Chapter 22

Na^16

-Batman

Kennedy

We got back to Hostel in five hours.

Evander had stopped to feed me after two, and then we’d gotten back on the road again.

The ride was pure torture.

My knees were bruised. My vagina was sore, and each and every bump along the way reminded me of the roughness I experienced at the deft hands of the man that had declared me as his.

And I’d loved every single second of it.

I was exhausted by the time I got home, and nearly lost it when I saw my dog and my goats back where they belonged.

The only thing that held those tears in check was Evander’s arm around my shoulders, guiding me into the house and to my bedroom.

“How’d you know?”

I expected him to find out that I was gone well after I arrived at my destination—which hadn’t really been much of a destination, if I was being honest.

When he’d left, his eyes set on revenge, I’d decided that I needed to leave, too. So I went.

Second best sucked.

Second best was what I always seemed to be, yet never wanted to experience.

When had I started settling?

I shouldn’t have to settle…not with the man that I loved.

I’d walked into town, which had been interesting seeing as I’d had three goats and a dog with me the whole way. The first car I’d seen had been Evander’s brother, so I’d tied the goats and the dog up to the Jeep’s door handle, and I’d left him a note.

The entire fifteen-minute walk to the bus station, I’d cried.

Which had gotten me on the bus that was leaving to go pick up a set of passengers in El Paso.

The bus driver had been very nice and understanding, and he agreed to take me despite the fact that it’d been against company policy.

Though, I couldn’t tell if he gave in due to the tears that were still in my eyes, or the fact that I practically begged him to take me.

Either way, I’d gone, and had been out of town with just a freakin’ carry-on sized bag in tow, all within about an hour of Evander leaving.

The whole time, I’d refused to think about how that made me feel to have him leave without saying a word to me.

I’d told him I loved him, for God’s sake, and he’d just looked at me.

Looked at me.

His eyes hadn’t flared. His hand didn’t shoot out and wrap around my neck like he did when I’d said something he liked.

Hell, he hadn’t even blinked.

He’d just left.

That’d been it.

No dramatics. No overheated, angry words were exchanged.

One second he was standing in front of me, and the next he’d been walking down the sidewalk.

Then he’d stopped and my heart had swelled.

Only, when he’d turned around, it was to call out to his freakin’ dog.

Not that that dog wasn’t awesome…but it was his dog, goddammit.

And that’d been the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.

“What are you talking about…” I started to ask.

I tripped over something on the floor and went down hard.

My arms went out in front of me, and I fell…right next to a dead, decapitated chicken.

My face exploded in pain.

My stomach started to lurch, but I held it in check…just barely.

I was much calmer than I was the first time.

I stood up, or rather, I was hauled up by the waist by two big hands, and stared at the carnage before me.

“Oh, God.”

Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.

They were all dead.

Again.

Every last one of them.

Twenty-nine chickens.

Little Ethel that I’d gotten from the feed store was among them with her missing back right toe.

Martha Stewart, the Ameraucana with the crooked beak.

Donna, my Easter Egger with the twisted foot. It didn’t take me long to love my new flock. I’d already named them all. They were mine. All twenty-three of the new flock and my six chicks were dead.

The cursing followed, and I was turned in big, strong arms.

My face was pressed into a hard chest.

I was in shock.

The chest I was pressed against rumbled, but I didn’t hear what it was saying.

Dead.

Dead.

Dead.

“No,” I whispered brokenly. “No, no, no.”

Something slippery was on my hands, and I felt something hot on my face.

No, no, no, no.

I chanted it like it was my lifeline, thinking about how I’d just left only five hours ago.

All that damage had been done while I was supposed to be at home.

They’d been locked up in a fenced-in coop, for God’s sake!

“Bro, need you to come over here.”

Seven words that were enough to partially pierce through my shock.

Evander didn’t talk to his brother. Not willingly, anyway.

“Yeah, I’m at home. Or Kennedy’s house.”

I looked up and found Evander looking down at me, then he started to curse.

“Fuck me.”

Exactly nine minutes later, I was at the clinic in town, being seen by a very, very, very pregnant woman.

“What happened?” the woman asked.

Her nametag read: Hannah, R.N.

She moved, and the bulge of her belly brushed against my arm.

Her hand went to my forehead, and she lightly brushed my hair away from what I now realized was a large gash right above my eyebrow.

I was holding my wrist protectively against my belly, and I was sure I looked a sight.

Chicken blood, my blood, and a mixture of dirt and gravel stained my clothes.

Before I could answer, a knock sounded at the door.

“Hannah?”

I turned to find the doctor standing in the room, his eyes not on me or Hannah, but on Evander.

“Yeah?” Hannah asked distractedly.

“There’s a very anxious man in the waiting room saying that you aren’t supposed to be here. Something about how you’re pregnant and overdue, and you keep having false labor. He wants to be there if anything happens. False or not.”

She sighed and turned.

“I’m about to help you stitch this up, and then I’m headed out to go get my daughter from my brother’s house. Tell him that I’ll talk to him later and if the status of my pregnancy changes, he’ll be the first one to know.”

The doctor still wasn’t looking at her.

