by Ivy Jordan
“Why do you care what the place looks like when it’s sold? Don’t make those brats any more money,” Axel sneered.
“It’s not about them,” I exhaled.
“Then, what?” he groaned.
I found a bale of hay and took a seat, my head falling below my shoulders as I stared at the barn floor. It took me a minute to gather my thought process, and I was surprised Axel waited for me to do so. He was impatient, angry, and I knew it had to do with Evelyn, and how she had to be feeling by my sudden distance and neglect. I explained my need to ensure the ranch continues on, and what it meant to me to ensure Pedro and Kyle a place here on the land. He sighed, and even though I didn’t make direct eye contact, I knew he rolled his when I explained that working and staying busy was the only thing keeping my head on straight.
“I get it,” he said softly, taking a seat beside me.
“You do?” I looked up to find his eyes kind and forgiving.
“I do. But, buddy, you have to call Evelyn,” he coaxed.
“I’m just not ready,” I said softly.
“She’s really hurting. She thinks you hate her, that you blame her for all this,” he said.
My chest tightened as I thought about the pain I’d caused Evelyn. I shouldn’t have pushed my way into her life, her pants, but I did. If I’d only listened to her, kept my distance, and didn’t insist on being in her world, none of this would be bothering her. It would be just another case, a lost one, but nothing more.
“I could never hate her, and no way do I blame her. She worked her ass off, and I know that. I appreciate that. I just can’t handle seeing her right now. I have nothing to offer her, and honestly, seeing her would just make this all too real right now,” I bellowed.
The self-pity that I spewed all over Axel didn’t appear to faze him. His eyes were narrowed on mine, and his lips pursed tightly together. As he reached towards me, slapping his hand on my knee, it was clear he didn’t understand, or agree, but that he still wanted to offer some form of comfort.
“What else do you have to do here?” he questioned.
“I sent the ranch hands home until Tuesday, so I was gonna work on splitting all the logs piled beside the garage,” I hummed, happy to be talking about work instead of the reality of my court case, and the pain that I’d brought on to Evelyn.
“Well, grab us some beer, and let’s get to it,” Axel smiled.
“You don’t have to do that,” I protested.
“I know,” Axel grinned.
I slapped him on the back as I stood, heading towards the house to grab some cold beers and shove them in a small cooler. By the time I got back outside, Axel already had the splitter out of the garage and unloaded from the trailer, what was normally a two-man job.
“You tryin’ to kill yourself?” I teased.
“By the looks of you, you wouldn’t’ve been much help anyway,” he smirked.
I stood straight and tall, trying to hide the pain he’d obviously already noticed on my gait. My head shook as I fought back a grin.
“Take your beer,” I sassed, handing him a bottle from the cooler.
“You split, I’ll clean the squares from the logs to ready em’, and then stack em’ when you’re done,” Axel offered himself to the most labor-intensive task, leaving me with the less back-breaking one.
“I don’t want you whining about your back tomorrow, so you better let me handle the stacking and cleaning,” I chuckled.
“I don’t want you to end up in the damn hospital, so you best do as I say,” Axel stood tall and puffed out his thick chest.
“If that’s what you want, then that’s what you want,” I shook my head with amusement as I worked on stabilizing the splitter.
The loud hydraulic engine rattled and spat as it started, and then settled with a loud rumble as Axel handed me the first log. I was glad to have the noise drowning out any chance of Axel bringing the subject of Evelyn back into play as we worked.
Axel grabbed the logs as they fell to the ground, stacking them neatly on the rack against the garage. Just watching him bend over and over again made my sciatica pain roll down my leg. I was glad he was there, not just for the help, but for the company.
I shut off the splitter after the last log as stacked, a deafening silence swallowing the air around me, causing my ears to ring and itch.
“Another beer?” Axel offered as he reached into the cooler.
I nodded.
“Thanks, man,” I gushed as I took the beer from his hand.
“Nothing to it,” Axel grinned.
I chuckled as I squinted in his direction. I’d watched him work his ass off, and half-way through his back started to give, it was obvious.
“Yeah, like I said, don’t come whining to me tomorrow about your back,” I spat.
I took a long swig of my third beer and then walked towards the house. Axel took a seat on the rocker by the door, and I slumped into the wooden porch swing where Evelyn used to like to sit at night.
“So, what else do you plan on doing around here?” Axel asked.
I turned towards him wearing a wide smirk, my eyes widening with amusement as I sized him up and down.
“Why, you coming back for more?” I laughed.
“Fuck no. I’m just curious what you’ve added to your plate,” Axel shrugged.
I rattled off about a dozen jobs I wanted to complete before I left as Axel shook his head vigorously back and forth as he let out a hoot.
“Boy, I knew you were crazy, but I didn’t know it was to the clinically insane level,” he teased.
I knew it was a lot to do, but I also knew that I could do it, that I would do it.
“I better head back towards home,” Axel stood after finishing his beer in one long swig.
“I really do appreciate your help,” I stood, extending my hand to him to shake.
