by Mia Carson
“I had taken care of it,” Ben snapped, running his hand over his balding head. “It's not my fault the venue hasn’t been reopened by the city.”
“Uh… hi,” Johanna said slowly. “What’s going on?”
“The party this weekend was supposed to be downtown, but they seem to have had a tiny little fire and the place hasn’t reopened yet! We have to have it here, and it’s going to be a disaster,” Lucy moaned dramatically.
Johanna smirked but hid it quickly behind her hand as she coughed. “So? You like having parties at the house,” she said. “Used to have them once a month.”
“Yes, well, this year, we invited all the socialites of the state to expand our influential sphere and for some reason, we invited the Marquettes,” Lucy snapped. “Why did I ever think it was a good idea?”
“You said you were doing it so you could gloat,” Ben chimed in.
Johanna frowned, glancing from one to the other. “Gloat over what?”
Lucy sighed and stared longingly at her daughter. “Oh, sweetie, we expected you to be dating Brandon by now, maybe even engaged. Their son has yet to settle down with anyone, and until he does, their whole business is on the line.”
Usually, Johanna was good at maintaining her composure, but not anymore. She stood abruptly and paced across the room. “You were holding a party to show off a forced engagement?”
“Not forced,” Lucy argued and stood, too. “We hoped you would understand your position in this family by now and do what was asked of you to uphold our name and the business. Why do you think your brothers set you up?”
“Why don’t they have to settle down?!” she yelled, years of pent-up fury rushing out with her words. “They sleep around like man-whores, and you never get onto them to settle down! Why is that? Why does the fate of our family legacy fall on my shoulders?”
“You are a Chadwick, and you will do whatever is required of you to keep this family moving forward,” Ben stormed.
Johanna shook her head. “No. I won’t date some jackass for you two, and I sure as hell won’t marry him!”
She pushed past her dad and charged out the door, tears stinging her eyes. She grabbed her keys and purse off the side table and ran out the front door to her car. Her parents yelled after her, but she didn’t stop. Johanna did not want to go back. She drove mindlessly until she found herself parked on campus. It wasn’t too late, and the quad was lit up, as were many of the windows. Not sure what made her do it, she got out of the car and hurried across the grass towards the far building and Professor Ashford’s office. The light was on in the room, so she knocked before she could stop herself.
“Yes? Come in,” he called out, and she swung open the door. Reading glasses perched on his nose, Ashford looked up with a furrowed brow. “Johanna? What are you doing here so late?”
“I—uh, I’m not sure, actually,” she mumbled and hesitated. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be here.”
She turned to go, but he called her back. “Wait, please, you look like you should sit down. Did something happen?”
Johanna glanced over her shoulder, but the thought of heading back home instead of over to Reider’s place like she wanted to so she could fall into his arms smacked her hard in the face. She sagged, her body collapsing in on itself. Ashford rushed forward and guided her to a chair, closing his door behind her.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” he said gently, patting her hand.
“It’s stupid really, and I shouldn’t be here, but Reider said you knew about us and I have no one else to talk to,” she rambled, wiping her face with her shirtsleeve. “I’m sorry. You’re busy.”
“Nonsense,” Ashford said and stood. He rummaged through several drawers in his desk, muttering under his breath, and when he straightened, he had a bottle of whiskey in his hand and two glasses. “I can’t help but feel this is all my fault anyway,” he added with a shrug. “I put you in this situation.”
Johanna took the glass filled with whiskey he offered and slouched in the chair as she ran her fingers over the rim. “Yeah, but now that we’re together, I can’t thank you enough for doing it.”
Ashford raised his glass. “A toast, then, to you and Reider.”
Johanna barely raised her glass before she gulped the liquor until she drained the glass in seconds and slammed it on the desktop, motioning for another. “Too bad it’s never going to work… can’t, because my family is full of assholes,” she muttered bitterly.
