Chapter 26
GEMMA
Go home, Gemma. I’ll stop by in the morning to take your statement. That’s pretty much all Colt said to me before Jensen stepped in.
“You shouldn’t have called him, I say quietly, watching Colt while he makes his way across the parking lot to talk to his brother.
“The fuck I shouldn’t have,” Jensen shoots back.
“Getting Colt involved is just about the only thing that’s gonna keep Cade from hunting Bret down and turning his skull into a jigsaw puzzle.
” Reaching up, Jen scrubs his hand across his mouth.
Dropping it on a sigh, he shakes his head.
“It’s a good thing Sera happened along and scared him off when she did. ”
In other words: Cade was never there.
I flick a quick look at Cade. He’s leaning against the hood of his car, arms folded across this chest, Louisville Slugger propped against the wheel well, while Colt quietly lectures him. Looking back at Jensen, I bob my head in agreement. “I got lucky.”
Jen gives me a look that tells me he disagrees. “I’m having the ice machine moved to the kitchen,” he says, expression riddled with guilt. “Until that happens, no one goes on ice runs except, me, Cade, or Austin—understood?”
“Understood.” Giving him a head bob, I manage a faint smirk. “While you’re at it, you should have one installed in the basement. For safety.”
When I say it, Jen cracks out a laugh. “You must be Riv’s swore representative,” he says while the realization of what could’ve happened if Cade hadn’t come along slowly sobers him.
“Can you drive?” he asked me, his mismatched gaze intently trained on my face.
Jensen has two different colored eyes. One blue.
One green—heterochromia. That’s what Sloane calls it.
I focus on the green, because the blue eye looks too much like Ethan’s.
“I’m fine,” I insist. “I don’t need to go home—I can’t afford to go home,” I elaborate, thinking about the six thousand dollars I need to come up with in the next six weeks. “I need to?—”
“Colt’s shutting us down for the night,” Jen cuts me off with a terse head shake. “Everyone’s going home.”
Looking around, I see he’s not lying. The basement is emptying in a steady stream of patrons, all of them flicking quick, wide-eyed looks at me while they let Austin and Sera herd them out the door.
“I’m sorry, Jensen,” I say, shaking my head because even though I know it isn’t, I suddenly feel like this is all my fault. “I’m sorry. Please don’t?—”
“Fire you?” He looks at me like I just spit on him.
“For fuck’s sake, Gemma, are you serious?
Do you actually think—” Stopping himself mid-rant, Jensen takes a deep breath before letting it out on a rough sigh.
“I’m not firing you. You could probably burn this place to the fucking ground right now, and I still wouldn’t fire you, okay?
” Shaking his head, Jensen gently grips my shoulders and gives them a squeeze.
“Just go home and get some sleep. I’ll call you tomorrow. ”
“Yeah.” Swallowing hard, I give him a jerky head nod. “Okay. I’ll just?—”
Jensen cuts me off with a short, sharp whistle aimed over my shoulder.
Turning to follow it, I see Cade and Colt, standing by Cade’s car, heads together while they talk quietly.
When Jen issues his summons, Cade’s head come up and after a brief, silent exchange, Cade cuts his conversation with his brother short and hustles over to where we’re standing, baseball bat gripped in this fist.
“I need you to drive Gemma home,” Jensen says without preamble. “I don’t want her out alone?—”
“What?” I wail it loudly, sounding so childish and plaintive, I want to bite my own tongue off.
“You asked if I can drive and I said yes.” When the reminder does nothing to sway him, I feel my eyes start to cross, I’m so angry.
“I don’t want or need a babysitter, Jensen.
” Especially not if that babysitter is Cade.
Gray area or not, he’s the last person I want to rely on.
“—until Colt gives the all clear.” Jensen finishes his edict, totally unimpressed with my outburst.
“No.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I barely curb the urge to stamp my foot. “This is stupid, Jensen,” I say, shaking my head. “I don’t want?—”
“I gotta be honest with you, Gemma.” Jensen shakes his head on a laugh.
“I don’t give a good goddamn what you want right now.
” Leaning into me slightly, he nails me with a hard, do what I’m telling you sort of look.
“Cade is going to drive your stubborn ass home and he’s going to pick you up for your shift tomorrow—that’s the end of it. ”
“That really isn’t necessary.” Even though I know I’m just making this situation worse, I can’t seem to help it.
“It is if you want to keep your job here,” Jensen tells me, his tone hard enough to let me know he’s serious.
“But…” Hurt for some stupid reason, I feel my jaw unhinge like he just slapped me. “You just said?—”
“I said I wasn’t going to fire you for what happened,” he qualifies quietly while behind him, Sloane’s red Bronco pulls into the parking lot.
“I never said I wouldn’t fire you for being stupid—and this, right here—” Unhooking an arm from around his chest, Jensen swirls his hand in between us to encompass my behavior over the last few minutes.
“Qualifies as stupid.” Before I can argue, Jensen drops his hand and gives me a don’t start head shake.
“Cade’s driving you home and if you expect to work tomorrow night, he’s going to pick you up and bring you in. Are we clear?”
