Jared lifted his gaze to Midnight, and he reminded me of a shark. Cold and totally devoid of emotion. “You gonna call the police on me, Lexi?” His lip curled in a vicious snarl. “Wait. That’s not your name anymore, is it?”
My head whipped around, and I stared hard at Midnight. Beneath the heavy eye makeup, the pale powder that made her skin appear near translucent, and the short, spiked black hair, I had a faint memory overlapping the girl before me. A different girl, with golden curls down to her waist. A farm girl who wore cute skirts and bright shirts. Alexis Peterson. We didn’t know her family well because we didn’t barter with them. They had a soybean farm, and Gram always said soybeans were for brain-dead vegans with vitamin B12 deficiencies. Alexis had been a grade ahead of me, but I still knew her the way everyone in town knew each other.
I knew her as Jared’s girlfriend.
“The restraining order says—” Midnight flinched as Jared clenched a fist.
“I don’t give a shit about the restraining order.” He bared his teeth, like those wild dogs Gram liked to evoke when she was pissed. “Did you think I’d want to touch you again after you decided to jump off the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down?”
I backed up a step, closer to the register. If Midnight could slide me the wrench, I’d use it on him. I’d pound the sneer off his lips and make him crawl out the door, the way he’d made me crawl on the sidewalk.
My movement caught his attention, and he focused on me again. “Famous Macy Evans. You still work here? I thought you’d be on your way to Hollywood by now.”
I lifted my chin, refusing to cower before him, even when my bones rattled against my skin. “Get. Out. Or I’ll call the police myself.”
Jared circled me, and I tracked him, keeping him at my front at all times. He stepped up to the DVD rack and gave it a spin. “I just want to rent a movie.”
“We don’t want your business,” I said.
He got in my face, and the stench of sour milk and beer hit me like a wave. “Why not? Are you too good for my business? You were nothing until you fucked that guy for a fly ball, and next week you’ll be nothing again.”
Brett had approached me from behind, and I didn’t notice him until he’d plucked my phone out of my back pocket. “No one is calling the police. We’re just here to rent a movie.”
I lunged for him, but he held my phone above his head, laughing like we were just fooling around. He swayed a bit. They were drunk as all hell, which made them ten times meaner than the day they’d glued those quarters to the sidewalk.
We needed to get them out of the store before it got worse, but Midnight had frozen with fear. If I made a run for the door, maybe they’d chase me out and she could call the police.
I darted around Jared, and Brett caught my arm, not hard enough to hurt, but the threat was there. He could hurt me if he wanted. “We’re not here to cause a ruckus,” he said. “You don’t have to run from us. We’ll get a movie, then be on our way.”
It happened in a blink—I didn’t see Midnight move until the wrench went flying from her hand, smacking the side of Jared’s head. He stumbled to the side, clutching his temple, and fell against the Action section, knocking the whole shelf over. Movies broke free from their boxes and skittered across the floor.
I used the distraction to rip my arm away from Brett, grab my phone, and run behind the counter. Jared got to his feet and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He’d turned beet red and an angry vein throbbed at his temple. He took one step forward. I shoved Midnight behind me, and she was trembling so bad, she didn’t even fight it.
With shaky fingers, I unlocked my phone and dialed 9-1-1. The operator answered on the first ring. “We’re being attacked by two drunk guys at the Honeyfield Video and Repair on Main.” I didn’t let Jared out of my sight, daring him to take another step in our direction.
“Dude.” Brett’s eyes grew as big as Eric’s had when I’d faked my allergy. He looked between me and the ruined Action section of the store. “Let’s go.”
He grabbed Jared, who seemed intent on staying put, hate etching hard lines in his face. Brett finally managed to haul Jared out the door, and Midnight ran to lock it before they could change their minds and come back.
I stayed on the phone until the lock clicked into place.
I called Mom and Gram to let them know what had happened and explain why it would be a while before I’d be home. Mom wanted to come right away, but I had the car, and no way would I let her walk the streets at night alone when I had no clue where Jared and Brett had gone. I assured her over and over again that the police were on their way, no one had hurt me, she could go to bed, and I’d be home when I finished cleaning up. It took twenty minutes just to get her off the phone.
Sheriff Mulder and Deputy Jeff Harrington, Lance’s older brother, came and took our statements. They couldn’t do much to Brett, but they’d bring in Jared for violating the restraining order. Jeff almost looked giddy at the idea of charging Jared. Or maybe he was just giddy he’d get to play a real cop in a town that didn’t see a lot of action outside the drunk tank. Midnight called Elise and reassured her that she didn’t need to come, the same way I’d reassured my mom. Then she called her brother Travis.
After Midnight gave her brother the details and hung up, she turned to me. “Since the sheriff can’t do anything about Brett, Travis and his friends will.”
I shivered. Farm boys had their own brand of justice.
With the police gone, the store had gone quiet again. I went into the closet/break room and rifled around in the drawers until I found the bottle of peach schnapps.
I set the bottle in front of Midnight. “We could both use a shot.”
She unscrewed the top and took a deep swallow. “You probably have a lot of questions.”
“Only if you feel like sharing.” I had a million questions, but after what she’d gone through, there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d put any pressure on her to provide answers.
She sat in front of the counter, facing the ruin of the Action section we’d have to clean up before we left. After taking another sip from the bottle, she passed it to me, and motioned for me to sit beside her. “I used to date Jared in high school.”
“I know,” I said. When she gave me a sharp look, I shook my head. “I didn’t know before tonight, but when he called you Lexi, I remembered you, sort of, from school.”
She tilted her head back until it rested against the counter. “His parents’ farm is about a mile down the road from my parents’ farm. They’re not friends. My parents are gentle and Jared’s daddy is hard, and they were always like oil and water. I think that’s probably why I paid Jared any mind. The whole Romeo and Juliet thing at sixteen is a powerful lure.”
“I can see that,” I said, twirling the bottle of schnapps between my hands.
“Anyway, we started dating, and he was something else. All the guys in our grade were afraid of him, even Brett, and as much as I hate myself for it now, it felt good to be with the kind of guy who made other people afraid.”
“Why?” I’d never gotten the alpha male appeal. My mom sometimes liked them in her romance novels, but in real life they were a total nightmare.