Undeniable (A Country Roads Novel) (21 page)

She’d been set up with a friend of her cousin Janelle’s boyfriend. He lived in Thomasville, Georgia, so they’d met up at a restaurant in Tallahassee because it was about halfway for both of them.

“So I get to the restaurant and he’s sitting at the bar, two drinks in, and flirting with this waitress who looked to be about twenty.”

“Oh,” Grace said, shaking her head. “That’s never good.”

“No, it’s not. Especially when he’s thirty-five.” Harper frowned.

“I thought Janelle said he was twenty-five,” Mel said.

“I thought so, too,” Harper said darkly. “She also failed to mention that he’s recently divorced.”

“Oh, Jeez,” Grace said.

“How recent?” Preston asked.

“The papers were signed last week,” Harper said, reaching for her drink.

“Seriously?” Mel asked.

“He apparently wants to get back in the game before he loses all of his.”

“Oh, dear,” Preston said before he took a bite of his hamburger.

“He also told me I had a
banging
body. He just loves a girl with curves. Apparently his ex-wife was a stick figure, and one of the reasons they got divorced was because she didn’t want to have kids for fear of getting fat. He was a pretty big fan of my birthing hips, though.”

“He did
not
say you have birthing hips?” Mel said, outraged as she took another bite of her fried oyster salad.

“He sure did.”

“I can’t believe he talked about kids on the first date,” Grace said.

“I can’t, either, and if talking to him wasn’t headache inducing enough, he reeked of cologne. His clothes were saturated in enough of it to choke a horse, and,” she said, holding up her hand in a wait-for-it gesture, “he was wearing a button-down shirt that was unbuttoned to the middle of his sternum. He had enough chest hair sticking out to recarpet my apartment.”

“Gross.” Mel and Grace flinched in unison.

Grace wasn’t completely opposed to chest hair. Jax had a smattering of it and she found it totally sexy. Well, she found
him
totally sexy.

“He also wore a thick gold chain. And every time he moved it ran through his chest hair.” Harper shuddered. “At one point he leaned over and multiple hairs were caught in the links, which then fell in his food.”

“Oh, my God,” Mel said horrified while Preston and Grace promptly burst out laughing.

“So when’s the next date?” Preston grinned as he swirled a fry in his ketchup and popped it into his mouth.

“When hell freezes over,” Harper said, glaring at Preston.

“Why does your cousin hate you?” Grace asked.

“That is a very good question. I think it might have to do with me putting frogs in her bed when we were little.”

“So she thought she’d send you a couple frogs now?” Mel asked.

“Wow, payback really is a bitch,” Preston said.

“No kidding,” Harper said, taking a long and healthy sip of her beer.

“You know what else is a bitch?” someone said from behind Grace.

Grace froze, her entire body winding up with tension. She didn’t need to turn to see that Chad was standing next to the table.

“Prissy little queers?” someone else asked.

Oh, fantastic. Judson was here, too.

 “No one wants to look at you or be forced to listen to you flap your mouths, so why don’t you two leave,” Harper said with the ‘you are below me’ eyebrow raise she did so well.

“No one asked you, heifer,” Chad said.

“And no one gives a shit as to what you think, either,” Grace said, turning to look at him.

“Oh, Grace, I’d be careful if I were you. Your deputy isn’t here to protect you,” Chad said, reaching out and stroking her cheek.

Preston was on his feet in a second, standing in between Grace and Chad. Everyone in the restaurant was looking at them in silent fascination.

“Get away from her,” Preston said.

“Oh, look, he’s getting his fancy feathers all in a flap.” Chad sneered.

“You’re a disgusting disgrace to this town, Matthews,” Judson said right before he spit in Preston’s face.

There was a collective gasp from everyone in the room, but Preston didn’t even flinch.

“Excuse me,” Stacey Frampton said, coming up to the group. “You guys are going to need to leave. As it turns out, disgusting disgraces aren’t welcome here.”

