Page 25 of Beautifully Used
Was, I repeated to myself. I’d never imagined that one simple little verb could bring such joy and relief to me. “I’m glad it was just was.”
She wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Is he dead?”
“No. The asswipe will live. Unfortunately.” I reached my hand out to her. “C’mon, we need to get you out of here and call the cops.”
“No. Wait.”
“For what?”
“I … I don’t want to spoil Lena’s wedding and honeymoon. She’ll never leave if she knows about this.”
I considered what she’d said, and for some reason, I agreed with her. It wasn’t something I wanted my brother to have to think about either. A moaning sound came from Jeff, and I got up and slugged him again, sending him back into unconsciousness. I looked around, realized where we were. Jackson and I had used to play in the woods close by when we were kids. There was a tire swing hanging from a tree several yards away. “Okay. Hold on. I’ll be right back.” I ran to the swing and untied a portion of the rope connecting the bottom of the swing to another piece of rope. Our uncle had made it adjustable so we could move it higher and lower to accommodate longer legs. The variable portion of rope was more than long enough for what I needed. I brought it back to Jeff and dragged his body to a smaller tree. I yanked his limp arms behind him and tied them together before securing the rest of the rope to the tree trunk. “We’ll wait until after Lena and Jackson leave tonight and then call. In the meantime, we can leave him here. He’ll be secure.”
“I can’t go back to the reception. Not like this. And you, your lip is bleeding.”
“So is yours,” I said, skimming the bottom of her lip just below the cut with my thumb. “I’m sorry.” I sat down on the ground next to her, our backs leaning against a large boulder.
“You came just in time,” she whispered.
Thank God for that, I thought.
“How did you know he’d brought me out here to …? You know.”
“I didn’t. I mean, I didn’t know that’s why he brought you out here. I saw you dancing with him, and the next thing I knew the two of you were running off to the woods. I almost didn’t come. I figured you were going off for privacy and it was none of my business.” Except, I’d been pissed about it, I recalled silently, but I didn’t need to tell her that. In fact, a strong pang of jealously had swept over me at the sight of Gabrielle in the arms of that creep, swaying and laughing at his most-likely asinine jokes.
“But the more I thought about it, I didn’t like the way he appeared to be dragging you along, and when I noticed you were barefoot and your shoes were still at the edge of the dance floor, I thought something might be wrong. I didn’t think you would run off to the woods without them on purpose. I have to admit, curiosity got the best of me, so I decided to check things out. There was something about that guy I didn’t like. Even the way he was dancing with you set off alarm bells for me. He’s new around here, and I’ve seen him in the bar a couple of times, but I still thought there was something a little bit off with him. I didn’t think it was something like this though.”
“Thank God for your intuition,” she mumbled.
“Well, I almost turned back. I didn’t want to come barging in to rescue you, only to find I was intruding on a very private moment. Then I heard his low clenched threat, telling you to shut up or he was going to have to hurt you. Sorry it took me so long to realize what was going on. Are you going to be okay?”
Her hands were shaking, but she managed a soft, “I think so. Mostly because you stopped him.”
Jeff moaned and opened his eyes. Shock covered his face at discovering his hands tied behind him, and he struggled under the restraints. He stopped the moment he noticed us sitting there. “What the fuck?”
Neither one of us said anything to him. Gabrielle just lowered her gaze to the ground and clutched the jacket tighter.
“You can’t keep me here!” Asswipe shouted.
“Wanna bet?” I said.
“Let me go or I’ll get you for assault and battery.”
“Excuse me? You’re going to press charges against me?” I laughed.
“Yeah. You snuck up on me and beat the crap out of me when we were in the heat of a very intimate moment, you jealous asshole.”
“You have a weird sense of what intimacy is,” I retorted. “I didn’t detect any intimacy happening. Seems to me, you needed a lesson on what the word ‘no’ means.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. She wanted it. Ask her.”
I wasn’t about to do that. There was no point. I shook my head and he continued. “The way she danced with me, her actions screamed ‘fuck me!’ Any guy would have done what I did.”
Gabrielle stood, walked over to him and slugged him in the same spot I’d pummeled his jaw to a pulp just a few minutes ago. Then she spit in his face. I smiled. Her actions gave me more satisfaction than when I’d beat the crap out of him. I suddenly had a newfound admiration for Gabrielle Demeres. When she came back and sat next to me in the dirt, she pulled the jacket tight. “How long do you think we need to wait?”
“Dunno. Not too long I’d guess. I think Lena and Jackson might be wrapping things up and getting ready to take off. Probably after they finish the last dance they were having before I followed you out here.”
“Lena’s going to wonder where I am.”
