Roundabout Road (Saving the Sinners of Preacher's Bend Book 2) (18 page)

A sudden pounding on the only door to the shack had
them pulling apart quickly, acting like two startled teenagers caught in the
act.

Liddy made a move to mend the falling bed sheet around
her body. She then scrambled for nearest cover toward the only other room he
possessed. His bathroom.

Jake scrambled to find his pants.

“Just a minute,” he yelled, stumbling across the
floor. He shoved a distinctly feminine matching set of hot-pink underwear under
his bed with his bare foot.

Glancing hurriedly around the room, he accepted all as
being what it should; chided himself for even caring. They’re married, for
Pete’s sake. He could surely have sex with his wife any time of the day; although
that sex ten long years in the making.

The pounding got louder and louder, adding further
guilt to an already guilty conscience. “I said . . . just a God damn minute!”

“I ain’t got a goddamn minute, Giotti. Open up the
bloody damn door, or I’ll open it up for you. The hard way.”

It was Gill Hillard, Julia Hillard’s father, and
Jake’s best friend.

Jake practically ripped the door off its hinges trying
to open it before Gill did as he said he would.

“Hey, buddy. What’s up?” He ran an unsteady hand
through his unruly hair, aware he was unable to keep the treble out of his
voice.

Gill looked him over, head to toe, then smiled. “Okay.
Where is she?” He shoved Jake out of the way to waltz right into the shack
without invitation.

“Where’s who?” Jake hedged.

Gill turned quickly and grinned all the more. “Your
wife. You know? The woman who’s been missing for a fucking decade?”

Jake flared his nostrils. Nice of Gill to remind him
how long it’s been. He strode toward his small kitchen table set over in the
corner and sat down. Gill followed suit; by pulling out a chair and straddling
it.

Jake had some pretty high doubts the man ever sat down
on a chair the way it was supposed to be sat down upon. Then again, Gill had a
few years on him and could do whatever he pleased. They had an understanding.

“She’s in the bathroom, getting dressed . . .
hopefully.” This last word muttered under his breath. He sure as hell did not
want Liddy to waltz out from the bathroom
undressed.

“Jesus! When Rachel said Debra hauled your ass off to jail
again, and might I remind, you being late for Debra is a really stupid thing to
keep on doing . . . and Rach said Debra took along a woman with you, the ears
started to ring loudly my friend. As did the gossip lines. Just about everyone
inside town is talking about this. They’re not sure what to make of it. But
they sure as the hell are talking about Liddy’s return, nonetheless.”

“Great,” mumbled Jake. He leaned back on his chair and
pulled its two front legs off the floor.

“No. This is great, buddy. I mean . . . well, what’s
she here for? Is the little woman planning on taking you to the cleaners?” Gill
had lowered his voice to a near whisper.

“The
little woman
wants an annulment.”

“Sweet Jesus! Theodora Rosebud ain’t about to let that
happen. Not on her watch.”

“Well, neither am I,” he said, calming quickly. “It is
a slight moot point between me and her for the moment. The guy she was intending
on marrying after I gave her the annulment . . . well, he sort of took off in a
pretty big huff this morning. And I bet he’s not looking back.”

Gill looked him hard in the face. “You’re still in
love with her. Aren’t you?”

“Why would you even have to ask?” Jake ruled.

Gill gave him another look that said he need not
elaborate.

“I can’t
not
love her, Gill.” He then caught
sight of Liddy peeking through a crack; made by opening the bathroom door just
to listen in on the ensuing conversation, and he used her curiosity to his
advantage. “You of all people should know I never stopped loving her.”

“Yeah! I know it. But man, the last ten years have
been pure hell on you: first Liddy leaving as she did, and then Desiree, and then
that tiny little stint in prison. Christ! Maybe Liddy coming back now is an
indication that things are finally looking up for you?”

“Can we talk about this later, Gill?”

