ARROGANT BASTARD (20 page)

“This is bullshit.” I slam my fist across the counter of Kath’s house the second I’m alone with her. “You know that, right?”

“Jensen.” Her body tenses. “You are not to speak about Mark or his decisions with disrespect.”

“You know he’s no better than Dad, right? He’s fucking Josiah Mackey 2.0, the delusional, polygamist version.”

“Jensen.” There’s more bark in her voice this time, which is funny, because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Kath raise her voice before. “Do
not
make this worse than it already is. I think we all need to cool off for a bit. Why don’t you head upstairs and relax?”

“Yeah, because relaxing is exactly what I want to fucking do.”

My mother slaps me across the mouth, leaving a mild sting. Fair enough, I suppose, but it was worth it.

“I’m leaving.” I pull my keys from my pocket.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know.”

I head outside, climb into my truck, and drive around town for what feels like hours. The shop is closed on Sundays, so I can’t go to work. Liberty is probably hung over as hell, so I can’t go there.

So I just drive.

And think.

This is just a minor hiccup. I’ll see pay one of the twins to slip a note to Waverly at breakfast, and we’ll figure everything out. A lot can happen in forty-eight hours. I can figure everything out for the both of us.

I return to Kath’s several hours later, a black Audi with Arizona plates rests in her driveway.

“No fucking way,” I mutter when I climb out. Approaching the vehicle with careful steps, I’m floored the second I notice it’s Juliette sitting in the driver’s seat. I rap on her window, startling her, and when she turns to face me, my stomach drops.

With black and blue eyes so swollen it’s a wonder she can see, she begins to sob. She climbs out, throwing her arms around me like I’m some kind of lifeline. The bump on her nose tells me he broke it again, and dried blood resides in the gash across her bottom lip.

“You should’ve left him.” I brush her hair from her eyes. I forgot how small she is, how delicate. “I’ve been telling you that for years.”

“I never wanted to leave you,” she says, wiping away tears carefully. She protected me from him when she could, but I know I would’ve been fine without her. “I thought he loved me.” She laughs, dabbing tears. “I’m a stupid woman.”

“Don’t say that.”

“You look good, Jensen.” She licks the dried blood from her lips. “You look healthy, strong.”

What she’s saying is she’s not used to seeing me without so much as a bump or bruise.

“You doing okay?” she asks.

I don’t have time to get into it with her. “More or less.”

“Good for you.” She cups her hand above her eyes, shielding the morning sun.

“What are you doing here, anyway? You know you could get in a lot of trouble coming here.”

“I had nowhere to go, Jensen. I finally left him. For good.” She holds my gaze with those helpless, puppy dog eyes, the ones that lured me in each time. We were both broken and fucked up in our own ways, suffering years of abuse at the hands of the men who were supposed to protect us. She’d mentioned one night that her daddy used to touch her when she was little, and I’m certain that Josiah knew damn well how to give her just enough of his bullshit-flavored love to fill the void that left her emotionally stunted.

“There’s got to be a women’s shelter around here,” I say.

“I don’t want to go to one of those,” she says without hesitation.

I want to help her. I do. “You can’t stay here. Kath wouldn’t allow it. Plus, there’s no room.”

And I’m not in a position to be asking personal favors at the moment…

“What about your sister in Provo?” I ask.

“She won’t speak to me.” Juliette hangs her head. I know she had a falling out with her sister years ago, though she never went into detail. I get the feeling she’s been a disappointment to a lot of people over the years, but she’s a product of the cards she’s been dealt. No one should blame her for that. Underneath her fake boobs, stripper-blonde hair, and layers of caked up makeup, she’s got a heart of gold. People prey on women like her because they’re easy targets.

“Why don’t I help you?” It’s the best I can do. “I’ll go with you, kind of help explain the situation. Mediate a little. Once she sees you, once she hears what you’ve endured over the years, she won’t be able to turn you away.”

Juliette’s shoulders rise and fall as she sucks in a long breath. She hangs her head, her shoes scuffing against the pavement of the driveway.

“But first, let’s go file a police report. Josiah Mackey might own the Charter Springs police department, but he doesn’t have any weight up here.”

We head to the police where they take Juliette’s statement, give her a fresh change of clothes, and photograph damn near every square inch of her bruised and battered body.

It’s a long process involving tears and retellings of harsh memories neither one of us wanted to recall, but there’s a spring in her step when we walk out, and I know we did the right thing.

“I don’t think I could’ve done that alone.” She flicks the business card of her assigned caseworker as I walk her to her car. She’s going to meet with her first thing Monday, and she’s been told this lady will help her find housing and hook her up with other resources to help get her on her feet.

“Just promise me, no matter what, you’ll never go back to that bastard.”