Ashford kept his mouth closed as he filled her glass again and watched her slam that one back, too.
“I can’t even go to Reider for comfort like a normal damn girlfriend. Can’t dance with him at the parties or even plan a normal future together,” she continued, glaring into the whiskey. “All I can do is watch my life be planned for me by my family and realize the only way for us to be together is to run. Run far, far away and never look back. But I can’t even do that! They’ll follow us, I know they will.”
She played with the glass, turning it so the amber liquid caught the dim yellowed light from the two lamps on the desk. A single tear slipped down her cheek, and she wiped it angrily away.
“Are you two making plans to run?” Ashford asked quietly, leaning back in his chair.
“We don’t have any other choice.” The words were strained with fear. “But my brothers, they’ll never let me go, and if they hurt Reider… if they ever found us…”
Images of Reider beaten and bloody rose in her mind, and she remembered what he’d told her about the car accident, about how Micah thought someone set it up. Her brothers could be responsible for killing two people. Would they really hesitate to kill another? She drained her third glass, smacking her lips at the bite of liquor burning down her throat.
“Maybe I can be of some assistance,” Ashford suggested, and when she held out her glass, he frowned but poured her another anyway. Then he held out his hand. “Keys. You’re not going to drive anywhere, not now.”
She handed them over and nursed her fourth glass of whiskey. “What did you have in mind? And why help us anyway?” she asked confused. “We’re nothing to you.”
“You two are the hope for ending this ridiculous feud and uniting the town,” he told her. “I’m tired of watching people be afraid of which family to side with for fear of what the other one might do in retaliation. If you two are going to run, I’ll do what I can to help. Stall your families somehow.”
Johanna nodded with his words as the whiskey seeped into her mind. She giggled darkly. “This could go horribly wrong,” she muttered through her hysterical laughter. “We’re so screwed.” She shot back the rest of her drink and wondered how long she and Reider really had together.
***
Reider pulled into the campus parking lot and hopped out of his Wrangler. He ran towards Ashford’s office, the professor’s words running through his head that it was imperative he come to his office tonight. Reider wasn’t sure what to expect, but when he knocked and Ashford pulled open the door, his jaw clenched at what he saw.
“What the hell is going on?”
Ashford sighed and closed the door. “Almost a whole bottle of whiskey.”
Reider nodded slowly and moved forward. Johanna lay on the small couch in the professor’s office, her feet hanging over the edge. Her eyes were closed, and her chest rose steadily up and down, but her face scrunched every few moments as if she were having a bad dream.
“Why is she here?” Reider asked as he went to her side and knelt. He kissed her forehead and smoothed back her curls as Ashford leaned back against his desk. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of her all night.”
“Yes, here’s her cell,” he said and handed it to Reider. “Seems you both had bad days. Her parents are forcing her to push forward with a particular man… Brandon or something?”
Reider grunted in anger. “Yeah, and my cousin is blackmailing me over our relationship,” he snapped. “Damn it, why did we think this would work? There are too many pr
oblems.”
“Is that right?” Ashford said, and Reider frowned at the stern tone of his voice. “You hit a wall, and you’re going to give up like that? Both of you?”
“What am I supposed to do? We have a plan to run, but we won’t get far, not with her brothers coming after us and my cousin knowing all about us,” Reider argued hotly and stood. “I won’t see her hurt, not because of me.”
“But you’ll see her with another man?”
Reider yelled and moved as if to hit Ashford, blinded by rage, but he stopped his fist in time as a quiet voice called his name. He whipped back around to see Johanna’s eyes squinting at him. “Johanna? Are you alright?”
“Drunk,” she said and giggled. “Very, very drunk.” She sat up unsteadily, and he gripped her shoulders. “Why are you here?”
“Professor Ashford called me,” he said, studying her face, and despite the reason she was drunk, tried not to laugh at her random giggles. “You look lovely.”
