Page 25 of Just in Time
Chapter Six
Iswore I didn’t breathe easier until I saw both wolves run up in the yard a little while later.
That didn’t last long, though.
Indy shifted back in mid-yell, gesturing madly as Brody attempted to talk him down.
It was a good thing that I had put their clothes outside after they left because otherwise, there would be two very naked men arguing outside. As it was, there were two half naked men arguing outside whilst pulling on jeans.
“What the hell was that?” Indy exclaimed, his face red and flushed with anger. He was pacing around the yard. Well, pacing as best he could as he pulled his jeans up over his bare ass, his voice barely echoing as it disappeared into the tree line surrounding us.
“That was me saving your life! You're welcome!" Brody yelled back, his pants still around his thighs.
Sally/Jolene walked up on my left, sighing as she watched them. “You know what happened?” she asked.
“Not exactly, but I know the gist…” I began, opening my mouth to continue, but I wasn’t really able to.
Indy made a rude gesture and started walking towards the woods.
"Sure that's fine. Go on, run away,” Brody called after him. “But listen, I already watched you die once trying to do the right thing, so sue me if I thought saving you was worth more than you getting a couple a’ chomps in on my grandpa!”
Indy stopped in his tracks, turning round and gazing back at Brody like he’d just said the sky was gonna be magenta from now on. “Your grandpa? Ivan Rickard’s your grandpa?” he asked, his eyebrows raising high on his forehead.
“Yeah. I told you I was a time traveller, just never told you where I was from!” Brody said, crossing his arms over his front and widening his stance.
“You’re Jesse Rickard’s boy?” Indy said with a laugh. “Who’s your poor momma?”
“Not important,” Brody said, his voice lowering slightly at the mention of his mom. “The point is, I know what a piece of shit Jesse and his daddy are, because I came from that piece-of-shit bloodline! I know you wanna go bust his ass for what happened tonight, but you can’t. Indy, you can’t, because if you do, you die. And if you die, you can’t defend yourself when they try to blame you for all this stuff. For all the killing they’re about to do.”
I watched Indy sigh as he took another step back towards Brody. He glanced warmly up at his own mother before his eyes turned to me. “You’re backing up what he says, right?” he asked.
Nodding, I agreed. “Yeah. What he’s saying is all true. I’ve seen it. And I saw your dead body out in the woods. You can’t go confront Ivan and Jesse tonight. You’ll die. And I think there’s something else you’re meant to do…” I trailed off. “Something else.”
I watched him visibly swallow, a rush of hormones flooded over me, settling in the pit of my stomach in a deep ache.
“Well, that’s my cue to leave…” Sal said suddenly, wiping her hands on her thighs before she fished a set of keys out of her pocket. “I’mma take the truck and Arlo and go over to Dawesbury for the night.”
Indy frowned, glancing over at his Mom as she reached inside the house for a bag, which she slung over her shoulder, calling Arlo from the back room. The boy came bounding out with his own overnight bag. “You listen to these folks, they know what they’re talking about, Indy,” she said brusquely. “And make sure you come by to see me before you leave.”
“Before I leave? Ma, I ain’t going nowhere.”
She smiled fondly at him. “Well, if you do. Come by and see me before. I’ll be back at the house tomorrow morning.”
“Okay?” he said, half-laughing as she hopped into the cab of the truck. “I will!”
She smiled and started backing up down the drive, leaving the three of us here, blinking in her wake.
“That was…” Brody trailed off, and I was about to say ominous, but thought better of it.
“What am I supposed to do now?” Indy asked, his hands falling to his sides.
I thought he was talking about his momma leaving, and I was about to tell him it was no big deal when he continued.
“I can’t stay here in this pack. Not with what they’re doing.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, but Brody said it for me. “That’s about where I was when I left…”
Indy opened his mouth a few times, but instead, he started up towards the porch, his shoulder brushed mine as he grabbed the screen door, holding it open for us. “I’m thirsty as hell, y’all want a beer?”
