8. Jackson
Jackson
Ifigured I’d give Iris five minutes to cool off before I went after her. It shouldn’t be too hard to catch up with her at Savannah’s. Savvy was close by, and that was the most likely place she’d go to blow off some steam.
But when I remembered her car was still at her job, since I’d been driving her back and forth, I cursed a blue streak for letting her run off at all.
Better she cuss me out loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear than walk around Oakdale Springs by herself past dark when Sue was on the loose.
My hands shook as I started my car. She’d just left. She couldn’t have gotten far.
Sure enough, I checked her location on my phone. I’d made her share it with me yesterday, thank goodness.
She was only a few blocks down the street and not moving, but when I rushed to the spot, heart pounding in my ears, she was nowhere to be found.
As I was frantically searching up and down my street, looking for any sign of her, something glinted in the low light of the street lamp. Her phone, lying on the ground, screen smashed.
A lead ball hit me in the gut as I tucked the destroyed phone in my pocket and whipped out mine. Following instinct, I turned toward Timber Drive. My tires screeched as I yelled a command to my phone to call 911.
I wasn’t sure what I expected them to do, but it seemed like it was better to call the cops and have paramedics on hand than not. Fuck, I hoped I didn’t need paramedics.
The garbled explanation I gave the 911 operator didn’t put me in their good graces, but I left the line open and answered their stupid questions to the best of my ability while I crawled along Timber Drive, eyes taking in every detail as if life was suddenly in high-definition.
No, I don’t know where she is. No, I don’t know what happened. Yes, I’m sure I need someone.
Luck was finally with me. I spotted the beat-up red Chevy Iris had described sitting in the driveway of a run-down split-level.
It could have been anyone’s house, or anyone’s car, but I’d dragged Hunter out of a fair few flophouses.
I knew the type. The grass was too tall but beaten down in spots where people had been parking all over the lawn.
Half the windows were covered with makeshift curtains, and the rest not covered at all.
The house itself wasn’t as well-maintained as the rest of the neighborhood, either.
I shouted the address into my phone before hanging up, tires screeching as I pulled into the driveway.
I didn’t waste time peeking in the windows, just kicked in the door, spurred on by the muffled screeching and banging noises bleeding through the door. Please let Iris be okay.
Inside was pure chaos. Iris—bruised but alive—was half-tied to a chair. Both hands were free, and she was using them to untie her legs.
Sue was too busy fighting with…an orange cat?…to stop her. The cat looked to be winning, clawing at Sue’s arms and hissing up a storm.
Some skinny redneck I assumed was Joel rolled on the floor, clutching his nuts. I hoped Iris had popped him good.
With another glance at Iris to assure myself that she was still breathing, still moving, I went for Joel. Luckily, these two knuckleheads still had some rope lying around, so I tied his hands behind his back. He was skinny, his limbs too shaky to put up much of a fight, but he cussed me soundly.
“Shut up,” I said.
“Fuck you,” he replied.
I jammed the first thing my fingers found into his mouth: a wadded-up piece of cloth, wet on one side.
When I turned to look for Sue, she’d knocked the cat off her and was looking between me and Joel. “I don’t suppose I could get my usual two grand?” she asked.
I spluttered.
Iris cursed.
Sirens wailing in the distance saved me from having to come up with a response and prompted Sue to bolt for the door.
Thinking quickly, Iris stuck out one of her now-freed legs and tripped Sue, who huffed, picked herself up, and ran, not even bothering to shut the door behind her.
We both stared after her for a beat, then Iris flung herself at me. “Jackson! I didn’t think you’d come!”
“I’ll always come for you,” I said into her hair, arms crushingly tight around her. I almost couldn’t breathe around the relief rushing through me. My cowardice, my refusal to come clean to Iris, had almost gotten her killed.
I pulled back enough to look her over, wiping a little blood off her chin. More splattered her shirt. She had a split lip and rope burns on her wrists, but those were just the injuries I could see. “Where are you hurt?”
“Just my head.”
I felt around. She had a goose egg on the back of her skull. There better be some paramedics mixed in with the cops. The screech of sirens grew closer by the second, while outside the house an engine coughed and rattled to life.
I grazed a finger over her lip. “They hit you?”
“Joel slapped me when I mouthed off to him. They were going to…” She shuddered. “I was so scared.”
I’d get the details out of her later. Right now, Iris needed to be held, and I needed to hold her, so that’s what I would do.
Behind me, Joel said something, but it was indistinguishable behind his gag. Probably a defense. Probably bullshit. I turned to glare at him, and he shut up again. He must have realized he was cooked no matter what.
“I should have stayed and talked to you instead of running off,” she said into my chest.
“Me too.” I looked down at the strong, brave woman who’d never needed my protection but had it anyway. “You had every right to be mad at me. I shouldn’t have kept it from you, and I did it anyway.”
“Then why did you?”
“Like I said, having Sue in town always messed you up, but I knew you’d never agree to cut her out. You always held on to the hope that she could change, clean up her act, but she never wanted to. Seemed easier to spare you the hurt if I could.”
