Page 115 of Hot for the Jerk

“I’ll take Gabrielle’s car.They’re out shortly, so please speed up.”She stared straight ahead at the road and kept her tone so irritatingly monotoned I wanted to scream.

“You don’t want to go pick him up together?Then I can take you both home?”

“No.He’ll be angry we’re leaving your house, and I’d rather deal with that on my own.”

We arrived at the vineyard, and I put the truck in park and helped her unload all their stuff.

“So … that’s it then?”I asked, shoving my hands in my pockets, my throat raw, and the back of my eyes burning.

She shrugged.“I guess so.”

“Raina, youknowI didn’t do what you think I did.I didn’t look at your computer.”

“You literally admitted to it,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest again.

“I admitted to reading a few words on the page, over your shoulder.And that some of them were very similar to our proposal.But I never went snooping.”

“Well, we’ll just have to see how it all comes out in March.Won’t we?”

“Don’t do this,” I pleaded.“Please.”

“I need to go get Marco.”She must have had a spare set of Gabrielle’s car keys as she didn’t bother seeking out her cousin before she climbed into the SUV and started the engine.I needed to get my truck out of her way, so I climbed in and drove off, Raina right behind me.

It was awkward as fuck, seeing her face in my rearview mirror, and not being able to understand the way she just flipped a switch from rose to thorn in the blink of an eye.There had to be more to it than the proposal.There just had to be.

I needed there to be.

We turned a corner, in the direction of the brewery and the school, but I had to throw on my brakes abruptly when an enormous tree, that absolutely was not there when we drove this way ten minutes before, was across the road, blocking both lanes.

Memories of earlier this winter and the big storm that knocked down a tree and kept Dom from getting to Chloe when she was in trouble, flashed through my mind.

I put the truck in park and climbed out.

An angry Raina was also behind me, out of her car.“What the fuck, McEvoy?”Her gaze landed on the tree and her temper fizzled a little.“That wasn’t there when we drove this way ten minutes ago.”

I stepped closer to the shoulder, then down into the ditch to locate the stump of the tree.Sawdust littered the ground and the cut to fell the tree was straight.This was done by a chainsaw.

“Fuck,” I breathed, facing her.“Someone cut this down deliberately.”

“What?”

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and dialled Clint.Raina was already on her phone, presumably calling Myla.Her gaze met mine as we both clutched the phones to our ears, listening to the rings.

This tree was here on purpose.To block Raina and stall her.

Which meant they were back on the island, and we needed to get to Marco, and fast.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Raina

Myheartracedsowildly it felt like I was having a coronary as fear invaded my insides like a paralyzing poison.I did my best to relay the situation to Myla on the phone, but my hyperventilating wasn’t helping.She said she was on it, then disconnected the call.

Then I called Gabrielle while Jagger reiterated things to his brothers.

Lastly, he called the school, but the bus had already left with all the students to take them home.According to the secretary, Sierra, Marcowason that bus.

“What do we do now?”I screamed at Jagger, my hands shaking.“There’s no other way to the school.”

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