Gabe struggled in Judson’s clutch. His uncle’s attempt to keep him still was failing.
“Come inside with your children, Joel. It’s too cold to be out here. Let the police handle them.” Meggie took his hand and managed to get him to the door. She turned to me. “Avery, get inside. Gabe, Judson, don’t do this now.”
I was ready to go inside. My hands were frozen in my pockets. My teeth had chattered so hard my jaw was sore. The dry air was brutal.
“Tell us about your plans to shut down Halden-Remington headquarters in Texas.”
Mr. Halden spun around on the porch and shook off Meggie’s hand. Silence came over the sea of reporters. I half expected someone with a bucket of black paint to charge the porch and fuel the fire.
“Leave now,” he said unemotionally. He held his hat on his head and stood firm at the brink of the porch.
A reporter pushed through the jungle of cameras and steamy breaths. “Is the Halden-Remington Corporation on the verge of collapse?”
I flashed my gaze at Gabe. He locked his jaw.
“You’re bracing for financial ruin, aren’t you, Lieutenant Halden?”
Another reporter shouted, “I have a source who maintains you’re closing shop.”
“You have an erroneous source. You folks have done nothing but waste my time and your own time,” he drawled and waved his arm in a dismissive manner.
The man with the white hair walked around the corner of the porch, lifted his hat, and nodded.
“My heavens, Joel,” Meggie said, eyes stretched as wide as the North Dakota plains. “What is he doing here? Does he not have a respectful bone in his body?”
Hunt Barrett’s father appeared younger and fitter than I recalled. The white hair threw me off. He reminded me of a bodybuilder.
Gabe’s father ignored the man and went on. He didn’t appear threatened by him. “Contrary to your false allegations, Halden-Remington continues to be a thriving entity worldwide.”
A flood of questions exploded from the media. The reporters sounded like a pack of yelping dogs.
“I know why you’re here,” Brigg Barrett told Judson. He turned and glowered at the man.
Mr. Halden stepped between Gabe’s uncle and Mr. Barrett. Then he backed up and grabbed Meggie’s hand to lead her into the church. The press continued to throw questions.
“We should go inside before we freeze,” I urged Gabe. He took my hand and seemed to be in agreement. As we followed Meggie and Mr. Halden’s lead, Gabe stopped.
“Home wrecker,” Gabe muttered as he passed Brigg Barrett.
“My sympathies to your entire family,” said the man. “Your sister is exquisitely talented. Without question, I would recognize her anywhere.”
Gabe slammed a fist into a beam beside the man’s head. “You’re fulla horseshit.”
* * *
“This was uncalled for, Joel.” Meggie scolded Mr. Halden in front of everyone who was left in the church. She rocked baby Emmie on her shoulder, trying to quiet her cries. “Is this why Judson’s here? Is he tracking Barrett? Couldn’t you have told me what was going on?”
“Let’s hide, Avery. She’s fit to be tied.” Deliah tugged on my arm.
Mr. Halden was on his phone again. He gave the impression that he was ignoring Meggie’s outburst, yet the mention of his brother made his eyebrows crinkle.
“Barrett better not go near you again,” Gabe told me as I warmed my hands in front of the old radiator.
He leaned on the wall and yanked his tie open. His hand was bright red.
“You’re bleeding,” I said.
He grimaced.
“Did you punch the Barrett guy?” Deliah asked. “I miss all the good stuff.”
Lane sat down with Molly and set a hand on her belly. “Don’t anybody go near him,” he told his brother and sister.
I lifted Gabe’s arm and twisted it so he could see what he did. “You should wash this off. Meggie probably has some Band-Aids in the diaper bag.”
He stared at my face. Then he walked to the door behind the stage and opened it without knocking. It led to a hall with two doors and an exit. He stepped inside.
“Wait right there,” I told him.
When I returned with a bandage, he wasn’t in the hallway. I called his name, and the men’s room door opened.
“I can’t go in there,” I said.
“Fine. Get in here.” He kicked the woman’s room door with a cowboy boot.