“Thanks,” she muttered then burst out into laughter again. “Wait, you said… You said your cousin knows?” She was still laughing, but he could see the struggle to focus in her eyes. “How does he know?”
Reider shot a look at Ashford before replying quietly, “Dorm room.”
“Damn,” she whispered. “That little bastard.”
Reider grinned. “Yeah. Yeah, he is.”
“Wait, if he knows, it ruins everything,” she gasped. “Reider, what are we going to do? We can’t have him walking around for three weeks while we try to leave!” Tears welled in her eyes, and she leaned into his chest as he held her close.
“I don’t know,” he said into her hair. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”
Ashford moved around behind Reider, but he didn’t look to see what the man was doing. His future with Johanna fell apart around him, and there was little he could do to pick up the pieces. If his cousin knew, the second he thought Reider was going to leave, he’d spill everything. And if Johanna’s brothers realized what they were up to, they would lock her up inside that damn house and never let her see him or anyone else again. Johanna said Fredrick was hiding something, too. Reider had assumed the two guys were thick-headed assholes, but now, he wondered how dangerous they really were.
“Johanna, you said there is a party at your home this weekend?” Ashford asked, his fingers moving swiftly across his keyboard.
She sniffed hard and nodded against Reider’s shoulder. “Yeah, but that doesn’t help anything. Maybe… maybe we should break it off… give up.”
“Do you love each other?” Ashford asked gently, and Reider turned. He and Johanna stared at the man who had started their adventure. He studied the two students he wanted to mend a decades’ old rift. “Do you?”
“Of course we do,” Reider said fiercely.
“We do, but this isn’t easy,” Johanna added.
“Love isn’t supposed to be easy,” Ashford insisted. “I will help you both plan your escape, but if this is to work, you must move quickly. The night of the party, you’ll be at the same place.”
“Wait,” Reider said, realizing he missed something. “I thought the party was at the conference center downtown?”
“Not anymore,” Johanna said, sobering with each passing second. “Now, it’s at my home.”
“While everyone else is busy, you two will sneak away. Bring everything you need to my office on Friday. When you leave the party, come here, and we’ll get you out of the state,” Ashford told them. “I’m not going to see two more people torn apart by your families’ hatred.”
Reider scratched at his chin. “Why is this so important to you? What happened that you’re not telling us?”
Ashford sighed and sat back in his chair. “If your parents ever came to see me, they would realize who was actually teaching their children, but since they don’t, I’m safe to do as I please.”
“Ashford, who are you?” Johanna asked quietly.
“Once upon a time, I was a Marquette,” he told them, his eyes drifting as if seeing someone else in the office. A light smile touched his lips. “And I, too, fell in love with a Chadwick—Johanna’s mother.”
Silence fell over the office. Reider’s face screwed up in confusion.
“You… you’re from my family?” he finally asked. “I would know you.”
“No, you wouldn’t. I’m your dad’s cousin, and when I was found out—her mother and me—I was disowned at the age of eighteen. Sent away,” Ashford said. “Jameson Marquette, that’s who I was until I tried to love a Chadwick.”
“Did she… did she love you back?” Johanna asked, and with help from Reider, made it to her feet.
Ashford smiled sadly. “She did, but she was scared. She, like you two, knew the risks we faced. I never blamed her for leaving me that day and staying behind.”
“Why did you come back?” Reider’s head ached as he studied Ashford’s face and picked up subtle hints of recognition he should’ve seen before. The way his eyes angled down like his dad’s, or how his smile was crooked on one side. He even had the blue mole on his neck, small and usually hidden by a collar, but it was there, just like Reider’s dad’s. Just like his.
“I was tired of running. I changed my name after I left Nebraska and figured it was time to come back home and see how bad it was.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “Worse than I imagined.”
Reider glanced down when Johanna’s hand slipped into his and she squeezed it hard. “So you’ll help us?” she asked, and the hope in her words filled Reider with warmth. “You’ll make sure they don’t find us?”
