“I paid you two hundred thousand dollars for those cows,” I ground out. “An amount I know you split with my ex-husband and his paramour. You’ve had your thirty pieces of silver, Miller. You’ll get nothing else from me.”
“But you’ll get what you deserve!” Miller advanced, finding his voice again, his face going from white to red. For a split second I wondered if he was going to hit me, but then the whoop whoop of a law enforcement vehicle dispelled that fear.
Glancing over my shoulder, I watched Deputy James open his cruiser’s door. Even with his mirrored sunglasses on, he looked stern. “What is going on?” he asked, striding over, his thumbs hooked into his belt. I saw he’d left his gun in the car.
“Mr. Miller would like me to gift him back the cows I purchased last year. I have told him no, again. And now I’d appreciate it if you helped these individuals to their vehicles.” I tugged at the sleeves of my jacket, not sparing either of them a glance as Jackson James came to stand between me and Miller, apparently reading the violence in the man’s eyes.
“We’ll be back, Diane.” Kip pointed at me. “And you’ll be sorry.”
Jackson took off his sunglasses. “Is that a threat, Kip? That sounded like a threat.”
“No, young man. It was a warning, to my wife.” I didn’t need to look at my ex-husband to know his eyes were pointed at me and they brimmed with pity.
“Ms. Donner is no longer your wife, Kip. And you sold those cows, Miller. End of story.” Jackson made no effort to sound reasonable, or calm, or don any of the masks I’d been forced to wear in order to keep the situation from escalating, and wasn’t that just the cockroach in my pecan pie?
Ashley and I could be calm and reasonable until we were blue in the face and people like Kip would still see us as “emotional females.”
“You have no right to be on her property. She has asked you to leave, and now you are trespassing. If you don’t leave now, I’ll arrest you both.”
“You’ve fallen so far, you disgust me.” Kip backed away, his tone mournful. “I don’t know what can help you now. Only prayers, I imagine.”
“Are you really that delusional?” Ashley gave her head a little shake, again like she was seeing him for the first time, her voice filled with wonder. “You really believe it, don’t you? You believe the words you say.”
“I’ll pray for you both,” Kip said from the small distance he’d put between us. “Though a woman’s soul is but a shadow, a rib of a man’s, I’ll spare you a prayer.”
“All right. Time to go.” Jackson stepped fully between us and the two men, holding his hands up with the palms out. He ushered them away. I didn’t wait to watch where they went, if they got in their cars, or if they drove away.
Making a beeline for the administrative offices, I rubbed my forehead and wondered if the hour was too early for tea with vodka. Or, better yet, a Long Island iced tea.
I’d discovered Long Island iced tea over the summer when Ashley and I had initially met to discuss Jennifer and Cletus’s engagement party and wedding. It was the first time I’d been inside Genie’s Country Western bar, but I’d been back several times since.
I wonder if I can DoorDash a Long Island iced tea?
“I feel a little dirty now.” Ashley caught up with me and slipped her hand through my arm, giving my elbow a squeeze with hers. “Like, I need to wash off that man’s version of reality.”
I snorted a humorless laugh and squeezed her back. “I met Kipling when I was seventeen. We married shortly after I turned eighteen. I used to eat up his version of morality and misogyny with a spoon and ask for seconds. Goodness, how stupid I am.”
“You are not stupid.”
“But I was. I really, really was. And for such a long time.” My heart hurt. I felt beaten down, numb. Cold.
Kip had seemed like such a gleaming pillar of purity in comparison to my father. Where my daddy eschewed Christian values, Kip had gone to church every Sunday and taught Bible school. Where my daddy had never finished college, failing out and being rescued over and over by his family, Kip had been an educator and self-made. Kip had fine manners and my father had been a drunk brute.
I’d admired Kipling so much. He’d been the opposite of my father in every single way. Or rather, he’d seemed like it. But, in the end, they were just the same.
“He truly seems to think women are lesser. I . . .” Ashley seemed like she was at a loss for words. In my peripheral vision I saw her shake her head. “Some men only respond to the threat of a stronger man. I know that. I’ve seen it in action before now, with my own father. I grew up with it, but it’s been a while. Even I find it hard to accept that those people actually exist and aren’t something out of a distant past.”
I brought us to a stop and wrapped my arms around her. She needed a hug and so did I. “I’m sorry if this brought up painful memories.”
“Even if a woman is stronger . . .” She went on like she hadn’t heard me, like she was too much in her own mind to process anything else. “He won’t listen. Even if you could kick his butt jujitsu style, it seems like he’d never budge.”
Pulling away, I made sure she was looking at me and focusing on me before saying, “You’re right. I could shoot Kip square in the chest, and he’d call it a flesh wound. Furthermore, he’d believe it, even if he was on his deathbed. He’d be at the gates of hell thinking what lay beyond was a Denny’s.” We shared a chuckle, and I was glad to see Ashley coming out of her spell. “Kip would tell everyone—the doctors, the nurses, the specialists—that it couldn’t possibly be fatal because Diane Donner is powerless. Because women are powerless and aren’t capable of anything. That’s who I will always be to him. Kip will never accept a reality where I win.”
She grabbed my hands, her gaze full of concern. “I hope he never comes back.”
“Oh, he’ll be back. And he’ll just keep on coming.” I shook my head tiredly. But in a few months I’ll be gone and he’ll have to find someone else to torture. That person would not be my Jennifer. Cletus Winston would make sure of that.
“I wish there were something you could do. Can’t y’all get another restraining order?”
“I can.” I gave her hands one more squeeze and then turned back toward my office. “I’ll file a report with Jackson. We’ll document the harassment today. If Kip keeps on harassing me—which I think is likely—in a few months, I’ll have a case.”
“Oh Diane.” She sounded upset.
I tried to think of something that might make the situation sound less bleak. “This is a private business, of course. I have the right to throw him out whenever he shows his face. Same thing at my house.”
I didn’t add that if I was in public and he wanted to act a fool, then he’d have every opportunity. Worse still, some folks would consider it his right.
Ashley left a short time after Jackson had taken our statements. The mood of the afternoon murdered by Kip’s mischief, we decided to review the flower arrangements some other time. Jackson escorted Ashley to her car, promising me before departing that he’d be back later in the day to ensure Kip and Miller didn’t return.