I stepped in and he followed. The light was off. The door shut. I heard the lock.
“Boo,” he said and flipped the light switch. The room was tiled in pink.
“Have you been drinking?” I asked. “Your moods are all over the place. I need a map to find you.”
“Nope.”
I took his wrist and held it over the sink. He winced when I turned his hand over and rolled his sleeve. “Did you really need to do this at your mother’s memorial? I can’t believe the news media showed up.”
He didn’t answer and instead ran his fingers through my hair as I ran his hand under warm water. His touch was gentle, tender. He had the complete opposite effect on me than the cringe my entire body experienced when I watched him bang his bones against a pillar.
“At least you waited to bleed after you played. It was beautiful. You and Deliah have a gift.”
“Yup,” he said as he massaged my neck.
I dried each of his fingers and covered the gashes with Band-Aids. He slid his hand into my hair and held my head so he could move me against the wall. The light turned off.
“We’re in the bathroom,” I whispered. “Gabe, are you really okay?”
“Yup.” His mouth found its mark on my neck and pushed me into the mirror.
I pressed on his shoulders and licked my chapped lips. “We’re in a church, Gabe.”
“Lieutenant owns all the land and the church—technically it’s HalRem office space.”
“Okay,” I agreed as I ran my fingers over his short hair. “How does your uncle know Tessa? It looked like he was trying to talk to her, but she pushed him away. What do you think that was about?”
Gabe grunted and tried to lean in and kiss me again, but I had more questions.
“Is HalRem really in trouble?”
“Shhh. Take this off,” he drawled as he tugged on the collar of my jacket and then kissed me. “I saw how you were looking at me before.”
I leaned back and grinned in the darkness while he slid the garment down my arms. I listened to it hit the floor. He wasn’t going to answer me. My hands found their way underneath his shirt and ironed his warm skin. His stomach muscles rippled beneath my fingers.
“Gabe,” I said. I lost my thought as he grabbed the hem of my dress and pulled it up my back.
“God I love you, Av’ry Ross. Especially when you’re quiet.”
We resumed kissing as if it were the last time our mouths would ever touch. I let him run his hands all over my back and legs. He seemed amused by my stockings.
When Gabe’s shoulder hit the switch and the light turned on, I stepped back and giggled. His shirt was off one of his shoulders. His suit hung on his elbows. In the mirror I could see my hair awry, my dress bunched at my hips. “We look like we were wrestling.”
“And you win,” he said taking my hand in his and shamelessly holding it to the front of his pants.
I lifted my startled gaze to meet his simpering eyes. He had to know my internal shock alarm was blaring at full volume. My heart tried to beat its way out of my body.
“Not here,” I said in an abnormally high voice. He sandwiched my hand between our bodies and then lifted me onto the sink. I gasped at his brazen move.
“Does it look like I can wait?” he drawled a steady voice into my ear.
“Avery! Did you fall in the toilet?” Deliah shouted and knocked on the door simultaneously. “I can’t find Gabe anywhere.”
Gabe covered my mouth with his bandaged hand and left his other hand where it was ho
lding me at the small of my back.
A moment of silence was followed by the rattling of the doorknob.
“Gabe? Are you and Avery in…ugh, that’s disgusting. This is a church.”
Gabe’s ribs trembled against mine. “She’s such a prude,” he said in a hushed voice and dropped his hand from my lips. “Takes after the lieutenant.”
“You’re wrong,” I whispered at his cheek. “You don’t hear what we hear all night when we forget to close the bedroom door. Molly said there’s some magical thing that happens six weeks after a baby is born.”
“Yeah. I caught them standing up, wrestling quietly when nobody was looking. Maybe you’re right.”
Five minutes passed after Deliah’s crack at exposing us. We continued kissing against the mirror, savoring every moment we could steal. It was a miracle Gabe kept on his clothes. I didn’t need to convince him we should skip the lunch and head out to his trailer. I told him I’d shovel ten feet of snow if that’s what it took.
