Under the Midnight Stars (8 page)

Without another word, Billy scrambled to his feet and hurried to his truck. He quickly turned his truck around and sped away.

Colt watched as the brake lights from Billy’s truck disappeared when he turned onto the main road.

And as quickly as the chaos had started, all fell silent. The full moon illuminated the countryside enough to see clearly. Crickets began to chirp again. A cool breeze awakened.

Brielle shuddered and crossed her arms.

Colt took his long-sleeved shirt off and draped it around her shoulders. “Are you gonna be okay?”

She nodded. “I’ll be okay.”

“Come on — I’ll take you home,” he said softly.

“Actually, can I go to your house for a little while? Just until I’m sure my dad and brother are sleeping? They can’t see me like this.”

“Sure.” Colt took her hand in his. “Come on, let’s go.”

With her hand securely in his, Brielle let Colt lead her back to his house. When they reached the main road, they found her purse lying in the middle of it.

Colt picked it up and handed it to her before they silently continued on toward the house. Just before they reached the porch he stopped and faced her. He remained silent for a moment, before he spoke.

“I’m sorry about your mom, Brielle.” His voice was a soft whisper. “I didn’t know she was gone too.”

Brielle was taken off guard. Tears burned her eyes. She’d never talked about her mother’s death with anyone, not even her brother. But she realized now that she needed to — she needed to let go in order to move forward.

“Yeah.” Her voice quivered. “She was found on the side of the road in the car we shared … She had a heart attack. She was only forty-three.” Quiet tears rolled down her cheeks. “It’s why I don’t drive — that, and because of my dad.” She shook her head and exhaled heavily.

Colt eye’s glistened with tears. He took her hands in his and gently rested his forehead on hers. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t know you were hurting too.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her in a secure embrace.

Brielle needed his compassion … his empathy. But knowing that he was also in pain, she held him back just as tightly.

After a long moment in each other’s arms, Colt pulled away and they both took a second to wipe their cheeks dry. Then he kissed her atop the head. “Come on — it’s getting chilly. Let’s get you warmed up.”

Once inside the house, he sat her down on one of the green folding lawn chairs in the living room and knelt in front of her. “You look exhausted. You should let me take you home.”

“I know, just not yet. I just need a minute to get my head on straight.”

He carefully brushed his thumb over the slight bruise along her right jawline. “How are you gonna explain that?”

She reached up to touch the sensitive area and winced. “I’ll cover it up with makeup.”

Even though she felt closer to Colt now that they had bonded over the pain of losing their mothers, she couldn’t look him in the eyes. She was ashamed that he knew why she’d turned down his invitation, and even more so that it was because of Billy Collins. He hadn’t brought it up yet, which meant he probably wasn’t going to. Especially not after what she’d just been through.

She decided to set the matter straight. She reached up to pull the elastic band from her tousled hair. “Colt?” She ran a quick hand through her hair to smooth it.

He sat in the chair next to her. “Yeah?” he asked softly.

She began fidgeting with the hairband. “I’m sorry I turned you down to go on a date with Billy,” she admitted ashamedly. “I’d already agreed to it the day before I met you. I wanted to back out of it, but stupid me was trying to keep my word.”

He scooted off the chair and knelt in front of her, taking both of her hands into his. “You don’t owe me an explanation, Brielle. And don’t blame yourself. You had no idea he’d try to hurt you. And I promise you … he’ll never hurt you again.”

“But I do blame myself. If I wasn’t such a coward and had just put my foot down a long time ago, he would’ve stopped pestering me to go out with him. Instead, I thought it’d be easier to just oblige him and prove that we were incompatible.”

Her chin began to quiver. Not being able to hold it back any longer, she exploded. “I was so stupid! I knew he was an arrogant jerk! I don’t know what I was thinking!”

“Hey, hey,” Colt soothed, pulling her into his arms. “Don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault, Brielle. He had no right to touch you.
No
right! He tried to force you into something you didn’t want to do and that doesn’t make it your fault. That makes him a criminal. He broke the law and there’s no excuse for it. Or for him.”

She pulled away to look him in the eyes. When she spoke her voice was more subdued. “I know. I know. I told him to stop. That I didn’t want to. He’s just a jerk! I hope his nose is crooked for the rest of his life!”

“If it’s not, I’ll take care of it.”

She smiled a half smile and sniffled. “I think I just might let you do that.”

Nightmares of being attacked by Billy jolted Brielle from her slumber at the crack of dawn. She quickly showered and dressed in faded jeans, a light purple tank top, and her favorite worn boots. Sitting in front of her bedroom vanity, she ran her finger along the bluish lavender hue of her jawline, hoping the makeup would work.

Billy’s angry face came to mind, but she quickly closed her eyes and squished his image away. She wondered if it would’ve been easier to deal with if she’d been attacked by a stranger. Someone that she hadn’t known and trusted since kindergarten. Someone she’d never have to face again.

With a heavy sigh, she applied a thick layer of concealer over the bruise, followed by a heavy layer of liquid foundation. As to not appear too ghostly, she lightly lined her eyes and swept a natural shade into the crease of her brow. Satisfied that her secret was well-hidden, she hurried downstairs to the front door, hoping to slip away unnoticed.

“Where’re you off to this early?” Her father’s deep voice stopped her dead in her tracks.

Brielle cringed. He usually wasn’t up this early unless he was needed by his friend to help out with a mishap on his cattle ranch — which seemed to be more often lately. But it was better than him mulling about the house, drinking away his sorrows.

