Southern Seduction (34 page)

Oh God.

I’m going to lose her.

I’m going to lose her.

“Kip?” She tilts her head. I can see she’s nervous. Hell—I’m nervous. I don’t know why Mama had to do this, especially right now. I take in several long breaths as I try to steady my thoughts, find my words ... I don’t know ... prolong the inevitable. “Kip!” she snaps.

“Okay. Okay.” I run my hand through my hair. “Please hear me out.” Now why in the hell did I go and say something like that? That’s like an invitation for her to go ahead and get pissed off before I even start. “Shelby, before I met you, I wasn’t very serious with my relationships.”
Oh hell! Just shoot me!

“Do you have something? A disease?” she asks, her eyes wide with panic.

“What?! Hell no! Damn it, just listen!” I say, feeling all flustered. Oh hell, I’m just going to spit it out! “I was seeing all three of your cousins—eh, sisters—at the same time. They didn’t know it, but obviously, I did,” I say quickly, going with my whole Band-Aid theory. She stares at me in silence. Her face is expressionless, and it’s scary as all fucking hell. Not being able to take the lack of ... well, anything ... I continue. “As soon as I met you, I broke it off with them. Except for Maggie—she did the breakin’ off herself, luckily.” I swallow.

After a few minutes of silence, I look from Shelby to Mama, not really sure of what to do here. Breaking eye contact seems to have helped, because Shelby exhales loudly, trembling as she looks down at her hands. She plays with the hair tie at her wrist.

“Baby, I—”

“No! Don’t you touch me!” She pulls away, and my heart breaks at the big, fat tears plummeting down her cheeks.

“Shelby, please. You need to listen to me. You’re not giving me a fair chance to explain myself,” I say softly.

“What is there to explain? You took advantage of my sisters and their situation, knowing you could get away with it because they’d never tell anyone—including each other!” she yells.

“Shelby, that’s not fair!” I raise my voice as well.

“Oh, it isn’t?! You want to explain that to me?” She gets up. “You know what? Just save it, Kip! You make me sick! I don’t want anything to do with you!”

“Now wait a minute, honey,” Mama interjects.

“And you
knew
!” she screams at Mama. “Oh my God. Oh my God. I feel so stupid,” she says, almost as if she’s in shock. She covers her mouth and starts sobbing before she runs out the back door.

“Why?! Why did you make me do that?!” I yell at Mama, jumping up to chase Shelby.

“Let her go, Kip. Give her some space.” She grabs my arm.

“In case you’ve lost count here, Mama, you’re batting zero in the advice department right now!” I pull away and run after her.

I head down to the stables, guessing that’s the only place she’d run off to. Once inside, I see her sitting on a bale of hay near Lucky’s stall, crying her goddamn eyes out. Her head shoots up as soon as she hears me approach.

“Shelby, wait. Please hear me out,” I plead. She just sits there, staring at me blankly. “First, I want to say that I think very highly of your sisters.” She scoffs at this proclamation, but I don’t let it deter me. “What I did wasn’t right, Shelby, but I’m not the only one at fault here. Do you think I meant any more to them than they meant to me?” I lift my brows at her.

“What are you talking about?”

“If I was the one they were hopelessly in love with, the guy they couldn’t live without, do you think I would’ve been kept a secret from everybody? Huh?” I lean up against the wall, waiting for her to answer. She seems to be thinking hard about this. “Shelby, I was their boy toy just as much as they were somebody for me to have fun with. I’m not saying they didn’t mean anything to me. I’ve been friends with them most of my life. I care about them. But I was never in love with them. Shelby, I’m not some scumbag who sleeps with just anybody. It was only them for the past year.” I stop when she barks back a condescending laugh. “What?”

“Do you even hear yourself?” She throws her hands out. “What am I supposed to say to that, Kip? Oh, it’s all right, since you kept the number down to three. Three sisters! You’re a pig!” she spits out at me. The look of disgust on her face makes the ache in my chest just downright awful.