“Sneak out the back exit. I’ll grab my guitar and make a run for it. Here, take my keys,” he said as he pointed the electric starter at the door and then handed me the key fob. “I started her up.” He stepped back to observe my tangled appearance and offered a satisfied grin. “Those boots are spot-on.”
I needed a hairbrush and an iron to restore myself back into pre-make-out fashion. The cold air soothed my clammy skin when I finally stepped outside. I found the truck covered in a cloud of exhaust. The wind swirled snow, distorting my view. I ran toward the tailgate with my hood over my head and noticed Gabe was sitting on the passenger side. I pulled open the door, and he scooted over. By the time I grabbed the handle and pulled the door closed, I saw the blue jeans and boots.
The cowboy hat tipped back as my breath locked in my throat. I pushed open the door and jumped down as fast as I could.
“Legs, hey. Where ya going?”
I ran back to the church without looking over my shoulder. He jumped out.
“What’s this I hear about you impersonating a poster girl for clean energy?”
I stopped inside the entry and let the door hit me in the shoulder. I didn’t know what came over me. Caleb was back.
Four
“No frackin’ way,” Caleb exclaimed inside the church hallway. “I missed it.”
I stared at his twinkling hazels. A draft of awkward memories hit me as Gabe burst through the door with his guitar strapped across his chest.
“Yeah, you missed everything,” he told Caleb. He tugged on my hand and rammed his side into the exit to open the door. “Let’s go.”
“Where did you come from?” I asked Caleb.
“Well now, legs. There’s this thing called a sperm and—”
I stopped myself from making a dramatic eye roll. “Did your father take back your truck?”
“I hid it. Now tell me how in the dickens you’re still alive. I’m dying to know what the lieutenant thinks of your acting debut.”
I didn’t answer. I studied his familiar features. His short hair. He looked good. He always looked good. He always looked like he was looking for something.
“Why’d you come back?” Gabe grumbled. The wind blew the door closed.
“Magnetic force. Why’d you come back?” he asked. “And what’s with the bro truck, little brother? No running boards? Who you trying to impress with that?”
He got off on teasing. Gabe made a dismissive face.
“Why’s Avery in town? Are you two playing house?” Caleb reached for my wrist. He squeezed my ring finger and then freed my hand. “Just checking.”
Gabe yanked on my arm. “C’mon, Av’ry.”
“Caleb!” Deliah shouted. “You’re here!”
“Howdy there, Mona Deliah,” he said as she hesitated to touch him.
“From now on lose the Mona part,” she ordered. “This is perfect. I’ve got all of my brothers to spend the day with. Tessa is here somewhere. I’m so happy.”
“Can’t wait to catch up,” Caleb drawled and released her. “Legs is coming?”
I tightened my gaze on Gabe. He frowned so hard his forehead puckered. Something happened while he was inside.
The door opened again. “Gabe,” Meggie said at my back. “Don’t take off like this, kiddo. He’s irritated with the reporters, not with you.”
“We’ll go to lunch, won’t we?” I cajoled. “It’s my fault the media is here.”
The exit swung closed and he was off. I pushed my way outside and followed him to the truck.
“What happened inside? You were only gone a few minutes.” I situated myself beside him and spotted Caleb’s silver Raptor in front of the church. Gabe pulled off the property before I could buckle my seat belt.
“Lieutenant laid into me about the arrest. Then after what just went on out there, he freaking tried to rip me a new one over your news story.”
“I guess he just figured it out.”
Gabe shot past a flatbed hauling pipes and slipped back in line behind a bus. He was watching his side mirror. A television van was shadowing us.
“Like I provoked the protest and the media. What a joke.”
The heater blasted my face. I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder. “He’ll probably have words with me too.”
I decided not to ask what he thought was in Tessa’s envelope.
We sped through land as white as sunlight without another word spoken. Only when visibility was terrible did Gabe let off the gas. The wind was so strong it kicked up fields of snow.
“Did we…” he started to ask.
I interrupted, relieved to hear him speak again. “Practically do it in a bathroom at a memorial service?”
He smirked as he checked the rearview mirror. “That’s not what I was gonna say.”