“Get your shit together, buddy, and soon. Evelyn’s been working her ass off on trying to get this fixed for you, and you won’t even answer her calls so she can tell you what’s going on,” Axel shamed me.
“Tell her not to worry about fighting anymore; it’s done. And Axel, tell her I do think of her,” I stammered.
“Tell her yourself. And James, you’re an idiot for shutting her out like you have,” Axel turned to walk away, his hand raised in the air and smacking down hard as if hitting an imaginary table.
I slumped back into my seat, stared up at the evening sky. The moon barely showed its face, and already the stars appeared in clusters.
“Why did you leave me this place if it was just gonna be taken from me?” I yelled at the heavens, not certain if it were to God, or to old man Jasper, or maybe both.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Evelyn
The law degree that hung on my office wall shook as I slammed the Italian leather chair into the walnut desk. I cursed under my breath as I shoved paperwork into my briefcase for my next case. My mind wasn’t where it needed to be, and even though the case was simplistic in nature, and required little effort to win, I still couldn’t guarantee success.
My mind was wrapped up with James, the ranch, the corruption that took place in that courtroom that day, and with hurt, anger, worry, and regret.
What I wouldn’t give to take it all back.
“I was half-afraid to knock,” Axel poked his head into my office, his body guarded safely behind the door.
I blushed with embarrassment, my behavior far less than becoming. My briefcase dropped to my side, my fingers clutching it with a fury, and my heart thumping loud against my chest.
“Everything okay in here?” Axel asked.
“Yes, c’mon in,” I smiled as politely as I could, just like mother taught me.
“I’m sorry, I-I, I uh, was just,” I stuttered at the attempt of lying, something I was never any good at, surprising for a lawyer.
“I think I’ve got something,” Axel beamed as he entered my office unguarded.
I wanted to be excited, but I c
ouldn’t. Why am I even doing this if James doesn’t care? He told Axel to tell me to stop, and that he was thinking of me. What a load of horse shit! If he was thinking about me, he’d call, or at least answer one of my many attempts to contact him.
“Great,” I sighed, pushing back my chair so I could take a seat, my energy used up on my earlier hissy fit.
Axel took the seat across from me, pushing a stack of papers in my direction on the desk. I picked them up and scanned through the documents that actually linked John Jasper and the judge.
“This is great, but it’s not enough to hold water,” I sighed.
“What do you mean? The kid was a gambler, and I found where he still owes the judge a hefty sum that he promised for his campaign,” Axel groaned.
“Yeah, and there’s not much I can do with this,” I sneered.
“There’s proof the kid was paying him off little by little, right there on your desk. Not to mention the fact a personal e-mail between them that shows John planned to use a portion of the sale of the ranch to finally clean the debt, along with plenty of other gambling debts,” Axel argued.
“None of this is public record, so how did you come across this information?” I glared at my cousin as he started to squirm in his seat.
“What difference does that make?” he mumbled.
“All the difference,” I chuckled anxiously.
“Well, we know what’s going on, so how do we get this information legally?” Axel pushed.
“I’m afraid, we don’t,” I breathed.
Axel leaned back in the floral low-back chair I hand selected to give my office clout. Now that I looked at it with Axel’s large frame squeezed into it, the backrest too low to offer him any support, I was ready to find something new.
“I don’t get it,” Axel lamented.
“I can’t demand records to be obtained, financial and personal, from a well-established and high-powered judge with simply an accusation of foul play. I’ll immediately be deemed a crybaby for pointing fingers on a case I lost, and soon after, I’ll be investigated, and while the e-mails and the financial records you found will be long gone, those pictures of James and me will magically resurface. That would be the end of my career, not just here, but everywhere,” I declared.
“So, we just do nothing and let James lose his ranch, and the Jasper kids get away with their deceit?” Axel groaned.
“I didn’t say that,” I smiled.
“Okay. I just really would hate to see James lose that place,” Axel sighed.
I nodded.
Axel changed the subject to another topic, one that wasn’t much better than the one we were discussing: dinner with my parents that evening. I wasn’t looking forward to their sneers about the lost case and their high hopes that I was ready to tuck my tail between my legs and run back to New York. I wasn’t tucking anything.
“I’ll meet you there,” I promised Axel as he left.
I headed to the courthouse, demanding to see the judge just as court was letting out. The clerk pushed her glasses down on her nose and narrowed her eyes on mine as she told me no, for the third time since I’d arrived.
“Get him on the phone right now, and tell him Evelyn Pierce is here to discuss newly discovered information about his connection to John Jasper,” I growled, slamming my clenched fist down on her small counter.
Her body jolted from my outburst, but her eyes still filled with disinterest as she picked up the phone, repeating the words I screeched to the judge on the other end.
“Go on in,” she nodded in the direction of the judge’s chamber door.
I grabbed my belongings and huffed across the floor, my heels snapping a wild echo as I approached the door. I paused to take a deep breath, and then pushed the door open.
The judge sat at the same walnut table where the mediation took place, disrobed and wearing a tacky checkered dress shirt that looked more like pajamas than something a man would wear in public.
“What can I help you with, Ms. Pierce?” he grimaced.
