Their Rustic Retreat (The Men of Evergreen Mountain #5)

8. Serena

EIGHT

serena

When you see kidnapping on TV, there’s usually a lot of rope and duct tape involved. Some dingy back room and usually a single small chair.

This is not that.

Instead, I’m in the back room of some nightclub in the city. I’ve been told to sit on a dinky, smelly couch with ripped leather and the stuffing leaking out. There’s a television on, but it’s local stuff only. As a child of the new millennium, I’m kind of surprised that anyone still watches TV without any sort of internet involved.

“Water, dear?” my kidnapper offers, presenting me with a cheapo plastic bottle.

“Uh, sure,” I say, accepting it. It’s sealed, so I don’t think he’s spiked it with anything.

It’s a very strange situation. If it weren’t for the poor quality of where I’m being told to stay and, well, the fact that he brandishes a knife at me whenever I suggest that maybe I don’t want to be here, he’s downright respectful.

Just that the knife thing really brings the whole experience down. I do not think I will be leaving a positive review about my experience at this club.

“How long do I have to stay here, again?”

The short, bald man shrugs. “Until I get what I was sent to get.”

“And that is?”

“The cooperation of your dear boyfriend.”

“Tristian? What on earth could you want him for?”

“Sweetie, he has a family here in Smithport.” Okay, I’m not digging him calling me sweetie either. “A family that wants him back very much.”

I sink back into the crappy leather sofa. What is Tristian possibly involved in? Or was involved in?

There’s part of me upset with him for not being completely honest with me about all this, but also part of me understands. I was scared of him for just approaching me. Add on the whole shady-criminal-past thing, and I might have taken off screaming.

So I sit here. Bored. Not even able to use my phone.

Oh yeah, there’s another strike. This is just a terrible experience even if it could be worse.

I tap my fingers on the leather. It’s the local news on the TV. It’s some fearmongering about a string of car thefts throughout Smithport. Nothing remotely interesting. Evergreen Valley gets mentioned once in the weather report. We’re kind of just a small burg on the outskirts, where nothing happens, so I’m not surprised the main news stations ignore us.

A bell rings, tied not to the front door but the back room the weirdo is keeping me in.

He goes to answer it, and in barges Tristian, towering over the man. Right behind him, my brother.

“Jessie Joe, give me a good reason right this instant on why I shouldn’t be breaking your face with my fist?”

“Let’s not get so nasty so quickly. I haven’t hurt her. Have I?” the man Tristian called Jessie Joe, replied.

“That true?” Hawk shouts out to me. “Has he done anything to you?”

“Does boring and annoying me count?” I reply. “I’m fine. Really. Not fine enough that I’m going to protest you punching him in the face, though.”

“Good, because I’m pretty sure this is where this is going,” Tristian says. “Because, really, I don’t see any other way I’m going to get the message across to you, Jessie Joe. I’m done. I’m not working for the organization anymore. Not after what I’ve seen. Not when there’s something better out there for me.”

Jessie Joe snorts, it’s a weird, off-putting, nasally laugh. “Something better for you? A dumb sack of muscle like yourself? We got the best for you right here, Tristian. You’re just too stupid to see that.”

And thus, the first fist cracked across the creep's face.

My heart is a flutter. Sure, any girl loves when a guy stands up for her. But standing up for yourself is important too.

Hawk is a bit surprised by the sudden outburst, too, but clearly isn’t disapproving of it.

“There is something better than this, Jessie. At least for me. City life is fine for most, but it only took a few weeks out in a small town to grow to love the fresh air, the cheery faces, and seeing more than gray asphalt and concrete everywhere I turn. All of these things let me know there’s more to life than just having a paycheck week to week, doing a job that makes you miserable.”

“You want to live in the middle of nowhere? With a bunch of redneck hicks?” the skinny man replies.

He gets punched again.

“They’re people like you and me. Or like me, because, damn, you’re making yourself to be a fucking asshole right now, Jessie Joe.”

Jessie Joe spits some out blood, and is that a tooth? “It doesn’t matter what you want, Tristian. Paul wants you working here. And what Paul wants, Paul gets. You don’t want to make Paul angry, do you?”

“Is that the guy who got kicked to the curb?” Hawk asks Tristian. “Sorry, can’t keep my pricks straight from one another.”

“Kicked to the curb?”

“Like, fired from the mob?”

Jessie laughs. I’m surprised he doesn’t get punched again for doing so. “They’d never cut off Paul. He’s too important.”

Tristian sighs. “Yeah, but Kenny was more important. Your boss made a mistake, and now it’s time for both you and him to pay for it.”

The weirdo looks aghast. “I have no idea what either of you are talking about.”

