by Mia Carson
“I don’t give a damn. Janet, get in the car, and you,” Peter added, aiming his finger at Micah, “come Monday morning, you’re getting your ass to a therapist. I’m not going to watch you ruin this family name any more than my son already has.”
Reider hesitated, but James rested a hand on his shoulder. “Go on. I’ll see if I can find out how Johanna’s doing,” he promised.
“Thanks for trying,” he said.
“Don’t give up like I did,” he said with an encouraging smile. “Better go before your dad loses it.”
Reider followed Micah into the backseat, tugging at his collar and feeling the sharp pain from the hits he took during the fight. Micah glared at him the whole ride back to the house, but Reider didn’t care. He was not going to lose Johanna so easily, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to end like this. He needed to see her again, and he’d make sure they got away… except he had no vehicle and no funds.
His world closed in around him until he could hardly breathe. Once they reached the house, he went straight to his room, ignoring his dad’s calls for him to stop. There was nothing more to say and nothing he wanted to hear. He stood at his window, glaring out over the back gardens, his chest aching as if someone had stabbed him, his mind racing. When the sun came up, he hadn’t moved.
“Jo,” he whispered to the receding shadows in his room. “I’m not done trying, not yet. Don’t you dare give up on us.”
The words hung around him. He wished he could whisper them in her ear instead of to an empty room that had nothing to say in return.
Chapter 15
The weekend dragged by. Johanna didn’t leave her room for meals or anything else. Izzy brought food to her and left it outside her room, but with her stomach in knots, Johanna ignored it. As the days passed, she stared continually out her window, hugging her knees to her chest, wondering how her world had fallen apart so easily.
Her hair hung lankly around her face, the curls losing their usual bounce in the midst of her dour mood. Without her cell, she had no way of contacting Reider. Her parents had taken her laptop, leaving her with no communication with the outside world. Classes on Monday went on without her, though her mom told her she had to go. Johanna didn’t dress for the day and didn’t leave the window. Lucy yelled at her, but to no effect. Johanna was numb to her disappointment and her dad’s threats. Nothing mattered anymore. They would plan her life from here on out, and without Reider, her only hope of being free slipped away.
Their love was the beacon she chased after, the rope she clung to. The fire within her dimmed to barely a spark, and most mornings, she woke with tears in her eyes because Reider was not beside her.
A knock at the door was ignored by Johanna, knowing whoever it was would eventually go away. Fredrick called her name softly. Her face drawn in anger, Johanna pushed herself up, fueled by the rage filling her that her brother would dare talk to her now, after everything that had happened. She yanked the door open and raised her hand to smack him, but Fredrick caught her wrist.
“Let go, you bastard,” she snarled and tried to pull free.
“Johanna, please, I want to talk and I came to apologize—for everything,” he pleaded and let her go, taking a measured step back and out of her reach.
She glared at him and tugged at the bottom of her hoodie. “Apologize? You?”
He nodded. “Please, let me in and I’ll tell you everything,” he said and glanced around as if afraid his twin would appear out of nowhere. “As your brother, I’m begging you here.”
“As my brother. As the brother who tried to set me up with some asshole for a husband? Or the brother who tells me my life has no other purpose than to help keep the family name going strong?” she snapped.
He hung his head, and for the first time in years, Johanna caught a glimpse of the brother she used to like as a friend. “The brother who’s sorry for being such a dumbass all these years.”
Johanna debated whether she should let him in or not, but his words sounded sincere, so she moved aside and Fredrick entered her room. She closed the door behind him and leaned against it with her arms crossed, watching him closely as he sat down heavily at her desk, his head in his hands.
“I’m waiting,” she said impatiently, tapping her fingers on her arm.
He lifted his head and cringed. “That night, when you and Reider tried to leave, I wanted to talk to you about something I’ve been hiding. I wasn’t sure you’d understand, but after seeing you with Reider… This is all my fault. If I’d been honest sooner, none of this would’ve happened,” he sighed.