“I just wanted to let you know I’m very aware of your connection with John Jasper, and the arrangement you two have once the ranch is settled,” I commanded.
The judge’s eyes narrowed, his cheeks rounded as his lips curled into a snicker. I watched him as he pushed a plate of chicken to the side, leaned back into his chair and placed his chubby digits across his full belly, intertwining them as they fidgeted on his hefty midsection.
“Do you now?” he mocked.
Even though he acted uninterested in my claims, his body language displayed signs of anxiousness. His left eye twitched ever so slightly, his chest lifted and fell with irregular rhythms, and his cheek bulged from his tongue pushing against it from inside his mouth. Yes, he is nervous.
My mouth watered like a lion’s that carefully stalked his meal in the wild. I wanted to leap onto the table and grip him around his thick neck, squeeze him until he confessed and I had real means to reverse his judgment.
“I do,” I insisted.
The judge leaned up. He spread his hands on the table, palms down. His eyes lowered as his head dropped, but then snapped back up quickly to display the wide grin smeared across his greasy chicken lips.
“Then what are you doing here?” he questioned.
“I thought you should know,” I hissed.
“Yes, but wouldn’t you have already scurried along to denounce me and save your little boyfriend’s ranch if you had any proof—any proof that you could actually use against me, that is,” he gloated.
My teeth clenched, grinding loud enough that I was certain he could hear them from across the room. He’d called my bluff, dropping down a hand that beat my own. Of course he knew I didn’t have anything legally; why I thought he might was beyond me as I tried to avoid swallowing what was left of my pride.
“It doesn’t matter that I cannot use what I’ve found; it only matters that I know who you are, what you are. I’ll find a way to make you pay for this,” I snarled.
“Is that a threat?” he gushed.
“It’s a promise,” I hissed, quickly exiting his chambers before he again found the upper hand in our discussion.
At dinner with Axel and my parents, I was preoccupied. My thoughts were on the judge, the clerk that had been fired, and the fact that anyone with a connection and a bank account could buy their way through the courts in the small town. It needed to be fixed, and I knew there wasn’t a line of contenders to take on the task.
“Are you ready to come home, dear?” my mother asked.
Adrenaline roared through my veins like a drug as I realized my next move.
“No. In fact, I think it’s best I stay here, fighting the corruption in the court system,” I announced.
Axel turned to me, his mouth open, jaw dropped, and eyes wide.
“Why would you do that? There’s absolutely no money in that field, and certainly no prestige or recognition,” my father growled as he suddenly decided to join the conversation and stop pushing the blackened salmon around his plate with a fork.
“I could care less about prestige and recognition, or money, I don’t need money,” I smiled, my heart racing with excitement.
The dinner wrapped up quickly, my mother suddenly the victim of a nasty migraine. I wasn’t sure if the woman ever actually had a migraine a day in her life, but I was certain she used them as an excuse to escape situations that made her uncomfortable.
I stood with Axel on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, waving to my parents as they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main road.
“You think they’ll go back to the hotel, or just head straight to the airport?” Axel laughed.
“You know they will be on the first flight out of here,” I giggled.
“So, corruption law, eh?” Axel questioned.
“Yes,” I nodded proudly.
“Too bad the ranch will be long gone before you get a chance to blow this town wide open,” Axel stated.
�
��Maybe not,” I smirked.
“What are you up to?” he asked as I started to giggle.
My cheeks reddened, and the smile on my face grew into a wide grin as Axel stared at me with confusion in his expression.
“I’m going to be the highest bidder on the ranch,” I blurted.
“Holy shit! Why would you do that?” Axel questioned.
“Because, I love him,” I gushed.
“You do?” Axel smirked in my direction, mocking my declaration of affection for his fellow SEAL.
“I do. Besides, it’s the right thing to do, for James, and the town. If anyone else gets their hands on that land, no telling what will be constructed,” I said.
“This isn’t your responsibility,” Axel cautioned.
“It will make things right. It’s the only way,” I sighed.
“James won’t let you do that,” Axel insisted.
I knew he was right. James would allow his pride to make him homeless before he’d agree to take any help from me, or anyone else for that matter.
“That’s why I’m not going to tell him,” I snickered.
Chapter Thirty-Three
James
Pedro tapped me on the shoulder, motioning towards a car coming up the lane as I turned.
“Fuck my Tuesday,” I growled as I squinted towards the sun to make out Jill in the passenger seat of gold Buick.
“Who’s that, boss?” Pedro asked.
“Jill,” I sneered.
Kyle was finished loading up the truck as Jill pulled up with her mystery driver. He stood there, frozen in his spot as I was in mine. I slapped Pedro on his back, sending him on his way. I didn’t need them watching whatever chaos was about to ensue.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, boss,” Pedro smiled nervously as he left me standing outside the barn alone.
The air was thick with heat, glazing my eyes with sweat as I stared towards the gold car. A man stepped out, tall, thin, with dark hair and matching mustache that should’ve been shaved when disco died. He waved to me like I fuckin’ knew who the hell he was. I didn’t.
