River's End (River's End Series, #1) (14 page)

Erin’s heart thumped in her chest as she waited for Jack Rydell to pay for her new wardrobe. He pulled his wallet out, dug into it and handed the cashier his credit card. She waited off to the side, with Joey’s jacket wrapped tightly around her. She could not believe this was happening to her. She could not believe that, in the span of a single night, she had become completely destitute. The only lucky part was that Chance abandoned her in the backyard of decent people. She was so embarrassed, she could barely look Jack in the eye. He waited patiently as she picked out basic clothes and undergarments. She selected as little as she could. But still, it added up. He, blessedly, didn’t comment on any of her items on the conveyor belt, including her new bra and underwear. Finally, the garments were bagged and Jack handed them to her. She quickly disappeared into the restroom to dress more appropriately.

He waited for her. It was nine o’clock in the morning, and already, her life was ruined. What could she do? She owed money now and had no transportation. The ranch was a number of miles from any real civilization, and a good thirty from an actual town. It wasn’t like she could take the bus to get around, as she might have done in the city.

Finally, they pulled back onto the ranch. As they were exiting the truck, Shane came up to them. “He stole the petty cash box too.”

Erin’s heart dropped lower.
No.
Not more.
When she glanced up at Jack, she saw his jaw clench and she closed her eyes in mortification.

“How much was in it?” Shane asked.

“A grand or so,” Jack said through gritted teeth.

That gave Chance over twenty-five hundred dollars and her car. She shook her head. “I’ll never see him again. He won’t ever be back.”

“Yeah, well, you won’t be missing out on much now, will you?” Jack snapped. She stepped back. Of course, Jack was angry. Of course, she was merely an extension of Chance. And now at their mercy.

Shane gazed at Jack and then at Erin. “What about her?”

Jack glanced at her too. “Not so sure yet.”

“She really have nothing?”

“Really.”

Erin straightened her back. “She also hasn’t gone deaf and dumb. If you would drive me to the nearest bus station, I’ll go west, back to Seattle. And I promise to send you the money and pay you back for the clothes.”

Jack turned away and started walking towards the house. Over his shoulder, he said, “That’s a crock of shit and we both know it. There’s no one else and nowhere else to go. Come inside, it’s time we had a talk.”

She stared after him. He didn’t even have the decency to look at her as he spoke. She stomped her foot and cursed Chance. Then she cursed Jack. Then Joey. Then Shane, Ian, her mother, her stepfather, and finally, herself. She mostly cursed herself for having nothing else left in life. But she eventually followed Shane and entered the house.

They were all there: all four brothers. All of the big, intimidating brothers. Ian indicated for her to sit down and Jack was pouring coffee. Joey was scowling at her from the living room, and Shane sat across from her at the table. He didn’t seem all smiles and charming this morning, however.

Jack leaned his hip into the kitchen counter and folded his arms over his chest after setting his coffee cup beside him. She looked away and stared down at the bare wooden table. She could feel all their eyes on her.

“Now what?” Shane finally asked.

“Now Erin gets to tell us the entire truth. Not half-answers, half-truths, or half-assed stories, but the entire truth, from start to finish.”

She raised her head to find Jack staring at her. The easy going ways of the last few days, which she enjoyed so much, were gone. He was right back to distrusting her.

She started to say something when the door opened. Ben stepped through.

Jack straightened up and frowned at his son. “Why aren’t you at school, Ben?”

Ben glanced at her, and then at his dad. Sometimes, it still threw her to realize Jack was the father to this six-foot, plus boy. Ben didn’t look nearly as cocky beside his father as he did behind his father’s back. “I thought she might need me.”

“
She
might need you?” Jack repeated, his surprise evident. Then, turning to her, he asked, “You think Erin needs you? For what, Ben?”

“For, you know, support. She can’t help what her brother did, Dad.” Jack sighed as he glared at her. Ben’s interference was not good for her, and definitely not needed. He was only making a bad situation much worse.

“I know you think you know her, but she really doesn’t need you here. Now get to school.”

“I do know her, Dad. More than anyone else has bothered.”

Jack’s gaze grew weary, and something mean and unhappy overcame his face as he looked at her. Ben was only making it all worse.

“You have to let her stay here, Dad. She has nowhere else to go. She can’t go anywhere else. I mean, really, she needs…”

“Ben, stop,” she said, standing up quickly. “Do what your dad says.”

He looked wounded at her rebuff. Jack didn’t like Ben’s fierce reaction to defend her.

“Erin?” Ben started to say, but she cut him off.

“Don’t, Ben. I’ll handle this.”

Jack stepped in between them. “What exactly will you handle? What exactly is it you two spend your afternoons doing, Erin?”

She frowned. “Nothing.”

He went still. “What did you do with my son?”

She jerked back, completely grossed out. “Oh God! Nothing! I mean nothing like
that
.”

“Like what then, Erin? First Joey, now Ben? Is that it? If you so much as touched his hand I’ll…”

“Dad! Stop. She’s not like that.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Jack said as he started to approach her. She stepped back after seeing the rage directed toward her in Jack’s eyes. How easily he could think that of her.

“She can’t read.”

Jack stopped and his mouth opened. No one said a word. Ben came closer, his tone quieter now that the entire room was staring at him. Erin closed her eyes and dropped her head down toward the table. In her whole life, she’d never felt so humiliated or miserable.

She sat down, now that the entire fight was over.

Ben continued, “I’ve been helping her fill out job applications. She can’t do it alone. She can write down what needs to be written, if given enough time, but she can’t read it. That’s why she doesn’t have a job yet. That’s also why you can’t kick her out of here. Where would she go?”

