Page 77 of The Arrangement

I froze and struggled to contain my seething anger. “He has no right talking to you like that. Whatever else he may think, you serve your country faithfully.”

“Step back, boy. I will arrest you.”

“For what? I can’t be ‘publicly indecent’. It’smygoddamn shop,” I fired back.

The sheriff narrowed his eyes. “Actually, I can. Yourshopis open to the elements. This space now qualifies as outdoors and there are kids around, which makes you not just indecent but exposing yourself to minors.”

“You fucking—”

“Specialist Weathers, I said that’s enough,” James snapped, halting my renewed advance. I shot him a furious glare. “Go upstairs. I’ll take care of this.”

“But—”

“Up. Stairs. Soldier,” he said firmly, his face hard.

I seethed with fury. “Are you fucking—”

“Now,” he barked, leaving no room for argument.

Vibrating with rage, I spun on my heel, grinding glass fragments into particles, and stomped toward the back of the shop and the stairs. Sheriff Beechum’s snickers mocked every step I took. The grating sound continued to ring in my ears even after I slammed the apartment door behind me. I stood in the middle of the open space, heaving for breath and fighting the urge to go back downstairs and give everyone a piece of my mind.

How could JD talk to me like that? I wasn’t enlisted anymore and I sure as fuck wasn’t his subordinate. And military shit aside, I thought we were friends—more than friends. The least he could do was talk to me with respect, instead of sending me to my room like a wayward child. I yanked off his shoes, which I’d tied within an inch of their life so they didn’t fall off, and hurled them across the room. One landed with a sharp smack near his duffel bag, while the other rebounded off the wall to knock the lamp onto its side. It was almost disappointing that it hadn’t broken. Fuck knew everything else in my life was.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been standing there glaring at nothing when the apartment door opened and JD walked in.

“I took care of the sheriff, but I wouldn’t count on any aid moving that limb. What the hell was that all about?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Me? You. Where do you get off talking to me like that? We’re not in the damn army,” I snarled.

His scowl deepened. “Excuse the fuck out of me for making sure you didn’t get arrested.”

I gave a derisive snort. “Beechum Senior isn’t any braver than his shitty son. It was an empty threat.”

“Well, it didn’t look empty to me. It looked like you were going to spend the night in jail.”

“Even if the bigoted asshole arrested me, it wouldn’t have stuck. It wouldn’t matter how he twisted it. He didn’t have a leg to stand on,” I argued.

“I disagree. That man was ready to drag you out of here in handcuffs. I’ve met people like him—hell I’ve served under them. He’dfindsomething to stick and it would have been real fucking easy with the way you were going at him.”

I clenched my fists at my sides as another wave of anger rolled over me. “I had it under control.”

“Didn’t look that way to me.”

I threw my hands out. “I don’t give a shit what it looked like. You had no right to interfere.”

“So I should have stood there while you dug yourself deeper with each word? Someone had to save you from yourself,” he clapped back, his voice rising to match mine.

“I didn’t ask ‌you to save me!”

“Well, maybe you should stop doing stupid shit that requires you to be saved!” he shouted right back.

I’d gotten stabbed once while deployed. I could still remember the feel of cold steel sliding into me, the sharp pain as my flesh separated from the unforgiving blade. This hurt more. My anger peaked, and I immediately shut down before I could say something I couldn’t take back. I spun on my heel and stalked into the bedroom, slamming the door behind me. Only now I was trapped in a room where he’d held me close, where we’d whispered the truth of our lives to each other, where we’d made love.

I grunted as another sharp pain lanced through my heart. Tears pricked at my eyes as emotion threatened to drown me. I wasn’t a stranger to feeling overwhelmed—far from it—but this was so much more. How blind I’d been to believe we could besomething, that he could actually love me the way I loved him. But love required mutual respect. I would never be anything more to Sergeant Gallagher than the soldier who’d gotten his unit captured. Someone who couldn’t be trusted. Someone who would always need to be saved.

Suddenly I couldn’t bear to be within twenty feet of him. I had to get out of here. I grabbed a shirt off the floor and yanked it on, quickly followed by a pair of loose shorts, and slipped my bare feet into flip-flops. Then I grabbed my duffel from under the bed. I snarled at seeing the familiar camo pattern and threw it across the room to slam against the wall. Apparently, I was a person who threw things now, because I had the overwhelming urge to pick up more things and hurl them as hard as I could.

Instead, I stomped over to the closet, shoving things out of my way until I found an old backpack. I shoved clothes into it, not bothering to make them fit properly before zipping it up, slung the strap over my shoulder, and yanked the bedroom door open again. JD looked up at my abrupt reappearance. He was still wearing his black boxer briefs and tennis shoes.