Stubborn

by Jeanne Arnold

  “You don’t understand. Nobody does.” Her voice tightened.

  I got slowly to my feet and poked. “Does it have something to do with Eli’s accident?”

  I knew very well I was overstepping my welcome.

  Jordan sat up straight as a yardstick and crossed her perfectly tan legs in a dainty fashion. I witnessed her lips tremble. I felt bad for her.

  “I can’t say.”

  I wondered if Gabe or his brothers had any idea about her mistreatment. I started for the impressive wall of windows and looked out over the lake. An identical speedboat pulled up next to the dock. The dogs barked relentlessly. Low hanging deciduous trees blocked the view from the window. I waited for a breeze to move the branches, but the air stilled, and I was unable to see who climbed off the boat. A drone of male voices echoed beyond the glass. The pounding in my head began to wear on my nerves.

  I pretended to be enamored with the view as I used my most persuasive voice. “I won’t tell. I promise. You can tell me.”

  I could smell the truth. She was going to crack.

  “He’ll kill me—or worse.” She dropped her head. Her hair cloaked her face like a hood.

  “No way. You don’t think that, do you?”

  Was that even a possibility? I was not equipped to play social worker nor was I capable of being her friend. All I needed was to get her on my side, to make an admission, before it was all too late. Then I could help her. “What do you mean or worse?”

  She angled back. Her eyes swelled with tears. “My family. He’ll hurt them. You don’t know what he’s like.”

  A door slammed in the distance. The windows rattled. My heart sprang into action.

  “Jordan! Where are you hiding, Jordy?” The thunderous voice echoed through the vaulted ceilings like a ricocheted bullet.

  I rubbed my sweaty palms over the satin bedspread and pressed my eyes tight.

  “Where’s your little friend at, girl?”

  Eleven

  “I’m sorry. He’s home,” said Jordan’s teary voice.

  She rocketed off the bed and locked the doors. A lot of good that would do. They were made of glass.

  “Jordan!” Hunt yelled into the door.

  Thank goodness for the pink curtains blocking the view.

  “I know you’re in there. Open up, dammit!” His fists pounded angrily.

  I cowered. I was doomed. I should have listened to Gabe.

  “Open the goddamn door!”

  “C’mon. I’ll sneak you out the back.” Jordan grabbed for my hand and tugged. “He’s really not mad. He just wants to see me.”

  I gave a nervous laugh. Who was she kidding? I followed her through an equally pink living room suite. “Where are we going?”

  “Off the deck. We can run down the path. I’ll show you where to go,” she told me. “I gotta get back.”

  Angry paws banged in the background. He had his fist warmed and ready to swing. I couldn’t let her go back in there. “You’re not going back. Are you crazy?”

  “Shhh!” she scolded. “Follow me.”

  I hurried my steps and fell in behind her as she climbed over a railing and preformed a balancing act like none I had ever seen. I copied lamely, but my denim shorts snagged on a nail. I lost my flip-flops one by one.

  “He’ll come running around there,” she said and pointed to a staircase that flanked the porch. “We can run across and hide in the bushes. He’ll give up at some point.”

  I gazed with amazement as she jumped six feet to the ground and scampered across the walk. I held my breath and took a flying leap, but I tumbled when my sore ankle snapped on impact. The dogs commenced their barking.

  “Crap,” I moaned. I tried to limp on my bare feet. I managed to get across the road and slip into the foliage where I fell to my knees gasping and panting.

  Hunt called out, “Jordan, I know you’re out there. Where are you? Where’s your little friend? I need a word with her.”

  He continued to bellow from the deck as he made his way to the stairway.

  A chill circled my neck until it cramped. Jordan drew back. I could tell she was debating if she should run. I wanted to slap some sense into her. Hunt was getting closer. He had a stick in his hand and was beating it through the weeds.

  “We have to jump into the lake,” I urged. “There’s nowhere else. We’re not that high.”

  I had a feeling she had never jumped in a pool before. But I had to make her follow me. The cliff was just like a diving board.

  “C’mon. Jump with me. I’ll help you. We’ll all help you,” I offered hopefully.

