Page 12 of Worst Hand Wins in Deadwood

Where did Jason go? Back to the Cougar’s house? Did he fork out the funds for a hotel? Could I be so lucky that he actually drove back to Denver last night? Oh how I wish that were true.

An hour later, Blaze and I are installing my new locks when I hear the crushed granite pop as tires roll across my driveway. I turn to see Jason pulling in. My sigh draws Blazes attention.

“Oh, hell, no!” Blaze sets down his power drill and stomps across the deck.

“Blaze. Stop!” I call to him. This is my problem, not his. “Let me.” I shove past him and storm down the stairs. “Stay here.” I toss the demand over my shoulder, like I have some kind of authority over him.

By the time I get to the driveway, I’m out of breath and my side is cramping, but I don’t want Jason to know I have any vulnerabilities. I pant through my nose and grit my teeth rather than pinch my side. “Jason… what is… it… you really… want?”

The snake-oil-salesman-grin appears on his face as he leans against his little, dark, metallic blue Audi. “I need you to do your thing and win me some money so I can start my own business.”

“I knew you weren’t here to get me back.” I growl.

“I swear, this is the last time.”

“How much are you needing?” I ask even though I really don’t care.

“Fifty K.” He folds his arms.

“Fifty thousand dollars… then you’ll stay away.”

“Yeah, promise.”

My fist clenches at my side. Sucking air as I make my way closer to him, I walk right up to him, cock my arm back, and smash my fist into his smug face. His head snaps to his right. Spit and blood spews through the air from his jaw that seemsto be leading his head on a lateral trip over his shoulder, as my cross cut follows through. I spin with the physics of my motion, losing my balance and land on my hands and knees. Still panting, from descending the stairs and the adrenaline coursing through my veins, I remain thus.

Jason screams, holding his face, and spins a full one-eighty, then turns on me. “You… bitch!”

My head is yanked back in excruciating pain, and I am hoisted into the air by my hair. I kick and swing my fists like a broken windmill.

“Put her down!” Blaze’s voice is gruff and stern, and near.

Jason gives my head a good shake. I scream, feeling my vertebrae slip out of place. Just as suddenly, I fall to the ground in a heap. Jason stumbles into my view, and falls flat on the gravel like a tree. I roll over and see Blaze standing over the two of us, shaking his hand.

“You alright?” Blaze asks me.

“I’m fine.” I lie. I’m gonna need a chiropractor for sure, but Blaze doesn’t need to know. Surely Kate can help me fine one in town and can take me there, if I can get an emergency appointment. My hand reaches to massage my neck, and I realize my knuckles are bleeding and stiff.

I give up, flop out flat, and sigh. “I could probably use a doctor.” I confess.

“Yeah, him too.” Blaze looks Jason over determining he’s simply unconscious and not dead. What a shame.

“Listen.” Blaze helps me get to my feet. “I know a guy. Rather than explaining what happened to a medical team, let’s just go to my friend’s place.”

I look deeply into his eyes. Adrenaline wanes from my blood stream. In its place, sharp, stinging pain fills my hand, shoulder, and neck. “Okay.”

He jogs over to his house, fires up the gladiator and pulled into my driveway. We shove Jason in the back seat and Blaze helps me into his passenger seat. He reached across me, to fasten the safety belt. I inhale his scent and close my eyes. He closes my door, snapping me out of my amorous fantasy, and is soon driving the three of us to his buddy’s house.

“Where are we going?” I ask when he leaves the Deadwood city limits and heads into a wooded area.

“My buddy is off grid.” He answers.

Jason moans in the back seat, but isn’t completely conscious. He always had a glass jaw, and Blaze hit him a lot harder than I did. Whoever this buddy is, I hope he can fix the three of us up without making Jason too comfortable. A little revenge wish on my part, but I really want Jason to know he cannot show up at my place and demand I win a wad of cash for him, just so he can bypass the hard work it takes to start a new business.?

With new locks installed, surveillance cameras strategically placed at each of the doors of my house and garage, and a little computer screen inside on which to see all of it at once, I pull out a chicken breast from the freezer and prepare it for my supper.

Jason came to at Blaze’s buddy’s house and acted like he had been kidnapped. I’ve never seen Jason cry like a child, but he did then. It took everything inside me to remain emotionless. I had loved this man for a long time. When he cried, my heart ripped in two. Old habits are hard to ignore. But I didn’t want to give Jason any inkling that there was a chance, any chance at all, that I would go back to him.

It would be over my dead body and I’m pretty sure if I was dead, he wouldn’t have any interest in me because then I couldn’t win him any cash for his bright ideas. The thought of him coming all this way, just to ask me to sit in on a game for him, infuriated me even more than the idea of him coming here to ask me back.

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