Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
Can men walk in a way that makes their balls swing like women do with their ponytails?
—Text from Magnolia to Beau
BEAU
She was mad as hell, and you could see the anger written in every single muscle of her body.
“What do you think he said?” Court asked.
I was about done keeping my distance.
I didn’t like seeing her this angry.
“I’ll bet it has something to do with their relationship or Cain.”
Everyone was all brushed up on Cain and Magnolia’s issues with him. Court had implemented some heightened security on his own to prevent any unwanted visitors, but obviously we’d have to figure out alternate solutions for game days.
Not that we would be playing at the home stadium the rest of the games. It would be on neutral ground, where we couldn’t control security at all.
“You have to be shitting me!”
“I’ve had enough,” I said upon hearing Magnolia’s yell. “Can you stay with Iris?”
“Will do,” he said as I marched over.
“What’s going on?” I asked, pulling Magnolia toward me by the belt loop of her jeans.
She was shivering without her coat, and I was angry all over again for Eloy stopping us when she wasn’t adequately dressed for the cold.
“Eloy just shared with me that he got pissed as hell at me when I wouldn’t come back to him, and that, in his drunken stupor, he called Cain and told him I had a secret that I was keeping.”
Eloy winced. “I won’t tell him. Now that I’m sober, I am thinking clearly. I was in a bad place, and I’m sorry, I would’ve never chosen to hurt you. I haven’t stopped loving you.”
“Well, good way to show it,” Magnolia seethed. “He bailed you out, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” he answered. “And I’m paying him back. Already paid him back. When he asked what my secret was, I lied and said that you knew your sister was going to kill herself and didn’t tell him. I’m sorry, it was all that I could come up with on the fly. He doesn’t suspect the kid is…”
I stopped him. “Don’t ever, not ever, repeat that.”
“I won’t.” He looked horrified. “I may not want kids, but I’d never cause one harm. And I know that Cain is a terrible person. That’s why I’m so angry with myself for how I acted.”
I took my jacket off and wrapped it around Magnolia.
She buried her face into the jacket and glared.
“If you have anything else you can share, now would be the time.”
“That’s all,” he admitted. “Cain dropped me off at the hotel where my shit was. Didn’t say anything more to me. But he was pissed. I’m sorry again.”
Eloy walked off then, heading to his car that was in the corner of the lot.
That was when I saw him wave at the guard shack guy.
“You need to tell Court that he needs a new security guy if he’s going to let anyone in.”
“I’m sure Court’s already making the connections,” I said as I watched Court glare at the security guy. “Come on. Let’s go eat.”
Eddie, Nettie, Magnolia, and several of the other old ladies were at one table, leaving the rest of us guys at the other. Iris was sitting next to me, her headphones on and her eyes tracking every single second of the documentary on Japan’s cherry blossoms.
I was watching next to her while also holding a conversation about the next step of the playoffs for the Cowgirls.
“What are their chances of winning?” Koen asked Court and me.
I looked over at Court, who seemed to have a lot more grasp on the playoff situation in a week than I had over eight months.
“They play the team that started all this shit with their foul playing first,” Court explained. “Then…”
His voice trailed off when he noticed something over my shoulder.
I glanced back and felt my stomach sink.
My sister was here, along with…
“What the fuck,” I snarled, standing up. “Koen, don’t let her out of your sight while I’m gone.”
Koen nodded as I marched toward the door where my sister had arrived with none other than the root of all of Magnolia’s problems.
“You can’t be in here, and you know it,” I growled at my sister.
She’d been banned from every bar in town, mostly because I’d had my friends refuse her service and trespass her.
“I’m just showing my new friend around,” Seraphina said. “He wanted to know which restaurants and bars were the best.”
I leveled her with a look.
Of course, it didn’t surprise me that she would find this rich prick when he came into town.
“Take him to your precious country club,” I said. “And not here.” I looked at Cain. “You’re not welcome here.”
“It’s a free country.” Cain crossed his arms and looked like he was about to settle in for a fight.
“Owned this place for thirty years,” Hopps, a fellow club member, said. “You’re not welcome if I say you’re not welcome. Either obey my rules, or I’ll call the sheriff and get you trespassed.”
My sister snorted. “Told you he’d be this way. The beer and food here isn’t good anyway.”
The lying twat.
The beer and the food here was amazing.
She just said that because she liked it here and couldn’t come inside.
Black came through the door behind them, and his smile grew upon seeing my sister.
