Storm Warning (28 page)

All she could do was nod and blink. Trying her best not to lose control in front of all these people, she glanced down at the denim dress she’d worn to remind him of their first date.

“Well he didn’t look all that upset about Granny to me,” her friend said, barely loud enough to be heard over the music.

I am exactly the naïve hillbilly idiot he thought I was.

Memories of watching trains, of kissing in every possible place at work—Jesus, where she
freaking lived—
of what had happened in her truck, the way he’d moved gently inside of her, asking her over and over if she was okay, telling her how much he cared about her pummeled her like punches from a prizefighter.

She could still remember his promise.
I’m a lot of things, but an outright liar isn’t one of them.
It echoed louder and louder inside her head.

Her knees went weak as every ounce of blood and oxygen and whatever else she was made of slid to the tips of her toes.

Thankfully, Lynlee had enough pissed-off in her for the both of them. “Kent,” she hollered, grabbing the Jarrod guy Ella Jane vaguely recognized from the movies. “Who’s that girl over there all over Hayden Prescott?”

He turned and grinned at them in greeting. “Well, hey there, Red. And Ella Jane. It’s good to see both of you beautiful ladies again.”

“Cut the crap, limp dick. Wide Ass Barbie, what’s her name?” Lynlee jerked her head in Hayden’s direction.

Ella Jane’s face began to tingle as she listened to their conversation. Just like when her mom had announced that her dad had moved out, EJ wished the words would just go back into everyone’s mouths. Wished she could freeze time and rewind. Go back to before everything hurt so badly.

Before everyone she trusted did their absolute best to break her.

Jarrod glanced over his shoulder. “Cameron Nickelson? She’s Hayden’s girlfriend. Has been for years. Why?” His light gray eyes moved back and forth between them until he saw EJ falling apart and understanding dawned on him. “Oh shit.”

It didn’t help that a small noise escaped her throat.
That must be the sound my heart makes when it breaks.

It was one thing if Hayden had used her. But it was worse than that. So much worse.

He had a girlfriend. A serious one he’d had for years.

She’d been the other woman.

The same kind of woman her father had an affair with and ditched their family for.

It was all a lie.

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

C
OOP
slammed the door to his dad’s truck. He’d taken it by Kyle’s to get him to help him put some pictures of it online. The Cooper family financial situation was still in the shitter, and his dad had given him the job of putting it up for sale. Little did he know that stopping by Kyle’s would result in a wild goose chase. Or a piece of ass chase. Same difference as far as he was concerned.

He huffed out a loud sigh to let his friend know he wasn’t into this. “This is ridiculous, man. If she wants to talk to you, she’ll call.” The last thing he wanted to be doing was going to some stupid-ass party thrown by Bitch Boy himself. “Dude, I don’t even know what she looks like.”

Coop decided then and there that this was officially the shittiest summer ever. Kyle had talked him into coming along to look for his mystery girl. Apparently, she’d pulled a disappearing act on him, and for whatever reason, he thought she’d be here tonight. But so far no sign of her. Not that he even knew exactly what he was looking for.

Kyle was practically jogging ahead of him. “I know it sounds stupid to you, but she loves me. Even if she hasn’t said it, I know she does. It’s not like her to just blow me off. Something’s wrong. I can
feel
it.”

Coop was about to make a smartass comment about her “blowing him off” when Kyle stopped so fast he nearly ran right into him.

“Hang on a sec. I’ve got to say hello to a few of these shitheads. Then I’ll show you a picture on my phone.”

Coop hung back as his best friend talked to some Summit Bluffs football players about their game last season. The two high schools were rivals, but that must have ended when they graduated because Kyle seemed to be cool with them.

Coop was looking for the keg when he saw Ellie May storming toward him, looking even more upset than she had the day he’d said she was like a sister to him.

“Ellie May? What is it? What’s wrong?” Coop tried to grab her, but she juked right and then left and went around him. The sounds of her broken cries echoed in his head over the shitty music blasting from a nearby SUV.

“Hey.” He stuck an arm out in front of Lynlee Reed. “What the hell happened to her?”

Lynlee licked her bright red lips and eyed Coop’s arm hungrily. “Well…that happened.” She raked her fingernails across his forearm, turning him to face the direction Ellie May had come running from. “Turns out loverboy has a girlfriend. Bet EJ’s wishing she hadn’t given it up to him about now.”

“Given what up…” His voice trailed off as he watched a lanky brunette wrap herself around Hayden Prescott. The pain EJ was running from
—
it was because of this. His fists clenched so tight he was sure he’d have scars on this inside of his hands. He was going to tear Bitch Boy in two. Or maybe into fours. Yeah, quartering him would be more fun. And then he could feed him to the hogs. He was pretty sure they even ate teeth, so there’d be no way to identify the body.

Thankfully, the smoking hot brunette walked off as Cooper headed that way. Her white dress looked expensive, and he’d have hated to get Bitch Boy’s blood all over it.

Why so many gorgeous girls were fooled by this jackass was beyond Coop. Maybe it was the money. Or the face. If it was the second one, then his luck was about to run out because it was about to be mangled.