“I’m sorry you feel that way about me.” Defeated, I look down to the ground. “Whatever your feelings for me, I’m begging you to please not hold them against my mother. She’d be heartbroken if you never spoke to her again. You’re the only link to her brother. Please don’t hold my behavior against her.” I choke on my words as I try to contain my emotions. After a moment of silence, I look up—only to be greeted by that expressionless stare again. I nod at her silence and walk out before I lose the last ounce of man left in me. Yeah, that’s right, I want to cry like a baby. I’m human, ain’t I?
Damn it, my heart hurts.

It’s been a week since Shelby broke things off with me. To make matters worse, she’s stayed on here. Don’t get hopeful for me. She’s just staying ‘til she finds her own place. She doesn’t want to go back to the Johnsons’. Oh, you think it’s good I know all this? You think she and I have been talking, since I know her plans? Not a chance in hell. I get all my info from my mother. Shelby barely tells her anything, but I can see she’s trying to get over my mother knowing about my past infidelities.

She hasn’t confronted Bea or told the Johnson girls that she’s their sister. She hasn’t said much to anybody, really, other than what she’s told my mom. Mama tries to talk to her every day about me and how heartbroken I am. ‘Cause I am, ya know? Completely friggin’ heartbroken.

I close my eyes, trying to get back to sleep. I don’t know why I bother. I haven’t slept good all week. I got so used to her being in my arms at night. They ache for her.

Just as I’m about to drift off, I hear something like glass breaking and Shelby starts screaming wildly. I jump out of my bed and rush off to her room. Flinging her door open, I catch her thrashing about her bed.

“Get off of me! No!” she screams.

“Shelby! Baby, wake up! You’re safe. You’re safe!” I wrap my arms around her after I make it through the maze of broken glass on the floor. Looks like she knocked over a vase. She finally opens her eyes. The dawn peekin’ through the windows allows me to see just how frightened she is. She stares at me, and then, out of nowhere, she crumbles in my arms and starts to sob. “Shh ... you’re safe, baby. I’ll never let anythin’ happen to you or anyone hurt you again. I promise.” I rock her and kiss her hair.

“I hate her,” she breathes into my neck.

“Who, baby?”

“Bea. I hate her. I hate her so bad! How could she abandon me? How could she leave me with him? Leave my mother, Nate, and me with him? My mother tried to contact her when she got sick. She never responded, Kip. Never once.” She cranes her neck to look up at me.

“Let’s go.” I get off the bed and pull her with me.

“Let’s go where?”

“You’re mad. You need to tell her. You need to do it when your feelings are raw. We’re going right now.” I bring her slippers over.

“Unannounced? Just barge on over? I can’t do that.”

“Oh, yes you can! I’m not going to see you hurtin’ for another minute! You need to unleash this burden onto her. You didn’t do anythin’ wrong, Shelby! You don’t deserve this! Not the nightmares, the lack of understandin’, or the lack of family. You deserve to go to sleep at night and have pleasant dreams. I could kill that son of a bitch for what he’s done to you!” I clamp my teeth down, angry as hell. “We’re going now!” I yank her to her feet. “While we’re both angry as hell!”

Shelby follows my lead (it surprised the hell out of me, too) and we head out into the damp, cool morning ready for whatever battle awaits us.

Within ten minutes I am banging on the Johnsons’ door and ringing the doorbell like a lunatic. The door finally opens—with a disgruntled-looking Hank Johnson on the other side of it.

“What on God’s green earth is your goddamn problem, son?!” he barks.

“We need to speak with your wife! Now!” I push past him, dragging Shelby along. “Mrs. Johnson!” I yell.

“Boy, you better git outta my house right now!” He tries to grab my arm, but I jerk out of his reach.

“Where is she?” Shelby screams.

“Right here, Shelby,” Bea says softly from behind us. Shelby spins on her heel to face her.

“How could you?” Shelby asks, her voice quivering.

“How could I what?” Bea asks nervously.

