A vehicle had parked on the road between JJ’s neighbor’s driveway and her own. Its headlights lit up her rearview mirror as she passed, and when she turned into her driveway, they followed.
Shit.
“Pumpkin—”
“I’m not a pumpkin. Pumpkins are round,” Evie said.
“Whatever,” JJ replied. Her child’s incipient body issues were the least of her worries at the moment. “I want you to go straight to the front door and inside the house as soon as I stop the car. Okay?”
“Why? Is there—”
“Evie, okay?”
“Okay,” she said grudgingly. “But if the door’s locked, I’ll need a key.”
JJ parked the car, pulled her keys from the ignition and passed them to her daughter. Evie headed for the front door, but more slowly than her mother would have liked. JJ walked around the back of her Bronco, intending to release Trooper (his barking suggested he’d like nothing better), but headlights moved up the driveway so quickly she was afraid to cross in front of them. The vehicle almost seemed aimed at her.
JJ stepped back, alongside the solid Bronco, ready to run. Blinded by headlights, she heard more than saw the machine grind to a sudden halt, throwing gravel and sending her heart thumping against the walls of her chest. It was a pickup, probably red as Otto had described, though it was hard to tell in the dark, and it was so close she could’ve touched it with an outstretched leg. Or it could have touched her. She held her breath as the driver’s door opened.
“JJ, aren’t you looking lovely this fine evening?” The voice was smooth and sweet and made her want to vomit. She should have known…
“Marcus, were you trying to fucking run me over, or are you still just the shittiest driver I’ve ever met?” It didn’t pay to let the man know he’d spooked her.
“Jesus, JJ, watch your mouth,” he said, but JJ barely heard her ex-husband over Trooper’s barking. Marcus glanced toward the tie-out. “That damn dog never did like me.”
“Trooper, enough,” JJ said. He stopped immediately, but his silhouette showed rigid posture and ears standing at attention.
“Nice trick,” Marcus said, then raised his eyes toward the front porch, calling out, “Hey there, pumpkin!”
“I’m not a pumpkin,” Evie said.
JJ almost laughed, even though her daughter had ignored her instructions to go inside. At least there’s one Tulley woman who can resist the man’s charms. But then Evie descended the steps anyway, coming to join them in the headlights of Marcus’s truck.
“I can see you’re not a pumpkin,” Marcus said. “Obviously, you’re a cowboy.”
Evie let out a long-suffering sigh. “I’m not a cowboy. I’m an Old West Sheriff. Didn’t you see my badge?” She pointed to the shiny plastic gold star pinned to her vest.
Marcus stepped closer and squatted down for a better look. “I do now. But why would you want to be a sheriff instead of an outlaw?”
JJ had a strong inclination to smack the man. “Marcus, just because you don’t have a moral compass doesn’t mean your daughter was born without one.”
Marcus pretended to ignore her, but JJ knew she’d gotten to him. He pointed toward their daughter’s holsters. “Do you know any gun tricks?”
“No, I don’t care much about guns.” Evie reached around her back to retrieve her lasso. “But the Sheriff said he’ll teach me some rope tricks.”
JJ felt a cold stab of apprehension when Marcus spoke. “He did, did he? Well, not with that fake piece of crap.”
The lasso was a fake, some kind of synthetic material stitched together to look as if it were coiled when you couldn’t much more than choke a cat with it. And Evie knew it was fake. But her father had still offended her. JJ imagined she could hear her daughter’s molars grinding when she spoke.
“No, not with the toy. He’ll teach me with a real rope. And he said he’d show me how to tie up bank robbers, too.”
“Well, darling,” Marcus said, touching his daughter’s cheek. “I could teach you to do tricks with a real gun.”
“Evie, it’s time to go in and get ready for bed,” JJ said.
“Mom—”
I cannot strike my daughter’s father in front of her. Of course, that wasn’t the only possibility. Nor can I let him strike me. “Now, Evie. Straight in. Bath, and then PJs.”
Marcus watched their daughter cross the yard to the house. His face was shadowed, but JJ didn’t need her eyes to see it; he was etched in her mind. He had the most amazing hazel eyes, with full lashes—but not too full—perfectly proportioned to convince a woman (or at least her ovaries) that he was a sensitive man. Then the lines alongside his mouth… that’s a man with a sense of humor, you’d think. Top it all off with thick hair that ranged from dirty blonde to light brown depending on the season, and killer abs. The man had kept barbells in their garage and actually used them.
It was only after Evie’s booted feet clomped on the front steps and she banged the front door behind her that Marcus’s gaze swung to JJ. “Sheriff, huh? Would that be Grant?”
And there it was. It was a mystery to JJ how perhaps the most attractive man she’d ever met could be so goddamned ugly. “Marcus, we’ve talked about this. If you want to see Evie, you need to call first. And I’d really prefer to deal with your parents about visitation. You need to leave now.”