Coop couldn’t even count the number of nights he’d lain awake dreaming about sinking his fists into Hayden Prescott’s face on one hand. Which was why he was going to beat his ass with both hands.

A scream rang out from nearby as Cooper grabbed Hayden by the collar of his button-up Polo shirt. “I warned you, you pretty boy piece of shit.”

“Warned me about what?” Hayden’s beer fell from his hand as he reached up to grip Coop’s wrists. “What the hell are you doing, Joe?”

“Fight!” Someone yelled out as most of the party gathered around them.

Swinging him in a one-eighty until his back slammed into a black Range Rover, Cooper got as close to Hayden’s face as he could manage
—
close enough to breathe the same air, which was closer than he’d ever wanted to be. “I told your stupid ass to leave her the hell alone. That was your warning. But you couldn’t do it. Couldn’t just leave her be.”

“Ella Jane?” Hayden’s face was red and then purple but Coop didn’t care. All he could see was the white-hot rage burning him up from the inside out.

“Hell yes, Ella Jane. Or did you confuse her with the leggy brunette who was just all over your dick?” Pulling Hayden forward just to slam him against the vehicle once more, Coop practically growled in his face as the car alarm began to ring out. “She saw you, you son of a bitch. She saw you with that girl. You know about her dad and you pulled that shit on her. And I know…” Shaking his head, Coop released Hayden violently.

He couldn’t bring himself to say it. He prayed Lynlee was lying. But the shame on Hayden’s face indicated otherwise.

“Where is she, Cooper? Is she here?” Hayden asked frantically as Coop cocked his fist back.

“Whoa, Coop. Easy big fella,” Kyle Mason said as he caught his friend’s fist from behind.

Wrapping him in a bear hug, Kyle yanked his friend out of the circle that had gathered. “Come on. There’s a serious storm coming in. We need to get out of here.” He let go long enough for Coop to surge forward once more. But Kyle grabbed his shirt and pulled him back before he’d taken two steps. “He’s not worth it, man. Whatever he did, he’s not worth it.”

“Oh yeah?” Coop bit out as his adrenaline shot through him at record speed. “What if he screwed your sister and then lured her here to watch him make out with his girlfriend? What if I saw her bawling her eyes out running to her truck less than two minutes ago? He still not worth it?”

Kyle shook his head. “Naw, man. You can’t afford to get in trouble. Your dad’s selling his truck just to get by. You think they want to bail your sorry ass out of jail?”

Coop’s heart rate slowed slightly. The guy had a point.

“But me on the other hand, I have enough money for bail in my savings account. Be sure you get my wallet before the cops cuff me.” With those words, Kyle charged through the crowd toward Hayden with Coop close behind.

The force of someone grabbing him by the neck of his shirt caught Coop off guard and nearly caused him to lose his footing. Suddenly he was facing the opposite direction than the one he’d been headed in. Rain dropped from the sky in sheets, making it nearly impossible to see anything. He swung blindly, connecting a few times with various body parts of the guys holding him back until he broke free.

Bedlam began to break out around him. The Summit Bluffs lacrosse team
—
Coop knew it was them from their matching T-shirts
—
had blocked Hayden from his reach. But from the looks of the blood running from his nose, Kyle had landed at least one good punch.

Shit. Kyle. He was lost in the chaos. Punches and shouting and madness took over until a loud clap of thunder rattled the ground.

The siren song of multiple car alarms going off wailed all around them. People began to run in every direction.

“Come on. What’s done is done. We can handle it later,” Kyle shouted as he ran by. “Let’s go, Coop. This storm is here! Now!”

“I
’M
going to kill him. Swear to God. He’s dead,” Coop told Kyle as they drove the back roads to the Masons’ place. “You didn’t see, man. You didn’t see that chick all over him and Ellie May’s face.” God, that damned look. Letting an animalistic growl escape, he punched the steering wheel, nearly causing them to run off into a ditch.

“Coop, I—”

A long signal blared at them from the radio and both boys stopped to listen.

The severe storm warning issued for Arden, Beacon, Calumet, Dessin, and Owasso counties has been upgraded to a Tornado Warning…Dangerous and extremely large, destructive hail up to softball size is expected with this storm. Locations reporting hail include Arden, Beacon, Calumet, Dessin, and—

Kyle reached forward and turned down the warning. “Relax, Coop. I’m pissed, too. You tried to warn me about him. Deep down I knew…dammit. I knew something like this might happen. I’d just hoped I was wrong.” He ran a hand through his soaking wet hair. “Let’s just get to my house and get her and Mama down to the basement and we can deal with all of this after this storm blows over.”

Coop tried to take enough deep breaths to calm himself down but his heart was pounding right along with the lightning shooting across the sky
—rapidly
and without any signs of slowing down. Just as he’d begun to get a grip on himself, he turned into the Masons’ driveway. Only to see that Ella Jane’s truck wasn’t there.

An iron fist of dread gripped his heart in his chest, squeezing it hard before flinging it into his stomach.

His best friend turned to him, his face contorted into a mask of fear and confusion. “Where the hell is she?” Kyle asked, voicing Coop’s exact same thought at that moment.