She felt Jack looking at her. “Okay, Ben. Okay, we’ll take care of this. Get back to school now.”

“Promise me, Dad, you won’t let anything happen to her.”

“I promise, Ben. Now go.”

She refused to look up or acknowledge what was happening. She couldn’t bear to see the pity and disgust in all of the Rydells’ faces.

The silence lasted long after Ben shut the door. Dear, sweet, young Ben who seemed to worry about her even though she didn’t deserve it, and who thought staying there could somehow protect her from a world she could barely navigate through to survive.

“Is that true?” Jack spoke. His tone sounded less harsh than before.

She finally nodded as tears rimmed her eyelids. “Yes, it’s true.”

“You had Ben helping you?”

“Yes.”

“You had no right to ask him to keep that a secret. Don’t use my son, either of my sons, for anything ever again; do you hear me?”

She closed her eyes and nodded.

“Erin?” She didn’t look up and he finally said, “Look at me.”

She lifted her eyes to Jack’s. “What exactly is your situation? All of it. How? How can you not read? And how have you ever worked?”

“How? I don’t know. I just can’t do it. People tried to teach me, but I couldn’t do it. I knew I was stupid when I was pretty young. I learned how to compensate for it and hide it most of the time. Most people never guessed. You didn’t guess.”

Jack eyed her. “I didn’t say you were stupid. I realize it’s just a learning thing, not a matter of intelligence. I just… I mean it’s hard for me to get how you survived this long without being able to read.”

“Not well,” she said finally.

“What was Ben doing? Teaching you?”

“Oh no. I can’t do it, so there’s no point. He helped me read through the employment applications so I could fill them out.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose. “And how did you work in the past? Have you ever worked in the past? What do you do if you can’t read?”

She shrugged. “I’ve always worked. I waitressed. I worked fast food. I cleaned offices and houses and stores. I’ve done a lot of different jobs.”

“How do you take orders?”

“I remember them?”

“You remember them?”

“Sure.”

“Who helped you before? Before Ben?”

“My mom. It’s part of why I lived with her. She could read pretty well.”

“The mom who died, and was indirectly responsible for bringing you here?”

“Yes.”

“How did she die?”

Erin looked up and stared at Jack, then at Shane and finally, Ian. “She started my car in a closed garage and died of carbon monoxide poisoning.”

They looked away, since no one could hold her gaze. They didn’t know what to do or say to her now. She almost relished their obvious discomfort.

“She left a note for me that said she was sorry. That’s all the note said, ‘I’m sorry, Erin,’ not ‘I love you,’ or ‘I’m sorry to fail you and abandon you,’ but she was sorry. She knew I couldn’t function in the world without her. She knew I had nowhere to go. Anyway, the part you want to know, Jack? I was left alone with my stepfather in the tiny one-bedroom apartment we all shared. I slept on the couch. He kept the apartment and wanted me to join him in the bedroom after Mom was gone. I said no. He didn’t like that. He got put out. He tried to force me and that was when I left with what I had stashed in my car. And when… I came here.”

Ian spoke first. “You really have nowhere else to go then?”

She scoffed. “No. This is impossible for you to believe, I know. I have no one. There is no money. There are no friendly neighbors or a thousand-acre ranch waiting for me. There is nothing. Except Chance.”

“How come someone your age doesn’t have friends to go to?”

“Because I spent all my time pushing everyone away. I never let anyone get too close to me because then they’d guess I could not read. My entire existence has been about trying to hide that.”

Joey stood up and walked into the kitchen, but glared at her. “Chance was my fault. I know that now. I screwed up. You all tried to tell me and I refused to listen. But she isn’t our responsibility. I doubt we can believe all of this.”

“She’s your girlfriend,” Shane said finally.

“Not as of last night. And funny how Chance is gone this morning and look who is stranded here. I don’t buy it. Not for a second, Erin.”

Looking up at Joey, she finally stood up, sliding her chair back slowly. “I had nothing to do with what Chance did. I have never been involved or had anything to do with what Chance does.”

“You can’t be so different.”

“You didn’t even see what he was until this very moment. I told you what he was, and you wouldn’t even believe me. If I wanted to play you, why would I have told you that?”

“You also said you’d be gone today. If all this was true, then where were you going to go?”

“Last night, I had a car, clothes and over a thousand dollars. I know it wasn’t much, but a lot more than I have today.”

“Who doesn’t use a bank?” Joey demanded, his face expressing how stupid he found her.

“Someone who can’t read a deposit slip, or an ATM screen,” she said finally, after a long pause.

“How did you ever get a license?”

“I didn’t.”

“What? You drive around without a legal driver’s license?”

“Yes,” she said, looking straight into Joey’s eyes. He couldn’t for a moment guess what her life was like.

“What did you do for work? Strip? Hook? What could you possibly do if you really can’t read?”

She pulled her head back as if he slapped her.

“Joey. That’s enough.”

Joey glanced back at Jack. “She played us, Jack. Just like you said she would. Don’t fall for it now. Get her out of here.”

“Yeah? And how do I do that? She can’t drive air. I checked the trailer, and there’s nothing there.”

Erin eyed Jack. She didn’t know he checked her story out. He looked back at her, unashamed. He didn’t trust her. He had to be convinced she wasn’t lying. She also realized she deserved that.

“You think she’s really stuck here? That she’s telling you the truth?”

She watched Jack. And so did Joey. Jack finally nodded. “Yeah, I think she’s telling the truth, Joe.”

“And so what? She’s now our problem?”

“Joe, you were the one who…”

“Screwing a girl doesn’t mean you have to live with her, Jack.”