Chapter 30

Melissa

Given the events of the afternoon, Sadie offered to stay with me at the motel another night. I declined. I wished I hadn't. It wouldn't have been fair to her though, especially with the long drive back to Tucson and the classes she would have to skip to stay. Her grades were already shaken up by this whole situation, and I didn't want to be the one who made it worse.

Nevertheless, once I was alone in my room—our room—I was instantly miserable. I tried turning on the TV so I could zone out for a few hours, but every little TV moment seemed to remind me of Jack and of how messed up things were. Crime shows were out of the question, obviously, but even Home and Garden TV failed to distract me. All I could think about was how Jack would be rolling his eyes if he were with me, though I knew he secretly enjoyed my guilty pleasures almost as much as I did.

I was so bored and upset that the knock on my door later that evening was almost welcome. Almost. I didn't want to see anybody unless they were Sadie or Jack, and even Naomi's smiling face wouldn't have made me feel better. Unfortunately for me, Naomi wasn't the one standing there.

Donnie was wearing one of his nicer shirts and had gotten a trim recently. His hair was shorn close at the sides with a great big flop on top that he probably thought was fashionable. I wouldn't have been surprised to learn that his barber screwed it up on purpose.

I didn't intend to ask him, in any case. The second I saw his smug mug leering at me through the crack in the door, I went to slam it in his face. Donnie was faster, shooting out a hand to stop me, before jamming his shoulder into the door to send it—and me—flying back.

I stumbled back a few paces, startled. I was too flabbergasted to scream, which I knew somewhere in the back of my head was what I should be doing. Donnie was unpredictable at the best of times. I had no idea what I could expect from him after everything we'd been through recently.

"That's no way to welcome an old friend," he tutted, straightening the collar of his shirt as he strolled into the room. He let the door slam shut behind him and stood in front of it with his hands at his sides, fingers twitching like he was ready to catch me if I ran.

"You're not a friend," I snapped. "What do you want?"

Telling him to leave would be pointless. If I wanted him out, I needed to play this smart.

"You, obviously." He rolled his eyes like I'd just asked the most inane question there could be. "I don't know why you have to make everything so difficult. Your boyfriend's in the slammer, and he's not coming back. I'm here to re-stake my claim."

"Your claim?" I balled my hands into fists and breathed in deep through my nose. "You have no claim on me. I'm not a piece of property, and I'm not a pet. If you leave now, I'll think about not having you arrested."

Donnie chuckled and took a step toward me. I took a step back.

"You think cousin Ernie's going to arrest me? You've got to be kidding." He snorted. "That guy is wrapped around my finger like the rest of this town."

I stared hard into his eyes, wondering what the hell I'd ever seen there in the first place. Features that I used to find handsome now made my stomach turn, and the thought of him laying a single finger on me made my skin crawl. It felt like there wasn't enough air in the room and I had a vision of myself falling to my knees and gasping for breath as the panic overwhelmed me.

No. Not today. Today I win.

Donnie had terrorized me for too long, and now he'd gone too far—he'd taken away the man I loved.

"I never expected you to fall so low that you'd send an innocent man to jail just to get a girl back," I said.

"He's not innocent." Donnie raised an incredulous brow. "You don't really think he's innocent, do you?"

Of course I didn't. I knew that Jack's fights were illegal, but that didn't mean any of this made sense. If any other town issued a warrant for Jack's arrest, I might have thought differently, but this had Beringer stink all over it. Seeing Derek in the parking lot today fueled this suspicion, and Donnie showing up now solidified it.

Especially since Donnie wasn’t denying that it was he who sent Jack to prison.

"You must've had to pull some pretty big strings with the sheriff. And all this for little old me?"

"I always get what I want." There was a hard glint in his eyes that sent my heart racing up the bottom of my chest. I swallowed.

"So I heard. I must say, I'm a bit flattered that you went to all this trouble just to get me back."