So far, Cade hasn’t said a word. He’s just standing here, listening to me try to fight my way out from having to endure a ten minute car ride with him, with a carefully cultivated look that says he’s just here to follow orders.
Which is complete bullshit.
Before I can talk myself out of another job I can’t afford to lose, the slam of Sloane’s heavy truck door echoes across the parking lot.
When he hears it, Jensen shoots Cade a look.
“Get her home,” he says while backing himself out of our conversation to join Sloane on the porch. As soon as we’re alone, Cade sighs.
“Jen’s not gonna budge on this, so let’s just get it over with” he says quietly while shouldering his baseball bat. “Gun’s waiting on me upstairs.”
Remembering he and his son live above the bar, I aim a look upward to find him watching us from one of the windows that overlook the parking lot, his face pinched with worry.
Seeing him and his obvious concern over the fact that his father is carrying a bat around, makes me feel about ten times worse.
Cade’s right—Jensen isn’t going to budge. He didn’t even want to give me this job because no matter how long I’ve lived on this side of the Barrett, I’m still a creeker. And when creekers cross the river, they bring trouble with them.
The adage certainly proved true tonight.
Giving Gunner a brief, apologetic smile I’m sure he can’t even see, I nod. “Okay,” I say, pushing the word out before it can get stuck in my throat. “Let’s go.”
Riggs: She’s fine. Are you?
Reading Riggs response, I feel something tug at me. I forgot what it was like to have someone worrying about me. Someone who cared about whether or not I was safe. The fact that it’s Riggs…
“Is that her?”
When Cade asks, I feel the back of my neck stiffen and my jaw tighten, the events of the last hour—what Cade did for me evaporating in the blink if an eye. Dropping my phone in my lap, I stare out the window.
Her is Emily.
He’s never asked me about her.
Not once since he’s been home—but we’ve never been alone before, either.
There’s always been people between us, listening and watching.
For some reason, knowing that he doesn’t have the balls to ask me about my best friend—the one he was so cruel to—in front of his sister and his friends makes me hate him all over again.
“She has a name,” I remind him, my tone cool. “Quit being such a coward and use it.”
He lets out a long, quiet sigh. “Gem?—”
“She never blamed you, you know?’ I tell him.
Not because I want to make him feel better.
No—I tell him because I want him to hurt, just as much as she did.
“Through it all, she believed you. The lies you were telling. The bullshit you were feeding her. Emily believed it all… until that night.” Looking at him, I feel something sick and twisted in my gut tighten with satisfaction when I see his reaction to hearing her name out loud.
“After that, she couldn’t get away from you fast enough. ”
For a long time, Cade doesn’t say anything.
Not until we pull up in front of my house and he kills the engine. Leaving his keys dangling from the ignition, Cade cuts me a look across the dark interior of the car. “You’re never going to forgive me, are you?”
“Forgive you?” I say it like it’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.
“No. I’ll play nice because I need this job.
I’ll swallow my pride and toe the line because this is the last chance I have at saving my home.
Things between your sister and I might be marginally better.
I might like your kid and your brother—and I might owe you for what you did tonight, but I will never forgive you for what you did to her. ”
Staring at me, his expression tight and unreadable while I count all the ways he and I will never be friends, Cade finally nods his head.
“You’re a good friend, Gemma,” he tells me on a rusty chuckle.
“I’m glad she has someone like you looking out for her.
I wish she would’ve listened when you told her to stay away from me.
” Before I can answer him, he shakes his head.
“As for what happened tonight… you don’t owe me shit. Come on—let’s get you inside.”
Not giving me a chance to argue, Cade pops his door open and gets out of the car, leaving me to scramble after him as he makes his way up the walk.
Rushing ahead of him, I fly up the porch steps.
Getting there ahead of him, I pull up short when the front door opens to reveal a massive body, standing in the opening.
“Riggs.” I say his name, my tone tight with concern because standing on his own is not something he should be doing. “What are you?—”
“I got it from here,” Riggs says, his gaze hard and fixed on the man coming up the steps behind me. “You can go back to wherever it is you came from.” I can see his wheelchair overturned behind him. The white knuckle grip he has on the doorframe is the only thing keeping him upright.
Even though I can’t see him, I can feel Cade’s entire body go stiff.
“You sure?” If he’s surprised to see Riggs Wheeler standing in my doorway at 1AM, he doesn’t sound like it—which means the Barrett Creek rumor mill has already started cranking out stories.
People know Riggs Wheeler is living in my house.
Even if why he’s here is made clear, speculation will run wild.
“I don’t mind coming in. Checking upstairs for the boogeyman.
” Cade puts just enough emphasis on the word upstairs to let us know that, despite the fact that Riggs is standing, he knows just as well as I do that his show of force is just that.
A show.
Before Riggs can react, I turn away from him to look at Cade. “You’ve done your duty, now go home. I’m sure Gunner is beside himself right now.”
When I mention his son, Cade drags his glare away from the man behind me, his expression softening slightly. “Alright.” Giving me a head bob, Cade starts to back himself down the porch steps. “I’ll see you tomorrow—lock your fuckin’ door.”
Turning away from us, Cade makes his way down the front walk, back to his car, and drives away.