CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Niko pulled into Summer and Carter’s driveway and gunned the bike’s engine before cutting it off. He had taken off from the brewery and the bad feelings there and gone for a ride but found no peace in the spring sunshine.
Nothing had dulled the razor’s edge of anger that cut at him since Emma had dismissed him. He guessed that it would be a long time before that anger mellowed. He hadn’t been prepared to say goodbye to this town and its oddball occupants, but some time and space would do both him and Emma some good.
She’d compared him to the mother who had abandoned her. And that had pissed him off. In a fit of temper, Niko hurled his helmet at the fence. It hit the white wood with a satisfying crack. Satisfaction was quickly replaced with guilt when the pasture gate swung open, its lock broken and wood splintering.
“Shit.” Niko muttered. He was more than old enough to know better than to give in to fits of temper.
He heard a squeal and then another one, and two massive pigs trotted into the pasture from the barn.
“No, no, no!” Niko ran for the gate, but the pigs were faster, muscling their way through the opening and jogging into the driveway. “No! Get back in your pasture,” he ordered.
His demands were ignored, and the slightly smaller pig started up the driveway at a gleeful trot. At least it wasn’t running for the road, he thought ruefully. The second pig followed suit, and Niko found himself jogging after them. His pig wrestling skills were untried, and he felt woefully inept to tackle either hulking beast. Besides, carrying them back was not a remote possibility.
He settled for yelling for help, then jogging a few steps, and yelling again. Repeat. Again and again until the farmhouse and its pastures receded behind the crest of a hill. The pigs paid him no attention, and it seemed to Niko that, for the third time that day, he was truly screwed.
Where in the hell was the entire meddling town when you needed them? Niko cursed his fate and faithfully followed the pigs wondering if they’d all eventually be stopped at the Canadian border before he spotted salvation. Another person, an honest to God human being, crested the hill of a field to the west and waved.
“Looks like we’ve got trouble!”
It was Emma’s father, Franklin. Niko could tell by the Hawaiian shirt and cloud of silver hair. He’d never been so glad to see another man in his entire life.
“Help!” Niko yelled back. “I have no idea how to catch a pig or what to do with one once it’s caught.”
Franklin hustled down the hill, his red and blue Hawaiian shirt billowing in the breeze. “Maybe we can herd them into a pasture,” he suggested when he reached Niko’s side.
It was the best idea Niko had heard all day. “Yes! Let’s do that!”
“You run ahead of them and try to scare them back this way, and we’ll see if we can’t coax them into the north pasture over here. I’ll man the gate,” Franklin offered.
Niko’s reply died on his lips when a yellow-eyed, brown-furred blur galloped between them on the path.
“Oh, shit.”
“Clementine.” Hands on hips, Franklin watched the goat charge down the farm lane. “Going after Jax,” he predicted.
“Is that bad?”
“You might want to text him and tell him to get to higher ground,” Franklin suggested.
Texting. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Niko wrestled his phone out of his pocket and fired off a text to Jax warning him about the furry brown missile and then another one to Carter and Beckett begging for assistance.
Carter responded immediately.
“How in the fuck did that happen?” which was quickly followed by “On my way.”
There was no time to explain, not with four hundred pounds of pork hightailing it toward freedom. And Niko sighed with relief. “Okay, Carter’s on his way.”
His phone chimed again. “And so is Beckett.”
“Well, let’s see if we can at least get Dixie and Hamlet turned in the right direction before they get here,” Franklin suggested.
“Good call. I’ll run. You man the gate.” Niko loped off. The sweat was starting to work its way down his spine. He shed his leather jacket and dropped it in the grass and cut around the pigs that were happily stomping through a swath of wildflowers. They paid him no attention as he circled back to them from the other direction.
Great. He was in position. Now what?
Franklin, hanging on the open pasture gate, waved his arms in a shooing motion.
“Right, okay.” Niko raised his arms. “Shoo, pigs. Shoo!”
The bigger pig, Hamlet, Niko presumed, shot him a nonplussed look. Niko tried it again, waving his arms harder. “Shoo!”
Hamlet went back to nosing around in the flowers.
“Come on, guys. I’ve had a shitty day.” And now he was pleading with pigs. Fucking perfect.
“Fine. We’ll do this the hard way then,” he said, hoping his warning tone would convince the pigs to take him seriously.
Dixie rolled on her back in the dirt.