“So it wasn’t because Travis asked you to keep it from me?”
I winced. “It was a bit because Travis asked me to keep it between us, but not how you’re thinking.
I knew you’d be upset with him, too, when you found out.
Blowing up our…whatever this could be is one thing, but blowing up your relationship with your brother is a whole other story. How could I do that to you?”
“I can’t be in a relationship with you if my brother is always a silent third.” The orange cat slunk out from whatever shadowy corner he’d been hiding in and trotted right up to Iris, who cuddled him to her chest, depriving me of her warmth.
“I know. He won’t be.” Then her words hit me. “You’d be willing to give me another chance?”
A slow smile broke across her face. “Yeah.”
“I figured we were over before we even started…”
“Because of Sue? She’s not worth losing you over.” She glanced around the flophouse, the chair she’d been tied to, Joel still tied up on the floor. The sirens were almost outside the door now. “Especially not after tonight.”
An intense rush of relief almost brought me to my knees. “Oh, thank god.” I grabbed her face for a kiss, heedless of the cat still in her arms, and kissed her. “I’m never letting anyone else come between us. I love you, Iris. I have for years.”
“I love you, too.”
Just then, the door—already hanging open thanks to my earlier efforts—flew off its hinges as a parade of cops stormed inside.
One of them pointed a gun at us. “Hands where I can see them!”
“I’m the one who called you,” I said, while putting myself between Iris and the idiot with the gun. Behind me, the cat hissed. Unfortunately, I doubted he’d be as effective against an armed cop as he was against an unarmed, high, middle-aged woman.
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll sort you all out at the station,” the idiot cop responded.
I shouldn’t have called these morons.
Fortunately, one of the older cops recognized me and convinced the nitwit pointing a gun at me to back off and arrest Joel instead.
“I don’t care if you think I’m overbearing, you’re getting checked out,” I said as I led Iris to the waiting paramedics.
Red stole over her cheeks. “I like it when you take care of me. I just didn’t like knowing you did it as a favor to Travis.”
“Never. I’ve always done it because of you.” I dropped a quick kiss on her forehead, then turned her over to the EMT.
Meanwhile, Joel and Sue—who must have been caught not far from the house—were getting looked over themselves, then loaded into the back of a police car.
They’d tried to pin the blame on us, claiming we’d attacked them in their home for no reason, but even the idiots on our force could tell their stories didn’t add up.
Plus, Joel had some warrants out on him a few counties over, which didn’t help their case.
They both shot us glares and said something. Though we could see their mouths moving, we couldn’t hear them through the glass of the police cruisers.
Once Iris was cleared, with some cream for her wrists and ankles and instructions to rest, I hustled us home as quickly as possible.
A week later, we were both crowded around Iris’s phone when Travis called. I’d left him another message about Sue—this time with Iris’s input—but we wanted to tell him about us in person. Or as close to in person as possible without waiting another few months for him to be back in the country.
Travis took half a second to take in the view, then smirked. “Oh, nothing going on, huh? Treating her just like I would, are you, Jackson? I knew it. How long has this been going on behind my back?”
“Oh, you’re one to talk about keeping secrets,” Iris said. “But if you must know, just before you called last time.”
A self-congratulatory remark brewed behind Travis’s eyes, so I cut it off with, “Yeah, yeah, you figured it out. Congratu-fucking-lations.” Despite my dismissive tone, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face.
“So she’s your problem now? Guess you won’t bitch at me for asking you to keep an eye on her anymore,” Travis said, because he still had to make a smart remark in any situation.
“She doesn’t need anyone to keep an eye on her. She’s got a good head on her shoulders.”
“Um, hello? I’m right here,” Iris said, cuddling closer to my side before turning a disapproving look on Travis. “And Jackson told me all about how you two have been keeping Sue away from Oakdale Springs. You had no right!”
I sat back and let Iris and Travis have it out. I’d spent too long in the middle of their relationship, and I wasn’t going to put myself there again. I was on Iris’s side, now and forever.
They went back and forth a few times, Travis getting increasingly chastened, before Iris ended with a, “Don’t ever do it again!”
“I won’t. I’m sorry.” Travis raised his hands, the gesture barely in frame, remorse written all over his face. “You’re a big girl now; I understand.”
And that closed the topic, allowing us to move on to other things.
When we hung up with Travis, who had to promise Iris all over again that he’d be home in three months, I brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I just miss him. And I worry about him.”
“Me too.”
We spent the rest of the afternoon packing Iris’s things up at her old place.
She didn’t want to stay there, and I wanted her permanently moved in with me, so it worked out.
Of course, she insisted on bringing the cat with her.
Much as I wanted to, I couldn’t argue about it.
Apparently she’d found the world’s first attack cat.
She’d named him Butterscotch. When I pointed out that he did not possess the required sweetness, she scoffed and said he was very cuddly and loving with her.
That cat still hated me, though. Luckily, it hated everyone else more.
And that night, I had a warm Iris in my bed, all melting and sweet under me. After seeing my best friend, knowing my people were safe, it couldn’t have been a better end to a better day.