The Closer You Get (31 page)

Adam looked to Roux for support and met with only an arched brow and a cold expression. “Are you kidding me?” he asked.

“You need to think about what you’re doing,” Jack said. “Because you’re about to lose what you have with Cash and possibly ruin his life along with it. Now go on.”

“I cannot fucking believe you’re siding with that asshole over me.”

“That’s not what’s going on,” Roux said. “You can’t seem to see how unreasonable you’re being.”

“Whatever,” Adam replied. “I should have known he’d have gotten to you already. Honestly, I hope trouble does find him just so you all can see what he’s really made of.”

Adam left, infuriated and more surprisingly, confused. His anger felt irrational and defensive and yet, he couldn’t seem to talk himself down. Without a doubt, Rye had managed to fool everyone into thinking he was a nice guy. Without a doubt, the guy had to go. And if Les and Eddie Dunigan were the ones to do it, then so be it.

Rye and Cash crashed on their couch after returning home Saturday evening. Rye didn’t want to be there. He wanted to be with Cora, in her arms, in her bed. But she hadn’t invited him, and he’d decided to give her a night to herself. He needed to think things through anyway.

“The old man sure has changed,” Cash said.

Rye grunted, not thrilled about acknowledging the fact.

“I’m glad you swallowed your pride and forgave him.”

Rye grunted again.
 

“He seemed to like Cora.”

Rye smiled a little. “Who wouldn’t?” Rye turned his head. “I told her I love her.”

Cash pressed his lips together, fighting a smile. “Did she say it back?”

“Yeah. She did.”

“You’re doing good, man.”

“Yeah. Looks that way. How about you? Sounded like you’re thinking of ending things with Adam.”

Cash sighed heavily. “I’m going to tell him he has to make a decision about us. I want to keep going with him. But I can’t do it with him being such an asshole to you all the time.”

Rye didn’t want to be the thing keeping Adam and Cash from happiness. He couldn’t see how it was his fault, though. He’d reached out to Adam, tried to make friends.

A crash outside interrupted his thoughts. He and Cash sat up and listened. Glass breaking. Metal on metal. They jumped up and looked out the window. There were five guys outside. Rye recognized Les and Eddie Dunigan among them. Eddie was the one making all the noise, beating up Rye’s truck with a baseball bat.

Les marched up to the door and pounded on it. “Hey, you come on out here!” came the muffled shout. “We wanna talk to you ‘bout what you did to our cousin!”

“Call the cops,” Rye said.

Cash disappeared into the kitchen. A moment later, Rye heard his voice as he told the sheriff what was going on.
 

The pounding on the door turned into a loud thunk. Then another. And another. Any minute the frame would splinter. So Rye unlocked the deadbolt, turned the knob, and waited for the next thunk. As soon as Les’s foot hit the door, Rye let the door swing open. He jumped back as Les fell forward with the momentum of his kick.
 

“The fuck is your problem?” Rye asked, even as he grabbed Les by the shirtfront and shoved him back outside. He pulled the door shut behind him, not wanting Cash to get involved.

“You’re the asshole nearly killed Davis.”

“That’s right, and there were six of them. Know what happened to the other five?”

Les looked confused, his lips twisting in fury and disgust over his rotting teeth. “No. What?”

“They ran away as soon as I took out their leader. Which is what these fellas behind you are gonna do as soon as I take you down. You ready for that?”

“Fuck you! There’s five of us and one of—”

Rye slammed his fist into Les’s face. Les fell back a step, and Rye swung again, absorbing the shock and pain in his knuckles. This time, Les’s knees buckled. Rye caught him and rammed him face first into the gravel of the parking lot. He pinned Les’s arms behind his back and knelt on one knee on top of him. He looked up and, sure enough, the other four were backing away. Even Eddie who held a baseball bat.

“Things get a little too real for you boys?” Rye asked. “You didn’t think there’d be consequences to your actions?”

Sirens approached, and three of the bullies turned tail and ran. Eddie dropped his bat and took another step back, glancing behind him as though he couldn’t quite decide what he should do.
 

Cash came out, the phone still in his hand. Rye stood and left Les writhing on the ground. “You okay?” Cash asked.
 

“Yeah,” Rye said. “I guess this was bound to happen.”

A sheriff’s car pulled in, and two deputies got out. Rye was hoping to see Kyle, the sheriff, but he supposed it didn’t matter who hauled these assholes away.
 