  Hunt’s threatening voice disrupted again. “Jordy, stop playing these stupid games. Where’s that Halden wannabe?”

  “Don’t go to him. He does terrible things. What he did to you is so wrong.”

  She turned her bulging eyes. “I’ve done way worse. You have no idea what I’ve done,” she sobbed.

  I leaned back on my palms. The branches on the ground snapped and cracked noisily under my shifting weight. Was she going to confess?

  “I know you lied about Eli’s accident. You can tell the truth, tell them who was really driving. It can be undone. It’s the right thing to do. Really.” I pinned high hopes on her breakdown. I wasn’t going to let Hunt catch me.

  “Come out of the woods!”

  He was near, only yards away. I heard him launch a rock into the area where we were huddled. I wasn’t sure if he had found us or if he was bluffing. I wondered how long it would be before he called on his angry dogs to search for us.

  “I want to do the right thing, but he’ll kill me.”

  In a spare moment, I stole a glance down the hill and decided I was going to have to swim to safety.

  “I’m jumping in. Can you swim? Please follow me,” I begged the dimwitted girl.

  I settled back in a grassy patch, yanked off my jean shorts and struggled out of my shirt. I could make it across the lake. I swam laps at the YMCA in my time off.

  Hunt’s foot stepped into the line of shrubs.

  I held my breath, skidded down the sandy incline in my bathing suit and jumped over the sandbank into the cool water. The hit knocked the wind out of me. I made a hideous splash. My hands sliced the water with a slap, and I sunk a few feet before I emerged gasping.

  Over my shoulder, I searched for Jordan. She didn’t jump even though I had given her every good reason. Her face peered at me through the brush above the knoll. I paddled in place. Then I heard him.

  “You won’t get very far. If you don’t come back I’ll hurt her.” Hunt’s threat boomed from his high vantage.

  I spun around to see the villain stooped at the edge of the sandy cliff holding Jordan by the neck. He moved in fast like a viper. I gulped a mouthful of water and coughed.

  Hunt pulled Jordan securely to his chest, and she yelped in spite of his hand throttling her. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted his security men gather on the boat dock down shore. My chest pulled in painfully. They were coming for me. I began swimming away. I swam hard and fast and spread a good distance between me and the shore. Across the lake I could see a bonfire rage in the sand. I’d find Molly when I reached land and call for someone to save Jordan.

  I kept swimming, focusing, breathing.

  A boat flashed past me like a rocket. I hadn’t heard it approach. The waves slapped my face. Then it slowed. I stopped swimming and treaded.

  “Let her go!”

  My ears opened as the voice thundered. The hard Texan accent, the words, I had heard them before. It was Lane’s voice.

  “Let. Her. Go. Barrett. It’s over!”

  Lane directed the boat closer to the cliff.

  Hunt was strangling Jordan to death.

  “I’m gonna shoot if you don’t let her go,” Gabe warned in a steady drawl.

  My eyes found his ridged body and watched him raise a rifle in the air and release a deafening warning shot. The distinct sound of a thirty-ought-six round was enough to scare
anyone. The boat rocked against a wave. Boat motors engaged and Gabe’s head turned, scanning in all directions.

  Hunt’s guys approached the boat.

  “Don’t come any closer. I can shoot the wings off a fly at two hundred yards!”

  “Hold off!” Hunt hollered to his men. “Gabriel wants his stupid girl back!”

  “We don’t want no trouble,” Lane told him.

  Ruthlessly, Hunt folded Jordan tighter in his arms.

  My arms swished back and forth.

  “She wouldn’t listen to me. I told her to jump!” I screamed, unsure if Gabe and Lane had spotted me in the water. Then I screamed louder at the cliff, “Kick him, Jordan! Kick him hard!”

  Gabe’s gun lifted swiftly, shot off a round and shattered an exterior sconce directly above Hunt’s head. An echo blasted throughout the lake region. Hunt startled and lost balance for a moment. I stared, amazed, as Jordan stomped one of his shins. He unfolded his arm from her neck, took his hands to her shoulders, and forced her off the cliff with one jolt.

