“Are you bringing him here?” Zane asked.
“She needs her own family,” Seth said quietly. “We need to consider the possibility that she’ll be better off with them.”
Jasmine stepped away from the door, shock numbing her. His painful words echoed in her head. Seth, Zane and Carmen were her family. This was her home. Not with some brother she barely remembered and who cared nothing for her.
He couldn’t have said any louder or clearer that she no longer belonged here.
She stumbled away from their voices. She had to get out, get away before she succumbed to the urge to confront them. She wanted to barge in there, demand to know what right they had to make decisions for her, but more than that, how could they say that she didn’t belong here, that they weren’t her family?
This betrayal hurt more than Seth’s rejection, more than his harsh words, because this wasn’t some front he was putting on for her. It wasn’t something designed to deceive her. It was said when she was nowhere around, said to Zane when there was no ulterior motive. No reason for him to say it if he didn’t really mean it.
A chill chased down her spine, and she shivered and rubbed her arms with her hands. She headed blindly out the back door into the warmth of the late afternoon. She walked, had no clear idea of where she was going. Panic clawed at her throat. She’d never considered that she wouldn’t be welcome here.
In the distance thunder rumbled, and she remembered too late that a storm was due. When the first drops of rain splashed onto her bare shoulders, she looked up to see, to her surprise, that she was a good half mile down the road leading away from the ranch into town.
And now that she’d realized how far she’d walked, her brain caught up with her body, and her ankle whined its protest.
Still, she didn’t turn back. The exercise would do her good. She couldn’t go back until she knew what she would say. She couldn’t pretend she hadn’t heard. She trudged further down the road.
A few miles from the ranch and fewer still to town, the sky above her opened up and the rain fell in huge drops.
Yeah, the day couldn’t get much better. She limped along like a bedraggled cat, hair plastered to her face, clothes stuck to her skin like a Seal-a-Meal bag.
She heard a rumble down the road and glanced up to see a truck headed her way. As it drew closer, she blew out her breath in a sigh. J.T.
He nearly zoomed by her, and then she heard the squeal of tires as he braked, nearly fishtailing into the ditch. She continued walking.
“Jasmine,” he shouted behind her.
She walked faster.
He caught up to her and grabbed her arm.
“Jasmine, honey, what on earth are you doing out here in the rain for God’s sake? You shouldn’t be on your feet, much less three miles from the ranch. Where do you think you’re going?”
“Away,” she said dully.
His expression softened. Rain sluiced down his face, and he wiped the water from his eyes. “Get in the truck okay? In case you haven’t noticed, it’s damn wet out here.”
“I’m not going back there,” she said in a quiet voice. She shivered as more of the cold seeped into her skin. His hand tightened around her shoulder.
“You can go back to my place and get dry,” he said.
She hesitated.
“Jasmine, I’m not leaving you out here on the road, in the rain. Forget it. Now get in.”
She shrugged and allowed him to lead her back to his truck. He all but picked her up and shoved her into the passenger seat before walking around to get in on his side.
He executed a U-turn in the middle of the road and headed back toward town. He drove for a while in silence, and she stared straight ahead, watching the up-and-down swipe of his windshield wipers.
“What happened, Jasmine?” he finally asked.
Bitterness welled in her throat, and she looked out her window to avoid his gaze.
J.T. sighed. “What did Seth do now?”
She turned to stare at him in surprise. “You seem so sure it’s Seth.”
He grinned. “I don’t think anyone else has the power to hurt you like he does. Am I wrong?”
She sighed. “No, you’re not wrong.”
His lips turned down into an expression of sympathy. “Handcuffs not work?”
Her shoulders shook with an almost laugh. “They want me gone.”
J.T. took his eyes off the road again. “Now I know that can’t be right, honey.”
She shrugged. Started to tell him all she’d heard but then decided it just wasn’t worth it. She turned again to stare out her window.
Several minutes later, J.T. pulled up outside of his house one block off Barley’s main street and just two blocks from the police station.
“Come on inside so you can get out of those wet clothes.” J.T. met her at the front of his truck and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to help her inside. The air conditioned air hit her smack in the face, and she shivered as water dripped from her body.
“Let me get you a T-shirt and some sweats you can change into. I’ll put your clothes in the dryer,” he said as he directed her toward the bathroom. “You can take a hot shower to warm up. I’ll leave the clothes by the door.”
She nodded and closed the door behind her. When she saw herself in the mirror, she winced. Drowned cat didn’t quite do justice to the image staring back at her.
While she was grateful that J.T. hadn’t insisted on driving her right back to the ranch, she also wondered what the hell she was doing here. It wasn’t like she could hide forever. But bless J.T. for giving her a little time and not crowding her.
As hurt as she was by the conversation she’d overheard, she knew that she’d go back, and she had a choice. She could pretend she hadn’t heard it, or she could take the bull by the horns and confront Seth and Zane about it. But if she did that, she had to be prepared to hear some things she might not want to hear.
She stood underneath the shower spray for a long time, enjoying the hot water on her cold skin. About the time she began to wrinkle up like a prune, she got out and shut the water off.
After wrapping a towel around her body, she peeked out of the door to see that J.T. had, indeed, left clothes on the floor for her.
She collected them and stepped back into the bathroom to pull them on.
A few minutes later, fully clothed again, she walked out of the bathroom. As she neared the living room, she heard J.T. talking in a low voice. An eerie sense of déjà vu closed in around her as for the second time that day, she heard her name in someone else’s conversation.
“Jasmine’s here, man, so don’t have a cow. I picked her up on the side of the road when I was on my way out to see you. She’s pretty upset.”
Jasmine held her breath. How typical of J.T. to call and rat her out. So much for any damn loyalty among friends.
“I’ll make sure she stays here until you come to pick her up,” J.T. promised.