“I will do my best,” he said. “I won’t watch you two be torn apart.” His gaze turned to Reider. “I’m glad to see you did not turn out like your dad.”
“Me too,” he agreed. “Thanks, by the way, for doing this.”
As he got to his feet, Ashford opened his arms to them both. “This is what families are supposed to be for, Reider. Never forget that.”
***
The next hour was spent with James. Reider was told to call him that unless they were in class—they were family, after all. Once their plan was laid out, Johanna texted Izzy to see if it were safe to return home. Reider waited with her in the parking lot, sitting in his Wrangler while James sat in her Coupe to drive it back to the mansion. The whiskey was still affecting her, and she leaned against Reider while he put his arm around her shoulders, planning on touching her as long as he could in this stolen moment.
“Do you think this will work?” she asked. “Think we’ll make it?”
He kissed the top of her head. “I hope so. I don’t want what happened to James happening to us.”
“My mom,” she mused. “I can’t believe he was in love with my mom and she let him go.”
“She was scared, and they were younger than us,” he told her. “Don’t hold it against her.”
A chirp sounded from her cell, and she checked it. “Izzy says my parents are asleep and the brothers are out for another hour or so. Now’s our chance.” She texted her sister as Reider flashed his lights at James. The two vehicles exited the campus lot and drove towards Johanna’s home. “I wish we could go back to our place instead.”
His lips curled into a grin. “Our place? You mean the barn?”
“It’s our place now. Feels like it, anyway. I wish we could live there and no one would bother us,” she said and wrapped her hand around his arm.
“Don’t worry. Soon, we’ll really have our own place. I swear it.” He wanted to believe the words as he said them, but a nagging voice in the back of his mind said this was going to go terribly wrong. It would blow up in their faces, and the fear of seeing Johanna heartbroken, locked away by her family, tore at his chest until a sharp ache made him grunt.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said with a smile. “Rest for a bit. You need it after all the whiskey you drank.”
She laughed, and soon, her breathing steadied and she fe
ll asleep against his side. Twenty minutes later, he parked along the curb and nudged her awake. Izzy rushed out the front gate to meet them and helped get Johanna out of the Wrangler. Reider worried at first when Johanna told him her sister knew, but everything he knew about the young woman told Reider she was a mini version of Johanna and wanted nothing to do with her controlling family.
“Thanks for bringing her home,” Izzy said. Johanna mumbled under her breath, but she was slipping further into a drunken sleep, her sister holding her up.
“Izzy, I want you to know, we’re coming back for you,” he promised.
Her face brightened and she nodded. “I believe you.”
As she walked back towards the gate, James pulled the Coupe up the drive, and a few seconds later, rushed towards the open passenger door of Reider’s Wrangler.
“They get inside alright?” he asked.
James nodded. “She’ll be fine. You both will.”
Reider didn’t speak. They had made their plans. Now, all they could do was pray nothing went wrong.
Chapter 13
The night of the party arrived, and Johanna’s hands wouldn’t stop trembling as she tried to fix her hair and makeup. After nearly stabbing herself in the eye with her eyeliner, Izzy, who was getting ready with her, took it away and offered to help.
“I can’t look so nervous. They’ll know I’m up to something,” she mumbled. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea. My gut’s telling me it’ll go wrong.”
Izzy sighed, and her eyes narrowed as she focused on her sister’s face. “You have to have some faith.”
“Faith? We’re about to take a huge risk with our lives, and you’re telling me to have faith?” she snapped. She inhaled deeply and reached out for Izzy’s hand. “I’m sorry, didn’t mean that.”
“It’s fine. This is a big deal, but I still can’t believe Mom was the first Chadwick to fall for a Marquette.” Her voice turned dreamy as she finished Johanna’s makeup and worked at taming her curls. “To think she could’ve run off and had a completely different life.”
“Yeah,” Johanna agreed. “She might’ve been happy.”