A reflective minute passed.
“I’m only going to lunch for Deliah. We eat, we drink, and we leave.”
* * *
“Well if it isn’t Uncle Dud,” Caleb drawled from his lazy pose at the table.
I followed Gabe and his uncle into Meggie’s kitchen. Judson was wrapping up a phone call on the porch when we drove in. Deliah stood at Caleb’s side with a pile of books and a gift bag. I hoped he was going to be her newest obsession. His magnetism worked on most people.
“They kick your ugly mug out of the circus?” Judson asked.
Caleb’s brows knitted together.
“We told him you joined the circus,” Deliah shared. Then she whispered, “He believed us.”
Gabe pulled out a seat for me. “Why’d you stop me back at the church?” he asked Judson.
His uncle looked at his phone and then lifted his gaze to Gabe. “Why give them a show? That’s what they want.”
“Where’s Meggie?” I asked Caleb.
“She needed to stock up on baby junk. A storm’s coming.”
“Lane went out looking for Tessa. She disappeared after the service. He hardly got to meet her,” Deliah shared.
“I say we start eating now.” Gabe walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a tray of cold cuts. He set it on the table and went back to the pantry to look for rolls. He tossed a bag at the table and hit Deliah in the arm.
“Thank god,” she blurted. “I’m going to faint if I don’t eat in the next two minutes.”
The light above the table flickered as a gust of wind hit the house. I wondered if the Haldens had some kind of weather curse following them.
“Waitress, get me and the dud here some beer,” Caleb told Gabe.
Deliah pulled her chair in and set her hands flat on the table. “If we lose power we’re playing truth or dare.”
“Your ma liked games like that,” Judson told her.
“That’s what my friends and I do when we have a storm, except it’s usually lame because I’m the only one who has the guts to take my clothes off.”
Gabe and Caleb let their jaws hit the floor. I laughed out loud. It wasn’t easy to shock those two.
Judson returned
from the refrigerator and set a six-pack of beer in front of Caleb. “That’s my problem too, missy.”
“I don’t doubt that at all,” Caleb muttered under his breath.
“I’m not playing that stupid game,” Gabe grumbled and then bit into a slice of cheese. He threw a glance at me. “And you’re not taking anything off.”
“Heck, I will,” Caleb said as he twisted a bottle top off his beer.
Judson pulled a buzzing phone out of his suit pocket. For an instant, he looked exactly like Gabe’s father until he turned around and his ponytail was visible. “Danger calls.”
“We’ll eat and play,” I told Deliah. “I love this game.” I winked at her, and she gave me a knowing grin. They didn’t know what they were in for.
“Uncle Jud is just like Joel,” she said. Then she raised her voice for his benefit. “He’s always on the phone. I’m gonna dare him to flush it down the toilet.”
“If it walks like an oil tycoon and it talks like an oil tycoon,” Caleb started.
Gabe rummaged through the pantry. I had a feeling he needed a sugar fix, and he wouldn’t stop until he got one.
“There’s Halloween candy in the front closet. Do you want it?” I didn’t wait for an answer. He would eat candy left over from the twentieth century.
Judson had his back to me when I opened the coat closet. I found the candy but waited inside the closet to eavesdrop on his conversation when I heard him mention Tessa’s address in Memphis.
“Yessiree. I’m certain she’s thirteen,” he told the person on his phone. “I need it yesterday, you hear? Y’all are not very efficient.”
“Okay. Who’s going first?” Deliah asked when I returned. She pulled apart the sandwich I made and ate each layer separately.
“You,” Gabe said with a mouthful of lollipop.
“I’ll ask Avery. Truth or dare?”
I set my elbows on the table, overcome with curiosity about Judson’s phone inquest. Caleb reached across the food, tightened his eyes in question, and padded his thumb over a patch of chickenpox marks on my wrist. I pulled my arm back as chills erupted on my skin.
“Truth,” I chose. “But start easy so they get the hang of it.”
Stubborn Truth (The Stubborn Series Book 3) Page 8