Hawk shrugs. “I got a contact. Says they want nothing to do with you anymore. Got the police coming here. I mean, we could have just let them handle it, but...”

“I wanted to make sure you didn’t do anything stupid, Jessie Joe,” Tristian says as he continues to loom over his former coworker. “And that I’ve only broken your face twice is testament that there’s at least some intelligence in that tiny brain of yours.”

“You’re lying,” the exasperated weirdo replies. “They’d never cut him off. He’s too valuable.”

Flashing red lights shine through the few windows the room has.

“They did. And now he’s in deep shit. And you’re in deep shit now, too, for this whole kidnapping-and-false-imprisonment thing you’ve pulled, Jessie Joe.”

Jessie Joe looks out the window, the reality of the situation settling in. “Tristian, you can’t sell me out like this. You should let me go. There’s a back door. Just tell them you didn’t find me here, and that she was here all alone, unharmed.”

The creep assumes Tristian’s cooperation.

He assumes wrong. Tristian is a whole lot faster than he is and grabs him by the shoulder, stopping his escape.

“Nah, I think you’ve worn out my generosity. It’s time you went to prison, Jessie Joe. Don’t worry. I’m sure someone as slimy and awful as you will flourish there.”

“Please, I’ve always treated you like a brother!”

“Meaning, you regularly stole from me and lied to me and threw me under the bus? Some brother you are.”

That back-and-forth makes Hawk and I exchange glances. Sure, we tease one another relentlessly and call each other names, but we would never dream of doing such things to one another.

Soon enough, the cops do arrive. They arrest Jessie Joe, even as he continues to protest and starts screaming that he has dirt on everyone, including Hawk and I.

I’ve never done a crime more serious than jay-walking, and Hawk might have littered once by accident. I know, we’re such horrible people.

I’m filled in on what’s going on. Who this creep is, who his boss is, and how I’m likely never going to have to worry about any of them ever again.

As we fill out the police reports, leave our statements, and are finally free to go, my brother, Tristian, and I return to his car. We drive back to the family home.

Hawk and Tristian are mostly quiet until we get to the driveway. It’s been a long day, and everyone’s tired, so I kind of understand why everyone isn’t very talkative.

Finally, Tristian speaks up. “Are we cool?” he asks, in the direction of my brother.

Hawk pauses for a moment. “We got stuff we should probably talk about. But you’ve proven to me that you got your heart in the right place. It’d be wrong to hold this past against you, as you’re trying to change for the better. So, really? Yeah, I think we’re cool.”

Hawk offers a fist, and Tristian accepts it with a bump.

My brother then leaves the car, leaving me and my boyfriend behind.

We get out of the car, too, and proceed to lean on it, looking up into the night sky.

“I never realized how many stars the city’s lights prevented me from seeing,” Tristian says.

“That’s a problem in the city?”

“Yeah. I’ve never seen the sky more vivid than in Evergreen Valley.”

For a time, we just enjoy the view. The constellations, the brightness of the moon, and the simple serenity of it all.

But we can’t escape our words forever.

“I’m sorry if I wasn’t completely straight with you,” he says.

“What’s there to apologize for? You didn’t do anything wrong, Tristian.”

“I mean, yeah, but hiding that I’m on the run from the mob? That I had just witnessed a murder, and that might cause issues? It feels wrong that I got you involved in all of that without warning.”

I lean into him, holding him close. “Everything’s fine, right? The bad guys are going to jail, and no one’s hurt unless they deserve to be.”

“Something could have gone wrong.”

“But nothing did.”

He holds me close as well, a hand around my waist. “Jessie Joe’s never been a violent type, but what if you freaked out and made him lash out?”

“That didn’t happen. And we shouldn’t obsess over the past when a good future is in front of us.”

He looks at me with a wide smile. “You’re too good for me, Serena.”

“No, I’m just right, and that’s why you should shut up about this and stick with me.”

He laughs a deep belly laugh. “Is there any question on why I’m falling so deeply in love with you?”

“That I’m perfect and wonderful and beautiful and sexy?”

“Well, yeah, but I’m trying to be sweet and poetic about it.”

More chuckling and laughter. We’ve found such kinship and togetherness with one another. The two of us might be from such different worlds, but something about us clicked together in ways I could have never imagined.

I want to become a vet. That means going to school, dealing with student loans, finishing a degree, not to mention trying to start a proper practice one day. It’s a lot to face down.

He wants to start his life far from where he grew up. A more rustic life. He’s got a whole lot to learn himself, and a lot of cuts and bruises he’s going to experience along the way.

They’re both daunting destinies.

But together?

I think we got a damn good chance of making it through.