it’s nerves or excitement that flutter in my stomach.
“Did you kill those men?” I ask, watching him strip the bloody shirt off his shoulders before he comes back at me, gripping my hair and kissing my lips like a starved animal.
“Would you hate me if I did?” He pulls back and waits for my reaction.
“I could never hate you,” reaching out my hand, I allow my fingertips to touch his strong chest and feel his heart thump beneath them. Sliding them a little lower, I trail over his abdomen, and when I reach his belt, he grabs both my wrists firmly in his hands and shakes his head.
He kisses me as a distraction, so I take my soaked t-shirt, lift it over my head, and toss it on the floor, making sure he knows I want so much more than his kisses.
He squeezes me through my bra with his rough, blood-stained hand, and when I lean my head back, he slides his nose up my neck and leaves a trail of kisses in its path.
“Do you know how much I want you?“ he whispers against my skin, stepping us back toward the mattress, then leaning his body over mine until I’m laid down, he finally kisses my lips again.
Having him on top of me causes all that desperation inside of me to swell in my stomach.
“Then have me. I want you, too.” I frame his cheeks with both my hands and force his eyes onto mine. I need him to see that I mean it and that I don’t have any doubts.
“You’re all I want, Garrett, and I want it to be you who takes it…”
Garrett drops his head and sighs.
“I can’t,” he whispers, and when he looks back up at me, I see the pain on his face, but it doesn’t make his words hurt any less.
“Why? Garrett, you feel this. I won’t believe that you don’t. Tell me what’s stopping you.” A loud rumble of thunder shakes the house, and the look on his handsome face makes me want to cry.
“Because if I have you, I’ll never let you go,” he confesses helplessly.
“I’m selfish, I’ve done some real bad things, and I’ve hurt a lot of people. I refuse to make you one of them,”
“What if I don’t want you to let me go? What if I want to stay here and be with you?” I can feel myself losing him again, and I can’t let it happen.
“You’d end up regretting it, and then you’d resent me. You’re too young to know what you want from this world, Maisie, and I won’t take advantage of that,” he pushes himself off the bed and looks down at me shamefully.
“You take that back!” I shoot up and get in his face. “Don’t you dare treat me like a fucking kid. I’m a woman with feelings, and you’ve been fucking with them ever since I got here,”
Garrett takes in what I say without argument, but when I go to slap his face, he quickly grabs my wrist and stops it from impacting.
“I’ve been protecting you,” I can feel his fingers bruising my skin from the tension in them.
“From what, Garrett? Wolves, bears, college boys who spike girl’s drinks and home invaders? I grew up in L.A. I’ve had five different daddies. I’m not some weak helpless…”
“From me,” he interrupts. “I’ve been protecting you from me.” His jaw tenses as he swallows all his pride, and when he drops my wrist from his grip and picks up his shirt, he marches for the door and slams it behind him.