“You see that,” Judson said, looking at Preston. “You’re not welcome.”

“I wasn’t talking to Preston,” Stacey said, shaking her head. “I was referring to you and Chad. Leave. Now.”

“Are you serious?” Chad asked, looking down at Stacey.

She was at least a foot shorter than him, but she didn’t move.

“Yes, I’m serious. We have a very different view of what’s disgusting, Chad, and you and Judson here are at the top of the list of things that turn my stomach.”

“You’re not the owner. You can’t kick us out,” Judson said. “And I’d like a burger and fries. Now,” he said, and snapped his fingers.

Preston reached back behind him and grabbed the other half of his burger, and then he dropped it at Judson’s feet. Ketchup and mustard splattered out across the floor and landed on Judson’s boots.

“There you go,” Stacey said. “Would you like a doggy bag to take it with you?”

Judson made a move like he was going to punch Preston, but all of a sudden Burley Adams was standing behind Judson, grabbing his fist and hauling him backward.

Judson was a fairly built guy, six foot and a couple of inches. But he looked more than insubstantial next to Burley Adams, who was about six foot eight and one of the biggest, beefiest men that Grace had ever laid eyes on.

“It’s time for you to go,” Burley said.

“What the hell are you doing? Get your hands off me,” Judson said, struggling in Mr. Adams’s firm grip.

“I don’t think so. Because you see that woman over there?” Burley asked, pointing to Mrs. McFarlane behind the bar. “See, she
is
the proprietor of this establishment. And she wants you out of here. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave as well, Chad. Otherwise we will call the authorities down here.” Mr. Adams let go of Judson. “Because here’s the thing, Preston is ten times the man that the two of you are put together.”

“Yeah,” Wallace Boone said, standing up from his table. “You boys should be ashamed of yourselves.”

“Disturbing people while they’re minding their own business,” eighty-year-old Mrs. Banners said, shaking her gray-haired head.

“I respect him a hell of a lot more than either of you,” Mr. Banners said as he gave both Judson and Chad the evil eye. “Stupid little jerks, the both of you.”

Everyone else in the room just nodded their heads as they glared at Chad and Judson.

“And neither of you are welcome here ever again,” Mrs. McFarlane said, pointing toward the door. “And as far as I’m concerned, any of the rest of you that share the same small-minded views as these two can get out of my restaurant as well.”

Chad and Judson gave Preston one last long look before they turned and walked out the door.

“Here you go, son,” Mr. Adams said, handing Preston his handkerchief. Preston took it and wiped at his face where Judson had spit at him. “Not everyone thinks the way those two idiots do. And I meant what I said. You’re a better man than a lot of the people in this town. And if anyone ever pulls a stunt like that again, you’re going to have more than just me at your back.”

“I’ll be there,” Wallace said.

“Me, too.” Stacey nodded. “You want another burger?”

“It’s on the house,” Mrs. McFarlane said. “Damn, was it ever worth it to see all that food fly across the floor.”

“Let me clean this up and I’ll be right back with your food,” Stacey said as she grabbed a dirty plate from the table behind them.

“I’ll get that,” Preston said, making a move to bend down.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Stacey said, shaking her head. “When Judson demanded food and snapped at me, he was lucky I didn’t break a plate over his head. If anything I owe you for not getting charged with assault and battery.”

“At least let me help you.”

“Preston, sit down. I mean it,” Stacey said, pointing to the table.

“What the hell just happened?” Preston asked, sitting down and looking more than a little shell-shocked.

“I think some of the people of this town just accepted you for who you are,” Grace said, reaching across the table and patting Preston’s hand.

“I guess so.” He nodded, looking touched.

Grace had called Jax and told him about the article that Bethelda had written. She also told him that she was going out with Preston, Mel, and Harper for dinner and drinks. Preston picked Grace up at her apartment, so Jax said he would come and get her at the Sleepy Sheep when he finished at the office. He’d had a pretty good day, busy, but good. He was looking forward to a beer before he took Grace home. He was also looking forward to spending all day Sunday with her.

