Page 24 of Wait in the Truck
I suck in a breath, hoping it’ll calm me. Maybe if I give him vague examples, he’ll keep an eye out.I dunno.Shrugging, I mumble, “It’s just odd things. Hard to explain, but I noticed it when I was tilling the garden the other day. A couple other random times when I was in the stable and barn. Nothing I can pinpoint, honestly. But I’m uneasy.”
He stares off into the distance. A flash of discomfort narrows his brow. He swallows deeply before eyeing me. “Do you think it could be Toby waiting to jump you again?”
“I don’t think so. Not to mention, Toby isn’t one to hide the monster he is—at least not from me. It feels different. It’s disconcerting. Gives me a funny feeling in my gut.”
Exhaling hard, Rhett turns to fully look at me. “I don’t like this.”
Sweat trickles down my back as a strangled laugh bursts from me. “You think I do?”
“Nope.” He rubs a hand over the stubble on his cheek. “Do me a favor and text me if it happens again. You have my number.”
Yep, because when my dad is too piss-drunk to take care of the animals, I end up being the one to call Rhett over here if we need him. I sigh heavily. “I’m such a mess right now. You must think I’ve lost my mind,” I mumble.
He claps a hand on my shoulder. “I think you’re a strong woman who has dealt with a lot. And sometimes we all need a friend. I can be that for you, Sage, if you’ll let me.” He huffs out a chuckle. “Maybe I should say, if Kade will let me.”
I appreciate him trying to lighten the mood with his humor, but knowing Kade, Rhett’s evaluation isn’t so much a joke… it’s a fact.
KADE
15
“You boys keepin’close to the house tonight?” Grandma Jo’s keen gaze lands on each of us in turn as we clear the table from our weekly Monday night spaghetti and meatball dinner. When she prepares the meal, we clean. And it’s totally worth it. She’s a great cook, and she’s had a hand in making sure our entire family hasn’t gone to shit. After the accident that left us without parents, if our father’s mother wasn’t still alive, we’d have been completely orphaned. Rhett turned sixteen the day we lost them, nowhere near old enough to head our family, so who knows what would’ve happened if not for Grandma Jo.
I pinch my lips together as I set down a pile of dishes at the sink for the twins to wash and dry. She won’t like what I’m about to say, but here goes. “Actually, I’m heading over to Boozin’ Boots in a little while.”
“Kade Rivers.” Her eyes sharply narrow. “You’ve beenover there an awful lot lately. What reason do you have to be goin’ to a bar on a Monday night?”
I hate to think I’m worrying her needlessly. There’s no doubt in my mind she’s thinking of Dad and what he went through with his addiction. I dip my hand into my pocket, working one of his sobriety medallions around and around with my fingers. If she knew the whole of everything I’ve been up to, she’d be madder than a wet hen, but maybe there’s a way I can twist this that she’ll approve of.
As I’m about to speak, Rhett’s brows go up, as if to say,You’re treading a fine line here. Watch yourself.The funny thing is, he isn’t even referring to the murder-y bits of late, because that’s a John Cena situation. It’s more the fact that I’m obsessing over Sage, thereby fucking with the yearslong family feud that I assume is very much still an issue in Grandma Jo’s mind. And from the shotgun Sage’s dad was waving around last Sunday, he feels the same. I’ve secretly hoped for years that the animosity would fade away now that the majority of the people involved in past events are gone, but I’m not going to bring up Sage to her. Not yet. Not if I can help it.
“Just going to make sure a friend is okay getting home. Had a rough go of it lately.”
“Is this a female friend?” One brow arches on her wrinkled forehead. And when I don’t answer, she continues, “Don’t do anything you shouldn’t be doing, Kade.” She lifts her chin, somehow managing to give the effect that she’s looking down on me through her thick glasses, even though she’s about five foot two. “I’ve always told you boys… don’t ride bikes without a helmet.”
If only she knew. “I prefer pretty fillies.” I bend down to hug her before turning on my heel and leaving the room. As much as I want to please her, I can’t possibly let my wildflower go through this first night back to work alone—especially if she is fulfilling her regular closing duties. I don’t claim to know everything about Sage, but if I’d been attacked, I wouldn’t want to go back to the scene of the crime on my own after dark. And she doesn’t know that Toby is no longer a threat. The way I see it, the least I can do is be there to make sure she doesn’t panic.
Halfway to the front door, I pause when Rhett calls out, “Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?”
He’s been giving me the hairy eyeball all evening, and I don’t know what the fuck I did beyond being out later than usual, repairing the mistake I made. That is, besides making him help me bury a body last week. But it’s not like I’ve asked anything else of him. In truth, we haven’t discussed the human pig corpse in our field since the morning we put him more than six feet under.
“Yeah. Come outside onto the porch with me?” I throw open the door and step outside without waiting for him to agree. He follows me, and we listen to the sound of a million crickets filling the night air. “I can’t stay long. I’vegotta make sure Sage is okay. She went back to work tonight.”
He clears his throat. “It’s our neighbor I want to talk to you about. I spoke with her earlier today for a little bit while I was over at Lilac Meadows checking in on the mare that gave birth last week.”
“What about?”
“A couple of things, actually. Why’d you…” He hesitates, his lips thinning into a tight smile as he heaves out a breath. “Kade, why’d you think it was necessary to get rid of Toby?”
I give him a confused side-eye. “What the hell do you mean? You saw Sage.”
Rhett presses his lips together, his exhale audible through his nose. “Yes. And I’m certainly not saying the asshole didn’t deserve a good beating for that, but”—he glances back through the windows, making sure neither Grandma Jo nor the twins are within earshot—“the fucker is decaying under one of our fields. And we put him there. Sage told me Toby texted and said he was sorry and would fix shit between them.” Rhett tilts his head to the side. “Did he deserve to die?”
I raise a brow at him. “Those texts weren’t from Toby, Rhett. They were from me. I was dotting all the i’s and crossing the motherfucking t’s. Leaving him alive wasn’t an option. He was going to hurt her again, and I couldn’t let that happen.”
“I’m well aware you don’t want to discuss shit, but I need to know exactly what you did so I can keep you safe.”
“Not your fucking job, Rhett. I appreciate your help, but I don’t know that you need to know more.” He aims a steely look at me, and I relent. “Okay, fine. I took the time to look at his phone and study how he’d message her before I sent the texts.”