Jake, with prayer, hoped Liddy hadn’t heard
every
word said by Gill. But when he watched the door close quickly, he knew he would
have some pretty hefty explaining to do. Namely . . . a woman named Desiree,
and the fact he hadn’t been in jail as she thought he’d been. He’d been in
prison.

Two years stuck behind a barbed-wire fence over a
fucking police station window he’d crashed through with his motorcycle.

“Sure thing. I can leave it be . . . for now. But do allow
me to give you a little piece of advice. If Liddy doesn’t want to stay with you
this time, you can’t make her stay. There are a lot of things that need fixing between
the two of you. I’m sure Debra didn’t give you much of a chance to talk inside
your cell. So, before you go and do something stupid . . .”

“What? Like having sex with her?” Jake smiled,
furrowing Gill’s brow.

“No. Like getting a divorce from the woman you still
love,” Gill warned. “I think you should tell her about Desiree.”

Ten years of Liddy missing from his life could be
overturned; if there was still love involved. But if he got a divorce from her,
for simply leaving him in the first place, no one could fix that. Divorce was permanent,
leaving very permanent scars, with very permanent voids.

“What makes you think I haven’t told her?” Rising, he
moved for the coffee pot. He turned his back on his best friend to hide his
fears.

“You turned white as a ghost by only mentioning that
bitch’s name. Trust me. You’re not fooling anyone, especially me. You haven’t
told Liddy about Desiree. But if you don’t . . . then doing what you are doing
right now is an act of all-out selfishness on your part.”

Gill then took in the sight of Jake’s rather messed-up
bed on the far side of the room, obviously minus one bed sheet.

“What makes you think I’m not a purely selfish
person?” Jake wondered aloud, motioning toward Gill, asking him if he wanted a
cup of the hot brew. Gill shook his head in the negative.

“Come on, man. Don’t give me any of your unwanted crap!
I’ve got my own, thank you very much.” His grin turned into a deep frown. “You’re
not a selfish man. You wouldn’t know how to be.”

“And you know this . . . because?” A lone brow rose
over the brim of his cup.

“A selfish man wouldn’t have risked his life for a
stranger, as you had. He wouldn’t have thrown away two full years of that life
for a stranger, as you had. And he sure as hell would not have wanted it to be hushed
over, as you had, just so a certain someone—” Gill jerked his head toward the
closed bathroom door, “—would never find out.”

By the end of his sentence Liddy had come storming out
of the bathroom, fully dressed and looking really pissed.

Jesus! He’d seen tornadoes cross the ground slower.

“What do you mean hushed over so a certain someone
would never find out?” she asked, startling Gill right out of his chair.

“Sweet Jesus Almighty, woman! Do not sneak up on a
person like that! It’s not very nice.” Gill made a play for his heart. The
chair toppled to the floor. “And here I thought Theodora Rosebud was the only
one who could do that to a man?”

Liddy ignored Gill and the fallen chair and the
comment about Theodora; and headed straight for Jake.

“What did he mean by hushed over, Jake?” She walked
right up to him to poke him hard in the chest. A chest she couldn’t get enough
of these days, it would seem. A chest that had a few bite marks placed on it
from earlier.

“I think that was my cue to leave,” Gill offered.

“No. Stay. I want a witness,” Jake warned, backing up from
Liddy’s fury. His butt hit the countertop with nowhere else to run and a now
incredibly angry woman standing two feet in front of him.

“What did Gill mean you risked your life for a
stranger? And that it cost you two full years of it?” Her eyes filled with tempered
mutiny.

Jake slipped his sight to Gill, suddenly risking it
all: his friendship, his reason for being, all of it. The truth of the matter
would come out in the end, eventually.

But unless he told Liddy the truth, there would not be
another beginning.

Liddy had many
, many
ways of getting things out
of him; whether he wanted to tell her those things, or not. He could see it in
her eyes. She wanted answers, even though he did not feel like giving her those
answers just yet. But, as was said . . . Liddy had ways.

She gave him another poke in the chest just to make
certain he realized this.

