Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 117443 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117443 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Hayley, not knowing what else to do, moved around Chris without looking at him and made a beeline for the truck.
Jimmy and Chris argued a little more, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying, which was just as well. Soon, Jimmy stalked to the truck and slid in behind the wheel. They rode the rest of the way to the little blue house in silence.
“He’s not the great guy everyone thinks he is,” Jimmy announced at her dining room table while she poured him a glass of tea. “He breaks promises. He hurts people.”
“He never made me any promises, Jimmy,” she informed him, sitting down next to him.
Jimmy snorted. “Well, don’t believe him if he does.”
Hayley played with the placemat in front of her. “What promise did he make to you?
Jimmy scowled. “Doesn’t matter. He didn’t keep it and that’s all that’s important.”
“He really didn’t promise me anything,” Hayley repeated.
“Where did he tell you he was Saturday night? Sleeping with her? And you just said okay?”
“It’s none of my business.”
“What did he say?” Jimmy insisted.
Hayley tugged at the corner of the placemat. “He said he was working late at the garage.”
Jimmy snorted again. “Yeah. See? He lies.”
“But it’s none of my business!”
“Did he say it was none of your business? No! He didn’t. He lied!”
“He doesn’t owe me anything,” Hayley said.
“Not even the truth?”
Hayley scowled at the placemat.
Chapter 17
Chris got out of Hawk’s truck practically as it was rolling to a stop on the curb. He’d let Easy and Hayley go because getting into it with Jimmy on Tex’s front lawn was not how he wanted to spend his day. He felt like an ass for getting busted lying to Hayley, then again for not protecting her from Deanna, and also because Hayley was getting caught in the crossfire of his problems with Easy. That was no place for her to be.
He saw her front door standing open and headed there first. He climbed the steps of the front porch and through the screen door saw Easy and Hayley standing in her kitchen. Hayley was washing dishes. Easy glanced up and noticed Chris making his way to the front door. He grinned, grabbed Hayley by the upper arm, turned her to him and pressed his mouth to hers. Chris saw red and nearly tore the screen door off its hinges.
Hayley shrieked, whether from Easy’s advances or the sound of the door bouncing off the side of the house, he wasn’t sure. He crossed the living room at a dead run, grabbed Jimmy and hurled him backwards and into the kitchen table. Jimmy recovered easily and launched himself at Chris. Chris grabbed him around the waist and the both of them crashed through the other screen door and they landed in a scuffle on the deck.
“Why’re you pissed, Shooter?” Jimmy yelled out derisively. “You don’t want her. Maybe I do!”
Chris punched Jimmy in the stomach and Jimmy clocked him in the jaw for his efforts. “You don’t!” he shouted to Easy. “You’re just fucking with her to get to me!”
“Is it working? Don’t see how,” Jimmy growled, landing a blow to Chris’ ribs. “What with you sticking your dick in anything that comes along! Can’t see why’d you care much. Or are you just mad because you got busted lying? Again. I told her she can’t trust you. She knows what a lying bastard you are!”
Chris grabbed Jimmy’s arm and twisted it, flipping the slightly smaller man face down onto the deck. “I was protecting her from the truth! And I’m sorry, Jimmy. Okay? I’m sorry it went down the way it did. I did what I had to do and I stand by it. You will get over it. You will. But you do not use her. Don’t do it. That’s not the kind of man you are, Turnbull. That’s not the man I served with. You’re pissed. I get it. You’re pissed at me. You’re pissed at the whole goddamn world. It’s allowed.
“But what’s not allowed is using Hayley as a pawn. She got hurt today, and that’s on me. I admit that. But you filling her head with bullshit, that’s on you. She doesn’t deserve it.”
“Fuck you!” Easy bellowed. “You walk around this town like you own it! You’ve got your house, no, your two houses, your garage, your bike. Walking around like your shit don’t stink when I only ever asked you for one thing. One thing! And you reneged. You think you deserve this life you’ve got? You think you can just live on this Earth, playing God, and no one’s gonna call you on your shit? Well, guess again. You’re not my brother. You don’t deserve brothers. You don’t know what the word means!”
*******************
When Chris had flung himself and Jimmy through the screen door, Hawk had taken Hayley by the arm and kept her from trying to intervene.