Chapter 42

CHAPTER 42

SLATE

A ustin and I were hanging out on the porch when a phone rang inside. I frowned. "Is that your landline?"

He looked as surprised as I was. "Yeah, I guess it is. I forgot we even had one. Give me a second."

Getting up, he headed inside and took the call in the foyer. I'd seen the phone mounted on the wall there, but I hadn't heard it ring very often since I'd been here.

A moment later, Austin popped his head out, his brow puckered, confusion and worry darkening his eyes. "It's for you. It's Sophie. She sounds pretty freaked out."

My heart dropped to the floor. Jess had left with Sophie just a little while ago, and if she was calling the house for me, then something had to be wrong. Something she obviously didn't want to discuss with Austin.

Jumping to my feet, I darted inside and pressed the receiver to my ear. "Sophie? What happened?"

"I'm sorry for calling like this," she said, her voice several octaves higher than usual. "I would've called your phone, but I don't have your number. You need to get to the post office in town. Now."

"What's wrong?" I asked, heart pounding. I glanced at Austin, who was hovering just a few feet away. "Get your keys, Austin. We're leaving."

He nodded, already reaching for a set of keys on a hook by the door.

"Jess is nose to nose with Oden Sawyer and things are escalating," she said urgently. "You know this man, right? Just get here. Please."

"Fuck. We're on our way."

I slammed the receiver back into its cradle and gave Austin an update as we rushed to the old farm truck. "Jess is confronting Oden Sawyer outside the post office."

"Shit," he muttered, yanking open the door and climbing in behind the wheel. I hopped into the passenger seat. "What the hell is she thinking?"

"I don't know," I said, but my chest was pounding. I shook my head, buckling up. He gunned it away from the house. "She's your sister, so what the hell is she thinking?"

"That he sabotaged us," he replied, his jaw clenched and his eyes narrowing on the dirt road ahead. "That's the only explanation."

"Okay, but why an argument on Main Street?" I asked, hating the icy bite of fear that shot through me. "Oden could be dangerous, Austin. We need to be there. Like, now."

"Doing my best." The truck accelerated as he pressed his foot down further on the gas. "Jess has always been a wild child, but she's no loose cannon. She wouldn't just have gone off on him. Something must've happened. I thought you said this wasn't his style?"

"It's not usually, but I also said he might've done this to speed things up if he was desperate enough. Desperation makes people dangerous."

"I know." His mouth twisted before he let out another string of curses. "If he really did say something to her confirming it was him, she'll clock him, bro. He'll press charges, won't he?"

"Definitely." It could get worse than that, though. I just didn't want to think about this going in that direction, but if he really was desperate, he would use whatever she did to him to blackmail her folks into signing his offer.

Since that was the worst-case scenario, I kept my mouth shut and prayed with every second that passed for Jess to be okay. We raced down the main drag, slamming to a stop when we reached the post office to find Jess standing in front of Oden's flashy sports car, blocking his path and slamming her fist on the hood as she cursed him out.

Austin put the truck in park and suddenly grinned. "She's okay. It doesn't look like she clocked him. They're all good here."

I went to climb out, but Austin grabbed my shirt to keep me in the truck. "Let her have a few more seconds of fun before we spoil it for her."

"He's not a guy you want to get on the wrong side of," I warned, but I stayed put, watching in awe as Jess used her words like weapons and tore into Oden.

"You're a thief and a liar," she seethed. "A weak, pathetic, dickless asshole who has to cheat to be successful."

My eyebrows shot up, but I rocked my head from side to side. "You know, she's not completely wrong. I really am surprised he went this far, this fast."

Austin shrugged. "Money makes people do crazy things."

"Yeah," I agreed, but I still wondered why he'd gone about it like this. I didn't know him very well, but I had known him a long time.

We'd run into each other on a few projects and he'd never been someone I'd hang out with socially, but he wasn't bad at his job and his clients trusted him.

Jess, however, was still ranting, her cheeks flushed as she called him out for all to hear. "A guy like you could never make an honest living because you're too unlikeable for anyone to want to do business with you, and you thought you could scare me? Good luck, buddy. You're the one who's about to go bust."

Oden laid on his horn, leaning out his window and yelling at her. "Just get out of my way, you crazy bitch."

"Oh, I'm the crazy bitch, am I?" She let out a burst of maniacal laughter. "I'm not the one who messed with innocent people, asshole!"

