The Ford Brothers Series Box Set, page 20
Last night and this morning was so awesome. The sex was out of this world and the fact that she loves me and I love her…that’s a miracle. I never thought I’d be able to say those words to another woman again, or feel this strongly about someone. But Julia is so easy to love. She’s wonderful. She means everything to me. I just hope like hell that she gets that job at the school. After all she’s been through she deserves it.
When John the psycho does finally give up and goes home, I’m not sure if I want Julia to go back to Liz’s house. I’m not even sure if I want her to go stay with her dad. I want her here, with me. But how do I tell her without sounding like a complete lunatic? We just professed our love to each other mere hours ago. Isn’t it too soon? Won’t she think I’m crazy? I may be, but I’m completely in love with her, and I don’t want to miss a thing. I don’t want to spend a moment without her. God, I’m an idiot…the way I’m thinking I might as well marry her. Jesus! She’ll really think I’ve gone off the deep end!
As John drives by, I feel her fingers clench in mine, and I calm her by sliding my finger down the inside of her palm. The look on his face is a combination of a sneer and a dirty smile, like he knows something that none of us know or he’s got something we want. But I know the truth. I’ve got something he thinks still belongs to him. Julia hates him and never wants to see him again. If I have my way about it, she’ll never have to deal with that asshole again. He’s played the wrong card and I won’t let him get within feet of Julia.
I see Charles poke his head over the fence that surrounds my land and he gestures with his chin in the direction that John’s car has gone. “You know that guy?” Charles asks.
“Yeah, unfortunately.” I admit. “He been hanging around a lot?”
“I’ve seen him many times.” Charles tips his head hello to my brothers. “He doesn’t come right up to the ranch, but he comes close enough. What’s his deal, Colton? He trouble?”
“I’m afraid so, Charles.” I explain, looking at Julia, unsure of how comfortable she is with me sharing her personal life with someone she’s never met. Charles sees mine and Julia’s hands intertwined and a wash of guilt flushes through me. “Sorry, Charles. This is Julia, Julia this is Charles, my neighbor and good friend.” I let go of her hand so she can shake his.
Being an old fashioned guy, Charles chastely kisses the back of her hand. “Pleased to meet you, Julia.”
“Likewise.” Julia gushes. “That menace is my ex-fiance. He came here all the way from Florida to stalk me.”
A ‘v’ forms between his brows. “Well, if you don’t mind my saying so, if I’d lost someone as beautiful as you, I’d be doing much the same.” He smiles.
“You’re sweet. But John needs help. This isn’t about chivalry, it’s about possession and control.”
My brothers pass me a look that says they understand. Wade’s jaw tightens as he shakes his head in disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he mouths, his expression saying he feels bad for his behavior, when the girl has problems she didn’t earn. I shake my head no, as if to say ‘not now, little brother’.
“Oh, I see.” Charles says to Julia. “Well, you’re in good hands with Colton here. He’ll take good care of you.”
She looks at me with twinkling eyes. “He already is.”
Charles smiles and then looks at my brothers. “You boys here for the week?”
“Yeah,” Dalton says. “For the fundraiser.”
Charles nods once, satisfied. “That’s what I thought. Come by for coffee. Let me know how I can help.” He says. “I’ll come by and tend to the horses.”
“Sounds good, Charles. We’re heading out for breakfast. You wanna come?” I offer.
The old man waves, turning his back towards the house. “Already ate hours ago. I’ll catch up with ya later.”
Jack shouts. “Come by for dinner. We’ll have a barbecue.”
“I’ll be here.” Charles calls.
Little do any of them know that in five days’ time, Charles will be a hero.
…
The day was perfect. Julia got acquainted with the other three of my brothers, and everything went well. Any tension that had been there after they caught us in bed together had dissipated within minutes. Charles came to dinner and shared some more of his wonderful stories about his wife and their life together. Some funny and some I saw Julia getting misty-eyed over. But as much as I enjoyed catching up with my family, I couldn’t wait to get Julia alone again. When my brothers left, the fire was still burning, and we sat there alone, basking in the heat.