Johanna held her breath, wondering if he was going to admit to having something to do with the car accident, but what he said didn’t make sense. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Fredrick’s hands shook in his lap as he said, “I’m engaged, and I haven’t been going out with Frank on the weekends because I’ve been too busy visiting her and our one-year-old son.” His eyes lit up with pride. “I’m a dad, Jo. Me. It’s crazy.”
“You… you have a kid?” she asked, dumbfounded. “And a fiancée? That’s incredible, and I’m really happy for you.”
Her brother’s face softened. “You are?”
Johanna’s anger slipped away as she realized why Fredrick had changed so much over the past few years. Like her, he’d been hiding a whole other life from his family, and the stress of the lying, the tension of being found out had changed him. She moved across the room and hugged him like she hadn’t hugged her brother in so long.
“Yeah, I am. I wish you had told me, you know?” she said.
“I was scared,” he admitted. “We met in college, but she was a waitress and hadn’t gone to college, didn’t plan to. She was content, happy, and I was jealous of her for it.” He sighed and smiled as if he stared at the woman he loved. “We dated, and before long, I realized I wanted her, but Dad would never approve so we kept it a secret.”
Johanna frowned. “But you went to school in New York. Is she still there?”
He smirked. “Hell, no. I moved her out here with me. We have a small house out in Grand Island. I used all my savings to buy in cash,” he told her. “Not too long after, she found out she was pregnant.”
“And you went through all of this alone? Does Frank even know?”
“That damn bastard? No, he suspects I’m up to something, but I never told him. He’s too hardheaded, like Dad,” Fredrick said and took her hands. “I want you to know, all those times we told you to marry Brandon, I never would’ve actually let you marry the guy.”
She squeezed his hands and smiled sadly. “I don’t think I’m going to have much of a choice now. They won’t let me be with the man I do love because of his last name.” Tears pricked her eyes, but Fredrick stood and held his little sister, comforting her. “What am I supposed to do?” she cried against his shoulder. “Forget what we have together? Act like it never happened? I love him, and they’re going to rip us apart.”
Fredrick shook his head and stepped back from her. “I don’t know, sis, but I do know I’m not going to watch them drag you down and ruin your life anymore.”
“What do you mean?” she asked and wiped her eyes on her sleeves. “Freddie?”
“You love Reider, right? Want to be with him?”
“Of course I do, but they won’t let us… Freddie, what are you doing? Who are you calling?” she asked as he pulled out his cell and pushed a few buttons. “Freddie?”
He held a finger to his lips and grinned. “Hey, babe, there’s something I need to talk to you about and I was wondering if you would like to meet my sister Johanna?”
She froze, listening to him speaking to his fiancée.
“I know,” he said and nodded his head, listening. “I know and I’m sorry, but there’s been a development with what I told you before. I wanted to make sure you were okay if she stayed for a few days until we can figure everything out.”
Her hands twisting in her hoodie, Johanna bounced anxiously on the bal
ls of her feet as he paced back and forth across her room, answering whatever questions his fiancée asked quietly. After a few tense minutes, Freddie told her he loved her and hung up. “Right then, get packed—just a few things. We don’t have much time to get you out of here before everyone comes home.”
“What are you doing?” she asked, watching as he hurried to her closet and dug around for a duffel bag, holding it out to her. “What is going on here? Are you crazy? If they figure out what you did for me, they’ll take it out on you.”
He nodded. “I haven’t been much of a brother lately, so let me make it up to you. I’ll get you to my place out in Grand Island, and when things have calmed down—a few days, tops—I’ll get a message to Reider to meet you out there, and then you can—”
He barely caught her in time as she dropped the duffel and leapt into her brother’s arms. He held her tightly and kissed the top of her head as her eyes filled with tears of hope this time. “Thanks for this.”
Setting her back on her feet, he smirked and messed her hair as he used to when they were younger. “Get packed.”
