Chapter Thirty-One
GRAY
IT TOOK a while, but Lainey Rai cried herself out.
I carried her up to her bedroom with Kinley close on my heels, tears in her eyes, and worried about her niece.
Kinley may act like a spoiled thirty-year-old brat most of the time, but under all that, she loves her family. I’ve seen proof of that many times.
Stroking Lainey Rai’s hair, her head in my lap while she’s curled in a little ball on her bed, her breathing evens out. I look up at Kinley sitting on the beanbag in the corner, covered up with the throw from the bed. “You okay?”
Her eyes are red-rimmed, and her nose is pink. In her lifetime, she has probably seen a lamed horse once or twice. But what might have been the hardest on her was seeing her sister so tore up over the horse.
Confirming my thoughts, she whispers, “I haven’t seen Marley upset like that since back then. I hate to see her like that.”
Nodding my head, I whisper back, “I know, hun. Anything I can do?”
She sniffles and shakes her head. “No, I just don’t want to be by myself right now.”
A soft knock pushes the door open a little, and Mason sticks his head in the room. “Gray, we need you in the barn.” His voice is low as he looks at Lainey Rai’s head on my lap. He pushes the door the rest of the way open and steps in. “She okay?”
“She will be.” I say and then look at Kinley. “Do you mind staying in here with her in case she wakes up?”
Mason jerks his head toward the corner Kinley is in, just realizing she is there, and walks toward her. “Come here.”
She pushes the throw off and practically jumps into Mason’s arms. Her sniffles come faster as he pulls his hand down the back of her head that’s buried in his shoulder. He takes a few minutes to let her get it out of her system, his chin resting on top of her head.
Kinley has never been fond of affection, Marley says it’s because mom died during a time in Kinley’s life when she needed emotional security and guidance, and she lacked the maternal understanding and love every girl needs from her mother.
I tend to agree, Kinley was a warm and affectionate child and I think mom’s death after she had Breanna scarred her more than we realized.
After a few minutes, she untangles herself from Mason’s hold and pulls her sleeve over the back of her hand, and swipes it across her nose. I smile inwardly because, right before my eyes, that action transforms her into the little girl who cried over burned pancakes when she was eight.
“Better?” Mason asks, his hands cupping her head. He kisses her forehead before he lets her go.
She nods and turns to me. “I’ll stay in here with her.” She lies on the bed behind Lainey Rai and we slowly replace my leg with her arm under Lainey Rai’s head.
Before I leave the room, I bend over and kiss both of their heads. Kinley smiles up at me and Mason tosses me the throw from the floor and I spread it over them.
As we trot down the stairs side by side, I ask, “What’s in the barn?”
He takes a deep breath and clucks his tongue with a shake of his head. “You’re just going to have to see this shit to believe it.”
We slide the barn door open after the silent walk from the house, my mind turning with possible explanations. I almost trip over nothing when I see the fucker from Elly’s hotel room.
He’s on his knees, sitting on his heels in the middle of the barn, his hands behind his back and his arms tied to his body. The blood running down the side of his face from his split eyebrow and the busted lip tells me that Jax found him in the treeline.
The man himself is standing behind him, his fingers tucked under his arms as he stands in the similar at-ease stance that Mason does often. Since he doesn’t have any marks on his face, I think the little beat-down was one sided.
Looking around the barn, I ensure Marley’s not in here, I don’t see her. Dad is not here either, so he must have taken her to the house.
The anger I thought I got ahold of earlier is boiling under the surface as I look at the man who squashed the hope I had let myself feel with Elly. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I ask, my voice practically a growl.
“You know this guy?” Mason asks.
I grunt at Mason before I say, “Yeah, names Harris, he works with Elly. I met him at the hotel.”
In my peripheral, I see Mason’s head jerk and I can feel his eyes on me, but I keep my gaze on the fucker on the floor. The smug, slimy asshole has the audacity to smile at me.
Closing the space between us, I punch him square in the nose. The satisfying crunch has me stepping back and taking a deep breath as I roll my head from one shoulder to the other.
His head jerks back with a cry of pain and he starts to fall backward, but Jax catches him and rights him.
“Did you set fire to the stable?” I ask.
Blood is running down his face and neck and he spits on the floor. His skin is ashen and sweat is beading on his forehead, his eyes moving between me and Mason. He squares his shoulders but stays silent.
Mason takes the same stance as Jax, letting me take point. I start to step toward him to pop him again and that gets his attention.
“Stop!” He shouts and spits a wad of blood on the ground.
Jax shoves the toe of his boot into his shoulder and pushes just enough to knock his balance, but not push him over. “Answer the fucking question, asshole.”
“I’m just doing my job, I was told to shake you up a bit.” His breaths are coming fast, each one forming a cloud of smoke in front of him that evaporates in the cold air quickly.