 He’d stopped by his house to change and was at the Sleepy Sheep just before ten. As he made his way to the bar he noticed the Red Sox playing on the TV. Normally he would’ve shaken his head at it, but something was going on that was causing Grace to lean across the counter. Her perfect bottom in the air as she tried to get a better look at the screen.

“Yes. Go. Go. Go,” she screamed.

He also didn’t mind her saying those things. Though he did prefer it when she screamed
yes
in bed, and under him.

“Whoop,” she said, pumping her fist in the air as a Red Sox player ran across home plate. She turned to Bennett and smacked both of his hands that were in the air.

As her hands came down her head turned and her eyes landed on Jax.

“Hey, baby,” she said as her mouth broke out into a grin and she slid off the stool. “My boys are killing it up there.” She nodded to the screen as she walked toward him.

“As long as they aren’t
killing it
against the Yankees, I’m okay with that. And I thought that I was your boy,” he said, stepping into her.

“You’re my man,” she whispered as she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down to her. She kissed him slowly, her tongue running across his, the faint taste of beer lingering when she pulled back.

“I can handle that,” he said, running his palms up her arms to her elbows. “You having a good night?”

“Yeah,” she said, biting the corner of her lip nervously. “There was a small incident at dinner.”

“What kind of incident?”

“The Chad and Judson kind.”

Grace didn’t even wait for a response before she launched into the story. When she got to the part where Chad had touched her, Jax stopped breathing. When she told him that Judson had spit in Preston’s face, the very last of Jax’s good mood was gone.

“Why didn’t you call me?” he asked when she finished.

“Because there was nothing you could do about it. Besides, there were enough people there that were on his side,” she said, smiling at him. And then she proceeded to tell him about how all of the people at the restaurant came to Preston’s defense.

“Really?” he asked, looking over at Preston who was currently talking to Shep.

“It was amazing, Jax.”

“It sounds like it.”

“Come on.” She beamed, pulling him toward the bar. “Let’s get one more drink and then go home.”

“Will do,” he said, following her as his good mood magically started to come back.

“Baby, you have to wake up.”

“No,” Grace moaned into her pillow. “Sleep. No work today. Remember?”

They’d wound up staying at Shep’s until midnight, Jax only having one beer, Grace having one too many.

Okay, maybe four too many.

Her head was pounding and her eyes refused to open.

“Grace,” Jax said, trying to roll her over, “wake up.”

“What time is it?” she asked, feeling like she’d only had her eyes closed for a few minutes.

“Almost three.”

Okay, so she’d had them closed for less than two hours. Really, at this point it was the same difference.

Why did Jax suddenly hate her? He’d seemed like he’d been a pretty big fan of hers when they’d gotten home from the bar and rolled around for a good hour before they’d passed out.

“Why? Why are you waking me up? Why are you so mean to me?”

“Grace, something happened,” he said softly.

Grace opened her eyes and rolled over so she could see Jax. The dim light from the hallway lit up the grim expression on his face.

“What happened?” she asked, trying to speak around her heart, which was suddenly lodged up around her throat.

“Preston is in the hospital. Someone attacked him.”

W
hat?” Grace asked, sitting up in a panic.

“He stayed at the Sleepy Sheep until closing, and someone jumped him when he left. Shep found him. I’m going down there to talk to Preston.”

“I’m coming with you,” she said, throwing off the blankets.

Jax stood up and held out his hands for her to grab. When he pulled her up, he pulled her into him. He didn’t say anything. He just held her as he pressed his lips to her temple and rubbed his hands up and down her back.

“I don’t understand people,” Grace said against his chest.

“I don’t, either. I’m going to do everything that I can to figure this out, Grace.”

“I know,” she said as she kissed his jaw.

They pulled apart and got dressed. They were out the door ten minutes later. When they got to the hospital they found Shep sitting in a chair in the waiting room, his long legs stretched out in front of him. Mr. Matthews was pacing back and forth, running his hands through this thoroughly tousled blond hair.