He was staring at Evander with a hard look, his eyes jumping from him to the gash on my forehead, then to Evander again.

I knew what he was thinking. He thought that Evander had done this.

I saw the moment that he decided to question him, too.

“Are you okay in here with him?”

That question was directed at Evander.

“Yeah,” Hannah said distractedly. Her attention was again on my head. “You can send Dr. Montgomery in, though.”

The doctor hesitated.

Evander grunted something.

“I’m going to go outside. My brother is here and I want to tell him what’s going on anyway. If you need me, yell out, and I’ll come.”

Evander said this while looking at me like I might lose it, and to some extent, he was right to do so.

I was about to lose it.

But with this doctor giving Evander the stink eye, I was better able to control myself—or, at least, my tears.

I was a doomed crazy chicken lady.

Maybe I just needed to find a job somewhere.

“You okay?”

I looked up at the pregnant chick that was still touching me.

“Yeah,” I muttered. “Do you know anywhere that’s hiring?”

Her eyes flicked down to me, and I was struck with shock.

Despite her huge, obviously pregnant state, she was freakin’ beautiful.

“You in trouble?”

I shook my head, and then thought better of it and nodded.

“Yes and no.”

“Have anything to do with this cut on your face?”

I shook my head.

“No.”

“Huh,” she muttered. “Could’ve fooled me.”

I sighed.

“It has nothing to do with Evander,” I told her. “That’s the man I’m going to marry someday.”

Her mouth quirked.

“Someday?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, someday,” I sighed.

“I have a someday, too,” she admitted. “He’s the one the doctor was just talking about.”

“Ahh,” I sighed. “That’s an alpha male thing, I suppose. I tried to leave. Was halfway to El Paso when he came riding up on his Harley and told me to get off the bus.”

She snickered.

“I thought I went into labor yesterday.”

My eyes widened.

“Are you Travis’ Hannah?” I asked. “I was there when he got the call. He freaked way out, and his eyes went all saucer like, and I swear to God, I thought he was going to pass out.”

Her smile was sad.

“Yeah, that’s what I keep getting from him, too.”

I snickered as she cleaned the blood from my face and winced slightly when she hit a sore spot.

“Was he like that with y’all’s first one?” I asked her.

She smiled warmly.

“Travis isn’t the father of my first daughter. Only this one,” she gestured down to her stomach with a tilt of her head.

My brows furrowed.

“But they said he had another kid…”

Hannah’s face twisted.

“He does…one who he only ever sees on holidays. One who hates his guts. One who is behind the reason why he wants nothing to do with me or the one he’s about to have.”

I watched her face closely, and then decided that I wasn’t going to make her keep talking about this subject since it was obviously bothering her.

She moved again, and her stomach brushed my arm, and I felt the distinct thump of something kicking me, almost as if he was pissed off that I’d intruded on his space.

“Your baby just kicked me,” I informed her, even though she could more than likely feel it on her end.

Though, she’d have to be freakin’ paralyzed not to feel the force from that kick.

She grinned. “A booger like his daddy.”

She hummed something else I couldn’t quite catch under her breath and brought up a piece of gauze off the tray next to the bed.

“I want you to hold this here while I go get the doctor to stitch this up.” She gestured with her hand. “I’ll be right…”

A commotion from out in the other room had me standing up and heading to the door.

Hannah had been on her way, too, but she was much slower than I was, despite my injuries.

I opened the door just in time to see two men—two police officers—throw Evander to the floor.

He hit so roughly that his face bounced off the tile floor.

“What are you doing?” I shrieked, running into the fray.

That’s when a hand planted in my chest, and I fell backwards, hitting the floor on my ass.

Hard.

Evander hadn’t been struggling before.

But seeing a man put his hands on me, he went fucking wild.

“I’m okay!” I started to crawl to him. “I’m okay!”

I’d just gotten a hand on his head when a rough hand latched onto my arm and pulled me away.

“Go sit the fuck down, or better yet, go back to the room you were just in. I’ll come for your statement later.”

“What statement?” I demanded, kicking as I was dragged across the room on my ass.

“Hey!” Hannah called out. “Let her go! Can’t you see that she’s hurt?”

The man who had his hand latched onto my arm let me go, and he rounded on her.

“How about y’all go back in there, and don’t worry about what’s going on out here?”

“I’ll worry about it if I want to worry about it, motherfucker!”

We all froze at those words coming out of a very pregnant, beautiful woman’s mouth.

But not for long.

The cop rounded on Hannah, ready to push her, but, suddenly, Travis was there, stopping him before he could even take a step

“Officer Rogers,” Travis’ voice was low and barely controlled. “I seriously suggest that you rethink what you’re about to do, because I’m not above beating the shit out of you in front of witnesses.”

I finally looked at the officer that had yanked me around like a rag doll.

Officer Rogers. The cop who had asked me out and I turned down. The one whose truck I had helped Evander to recover.

Holy shit.

More struggling from the other side of Officer Rogers had me turning to see Evander still struggling on the floor.

“Let him go!” I screamed, my fingernails digging into my palms.

That’s when I saw Evander’s brother was one of the arresting officers that had thrown him to the ground and allowed his poor face to hit the floor.

