Wanted (57 page)

He ran his hand through his hair again and turned away from me. I couldn’t move…..I just stood there watching him. He to
ok
a deep breath and turned around to face me again.
There was no
emotion on his face
what so ever.

“
I’
m sorry Ari if I le
d you on. I….I just got caught up in the moment and I was
n’
t thinking clearly. It didn’t mean anything and I think we need to just forget this ever happened.”

I can’t breathe….oh my god I can’t breathe….my whole world just turned the fuck upside down. The only man I have ever loved….ever wanted….just basically told me to fuck off. I felt a tear slid
e
down my face. I couldn’t eve
n move my hand to wipe it away.

Jeff’s face instantly lo
ok
ed like he was in pain
….
…he stepped forward and reached out to wipe the tear away.

I stepped back.

“Don’
t.
You.
Ever
.
Touch. Me.
Again!
You dirty rotten bastard.
I can’t believe you.” I lost it and
lunged at him and started to pound my fists in his chest.

“How could you? How could you DO this to me?”
He just grabbed onto me
and held me while I
pounded my fists on his chest.

Oh god………
m
y legs were
giving
out
…
.
.I started
to slide down onto the ground as h
e came down with me and held me while I cried. I hated him…..I hated him with everythin
g that I had.

NO!
He was not allowed to comfort me after he just ripped my heart out. I pushed him away from me and stood
up. I heard someone driving up.

Jeff stood up and reached out for me. He had tears in his eyes but I didn’t give a fuck
.

“I. Hate.
You!”
I said threw gritted teeth.

“Ari….”

“No….no you don’t get to stand there anymore and tell me how you fucked up you mother fucker! I will never ever forgive you for this. Do you u
nderstand me Jeff….NEVER! I hate you! I fucking HATE
you!”

I screamed it so loud at him he jumped back in shock. I buttoned up my shorts and walked around to the other side of the jeep.
I was shaking from head to toe
and I felt sick to my stomach.

It lo
ok
ed like it was Drake driving up. Thank god…I couldn’t stand to be anywhere near Jeff right now. I felt like a cheap whore all of a sudden. How could I be so fucking stupid!
To think that I stood there and asked him to have sex with me!

Drake pulled up in th
e ranch truck and jumped out and started to walk towards the back of the truck.

“Hey! Mr. Mathew’s told me y’all to
ok
the jeep out! He must have forgotten that Gunner told him it needed a new battery! I picked on
e
up in town this morning.”

I turned to lo
ok
at the ass
hole who was staring over at me still. He lo
ok
ed like he was going to throw up. I hope he did. Maybe I would put something in his dinner tonight so he got deathly sick and threw up all goddamn night. I turned away from him and walked over to Drake who was pulling the battery for the jeep out of the back of the truc
k.

“Drake, I um, I really need to get back to the house. Can you ride back up with Jeff please
while I take the truck
?”

“Ari…wait…we need to talk
about
..
….”

I spun around and glared at him
stopping him mid sentence
.
I never knew I could
hate
someone as much as I hated him right now.

“No…I believe you said all you needed to say
, s
o now it’s my turn.”

I walked past a very confused Drake and got right up to Jeff.

“When I get back home to
Jason
, my BOYFRIEND, you can better believe he won’t be telling me what a mistake it was after we get done fucking
for the first time
!”

Jeff
briefly closed his eyes and then opened them again. His eyes lo
ok
ed like they were filled with pain but I fucking
k
new better.

I turned around
and stopped in front of Drake.

“Are the keys in the truck?”

“
Ahhhh
….
ummmm
….yes.”
I kind of felt bad for the guy to have to stand there and hear all of that but oh fucking well. I was
done with all of this bullshit.

I barely made it back to the ranch house in one piece. I could hardly see through the tears running down my face. I saw Gunner and Ellie sitting on the porch with Emma. I tried to wipe the tears away but they just would not stop. I pulled the truck down by the
barn
and started to make my way up to the house. I could see Ellie smiling at me but as soon as she got a better lo
ok
her smile faded a
nd she started to run up to me.

“Arianna….Oh my god what is wrong?!”

“Your
brother…..your brother is what’
s wrong E
llie. He is a dirty rotten
good for nothing son of a bitch. I hate him. I fucking HATE him.”

“
What.
…what
did he do?” Just then she threw her hand up to her mouth and started to shake her head…..

“He didn’t….”

I started to laugh, that was a joke.
”No Ellie….I guess I’m a major turn off where that is concerned. If you will excuse me…I think I need to take a nice long bath and then lay down for awhile.”

“Ari…tell me what he did.” El
lie said as she grabbed my arm.

I turned and lo
ok
ed at her and the tears where back.

