Chapter Thirteen
Eddie
A few hours after they took Hollis to jail, there was a knock on the kitchen door. I looked out the window and saw Ted. The hopeful look on his face disintegrated when he saw the bruises that Sheriff Tyler had left on my arms.
“Did he do that to you?” Ted asked in a menacing tone that I’d never heard come from him before.
“If by he, you mean Sheriff Tyler, then yes. If you’re thinking that Hollis did this to me, no. I don’t know why you feel like you have to assume the worst about him.”
“I’m sorry,” Ted said. “Bran Tyler did that to you?”
“Yes. He did, and when Hollis tried to defend me, Bran arrested him.”
“Hollis is in jail for trying to defend you from the sheriff.”
“Yeah, Bran said some stuff about everybody getting a turn with me, and he rubbed himself up against me. Hollis hit him.”
“Let’s go get him out.” Ted said.
When we got to the courthouse, the clerk told us the bail amount and I almost fell over. Even if I drained all my savings, I still didn’t have enough to cover it. I had the cash from Hollis’s petty cash fund too, and it still left me short a few hundred dollars.
“I’ll cover the rest,” Ted said as I recounted the petty cash a third time, hoping the money fairy would have bestowed a gift on me for my vigilant commitment to counting.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said, but I felt relief wash over me.
“I want to do it,” he said. “I’m sorry that I tried to make you give up a relationship with someone you care about.”
We paid the clerk and waited for them to bring Hollis out. It wasn’t surprising at all that the person who led Hollis out of the jail area of the courthouse was Sheriff Tyler.
Bran Tyler’s face was a study in furious indignation. It was obvious he was pissed about Hollis being bailed out so quickly. He’d probably thought he’d get to keep him overnight at least, and to do god knows what while Hollis was stuck in a nearly empty jail, but he’d made the mistake of booking him right before the afternoon bail hearings. I don’t know what wheels he greased to get such an astronomically high bail set, but thank goodness for my savings.
The sheriff had a hold of Hollis’s arm until they crossed the threshold into the waiting area. He released him with a barely perceptible shove.
“I’m going to have my eye on you day and night, Hollis Rivers.” Bran said as he caressed the gun in his holster. “You’d better watch yourself.”
“Good,” Hollis gritted out. “Maybe if you’re watching, you’ll finally catch the punks who keep tearing up my place.” He turned and took my hand.
Bran looked like he was about to say something else, but we hurried from the building before he could speak. I was ridiculously happy and relieved to have Hollis back at my side.
Ted drove us back to Hollis’s farm. On the way, Ted asked Hollis point-blank why Tyler hated him so much. I’d thought the sheriff was just an asshole, but apparently there was more to it than that. It was the missing piece of the puzzle as to why the whole town hated Hollis so much. Ted and I would have known, had we not been considered outsiders.
“My father left Bran’s daddy for my mother. He’s my half-brother, but there is no relationship there, and there never has been. He blames my existence for our father abandoning him. I don’t think it was right for my father to abandon his first family either, but there was nothing I could do about that. Bran’s father didn’t want to be with an Omega anymore. He wanted a woman. It’s just that my mother was from the wrong side of town, and Bran’s daddy was an old money Omega. My father left the right family for the wrong family in the eyes of the town and my father’s relatives. I’ve carried that wrongness with me my entire life.”