“What about after you get Reider to me?” she asked, tossing clothes haphazardly in the duffel. “My money was in the Wrangler, which is in impound.”
“Let me worry about that.”
“Professor James Ashford at the campus,” she said and grabbed his arm. “You can trust him.”
“The Marquette who loved Mom?”
She nodded until her curls flew around her face. “He tried to help me and Reider. I have a feeling he won’t be willing to give up so easily, either.”
Barely twenty minutes later, they were on the road. Johanna was waiting anxiously for her brother to turn and say it was some horrible prank that he and Frank had come up with. But he didn’t stop the car and drove straight on to Grand Island. She asked him about his fiancée, and a light she had never seen in his eyes before flared to life. He smiled as if unable to help it, thinking of her.
“Rosaleen,” he whispered. “She’s got fiery red hair and these blue eyes that I could disappear in, do most nights. She’s funny, and she’s the toughest woman I know—next to my little sister, of course. She’s been through some hard times, but her spirit’s never been broken.”
“You really love her,” she said quietly.
His smile widened. “I do. She’s my world, she and our son, Travis. He looks like her.”
She squeezed his arm. “I’m happy for you, really. I'm not going to lie, there’s some rumors spreading. Micah Marquette thinks our family planned his parents’ deaths and with you being so suspicious all the time… I thought… God, I can’t believe I did, but I thought you and Frank were involved. I’m so sorry.”
His face darkened, but he inhaled and exhaled to calm himself. “No, I don’t blame you, but now that you say that, Frank’s been harsher since that night,” he told her quietly, worry heavy in his words. “I know I haven’t been around much, but he’s been disappearing with guys I’ve never seen before.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel, and he glared at the open highway before them. “Frank might have had something to do with it.”
An icy caress slid down Johanna’s back. She might’ve had her suspicions, but she never let herself fully believe anyone in her family was capable of murder. But Fredrick… He didn’t sound suspicious; he sounded as if he’d already convinced himself it was true.
“Promise me you’ll be careful,” she whispered, breaking through the heavy silence in the car.
“Don’t worry about me,” he assured her. “He’s my damn twin. I can handle him.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I have to go see Princeton, anyway, about getting your things out of the Wrangler,” he said slowly. “I’ll drop a few hints about Frank hanging around some shifty characters and maybe taking what that Marquette kid is ranting about to heart.”
“And if they realize Frank was involved?” she asked, knowing it would tear their family apart for good. What she did with Reider was nothing compared to outright murder.
Fredrick shrugged. “He dug his own grave if he set up that accident.”
The car pulled off the highway a while later, and he drove them to a nice neighborhood with large stone and brick mansions. Nothing as grand as what they grew up in, but definitely not far behind.
“I thought you said you had a small house.” She smirked as she stared at the houses.
Fredrick chuckled. “What can I say? She’s never lived in a house before, and I wanted to spoil her.”
They neared the end of the street, and he pulled into the three-car drive of a timber and stone house on a large plot of land. Cottonwood trees grew along the edge, shading it from the afternoon sun, and the front flowerbeds were filled with lilies and hydrangeas. It was the image of a perfect home, and Johanna longed to share the same with Reider. That morning, she’d believed those dreams were out of her reach, but now, there was a chance they could have the ranch Reider wanted with her by his side.
“Ready to meet them?” Fredrick asked nervously.
“Why, are you worried?”
“Rosaleen wanted to know why I waited until something tragic happened before I finally got up the nerve to introduce her to anyone from the family,” he muttered and slipped out of the car.
Johanna sighed with a smirk. “She has a right to be annoyed, you know,” she said as he grabbed her bag from the trunk. The front door opened, and a fiery redhead stepped out wearing jeans and a paint-covered tank top. The little boy on her hip had bright blue eyes and red hair, but the way his lips quirked in a crooked grin, that was all her brother.