“Grace,” Mr. Matthews said when he saw her. He crossed the room and pulled her into his arms.

“How bad is it?” she asked.

“The doctors are still looking at him. I haven’t seen him yet. But…but Shep said it was pretty bad.”

Grace pulled back from Mr. Matthews and looked at Shep.

“He was barely conscious when I found him,” Shep said sadly.

“Oh, God,” Grace whispered. “Where’s Mrs. Matthews?”

“In Tuscaloosa visiting her sister. I don’t want to call her until I have something to tell her. I just…I just don’t know what to do,” he said helplessly. “Why would anyone do this? It just doesn’t make sense. Preston didn’t deserve this; no one does.”

“I know,” Grace said sadly.

“Who responded to the call?” Jax asked.

“Deputy Hough,” Shep said.

“Where is he?” Jax asked, looking around.

“He had to make a call. He said he’d take Preston’s statement when he was done getting checked out. So we’re just waiting,” Mr. Matthews told Jax.

It was another thirty minutes before Dr. Flint came out to tell them about Preston. He had a concussion, four cracked ribs, a black eye, and his left wrist was fractured. Not to mention that his body was covered in cuts and bruises.

While Mr. Matthews went to see Preston, Jax and Deputy Hough talked to Dr. Flint to get an official statement. Then they went to talk to Preston. About ten minutes later Jax, Deputy Hough, and Mr. Matthews came back down the hallway.

“Can I go see him?” Grace asked Mr. Matthews.

“Yes, he’s in room one twenty-four. I need to go call Diane,” Mr. Matthews, said pulling out his phone and walking toward the doors that led out of the emergency room.

“I’m going to go in to work today,” Jax told Grace.

“I figured as much.” Grace reached up, touching his cheek affectionately. She knew her man. He was determined to figure out who did this.

“I’ll take Grace back,” Shep said.

“Thanks,” Jax said to Shep. “Roy and I are going to go down and see if we can find anything at the Sheep.” He turned back to Grace and kissed her. When he pulled back he tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. “He looks pretty bad, Grace. Prepare yourself.”

“I will. I’ll see you later,” she said before she turned and walked down the hallway.

She pushed open the door to a dark room. There was a dim light coming from a lamp in the corner; it wasn’t a lot but it was enough to show just how bad Preston’s injuries were. His right eye was swollen shut, he had a split lip, a gash above his left eyebrow, and bruises across his cheeks and jaw.

“Grace,” he rasped out.

“Hey, no talking,” she said as she came up to his bed.

“My voice box is fine,” he said as his one good eye looked up at her.

 “Yeah, but your ribs aren’t,” she said, fighting desperately to not start sobbing. It didn’t work, her voice caught anyway.

“Hey, no crying.” He winced as he reached out for her.

 “Preston, stop moving,” Grace said as she slid her hand into his.

“I’m fine, Gracie.” His voice cracked around the lie. He closed his eyes as tears streamed out of both his eyes and his hand tightened around hers.

 Fine?
Fine?
He was broken. And someone had done this to him. Some ignorant, evil, twisted person had hurt him, just because he was different.

God, it was such bullshit.

Grace reached up and pushed his hair back off his forehead. There was blood matted in the blond locks.

“I’m so sorry, Preston,” she whispered. “You didn’t deserve for this to happen to you.”

Preston opened his eye again as the tears continued to stream down his face.

“Jax said he’s going to do everything he can to figure this out. And I know he will. He’s going to get whoever hurt you.”

Preston didn’t say anything. He just swallowed hard and nodded. She leaned down and pressed her lips to his forehead.

“I love you, Preston, for all that you are,” she whispered. She sat with him for a couple more minutes, gently stroking his hair back. He closed his eyes and before he fell asleep Grace said good-bye. “I have to go,” she told him. “Besides you need to rest. I’ll come see you later today.”

“All right,” he said, not opening his eyes.

