Awakening Veronica (38 page)

Brent snarled him. “This ain’t her home. Her home is in Billings, Montana,
with me
!”

Hank put the cuffs on him as he said, “That is up for debate, Haygard. You’ve violated trespassing laws, broken into a dwelling, damaged property and threatened further damage, and disturbed the peace. I’d be happy to take you into Divine and put you in a cell. You gonna settle down so we can talk like adults?”

“Can I at least get up off the broken furniture? I got splinters.”

Hank lifted him into a sitting position and Travis curled his lip as he watched Haygard pout over a splinter in his finger. The guy was big, and the way he sat displayed his fat belly hanging over his jeans. He might have size on his side but he looked like the most exercise he got was playing video games and terrorizing defenseless women. In another ten years what muscle he had would probably run to fat.

Hank removed his phone from his pocket, quickly swiped at the screen and said, “Hey, Wyatt. I’ve got an intruder at the house. No, Veronica’s fine, although she may want to file harassment charges. Call Simon out, too. Thanks. I’ll be in in the morning to deal with him.”

Hank seated Veronica at the dining room table and then pulled another chair from the table, turned it and sat with his arms resting on the back, placing himself squarely between Haygard and their woman. Travis could feel the anger radiating from Hank as he stared at their unwelcome visitor.

“Why are you here?”

“Veronica won’t take my calls or answer my e-mails. I’m here to take her home.”

“She broke up with you several weeks ago and asked you to move out.” He turned to Veronica and she nodded in confirmation. “She made it clear she wants you gone from her life. You were supposed to pack and be gone from her apartment.”

“That’s not the way I see it.”

Hank turned to Veronica. “Who pays for the apartment lease in Billings?”

Veronica stared at Haygard, emotions flitting across her face. Embarrassment. Disgust. Regret. “I do. I pay the gas and other utilities, too. I can produce proof. Brent, I made it clear we were finished before I left and asked you to move out. And I
did
reply to your texts and returned your call to ask you to move out again. I even had the landlord call you to tell you to move out but you never returned his call.”

Hank turned back to Haygard. “How did you know where Veronica was?”

Haygard frowned. “Some lady I met at the coffee shop, Tabitha-something, told me.” Turning to Veronica, he growled, “I drove all the way from Montana to bring you home, Chubbs. I deserve another chance. That other gal didn’t mean nothin’.”

Hank pointed at Haygard. “You hit Veronica, didn’t you?”

Haygard scrunched up his nose and shrugged a shoulder. “One little pop to get her attention, that’s all.”

Travis glanced at Veronica and saw her blanch. One “little pop” from those ham-sized fists of his would’ve done a lot of damage. His baser instincts wanted him to pound Haygard to a bloody pulp.

Hank rose suddenly from the chair and said, “You’re done here.” He turned to Veronica and asked, “Nika, did you have anything you wanted to say?”

Veronica nodded as she stepped in front of Brent. “I told you it was over between us more than two weeks ago.
It. Is. Over
. Now you turn that jacked-up piece of crap Ford around and you drive right back to Montana and vacate that apartment. And if you damage any of my property, I’ll make sure you pay for it. Speaking of paying, Hank may have something to say about whether you leave now or not. After all, you broke into the home of the sheriff of Divine County.”

“Aw, Chubbs, come on. I didn’t know it was the sheriff’s house. I’ll pay for the damages and make everything right. I’ll even do the work myself, just come on home.”

Veronica stared at him and shook her head. “It would’ve made a difference to know this was the sheriff’s house?”

“I read online that you were on a private writing retreat. I expected you to be alone.”

Travis bristled at that comment. “Oh? What did you plan to do? Bust in on her thinking she was alone and defenseless, and drag her back to Montana like a fucking caveman? Haygard, we protect our women in Divine a little better than that.”

Haygard sized the two men up, looked at Veronica, who stood between the two of them, obviously reading the situation, and smiled. “If you wanted a ménage, why didn’t you say something, Chubbs? I might’ve been able to convince Phil and Gordon to join in. I know they’re rough around the edges but they’d have done ya good.” Brent smirked and licked his lips.

