Page 95 of Will to Run

Doesn’t matter. She’s refusing to leave anyway.

My brother is reading me the texts as they come through

Hazel

She said that she’ll be damned if Tripp scares her out of her home.

Cayson looks at me. “She called it home instead of her apartment, so I’m taking that as a good sign.”

“Is she seriously not leaving tonight?” I ask him. “What the hell, Del?” I say to the universe. “He’s going to be even angrier after this arrest, and he’ll be coming for blood.”

Hazel

Molly is staying here tonight. Miss Marksman Champion pulled a gun on our friend Tripp. His tune changed real fast.

“Ask if he hurt her,” I say. The words sound like glass coming out of my mouth. Alan isn’t the biggest fan of me, but I wonder if I could pay him off for a few minutes in the cell with Tripp.

Cayson

Pulled a gun? That’s serious shit. Did he do something?

Hazel

Kind of. He grabbed her wrist hard enough that it’s going to bruise and said he was going to teach her a lesson. He raised his fist and that’s when she pulled out good ole’ Iron Heart.

Volcanic anger explodes in my body, and I resolve that if I ever see him again, I’m going to kill him. Full stop. I can’t believe the fucker grabbed her. My brother reads my fury and puts his hand on my knee.

“If we ever see him again, he’s done for. Or maybe we just call Molly. Man, she’s a badass. Good luck to whoever can tame her,” he chuckles. “But I bet Tripp shit his pants.”

“True story… on all accounts,” I respond, still thinking of ways I can get access to Tripp.

“Now that the acuity of the crisis is over, I’m going to take you to get your truck,” Cayson says. “What you do then is up to you.”

“Okay,” I say, accepting the ride back home. As we make our way back to the ranch, it’s not like our bad blood has disappeared, but it feels a little lighter. When he parks in front of my house, I jump out and look my brother in the eye before shutting the door.

“Thank you, Cayson. I appreciate this. And I think what you’re doing for yourself is a good thing.”

He nods again before I shut the door, head into my house, and pack a stakeout bag. Molly will sleep there, and I trust she’ll do what she has to, but I’ll be in my truck keeping watch too.

45

DELLA

What a cluster. I can’t believe Tripp got arrested for domestic assault . He’s going to be so mad. Part of me is scared he’s going to return, and part of me thinks he’s just going to want to get home so he can talk to his contact to scrub whatever evidence there is of the arrest. Regardless, Alan tells me he’ll spend the night in jail and appear before a judge tomorrow.

In an interesting turn of events, a few minutes after the police arrived, Everest burst into the apartment as if it were on fire. I looked at Hazel, and she was just as confused as I was, but when he didn’t make eye contact with anyone, just went to stand next to Lanie and look nonchalant, I smirked amid the chaos. I wonder what Cayson would say about the two of them… if he’d accuse her of trying to take advantage, too.

After we give statements and all the activity dies down, I just want to retreat into the canvas I’m working on, so I make my way to my painting room. It’s a minimalist landscape of the stream that cuts through the property, the day we had our picnic. The surrounding wildflowers make me happy, and I love the way the colors are popping. It’s turning out to be the second-favorite painting I’ve done here, even though it’s a very specific memory tied to Jaxon. Besides wanting to lose myself in my painting, I also just want space to be sad.

It’s what the girls wanted me to avoid, and if Tripp hadn’t shown up at my apartment, that might have been the case, but now I’m turning everything over in my mind. As if I haven’t done that enough in the past weeks, but seeing Tripp this morning, and then this evening again, got under my skin and jump-started a firestorm of thoughts that I wanted to process them by myself.

Molly and Hazel keep pleading, and I finally relent to have Hazel stay until after dinner, and Molly stay overnight. Both promise they have a ton to do, so I won’t even know they’re there. I don’t love it, but I’m done arguing.

True to their word, they leave me to get lost in my work the way I want to.

After seeing and hearing Jaxon with Tripp today, the brick wall I’ve constructed to keep him out took another hit. Each day, my anger subsides just the tiniest bit. When Tripp was banging on the glass, one of the first thoughts I defaulted to was, I wish Jaxon were here to help. Because before all the shit, he had become my safe place.

As my brush moves across the canvas, I think about how much I’ve fundamentally changed since arriving in Amberheart Valley. How much I’ve learned. How much I value and respect myself. Every person I’ve met has had a hand in that, but no one is more responsible for that change than Jaxon Wills. He reminded me how wonderful life could be, and my bottom lip wobbles with that realization. I miss the way we laughed together and how his arms fit around me. The way we could just be. And even though just hours ago I told him I was still angry with him, the reality is I miss most everything about him. I don’t want to… God, I don’t want to. But I do. He built me up and broke me in equal parts, no doubt, but the way he defended me today hits a spot in my heart I haven’t let myself feel since before that day.