Grace gave him one last kiss on the forehead before she headed out of the room. She shut the door softly, and when she turned she ran smack into Baxter. He reached out for her shoulders and steadied her.

“Is he okay?” he asked, looking like he was barely holding himself together.

Grace shook her head, the tears falling freely again. “They broke him, Baxter.”

 Baxter looked at the door for a second before he closed his eyes, defeated. “I messed up,” he said, opening his eyes again. He was crying now, too. “I messed up royally. I let my fear get in the way of everything.”

“It isn’t too late. Fix it.”

“What if I can’t? What if he won’t forgive me?”

“He loves you and love can forgive a lot of things,” Grace said.

“Yeah?” he asked, reaching up to wipe at his eyes.

“Yeah.” She nodded before she reached up and hugged him hard. He hugged her back and they stood silently for a second. When they let go, Baxter took a fortifying breath and walked into the hospital room.

Preston had been lucid when Jax talked to him. He remembered walking out of the bar, heading toward his car, and then being hit over the head. He hadn’t been able to make out any faces, but he was pretty sure it was two guys and that he’d been beaten with something that wasn’t a fist. He thought they used something smaller than a bat but still pretty damn hard. And he remembered that it had glowed slightly in the dark, like maybe it had been white.

Jax and Roy came up with nothing at the Sleepy Sheep. There wasn’t anything left behind in the parking lot that looked like it could’ve been used as a weapon.

Whoever had hurt Preston had stolen his wallet. But Jax suspected that whoever had done it had just wanted to make it look like a mugging. There was no need to beat someone senseless when you already had what you wanted. No, Jax was pretty sure this was a hate crime.

And he knew exactly who was on top of his list.

After the incident at the restaurant, Jax was going to look into Chad and Judson. Same with Hoyt, as he’d started this whole mess by outing Preston to Bethelda, and subsequently the whole town. Grace had told Jax about Hoyt’s parting words in the stairwell. Yeah, that left him pretty damn suspicious, too.

Jax went home to change into his uniform. He found Grace just getting out of the shower. She had a towel wrapped around her waist and another in her hair.

“Hey, baby,” he said, pulling her into his arms. He reached up and grabbed the towel from her hair and threw in on the bed. He held her head in his hands, his fingers sliding into her wet hair, and kissed her. “You have no idea how much I wish I could spend the day with you,” he said, resting his forehead against hers.

“I have a pretty good idea,” she said, running her hands up his chest.

“What are your plans today?”

“I’m going to go over and see Brendan and Paige and the baby, then go back to the hospital to sit with Preston. Call me when you’re done.”

“Will do,” he said, holding her to him for just a minute longer. But he really didn’t want to let her go. Not now, not ever.

Chad lived over on the north side of town, in a small house about the size of the one that Jax rented. It was in about the same condition, too, maintained but not anything impressive. Chad’s truck was parked outside when Jax pulled into the driveway. He went up the porch steps and knocked, waiting for a minute before the door opened.

 Chad’s mouth turned up in that arrogant, smarmy way of his as he looked out the screen door.

“Can I help you?”

“Just need to ask you a few questions,” Jax said.

Chad merely raised his eyebrows.

“Where were you last night?”

“Why? Did something unfortunate happen?”

“Preston Matthews was attacked, and after your public display of hatred at the Floppy Flounder, you’re a suspect.”

“So something happened to the queer? I wouldn’t say that’s unfortunate. I’d say that’s an act of righteous justice. But I wasn’t involved.”

“Where were you?” Jax repeated.

“With my girlfriend. Here, at my house.”

“I’m going to need to get her name.”

“Missy Lee,” she said, coming to the door.

Not a lot of things shocked Jax, but this sure as hell did. Missy Lee was old enough to be Chad’s mother. She was wearing one of Chad’s shirts and nothing else.

Okay, this was highly disturbing on
soo
many levels. Jax tried not to let his surprise and discomfort at the situation show on his face.

“How long have you been here?”