Veronica made a sickened sound in the back of her throat and Travis saw red but reeled in the urge to commit homicide when Hank shook his head. Assaulting the bastard would only complicate things.

Emboldened by their lack of reaction, Brent smiled at her. “I’m not giving up this easily, Chubbs. You know me,” Haygard said in an odd, deep, monotone voice.

Hank chuckled. “Is that your Dom voice, Haygard? Is that what you think makes a submissive quiver with the desire to submit?”

The bastard looked up at Hank with surprise and then glowered at him. “It’s worked in the past.”

Hank laughed out loud. “I know Doms that would have you pissing your pants in fear.”

“I’m not leaving without Veronica.” Haygard muttered. “I didn’t come all this way for nothin’.”

“Yeah, ya did.” Travis growled as he assisted the rotund turd to his feet as several pairs of headlights turned up the driveway. “Looks like the only way you’re leaving is in the custody of a deputy. I wouldn’t push your luck.”

Hank said, “Haygard, this is your one chance to move on. Make any more trouble and I get to do a shitload of paperwork. You keep pushing, and all that paperwork is going to be worth it. Veronica wants you out of her life. It’s that simple. In Billings, she didn’t have anyone to defend her. Here in Divine, she has an entire community behind her.”

“Whatever,” Haygard ground out. “This ain’t over.”

Hank got up in his face. “Leave Veronica alone.”

“No. She’s mine. I love her.”

“You’re tempting me, Haygard. Real men don’t hit the women they love.”

Haygard grinned at him. “If you know what a Dom is, then you know that’s not true.”

Travis grabbed hold of his shirt collar and said, “Shit-for-brains, you don’t know what you’re talking about. No self-respecting Dom would freeload off of his sub the way you have. You just want your gravy train back. The fact that you call yourself a Dom is an insult to people who know what that term really means.”

Haygard’s smile gave his eyes a reptilian chill. “You a Dom? That the reason you think you know everything? You planning to dominate my woman? Over my dead fucking body.”

A metallic click sounded from the porch and in an equally cold voice, Grandma Kate said, “I can arrange that, Bubba.” Gripped securely in her hands was a pearl-handled Colt .45, pointed safely at the ground but held at the ready.

“Whoa.” Hank lifted a placating hand to Grandma Kate. “How did you find out about this, Grandma Kate?”

“That adorable Wyatt called the house to let Jack know, since he knew Veronica is my relative.”

“Ma’am, last thing I want is to explain to Adam Kendall that I had to disarm his sweet little granny. Now, we’ve got this under control. Please don’t make me have to make that call and fill out all that paperwork.”

Wyatt and Simon came running up, carefully skirting Grandma Kate as she lowered her weapon and nodded at them but kept her eyes on Brent, whom she’d referred to as Bubba. Hank smiled as he recalled her words at the wedding. Bubba, the knuckle-dragger. That was how she’d referred to him.

“Poacher. That’s what you are. A fucking sub-poacher.” Haygard accused as both men closed in on either side of him.

Veronica was close enough that she’d heard what he said, and in a firm voice, she said, “I’m not your sub, Brent. And you’re not a Dom. You’re an abusive bastard.”

“Yeah, Brent,” Hank said with a satisfied grin. “But Veronica is
most definitely
a sub, and we’re her Doms.”

* * * *

“So Ace and Kemp paid Brent a visit?” Jack asked and then burst into laughter at the full dining room table on Thanksgiving afternoon. Everyone joined him, including Veronica.

Hank held her hand underneath the table and he glanced at her, enjoying the way her cheeks flushed while Travis told the story as he sat on her other side.

“Yeah. When I told Ace what had happened, he told me that he considered it his duty to pay Brent Haygard a visit. They caught up with him when he arrived at the impound lot to pick up his truck. They took him for a little ride and had a heart-to-heart talk with him that involved him swearing to move out of the apartment and to never contact Veronica again. I’m not sure if that promise came before or after he pissed himself. Oh, sorry, ladies. Sorry, Grandma Kate.”

