Page 44 of Hard Wood Daddy

Patron isn’t here. He got her.

I grab the axe off my wall and go after my woman.

Patron isn’t hard to find.

I’ve been a woodsman so long, I can follow a coyote’s tracks after a day’s rain, and this coyote isn’t even trying to be subtle. The grocery store owner isn’t happy to see me back again, but I don’t give a shit. A glare and a growl, and he’s telling me all about the fancy purple Cadillac that rolled past a half hour ago, and pointing me in the right direction.

After that, I just follow my instincts. The airport is in the opposite direction, and I don’t figure he’s the sort to travel by bus or train. No, a guy like that, he’s going to have somewhereclose by to lay his head. Not a motel, that’s for sure, and this town isn’t big enough for the kind of hotel he’d be used to.

But there are luxury villas a few miles down in the valley. And that’s the direction he was heading.

I get there as the sun is setting, just in time to see a big shiny car the color of a ripe grape pull up to the front of the biggest, gaudiest house in the row.

There are two shapes moving behind the tinted window.

Tess. One of those shapes is Tess. I can feel her inside of me—I know this for a fact.

I wrench the wheel on my pickup around, block Patron’s car from the garage, and slam on the brake. I’m out and running by the time Patron yanks Tess out of the car. He’s got a Pacifico bottle in one hand and her arm clutched in his other.

Beautiful Tess. She’s still wearing one of the dresses, showing off her thick curvy legs. She’s all smooth skin and big hips. Just a glimpse of that copper hair floods me with the memory of her smells.

“Rutger!” she cries when she spots me.

I put myself between them and the door.

“Let. Her. Go.” I bite the words out one at a time, snapping my teeth so hard I’m surprised nothing bleeds.

Make him bleed. Hurt him. Kill him.

Patron is wary, looking at my axe. “Look, guy, if you think you can scare me—”

“Let her the fuck go!” I roar, lifting it in a half-swing.

He flinches and releases Tess’s arm.

But even though she’s free, she doesn’t immediately run to my side. Tears fill her beautiful eyes. All I wanna do is soothe my baby, kiss the moisture off her cheeks. “He’s going to take your land if I go,” Tess says. “I don’t want this for you. I’ll do anything to make sure you can keep your home.”

She’s got it all wrong.

The forest was my home.

It’s where I grew up, and it’s where I’ve lived my life. But now I know that it doesn’t matter. Not compared to her.

“Home is always with you,” I say. “Anywhere you are, that’s where I’m at home.”

“But…” She struggles with this idea. Tess still doesn’t know how good she is, how special she is.

I round on Patron. “I’ll sell you the land right now if you just leave her alone. Forever. Stop messing with her. You vanish out of her life completely.”

“I have your land. It’s mine. Just a matter of letting the time run out. But you don’t know that, do you?” He laughs. “The lawyers were right. They said it but I didn’t believe them. I mean, why would I? You can’t read.”

Cold washes over me.

My secret is out. Until now, it was my greatest fear that anyone would find out.

Now, I’m only afraid that Tess will realize how far out of my league she is. She’ll never want me now, period.

Running off with Patron must beat dealing with an adult man who can’t read.

---