Into the Nothing (Broken Outlaw Series Book 1) (13 page)

In an instant, the anger in her face fades and tears begin to build up in her eyes. She puts a hand to her mouth and pulls the phone from her ear, shaking her head. With her free hand, she taps the speakerphone button and a flurry of insults in Cody’s thick country twang pours from the receiver.

“…don’t you fuckin’ worry about me, bitch. You understand? I do what I want when I want to, and no cunt is gonna have any say in that.” If it wasn’t already, that word brings my blood to a boil. A few tears roll down Paige’s flushed cheeks. “I’ll be god fuckin’ damned if I let you ever control me again. You’re worthless, bitch. Fuckin’ worthless.”

Before I know what I’m doing, I snatch the phone from her hand and press ‘end.’ I hand it back to her without a word and then march straight over to Jack by the back door. He still has the phone to his ear.

“Hey, Jack. Can I talk to you a second?” He asks the caller to wait and drops the phone to his side.

“What’s going on, Xander?”

“I need you to end the call. There’s not much that’s going to come out of it anyways. I’m not going to press charges.”

“Are you sure?” he asks, looking confused.

I nod. “Yeah, positive.”

He lifts the phone again and I make my way back to Paige.

“Paige, I need you to take me to this dude’s house,” I say.

“Xander, no.” She wipes a hand across her cheeks and then against her tank top. “It’s not the first time he’s talked to me like that. It’s no big deal.”

“If it weren’t a big deal, you wouldn’t have had the reaction you did. I don’t care if it’s the first time or the fiftieth, he will
not
talk to you like that. No man should talk to a woman like that.”

She shakes her head and a look of acceptance creeps across her face. “Xander, please, let’s just forget it. You don’t want to get involved with the likes of him. He really doesn’t have a whole lot to lose.”

“And you think I do?” I snap, though I didn’t mean it to come out that harsh. “Sorry, I just could care less, to be honest. I won’t let him get away with this. If no one ever stands up to him, he’ll never learn. I’ll find the house myself if I have to. Hell, I’ll walk there. So please, either help me out here, or—” I stop, finding no good way to end the sentence.

“Okay, okay, no need to get grumpy. I’ll take you there. You just have to promise me you won’t do something stupid. Please, Xander. Promise?”

“I promise not to do anything stupid as long as he refrains from doing something stupid.”

She rolls her eyes but then heads toward the door just as Jack hangs up the phone and walks toward me. He looks back at Paige, confused, as she heads inside.

“Where’s she headed?” he asks, gesturing behind him.

“She’s going to get her car keys.”

He looks as if he already knows. “Going for a drive, are we?” he asks, though it comes off more like a statement. “You sure that’s a good idea?”

“It’s not for me, Jack. I could give two shits about the flat tires. If he thinks I haven’t had worse…if he thinks something like that is going to get me going, well, he’s fucking wrong. People like him don’t phase me. What I won’t sit back and let happen is how he talked to Paige like she’s fucking garbage. I’ve never heard a man talk to a woman like that.”

I think about this lie for a moment. My dad used to talk to my mom like that all the time. But they didn’t really count.

“Be careful,” Jack says, “You want me to go with you?”

“No, Jack. Thank you, though. I can handle this.”

I
pull the Chevelle up to the beaten-down trailer, one of many that tarnish the beautiful Missouri land that lies beyond the trailer park. Seeing this particular trailer again after so long sends a swift shudder down my spine. Xander must notice my unease because he places a hand on my knee and gently squeezes it, which relaxes me instantly.

“This it?” he asks. All I can do is nod.

“I want you to stay here. If anything crazy happens, I want you to call the cops. Don’t get out of the car.” His words are stern, and though my first reaction is to give him shit for the bossiness, I refrain. Right about now, the authority he’s exuding is getting me kind of hot. It’s how a man should be.

Xander climbs out of the car and shuts the door behind him. As if on cue, the rickety trailer door flies open, creaking at its joints. Cody stands in the doorway behind the screen door, his shirt off and basketball shorts hung low on his hips. He has a beer in one hand and a shotgun in the other. He glares at Xander first and then at me in the driver’s seat.

“What the fuck do you want?” Xander doesn’t flinch or back down in the slightest, even at the sight of the gun. He scans Cody, taking him in. “You hear me, boy?”

“Oh, I hear you, but you’re saying all the wrong words. What I want to hear is how sorry you are for the way you spoke to Paige earlier. What I want to hear is how you’ll never do it again. And I’ll tell you straight up, I wanna hear it real fucking quick.”

