Page 305 of Roughneck

My heart was in my throat even just hearing about it. “Oh my God, so what happened?”

Reece bowed his head. “My brother. I’ll never be able to repay him for all he’s done for me, and that day was just another example. He came in and gave Wayne the beating I couldn’t. We’d both been in scrapes before, growing up like we did, but it was nothing to Jeremiah that day. Once Wayne was down, the three of us stole his truck and drove to the bus station.”

“Holy shit,” I said. And here I’d thought Jeremiah was such a straight-laced guy… I could barely imagine him doing the things Reece was describing. And yet, I supposed, for family, one might do anything.

I winced, thinking of my own mother and how she wouldn’t listen to me the two times I tried to tell her about what was really going on with Jeff. The second time, when I asked for her help, she called Jeff to tell him she was worried about me, that my mental health was getting worse—he had everyone so snowed. But still, how could she believe him over her own daughter? I got the shit beat out of me and learned that what family might be to other people, it wasn’t for me.

But Reece and Jeremiah, they had the real thing.

“Did she make it?” I asked, feeling anxious for a woman I didn’t even know. “Did her husband find her again and take her back?”

Reece shook his head. “We got on a bus and headed north. I was definitely naïve. I thought I could protect her, that we could settle down somewhere and I’d work construction or something.” He smiled, a little sadly. “But we’d played our parts in each other’s lives and she was old enough to know it even if I was heartbroken for a while. At the next bus stop, we bought her a bus ticket to her sister’s back east. The sister had always hated Wayne and Peg knew she could help her.”

I frowned, still feeling worried for the woman. “And she got there and was able to do it? Get free and start over?”

“Honestly,” Reece said, “I don’t know. That was the last time I ever saw her. But once Jer and I got settled in Wyoming at Mel’s Ranch, I did some digging online and found that Wayne was arrested for a couple DUI’s and a drunk and disorderly. I don’t think he was in any shape to go after Peg, even if he knew where to start.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief as thunder rumbled right overhead, so loud it seemed to shake the barn. The wind outside was really picking up too, blowing the rain sideways into the barn.

“Come on,” Reece said, frowning at the worsening conditions outside. “Let’s get in the house.”

I shook my head, gesturing toward the back of the barn and the sink. “I need to feed Bessie and Nine.” Though looking around, I wasn’t sure where they were. Probably huddled on the other side of the barn wall where it opened to the pasture. I hoped so, at least, so they could stay warm and safe from the weather.

“Not in this you don’t,” Reece said. Thunder cracked overhead, so loud it had both of us jumping. “Come on,” he said, holding his arm over my shoulder and blocking my head as much as he could as we headed toward the open barn door.

“Dammit,” Reece yelled. It was so dark it was like the day had sped forward to twilight, and the rain hit my back. Except ow, that was more than rain. It was hailing.

Gum-ball size chunks of ice spattered the ground all around, and pelted us, too. White ice balls fell from the sky and bounced up from the ground as we ran for the porch.

As soon as we got up the porch stairs and inside the house, Reece took my shoulders, looking me up and down. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, shaken but all right. “I’m fine.”

A jarring, insistent alarm came from Reece’s pocket. We were both drenched, and rainwater dripped from his hair onto his forehead as he frowned and pulled out his phone.

His eyes immediately went wide at whatever he saw on the screen. “Shit.” He stabbed at the phone again and raised it to his ear.

“What?” I asked. “What is it?”

But Reece just waved a hand for me to wait.

Which was when we both heard the tinny noise of a ringtone sounding from the counter, beside the coffee pot.

“Son of a bitch.” Reece shoved his phone back in his pocket, his eyes coming to me. “That’s Jer’s phone. There’s a tornado warning and that asshole is out wrestling cows.” He dragged a hand through his wet hair and I could tell he was freaking out.

“Well, that’s not such a big deal, right?” I tried to reason. “That just means it’s a bad storm. Tornados don’t actually, I mean, they’re not really a thing that happens.”

Reece just looked at me like I was nuts. “Tornado watch means conditions are ripe for a tornado, but a warning means some have actually been sighted in the area.”

That had me gulping. And it had Reece heading back for the door, even as the wind started to howl louder outside. The hail hadn’t stopped either. Oh my gosh, Ruth was out in this, too. Town was a good fifteen minutes away. It had maybe been ten since she’d left.

I jumped forward and grabbed Reece’s arm. “How is you going out in this gonna help anything? Surely your brother will come back in with the weather this bad?”

Reece hesitated, and I could tell he was considering what I’d said. But then his eyes went back to the window and both of us watched as the barn door, which we hadn’t shut in our quick escape, was battered by the wind. So hard that it came free and flew across the yard.

That apparently decided it for Reece. He pulled free of my hold and crossed the last few feet to the kitchen door. He yanked on a coat and grabbed the keys from the hook by the door.

“Reece!”

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