by Mia Carson
He took her hand and brought it to his smiling lips, kissing it. “Yeah, we are. This time tomorrow, we’ll be in a new state living our lives together.”
“What did Izzy do? She never told me.”
“Apparently, she’s a lesbian and fleeing the country to be an artist in France,” Reider informed her with a smirk. “Never heard your mom shriek before.”
“You weren’t around when I started rebelling. I thought half the city would hear her.”
Reider grinned, picturing a younger Johanna, just as fiery, arguing with her mom over what she had to wear or going to a party where she had to look perfect. But now, that life was behind them both, and he sighed in relief.
“I almost lost it when that jackass upset you,” he muttered.
“Brandon? Don’t worry, he won’t walk right for a while,” she sneered. “Heels and soft shoes don’t mix well.”
“I’ll remember that,” he said quietly.
They went over their plan for once they left campus, deciding how far they wanted to try and go on the first night. Reider was willing to push it as far as they could, but Johanna told him driving through the night wouldn’t be good for either of them. They had a reservation set up, anyway. Might as well take the night to rest.
“Besides,” she added with a raised brow. “I’m not wearing anything under my dress.”
His grip on the steering wheel faltered. “What are you trying to do to me?”
“Love you for the rest of my life,” she said sincerely and leaned against his shoulder.
Reider floated with the hope of their future together and sped towards campus. When they arrived, James leaned against his car, two black duffels sitting on the trunk. Reider parked next to him and hopped out.
“So far so good?” James asked quickly.
“No one saw us leave, so I’m going to say yes,” Reider told him. “We can’t thank you enough for doing this.”
James waved away his words. “It’s nothing. I wish my own story had ended like this instead of what actually happened. No matter. I’ll help you get these loaded, and then you get your asses out of here.”
Reider grabbed one duffel as James took the other and walked to the rear of the Wrangler. They tossed the duffels inside when a pair of headlights lit them up as a car squealed around the parking lot.
“Reider! It’s my brothers!” Johanna yelled and jumped out of the Wrangler.
The car stopped right behind, blocking them in, and he cursed as Frank climbed out of the driver’s side, his face red and tux collar askew. His hands clenched into fists, but when he spotted Johanna moving to stand beside Reider, he snarled in rage and charged forward. Reider shoved Johanna out of the way and took Frank’s hit head on. They fell backwards to the pavement, and he grunted as pain soared through his body.
“Frank! Get off him!” Johanna screamed, rushing towards them.
Fredrick got out of the passenger seat of the car, and Reider saw him hurrying to grab Johanna before Frank’s fist filled his vision. His head slammed back from the punch. He spat out blood and head-butted Frank hard in the face. His nose cracked and with a moan, and he reached up to hold it. Reider didn’t give him too much time and kicked the man off, gaining his feet, and put his fists up.
“You bastard!” Frank yelled through his hands. “You slept with my sister!”
“Frank, enough!” Johanna yelled, struggling to get away from the other twin. “Damn it, stop it!”
“No! He thinks he can ruin us by ruining you! It’s not going to happen,” Frank snarled and went after Reider again.
He blocked the first punch and ducked under the second, but it’d been a long time since he was in a fist fight. The third punch hit him hard in the gut, and Frank’s knee met his face. Johanna screamed, but Reider couldn’t see her. Frank decked him again and sent him to his knees on the pavement. James yelled, threatening to call the cops, but Frank didn’t stop, and Reider pushed himself back up to face the bastard.
“You are not going to run off with my sister,” he swore as Reider lifted his fists again.
“I love her,” Reider said fiercely. “And she loves me. What’s wrong with that, huh? You think she’d be happy with Brandon? He’d use her, and you were going to hand her over like a damn war prize!”
“She doesn’t love you, she can’t! You’re a Marquette!”
Reider sniffed hard and smirked. “You think a name is going to stop us from being together?”
“Yeah, that and me!”