I’d asked Black once why he was so happy to deal with my sister, and he told me that it made his day when he got to bring her down a couple of pegs.
He was a big fan of my little sister. She’d watched his daughter when she was young—before his wife had disappeared with her and hadn’t come back since—and he had a soft spot for Sonja.
Black told me a couple of years ago when I’d asked him about that smile he always wore around my sister, that he’d worked the scene that night of my sister’s death. And Seraphina hadn’t given one single fuck that she’d killed her own sister.
Her only worry had been her car, and how she was going to get a new one now.
“Ms. Vanderbilt, do you know you’re standing in a building that you’ve been trespassed from?” Black drawled, sounding amused.
A long moment of silence later, Seraphina was looking like she wanted to slap herself.
Mostly because she knew that she was about to be spending a night in jail.
Black wasn’t one of his deputies. He was hardcore and wouldn’t allow her to get away with breaking the law in front of him.
“I, uh…” Seraphina hesitated, unsure what to say to make this situation lean in her favor.
She should know better, though.
When it came to Black, he was her number one least favorite person, right next to his damn wife.
“You, uh, what?” Black pushed. “Forgot that you weren’t allowed in this establishment?”
“I just wanted to show our new resident around,” she said.
“New resident, huh?” Black leveled his gaze on Cain. “I can give you one piece of advice, new resident. Don’t involve yourself with Seraphina Vanderbilt. She’s nothing but trouble and will ruin your life if you give her half a chance.”
A-fucking-men.
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Cain nodded. “Would it be okay if I stay?”
“No,” Hopps grumbled. “Have the right to serve or not serve anyone I want. You hanging out with her already lets me know the type of person you are. Only way that I would’ve trusted you is if you had run the moment she started talking and showing her face.”
Cain looked pissed.
But at least he was smart.
He turned around and left.
When Seraphina tried to do the same, Black stepped in front of her with his cuffs already in his hands.
“Not so fast, Seraphina. You’ll get to come for a ride down to the station with me,” he said as he reached for her hand and spun her around.
At least Seraphina was smart enough not to resist—which she’d done before.
Black jerked his chin up at me and led my so-called sister out of the bar. The moment the doors closed behind her, the bar cheered.
Yeah, she wasn’t making any friends in this town, that was for sure.
Instead of going back to the table, however, I chose to head outside and see if Cain was still around.
I wasn’t surprised to find him leaning against his car, looking like he was waiting for someone.
I crossed the street, casual as could be. But deep inside, I wanted to pull my conceal-carry pistol and take care of this sick fuck once and for all.
It would solve all of Magnolia’s problems.
He waited until I arrived at his car before he said, “I only want what’s mine. She pays me the life insurance, I’ll leave.”
I eyed him up and down. “You look like you can afford not to have her life insurance pay out,” I pointed out.
He crossed his legs and went into a further lean before he said, “It’s two hundred million dollars. I’m not going to let this one go.”
I blinked.
“What?” I asked. “How did you go about getting that high of a policy on someone? That’s usually reserved for people with high net worth. And from what I understand, Rose didn’t have anything to her name other than a nurse’s usual salary.”
And a kid, but he didn’t need to know that.
“I don’t need to explain myself to you,” he said. “I just know that I have this policy that I paid for out of my own pocket. I deserve that money, not her trash pile of a sister.”
I narrowed my eyes at his use of “trash pile.”
However, I was able to control my automatic reaction of wanting to shut his mouth up the only way I knew how—by punching him—by saying, “Name calling? That’s quite unbecoming.”
He snorted. “Whatever it may be, it’s the truth. Magnolia Baker was nothing but trouble. And her sister was my woman. My fiancée. She gives over the money, and I’m out of her life for good.”
I gritted my teeth so hard that I felt my jaw creak in protest.
“That much money isn’t going to be something that you just get to keep,” I said. “You need to maybe offer splitting it. I don’t know.”
Because I was thinking, even half that could set Iris and her future for life. Hell, her children’s children’s future for life.
Not that I wouldn’t do everything in my power to make her life what it should be. I would. But even I wasn’t worth two hundred million. I had a net worth of eight million, and a lot of that was tied up in real estate I owned in the area.
“Well, that’s just not going to work for me.” Cain smiled, and it was a sickening smile. “I didn’t do all that work to get half. It’s either all, or I make this really hard.”
I forced myself to loosen my jaw.