Desperate, Niko stomped his foot on the ground and clapped his hands. “Let’s go!” he yelled.
Dixie stopped rolling, one ear flicking.
“Move!” But there was nothing that hinted that the pigs were even aware of his existence.
“Fine. You asked for this. Just remember that. You could have been good pigs, but no. I have to do it this way.” Niko lunged for them, startling the pigs. They took off in opposite directions, and Niko went after the smaller one. “Get your ass back here, Dixie!” She started uphill, of course, and he hit a dead run behind her. He’d lost a lot today. He was not going to lose a battle to a pig. That was his last thought until his boot caught on a root. He caught air and time slowed long enough for him to brace for the impact. He sprawled face down into the dirt, a cloud of dust rising all around him.
He was debating on whether he was ever going to get up again or just let the turkey buzzards find him when the sound of raucous laughter reached his ears over the buzz of bees and the joyful squeals of pigs being assholes.
He half-rolled, half-flopped onto his side and spotted the source of the noise. Carter and Beckett hung out of the top of Carter’s Jeep laughing themselves stupid. Beckett was in tears as Carter clung to the roll bar gasping for breath
Niko held up his middle finger. It only made them laugh harder.
“Yeah, keep laughing, assholes. It’s your pigs running wild.”
“It was worth it just to see you Superman into a dust cloud,” Carter howled.
Franklin ambled up, the urgency of the task passed, and had the good grace to only chuckle quietly.
Carter finally took pity on him and, still snickering, hung out over the windshield. He raised a bag of potato chips in the air and shook it. “Here, pig, pig, pig!” he called.
Niko watched in fascinated misery as the two walking slabs of bacon trotted back to the Jeep, tails wagging and ears twitching.
“I hate you,” Niko called out.
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With the pigs cheerfully following Beckett’s trail of potato chips out of the back of Carter’s Jeep, Niko was tasked with unsavory job of rounding up Clementine and leading her back home. She’d been heading toward the stables, and he was hoping she had a similar vice for people food that he could use to his advantage.
He jogged into the stable, noting that nearly every exterior door was open in appreciation of the warm spring day. Voices carried from the indoor riding ring at the far end of the building. Niko headed in that direction, looking left and right for any sign of Clementine.
“It doesn’t make sense that way,” Jax yelled, dropping the rake he’d been using to coax the sawdust into a neat layer inside the ring.
“Of course, it makes sense,” Reva said, teenage annoyance in her tone.
Niko peered over the shoulder-high wall and took in the argument in progress
Jax shook his head. “No way. I’m not comfortable with that. You can’t just catch a ride with a guy.”
Reva looked baffled. “Why not? He lives just down the road. I’m on his way.”
“You might not be aware of this, but I was a teenage guy with a car once, and I know what teenage guys with cars are thinking when they offer a girl a ride to science camp!”
“He’s offering me a ride, not a teenage pregnancy!”
Jax’s growl of frustration echoed off the rafters as he paced away from the wheelbarrow and then back again. “You’re damn right you’re not getting pregnant! You are forbidden to date! Ever.”
Niko stifled his laugh. At least someone else was having a shitty day, too. Joey, amusement written all over her pretty face and Waffles at her heels, bellied up to the wall on the other side of the gate. She stood on tip toe and finding the view lacking, climbed on top of an upside-down bucket. The dog wasn’t about to be left out and scurried over to the gate and sat as if he too were eavesdropping.
Oblivious to the audience, the argument continued. “Jax. I’m seventeen.” Reva sounded like she was talking to a toddler. “And it’s not a date. It’s a ride into town for a week for advanced placement prep.”
“You’re not seeing the danger here!”
Jax wasn’t either, Niko realized when he caught a movement across the ring. A black and brown head poked around the door to the outdoor ring. Clementine.
“You’re overreacting,” Reva argued. You make it sound like I’m asking permission to attend the senior class orgy!”
Niko wondered if Joey could see the goat, if she’d call out a warning. He shot her a look and judged by the amusement on her face, Joey was perfectly content to watch it all unfold.
“Christ!” Jax shoved his hands through his hair. “It’s like arguing with your mother!”
Jax and Reva froze as the weight of the words settled over them. Joey pressed a hand to her mouth.
“You’re not talking about Sheila,” Reva said, finally. She scuffed the toe of her boot into the sawdust.