“Tired?” I ask her, rubbing her back. We’re sitting next to each other in the Muskoka chairs Wade pulled out from the shed.
She looks over at me, leaning her head on the back of the chair, with a look of contentment. “Not at all. I’m so relaxed. You have a wonderful family, Colton. I adore your brothers.”
“They sure seemed to like you too.” I say, stroking her cheek with my hand. “I think Charles has a crush on you.”
Julia smiles, looking into the fire. The red embers reflect off her face, making her look like an angel. “Aside from my father, he’s the sweetest man. He’s so lonely, Colton. I feel bad for him.”
“He’s over here a lot. I keep him company.”
“I’m glad.” She says, clutching my hand in hers.
I have something on the tip of my tongue, and as much as it feels like the right moment, I’m so afraid to ask her, for fear of ruining things. Unconsciously I sigh and she picks up on the sudden tension. Looking at me, she sits up higher, the relaxed posture drifting away a notch. “Everything okay, Colton?”
“Yeah,” I say, but I know my answer doesn’t have much conviction.
She guffaws. “No offence, Colton, but you’re worse at playing coy than Nate.”
I can’t hide the smirk. “Alright. I’m going to say something, and I just want you to think about it. Don’t respond right away.”
“Okay.” She says, the relaxation returning a little as she sits back down and looks at the fire again.
“I know we haven’t known each other for long, but I want you to think about maybe, sometime soon, err, moving…in with me.” I swallow and continue. “I love you and I have lots of room and well, I feel like in the time that we’ve spent together, that it would work…err…us living together.” I clear my throat. “But just think about it.” I pause. “I’m not sure if you have some arrangement with your dad, but I just wanted to put this out there as an option.”
Stop babbling, you moron.
A sound comes from her nose, like she’s about to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” I ask, almost offended, but the sound of her laugh is just too precious.
She barks out a laugh, and then she chuckles like a little girl. “It’s just…I’ve never heard you say so many words so quickly before. You’re adorable!”
“I’m glad you think it’s so funny.” I say, picking up the newspaper off the grass that I’d used to ignite the fire earlier, and playfully beating her with it. She lets out a gasp of glee, and laughs, shielding herself with her hands, from the paper. A second later she rises, and steps her foot over my legs, as she straddles me. The look in her eyes is intense as she slides her hands through the sides of my hair and leans in so we’re face to face. Her hands are like silk and her scent is like coconuts.
“I love you, Colton Ford. And you’re right, we haven’t known each other for long, but what we have known of each other so far has been so right. I’m not sure if moving in together now is the right move, but I’m not sure it’s the wrong move, either. So, I tell you what. We’ll leave it up to fate.” She cups my face with her hands. “If I get the teaching job at Nate’s school, I’ll move in with you. If I don’t, I’ll stay with my dad, seeing as I won’t be able to support myself for the short-term anyhow.” She pauses, kissing me chastely on the mouth. “How does that sound?”
“That sounds fair.” I say, trying like hell to sound indifferent, but part of me wants to say move in with me anyhow, regardless of her financial situation. We both have money, so the point is moot. But I don’t say anything further, partly because I don’t want to rock the boat, and partly because with her straddling me, I’m fighting a severe hard-on and the urge to take her right now on the grass by the fire.
“Alright then.” She smiles. Then her face darkens and she eyes my lips. “Do you want me to go sit back in my chair, or do you want me to stay here?” her voice is soft and seductive, like she knows what my answer is.
When suddenly I feel like we’re being watched. “Why don’t we go inside? It’s getting cold out here.”
“Sure,” she says, and just as she says it, I hear Rebel stir. Julia hears it, too. “What is that?”
“I don’t know.” I whisper. “Just get in the house.” I say, grabbing a plank of wood by the side of the fire.
