Hard As Rock (14 page)

“I had a
little
something to do with it.”

“Yeah, he’ll tell you that – but remember, you’re his
excuse
, not the reason. The reason is, he’s a fuck-up.”

I chuckled.

Ryan looked over at me. “What?”

“You’re angrier than I’ve ever seen you. Well, other than earlier tonight.”

He stopped to consider. “I guess I am.”

“You know how I know?”

“Because I sound angry?”

“Because you’ve cussed more tonight than I’ve heard you cuss
ever
, combined.”

“Yeah, well,” he grinned.

I lapsed back into silence. Then I thought about things a little, and frowned. “Wait… it’s five in the morning. Nobody gets bailed out until they go before a judge… and no judge sees anybody at five in the morning. So how are we bailing him out?”

Ryan cleared his throat. “I, uh… I’m friends with the chief of police. He called me as a personal favor.”

I stared at him. “…really.”

Ryan shifted in his seat. “He knew my grandparents.”

I kept staring at him.

Now he was
really
getting uncomfortable. “And I’ve helped out the police department. Donations. Stuff like that.”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have figured you for a member of the Good Ol’ Boys’ club.”

“It’s not like that,” Ryan insisted. “The chief knew it would turn into a PR shitstorm if Derek got formally charged, so he’s doing me a favor.”

“What’s the favor?”

He paused before he answered. “Making sure Derek leaves town.”

“What?!”

“That was the deal. Derek leaves town peaceably, or he goes before the county judge and does jail time.”

“For a
bar
fight?! Bullshit. He’ll just hire a really expensive lawyer and get probation or something.”

“No, that’s why the police chief called me. The judge who would hear the case is a hanging judge. Or he would’ve been a hundred and fifty years ago. There’s nothing he’d like better than to give an uppity rock star the maximum sentence allowable under law.”

“Is that what they call frontier justice?” I said angrily.

“No, what we’re trying to
avoid
is frontier justice.”

“So it’s just the Good Ol’ Boy Network in action, is all.”

Ryan sighed. “Don’t be like that.”

“You’re getting him thrown out of town, Ryan. That’s pretty fucked up. It’s, like, something out of a bad movie.”

“The only other option was releasing him directly to me.”

“So why didn’t you do that?!”

Ryan shot me a dark look. “Do you not remember what happened just a few hours ago?”

“Yeah, but – ”

“What do you expect me to do, have Mr. MacCruder sit on him with a rifle the whole time?”

“Okay, but getting him thrown out of town?!
Really?!”

“It’s going to be his choice,” Ryan said, and I could tell he was getting pissed. “He can do the jail time, or he can leave. One or the other.”

“What did you bring me along for, then?” I seethed. “So I can watch as you get your friends in the police department to ride him out on a rail?”

“No,” Ryan said coldly. “So you can go with him if you want.”

Oh shit.

I sat there with my mouth open for a few seconds.

“Are you serious?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“I can have your stuff shipped wherever you two go, if that’s what you decide to do.”

“Ryan…”

He didn’t say anything, just stared out at the dark road ahead.

“Ryan, I’m sorry. I… I didn’t mean that.”

He didn’t look at me… but he nodded. “I know.”

“But… you know I’m not going with him, right?”

Ryan clenched his jaw for a few seconds before answering. “He’s likely sobered up a little, so… maybe you should wait to make that decision until you talk to him.”

I sat there in silence. I felt awful.

“Just do me a favor, will you?” Ryan added.

“What?”

“Don’t mention anything about this conversation unless he asks you to go with him.”

“Why? I mean, not that I would – but why?”

“Because I know Derek,” Ryan said, his voice dark. “And I know what happens when he doesn’t get his way. When that happens, he’d usually rather throw punches at you than actually
get
what he wanted in the first place.”

“What are you saying?” I asked, my throat constricting with fear.

“If he asks you to go with him again, and he’s sincere, then I’m wrong about him. Whatever you decide, I’ll support you.”

My eyes misted up when he said it. He was being so selfless… only concerned about my happiness. I knew it was killing him, and I ached for him.