Forcing a warm smile, she turned around. “Good morning. Off to Gill’s ranch today?”

“Yep. One of his heifers is giving birth. And what about you? Must be something pretty important to have you up before the roosters on your day off.” He smiled as he exited the living area and crossed the foyer, grabbing his keys hanging by the front door. “Do you need a ride?”

Her smile faded. “Sure, a ride would be great.” She followed him out the door to his silver crew cab 4X4, and climbed in.

The beastly diesel engine roared to life.

“So where to?” he asked.

She dreaded hearing a lecture about helping a man that was practically a stranger, and the fact that the same stranger had managed to buy the farm out from under him.

“Uhhh, the Tayler farm?” she said it more like it was a question, wrinkling her nose.

He furrowed his brow and headed down the long drive. He’d furrowed his brow a lot over the last couple of years, with deep lines of worry to prove it. His hair had been jet-black with hints of silver peeking through, but ever since his wife had died, the silver predominated. His blue eyes, usually full of life, seemed to have dulled and grayed. And his once healthy, vibrant complexion now had a sallow look to it, reflecting his broken heart and alcoholism.

He gave her a questioning glance before he spoke. “The Tayler farm, huh?”

She decided to just be honest. “Well … Colt Tayler moved back to town. And I volunteered to help clean his place up. It’s been vandalized.”

“His
place?”

“Yeah. I guess Zeke bought it so that he and his mother could stay all those years back, but she couldn’t accept such an offer. Anyway, he sold it back to Colt.”

Roger released a long sigh. “Welp.” He clicked his tongue off of the roof of his mouth. “I guess that’s that … But you’d think Zeke’s wife would’ve made him sell it long ago. Maybe she didn’t know why he held onto it. He married her long after Annie left … Oh well. Colt deserved to reclaim it. I just wish Zeke would’ve told me so that I wouldn’t have kept pestering him about it all these years. I guess a man has his pride though. So how is Colt anyway?”

“You knew him?”

“Sure, he was the next hopeful for the varsity team way back when. And he helped fix the tractor a couple of times. I didn’t really know him so well. Seems like every time we got together with his parents he was off doing whatever it is teenagers do. It was a real shame when his father passed. He was a good man … Say, how is Annie doing?”

Brielle was reluctant to tell him the bad news, but she knew she couldn’t avoid it … “She died of breast cancer last month.”

Roger shook his head. “It’s a damned shame. She was a beautiful woman.” He sighed heavily as he pulled up to Colt’s empty driveway. He eyed the tractor parked in the middle of the yard. “Doesn’t look like he’s here yet.” The worry lines on his forehead deepened.

“Maybe he drove the tractor in?” She smiled. “So you’re all right with me helping Colt?”

A warm smile crossed his face and his eyes softened. “Sure, honey. Colt was a good kid. His parents were good people. Call me if you need a ride home.”

“Thanks, Dad.” She kissed him on the cheek and climbed down out of the truck. “I’ll probably be here ’til late.”

“Make sure you call your brother for a ride home.”

“I will.” She closed the door and waved as her father pulled away before heading toward the house.

She knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. She opened the door and peeked in.

“Colt?” she shouted, glancing down the hallway to make sure the basement door was shut. It gave her the creeps now.

There was still no answer.

“I guess you’re not here yet.” She sighed and went inside, noticing the graffiti was reduced to a light gray smudge. A pile of cleaning supplies sat in the middle of the room. Nothing else had been touched yet.

A pair of jeans hung over the banister, with a folded-up piece of paper lying on the floor directly beneath them. Curiosity set in as she bent down to pick up the paper. Carefully, she opened it. It was a list with each item scratched off — except for the last two.

She scanned over the familiar man’s name, but read the woman’s name aloud. “Miranda Briggs?” Gabrielle bit her lower lip, trying to visualize the woman, but she couldn’t place a face to the name. “Oh well,” she spoke under her breath. “Probably just an old friend — right? I hope she was just a friend,” she added unsurely.

She quickly refolded the note and slid it into the back pocket of his jeans. Then she sifted through the pile of cleaning supplies, finding a pair of pink kitchen gloves. She smiled at the kind gesture from the man she couldn’t wait to see again. She quickly put them on, grabbed a black garbage bag from the roll, and started picking up all of the litter strewn about the house.

Colt shook Zeke’s hand. “It was a pleasure doing business with you, Zeke.” He shoved the transfer papers and the deed to his farm back into the grease-smudged manila folder. “I still can’t get over how cheap you bought it for. It’s damn near embarrassing.”

“Aw, nothing to be embarrassed about, buddy. Your dad didn’t owe that much on it before he passed. And I guess there just weren’t too many people interested in a foreclosed farm in a small out-of-the-way country town. Except for Roger Sinclair, but luckily he wasn’t interested ’til a couple of years after the fact,” Zeke said. “You should be happy you got it back for next to nothin’.”

“I guess it all worked out for the best,” Colt replied.

The bell above Zeke’s desk dinged as another customer rolled over the sensor in front of the bay doors.

“Dammit! I should be more than happy to get this much business at eight fifteen in the morning. But with only Rodney here, I’d lose my head if it weren’t attached,” Zeke complained. “I’m just gettin’ too old for this. I need to retire.”

“Shorthanded today?” Colt asked, knowing exactly why.