“I’m not leaving you.” Julia insists, rising with me.
“Julia, please, just go inside. Take the back way, it’s ten feet from you.” I don’t mean to sound as firm as I do.
“Okay. Should I call the police?” she can’t hide the terror in her voice.
“No, I’ll let you know. Call Charles. His number is on the fridge.”
“Okay.” I watch her run to the back door and enter the house.
As I approach the stable, I hear shuffling. “Who’s there?” I demand, holding the wood in my hand high, at the ready.
More shuffling. Rebel lets out a staggered whinny. Maya gets up from the haystack that she’s been laying on.
“John, I know you’re in here. My horses let me know when there’s an intruder, so you might as well come out.
I hear a whimper and a thud coming from the feed room. “Damn!” a male voice says.
As I enter the room and turn the light on, I see a drunken Cheetah, apparently staggering to get up from falling into a hay bale. “Cheetah, what the hell are you doing in here, you asshole!”
“Who the hell’s John?” Cheetah slurs. “Ain’t no John in here, unless you count the piss in the corner there.”
I look, and Cheetah clearly relieved himself at the corner of the room. A line of urine streams from the apex of the wall all the way down to the center of the cement floor. Thankfully the feed room also has a drain so I can easily rinse the filth with water. “I’m going to kick your ass! What the hell are you doing! This isn’t a toilet! How did you even get here, you’re as drunk as a skunk!”
Hearing footsteps, I lift the wood plank into the air again. “Everything alright, Colton?” I hear as Charles’ face appears in the feed room. I wonder how he got here so fast, but then I realize…Charles probably saw him coming. Charles sees and hears everything.
“Yeah, it’s just this asshole again.” I say, gesturing with my chin towards the drunkard leaning up against the hay, as if he’s given up hope that he can get up on his own.
“What’s your deal, Cheetah? Why are you here?” I ask.
“Just felt like it. Ball and chain kicked me out again.”
Charles looks at me. “Can’t blame her there.”
“How did you even get here?” I ask, pulling him by the scruff off the bale.
“My friend…he drove me.” He answers as I wave my hand in the air at his face, pushing the smell away from me. A repugnant look on my face.
“You don’t have any friends, Cheetah.”
“I do.” He insists. “That guy…he knows you, too.”
“What guy?”
“The guy…the one who gave me fifty bucks to piss you off.”
Just as my face drops, I hear a blood-curdling scream come from inside the house. I drop Cheetah like a sack of potatoes and run for Julia. Hearing her scream my name, I dive for the front door, which is closest, and realize that it is locked. Running for the back door, I try it. It’s locked, too. Looking in the back window, I can see John. He’s facing the front door, waiting for me. He’s got Julia by the throat; her back to his front. And it looks like he’s got a knife to her throat.
Charles trots to me. “I’ll run over to my house and call the police, Colton.” He says, knowing that he’s an old man, and he can’t help stave off a psycho, who evidently has moved to attempted murder.
“Thanks, Charles.” I say, as I take a step back, gaining leverage. When Charles leaves, I drop-kick the door, and it opens immediately. As I run to the front door, John turns. Julia’s face is white with fear and her breathing is ragged with terror.
“You hurt her and so help me God.” I warn, my tone low with wrath.
“And what? I’ve got a knife, Colton. And you’re an idiot.” John says, his satisfied smirk is enough to make me want to tear his throat out.
I begin moving, but he moves in unison. “There’s no way out of this, Colton. I’m taking Julia home to Florida. I’m rescuing her since you’ve imprisoned her in this shithole, and we’ll get married and forget all about you, pretty boy.”
Biding time before the cops arrive, I start talking to him. “Oh yeah? You’re sure she still loves you? I mean, she did skip town just to get rid of you. You’re the idiot who followed her. Can’t you take a hint? It’s not like she’s playing hard to get, asshole.”
John’s eyes slide down to Julia for a second. “Don’t listen to him, Julia. He’s high on horse shit. We know we love each other.”