  I winced as her body pitched through the air and plunged lifelessly into the water like a floppy stuffed animal.

  Jordan was visibly trembling and dazed when Lane pulled her out of the water. The makeup on her bruise had washed off.

  Lane turned the boat and aimed at me. I started swimming away. I wasn’t in any mood to listen to either of their scolding. When they pulled up close, I told them I would swim back on my own. Gabe insisted I get in the boat and tried to grab my swimsuit top and pull me in, but I dove under, ignored his ordering and kept swimming all the way.

  It felt so good to continue on alone. I must have made record time.

  Gabe was waiting on the shore. “I’ve got my truck,” he said after I walked out of the water and squatted down to catch my breath. “You’re coming with me.”

  “What about Jordan?” I panted. She was sitting on a rock as I dried off and chugged a bottle of water.

  Gabe scowled at the mere hint of my opposition. “Don’t worry about her,” he said as he grabbed my arm to lift me up.

  I couldn’t manage to shake him off. He held tight. I noticed he hadn’t addressed Jordan. I should have been grateful. My boyfriend didn’t want to look at his ex-girlfriend, so why would I push? I couldn’t wait to tell him she was on the verge of confessing.

  I planted my feet in the sand so he couldn’t pull me. “How did you know where I was?”

  Gabe released his grip and stormed off with his rifle propped on his shoulder. I followed, limping slightly, and twisted the water out of my ponytail.

  Lane waved. “Go on, he’ll get over himself. That was mighty impressive, you swimming that far. I’ll take Jordan to my place for a little.”

  “How did you know?” My curiosity was killing me.

  “Molly called me. She saw you take off in a boat. Gabe was sitting in his truck back there, waiting. If my boat hadn’t been here, the kid would’ve swum the lake to get to you.”

  “I didn’t need him to get me,” I said.

  When I located Gabe’s truck, he was leaning against the driver’s side door, his arms crossed over his shirt. He looked like a model plucked out of a Ralph Lauren ad.

  “Get in,” he ordered.

  I stepped up to him, but didn’t comply.

  His roaming eyes examined me from head to toe. Then he grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his head, bunched it up into a ball, and thrust it into my hand.

  “What? I can’t wear a wet bathing suit around you?”

  “Get in,” his southern drawl repeated. “It’s worse than you flashing me.” The corner of his mouth curled into a crooked grin.

  At that, I laughed.

  “Now git in the damn truck. You’re one stubborn girl.”

  Stubborn was calling me stubborn?

  I tossed the shirt on the seat and slid all the way over to my side.

  “So why are you here? Don’t you trust me?”

  Gabe was the most handsome when he was ticked off. He turned over the engine and towed out of the makeshift lot without answering. I glared at his profile, his tense jaw, and his toned arms. His hair was a tousled mess, just the way I liked it. Was he over the whole Caleb thing?

  “Nope. I don’t trust you,” he finally shared.

  I deserved that.

  “How’s your hand?”

  “Broke. Caleb’s got a stomach made of bricks. Now what the flip were you thinking? Dawgonnit Av’ry. What’s wrong with you?”

  I chuckled and cocked my head in relief. I could tell he was coming around. “Do you really want to know why I went with Jordan or do you just need a reason to yell at me some more?”

  “You’re gonna tell me no matter what,” he sneered. “I can’t freaking believe you went and did that. She’s no good.” His eye wrinkled on the side. “And how did you learn to swim like that?”

  “I was getting her to talk. She was going to say that...that Eli wasn’t driving. She practically did. Hunt’s awful to her. He hits her, Gabe.”

  “So you almost got her to talk. And you almost got yourself killed at the same damn time. I almost shot his fat head off. Some good,” he mocked.

  He clearly wasn’t listening. I glided into the center of the seat. Gabe’s eyes dipped to appraise my legs and then bounced back to the highway. He pulled over to the side of the road and threw the truck in park. We sat wordlessly for some time. My heart raced, perspiration beaded on my forehead and neck. His hands gripped the wheel. His knuckles paled. I could hear the gritting of his teeth and his short snorting breaths.

