Page 17 of Forgiveness
CHAPTER NINE
Maggie
After she finishedup in the stalls and shut everything down for the night, Maggie took a deep breath of the warm night air. She’d hoped some miracle would appear to help her better understand all the mixed up feelings swirling through her body and her mind. Instead, she was just as stuck as she’d been in the stables, which was unusual since it was a place where she’d always felt safe and secure. Maggie kneaded her shoulder and with no magical answer in sight, started walking toward her pickup.
She didn’t make it far.
One second her truck was in view, and the next, Chet blocked it from her vision. He stood there with his chest rising and falling in sharp, choppy breaths. Chet’s eyes were narrowed with a dogged intention that made her muscles seize up in fight-or-flight as all her alarm bells went off.
Maggie took a step backward and tried to sidestep him. Maybe she’d get lucky and could avoid the situation. Fat chance. He blocked her path each time she tried, and he kept walking forward, forcing her backward through the parking lot and toward the stable. Maggie’s brain told her to run, but she didn’t. There was no way in hell she’d give Chet the satisfaction of having that much power. No, she’d hold her ground. It was decided even as her body struggled to tell her stubbornness to take a hike.
One of the overhead lights illuminated him, and Maggie noticed blood covered one of his hands. Chet pulled his cowboy hat down low on his face so she could hardly see his eyes. An icy-cold shiver ran up and down her spine, and she suddenly wished she’d brought a shovel out with her, or that Flux had wanted that ride to the motel.
“Chet, what’re you doing here? This has gone too far. You need to leave me alone, okay?” Maggie swallowed, somewhat proud when her voice came out evenly and not reed thin from the fear that threatened to tear apart all her reason and logic. “Just go back to the motel and let me leave. I’m tired … it’s been a long day.”
He took a step closer.
“If you leave now, I won’t tell anyone.”Take the lifeline. Take it and move the fuck out of my way.
“Just like you won’t tell anyone that I’m lousy in bed, right,Duchess?”
Flux’s pet name for her felt dirty coming from Chet’s lips, and she flinched as she dug in her back jean skirt pocket for the keys to the pickup. Maggie quickly arranged them like a weapon between the splayed fingers of her hand behind her back. Luckily, Chet didn’t seem to be tracking her movements, too lost in staring at her face.
“What’re you talking about? I couldn’t say anything about you in bed or out of it—we never had sex. And if we had, I’d never do something like that. What would be the point of it anyway?”
Maggie stumbled over his flawed logic, trying to connect the dots. Out of all the people in the world that could spread those rumors, why would she—the woman who’d rebuffed his sexual advances—turn around and trash his name all around the rodeo?It doesn’t make sense. He must’ve really pissed someone off and now he wants to blame me. Typical.
“Chet, listen to yourself … You’re not making sense right now.”
“Oh,I’mnot making sense?” he yelled as spittle flew from his mouth and she took a step back. “That’s fucking rich coming from a little slut like you! You passed up the chance to be with me—arealman, so you can suck that asshole biker’s dick. You’re out of your mind! He’s the fucking scum of the earth. If this is your sick and twisted way of keeping all the other girls off me so you can make me jealous withhim, you’ve fucking succeeded,honeycakes.”
His sneer was all that was visible beneath the harsh glow of the lights around the barn.
“Chet—” She fumbled for words.
He moved the barest inch and her back slammed against the side of the stables, making a few of the horses neigh in protest.Shit, how did he get me this far back and I didn’t notice it?The back of her head smarted where it had hit the wood, but she welcomed the pain because it kept her reeling mind clear. She would need all her senses in working order to get out of this mess.
Chet dipped his head down and she could smell the beer on his breath. “Stop. Playing. Me.”
Maggie tilted her head to the left, and her hand tightened to the point of pain around her keys, but she didn’t want to resort to violence … yet. She didn’t really want to hurt Chet—she just wanted him to go away, but if he pushed it, she’d jam the keys right into his eyes and twist them. Adrenaline licked up her spine and tingled through her fingers and toes.
“I need you to get a grip. Can you do that for me? Because if you can’t and this goes down the way I think it might, Chet, I won’t hesitate to bring a formal complaint against you with the rodeo commission and with Charlie. Do you really want a sexual harassment charge on your file along with all the other rumors Ididn’tstart? Is that your damn goal here?”
Maggie put her hands on his chest and pushed him back, not caring that she still couldn’t see all his facial expressions or his eyes. She could pretty much feel the anger and defiance radiating from him, and she didn’t give a flying fuck about it.
“I really don’t want to fuck up your day, but I’ll make it happen if you don’t let me get by you, do you understand me?” Maggie held up her makeshift weapon and poked him in the chest with it for emphasis.
The silence was eerie and dangerous. Pushing her fear down, she lifted her chin.
“I asked if you got my drift.” Maggie wasn’t calling his bluff—she wouldn’t hesitate to trash his career if he didn’t leave her the hell alone. Even though the rodeo may be a boy’s club, she knew Charlie wouldn’t tolerate one of his biggest barrel racing draws being harassed by a bull rider who didn’t bring in half the crowds she did.
“We understand each other perfectly,honeycakes.” Chet’s low snarl made the small hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end. “By all means, enjoy the rest of your night. But don’t think for one damn minute you and I are finished. Next time, we can have another chat somewhere more private.” He moved back a little.
That was all Maggie needed, and she shoved past him and hurried over to the truck. Once she was in the driver’s seat with the engine purring, she inhaled several sharp breaths before gripping the steering wheel. The high beams illuminated the shifty SOB, and without hesitation, she hauled ass out of the parking lot.
“Oh God,” she said out loud. Her eyes blinked several times, but that didn’t stop the streaming tears. “It’s okay. You’re okay.It’s okay.”
A wash of numbness prickled across her body, and despite the mumbled mantra, she couldn’t think straight. Maggie probably shouldn’t have been on the road for any longer, as the shaking racked her body from the ends of her toes to the tips of her fingers. Shock was a delayed and strange thing. With a quick wrench of the wheel she bucked off the main road and came to a stop on the shoulder. Right now, getting ahold of herself was a top priority. There was no point in freaking out all the way home and putting other people at risk while she drove recklessly. Maggie put her forehead to the steering wheel and let the waterfall of pent-up terror flow over and out of her.
She surrendered to the bone-shuddering sobs that seized her shoulders as all her repressed emotions from the past several months of Chet’s stalking came to the forefront. Damn, she could only be strong for so long, and now all of his bullshit had finally worn her down. “I don’t need this!” She pounded her fist on the dashboard. Maggie was so close to the chance of competing in the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, and she couldn’t let Chet throw her off her game. He was nothing but a big, chauvinistic bully, and she’d be damned if she’d let him take her down.
Maggie grabbed a few tissues and dabbed her face before blowing her nose. The idea of going back to her room alone made her stomach cramp into knots. There was no way she could bear to be by herself yet. Not with that psycho possibly following her and fully aware of where her room was at the motel complex.
There was only one other place she could think to go at that moment. Tossing the tissues in a plastic bag, she checked the rearview mirror then pulled back onto the dark road.