Frank lunged forward, and they landed on the ground again, rolling one way then another as Reider blocked hits the best he could, nailing Frank with a few of his own. Both men grunted and swore until Frank managed to put him in a headlock. Reider pried at the man’s arm, but it didn’t budge. His vision blurred, and his hearing grew fuzzy. He swore he heard Johanna’s voice, and suddenly, Frank yelped in pain and let go.
Reider hacked and sucked in a painful breath. He turned to see Johanna on her brother’s back, scratching at him as he flung her around. He tried to yell, but no sound came out. Frank grabbed Johanna’s arms and with a forceful tug, tossed her towards the campus lawn. She landed hard with a gasp of pain, and Reider’s vision went red. He wasn’t even sure how it happened, but he and Frank were tangled up again. He hit every bit of that man he could reach. Lights flashed around them and men shouted, but he didn’t stop and neither did Frank, both too lost in their fury to realize what was happening around them.
“Reider, that’s enough! Get them apart before they kill each other!”
“No, get off me!” Reider raged as rough hands snagged his body, dragging him away from Frank, also still trying to go after him. “He hurt Jo!”
“Reider,” the gruff voice snapped in his ear. “Take it down a notch, son. Johanna is fine.”
He turned, his chest heaving in anger, to see Sheriff Princeton standing between himself and Frank. Four cops held them apart as the sheriff stared at him. His eyes scanned the crowd and finally spotted Johanna not too far away, her parents beside her, yelling. Her arms flew up and she cursed loud enough for everyone to hear before she turned and ran for Reider.
“Not so fast,” Princeton said and stopped her gently. “We have to take these two downtown, Ms. Chadwick. I’m afraid whatever you have to say to him has to wait.”
Johanna opened her mouth to yell at him, but Reider called her name. “Jo, look at me.”
She turned, angry tears filling her eyes and her brow furrowed. “Reider, I’m so sorry. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
“I know, but I’ll be fine. Did he hurt you?”
“No,” she said quietly. “No, I’ll live, and sadly, so will he.”
“Alright, that’s enough,” Princeton said. “You need to go with your folks and let me handle the situation. Deputy, make sure she gets to where she needs to be.”
A man stepped forward and took Johanna’s arm. “This way, Ms. Chadwick.”
“No! Get off me! I’m not leaving him!”
“Johanna, really,” Lucy snapped as she stormed over to her daughter. “Knock this off, now. I’m sick of your attitude and your lying. What were you thinking, being with him? He’s a Marquette, for God’s sake!”
“And the man I love, you horrible, bitter old woman!”
Everyone fell silent, and Lucy reeled as if her daughter had slapped her. “How dare you?”
“No, how dare I? James is here, Mom. He’s here and he loved you once upon a time, or did you forget that along with how to be a loving mother?” Johanna pulled away from the deputy and ran through the crowd of people, leaving her mom to stare blankly ahead.
“Lucy? Who is she talking about?” Ben said beside her.
Reider knew the second her eyes found James’s in the crowd. They widened, and her mouth fell open. She took a few steps towards him before she shook her head and visibly steeled herself. “He’s no one, dear, no one that matters.” She turned and came face to face with Reider. There was no
time to brace before she slapped him hard across the face. Princeton growled for her to back away before he put her in cuffs too, and with Reider’s cheek stinging, she stomped away after Johanna.
Princeton grumbled under his breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I clearly recall you telling me earlier this evening you were keeping out of trouble, Reider.”
“I was,” he spat. “I’m not the one who threw the first punch.”
“You slept with my sister!” Frank yelled and tried to go after him again, but the cops held him back. “Lock him up!”
“I’m booking you both,” Princeton told him. “Get them downtown before I lose it.”
“How did you even know?” Reider asked as the cops dragged him to a cop car.
Frank leered as he was led past. “Your cousin told us, barely five minutes after you left.”
