Page 32 of A Package Deal

“I won’t touch him, Emmy. Yet.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. The fact was, I knew my brothers would protect me, even if it meant one of them went to jail for it. They were just those kind of brothers. It’s why I’d moved to Blueball. I needed to start over in a town that didn’t have Cayden or my brothers or any of the bad memories from my prior life.

“Love you,” I finally said.

“Love you too.”

I shoved the phone back in my pocket and distracted myself by installing the hangers quicker than I ever had before. The two-by-sixes were longer and heavier than I normally attempted on my own, but I didn’t want to interrupt Pip. I had a deadline and a potential ten-thousand-dollar bonus on the line that would pay for the lawyer I needed. With a little ingenuity, I could do this on my own.

Ten minutes later, I had one end of the beam resting on the top rung of a six-foot ladder. I was on another ladder on the other end, beam in hand. The damn thing wobbled, but I muscled it into place, getting the end of the beam into the slot of the hanger. I just needed to drill a screw into it to keep it in place and then I could run to the other side and slide that side into place. I had the screw clamped between my lips and the drill in hand. Positioning the screw through one of the predrilled holes in the hanger, I lifted the drill and pressed the button. The screw immediately hit a knot in the wood and pinged off to the side, landing on the ground.

“Fuck,” I muttered, wondering if I dared climb down this ladder to get the screw when this two-by-six beam wasn’t secure. Sweat no longer dotted my brow, it was full-on dripping into my eyes. I tilted my head to wipe the sweat on my shoulder, and that’s when I spotted another screw on the sawhorse. If I just leaned a little behind me, I could maybe grab it without letting go of the beam. My quads burned and my shoulders protested the stretch, but I just about had my fingers on the screw when I felt the ladder give.

Out of nowhere, Warrick grabbed my arm with one hand and the ladder with the other, a thunderous look on his face. My heart, the stupid organ that had stopped beating when I needed it most in this emergency, began again, galloping away.

With a grunt for the effort, Warrick pulled me upright again, screw in hand. I clung to the ladder, sucking in deep breaths to still my heart.

“What the fuck, Slaywright? You trying to kill yourself on my property just to have the last word?” His words slashed against my back, each one a deadly weapon.

“I’ve got it under control!” I snapped, instantly combative with a male know-it-all. In the back of my mind, I knew my first words should have been thank you, but his arrogance pissed me off. Yes, I was trying to off myself just to win an argument. Jesus. What a bloated head this man had.

“Could have fooled me,” he shot right back, letting me go to stomp over to the other ladder and grab the beam.

“I said I’ve got it! I was just getting a screw when you scared me and the ladder tipped.”

The look he shot me from the other ladder almost singed my eyebrows off. “Oh, you’re going to blame me for your dumb decision to do this on your own? Real mature.”

“I had it under control,” I said through clenched teeth.

“The only thing you have under control is your hardheadedness. Now screw in the fucking beam.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, wanting to yell and scream not to tell me what to do, but another bead of sweat dripped into my eye. It stung but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing I was struggling. Instead, I finished the job, drilling in the screw and climbing down.

“I’ve got it from here,” I said up to him on the other ladder, waving him down with my drill.

Warrick climbed down, but he didn’t move out of my space. “You’ve got a serious problem, Slaywright.”

Then he turned and stomped away.

“Yeah!” I called after him. “It’s you!”

I rolled my eyes when Pip appeared a few minutes later, saying she needed a break from painting and would help me with the other two-by-sixes. Clearly Warrick had summoned help for me, even after I said I could handle it.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Warrick

Did you know snakeskin boots don’t protect your feet like steel-toed boots when you kick the side of a barn? Found that out the hard way when I stomped around the house and decided I needed an outlet for all this anger I felt toward the mule of a contractor I hired to remodel Mom’s house. Cleveland skipped across the dirt pen with more enthusiasm than he’d shown his entire life, probably thinking he’d found a buddy to headbutt with, but one kick and I was done. I didn’t want to give Emmerleigh the satisfaction of seeing all ten of my toes broken because of her obstinance.

“That woman is a menace to society,” I said, pointing at Cleveland. He tried to nip at my finger, but I was too fast. Anger made me quick. Bessie mooed but was smart enough to stay on the far end of the pen. “She’s liable to get herself killed one day from pure stubbornness.”

And she wasn’t wearing my ring.

Not that that fact had anything to do with endangering her health, but it still rankled. Maybe if I fashioned one out of a rusty nail, she might wear it. Then again, anything from me was probably not going to go over well. If most women in my life had milked me dry for gifts, Em was the complete opposite. It should have been refreshing, but was proving to be the most irritating thing I’d ever experienced.

Thistle ambled over, chewing on a piece of hay and rubbing against my leg through the fence like some kind of horned cat. It was just enough cuteness to have me settling down and thinking straight. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but wonder if my over-the-top anger was perhaps a cover for how scared I’d been when I’d walked around the side of the house and saw Em holding a huge beam above her head and about to fall off a ladder. But that would require examining my feelings for a woman I shouldn’t have any feelings for, and I didn’t really feel like doing that right now. Stewing in anger felt far better.

I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and dialed the head lawyer I’d used in my business and then again when it came to the sale of said business. He answered right away and gave me the name and number for a family law attorney he recommended. I hung up and called the new attorney, promising to wire over a retainer today and the papers Cayden had served Em with. The sooner I got this legal battle dealt with, the sooner Em and I could dissolve this sham marriage. My wife didn’t seem to have much luck getting ahold of her own lawyer, nor had she asked for my help. Big fucking surprise. For my own sanity, I needed that woman out of my house and back to only being my contractor. Besides, ultimately I was doing this for Georgia, not Em.

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