Page 124 of The Last Second Chance
“Is there a problem here?” Carter and Beckett strolled around the side of the stables coming from the direction of the brewery. His brothers looked wary…and ready for a fight. They came to a stop on either side of him, closing ranks.
“This is a family matter,” Forrest told them.
“Joey is family,” the Pierce brothers said as one.
“What did you do?” Joey asked again, her voice was deceptively calm.
“I did what any good father would do. I told him if he didn’t leave town that night, I would file a lawsuit. I’d take their farm.” Forrest nodded as if daring anyone to argue with him.
“And what about Joey?” Jax prompted. It was time to get it all out in the open. Ripping off the bandage and prodding at a wound that had never properly healed.
Forrest didn’t look so sure of his stance now. “I’d send you away and forbid you from attending Centenary.”
Jax saw Joey take the words like a well-placed blow. She curled in on herself for a second before her spine snapped her back. “You had no right. You threatened to sue the Pierces, take everything they’ve worked for, unless they gave up one of their sons because a deer ran out in front of a car that I was riding in? What in the ever-living hell is wrong with you?” The calm was gone and in its place was the storm.
“It wasn’t an accident. It was his fault.” Forrest was pointing his meaty finger again at Jax and Jax was half tempted to break it.
“I can’t believe you. Youknewthat I loved him and you chased him away. You threatened his family—a family that has been nothing but kind and generous to me from day one. You knew what Centenary meant to me and you threatened that. How could you do that?” Joey’s hands were in her hair.
“You always were more loyal to that family than your own,” Forrest spat out. “Even now.”
Oh shit.Jax almost felt sorry for Forrest. The man was waving a red flag in front of a charging bull. No one questioned Joey Greer’s loyalty and lived to tell the tale.
“You do not get to choose who I share my life with. You do not get to threaten a family because I got hurt. You do not get to make threats about me toward someone who loved me. You do not get to make decisions for me and expect me to go along with them.”
“You were better off without him! I did you a favor that you weren’t strong enough to do yourself.”
April slapped her hand on Forrest’s arm. “Forrest!” she said sharply.
“I am not weak. I am not stupid. And I amnotdisloyal,” Joey said, her voice shaking with rage. “What I am is your daughter and that does not give you the right to do what you did. It was my life then and it’s my life now. And right now you are unwelcome in it.”
“You don’t mean that,” Forrest said, waving her words away. “You were better off without him. He already had one foot out the door. John knew it wasn’t worth trying to convince him to stay.”
“John knew?” Joey whirled on Jax now. “Your dad was involved?”
Jax felt his brothers stiffen beside him. “He was part of the conversation,” he said quietly. And just like that, the three men Joey had loved the most fell from grace. Jax could see the betrayal she felt written plainly on her face.
“You’re just upset,” Forrest said. “Once you calm down, you’ll see why he had to go.”
“Oh, I’m upset all right. I’m freaking furious. You don’t call the shots in my life anymore. And you,” she said, turning to face Jax. “You left without a word. You could have come to me, could have told me what was happening. I could have fixed it. But you didn’t. You just left. You used it as your excuse and you got out. Turned your back on all of us and just left.” Joey’s voice broke and with it, Jax’s heart.
But she reeled it in, took a steadying breath.
“You two took it upon yourselves to make decisions for me and I tell you now, that will never happen again. As far as I’m concerned you both can go to hell. Now get away from my stables and don’t come back.”
Jax made a move toward her and Joey shut him down with an ice-cold look. Carter laid a hand on his shoulder.
She wrenched open the stable door and stormed inside.
April shot Forrest and Jax a stern look and skirted around Beckett to follow Joey inside. But Jax beat her to the door. “April, I just need a minute with her.”
April crossed her slim arms over her chest. Her dark hair and eyes had been handed down to both daughters. But where Joey was a warrior, April was a peacemaker.
“Fine. But I’m going to be on the other side of this door and if I hear anything I don’t like, I’m coming after you with a pitchfork.”
“Understood and well-deserved,” Jax said.
He charged through the door, momentum carrying him to where she leaned against the window of her office. Joey swiped an arm over her face.