“I promise.” She drags her fingers across her chest, making an “X” and then crosses her fingers. For whatever reason, I believe her this time.

“Ready to go to Provo?”

She combs her nails through her hair, sweeping her platinum hair into place and staring toward the sunset. “Yeah. Let’s go.”

“I’m on your side, you know,” Bellamy says after a solid half hour of silence. Her hands grip the steering wheel of her Toyota, perfectly placed at ten and two. She’s been checking the rearview mirror every other second, and by the way she’s acting, you’d think we’re being followed.

She’s on a mission, one of my father’s loyal minions. I should’ve known not to trust a girl with secrets as deep as they are wide. I wouldn’t put it past her to have been conspiring with him all along, waiting for the perfect time to arrange my marriage.

It makes sense. She didn’t want to be married off, so she put the heat on me. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were feeding my father’s paranoia about Jensen and me this entire time.

I hate my sister.

I stare out the window, my head against the glass. If I could sit further away from her, I would, but her car is small and there’s no escaping. Maybe when we stop for gas, I’ll run. It would be insane and desperate, but it might be the only way.

“Waverly,” she says, “everything’s going to be okay.”

I huff, rolling my eyes. I shut them for a minute. They ache and they’re still very much swollen from my fit of hysterics this morning.

“You have to trust me,” she says.

I laugh, though it’s more of a cackle. “You’re delusional if you think I’ll ever trust you again.”

She merges into a westbound exit lane. I could’ve sworn Mom said I was going to South Dakota. “Isn’t South Dakota northeast? Why are we going west?”

“I told you. Trust me.”

Right now, somewhere in Charter Springs, an arrest warrant is being made for Josiah Mackey. The Charter Springs Police Department may have been able to sweep his dust under the rug for the last decade, but not anymore. Now that another department is involved and human services employees in Whispering Hills have been assigned to the case.

The officer who helped Juliette promised Josiah would be sent away, though it didn’t sound like he’d be gone all that long. Juliette was okay with that though. The crumbling of his gilded reputation and the promise of a protective order was enough retribution for her.

It’s an hour and a half to Provo, and I follow her in my truck. Her sister lives in a quaint little subdivision with a waterfall at the entrance and one of those generic names like “Maple Valley.”

Her house is big, with a sweeping two-story entrance visible from the outside. It’s dusk now. Most people are eating dinner and settled in for the night. Her sister, Charlotte, isn’t expecting us, but I dare her to try to turn away her mangled sister.

“You ready?” I take Juliette’s hand as we walk up the windy, landscaped sidewalk to her sister’s front door. We pause for a moment before ringing the doorbell. A yippy dog barks and rushed footsteps pad closer. The lock clicks and the door swings open. A woman, the spitting image of Juliette—only with darker hair and a much flatter chest—stands before us.

“Charlotte?” Juliette’s voice is a timid squeak.

Juliette’s hand cups over her mouth, her eyes dart between both of us. “My God, Juliette. What happened to you?”

Juliette breaks down into tears before she has a chance to speak a single word, and I place my hand on her lower back, gently nudging her closer to her sister. She doesn’t need me anymore, she needs Charlotte. And Charlotte should be the one comforting her this time. It always should’ve been Charlotte.

“Come in, come in,” Charlotte squints at her sister, as if it’s painful for her to see her in such poor condition.

Good. It should be.

“You okay or do you still need me?” I whisper into her ear. “I’ll come with you, if you want.”

Juliette looks at her sister and then back at me, her lips inch up. “I think everything’s going to be fine, Jensen. Thank you.”

She kisses my cheek, and I let her go.

This time, it’s forever.

***

I pull into Kath’s driveway a little after eight. The house is dark, save for a small light coming from the living room. I do my best to enter quietly, since the twins are in bed by now.

“Jensen.” Kath stops me by the stairs, appearing out of nowhere. “Where’ve you been?”

“Had to help a friend.” I’m not sure how she’d feel, knowing I left without telling anyone where I was going and spent most of the day with Juliette. She wouldn’t understand, so I won’t bother explaining anything.

“Next time, tell me if you’re going to be gone.”

“Were you worried about me, or something?” I laugh, mostly because the idea of her worrying about me is hilarious.

She folds her hands and then crosses her arms, shifting her weight between both feet. Her eyes scan mine. “With everything that happened today, I just need to know where you are at all times.”

“I’m tired,” I say, pointing to the stairs. “Mind if I head on up?”

She brings a nail to her mouth and nibbles. “Don’t wake your brother.”

Kath’s acting squirrelly; then again, it’s nothing new for her. All I want to do is go to bed, wake up in the morning, and see Waverly at school. Until then, everything is in limbo and nothing else matters.