  “I was doing it all for you. So you’d be happy. So you could let Eli rest and get Hunt out of your life and try to have a better relationship with your father. I was doing it all for you.” My words faded to a whisper. The events of the past hour came crashing in on me.

  Gabe’s shoulders fell at the conclusion of my speech. He mumbled something along the line of, “I know, but I didn’t want you to.”

  I inclined my head to rest on his shoulder. Then both of our necks crooked to catch Lane’s Expedition drive by and honk a clever repetition on his horn. I imagined Gabe’s eyes were rolling.

  “I’m sorry I went over there and scared you. But I’m not sorry I got her to talk. Okay?”

  Gabe’s sigh was liberal and loud.

  “Hunt’s coming after us if we don’t get him first. We’re gonna have to hide out,” he said. Then he tilted his head and ran his fingers absently over the steering wheel. “You sure are a pistol. Tough as a boot, you know that? Pretty bold for a girl.”

  A low chuckle rumbled in my belly. Was that a compliment?

  “I’ll get her to confess,” I announced.

  Gabe turned to face me. “You couldn’t get her to jump. I’ll do it.”

  His hazel eyes grinned and wandered over me in slow motion. Then his hand covered mine. I touched his leg in response.

  “This is not gonna be good for me. Or you,” Gabe told me as he blew his breath into my face. “You’re hardly dressed. We’re on the side of the road in the widest open space in the entire country.”

  I drew a fingertip over his chest in the shape of a heart. “Huh? I’ve got more clothes on than you do.”

  “Those ain’t clothes, Av’ry.”

  He ogled my swimsuit again, affecting a deep blush on more than just my face.

  * * *

  When the black truck pulled into Lane’s driveway in Williston, the garage door was up. Gabe parked beside the Expedition I had grown quite familiar with on my drive up from Texas.

  I handed over his T-shirt and he yanked it on. “You know, I could be up in your room right now,” he teased.

  I stared at Lane’s kitchen door with nervous anticipation. Was Jordan waiting inside? What was he planning to say to her? My stomach flip-flopped. I was playing with fate. I had brought them together.

  “There’s still tonight. Maybe Meggie won’t come home until late tomorrow. Your father seems to be winning her over eas
y these days.”

  Gabe reached for the knob and the kitchen door opened. Lane was on the phone. He hung up. “What took you so long?” he said.

  “So you’ll take one from him, but not me?” Gabe snickered when I graciously accepted his older brother’s T-shirt where I stood awkwardly in the kitchen. I had paraded around enough.

  “She’s in there,” Lane pointed to the bathroom at the end of the hall.

  Our gazes flashed to Gabe’s face. He chewed his bottom lip.

  “Be nice,” Lane said. “She’s been through hell.”

  “I’m not being nice.” Gabe scrunched his nose up and held his hands in the air. “Nice ain’t what that girl needs if she keeps this charade up. That sleaze ball beat the shit out of her, and she lied for him all these months. I don’t care what she did to me, but she let my brother’s name be dragged through the dirt. How am I supposed to be nice?”

  He picked up Lane’s beer and chugged it. His brother grabbed the bottle out of his hand and smacked the back of his tan neck.

  Gabe belched. “Got anything stronger?”

  “I’ll go talk to her,” I announced. “None of this is her fault and you know it.”

  Their antics irritated me. Lane motioned down the hall. My nosy nature caused me to stick my head in the master bedroom. Clothing covered the floor and I could see Lane wasn’t big on making his bed. I did a double take when I spotted the corner of a pink bandana peeking out from under a mound of dirty clothes. Upon further inspection there was more than one colorful bandana.

  Molly was seeing Lane behind Caleb’s back. She was doing a lot more than just seeing him. My cheeks sizzled. The Halden boys got around.

  “You have to tell the truth to them and then to the police,” I told Jordan as she sat on the edge of the bathtub with her head in her hands.

  I couldn’t get over how shiny her hair was. I couldn’t stop thinking about Lane and Molly or the fact that Molly had been visiting here instead of visiting Caleb.

  “You can’t ever go back to Hunt. He’s going to jail. He should never have touched you,” I said sternly.