Jax ran a nervous hand through his hair. “No. I’m not. Shit. I’m sorry. I just got caught up—”
But then Reva was hugging him hard. And the way her shoulders shook, Niko bet it was about a decade of stored up emotion that she was releasing. Carefully, as if he was afraid he might scare her or break her, Jax wrapped his arms around the girl.
It was the intimacy of the moment that had Niko opening his camera app and taking one quick shot. The first moment that she realized she had a family. The first moment that she really let herself believe. It went straight to his gut.
Joey felt the moment, too, Niko could see. The normally stoic smartass pressed her fingers to her lips, eyes glistening with unshed tears. Waffles’ tail swished side to side silently over the floor. Niko shifted just a little to add Joey to the frame and clicked again. They were connected, the two adults who chose each other and a girl who’d found her way to them. And if that motley crew belonged together, then he and Emma had a chance. A real one. They both deserved it, if she would just get out of her own way.
And just like that, the anger in him dissipated. Family wasn’t just blood and biology it was a commitment. A hard-headed refusal to accept anything but the best for the ones you chose and the ones you were gifted. He had that here with Emma, whether she liked it or not.
“I’m not trying to be a hard ass here, Reev.” Jax insisted, drawing Niko’s attention back to the action in the ring. “It’s my job to protect you from guys like I used to be. If you stop crying, you can ride with that jackass.”
Reva’s shoulders still shook, but Niko couldn’t tell if it was tears or laughter.
“Sorry, I mean that guy,” Jax amended. “After Joey and I meet him and Cardona runs a background check on three generations of his family.”
Before Reva could reply, she was interrupted by a psychotic farm animal.
Clementine, bored with the scene, bleated out an enraged battle cry and charged into the ring. Niko swore the goat’s eyes rolled back in her head. Jax shrieked like a five-year-old girl coming face to face with her favorite Disney princess and shoved Reva in front of him like a human shield.
Joey, peals of laughter wracking her body, fell off the bucket she’d been standing on. Waffles dodged her falling body and scuttled into the ring, determined to protect her human father from the demon interloper.
“Don’t let that yellow-eyed asshole kill Waffles!” Jax shouted, shoving Reva forward toward Clementine and reaching protectively for the dog.
“You can’t be serious. You’re not afraid of this sweet little goat, are you?” Reva wandered right up to the goat and stroked a hand down the fickle Clementine’s neck. This time when the goat’s yellow eyes rolled back in her head, it was in pleasure. “See? She’s just a sweetheart.”
“Do not let go of her,” Jax warned, backing away. “Joey, if you can stop pissing your pants laughing, I’d appreciate it if you could get a damn lead rope or something!”
“I think she’s going to need a few minutes to get back on her feet,” Niko announced, leaving the relative protection of the wall and stepping into the ring. He grabbed a rope off the hook inside the gate and stepped up next to Jax. “I’m here to collect this creepy-eyed lady and take her back to Carter’s.”
“Yeah. Great. Whatever.” Jax grabbed Niko by the shoulders and pushed him in the direction of the goat. “Stay where you are,” he hissed at the goat.
Niko, remembering his own experience being chased by Clementine, advanced slowly. “Now, let’s just stay calm. We’re just going to put this rope on your disturbing little neck, and you’re going to walk out of here real nice.”
Reva, amused at their caution, helped Niko hook the lead rope around itself on Clementine’s neck. “There that wasn’t so hard, was it, you big babies?”
Something like victory lit Clementine’s ghoulish eyes, and Niko looked over his shoulder at Jax. “Uh, she looks like she’s going to –”
His tentative warning was too little, too late. The goat lunged past Reva and under Niko’s arm. He threw himself over her bristly back and hung on for dear life, but no one was fast enough to stop a determined goat.
Reva’s “oh shit” sounded to Niko’s ears like it came in slow motion as Clementine met her target with a creepy ear-piercing bleat.
“Ah! She’s got me! She’s got me!” Jax screeched as the goat latched onto his jeans. “I don’t have any cookies, you psycho bitch!”
Niko and Reva wrestled whatever goat parts they could find while Joey sobbed with laughter behind the wall.
“I’m so pissed at you right now,” Jax yelled at his wife.
“Looks like they’ve got the situation under control,” Beckett called from the entrance to the ring where he stood with Carter.
“Get your asses in here!” Jax screamed while Niko tried to get Clementine’s neck in a headlock to pry her face off of Jax.
Carter took a handful of chips before passing the bag to Beckett. “Just another day on the farm,” he crunched.