Misbehaving (Sea Breeze #6)
Abbi Glines
Chapter One
JESS
I should’ve known better. But I was an idiot. All it had ever taken from Hank was one pitiful bat of his eyelashes and a pout, and I came running. Well, not anymore. I’d forgiven him for becoming someone’s baby daddy. But there was only so much a girl could forgive.
Hank Granger had just screwed me over for the last time. I wasn’t one to be a doormat. My momma had taught me better than that. It was time I stopped letting our history play on my emotions. He was nothing close to being a real man. The boy I’d grown up loving had become a low-down good-for-nothing. He’d never settle down, and I was done letting him trample all over my heart.
He thought parking his pimped-out truck behind the bar was smart. The boy should know better than to think I wouldn’t know where to look. Jackass. I’d found him, all right. We were supposed to have gone out tonight. He had promised me dinner. A real date. But then he’d called two hours ago and canceled, saying he wasn’t feeling good. Being the dutiful girlfriend, I’d decided to make him some soup and take it over to him. Big surprise that he wasn’t there. Not really. I think deep down I’d known he was lying.
I stepped out of the trees I’d walked through for over a mile, and into the darkness of the back of the local bar, Live Bay. I didn’t want my truck to be seen here tonight, and it would be easier to run on foot into the darkness if I needed to make a fast getaway.
I gripped the baseball bat I’d borrowed from my cousin Rock two weeks ago when I’d had to go pick Momma up from work because her car wouldn’t start. Three in the morning outside a strip club wasn’t exactly safe. Momma kept a gun, but I didn’t have a clue how to use it. When I had asked her to teach me, she’d laughed and said that I’d end up shooting Hank’s balls off one night in a fit of rage and refused. Not because she cared for Hank, but because she didn’t want me in jail.
Feeling the weight of the bat in my hands, I smiled. This bad boy would do some serious damage. Then there was the knife in my pocket. The paint job was also going to hell, and if I had time, all four tires were going down.
As I walked around the truck that Hank had pampered and treated like a damn baby for the past four years, a sense of power ran through me. He’d hurt me over and over again. This time I was going to hurt him. Me. Not Rock. Me.
I checked the dark area around me and made sure no one was out here. The busting of the glass was going to make some noise. I wasn’t sure how much I could get away with before someone caught me. Hopefully, the local band, Jackdown, would keep everyone inside entertained enough that no one would leave anytime soon.
Biting back the roar of victory I could feel pumping through my veins, I held the bat back as I shifted my feet and focused on his driver’s side door window. It was going to be the first to go. With all the anger and pain that had consumed me since the first moment I’d found out the boy I’d loved since I was ten years old had been sleeping around on me, I swung the bat. The ski mask I was wearing protected my face. The laughter bubbling up in my chest burst free, and I continued to shatter every window on his pretty little truck.
High on revenge, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my knife and flipped it open. I decided to write a few choice words in the paint job with my sharp blade, then bent down to jam it into the front tire.
“Hey!” a deep voice called out, and I froze. It wasn’t Hank, but it was someone.
I picked my bat back up and pulled the knife out of the tire before breaking into a sprint back into the woods. He’d never catch me, but I still needed to get this stupid mask off so I could see. Running into a tree and knocking myself out wasn’t exactly a great getaway plan.
The sound of feet hitting the pavement let me know I was being chased. Well, shit. Not what I needed. I was having so much fun. Hank deserved that. He did. He was a rat bastard. I did not want to go to jail over this. Plus my momma would be pissed.
“Hey!” the deep voice called out again. What did he expect me to do? Stop and let him catch me? Not likely.
Other voices came from the distance. Great. He was drawing a crowd. I turned off the path I’d followed earlier and headed deeper into the woods. I wouldn’t have this cover for long. I’d be coming out onto a back road in a few more feet. I couldn’t get my truck because it was outside my momma’s house. I needed everyone to think that was where I was. I’d have to stay on foot and beat anyone there. Dang it.
I couldn’t hear the sound of anyone else’s feet hitting the ground, so either I’d lost them or they were talented in the art of stealth. Breaking out of the wooded area, I stopped on the side of the road. It was deserted.
Glancing back, I saw no one. Hank would know who to come looking for, but he would have no proof. Smiling, I took a deep breath. That would be the end of us. Finally. After what I’d done, Hank would never forgive me, so I wouldn’t be tempted to go running back to him. He’d hate me now as much as I hated him.
“JESS!” Hank’s familiar voice roared. Spinning around, I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him running through the woods behind me. Shit. Shit. Shit. He’d come after me. How’d he find out so fast? Panicking, I looked around to see where I could run to hide from him. There was nothing but miles and miles of road. No houses, nothing.
Headlights came around the corner, and I did the only thing I could think of: I ran out into the middle of the road and started waving my arms in the air, still holding on to Rock’s bat.