“He gave me hope for
a few brief
minutes Ellie before he ripped my heart
out an
d threw it on the ground and buried
it deep into the dirt with his boots.
”

I turned and Gunner was standing there his hands balled up in fists. I tried to smile as
I walked by and made my way up onto the porch.
Emma stopped me and gave me a hug that caused me to go into another crying fit. She helped me
into the house and
up stairs
. S
he le
d me into the bathroom and drew me a hot bath while I sat
there staring off into space.

How could I have been so stupid?

“Arianna, men are
stupid creatures. Sometimes
they love something so much it scares them
,
and they try to push it
as far
away
as they can
.” Emma said as she was pushing my hair back from my red tear swollen eyes.

I started to shake my head no. “Emma….no man who loved a woman would
ever
s
ay the things that he said
.”

Emma let out a chuckle as she helped me get undressed. “You would be surprised my darling girl. You would be surprised.”

I sat in the bath for I don’t kno
w how long. I got out only when I couldn’
t take the cold water any longer. I wrapped the towel around me that Emma had left and reached down to let the drain out. I slowly walked
into the bedroom Ellie and I
was
sharing. Ellie must have co
me in and laid out some clothes for me to change into. They were my comfy blue PJ bottoms and sleeveless white shirt.
I climbed into them somehow
. My whole body felt numb. I never knew one person had the power to hurt another
person
so badly.

I sat down on the bed and that is when I heard Ellie yelling at Jeff.

“How could you? How could you destroy her like that?”

Then I heard Jeff and Gunner arguing. I got up and walked to the window. I could see them standing down by the barn closest to the house. I couldn’t hear what Jeff said but the next thing I knew Gunner punched him. Ellie jumped in front of Gunner and told him to stop. My hea
rt was beating a mile a minute.

SHIT! This w
as all happening because of me!

Garrett walked up and to
ok
Jeff by the arm and the
y
walked off towards the stables. Ellie leaned back into Gunner as they watched them walk away.
Jeff turned around and lo
ok
ed right up at the window I was standing in.
It lo
ok
ed like he
was crying…..

N
o….that cold hearted bastard didn’t have an ounce of love running through his veins.

I hated him……..

All of a sudden I got
so tired.

Sleep….I just needed to sleep.

CHAPTER FORTY SIX

G
unner……

I sat on the porch swing waiting for Ellie to come
back
from talking to Ari. I still can’t believe I hit my best friend. I ran my hands down my face….FUCK!
Why the fuck did Jeff have to go and mess up so bad with Ari? Gramps would not let me talk to him yet. They headed to the b
arn and that was the last I saw
of either of them.

This had started out
to be a gre
at day and now it was just fucked
.

I had brought Ellie into town to have breakfast at one of the local restaurants.
I
remembered her saying she wanted to go and eat in an old fashioned type restaurant. You just can’t get any better than Miss Mayes restaurant in town.  Best damn French toast
I
ever had.

The plan was to eat breakfast, walk through a few of the little stores on Main Street then come back to the ranch and ride. Ellie had really taken to horseback riding and practi
cally begged me go again today.

When Gramps told us about his “plan” to get Ari and Jeff some alone time, I knew it was going to go down all wrong. Just how it went down wrong I didn’t know yet. I heard the screen door open and saw the love of my life walking out with such a sad lo
ok
on her face. I held out my hand and she came over and sat on my lap.

She laid her head on my ches
t and let out a sigh. God, what I wouldn’
t do to just stay like this forever and never let her go. I buried my face in her hair and to
ok
a deep breath. Fuck she smelled so good….daisies…
..she always smelled like them.

“So, d
id she tell you what happened?”

“Oh God Gunner…..I think Jeff
erson
really messed up this time. I think he pushed her away for good.”

Fuck…I didn’t like the way this was sounding. I will
fucking
kill him he if forced her to do anything.

“He didn’t….”

“NO! God no! Jefferson would never! But then again I didn’t think he would
ever be
so
mean and hurtful as
this either.”

I felt Ellie shiver so I pulled her tighter into me.

“Can we take a walk? I don’t want your grandmother to ove
r
he
a
r us talking. I’m not sure how much Ari told her about what happened.”

“Sure baby, let’s head down to the stables.” I reached down and to
ok
her hand in mine as we started to make our way to the stables. I needed to check on Big
Roy anyway. He was a gift from G
ramps when I
was sixteen
and somehow
he cut his leg
pretty bad
;
we needed to keep an eye
on it for a few days
for any signs of an infection.

Ellie walked for a few minutes in silence. Once we rea
ched the stables I checked for G
ramps and Jeff but
they were nowhere to be found.

“No one is here sweetheart.”

Ellie started to cry. I walked over and held her in my arms. I was going to fucking kill Jeff for making his sister so upset. I
don’t care how fucked up he is.