And yet, I sensed he was leaving something out.

“…but?”

“But I don’t think I’m wrong about him,” Ryan said grimly.

We got to the police department while it was still dark. When we checked in at the front desk, the duty officer buzzed us on through the glass door.

A tall man wearing a dark jacket with police insignia met us on the other side. He had the same stoic air that Mr. MacCruder had, though he wasn’t quite as old – or weather-beaten.

“Ryan,” the man said as reached out to shake hands.

“Chief Patterson. Thanks for the call.”

“Just trying to help out.” He looked over at me.

“This is Kaitlyn Reynolds… a friend of Derek’s and mine,” Ryan introduced me.

I shook his hand as we exchanged hellos.

“Well… let’s take a walk,” the chief said.

We went back outside. About 200 feet down the street was a medium-sized building – the county jail, according to the sign outside. The chief led us in, then escorted us through all the checkpoints and past a series of gated doors.

The entire time, my body was shaking. I couldn’t believe that it had come to this. If Ryan was right about my wanting a fairytale, this wasn’t it.

And yet… I so desperately wanted a happy ending.

We finally reached a row of empty cells. At the very end was Derek.

He was sitting on the bed bolted into the wall. He was hunched over, his elbows on his knees. His clothes were still wet, and his hair was a mess. The smell of liquor rolled out of the cell like a fog.

When he heard our footsteps, he raised his head. He looked even worse than he had back at the ranch. The fluorescent lights blanched his olive skin to a sickly yellow and emphasized the dark circles under his eyes. His features were even more gaunt than I remembered. He looked exhausted.

The first face he found was mine.

Our eyes locked.

And his mildly pissed-off expression turned to violent anger.

“Oh, fucking
great,”
he snarled.

“Son, I told you you better watch that mouth,” the chief said wearily.

Derek just glared at him. Then he shifted his gaze to Ryan and laughed bitterly. “First you fuck my girlfriend, now you’re here to gloat? This is just perfect.”

Ryan got a little flustered and glanced over at the chief of police, who didn’t seem bothered in the slightest by the soap opera claims.

“I told you, nothing’s going on between Kaitlyn and me,” Ryan said.

“
Right.
” Derek looked at me. “You want to lie to me, too?”

“I’m not lying. Neither is Ryan. We haven’t slept together, we haven’t kissed – nothing,” I said, irritated. Any hopes of a happy ending were quickly slipping away. “Why won’t you believe us?”

“Because I know better.” He got a vicious look in his eyes, the look of revenge. “I’m sure you told your old boyfriend
we
didn’t sleep together, too, didn’t you?”

Ouch.

I hated him for that one.

“Now I know what he felt like,” Derek continued.

He’d overplayed his hand with that statement, though. It brought me back to my senses.

“No, now you know what
I
felt like when I found you cheating on me,” I snapped. “Oh, wait – no you don’t. Since I didn’t fucking
cheat
on you, you asshole.”

Derek glared at me – and then suddenly jumped to his feet and yelled in frustration. He turned away from us, his hands grasping his hair like he was trying to pull it out.

It startled me. Scared me a little.

Derek got to the end of his cell and looked over his shoulder at the police chief. “Why’d you bring them here, anyway? Is this some sort of cruel and unusual punishment routine? A new way to fuck with the prisoners?”

“They’re here to say goodbye,” the police chief said.

Derek’s face suddenly went blank with shock. He turned around and looked at me in a panic, 180 degrees emotionally from where he had been just seconds before. “What?! Where are you going?!”

Part of me held out hope that maybe, just maybe, everything else had been an act. Pain and suffering masquerading as bravado.

“They’re not going anywhere,” the police chief explained. “You are.”

Now Derek settled into suspicion. “What the hell are you talking about?”

The police chief laid it all out in broad strokes. Derek could face up to a year in jail for simple assault. He had two choices: take his chances with the hanging judge, or leave town immediately on the next flight out of Rapid City.

“Bullshit,” Derek raged. “This is complete bullshit.”