Reider couldn’t believe it as he let the cops put him in the back of the squad car. The car pulled away a few minutes later, and he was informed a doctor would check his face when they reached the jail. He nodded, numb to everything. The plan had failed, fallen apart, all because of his cousin. He wanted Jo, needed to hold her in his arms and tell her everything would be okay, but deep in his twisted, bruised gut, he worried he would never see her again.
Chapter 14
Johanna hurried into the house ahead of her parents and Fredrick. Izzy sat on the steps and stood when she entered, her face pale and reflecting a fraction of the pain rushing through Johanna’s body.
“Johanna, stop right there,” Lucy yelled. “Johanna!”
“What? What the hell do you want from me?” she snapped as she whirled back around. “Was this not enough for you tonight?”
The people still there cleaning up the aftermath of the party she and Reider had ruined with their escape attempt stopped what they were doing to watch the fight.
“How dare you?” Lucy said quietly. “You lied to us, went behind our backs, because you thought you might love a Marquette! What were you thinking? Did you sleep with him?” When Johanna clamped her mouth shut, her mom gasped with a hand to her chest. “Oh God, you did! I can’t believe you betrayed us like this! What is wrong with you?”
Johanna’s mouth fell open. “With me? Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously,” Ben said, moving to stand beside his wife. Fredrick, surprisingly, stayed quiet and stared at his feet. “Answer your mother, Johanna.”
“There’s nothing wrong with me.” She bit out each word harshly. “I was partnered with him by the man Mom used to love but was too scared to run off with. Reider and I have been working together since the beginning of the semester, and we fell in love. I want to be with him, and you two can’t stop me.”
“He’s a Marquette,” Lucy said wearily. “You can’t be with him.”
“You want me to be with Brandon? With a man who simply wants to parade me around and have me pop out babies for him?”
“Brandon is a respectable businessman—” Ben argued, but Johanna cut him off as she threw her hands up.
“No, he’s a pig! If I married him, I wouldn’t be happy ever again, and I guarantee you, he’d cheat on me within the first month. You really want me with someone like that? Do you never want me to be happy and do what I want with my life?”
Ben raised an accusing finger towards her and fumed. “You are a Chadwick, and we stick together as a family. You will do as you’re told!”
“Or what?” she snapped, moving so she stood toe-to-toe with her dad.
“Do not test me, Johanna. I’m not in the mood to hear it. You betrayed this family, and I’m finished discussing your future with you. If you hope to remain a part of this family at all, you will do as you’re told!”
Johanna crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her chin. “No.”
Ben’s face turned three shades of red, and Lucy hung her head. “No?”
“No,” Johanna repeated. “What are you going to do? Kick me out?”
“I will cut you off from all your accounts, starting now,” he snarled. “I’m taking your car. Everything we’ve ever bought you is gone.”
Johanna flinched at the venom in his words—her own dad—and took a step back. All the money she had was in the duffel bags currently on the way to the impound at the police station. She had nothing, no way to leave.
“I hate you,” she whispered harshly, loathing the tears filling her eyes. “And I’ll never forgive you.”
She fled upstairs, ignoring her dad’s yells for her to come back down. Once inside her room, she slammed and locked the door then collapsed on her bed. This wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go, and it killed her inside. Reider was in jail, at least for the night, beaten and bruised because of her family, because of their crazy hope that they could sneak away and no one would notice. All her dreams of a future away from her controlling family disappeared and she was left with nothing but a shattered heart and broken spirit. Burying her face in the pillow, she cried, her strength fading. A soft knock sounded at her door followed by Izzy asking if she could come in, but Johanna didn’t move and pulled the quilt up over her head, praying that sometime during the night she’d manage to disappear. Eventually, Izzy went away and she was left alone, so utterly and horribly alone.
***
Reider stepped out of the cell, smirking because Frank was still sitting in the other holding cell. His moment of joy barely lasted a minute before his parents called his name. He cursed under his breath, not ready to face them.
