Rugged Cowboy - Elana Johnson Page 0,67
snapped. “Let’s go,” she said. “Right now, Martha.” She marched over to the woman. Jess had trained horses to do exactly what they didn’t want to do. She could get this woman into the car and then a treatment facility.
Dallas looked at her with fear on his face, but Jess didn’t care. “Now,” she barked. “You’re coming with us.”
“I’m not,” Martha said.
Jess grabbed onto her chair and turned her to face her. “Listen, Martha,” she said, her voice colder than she’d heard it before. This woman represented everything keeping Jess from her future, and she wasn’t going to take her insolence for another minute. “There are two choices here. You get up and come with us to the treatment facility. You’ll stay there for the entirety of the program, or we’ll have you arrested. You’ll get clean. You’ll get to see your kids—who you do not deserve to see ever again.” She raised her eyebrows, silently challenging Martha to argue with her. She didn’t.
“And once you’re done with that, you’ll find a way to reenter society as a functioning human being. Maybe you’ll get a job. A place of your own. You’ll get to see Thomas and Remmy if the judge allows it. All of that.”
Martha glared at her, and Jess knew she’d be dead if the woman’s eyes had been equipped with lasers.
“Your other choice is to sit there and continue to be ungrateful for all this man has done for you. That’s fine. You can choose to do that. I’ll call the police and have you arrested right now for child endangerment. You’re so out of it that they’ll keep you in jail until you’re sober, and that transition isn’t going to be pretty. No one in the county jail is going to care, and you’re going to have to manage your withdrawals all by yourself, huddled up on a mattress against a concrete wall.”
She straightened, the fire inside her burning too brightly. She needed to pull back a little bit. Martha was still Thomas and Remmy’s mother, and Jess pictured those two amazing children as she studied Martha. “You won’t see your kids if you choose this option,” she said. “You’ll get out in a few days, by which time Dallas will have petitioned the judge to make sure you never see those kids again. Ever.”
She stepped back to Dallas’s side. “Your choice.”
“Who is this woman?” Martha asked, her tone as icy as Jess’s. She stood too, and for one terrible moment, Jess thought she’d lunge at her and start swinging. Dallas even stepped in front of her to shield her from Martha.
“Go,” he said. “Martha, go get in the car.”
The three of them stared at one another, and Jess reached a breaking point and then hung on for another minute. Finally, Martha turned and stomped toward the garage exit. The door slammed behind her, and Jess crumpled to the floor, sobbing.
“I’m sorry,” Dallas said, kneeling in front of her and gathering her into his arms. “I’m sorry, Jess. I’m sorry.”
She clung to him, needing the extra support for just a few minutes. Then she gathered herself together and stood up. She wiped her face while Dallas got Martha’s bag. “I can take her.”
“We’ll go together,” Jess said, because she wasn’t sure Dallas had what it took to get Martha inside the treatment facility. They had way more history than Jess even knew, and she had no idea what he was going through.
They did go together. Jess had to threaten Martha one more time to get her inside the facility, where she wailed and screamed and begged Dallas not to do this to her. In the end, the nurse asked Dallas to leave, and he turned and stormed out of the building.
Jess finished the paperwork and took the packet out to Dallas in the SUV. “The kids are with Nate and Ginger,” she said, her voice somewhat robotic.
“I just talked to him,” Dallas said, and he sounded so exhausted. Jess felt it deep in her bones, and she didn’t say anything as he drove them out to Hope Eternal Ranch.
As they passed the sign, Jess wondered if hope really was eternal. Could it really go on and on? Was she a fool if she continued to hope for that new normal Dallas had spoken of only a few days ago?
She didn’t know. She did know she couldn’t go in the West Wing and act like everything was okay. She didn’t want to get out of the safety