Page 27 of Frankie (Big Northwest #5)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
FRANKIE
“ Y our father ?” Who the fuck was this chick talking about? “What about JD?”
Lena’s scowl softened the smallest bit. “JD’s a nice guy.” She barely lifted a shoulder. “But it was never going to work out between us.”
Frankie almost laughed in spite of her precarious situation. “No shit.”
Lena’s eyes flashed, narrowing in anger. “I could have had him if I wanted him.” She stood taller. “But he was a means to an end.”
“What end?” If she didn’t want JD then why in the hell was she here with a fucking gun ? “I think you’re real confused right now, because I don’t know your dad.” She should have stopped there, but her mouth wouldn’t quit. “And for the fucking record, you couldn’t have had JD.” She might have been able to borrow him for a minute, but that’s all it would have been. Another fly-by-night relationship he tried to have knowing it wouldn’t be enough.
Because no one would ever love him the way Frankie could. No one would ever get him the way she did. And no one would fight for him the way she would. It was a lesson Lena was about to learn the hard w?—
“Oh shit.” A little of her rage stalled out as her brain connected the dots. “Lena.” She stared at the woman in front of her. “ He lena. You’re Carl’s daughter.”
Not once had it occurred to her that Lena might be connected to her foreman. Not once did she think of Lena as anything other than a pretty face on JD’s arm.
She hadn’t given the woman nearly enough credit.
The rage that fizzled a little at the mention of JD flared back, hotter than before, as Helena snarled, “My dad is a fucking saint who worked his ass off for you and you don’t even care.” Her pretty face contorted with anger. “I hoped maybe I could find a way to meet you and help you see the truth of what you owe him. But then I saw you at the bar. You were just as big of an entitled bitch as he said you were, and I knew I could never pretend to be your friend.”
Carl called her an entitled bitch? That fucking prick. She should have fired his ass the second he started with his bullshit because now she had to deal with him and his lunatic daughter.
Helena crept closer, the hold she had on her weapon never wavering. “So I had to find another way to make you do what you should have done in the first place.”
“By dropping a fucking tree on me and burning down my house?” Helena wasn’t the only one who was pissed, and it had her yelling a little louder than she should at someone ready to put a bullet hole in her body.
“Maybe if you weren’t such a bitch, I would have had better options,” Helena snapped.
That was twice now this chick called her a bitch. It was getting real fucking old, and if she had to hear it one more time, there was no telling which one of them was going to end up worse off.
“I’m not sure why in the hell you think killing me will fix all your problems. Then your dad wouldn’t have a job at all.”
She’d witnessed enough crazy people—called a couple of them her parents—to know they thought they came up with the best laid out plans, but this one might take the cake.
Helena’s lips curved. “With you gone, my dad could take over the whole company instead of only getting half.”
Yeah. That math wasn’t mathing. “You can’t magically take over a company when someone dies, dipshit.” A laugh slipped out. “Shouldn’t you know that since you tried to get your dad to steal half my company to start one of your own?”
The unhinged amusement slipped from Helena’s face, replaced with murderous intent. “He deserved what he asked for, you greedy bitch. ”
There was the third strike. Three bitches, and it was time to take Helena out.
If she was at full strength, it would be easy to take the slightly smaller woman down, even with a gun in the mix. But with her hips doing stupid shit, she’d have to be smart.
Smarter than Helena, that’s for fucking sure.
“I’m greedy?” Frankie shifted on her feet, testing out the joints that could make or break her. “I’m not the one who tried to kill someone so my daddy could help me start my company.”
A part of her had always been a little envious of the way Carl talked about his daughter. The way he doted on her. Built his life around her wants and needs. But staring at the monster he’d made had her thinking this was another example of too much of a good thing. Or maybe Helena would have been this way no matter how Carl raised her. Sometimes bad just happened.
“You’re just fucking jealous.” Helena’s trigger finger twitched. “Your dad hated you.” Her lip curled. “I can’t say I blame him.”
Deep down she’d always wondered what it would be like to have a dad who saw her as more than an available uterus to help grow his delusions. A dad who valued her as a person.
As a daughter.
But if this was what that might have made her, maybe she didn’t get the total shit end of the stick.
“Shit happens, I guess.” Frankie smiled, the expression slow as it worked across her face. “So what’s your plan here, princess? You gonna shoot me? And then what?” She spread her arms wide. “Because you should know, all this will go to my sisters, not your dad.” She laughed, because the potential outcome was a little amusing. “And, full-disclosure, my sisters fed the last people who crossed us to the bears.”
