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22
Tessa
What now?! Tessa slammed on the brakes and pressed her forehead against the steering wheel. A frustrated scream came out as hot air through her nostrils, muting the sound so she didn’t scare the kids.
There was only one road. A two-lane forgotten road riddled with potholes that led to the one-horse town in the middle of nowhere where she and Landon grew up. One freaking road.
And it was blocked.
Up ahead were cars turned on their sides and barbed wire fence forming a barricade that stretched into either side of the forest on this one stupid backwoods road.
“What do we do?” Robin asked, craning her neck to look behind them for a place to safely back up and turn around.
“Drive through it,” Tessa muttered under her breath as she stomped on the gas pedal.
“You’re not serious, right?” Robin squealed, pressing her hand against the dashboard to brace for shock as her left arm stretched out to protectively shield the kids.
“Mom?” Mason gulped.
Emily closed her eyes and began to sing.
“No. I’m not serious.” Old Blue screeched to a stop. She flung open the driver side door, throwing the truck into park, and jumped to the worn pavement. A patrol of dirty hunters in flannel shirts pointed rifles down at her from behind the barricade.
“What is this?” Tessa screamed, gesturing with both arms to the underbellies of the cars in her way.
“Turn around and go back where you came from, miss,” a gruff voice called out. “We’re not allowing traffic past this point.”
“Like hell you’re not.” The tension from the drive, stress from the last few days, anger for the last two weeks and six months before that all reached a boiling point. She kicked a stray rock, sending it careening into the tire of one of the vehicles. “Get this shit out of my way so I can go home!”
“We’re not going to ask you to leave again.” Rifles zoned in, setting her in their sights.
Her nostrils flared. “You’d really just shoot me?”
“Hey, Tessa.” Robin leaned out of the open window, holding Moose back by his collar. “Let’s just find another way. I don’t think we’re welcome here.”
“No.” She stood her ground. Ten freaking miles left. “Someone go get Sheriff Neil and tell him his grandkids want to see him.”
“Sheriff Neil?” The words were a whisper passed between them.
Tessa stood there fuming, heat rising from her skin. There was a commotion behind the barricade. Heavy boots on metal rungs, and then his face leaned over the edge. Chiseled features, hard as stone, turned soft with a playful grin under the head of windswept golden honey colored hair.
Great. Tessa rolled her eyes. This is freaking perfect.
“Well, I’ll be. Back from the dead and still as fiery as ever.” The man chuckled as he hoisted himself over the barricade and dropped down to the ground beside her with lithe grace. His fist pounded against the steel undercarriage. “Open up boys. Tessa Neil is home.”
“Ward.” Tessa clenched her teeth. “My last name is Ward.”
“Oh.” He turned to wink at her, his muscles flexing through the back of his t-shirt, as he pushed against the car. “Must have forgot about that.”
“Sure you did.” Tessa moved forward and kept an arm’s length space between them as she shoved her shoulder against the axle to help. “What are you even doing here, Brett? Last I heard, you were in Indiana stuck in a cornfield or something.”
The car moved back, sliding against the pavement when the men on the other side gained momentum. Brett relaxed, wiping motor grease off his hands, and gave her that dimpled smile again.
“I was visiting with my grandma when the lights went out and your dad needed the help so I stuck around.” He shrugged and pulled the handheld radio from his back pocket.
“Deputy Collins here.” He pressed the receiver. “Have dispatch get in touch with Sheriff Neil and tell him there’s something he needs to see.”
“Deputy?” Shoot me now. “Tell him I’ll meet him at the house.”
Tessa marched back to Old Blue and climbed into the driver seat, adjusting the pillow under her bottom before putting the truck in drive.
“Who is that?” Robin asked, slack-jawed, as she stared back at Brett. “He looks like he stepped straight off a Harlequin romance novel cover.”
“My ex-boyfriend.” Tessa tightened her grip on the wheel and sped through the open barricade, peppering the guards with loose rocks and leaving a cloud of dust in her wake. The green sign to the right greeted them as they passed:
