River's End (River's End Series, #1) (13 page)

Jack started to frown, but he couldn’t help smiling. He did tend to think he was lord of it all. “I don’t know; Joey’s sparkle about sums him up.”

Erin grabbed the sketch and her cheeks were fully pink. “It was just a stupid joke.”

Ian glanced at her. “You shouldn’t sell yourself so short. It’s good. And your observations are true. You have a real talent there.”

She wrinkled her brow at Ian and shook her head. Why did it come as such a shock to her? Did no one ever compliment her on her artwork before? There was no denying her talent.

“No one’s ever said that to you?” Shane finally asked.

She shrugged. “I hardly ever showed my drawings to anyone to elicit any comments about them. Anyway, it’s just a doodle.”

Jack let her have the notepad back. It seemed that important to her. His brothers wandered off and he stared at her. Who was she? The woman who flashed her body parts to seduce his brother? Or this shy, almost painfully awkward girl, who ate dinner with them tonight? And the exhibitionism seemed to be because her shirt was too big; not deliberately seductive, Jack was starting to suspect.

She closed the notebook and stood up from the table. “I should go.”

Joey got up from the couch. “Why don’t we talk first?”

“Oh. Okay,” Erin said. She glanced at Jack and he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t comment as she went around the table and followed his brother up the stairs before disappearing into Joey’s bedroom. Jack sighed and took his son’s hand.

“Time for bed, bud.”

****

Erin didn’t want to go anywhere with Joey. She didn’t want Jack, Ian and Shane watching her walk upstairs with their little brother. She doubted it was lost on no one that Jack invited her to dinner, not Joey.

She followed Joey into his room and he closed the door.

“What was all that about?”

“All what about?”

“Why did Jack invite you to dinner?”

“Because he wanted to.”

Joey crossed his arms. “Jack isn’t stupid, Erin. He wouldn’t just ask you here. You realize that, I hope. If you are running some kind of scheme, Jack won’t fall for it.”

She stepped back with her mouth open. “You think I’m using you? Now Jack? Why did you sleep with me then?”

He rolled his eyes. “Because I could. I could very easily. It’s not like I would let you get away with anything.”

“Jack invited me here only to fulfill a punishment for Charlie; he had to apologize for something to me.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes, that’s it.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“Sorry? You seemed to be accusing me of something pretty big. Sorry is supposed to cut it?” He shrugged. “What exactly did you think I was doing here?”

“Chance warned me about you. I thought maybe since you realized I don’t yet have my share of the ranch, maybe you were after Jack.”

She shook her head. “And you believed him? You know what, Joey? You’re not only young and naïve, but you need to watch out before Chance burns you. I’m not the one you need to be careful of. And if you were half as observant as you think you are, you’d know that.”

Joey shrugged. “Just calling it like I see it.”

She rolled her eyes, thinking she deserved that. She jumped into bed with Joey because it was easy, because she could. Because it never occurred to her not to. Maybe Chance wasn’t so off about her.

“I have to go.”

“Where, Erin? To my trailer? You’re not here because Chance lets you stay; you’re here because I’ve let you. I thought you knew that.”

Her mouth opened, then she closed it. She supposed she did know it. But not like Joey thought. She was here only because Jack let her stay because of Joey.

“You know why you like my brother despite everyone else telling you that you shouldn’t? Because Chance plays into your ego. He tells you everything he knows you want to hear, like about being as important and powerful as Jack is. But you’re not. You know it, but you let Chance stroke your ego. He’s using you, Joey, not me. I was…”

“I know what you were doing, Erin. You’re pretty good at it too.”

She nodded. “Okay. I deserve that. I didn’t know you were only twenty. I shouldn’t have slept with you.”

“I didn’t think you were that picky. Warm and hard seemed to be your only criteria.”

“Fine. Turn it into high school. I could see where you’d feel the need to do that since it was barely two years ago for you.”

“Get off my land, Erin. How about that? Is that grown up enough for you?”

She closed her eyes, then opened them and nodded. “You’re right, Joey. I shouldn’t have stayed so long in the first place.”

Erin’s stomach cramped as soon as she woke up. She slept, but it was fitful and restless. Now the morning daylight seeped between the closed blinds of the small trailer. She took the three steps to the thermostat and turned it up higher. With a glance in the mirror, she cringed. She looked exactly how she felt: dirty and sordid. Her fight with Joey. And worst of all, he was right. She was allowed to stay there only because she’d been sleeping with Joey. And it shamed her to the core to realize maybe she had done it for exactly that reason; just so Jack would let her stay.

Today, she had nowhere left to go. The pain in her stomach increased. She had nowhere else to go. Literally. There was no friend in Seattle. No job. No family. Very little money and no home. She was homeless. She was illiterate. And she was nearly the street whore Joey accused her of being.