Cody shoves the screen door open and takes a step forward, blocking it from closing with his right hip. “And what the fuck are you gonna do if I don’t?” Cody snarls, spitting a wad of tobacco juice and spit on his porch floor.

“Oh, I can promise you,” Xander says with a smile, “this is no threat. At least for now. I have no intention of fighting you right now. I respect Paige too much for that. Respect, which you are noticeably lacking . What I can promise you is this… if it continues, I’ll beat your fucking skull in. I won’t even give you a chance to speak.”

Cody smirks, spitting again, and Xander continues, unimpressed by Cody’s tough guy act. This is an act that has scared the shit out of me time and time again.

“I’ll beat that silly smirk off your face,” Xander says. “I’ll make you swallow your own fucking teeth. If you think I’m kidding, please test me. You won’t speak right for the rest of your life,” he continues, so matter-of-fact you’d think he was giving a stranger driving directions.

Cody doesn’t take this well. He steps forward, letting the screen door slam behind him, and he handles the shotgun as if he’s about ready to use it.

Xander doesn’t seem to notice.

“You can act as tough as you want, country boy,” Xander says, his voice remaining calm but firm. “You can handle that shotgun. You can spit your dip. But at the end of the day, you’ve got no idea who the fuck I am. And I can promise you, you don’t want to know. The way I grew up, words mean nothing. How you handle your fists is the only language anyone understands. You following me?”

He waits for Cody to say something, but nothing comes out. If this were a cartoon, two billows of thick smoke would be pluming out of Cody’s nostrils. His hand clutches the beer so tightly that the can crumples between white knuckles. He drops it to the floor and kicks it at Xander, hitting him square in the chest.

Xander pays no mind. He still has yet to move. “You’ve owned this town for how long, Cody? You got that way through fear, am I right? Pouting and staring and crushing beer cans. Maybe flashing a shotgun here and there. And you scared a few people. Maybe you beat a few up real good. Word traveled fast and now here you are.” Xander finally does move taking a step forward. Cody stands just a little straighter; his chest just a little wider. “But at the end of the day, what is that, really? You may scare them, but you don’t fucking scare me. And you never will. You ought to get used to that.”

Cody grunts, taking two more steps forward. He sets the shotgun up against the porch railing and heads down the stairs, stopping right in front of Xander.

“And what the fuck are you gonna do about it?” Cody asks. It’s at this point that I open the car door and take one step out. Xander looks back at me and puts a finger up.

“Please, Paige, just stay in the car.” As I’m about to settle back into the Chevelle, I see Cody charge toward Xander with a raised fist.

I want to scream. I try my best to yell his name, but the words won’t come out. Xander turns around just in time to catch Cody’s fist in the jaw with a loud thud. Xander staggers back from the force, but otherwise looks unaffected. He steadies himself just as Cody comes at him again, ready to continue his attack.

I scramble from the car, not even sure what exactly I will do, but before I have a chance to do anything, Xander thrusts two fingers—and only two fingers—just below Cody’s sternum.

His eyes flash white and he crumples to the ground quicker than I can even process what I just saw. As Cody lies motionless, Xander turns, gives me a wink and walks back to the car. I try to turn and join him at the car, but I can’t move my legs. My focus is locked onto Cody’s crumpled body, comically positioned as if he were just hit by a semi.

“Babe, come on. He’ll be awake in a few.” Xander climbs in and shuts the door.
Babe?
Yeah, that’ll get my feet moving.

I join Xander in the car and start it up. Pulling out of the trailer park in a hurry, I’m still trying my best to wrap my brain around what just happened.

“What the hell was that?” I ask.

“Just a little trick I learned a while back.”

“Little trick? That was more than just a little trick. What, are you like CIA or something?”

“No, nothing like that.”

“Soooo…..”

“I have Army buddies, remember? Some of them did some hardcore stuff overseas. They taught me a few things

“Again, what exactly did I just witness?”

“I hit him in the solar plexus. It’s a big bundle of nerves in the mid-torso. Knocks ‘em right out… as you just witnessed.”

“But you only hit him with two fingers.”

“Less surface area, so the force is stronger at my fingertips than it would be had I punched him there.”

“Remind me never to make you angry,” I joke, but at the same time I wonder so much more about this man. It seems as if I’ve only scratched the surface.

He looks at me, his face no longer playful but very serious. “You have absolutely nothing to worry about—ever. I don’t hit women. I never have, and I never will. You know that… or at least you should.”

“Oh, I know. But still, you keep those fingers away from me.” He chuckles, then puts a hand over his mouth. It looks like he’s ready to burst out in laughter. It takes me a minute to understand, but when I do, my face turns bright red. I swat his arm. “Context, damn it. Context!”