The whole story was a little more complex than that, but it was basically the truth. And chances were good her sisters would do way worse to Helena if she pulled that trigger. No amount of paternal protection would keep her safe. They would hunt her down and drag her into the mountains where no one would ever find her.
A hint of a sound carried through the warehouse. The tiniest whisper of a noise. It was so faint she barely picked it up, but that didn’t matter.
She didn’t need to hear her sisters. She could smell them.
And while they were preparing to protect her, she also needed to protect them. They had husbands and kids and whole lives. If any of them got hurt, it was going to be her.
“Why don’t you put the gun down, Helena?” Frankie said it loud enough to not only warn her sisters of the weapon, but to give them a name in case shit went bad.
“You can’t tell me what to do.” Helena’s voice shook with rage. “And now you won’t tell my father what to do either.” Her arm straightened as she took aim, zeroing in on where Frankie stood at nearly point-blank range.
A blur of blonde and glasses came through the door. Frankie lunged as Charlie raced at Helena’s back, grabbing the other woman’s aiming arm and shoving it up with as much force as she could muster. The gun went off, the burn of the bullet biting into her shoulder, but she didn’t back off. Couldn’t have even if she wanted to. Every cell in her body wanted blood. To take down the threat to her family.
“Nope.” JD’s heavy arms banded around her waist, hauling her back against his chest as Kenneth swooped in and disarmed Helena with a practiced flip of his wrist. He passed the pistol off to Craig as JD pulled her away from the scene.
“Let me go.” Frankie kicked, growling as she fought to get loose. “That bitch said she could have you if she wanted you.”
She’d also technically tried to kill her, but that seemed less important with JD right there behind her. Lots seemed less important when he was close.
"Get her out of here." Kenneth tipped his head to the door. “Take her to the hospital. I’ll handle this.”
Frankie continued flailing as JD dragged her to the door, managing to connect a good kick to Helena’s upper thigh as they passed. The other woman cried out, screaming like she’d been shot.
“Shut the fuck up,” Frankie snarled, turning her head so she could keep yelling as JD moved faster. “You’re not the one with a hole in their fucking shoulder.”
“For fuck’s sake, Frank.” JD’s hold on her shifted, and then she was off her feet and in his arms as he stalked through the building, past Edward and Adam as they rushed inside. “You’re getting your blood all over me. Hold still.”
“I’ll hold still when you let me go.” She pushed at his chest. “That bitch tried to kill me, so it’s only fair that I get to try to kill her.” Turnabout's fair play and Helena started a game she was going to lose.
“No fucking way.” JD carried her straight to where his truck was idling a few feet away from the warehouse entrance, the driver’s door left open. “Kenneth can clean up a lot, but at some point, the authorities are going to start asking questions.”
He climbed into the driver’s seat, plopping her right onto his lap. “Now sit still.” He closed the door, effectively pinning her between his hard body and the steering wheel, giving her no easy escape.
“She said she was using you.” She narrowed her eyes at the warehouse as JD backed up the truck. “If you let me go in there I’ll punch her in the face for it.”
“Don’t care what she was doing with me.” JD wrestled the wheel around, his movements hindered by where she sat. “All I care about is getting that shoulder checked out.”
Tucking her chin, she tipped her head to peer down at the injury. After the initial burn, adrenaline and rage blocked any pain it was causing. Now that she was being forced to calm down instead of indulging her baser nature, there was no ignoring the flesh wound.
“Fucking figures. She couldn’t have shot me in the spot that was already being a dick. Had to hit a completely new area to fuck up my life.”
“Lean back.” JD pulled her closer, forcing her upper half to relax back against his.
“I thought you didn’t want my blood all over you.” She frowned, looking down at her shirt. “I just bought this too.”
“Fuck.” The gravel under the tires gave way to pavement as JD pulled into town. “Now we have to go shopping again.”
“First the hospital.” Her shoulder was starting to throb in time to her heartbeat and her stomach seemed ready to revolt. “Then shopping.”
JD shook his head. “First the hospital, then home.”
They passed the smoke-stained spot where her house used to be. “I don’t have a home.”
“Shut the fuck up.” JD pulled to a stop and slid out, carrying her along with him. “Yes, you do.” He opened the passenger door and gently placed her onto the seat the way he had so many times before, then pulled slack in the belt, stretching it across her lap. Once she was safely snapped in, he leaned in, pressing a kiss to her lips. “I fucking built it for you.”