by Ciara Knight
“I don’t know what to do,” he mumbled. Perhaps Lori would know. No, she’d left town, too.
Mary-Beth adjusted her bracelets. “Tell me what’s going on, and maybe I can help.”
He thought about her words and the town, and that’s when he realized Stella was strong and independent and he didn’t want to change that about her, but this was harder than he’d thought it would be. He couldn’t deny it any longer. He was a protector to his core, and he couldn’t stand by while another woman was hurt on his watch. Friends… If Stella didn’t want his help directly, he’d get the help of the town. “You don’t have a lunch with Stella today, do you?”
“No.” Mary-Beth tilted her head and her brow tightened.
“That’s it. She can’t do this on her own. Call the girls and get them here now, all except Stella.”
“Why except Stella?” Mary-Beth asked.
The sheriff’s radio crackled, and he took it outside before Knox could stop him.
“Please, I’ll explain when the other girls are here.” He felt like Mary-Beth had hooked him up with a caffeine IV and opened the drip wide.
“Actually, here comes Jackie now. I’ll text Carissa and Felicia.” Mary-Beth went to the back, so he turned his attention to Jackie.
“I need your help.”
“I’m a popular woman today. Some stranger needed help this morning.”
“Stranger? What did he want?” Knox wanted to run that man out of town, too. Maybe Stella was on to something and he really did need to play hero.
“He said he was a cousin of Stella’s. Funny, I don’t remember her having a cousin.”
His muscles stiffened. That man wasn’t her cousin. He knew it in his bones. “I need you to call a Fabulous Five Intervention.”
Jackie narrowed her gaze. “What am I calling this intervention for?”
“To drive Stella’s father out of town,” he said but felt like he shouldn’t have even shared that much. Stella’s trust meant everything to him.
“He’s in jail, last I heard. But if he wasn’t, we wouldn’t welcome him back to town. Not sure we need an entire town to help, though. We girls can handle it.”
The front door opened, but he didn’t take a breath to see who it was. “I know you don’t like that I am in love with Stella, but you can’t let your friend down because of that. She needs you.”
“Love?” Jackie’s chin rose and her shoulders went to attention.
He shook his head as if to clear it. “We can discuss my levels of feeling for her later. Right now, you need to go chase that man out of town. Get that sheriff back here and escort him out of here. Tar and southernize him if you have to.”
“You believed that story?” Jackie laughed. “Tell me you won’t do that to yourself to win Stella over. I don’t think I could bear to see another man reduce himself to such tactics.”
“You need to call the intervention now,” he demanded.
“What’s the intervention for?” Carissa approached with Drew and Felicia by her side.
Drew rushed to Knox. “What is it? I haven’t seen you this riled since the war.”
Knox’s head spun, and he realized he was breathing fast and hard. “I need the girls club to get everyone to join forces to run Stella’s father out of town. Come on, let’s move.”
“We can go to Stella’s and tell him he isn’t welcome here. What’s the big deal?” Jackie demanded with a hint of irritation.
A car passed by outside. It was the car her father had taken out of town. There wasn’t any more time. The sheriff wasn’t at the garage. Knox wasn’t there. No one was there to protect her.
“Her life is in danger.”
They all looked at each other as if he’d gone mad.
“Don’t you understand? It’s her father. The man who went to jail.”
“Yeah, for selling drugs and fraud. That doesn’t mean he’d hurt Stella. He’s still her father.”
“He already did.” Knox didn’t have any more time to waste. He headed for the door, but Drew grabbed hold of him.
“How? Is he using again?” Mary-Beth asked from behind him.
“The man’s an animal. Yes, I’m sure he’s using.” Knox didn’t want to waste any more time arguing.
“If he’s using, he won’t hurt her.” Mary-Beth’s bracelets jingled at her approach. “He’s only here to ask for money. We’ll go by and check on Stella and cheer her up. No need to worry.”
“Seriously, he’s never hurt her before. We’d know.” Jackie said with an air of irritation.
“He is a monster. He tried to sell her for drugs when she was a child!” He slammed his hand over his mouth, but it was too late. He’d betrayed Stella. He’d done the one thing he knew she’d never forgive him for: telling the world her darkest secret.
Thirty-One
Stella shoved her last shirt into a bag, tied it, and dropped it next to the four boxes filled with her belongings. For now, she could stay at the inn with her earnings from the 916 Bradley had already paid. When Ms. Horton returned, Stella would request permission to keep the car and her tools in the old warehouse behind the recreation building. Once finished with the car, she’d receive the second half of the payment and she could figure out what was next.
One day at a time, one problem at a time like her abuelo would tell her. The car restoration episode for Knox would either have to be filmed elsewhere or be canceled, a realization that stabbed at her resolve, but he knew why she had to do this. Besides, she and Knox could never be together, not as long as her father was free.
Her body throbbed and protested every time she moved another box, not only from packing all night but at the realization she had to end things with Knox before they ever really began. How could her father always cost her so much? If only a few dollars would send him away for years instead of weeks, but he’d burn through everything the minute he found some drugs and women.
