Page 11 of Hell Hath No Fury

“No,youwait a minute.” She took a step toward him as rage blossomed. “I don’t appreciate you coercing my sister into making the biggest decision of her life without me being present or approving.”

Sonny took a step back, apparently stunned by her ire, but he regained his own indignation and leaned over her. “I never coerced anyone, least of all your addict sister. She wants to sell, so sign the damned agreement.”

Emma clutched the papers with both hands and raised them to Sonny’s eye level.

Then she ripped them in half.

“No,” she said, then turned to a grinning Matthias. “We’re done here.”

ChapterFour

“Let’s go back to Eric’s place,” Emma said once they were seated in the Jeep.

“Why?” Matthias asked. They’d already searched the house and found nothing.

“I’m exhausted. We can settle into his guest room, get some rest, and figure out what to do next.”

“Eric’s guest room?” Matthias knew Emma and Eric were longtime friends, and that she stayed with him when she came back here, but that was Emma. Alone. As a couple, the idea of making themselves at home, especially in Eric’s absence, felt… uncomfortable.

“He won’t mind,” she said.

“But I do.”

He felt her gaze on him as he focused on the road. “Eric knows we sleep together,” she said, “and he heartily approves.”

“I’d just rather stay somewhere else.”

“Where? I want to stay close to home. The nearest hotel is almost twenty miles away.”

Matthias thought as he drove. “How do you feel about camping?”

“What do you mean?”

“Have you ever been camping?”

“You do know where I’m currently residing, right?”

He snorted. In Erie, she lived in a seventeen-foot travel trailer at Sara’s Campground, a local landmark. “I don’t mean in a camper. I mean in a tent.”

“Yeah. I have.”

“Okay.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “I have one in the back along with a couple of sleeping bags. We can park on your farm and set up camp.” When she didn’t immediately reply, he added, “Or we can sleep in your old barn. The cots are already there.”

“The tent will be good.”

* * *

They stopped at a sandwich shop drive-through for lunch and ordered extra for later. At a Dollar General, they bought bottled water, a Styrofoam cooler, and some bagged ice. Then Matthias drove them back to Emma’s farm and parked on the graveled apron in front of the barn. They ate while sitting on the edge of the cargo compartment, the tailgate door open.

Emma gazed wistfully at the fields beyond the barn. Instead of the acres of overripe grass waving in the breeze, she pictured grazing Holsteins, stretches of corn, and mown patches where hay had been harvested.

“You okay?” Matthias asked.

She turned to look at the concern creasing his face. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine. Maybe a hotel would be better.”

“No, this is good.”