She pushed her hair back into a headband and secured it with a rubber band. She brushed her teeth and threw cold water on her face, looking towards the front of the trailer. It was empty. Not unusual. Starting towards her clothes, she abruptly stopped. With a frown, she realized it was gone. Her duffel bag wasn’t sitting next to the table. Her heartbeat sped.
Shit. No!
She got to her feet and looked outside the trailer. Her stomach pain nearly knocked her onto her knees. Her breathing stopped, and her hands clenched.
Her car was gone! And her money was gone!
She sank into a chair and closed her eyes as hot tears fell over her cheeks.

Her brother had just stolen her entire life.

Dropping her hands from her face, she couldn’t just sit there. She crossed the trailer, jerked the door open, and threw on her sneakers before running across the yard, up onto the porch, and pounding loudly on the front door of the Rydells’ house. She tapped her foot until Joey answered.

He rolled his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face. “God, Erin, I meant it. Don’t start already.”

She pushed past him. They were all there: every big, intimidating man who held her entire life in his hands. Even Ben and Charlie were at the table, eating cereal, and paused to stare at her.

She was still wearing her pajamas, and hadn’t even put a coat on. Or a bra, she now realized. Still, it didn’t matter. There was no time to waste.

“Erin?” Ian spoke when no else did.

“He stole my car. Chance stole my car and everything in my duffel bag. He’s gone.”

They didn’t move and she frowned. No one acted as if they’d even heard her.

“Didn’t you hear me? He stole my car. You have to call the police. We have to go after him. Don’t you understand? We have to do something.” Hysteria tinged her words, and tears started to fall down her face. They didn’t get it. Her entire life was that little bit of money and her car. Without them, she was destitute.

“Uh, Erin, why don’t you calm down a little bit and start over? And maybe you want to borrow this.”

She glanced up when Ian came towards her carrying a coat. Looking down, she nearly screamed with annoyance. They were not reacting to her simply because she was wearing a thin tank top? If there had been anything to throw nearby her, she would have hurled it at the first head she could find. She grabbed the coat and wrapped it around her.

Turning, she found Jack at the stove. He was pouring coffee when she burst in. “Jack… Jack, please you have to do something. He’s gone.”

Jack finally seemed to hear her and slammed the coffee pot down before stepping forward. “Are you sure? Maybe he just borrowed it.”

“I kept the keys hidden under the couch that I slept on. Not easily found. He took all my money. He didn’t borrow it. He’s gone.”

Jack frowned and glanced at his brothers. “All right. Ian, you and Shane go south; Joe and I will go north. Ben, call the police for me, okay? Tell them where we’re looking. Write down the make, model and license plate of your car for Ben. You have any idea where he might go?”

She shook her head. “No. None. He didn’t talk about anything to me.”

“There’s one highway up and down the valley, so it’s doubtful he got too far.”

“I should come.”

Jack hardly spared her a glance. “You should get dressed and wait for us to get back. Ben, get Charlie to school, okay?”

“Sure, Dad.”

Jack was putting his hat on. He looked at her one last time before walking out the door with the keys in his hands, followed by his brothers.

****

Erin paced for an hour. Then, a squad car pulled in. She ran out and met the officer, describing her car and Chance, along with the theft of her items. He wrote it all down. But she felt like screaming because no one seemed to comprehend how dire the situation was.

The officer left, claiming he would search above the ranch. There were miles of dirt roads that trailed through the back of the mountains. There were dozens of spots to hide and plenty of abandoned buildings for temporary cover.

She finally sat down and put her head into her hands. There was nothing more she could do. She never felt so useless, stupid, or helpless in her life. She jumped when she heard a knock at the trailer door. Standing up, she quickly crossed the small space to open it.

Jack stood there. He was so big, he had to duck his head to enter the trailer. He took his hat off first and his red hair glistened in the sunlight. His eyes looked around, taking in every detail of the trailer, then he looked at her. He frowned when he saw what she was still wearing.

“Did you find him?”

Jack shook his head. “No. No one’s seen your car.”

She dropped to the chair and glared angrily at her hands.

“You probably should get dressed. The police intend to come by here.”

“They did already. I gave them a statement.”

“O-o-o-kay,” Jack said as he finally sat across from her. She looked up at him. He was so big, he didn’t fit in the trailer chair and had to rest his long legs at the side of the small table. He made the trailer seem like a car. He was quiet for so long, she finally couldn’t stand it.

“He took everything, Mr. Rydell.”

“Everything? As in your clothes?” She felt where his eyes were fastened and hunkered her shoulders, trying to shield herself.

“Down to my bra. It was all there, in a duffel bag. Other than my toothbrush and a few toiletries that I keep by the sink, it’s all gone.”

“Down to your…” Jack started to say, stunned, before he stopped himself. “Shit. He actually stole your clothes?”