The police chief shrugged. “Be my guest and try your luck.”

Derek turned to Ryan. If looks could kill, Ryan would have already flat-lined.

“
You
set this up, you fucking bastard,” he snarled.

“Actually, no,
you
set it up by getting in a goddamn bar fight instead of going and sleeping it off like I told you to,” Ryan snapped. “I’m the only reason you’re not going to do time.”

“This is bullshit – a year for a fucking fight with some redneck in a casino?” Derek yelled at the police chief. “Do you know who the fuck I am?!”

Oh GOD. Here we go again,
I thought in disgust.

But the police chief played it differently than Mr. MacCruder.

“Yes, I do,” he said. “Which is why I made a call to your friend here.”

“
Fuck
him! This is ridiculous – anywhere else I’d just get probation!”

“This is South Dakota, son. We do things a little different here.”

“I keep hearing that,” Derek sneered.

“And you keep ignoring it, seems like.”

“The guy who said it
shot
at me. Are you going to haul
his
ass in here, too?”

The police officer smiled. “Our department didn’t get a call about that one.”

“Well I’m telling you NOW!”

“Truth is, that sounds like a wild accusation from an inmate. We don’t tend to take wild accusations from inmates too seriously round here.”

Derek looked like he wanted to reach through the bars and tear the chief’s face off.

He shot daggers at Ryan next. “I’d ask you to tell him what really happened, but since we already know you’re a liar and a fucking backstabber, what’s the point?”

Ryan’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I told you, she and I didn’t – ”

Derek ignored him and turned to me. For a moment, the anger in his eyes turned to pain. “Why are you
doing
this to me?”

I stared at him in surprise. “I’m not doing
anything
to you!
You’re
the one who came barging up to the house –
you’re
the one who was going to punch Ryan –
you’re
the one who got in the fight – ”

“And
you’re
the one who walked out on
me
.”

It was meant to be a crushing blow. But after having already heard it before, and after Ryan’s warning –
Remember, you’re his excuse, not the reason. The reason is, he’s a fuck-up
– it was far less devastating than he intended.

Painful, yes. But a slap. Not a body slam on concrete.

I could have answered back with
And you’re the one who cheated on ME,
but I’d already been down that road. He wasn’t listening because he thought I was lying. So I decided to go another way.

“Yeah… it’s not like this is happening because you fucked up. No, I’m
doing
it to you. Everything is about
you,
and whatever you don’t like, somebody’s
doing
it to you just to spite you. Even when you did it to yourself.”

My words got the intended result.

His eyes blazed with hatred as he stared me down.

At that moment, I was truly, honestly glad he was behind bars.

Then he turned to the police chief and said quietly, “What do I need to get out of here?”

“Just agree to have one of my men drive you to the airport, and you leave town on the next flight.”

Derek looked at me with a mixture of rancor and contempt, but spoke to the chief. “Done. Get me out of here.”

The police chief called a guard and a patrol officer. The guard let him out of the cell, and the officer pulled out a pair of cuffs.

“Are those really necessary?” Ryan asked the chief.

“Not if he behaves. Are you going to behave?”

Derek smiled bitterly. “Yeah. Sure. Why not.”

The chief nodded at the officer, who put away the cuffs. “If he gives you any problems, tase his ass.”

“Can we go now?” Derek asked coldly.

“You want to say anything to your friends before you leave?”

“Those assholes aren’t my friends.” Derek started to turn away – and then suddenly stopped. “Yeah, actually, I
do
want to say something to them.”

First he looked at Ryan. “Go fuck yourself.”

Then he looked at me. “I don’t care if you’re lying or not. Fuck him if you want. ‘Cause I’m
done
with you.”

And then he walked out of the jail with the officer trailing behind him.

I cried halfway back to the ranch.

Over the horizon, the sun was coming up… but I felt like everything was darker and more depressing than when we first drove to the jail. In fact, it was the worst I’d felt since those first few days after Vegas.

As he drove, Ryan opened up the center console between our seats and fished out a small package of tissues. I took them gratefully.