She wiped the sweat from her brow and abandoned the last of her packing to open a window. Daylight had come and with it a false sense of security. She’d spent all night mourning the loss of the garage and facing her fear of a man who no longer had power over her.
The boxes in the garage blocked the path to the door, so she stacked them near the Chevy and wheeled her tools near them. Once she finished packing, she’d call Felicia to borrow her truck and move her belongings to the county storage building for now. Hopefully Ms. Horton would understand her picking the lock—a skill she’d vowed at fifteen never to use again.
A car drove in, spitting rocks behind its tires and halting outside the door. She didn’t even have to look to know her father had returned. It didn’t matter. No more hiding.
She lifted the large garage door and stood on the threshold of her past and the obstacle to her future. “Hello, Papa.”
The semisober, disheveled man who once bounced her on his knee stumbled around the car and faced her. He didn’t look so frightening anymore. Not in daylight, and not with the years of abuse he’d done to himself.
Another man excited the vehicle, a young, handsome man with wide eyes who looked like he’d been dragged along instead of driven into this situation. Her father obviously had something on him to get him here. She pitied the man.
“I’m here to take my garage.” He lifted his chin and marched up, halting a step from her, leaving little room to breathe.
Stella braced herself, shoulders back, despite still feeling like the little girl he’d dragged around like a puppet. “I’m assuming you were too drunk to remember our conversation last night.”
He laughed and looked back at the stranger. “You hear that? Told you she was beautiful but not real bright.” He stepped into her personal space. His stale beer and cigarette breath made her place her finger over her nose to keep from gagging.
“Why are you here? There’s nothing for you. The garage is gone.”
He laughed like a deranged clown. “You were paid a hunk of money for a car restoration. You want me gone,
give me the money.”
She felt like a thirteen-year-old girl: small, frightened…a child listening to authority despite the realization he was wrong. “No.” Her voice sounded weak even to her, and based on the way his eyes softened, he’d found his opening.
The other man stayed in the periphery of her vision, and flashes of her being tugged into the barn that night, her father shouting “Look what I brought” echoed in her head. “You need to leave. Both of you.”
“You think you’re so special.” He waved the other man closer, but the man didn’t move. “This girl thinks Sugar Maple loves her. That she’s better than her old man. Where are all your friends now?” He snorted. “Oh wait, that’s right. One of your friends told us about the car, and another one told us about the show and what was going on in the town. So much for friendships.”
“They wouldn’t.”
“They did.” The man stepped forward, but when her father rounded on him and said, “Don’t forget our deal,” the man backed down.
She glanced at the door and regretted sending everyone away, but this was her battle and she’d finish it. “There is nothing for you here. You’ve got no ammo to use to get me to pay you anything.”
The deep, guttural sound of his throat clearing, the noise he always made before he changed gears from reasonable to terrifying, echoed through the garage. He picked up a crowbar and swung it around like he was batting in the major leagues. “How well do you think the town will accept you when they find out you were trying to sell yourself for money?”
A fire erupted inside her. Years of anger and resentment raged. “I didn’t. That was you!”
Her father swung the crowbar, landing a blow on the 916. A dent crushed into the front fender.
“Stop!”
“Then give me the money.” He rested the crowbar on his shoulder.
The man with her father raced forward. “This isn’t the way.”
“Get out of my way.” Her father’s tone was dark and sinister. He had clearly hardened even more since she’d seen him last. She’d miscalculated his malice. The man hadn’t improved but had deteriorated into a darker place.
The man didn’t stop and blocked her father from the car. “No. I won’t let you terrorize this woman.”
“Then I’ll just have to terrorize your mother instead.”
The man lunged for her father.
Stella ran for her phone she’d left upstairs, but the sound of the crowbar hitting the man and the thump to the ground made her freeze a few steps from the stairs. She didn’t want to, but she forced herself to look back and see the man on the ground holding his shoulder, moaning.
“No need to go run call your friends. They won’t come. Besides, by the time they get here, I’ll be gone.” He didn’t come after her, so she stayed at the bottom step.
She looked at the man and realized for the first time there was nothing left of the father she knew as a child. Despite what he’d tried to do to her, she’d still always held on to the hope the sober him would return. Now, she saw the truth. “You’re a monster.”
“A monster you made when you chased your mother away. Give me money. You owe me for sticking around.”
Fury engulfed her reasoning, and she shot toward him. “I owe you nothing! Your cheating sent her away.” She took in a stuttered breath, her eyes pricking with tears. “I never had parents. Abuelo and abuela were my only real family. You never loved me. All you both cared about was fame and fortune. When mom got out there she ditched you and you couldn’t handle it so you turned to drinking and drugs. Apparently you weren’t good enough either.”
He raised the crowbar higher and stepped toward the stairs, but Stella didn’t retreat. “Go ahead. I always knew you were a brute.”
“Maybe I am.” Instead of coming after her, he turned and went to the Chevy and raised the crowbar over his head. “Or maybe I’m just a disappointed father. This car was always more important than me. You and your grandfather lived for this thing instead of looking after me. If it weren’t for you two, I wouldn’t have been in jail for so long.” He walked around the Chevy, studying it. “Give it to me to sell, or there won’t be anything left of it for you to work on.”