“What seems to be the problem?” The taller of the two deputies asked. He had a long face like a horse and slightly buck teeth.

“This one,” Rye said, pointing at Les, “tried to kick my door in. And that one,” pointing at Eddie, “beat the shit out of my truck with a baseball bat.”

Les scrambled to his feet and dragged his arm across his face, smearing the blood from his nose over his cheek. “I’m pressing charges. All’s I did was knock on his door, and this asshole opens the door and starts punching me.”

“It’s true!” Eddie piped up. “I seen it.”

“Bullshit!” Rye said. “Just get these guys away from our apartment, will you?”

“Sir, did you assault this man?” the deputy asked.

“I told you he did, didn’t I? Or do you think I broke my own fucking nose!” Les said.

“Les, calm down, let me handle it,” the deputy said.

Great, Rye thought. They were familiar with each other. Probably old high school chums or drinking buddies or something. “He was trying to knock down my door and—”

“Did you assault him?”

Rye couldn’t very well hide his bloody knuckles. “Look, we’re the ones who called you guys. Are you going to arrest them or not?”

The deputy glanced back at his partner and gave him a nod. The partner went to work cuffing Eddie and reading him his rights. The horse-faced deputy turned back to him. “Sir, if you’ll turn around and put your hands behind your head,” he said as he pulled out his handcuffs.

Rye blinked. “I beg your fucking pardon? I’m the victim here—”

“Les, here, says you assaulted him for no good reason. Don’t look like he kicked your door in. Don’t like you sustained any injuries. I’m gonna have to take you in.”

“Fuck you!” Rye had kept a tenuous grasp on his self-control throughout the whole incident, but he felt himself finally lose his grip.
 

Cash’s hand squeezed his shoulder. “Calm down. Go with him, and we’ll sort this out.”

“No!” Rye said. “No fucking way. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Sir, calm down—”

“You calm down, Roscoe. Just because you’re all buddy-buddy with this asshole doesn’t give you the right to arrest me—”

“Sir, if you don’t cooperate, I’m going to have to use force.”

“Force? You’re fucking threatening me?”
 

The deputy stepped into his space, and Rye made his mistake. On instinct, he shoved the guy away from him. “Keep your goddamn hands off me!”

In a split second his world turned to fire and pain. When it ended, he was face down in the gravel getting his hands cuffed behind his back. The other deputy was pocketing his taser. Rye wanted to scream in rage, but a pair of blue eyes arrested his attention.
 

“Brother, just breathe,” Cash said. “Just calm yourself down.”

Rye was huffing through his teeth like an angry bull, but the sound and sight of Cash anchored him.

“I’ll take care of this, you just cooperate, okay? Be nice and don’t make this worse. Okay?”

Rye thought he said ‘okay’ but only a snarl came out.

“I’m going to get Adam, see if he can’t help.”

From somewhere behind him, Les Dunigan laughed. “Good luck with that. He’s the one told us about you and Davis.”

“Les, shut up,” said the horse-faced deputy.
 

Rye kept his eyes on Cash whose expression morphed from anger to sadness to cold, miserable acceptance. “I’ll get you some help. Just be calm.”

Rye managed to nod. He was hauled to his feet and promptly shoved in the back of the car next to Eddie. Les, finally cuffed, was shoved in next to him. Fortunately, the ride to the station didn’t last long. And, fortunately, the cops gave him a private cell rather than locking him in with Les and Eddie.
 

Help took a little longer coming than Rye would have liked. It came in the form of Kyle, the Sheriff, trailed by Cash, Cora, and the guy from the bakery…Marshall, Rye thought his name was. The older brother of Les and Eddie.

“All right, boys, what seems to be the problem?” Kyle asked, looking awfully world-weary for such a young man. His question was directed toward Les and Eddie, so Rye stayed quiet.

“This asshole punched me in the face for no good reason,” Les said.

“Really?” Marshall stepped in and asked. “No good reason?”

Les seemed to shrink back. “That’s right.”

“So you weren’t harassing him over the thing with Davis?”

“Yeah…I mean no…I mean…”

“Let me ask you this,” Marshall said, as he gripped the bars and leaned against them. “How come when Davis got beat up three years ago, you didn’t go looking for the guy who done it?”

Les shrugged.

“It’s because you don’t give a shit about Davis. But you do like trouble, don’t you asshole? Any excuse for a fight, am I right?”