“He meant . . . ,” Jake grabbed her finger and held
onto it so she could not poke him again. It was starting to hurt. “—that it wasn’t
me who ran my motorcycle through the window of the police station.”

There. That should do the trick. Get her off the scent
of blood until he had better time to prepare himself for the coming wrath. But
Liddy’s eyes grilled him all the more. So, no, a simple statement to get him
off the hook was not what she was looking for. He would have to elaborate.

Up until now, he’d had no great desire to elaborate on
what he considered his half-sister’s life. Debra was Debra. She ran by her own
rules, making them up as she went along. At times, and according only to her,
he and all the other men in town simply got in the way of those rules.

Jake continued telling Liddy the truth. She deserved
the truth. Especially since she’d let him do whatever he had to her body the last
few hours—with no complaints, as promised.

“Had I done it, I wouldn’t be here today to even speak
of it. Well . . . I sort of took the blame for the incident. I never once
thought it would land me with two full years in prison for doing something good
for a change. Hell, Liddy! Two years is an incredibly long time to mull over one’s
stupidity. Believe me.”

He turned to set down his mug, returning his attention
toward her again. “I never thought it would get that far. But I underestimated
Debra’s potential for revenge. She pretty much had it in for me. At the time I just
hadn’t known how much.”

“Why was Debra involved in your incarceration?”

“Debra wanted me out of the way. That’s why.”

“Out of the way? For what? Debra is mean, Jake. We all
know that. The beast in her will never change, but surely, to try to do
something like that to you . . . on purpose?”

“By getting me out of the way, Liddy, Desiree could be
hers.”

Gill moved slowly for the door, looking for a clean
getaway. Jake knew his friend wanted no part of this.

“Wait right there, Gill Hillard,” Liddy said. “Jake
might need a witness after we are through here. Remember?”

Gill stopped dead in his tracks.

The man might be Julia Hillard’s father, and at least
twenty years her senior, but Liddy could still keep a man right where he was by
using a little heartfelt blackmail within the tone of her voice.

“This ain’t any of my business, Mrs. Giotti,” he said.

“Says who?” she warned harshly. She turned her face,
and glared. “You’re here. So I would say by you being here it certainly makes this
your business. Besides, you’re the one who brought it all up in the first
place.”

“Okay. So maybe it was my fault for saying something
about it? But I got a lot of things to do before my Ohio trip takes place, places
to go to, and a ranch to run. And staying right in the middle of a domestic
argument ain’t one of them.”

“You can go back to all of that just as soon as Jake tells
me the truth.”

“But I did tell you the truth!” Jake promised. “Desiree
was . . . she was in love with the idea of getting my cock into her pants. A
sort of ‘
haven’t tried that yet
.’” His grin was sheepish, and then he
frowned. “And dear, sweet, loveable Debra was in love with Desiree. When
everything started to crash through windows, the very least I could do was say
it had been me, and not the only love of Debra’s life who smashed through plate
glass on a Friday night in good old Preacher’s Bend. Desiree stole my motorcycle
simply to get back at me for not taking advantage of what she’d been offering
on a silver platter. It all turned out pretty bad for her in the end.”

“Why didn’t you take her up on the offer, Jake? And
why did Ceril blame you, if it wasn’t you who crashed through that window? And
why on God’s green earth would this Desiree person even want you?”

“I asked Ceril to blame me,” Jake started. “And what
do you mean . . . why would this woman even want me?” A grin formed on his face,
hoping to calm her demeanor.

As Liddy’s glare increased, that grin sobered in
breakneck speed.

“Debra had more than enough problems to deal with at
the time. I thought it best no one ever know my half-sister is a lesbian. Or,
that Desiree couldn’t make up her mind on what side of the fence she wanted to
stay on. But Ceril never thought the judge down in Sparta would do as he had.
Or, that Debra would not tell him about Desiree. For the record, Ceril hasn’t
forgiven himself for that fact. The chief thought I would get little more than
a few months and a few thousand dollars in fines. Not two full years—and a
total of forty-thousand dollars in fines and court fee.
And,
lose my bike.”