He shrugged. "It wasn't much trouble at all."

I licked my lip. Now if I could just get him to openly admit it, I might be able to do something about it.

Donnie, apparently, was finished with the conversation. He didn't give me time to question him further about Jack, probably because he knew how close he was to revealing something important to me. He took advantage of my moment of weakness and charged forward with his hands outstretched. One hand grabbed my arm in a tight grip, but I rolled back my other shoulder just in time to avoid him grabbing me on both sides. Then, with every ounce of strength I could muster, I threw my free fist into his face.

Having never punched someone before, I was unprepared for how much it hurt. It felt like an electric shock blasted up my arm from my knuckles to my shoulder, numbing it while also setting it on fire. I cursed and pulled my fist back to my chest. Then, to help the point sink in, I kneed him in the balls.

Donnie groaned and staggered back. I yanked my arm free from his grip and ran around him to the door, grabbing my keys and purse before heading out into the night and hauling ass to my car. He didn't follow me.

Only when I was in my car with the doors locked did I allow a smile to creep up my face. I was terrified and panicked, and my hands shook as they turned the key in the ignition and started out onto the road, but I'd finally gotten a little revenge on Donnie. My punch landed right on his eye, too. What perfect, poetic justice. I hoped he got a massive bruise from it.

I didn't know where to go at first, so I just cruised around while I got my breathing back to normal. The rush in adrenaline took some time to subside. When it did, the fog in my mind cleared a little, and I decided to head over to Naomi's.

Naomi was at the front door before I even shut off my engine in the driveway. She had her arms folded over her chest and, despite the tattoos across her cleavage and the denim miniskirt, she looked quite motherly.

"Is everything okay?" she called out to me.

I unfolded myself from the driver's seat and slammed the door behind me. "I'm not sure."

"Come on in." She waved me inside. "I'll put on a pot of tea."

Five minutes later, I had a steaming mug of green tea in my hands. Naomi sat across the kitchen table, fingers tapping on the ceramic of her mug while she waited for me to speak.

"Donnie tried to attack me tonight," I said. "I think."

"You think?" Her eyes widened, and she leaned in closer. "What happened?"

"He was drunk and barged into my room, talking all this bullshit about claiming me back as his woman now that Jack's locked up." A shiver ran down my spine at the memory, at the realization that if I hadn't escaped, who knew what could have happened. "I kneed him in the balls and landed a punch on his face when he tried to grab me, then I got out of there."

Naomi grabbed the landline from the counter behind her and slid it toward me. "I think you should call the police."

I gave her a flat look. "And say what? That I assaulted Donnie Beringer?"

"In self-defense."

"I don't know if that'll even matter as far as Ernie's concerned." I sighed. "I don't want to risk it. Not yet, anyway."

Naomi looked down into her mug and ground her teeth, thinking. I sipped on my tea, or tried to at least. It burned my tongue.

"I want to kill that guy," she muttered a second later. "He's got the whole town in a chokehold, 'cept nobody seems to notice until he squeezes. By then it's too late." She looked up and fixed me with an entreating stare. "Is there anything I can do to help? You can stay here for a while if you're worried about him coming back. I can give you my bed for tonight, and we can move the girls around for tomorrow."

I shook my head. The last thing I wanted to do was inconvenience my friend. If I got spooked I could always change rooms, and besides, I doubted he would be coming back during daylight hours.

"No, I'm okay for now. There is something else I wanted to talk to you about though."

She nodded for me to continue.

"Donnie didn't deny tonight that it was him who got Jack sent to prison, which would make a lot of sense to me. He didn't outright say it, but it made me think maybe the situation isn't quite so hopeless after all."

Naomi sat up straight, spilling a little of the tea clasped in her hands. It was like a lightbulb had gone off in her head, and for the first time in days, I felt a spark of hope.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Maybe nothing, but if it's something I think I might know a way we can solve your Donnie problem for good."