“Fuck you, Marshall.”

Marshall laughed and stepped back. He turned to Kyle. “They’re dropping the charges. You can let him go.”

“Hey, I am not!” Les shouted.

“Yeah, you are. ‘Cause you may or may not do time for this little stunt, but you’d sure as hell go to prison if Kyle, here, knew what I knew about how you spent your time two weeks ago.”

Whatever Marshall had on Les must have been good because Les went pale and shrank back. He glanced over at Rye, back to Marshall, and finally to Kyle. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll drop the charges. Just a misunderstanding is all.”

“Great,” Marshall said. He stepped back and exchanged nods with Kyle. When he started to walk away, Les surged for the bars.
 

“Hey!” Les shouted. “You just gonna leave us here?”

“I’m sure you won’t get more than a year,” Marshall said over his shoulder. “See you when you get out.”

As he left, Les and Eddie shouted curses at him.
 

“Now,” Kyle said, “unfortunately, we still have ‘assaulting a police officer’ to deal with.”

Rye threw his hands up. “Your asshole deputy was threatening unreasonable force.”

“Hey Jep,” Kyle called. “You come on back here.”

A moment later, the horse-faced deputy strolled down the corridor. “Now that we got Cash’s story, and Les has dropped the charges, what do you say? Can we cut him loose?”

Kyle must have had a conversation with Jep already because the deputy appeared fully contrite. His eyes were downcast as he shuffled his feet and shrugged. “I guess I could have handled it differently.”

“So…no charges?”

Jep shrugged. “No, charges.”

“Good.” Kyle pulled out a key ring and unlocked Rye’s cell. “You’re free to go, Mr. Holcomb.”
 

He stepped out of the cell and faced off with Kyle. “This was bullshit,” he said.

“Rye,” Cash warned.

Kyle nodded. “I understand. But if we let this go, it’ll be better for everyone, don’t you think?”

Rye gritted his teeth. “Wouldn’t want me making trouble for your department, huh?”

“Rye, he’s helping us,” Cash said.

“He’s helping himself!” Rye turned back to Kyle. “I won’t make trouble. We both know I’d lose if I tried.”

“Mr. Holcomb, it doesn’t have to be like that—”

Rye laughed. “Sure it does. It’s the same in all these shit towns. Nothing but crooked law enforcement and redneck low-lifes. Fuck it all. Come on, Cash, let’s go.”

He walked past his brother and Cora, pointedly ignoring her. Cora was meant for pure goodness and pleasure. He couldn’t look at her while he was filled with anger and resentment.

He heard Cash apologizing to Kyle as he left the building. Cora caught up to him in the parking lot. She grabbed his wrist just before he reached Cash’s truck. He stopped and turned to her, forcing himself to meet her eyes.

“I know you’re angry—”

“Adam did this. I fucking hate this place, Cora.”

“I know, Rye. I know, and I’m sorry.”

“Can you just go?” he asked. “I can’t talk about this with you right now.”

Her brow furrowed. “I’d like to be there for you. For support.”

“Well, I don’t want that right now. Go on. I’ll call you later, okay?”

She was stepping back slowly, hugging her purse to her stomach. “I love you, Rye.”

His second time hearing those words. For some reason, their warmth wasn’t enough to overpower the cold anger in his heart. He could have returned the sentiment, but he didn’t want to say ‘I love you’ out of reassurance. He wanted those words to be sacred and pure, to only be said when their meaning was fully realized.
 

So he nodded, turned, and climbed in Cash’s truck.
 

Sunday it rained. The perfect reflection of the despair in Adam’s soul. He sat in his favorite chair half the day wondering why Cash hadn’t called like he said he would. He was supposed to have gotten home yesterday and come over to spend the night. Instead, Adam had received nothing but silence.

He picked up his phone several times over the course of the day, trying to make himself hit the call button. For some reason, he couldn’t do it. A voice in his head told him it was guilt over what he’d done, looking into Cash’s past and then possibly causing trouble for his present. But Adam didn’t like what that voice had to say, so he chose to ignore it.

Late in the afternoon, he decided to drive to Cash’s apartment and ask him to dinner. He only made it as far as his front door. When he opened it, he nearly squeaked in fright. Cash was standing there, soaking wet. Adam laughed in relief, grabbed Cash’s shirt-front and pulled him inside.