Page 113 of So Wild

“Oh hey!” Tabby said, still chipper. “Everything’s all good now, I iced Scott’s dad with the Taser I bought in Savannah.”

“What? Why?”

“Um, revenge,” Tabby said patiently. “And safety. The two best reasons ever.”

“What the fuck?”

Even in his numb state, Scott could attest curse words sounded strange coming from Nicole’s mouth. He cleared his throat. “The cops will be here soon. Tabby should get out of here and hide the Taser before they show up.”

“Good point!” Tabby said brightly. “Come on, Nix, Sam, let’s get out of here.”

“Wait a second,” Sam met his gaze. “What are you going to say happened?”

“The truth,” Scott said. “That my father petrol-bombed your house because he’s had a longstanding vendetta against your family. I’m sure there’s plenty of evidence around and if there isn’t, I can tell them about the Polaroids he stole from your house when you were seventeen.”

Nicole gasped. “That was him?”

“It was.” Scott knew he sounded brassy and posh, cheery almost, but he couldn’t stop it. “I’m sure there’s a hell of a lot of things my father’s done to your family over the years, all things the police can discuss with him once he’s arrested.”

“Sure.” Nicole looked queasy. “Come on, Tabby, let’s get out of here. We’ll need to add an ambulance to make sure Scott’s dad’s okay.”

“Maybe we should stay and make sure Scott’s dad doesn’t need another zap?”

“No,” Sam said. “Get out of here. Check on the puppies.”

Tabby and Nicole headed for the side gate, leaving him and Sam alone with his father’s unconscious body. Sam frowned at his father’s incapacitated form. “I didn’t know Tasers knocked people out.”

“I think he hit his head when he fell,” Scott said in his brassy, posho voice. “He’ll be fine. We shouldn’t move him, at any rate. We’ll just wait for the police to arrive. Sorry about all this, by the way, Samantha. I’m truly, very sorry.”

Sam gave him an odd look. “That’s okay…so you, um, thought something like this might happen, huh? Back at the office?”

“I must have,” Scott heard himself say. “Not that I thought…but we can talk about this later. You should probably go look after your sisters. Make sure they’re okay.”

Sam frowned. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“No,” Scott said honestly. That would require knowing what he was doing and he had no idea what he was doing. He felt numb, like a dentist had shot his whole body through with Novocain. Sam looked at him, and though he could see the disappointment and confusion in her eyes, he had no idea what to say. His father had done this. By the sounds of things, he’d doneeverything. Beyond an apology, what did he have to offer this beautiful, clever, unfairly victimized woman?

“This whole situation really is a clusterfuck, isn’t it?” Sam said, mirroring his thoughts.

“It is. It makes you wonder what might have happened if my family had never moved here. If we’d gone somewhere else or just stayed in London.”

A shadow seemed to pass over Sam’s face. “Is that what you wished had happened? That we’d never met?”

“No, but you have to admit it would have stopped a lot of hurt. This is all my fault. I knew he was going round the twist. I should have called the police, or my aunt or someone. Instead, I just let him burn down your shed and almost your house.” Scott gave a loud, plummy laugh and Sam looked shocked. “Scott, I don’t blame you.”

“You should. I couldn’t protect you when I was a kid or a teenager, and now I can’t protect you as a man. I didn’t tackle my dad, I didn’t hit him. In the end, the only reason he didn’t burn your house down is because your s-s-sister had a t-t-t-t—FUCK!”

Scott rubbed his hand across his mouth, full of molten, white-hot fury. The stutter. The fucking stutter. What was wrong with him?

“Are you okay?” Sam asked, her expression fearful.

“I’m. Fine,” he said, enunciating his words very clearly. “I never stuttered once while I was in England, I have no idea why the hell I keep doing it now.”

His father groaned, struggling a little beneath his knee.

Sam jumped back with a shriek. “He’s awake!”

“He is,” Scott took his father’s hands and bundled them behind his back. “I’ll tie him up with his belt but maybe you should go see if the police are here?”

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