“You two make it out alright?” she asked, brow furrowed with worry as she held out her hand for Frederick’s.
“We’re fine,” he said and wrapped on arm around her waist, kissing her on the lips and his son on the head. “And how’s Travis been today?”
“Unruly, like his dad,” Rosaleen said with a sigh. She lifted her gaze when Johanna stepped forward and handed her son to Fredrick. Johanna wasn’t sure what to say, but the woman embraced her tightly and all she could do was hug back. “I’m so glad to meet you! And glad you’re okay. Fredrick told me what happened. Had to hold me back from going and rescuing you myself.”
Johanna liked this woman already. She kept one arm through Johanna’s and led her to the front door. “Thanks. I had no idea he hid you from us,” she said and shot her brother an accusing glare.
“What? I was scared,” he muttered as he tickled Travis with the hand holding him until his son giggled. “Yes, that’s right. Daddy should’ve been more like his crazy little sister and your mommy.”
Johanna froze for a second. She had never seen such a soft side of him, and she burst out laughing. “Wow, I don’t think I can get used to that.”
“Well, you’ll have a while,” Rosaleen told her. “You can stay here as long as you need to. We don’t mind, and frankly, I’m so excited about hanging out with my future sister-in-law.”
“Likewise,” Johanna said.
Rosaleen and Fredrick put her in one of the spare bedrooms at the back of the house with a great view of the grove of trees behind them and the creek running through the land. Johanna pictured another creek, and when she closed her eyes, sensed Reider beside her, his arms tightly around her.
“Right, I’m off,” Fredrick said with a gentle knock at the door.
“What are you going to tell Mom and Dad about me?”
“What about you? I came home, and you were gone, left a note saying you were staying with your friend Melody for a few days to cool off,” he said.
“Melody? I have to call her,” she said, panicked, but Fredrick held up a new cell and tossed it to Johanna. “You already did? She’s okay with it?”
“She said she’d do her best to keep our parents away, but if they show up at the house, there’s not much she can do. It’ll work out, Jo, I promise. I have to run. Take care of my family while I’m gone,” he added and
tapped his forehead in a lazy salute like the twins used to do when they said bye.
She promised she would and watched him leave. After a few minutes, she tried Reider’s number with the cell, but the number was disconnected. She had no way to get a hold of him.
“Hey,” Rosaleen said gently at her side. “Travis is down for a nap, and you look like you could use a drink.”
“A drink might be a good idea.”
“Great, and when Travis wakes up, he can officially meet his aunt.”
Johanna remembered the little boy’s grin and nodded. “I’d like that, I really would.”
Chapter 16
When Johanna wasn’t in class Monday, Reider accepted she might be taking a day to let things cool down. James wasn’t there either, and a sub stepped in to give them the hour to work on their projects. He ignored the questions from his friends and the curious stares at the bruises and cuts on his face caused by the fight. Micah was forced to drive him to campus since his dad saw fit to leave his vehicle impounded. Reider didn’t care until his dad took his cell and disconnected the number.
Tuesday, he stayed in his room all day and prayed Johanna would appear on Wednesday, but a note posted to the classroom door said class was canceled for the day. He stopped by James’s office, but the door was locked and there was no answer. Each passing hour away from Johanna, not knowing what she was dealing with, not able to be there for her, drove him mad. He hardly ate and didn’t speak a word to anyone. Micah tried and earned another black eye along with a quiet threat of more to come if he continued to harass Reider.
“You should be thanking me,” Micah snapped, groaning as he held his face.
They returned home, and Reider stomped towards the front door until Micah’s words hit him. “You think I should thank you for driving away the woman I love?”
“Yeah, you should. Her family’s a bunch of liars and murderers,” Micah muttered darkly.
“She isn’t, you asshole! When are you going to get it through your head that not everyone in her family is like that!” He backed Micah up until his cousin was trapped between Reider’s raging body and the car. “If you ever talk to me about her again, her family’s going to be the least of your worries.”