Knox walked in and halted a few steps inside. The expression on his face wasn’t something she’d seen before. It was militaristic, combative, frightening. She wanted to throw her arms around him for coming to help but slap him for being there all at the same time. “Put down the crowbar now, or I’ll forget I’m not supposed to be playing the hero.”
Thirty-Two
A wildfire of rage consumed Knox at the sight of a man threatening Stella. It didn’t matter that it was her father; the enemy needed to be dealt with.
“If it isn’t white knight.” Stella’s father tossed down the crowbar. “I’m not doing anything illegal here. This is my car. Everything in this garage belongs to me.” The way his gaze darted to Stella tossed gasoline on Knox’s anger, catapulting him forward.
“But I was leaving.” He didn’t move his gaze from Stella. “For now.”
“No, you won’t be returning here ever again,” Knox said firmly. “This is Stella’s garage, and I’ll make sure that you are never allowed back here.”
“I won’t be returning to the garage since apparently it’s been sold. Of course, I demand any profits from the sale.”
“Sold?” Knox captured the word, rolled it around in his head, but it didn’t register. Stella would never sell her grandfather’s garage.
Her father eyed him, then Stella, and then the door. “But I will visit my daughter on occasion. You can’t stalk her all the time like you were last night in your car.”
Stella moved into Knox’s line of sight. “I told you to stay out of this.”
He dared a glance at her, expecting to find anguish and fear, but it was more than that. The way she looked at him was distant. Her self-protected nature had returned, blocking him from any further emotional contact.
“Let me be clear.” Knox ignored Stella’s order to stay out of everything and marched over to face her father man-to-drunk. “You will never bother Stella again. You will no longer torture her or cause her pain. Not as long as I’m in her life.”
“He’s not in my life. Don’t listen to him,” Stella said, her words like napalm on his soul.
Knox thought he might double over in pain, but he knew he had to remain standing with no cracks showing in his façade to stand up to her father. He grappled for the rope of hope that she’d only said those words under some misguided attempt to protect him from her father. But if what she said was true, he still wanted to protect her. If he couldn’t, her friends would.
Cars charged into the parking lot. The girls had done it. The entire town cavalry had arrived. If this didn’t send the man running, nothing would. Jackie led the charge into the garage with the rest of the girls by her side. They rushed to Stella at the stairs and formed a human barrier.
“Mr. Frayser, Jackie said firmly, “you are no longer welcome in the town of Sugar Maple. We called the mayor, and she has spoken to the sheriff. You will be escorted out of town, and you will never return.”
Stella blinked, mouth wide, scanning the crowd.
“You’re all being manipulated by my daughter. You think she’s so pure and innocent. She tried to sell herself when she was a kid, and I tried to protect her.”
“No, you tried to sell her.” Carissa spoke with more hatred than Knox thought the girl was capable of possessing. “We know the truth, and your lies are not welcome here.”
“How?” Stella asked in a small voice.
Knox knew this could destroy any chance they had to be together, but she needed to hear it from him. “I told them.”
She gasped. “No.”
“I told you. I’m the only one you can trust. That man only cares about himself.” Her father marched toward the garage door. “I’ll see you later, sweet girl.”
Knox darted in front of him. “You’re not going anyw
here. The sheriff will be taking you into custody.”
“For what?” He tossed the crowbar to the floor and held up his hands in an innocent shrug.
Knox went nose-to-nose with the man, ignoring his stench. “I’m sure you broke probation with your drinking. If not, I’ll find another way to lock you up.””
“I never touched my daughter,” he snarled. “That’s a line I wouldn’t cross.”
The man’s deranged logic didn’t compute, but it didn’t matter.
The man on the floor managed to stand. “He smashed the 916 with a crowbar and assaulted me.”
Stella’s father lunged for him, but Knox grabbed his shoulders and wrapped him in a headlock. “Sheriff here yet?”
“I’m here.” He came in, eyed the stranger across the room holding his shoulder, eyed the girls huddled on the stairs, and eyed Knox with the man Knox had in a headlock. “I’ll take him to the station, and we can sort all this out there.” He cuffed Stella’s father and dragged him to the door.
“I’ll be out in a day, and I’m sure your mother would love to see me,” her father growled at the stranger.
Knox wanted to ask the man who he was and if he had anything to do with Stella’s father being here, but instead he turned to face Stella, who was surrounded by her friends, who were holding her in a group hug.
“Stella.” He crossed the room but stopped a few feet away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“Get out. I trusted you.” She slid between Felicia and Mary-Beth and looked down at him from the second step, her eyes wild, searching, angry, devastated. “But you betrayed me. You’re a worse liar than my father.”
Her words pierced his heart, his mind, his soul. The way she looked at him gave no room for doubt. They were over. She’d never get past the fact he’d broken her trust. And he didn’t blame her. She lived, though. That’s all that mattered. Even if they couldn’t be together, he’d saved the girl in distress this time.
