River's End (River's End Series, #1)(19)

“Overreacted to the snake?” he repeated as he frowned at her. He pushed the tip of his cowboy hat back and shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. What was Chance doing to you?”

“Oh. He…” Erin didn’t know quite how to word what Chance was doing to her. He was being mean to her. No, malicious, even sadistic to her, but he never quite did anything so physical or obvious as abusing her. Sometimes, his incessant humiliation felt worse. How could she explain that? Then again, she couldn’t. Jack couldn’t know that. Jack was barely letting her stay there as it was.

Jack’s gaze was on her and when he finally spoke, his tone was quiet. “He do things like that to you often?”

She dropped her head. She could not look up at him for the humiliation swimming in her gut. “He thinks it’s funny.”

Jack was staring at her and she could feel his eyes boring into her scalp. “That wasn’t funny. Not funny at all.”

She looked up after hearing the quiet tone. She expected him to be mad at her, and not, well, so kind. Jack’s hand came out and he took her arm. She jerked back at his touch and looked down to see what he was doing. His touch wasn’t like Chance’s, however. There was no pressure. No pain.

He pushed the long sleeves of Joey’s coat up her arm. Her wrist was bright red where Chance held her while she twisted like a maniac to get free.

“Chance often leave bruises on you, Ms. Poletti?” he asked quietly and gently. His gaze brushed over her and she stared at her red wrists.

She shrugged. “I haven’t lived with him in years.”

She didn’t answer his question, and he, of course, realized that. “Why would you come to him now? Here?”

She looked up.

“You might as well be honest with me, Ms. Poletti. I’m not quite as blind as Joey is. I see exactly what your relationship is with Chance; and if it’s possible, I think you must detest him even more than I do. Explain that to me. Explain to me what the hell you’re doing here.”

Erin dropped her shoulders as she stared at Jack’s boots. She swallowed before she finally looked up at him. “I didn’t come here just to be here. I came here because I had nowhere else to go.”

“You’re not a college student.” He said it as a fact. He always knew she was lying.

She shook her head.

“And there was no fire, was there?”

“No.”

“Then why did you come here without any clothes?”

She dropped her head down. “My stepfather never liked me. Or maybe it was he liked too much. But I detested him. After my mom died, he inherited what little she had and kicked me out after trying to… take advantage of me. I fled with what was on my back and whatever was stashed in my car. My mom had met him through me. He was my boss. So I lost my job and apartment in the same moment.” It was the same car her mother killed herself in. But Erin failed to add that pathetic, albeit gruesome, fact.

“And Chance was your best option?”

She shook her head and raised her eyes to the horizon. “No. Chance was my only option.”

She couldn’t meet Jack Rydell’s eyes. She couldn’t take the shame of having Jack see what a loser she was.

He was silent for a long, drawn-out moment and she squirmed under his intense, sharp gaze and muteness. He cleared his throat, finally, and simply stepped back. “Spring brings the snakes out. They’re pretty lethargic though this time of year. Just give them some space and they won’t bother you.”

She glanced up. “That’s it? You’re not forcing me to leave?”

His gaze seemed flat. “I have to insist that Chance leave at some point. He’s a terrible worker. I don’t know how much more I can take of him, even for Joey.”

She nodded, feeling puzzled. Meaning what? She could stay until Chance got evicted? She had no time and had to come up with a plan soon.

Jack stepped around her and started back towards the barn. She watched him leave and rubbed her wrist before turning to head for the trailer. She had to think of something fast. She could no longer hang out here. Chance wasn’t going to like what happened today. She’d gone from just being a nuisance to a major problem.

****

Jack pounded nails into the loose boards of a horse’s stall. Sweat beaded on his face. He finally stopped and swiped at his head with his shirt. When he looked over, he saw Ian standing in the doorway.

Ian was seven years younger than he, while Shane was ten, and Joey was a full fifteen years difference. Since their father died, Jack became the only father figure to all of them. It was a responsibility he accepted right down to his bones since the age of only twenty years old. The ranch. His brothers. The house. His wife. His two sons. All had been thrust upon him, and around him, and in need of him since he was just barely done being a teenager.

Ian was the quiet one. So quiet, he rarely spoke unless he had something important to say. He usually just said it and that was over. Jack couldn’t have handled the ranch, his kids, and his brothers in the ensuing months after his parents, and then his wife’s death, if not for Ian.

“You working through dinner?”

Jack sighed. “I could and still not make a dent in the work that needs to be done around here.”

Ian nodded. “It all gets done eventually.”