“Since eleven o’clock last night,” she said.

“And neither of you left?”

“Nope.” Chad grinned. “We were busy all night. Is there anything else I can help you with?” Chad asked.

“I’ll let you know,” Jax said.

“I can’t wait.” Chad took a step back and slammed the door.

God Jax hated that guy. But if Chad had been with Missy all night, then he hadn’t attacked Preston, and Jax needed to move on. Jax turned around and walked to his truck, but he slowed as he passed Chad’s truck.

Chad worked for Marlin Yance Construction, the same company Bennett worked for. The bed of the truck had a couple supplies in it, a few wooden beams, and some PVC pipe, nothing that anybody would really worry about getting stolen. Chad’s tools were most likely locked up in the metal box at the back of the bed, that or in his truck.

Jax didn’t see anything suspicious, but that PVC pipe sure did give him an idea. Judson Cocker worked with the stuff, too, and it would’ve fit the description of a possible weapon Preston described.

When Jax showed up to Judson’s apartment, he didn’t see Judson’s truck anywhere in the parking lot. There was no point in waiting around when Jax had no idea when Judson would be back. Jax headed out for Hoyt’s place, but as he was driving he spotted Judson’s truck in front of the Mirabelle Methodist church.

What a hypocrite.

Jax parked and got out. He looked into the back of the truck and found exactly what he was looking for.

There was a stack of PVC pipes. Jax leaned over to get a better look and found a red smear on the end of one.

Judson’s truck was seized, and he was brought into the sheriff’s office. He didn’t have an alibi. He said he’d been asleep and claimed that someone had to have planted the bloody PVC pipe in his truck. He hadn’t been the one to do that to Preston, he had no idea who had, and he didn’t really care. He refused to say anything else.

But it didn’t matter. The searching of Judson’s truck proved to be very helpful. And they found plenty of other incriminating evidence, and for more than just Preston’s attack.

A red flyer with the Bethelda article that had been attached to Grace’s car was shoved between a backseat cushion, and the same black car chalk that had been used to write on her windshield was in the glove compartment. And then there was that blessed pipe.

Normally it took time to get DNA results back from the lab, but Sheriff Dawson pulled some strings to get this test moved to the top of the pile. A hate crime where somebody was beaten was a pretty big deal in comparison to other crimes.

The results came back within twenty-four hours. It was Preston’s blood, along with some of his hair. And the only fingerprints found on the PVC pipe were Judson’s. To top it all off, Preston’s blood was found on the floor of Judson’s truck. So his story of someone stealing the pipe, beating Preston, and then putting it back wasn’t enough to explain how it got into his locked truck.

The problem was, Preston was pretty sure two guys had attacked him, and the only other suspect was Hoyt Reynolds. When Neal Sanders brought Hoyt in to talk, Hoyt had pointed every single finger he had at Judson.

Hoyt said that Judson had always had a problem with Grace. He said that she’d turned Judson down in high school and many times after that. Judson had always been real bitter about it, too. When Grace had started her relationship with Jax, Judson had gone into a rage. But Hoyt hadn’t known about the flyers, though it didn’t surprise him.

Hoyt had known how upset Judson was after the altercation with Preston at the Floppy Flounder. Judson had been humiliated. Hoyt had never thought that Judson would go so far to get revenge against Preston, but apparently, he said, you sometimes just didn’t know a person.

Jax wasn’t in the room when they questioned Hoyt, but he and Baxter were on the other side of the glass and they heard everything Hoyt said.

“He’s full of shit,” Jax told Baxter. “He’s just like his father.”

“I know,” Baxter said, furious. “I bet you anything that son-of-a-bitch attacked Preston.”

Jax was pretty impressed that Baxter hadn’t hit someone at this point. If it had been Grace that had been hurt, Jax would’ve gone crazy. There would’ve been no rational thought at all.

It had been two days since Preston’s attack and he was doing better. He was home from the hospital and Baxter was currently staying with him. Indefinitely.