She drove her knee into his headlight, smashing it to pieces. Oden's mouth fell open in shock and so did mine, but Austin just chuckled. "That's my sister. God, I love her."

"Should we intervene?" I asked. "He has a lot of friends in a lot of high places."

"Whatever this is, I'm sure he started it." He pointed out the window at all the locals who had formed a loose, semi-circle around the incident, watching with varying expressions of satisfaction on their faces. "We have a dozen witnesses right there who will testify that Jess is acting in self-defense. No jury in this town will convict her of anything."

From where I was sitting, it seemed like Oden was the one in need of defense, but I also knew Austin was right. The locals would never let an outsider like Oden hurt one of their own if they could help it. "A few minutes ago, you were afraid of him pressing charges."

"Things change," he said happily. "A few minutes ago, I didn't know she had the upper hand. She'd never clock him while she's winning. I thought he might have her in a corner, but I should've known better."

I itched to get in there to protect her from Oden fucking Sawyer, but the truth was that she didn't need protection. She seemed to have this situation well in hand.

Even Sophie was smiling now, standing in the open, driver's side door of her car and cheering on her friend. Whatever had happened in the time between when we'd arrived and when she'd called, it was clear that she was no longer scared or panicked.

Jess pointed a finger at Oden through the windshield. "You break my machine? I break yours, dickwad. Now we're even, so get the hell out of my town and don't come back."

With that, she finally stepped aside and Oden peeled away, burning rubber. As soon as he was gone, Austin finally reached for his handle to open his door, and when he did, I took it to mean that I could finally get out of the truck too.

I jumped out and rushed across the street to get to her. Sophie had walked around the car to her friend and she offered her a high-five before pretending to bow down to her.

As I skidded to a stop beside them, I caught the tail-end of what she was saying. "You're a true queen, Jess Merrick. I never should've doubted you could handle him. You handed him his own ass on a silver platter."

Jess chuckled, but there was a dazed expression in her eyes. When she finally slid them to the side and caught a glimpse of me, she blinked hard, doing a slow double-take before she frowned. "Slate? What are you doing here?"

"I called him," Sophie piped up, a gleeful grin on her lips before she grimaced at me. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have bothered you. For a second there, it looked like things were about to get hairy."

"What the hell happened?" I asked, reaching for Jess. I was about to pull her into me when Austin's voice pulled me out of the stunned, awed trance I'd been in.

"What a show, sis," he said, walking around me and pulling her into his arms instead. I was aching to get to hold her, but I took a step back and released a relieved breath.

Jess chuckled and gave Austin a quick hug before she blinked away the haze in her eyes. "When did you guys get here?"

"Just in time to see the grand finale," Austin said, giving her a quick onceover when she stepped out of his embrace. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She brought her wrist to her chest, rubbing it almost absentmindedly as she nodded. "Yeah, I'm good."

"You should've seen her," Sophie said proudly. "One minute, I was scared he was going to force her into his car, and then suddenly, she was the one who went at him ."

"Force her into his car?" I repeated after her, my heart lurching. I narrowed my eyes on Jess's. "What is she talking about?"

Jess shrugged, but I saw her gaze flicker toward a spot on the sidewalk beside us. "It was nothing. He was waiting here when we came out and he insisted on giving me a ride back to the farm. I said no, but he wasn't having it."

Austin's eyebrows knitted as he suddenly noticed her incessantly rubbing her wrist too. "Did he hurt you?"

"Only for a second." She winced when Austin took her hand to inspect her wrist. "It's nothing. Really. He was just holding on to me so I couldn't get into Sophie's car. I'm fine."

"Fucking prick," Austin spat, looking around like he was expecting Oden to come back just so he could clock him instead of worrying about his sister doing it. "If he shows his face around here again, I?—"

She shook her head. "He won't. We need to find out who his client is, though. I made him a promise I intend on keeping."

Meanwhile, my eyes were still latched on that spot on her wrist. Oden hadn't left a mark—or maybe it just hadn't appeared quite yet—but her skin was red where he'd grabbed her. At the sight, bolts of emotion thundered through me, each one more intense and more vicious than the last.

Every protective instinct I had was rattling at its cage, fighting ferociously to be set free. My fingers curled into tight fists at my sides. My nails dug into my palms as I gnashed my teeth. There was nothing I could do to Oden right now, but soon, he'd know he'd messed with the wrong guy's girl—even if she wasn't really mine.

None of this would go unpunished. That was a promise I made myself, and just like Jess, it was one I intended on keeping.