“Like hell you will,” she muttered.
She turned, no longer interested in his conversation. She yanked on her still-damp tennis shoes and let herself out the kitchen door.
At least the rain had let up.
She stalked off, ignoring the slight protests her ankle made. She wasn’t prepared to face Seth and Zane, and J.T. damn well should have known that. But he had no loyalty to her. That much was obvious. Men sticking together and all that shit.
She kicked at a can on the road as she headed in the general vicinity of Tucker’s. Not that she’d stop there. She had no money on her, and it was the first place they’d look for her.
She shoved her hands deep into her pockets and continued walking. She cut across the open field behind Tucker’s. The grass squished beneath her feet as the ground soaked up the rain like a greedy lover.
It was only six miles between town and the ranch. Plenty of time to think.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Seth roared up to J.T’s house and threw open his door. Zane got out on the other side and they both hurried to where J.T. stood on the front porch.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Seth demanded.
J.T. blew out an aggravated breath. “Just like I said on the phone, man. She must have heard me talking to you. I thought she was still in the shower. When I went to look for her, she was gone.”
“Fuck,” Zane muttered. “Where did you find her anyway? Seth didn’t say a damn word on the way here.”
“I found her a few miles from the ranch heading this way. On foot. I almost didn’t see her. I could tell she was upset. When I asked her where she was going, all she said was away. When I told her to get into the truck, she said she wasn’t going back. I offered to bring her here so she could dry off at least.”
“What else?” Seth asked sharply. “What could possibly have upset her so much that she set off on foot in the damn rain when she hurt herself just two days ago? Jasmine isn’t stupid.”
J.T. leveled a stare at him. “I asked her what you’d done to upset her. She seemed surprised by my assumption it was you. I suggested that you were the only one with the power to hurt her so bad.”
Seth flinched and looked away. “She must have overheard.”
Zane swore. “Damn it, Seth, I told you it was a stupid idea. What was she supposed to think if she only heard part of that conversation?”
“She’d think we didn’t want her here,” Seth said in a low voice.
“Exactly.”
Zane’s chest heaved and fury was etched into his face. “Goddamn it. I’m sick of doing things your way, Seth. Fuck that. I’m done. Maybe you don’t give a f**k how badly you hurt her in your attempt to push her away, but I do. She doesn’t deserve this from us.”
Seth felt the words to his gut, each one sucking more air from his lungs. “Let’s just find her,” he said quietly.
“She’s upset,” J.T. said.
“Gee, you think?” Zane asked derisively.
J.T. held up his hand. “All I was going to say, man, was to cut her some slack. Give her a little breathing room. As Seth said, she’s not stupid. She just needs time to think.”
“She wouldn’t if Seth weren’t so intent on driving her away,” Zane said with a fierce scowl.
“Let’s go,” Seth said. “We need to find her and get her back home.” He didn’t want to have it out with Zane. Not here. Not now. Not ever.
* * *
Jasmine rubbed her palms up and down her arms as she crossed the small courtyard by the pool and headed for the kitchen door. She was tired, bone-achingly so. Her ankle throbbed, and it had rained on her again on the way home.
Every light in the house was on, and the courtyard was cast in the glow from the dusk to dawn light. She trudged up to the kitchen door and paused. Her hand curled around the handle, and she took a deep breath.
The door opened soundlessly and she walked inside. Seth stood abruptly from the barstool he was perched on, and without a sound, he yanked up his cell phone and punched a number. He put the phone to his ear.
“Zane, she’s home. She’s fine.”
He hung up and stared at Jasmine, his expression thunderous.
“Where the hell have you been?” he asked as he stalked over to her.
She didn’t reply.
“You had us worried out of our minds. And Carmen. She’s upstairs in tears. Is that any way to treat a woman who has been a mother to you?”
“A mother you’d take away from me,” she said bitterly.
He looked startled.
She took a step forward and winced.
Seth cursed and swept her into his arms. He gripped her tightly as he strode toward the stairs. Every part of him was tense. There was no sense putting up a fight so she lay limply against him.
He paused outside Carmen’s door. “Carmen,” he shouted. “Jasmine’s home. I’m taking her to her room. She’s fine.”
Carmen burst out of the door but paused when she caught Seth’s scowl. Carefully she leaned forward, captured Jasmine’s face in her hands and kissed her cheek. “Thank God you’re safe, niña.”
“I’m sorry, mamacita,” she whispered back. “I never meant to worry you.”
Carmen patted her cheek. “I know this, niña. You are a good girl. Now go, let Seth take care of you.”
Jasmine looked sorrowfully at her as Seth started forward again, his abruptness with Carmen bordering on rude.
Once inside her bedroom, he put her down close to the wall. She stumbled back, and instead of steadying her, he pressed in close to her.
He ravaged her mouth, his lips working so hot, so intensely over hers. Her back met the hard surface of the wall, and she was trapped between it and Seth’s body.
“You test every one of my limits,” he rasped as his mouth worked down her jaw and to her neck. “I have no control when it comes to you.”
“You don’t want me here anymore,” she said quietly.
He stopped, his lips pressed to the hollow of her neck. Then he slowly stood to his full height. His eyes looked haunted as he reached out to cup her cheek.
“I’ve always wanted you here, Jasmine.”
“You said that I didn’t belong here. That you…that Zane and Carmen weren’t my family.”
Seth let out an agonized groan. He cupped her face in both of his hands and lowered his head to hers. He kissed her long, gently, his lips tender against hers. He pulled away the barest of inches.
“I just want what’s best for you, Jasmine. And sometimes…sometimes I worry that we’ve cheated you by sheltering you here for so long.”
“What if it’s what I want?” she whispered brokenly. “I don’t want to leave here. I love you.”