“I understand giving me up and I am grateful for the wonderful parents I had, but she wrote you and told you she was sick,” she almost whispers. “You left me there. You left her—all of us—with a monster!” she yells. “Do you know what he did to her? He beat her two days before she died because she was too sick to buy his beer! I tried to protect her, and you know what I got for it?
Raped!
He and his friends raped me over and over, too, because I needed to keep a roof over my brother’s and my head ‘til I could save up enough money for us to both leave when he turned eighteen. He died anyway!” she screams through her tears. “You are my mother, and you left me all alone with the wolves! She told you! You knew he was evil! How could you? How could you do that to me?! How could you do that to her?! She was there for you when you needed her the most!” Full-blown sobs rip themselves from Shelby’s throat, her face a shade of red I’ve never seen in my life.

“Is that true, Mama?” Maggie asks. I didn’t even realize she and Missy had walked into the room.

“It’s all true, Maggie,” I answer. “Shelby is your sister. Your father made your mother give her up.” I start to explain everything. Bea stands in front of Shelby, chin quivering, eyes fighting a losing battle with her tears.

“I want you two to leave right this instant! You are not welcome here!” Hank yells. Bea turns her head slightly to look at him, and I kid you not, I suddenly sense a fear I have not known since I was a kid watching my first horror flick.

“The only one leaving this house is you, Hank Johnson!” Bea says through her teeth.

“You best shut that mouth of yours, Bea, or I’ll shut it for you!” he seethes. He turns, calling for some of his guys to come help, I guess. That’s all it took—him to turn his back on her. Bea grabs the vase on the little table in the foyer here and charges after him, breaking it over his head. He falls to the floor. Now, I’ma tell you right now—I swear to God this all happened in slow motion!

“You son of a bitch! I will kill you dead! You have taken
everything
from me!
Everything!
” Bea screams. “I begged you to let me take them in! I begged you every day for two weeks, no matter how much you hit me, until you finally beat me into a blackout!”

“Mama, what?!” Missy gasps.

“Oh, Shelby!” Bea cries, looking at her. “I did, honey. I tried every day to get you here. Took every beating that came my way, praying my persistence would wear him down. I almost died when Mary died. I was in the hospital, too. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my own sister! Ooh—you goddamn bastard!” she screams, and kicks Hank.

“Mama, you told us you were in a car accident,” Maggie says. Her face is ashen, her eyes wide with confusion and disbelief.

“More like a damn train wreck that has lasted twenty-five years!” she yells. “You took everything from me, Hank Johnson, and it’s high time I do the same to you!”

Hank wipes the blood from his forehead. “You have made yourself one
very
big mistake, woman!”

“Well, Hank, for the first time in all these years, I can honestly stand here and agree with you. But that is all about to change! You are a stupid, stupid man, and I am going to take such great pleasure in proving that!” Bea smiles wickedly. “I want you out of our house right now!”

“You are mad! I’m not going anywhere, but you can bet your ass you are!” He starts to get up, but I knock him right back down with a hard shove of my foot.

“You best jus’ stay down, old man, or I swear to Christ I will enjoy every time my fist hits that stupid, pompous, ignorant mouth of yours!” I threaten as adrenaline courses through my veins. He lies there, staring up at me, his eyes wide. I can almost swear the look he’s givin’ me is laced with fear.

“Missy, grab me my cell phone, please,” Bea asks, not taking her eyes off of Hank. Missy pauses for a minute, then runs off for Bea’s phone. She’s back within two minutes. Bea takes it and starts tapping on the screen. She then brings the phone up to her ear. “Yes, Mr. Attorney General, sir. This is Bea Johnson. I have sent you all the proof you needed. I’m on board. Kindly send someone here to escort this piece of horse shit off my property. Yes. Thank you, sir. We’ll be in touch. Bye, now,” she says sweetly and hangs up. “Oh, Hank, I hope you enjoy your last ten minutes of freedom—but most of all, I hope your boyfriend in jail bestows upon you the same kind of tenderness you have graced me with these past twenty-five years!”

I’m not gonna lie. We are all collectively staring at this woman with our jaws on the floor.

“Have you lost your mind?!” He tries to laugh at her. “You really think I believe you have the attorney general on speed dial, or that you have
anything
on me?”