“Want to explain what you were doing fraternizing with a Chadwick?” Janet asked stiffly, but Reider didn’t stop and walked towards the doors. “Reider, I’m speaking to you!”
“Can we please not discuss family matters at the police station?” he replied.
His parents muttered behind him, but he ignored them. Once outside, he let the cool evening air soothe him for a few seconds until he spotted Micah leaning against his parents’ car. “You bastard!” Micah tried to run, but Reider was faster and decked him hard enough to knock him to the pavement. Several cops walking inside stopped and watched, but Reider didn’t try to hit him again and his dad said everything was under control.
“What the hell was that for?” Micah whined as he scrambled to back away, still on the ground.
“You told her brothers! You greedy son of a bitch!”
“Reider, that is your cousin,” Janet hissed and moved between them. “In this family, we protect each other. We do not punch each other in the face!”
“He knew,” Reider growled. “He knew, and he blackmailed me. Is that what family does, too?”
He paced away, running a hand through his hair and hoping Johanna was alright. He didn’t even want to think what she was going through without him by her side. She was tough, but a person could only take so much of a beating on her spirit before she broke.
“Micah, is this true?” Peter said finally, and Reider turned back as his cousin dragged himself up the car and back to his feet. “Micah?”
“He’s lying to cover up what he was doing,” Micah muttered, holding his nose.
“Bullshit. You hired a damn PI to investigate your parents’ crash, and now, he has you believing it wasn’t an accident!”
Micah’s face paled, but his mom sighed heavily and reached out for him. “Micah, we told you, you need to talk to someone. It was an accident, that’s it. No one was out to get your parents.”
“That’s what you think, that’s what everyone thinks, but the Chadwicks killed them!”
Reider barked a laugh. “You’re an idiot, you know that?”
“Says the man who stabbed his family in the back by sleeping with the enemy!” Micah yelled.
“At least I fight for what I love,” he growled. “I don’t treat people around me like shit.”
“Love?” Peter asked quietly. “Did you say you loved her?”
Reider wasn’t sure what his dad hoped to hear, but he never got the chance to say it before another voice came from behind hi
m. “Peter, good to see you again.”
James walked over to the family and held out his hand for Peter’s, but he glared at it before meeting eyes with his cousin. “This is all your fault. You set them up together on purpose! Were you trying to get back at the family?”
James’s hand fell, and his eyes filled with disappointment. “You think I want revenge?”
“Why else would you come back here and try to tear my family apart?”
“Don’t you think it’s time this feud ended? It’s been too long, Peter,” James said. “Why can’t they be together?”
Peter took a threatening step forward and Reider moved to stand between them, but James shook his head. “No son of mine is going to have anything to do with a Chadwick whore.”
“Don’t you dare insult her!” Reider yelled
“See what you’ve done? You’ve poisoned his mind against us.”
James laughed in disbelief. “Come on, Peter, you’re not that much of an idiot. They love each other. I think every bruise and cut on his face is testament enough to that fact. Let them be together. Let them start a change in this city.”
But Peter shook his head and stepped away. “No, there won’t be any changes. Reider will come to understand that I did this for his benefit. He’ll take over, and that’ll be the end of it.”
“Says who?” Reider said with a shrug. “Maybe I’ll disappear like James did.”
“And leave behind everything you’ve worked towards your whole life? You will have nothing from this family if you leave, Reider. Nothing, and I will make sure your name is mud anywhere but here,” Peter warned. “Want to test me? Ask my cousin.”
Reider wanted to say none of that mattered, but if he wanted a life with Johanna, they would need jobs, own land—hell, have a little money to get them started. If his dad locked down his accounts, he had nothing. “You’re putting me on house arrest? Is that it?”
Peter nodded. “If that’s what it takes to make you understand, then yes.”
“Don’t do this again,” James said. “You’re perpetuating the cycle.”