“Why, is Grant coming over? Is he going to give Evie some of those lessons tonight?”
Marcus stepped closer, so close JJ could smell the end of a long day on him (God help me, he still smells good), but JJ held her ground. He shifted his feet a little, and JJ ran through options in her head—how far it was to Trooper (far enough), how far it was to the shotgun in the house (too far), how far it was to the gun locked in the Bronco’s glovebox (impossibly far).
“Or maybe the lessons are for you,” he said, reaching toward her. “You know I love your hair, your beautiful, long—”
JJ caught his hand, but gently, not wanting to provoke him if she could help it. “Then you shouldn’t have used it to drag me across the living room. Do you have any idea how much of my beautiful, long hair fell out after that?”
“Ha!” he laughed. He lowered his hand when she let go, but somehow his face seemed closer. “You’re right; I shouldn’t have done that. But then, you shouldn’t have called your daddy, either.”
JJ smiled and prayed he could see it, prayed he could see her contempt. “Actually, I didn’t. And before you say, he’s not here to protect me anymore, let me tell you that Evie is the only reason I haven’t had you arrested—or better yet, blown your goddamned brains out. But I’ve been working a lot of hours lately, and I’m not in the best mood, so you best be getting your ass to whoever’ll take it.”
She turned on her heel and strode toward the front steps.
“JJ!” he said, not quite angry and not quite yelling. But that’s when he was most dangerous. “JJ!” A little louder.
Just a little farther… The motion-sensing porch light that had timed out flashed on again. She heard his feet on the gravel behind her, but didn’t dare run.
“JJ!” he said, touching her arm as her foot landed on the bottom step.
She swung around.
“You left these,” he said, jingling a set of keys.
Her hand began drifting like a magnet before her brain could protest, but you gave your keys to Evie.
Focused on the keys flashing in his hand, JJ didn’t see Marcus’s other hand whip out to the back of her head. His fingers dug into her hair and he jerked her head back until she stared at the dark sky. Her spine cracked, and tears sprang to her eyes as delicate hairs ripped from the back of her neck. Her left arm was trapped between them, so she torqued her hips around to maintain her balance on the step, bringing her almost to his eye level. Marcus leaned close, so she could hear him over Trooper’s lunging barks.
“See, this is the reason we couldn’t stay together. You’ve never shown me the proper respect. You never even took my name,” he said, in the same pleading, sultry tone he’d use to charm a woman in a bar.
JJ struggled to swallow, to speak, her throat bent back at an extreme angle. “Marcus, don’t do this where Evie can see us. You don’t want her to hate you.”
“Like you care,” he said.
“I do care,” she whispered. “I still remember what it was like… in the beginning. When it was just the two of us. And then when Evie was little.” JJ sucked air in a strangled sob. “I just wish…”
“You just wish what, baby?”
“I just wish—”
You’d stay the fuck out of my life. JJ’s right hand shot up like a rocket, the heel of her palm striking Marcus’s nose. He released her, grabbing at his face and dropping to his knees, and JJ kicked him in the chest to finish his fall. Her follow-through carried her off the step and she landed awkwardly, but she was halfway to Trooper before her ex’s body hit the ground. Her shaking fingers and aching hand fumbled with the dog’s tie-out.
I should have checked him for a gun.
Except, for all of his badass talk with Evie, she’d never known Marcus to carry concealed. She just needed to get in the house with her dog and her shotgun and everything would be okay. He was a coward at heart, so she had no doubt he’d leave.
Make that little doubt.
“Heel,” she said to Trooper, voice still a little raspy.
Marcus had made it as far as his knees by the time she returned to the front steps. His lips curled back, and his teeth shone white in the porch light, except where blood covered them. She hoped he’d bitten his damn tongue off. There was blood below his nose, too, but it was hard to say whether she’d broken it. Right on the schnoz, Dad. Just like you taught me.
Trooper growled beside her, and JJ put a calming hand on the ruff of his neck. Then she pulled her cell phone from her pocket to take a picture. The damned thing was dead—must have been from using it as a flashlight—but she went through the motions. Hopefully he’d think she’d taken a photo of him anyway.
“I’m going inside now. If you want to see Evie again, I better get a call from your parents or your lawyer. I don’t want to hear your disgusting voice again.”
He raised one knee and braced himself against it. “You think it’s going to be that simple? Bitch?” he asked. His words had a hollow, echoing quality, and “think” sounded like “fink.”
JJ leaned in, close enough to make him think she wasn’t afraid of him but not close enough to be stupid. “Yeah, I do. Because if I ever see you on my property again, I’ll feed your dick to my dog.”
She strode up the steps with Trooper without a second look, slamming the front door behind her.