Page 39 of Begin Again
“We weren’t meanin’ no trouble, Joe,” Dakota says, rubbing his head.
“You okay, Xavier?” Joe asks without looking.
“Fine,” I say, pushing myself up from the ground.
“You hurt?”
“Nothin’ I can’t handle.” I wince applying weight to my ankle—it’ll be sore, but I can live with it.
Joseph motions toward the road in the distance, speaking to Cooper and Dakota, “Unless you want Red to find your brains scattered across my field, I suggest you get moving.”
Cooper narrows his gaze at me before he turns back to Joseph, the blade still dangling between his fingertips. I don’t trust him, and I sure don’t trust Dakota. They won’t give up this easily, not when I’m within their reach. They’ve waited long enough. They want to finish the job. Dakota reaches into his waist and I lift the gun from the holster between the seat and center console—another thing Joseph suggested when he realized I’d been keeping it in the glove compartment. “I’d think twice before doing that,” I say, aiming the barrel at Dakota.
Dakota looks at me and then at his friend. Lady stamps her feet and huffs in anticipation, but no one moves, locked in a standoff no one seems ready to lose. From here, I can see Joseph apply a little more pressure to the trigger, and finally Cooper relents.
“This isn’t over,” Cooper says.
“Step foot on my property again Hayes and I’ll make sure you never leave.” Joseph continues to follow his every move with the barrel as Cooper and Dakota begin their retreat. Only when they turn their backs and get a few more yards away does hefinally lower the gun, never taking his eyes off them until they’ve disappeared down the highway. “Sure you’re okay?”
“Fine,” I say, rolling my shoulders and touching my cheek. I’m sure it’s bruised, I can already feel it swelling beneath the skin. “Maybe it’ll knock something loose.”
Joseph chuckles. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“Thank you. If you hadn’t shown up—”
“I’ve been looking for an excuse to do that since the day Charlie brought him home her sophomore year.” Joseph stuffs the gun into the holster on his back. “Seems like they’ve taken a liking to you. You know ’em?”
“I don’t, but apparently they know me.”
“What’d they say?”
“Not much. Said I was supposed to be dead…and I have a wife.”
Joseph leans forward a bit on the saddle horn. “She lookin’ for ya?”
“Raising holy hell, too, according to them.”
“Where she at then?” Joseph rights himself, tugging on the reins to direct Lady back the way they came. He poses a good question—one that I need to ask Sloan. If he and the sheriff had put my picture out there, why hadn’t she shown up yet? “Well, pack up and come on back to the house. I was ’bout to start dinner before Charlie goes to work. Fair warning, she seems to be a bit in a mood.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And from now on, Xavier”—Joseph looks back over his shoulder—“you don’t come out here alone. Got it?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
HOT WATER RAINS DOWN my back, relieving some of the soreness in my muscles. It’s a nice contrast to the cold compress I’ve been holding against my face since I got back from the field. A bruise has already started to form along the cheekbone with some of the discoloration bleeding up toward my eye, and right in the middle of it all is a small laceration from where Dakota’s knuckles made an impact I hadn’t noticed until I saw my reflection in the hallway mirror. Charlie was doing her best to avoid me; however, she couldn’t help but stare when she did look at me. I looked like hell, and I knew it. Her unwavering gaze only confirmed it.
“Are you okay?” she asked, and it shocked me. I didn’t think she would speak to me for at least two days after last night.
“Yeah, your boyfriend says hi.” I tried to give her a tight smile, but the small twitch in my face sent a shockwave of discomfort through my cheek and into my skull.
I didn’t wait for her to respond, trudging into the kitchen to find something cold—frozen peas, frozen meat, or a frozen compress, I didn’t care—to put against my face. Luckily, Joseph had already pulled the compress out, instructing me to take a load off. And that’s what I did.
When Charlie tried to press me for information about what happened, Joseph stepped into the living room, telling her tomind her business and help him with dinner. From my spot on the couch, I could hear bits of their muffled conversation but tried to block them out, piecing together what I wanted to say to Sloan when I visit him tomorrow.
After dinner, I dragged my aching body up the stairs and straight into the bathroom to take a shower, hoping it would bring some more relief, and it did.
Closing my eyes, I let my head fall into the steady stream and my mind wanders to a bedroom somewhere far from here. The windows showcase city lights expanding as far as the eye can see. A reflection stares back at me in a floor-length mirror. It’s me, but I look different…My hair is a tad longer, and I’m dressed in a white button-up with black dress pants. A black tie hangs from my hand. From the open door, I hear the sounds of her heeled footsteps before she appears, digging through her purse for something. The light pink shade of her dress brings out the warmth of her skin tone and the way it hugs her every curve is fucking delicious. My fingers clench at my sides at the mere thought of touching her. Long hair falls over her shoulders in delicate chocolate waves, they’ve been placed perfectly to make sure she looks good from any angle, and damn does she. When she catches me staring, she smiles and raises a brow. “Can I help you?”