The wizened lady grinned and waved her hand as she rocked with laughter in her seat. “Sometimes it takes more than the standard means for pressing the point home. Was he able to walk away from the situation with a better understanding of how bullies are dealt with here?”

Travis said, “Not only did he have a better understanding, he swore that he would move out, he would clean the apartment from top to bottom, and he would repair any damage done in Veronica’s absence. They told him about two of Kemp’s friends who live in Montana—near Billings as a matter of fact. These friends have personally guaranteed they will check in regularly until he turns in the keys to the landlord, and that they will follow up in the future to make sure he understood that we we’re serious. Kemp mentioned also that it was a shame Haygard was as hairy as he was because duct tape hurts even worse when you pull hair out with it.”

Veronica choked on her wine and giggled with the rest of the group. “That’s disgusting!”

Grace suddenly lurched from her chair and made a dash for the hall bathroom. All was silent for a few seconds and then Grandma Kate nodded and shook a finger in the air and said, “I knew something was off the last few days.” The expression on her face was jubilant and matched the look that suddenly crossed Grace’s sister Charity’s face.

In confusion, Hank looked at Jack, Adam, and Ethan, and noted the incongruous grins on their face.

“What?” Veronica asked as they chuckled.

Little Rose Marie craned her neck and looked down the hall. “Where’s Mama?”

Grace returned to the table a minute later and looked apologetically at her men and the rest of her group. “I guess there’s no need to make an announcement anymore, huh?”

“You’re pregnant!” Charity jubilantly crowed. “I’m gonna be an Auntie again. When’s this baby due?”

Rose Marie’s jaw dropped open and she shrieked, “Baby?
I’m the baby
!” Her little lip trembled and then the gigantic tears began to fall. “I’m the baby!”

Grace smiled and stroked her little girl. “Rosie, honey, you’ll always be my baby.”

Rose Marie slid out a big poochy lower lip and looked at her daddies. “
I’m
the baby.” She climbed into Grace’s lap, accidentally putting her knees in Grace’s middle. Grace flinched and suddenly turned a little green as she tried to hold it together.

Poor Grace.

Ethan pushed his chair back and softly said, “Rose Marie, come here, please.”

Rose Marie’s eyes widened and she sucked her lip as she climbed down and slowly went to Ethan. He lifted her into his lap and spoke softly. “Mommy feels sick, so I’m going to hold you for a bit. You will always be our baby. Always. But you are going to be a big sister, too. No more fussing.”

Rose Marie took a deep breath as Ethan spoke in that steady, controlled tone, which Hank recognized as the tone of a Dominant. She leaned against his chest and looked up at him with big green eyes. “Is it a girl baby?”

Ethan stroked her little cheek with a fingertip. “We don’t know yet, but whether it’s a boy or a girl, they’re going to need their big sister to watch over them.”

“Where’s the baby?”

“In Mommy’s tummy for right now.”

A horrified look crossed Rose Marie’s face as she gaped at her mother. “Mommy!
You ate the baby
?”

Everyone burst into laughter as Ethan gave Rose Marie a simple explanation to satisfy her curiosity and dispelled that notion. The rest of the meal was relatively calm.

Afterward, Grandma Kate joined Hank and Travis at the windows by the back door, looking out over the ranch and the horse barns. Veronica sat in the living room with Grace and Rose Marie where they were decorating the Christmas tree. Hank was looking forward to picking out a Christmas tree with their woman that weekend. He saw the satisfaction in Grandma Kate’s eyes as she asked, “I was right about the two of you, wasn’t I?”

“In what sense, Grandma Kate?” Hank asked.

She crossed her arms in front of her, mirroring their stance and looking out the windows as well. “So much of Veronica’s life was online and she was so sequestered in her bleak apartment.” She gestured out the window with a delicate, wizened hand. “She’s discovering the beauty and life outside the windows on her world. She has you to thank for that.”