In that split second that his eyes are off me, I shake my head no quickly, hoping she’ll get the message to keep silent. Anything she says will spur John on.
“Hey!” John says, catching the subtle reaction she has to my message. “No funny business here. I’m in charge. I’m just going to take her and we’ll slip into my car and be off.”
“You won’t get far, John.” I say. “The cops are on their way.”
“Well then we best be going.” John says as he starts to drag Julia towards the doorway. “You keep back or I’ll slice her throat.” He threatens, edging the knife on her throat. She lets out a cry that tears my heart in two. I’m half a second from drop-kicking him and grabbing the knife, when I hear the click of a gun filling its magazine behind me.
“Drop the knife, dick wad.” Charles says, his voice flat. He’s standing behind me, having come in through the back door. He’s holding the gun in one hand, as if he’s done this a million times before, and could probably do this while making breakfast. “Colton’s right, the cops are on the way, so you might as well give up before you’re charged with attempted murder.”
“Bullshit, old man!” John is irritated. “I’m not dropping the knife, so you can go to hell.”
Charles doesn’t take his eyes of John, but he addresses me casually. “You think his head will look good mounted in my trophy room, Colton?”
I fold my arms across my chest. “I think so.”
“Shut up, old man!” John says, as he pulls the knife closer to Julia’s throat. It makes contact, and the blade is new and sharp, so it breaks the skin, immediately causing a droplet of blood to pour from the spot.
“That’s it!” I say, “Let her go!”
My reaction spurs John on. His eyes light up like a Christmas tree. “Oh, you like that, do you, Colton?”
Suddenly the gun fires. I run for Julia, pulling her to the floor as she lets out a scream. John falls with a thud as blood spurts from the single gunshot to his forehead. The horses are crying out from the stables, and sirens are sounding in the distance.
“Are you okay?” I ask, my ears ringing from the shot.
She nods through tears, as she wipes at the blood coming from her throat. Her hand is completely soaked with red. I pull my shirt off and place it at her throat, being careful not to apply too much pressure.
Charles approaches. “You should get away from the body, kids.” He suggests. “We shouldn’t move it at all. It pisses off the cops.”
I give him a look. How he knows that…I don’t want to know, but we oblige all the same. “Can you go out there and make sure Cheetah’s still there? He’ll need to give a statement to the police.”
“Oh, I don’t think he’s going anywhere anytime soon. He passed out cold.”
I look at John. Blood is pooling around him, and I grab Julia’s head, cradling it towards my chest so she won’t look at the sight. “Why didn’t you just shoot him in the leg or something?” I ask Charles. “You didn’t have to do that.” I try to keep the judgement out of my tone.
“Ah, he had that look in his eyes, Colton.” Charles nods, satisfied. “That kind of man won’t stop until he gets what he wants. I’ve seen it many times.” He explains. I can relate to that, and then I chide myself for forgetting that Charles served our country, too. “The cops’ll see poor Julia here bleeding, and the knife in that dick wad’s hand and that’ll tell the tale. They’ll have your complaint on record, too.”
“Cheetah said he paid him to come on over here.” I say, feeling Julia settle a little.
“A diversion.” Charles adds. “He created a diversion so that asshole could get in the house. He’s been hanging around here for weeks. I’ve been keeping my eye out.”
“I know you have, Charles. And thanks.”
“As long as Julia here is okay.”
I look down at her. She’s stopped crying, but her hands are still shaky. When the cops and the paramedics come through the door about ten seconds later, the rest of the night is a blur.
Chapter 39
Julia
As I walk out of the school, the smile muscles on my face are aching. Not just because I got the job, but because I get to say yes to Colton. We’re moving in together, and the thought makes me glow. I wanted to say yes when he asked me the other night, but I was afraid of being too hasty and not thinking it through. I’ve done that before and it’s never served me well. Something about Colton tells me that the more time I spend with him, the better my life will be.