She nodded.

“Are you sure? You really think he did that and isn’t coming back?”

Jack’s words hit her. It was like concrete being tied to her feet before being sunk into a river. “I really think he did it and isn’t coming back,” she whispered.

Jack’s gaze was on her face. She kept her eyes down. “And your money too, you said earlier?”

“The last of my money. It was hidden in the trunk of my car. I never dreamed he’d steal my car.”

“Why wasn’t it in the bank? Who does that?”

“I didn’t know where I would end up. Look, Mr. Rydell—”

“Erin, I think we’re past the Mr. Rydell bullshit. You ticked me off when I first met you and my formalities toward you were simply to keep you at a distance.”

She nodded and raised her eyes to finally make eye contact. “Jack, I don’t have anything. I don’t even have a change of clothes.”

His gaze stayed on her and she was too ashamed to hold it so she stared at her hands.

“Is there anyone to call, Erin? No bullshitting me this time, either; is there any friend in Seattle to call?

She could not look up at him as she shook her head no.

He was quiet, then stood up. “I figured as much. There could be no other reason you’d come to Chance for help except if you were desperate.”

She looked up. Was he planning to throw her out with only a pair of pajamas and sneakers?

“Wh—What are you going to do with me?”

“First off, we’ll find you some clothes.”

“And then?”

“Then I guess we’ll figure out what to do with you.”

****

Jack waited for Erin to come out. His truck idled with a loud gurgle as he looked out the windshield towards the mountains beyond. He tapped a finger to his steering wheel. What kind of brother would steal his own sister’s entire belongings? Or leave her stranded without even a dollar? Or a bra? Jack couldn’t comprehend what kind of lowlife did that. Or that she was now completely stranded there. And suddenly his responsibility. He felt the tightening in his neck. Another damn complication to his already complicated life. Didn’t he know she’d turn out to be just that from the moment he laid eyes on her?

She closed the trailer and came towards him. Still wearing Joey’s coat over her small, light pink tank top, and pink little shorts, she looked miserable, right down to the tennis shoes on her feet. She didn’t even have a pair of socks. Jesus! The rat bastard might as well have left her naked on the side of the road. Who would do that to his own sister? A sister like Erin, no less.

She opened the passenger door and climbed up into his truck. Settling into the seat, she snapped her seatbelt on while adjusting Joey’s coat to cover her. He pulled the truck into gear and left the driveway.

“Where are we going? I can’t go in like this.”

He sighed. No, she probably couldn’t. “Okay. You tell me what to get and I’ll go in.”

“You’re going to buy me clothes?”

“You have a better idea?”

She shook her head and bit her lip.

“It looks like I’m going to be buying you a lot of things before we figure this thing out, so you might as well get used to it.”

Her gaze jerked up to him. He adjusted the heater so it wasn’t blowing over him only. He had warm clothes on and wasn’t as cold as Erin must have been in her shorts.

“And how, exactly, will I pay you back?”

“Can we first get you properly dressed before we go into that?”

She glanced out her window. “You know, I need a bra. Are you going to pick that out too?”

Didn’t he know she needed a bra. “I can probably manage it. Don’t they have sizes on them? Can’t you just tell me which size and brand to buy?”

She folded her arms over her chest. “You don’t have to sound so agreeable to this.”

“How would you rather I sound?”

She shrugged and closed her eyes. “I have never been so humiliated in my entire life.”

He stared at the road. What else could he say to her? The situation was what it was. There was no other way. She had nothing. He had to help her even if he didn’t want to.

She was quiet for a long while before finally saying, “I feared he’d rob you, and never considered he might rob me because I didn’t have very much. I never thought this would happen.”

“They might find him still, Erin. He’s not all that bright. He could easily make a mistake.”

“He won’t when it comes to saving himself.”

Jack swung his truck into the parking lot. She looked faint with embarrassment.

“Do you want to write down exactly what you need?”

She shook her head vehemently. “No. I need pants, a t-shirt, bra, socks, underwear, and maybe a sweatshirt.”

He looked at her. “Do you think I have any clue what sizes those would happen to be?”

“I’ll tell you.”

“And I’ll forget. Just write them all down.” He handed her a tablet he found on his car door. She stared at it, then up at him. To his surprise, she bit her lip and tears filled her eyes as she shook her head. She pushed the tablet back at him.

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean, ‘you can’t’? We already went over this. You’ll have to accept some help until we get through this. Erin, you can’t walk around like that.”

She closed her eyes. “I know. I mean, I can’t.”

He stared at her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I can’t write down anything.”

Jack sighed. He had no idea what she was going on about. “All right then. You want to come in like that? I’m sure they get all kinds in there.”

She bit her lip and stared out the window. Finally, she nodded. He couldn’t begin to guess what her mood was, but she seemed determined that he wouldn’t know her sizes.