“Walter,” I whispered. “What are you doing?”

The accusation in my voice was enough to make Walter wince.

Evander’s eyes looked fucking ravaged.

“Don’t, baby,” he insisted gently. “Just don’t.”

My throat felt tight, and I couldn’t get my legs to work.

I wanted to go to him. I wanted to pull him into my arms.

I started to crawl.

“Travis,” Evander barked as he was yanked to his feet.

Travis’ angry eyes came down to me, but I didn’t stop despite Travis’ attempt at reaching for me.

No, I crawled across the floor, past the asshole, Officer Rogers, straight to Evander, coming up to my feet about halfway and throwing myself at him.

I hit him hard and wrapped both of my arms around his neck.

His hands were restrained behind his back with cuffs, so he could do nothing but drop his head to my shoulder and kiss my neck.

“Don’t do this,” he whispered to me. “Be good. Don’t do this.”

Then he was yanked away from me, causing me to stumble.

His eyes met mine once more, and then he was gone, being led out of the small clinic with Officer Rogers the asshole following right behind him, shooting daggers at Travis and me as he went.

I watched as Walter opened the back door of the cruiser, and then moved out of the way for the other officer to shove Evander—none too gently—into the back before slamming the door.

Words were discussed among the officers, and it was then that I saw Evander’s parole officer out there as well.

My heart started to beat double time.

“What’s going on, Travis?”

That was my nurse, Hannah.

I didn’t bother to turn around, instead watching as the cruiser pulled away, leaving Evander’s brother the only one left on the scene.

And suddenly I found myself irrational.

I pushed the door open and stomped down the walkway, straight up to the awful man.

“You’re a despicable, disgusting excuse for a human being,” I told him. “I can’t believe I ever left my goats to you. You’d probably eat them.”

Walter flinched at my words.

“I had to.”

My brows rose.

“You had to?” I laughed humorlessly, and it hurt my own ears to hear. “You also had a responsibility to your own brother,” I snapped. “Or is that how you treat family around here?”

Walter’s face shut down completely.

“I can’t protect him when he’s stupid,” he hissed. “And I’m not sure what it is that you wanted me to do? I didn’t tell him to commit any crimes.”

My mouth dropped open.

“You don’t truly believe that your brother would do anything like that, do you?” I asked. “Because if you do, you’re fucking stupid.”

Walter’s jaw muscles worked as he clenched his jaw.

“There’s stuff you don’t know.”

I stared at him like the little worm that he was.

“There’s stuff you don’t know,” I told him. “Like the fact that your brother is the most beautiful, caring, loving, helpful person in the whole goddamn world.”

“He committed a crime,” Walter snapped.

“You believe that about as much as I believe you actually care about him,” Travis countered from behind me.

It was good to know that I wasn’t the only one that was disappointed in Walter.

“I’m not a detective,” Walter shot back. “I’m a fucking police officer. I have to do what I’m told, or I lose my job.”

“What’s the point of having the job if the people you work for are shit-ass dirty?”

That was me, eloquent as always.

His eyes sliced from Travis to me.

“Someone has to make a difference.”

I started to laugh.

“Oh, that’s fucking rich, coming from you. Someone has to make a difference?” I brought my hand up to my face and swiped at the tears leaking from my eyes. “You’re not the one making a difference, you fool—Evander is! You’re just another one of the spineless, pieces of shit with a badge who don’t do anything other than toe the dirty cop line in this town.”

With that, I started stomping toward the truck, thankful that I’d seen where Evander kept his spare key.

Poor Gertie looked fit to be tied, and as I opened the door, I could tell he was just as unhappy about seeing his master carried away in cuffs as I was.

“Let’s go, Gert,” I called to the dog. “We’re going to the police station.”

“Wait.”

I got into the truck and turned to see Travis there, staring at me.

Hannah was just behind him, holding onto his waistband, her face pale.

“What?”

I was tired.

I wanted this God-awful night to be over. I wanted to go home and sleep in my own bed, wrapped up in Evander’s arms.

Not that that would be happening any time soon, but that’s where my thoughts were.

“I’m calling the boys,” he said. “And I have a few favors I can call in…it’s gonna hurt like a bitch, but I can’t see Evander go through this again.”

Relief poured through me.

“What should I do?”

Should I wait? Go to the station? Call a lawyer?

I didn’t know what to do. I’d never had to bail someone out of jail before.

“Go to the club,” he ordered. “I’ll call the boys and pull them in from their jobs. Atticus will let you in. I’m going to take her home…”

“You will not. I’m going with you,” Hannah argued.

Travis turned to disagree, but she held up her hand.

“I’ll catch a ride with her once I get the doctor to stitch her up.”

Travis’ jaw clenched, but he turned and looked at me.

It was then that the trickle of blood ran down my face reminded me that I had a gaping wound in my forehead.

“Oh yeah,” I said. “I forgot.”

In all the excitement, I’d definitely had my mind elsewhere.

“All right,” Travis sighed. “Keep Gertie with you, though. Yeah?”

I looked over at Gertie, and then nodded my head. “Yeah.”