“By who?” I bark. Deep down, my chest constricts as I hope Elly has nothing to do with this. I could never forgive myself if I let my guard down to a snake in the fucking grass.
He’s silent as he looks at the floor behind me. When I pull my hand back to hit him again, he yells, “Okay, okay. One of our clients is salivating for this property. If I can get it for them, I’ll be set for life.”
Squatting down in front of him, I rest on my forearms. “What part does Elly play in all this?”
His smile is back. His black hair is hanging in strands around his head and the humor in his almost black eyes is pissing me off.
“Why? You worried our girl double-crossed you?”
The fact he called her ‘our girl’ sends a mixture of anger and jealousy coursing through me, and I want to hurt him.
His smile gets bigger. “Like maybe she came here under the guise of being friendly to everyone while seducing you?” His pause causes me to narrow my eyes at him, my jaw about to snap off from clenching my teeth.
“Like maybe she was sent here to do whatever it took to get you to sign on the dotted line?”
Trying to get a read on him, all I can see is the smirk on his rapidly swelling face and humor in his eyes. “Is that what happened?”
“What’s the matter, cowboy? She get under your skin?” His smile is streaked with blood across his teeth.
Drawing slow and steady breaths to control my anger, I don’t break my eye contact with him.
“Your little stunt tonight resulted in the death of a horse.” I pause and see a flash of fear in his eyes.
“She broke her leg on the ice running from the fire. I think turn-about is fair play, don’t you think? ”
The smirk falls from his face and he swallows. “It’s just a horse.” The humor is gone from his voice, which is a little wobbly.
“We don’t see it that way. My sister loved that horse, and she doesn’t see it that way either.” I stand back up and curl my fingers into fists at my sides.
I look behind the shit stain in front of me and make eye contact with Jax and then I turn to Mason. “What d’ya think? What’s good for the goose and all?”
“Yep.” Mason nods.
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Jax nods.
“But if we make him disappear, it’ll send a clear message. Maybe that will get them to go away.” I say to no one in particular in a tone that sounds like I’m thinking out loud.
“Wait! You’ll kill me over a fucking horse?” He yells.
Turning on him, I stop hiding my anger and glare at him.
“No, I’ll fucking kill you for setting a fire in our stable which killed one of our horses, for tormenting us with your fucking letters the past year, for trying to fuck with my head, and most importantly for making my sisters and my daughter cry. ”
At that moment, the door to the barn slides open and we all turn to see dad walk in, his face completely neutral. He calmly walks behind one of the wooden walls where we keep tools and equipment for a few seconds, and reappears with a sledgehammer.
He walks over to Harris and kicks him in the side, making him topple to the ground. Harris is wide-eyed as dad stands over him, none of us know what to expect. I glance at Mason at the same time he looks at me and we both look back at dad.
“I know you think all you did was set fire to a stable, but you did much more than that.” Dad’s gravely voice is low, the sledgehammer hanging by his side. “This ranch and that stable is where my daughter feels safe and you made her feel unsafe. You have no idea what you’ve done!”
Without warning, dad lifts the sledgehammer and brings it down on Harris’ knee. A strangled cry fills the barn and dad lets it hang at his side again.
“I tried to be nice. I thought if I ignored you, you would go away, but I was wrong. Do you get my message now?”
Harris is still yelling, he’s pulled his good leg up but the leg dad hit is lying at an awkward angle. When he doesn’t respond, dad kicks the knee he just smashed. “I asked if you hear my message now?”
“Yes, for god’s sake, yes!” He yells as tears run from his eyes.
Dad tosses the sledgehammer and turns to me. “Make sure he knows we have plenty of space to make him disappear if need be and if he breathes a word against us, I will hunt him down and make him fucking worm food.”
Dad pushes his hands through his hair, it’s rare we see him so angry, and he turns his back to us. “God damn it, it’s going to take her forever to feel safe again.” He turns to Mason. “I can’t get her to calm down, I need you to come with me.”
Jax’s posture goes ramrod straight and his arms drop to his sides when he looks at Mason. The lighting in the barn is not the best, but I swear the look in his eyes makes me think of a wild animal.
Mason pulls his hat off his head and scrubs his hand over his hair. “Fuck.”
When dad’s eyes stop on me, he reads the look on my face, which was that I was taking care of it. He looks at me and Mason and points his finger between us as he says, “I don’t want this coming back on my children, I’ll be the one to blame.” He turns his finger on himself and taps it on his chest.
“Okay, Dad,” Mason says at the same time I nod my head.
“Drive him in his rental and park it near the hospital and come back.” He says as he turns to leave, but then he stops. “How’s my granddaughter?”
“She’ll be okay, dad.”
He nods and continues walking to the door with Mason on his heels.