“I saw them a little bit ago but Woods had to deal with some of the staff smoking pot. Not sure what happened to Della,” Jace said.

     Crap. We were supposed to be watching out for Della. “I might need to go look for her,” I whispered to Rush.

     “I’ll go with you. Not sure I want you walking around alone,” he said.

     “No. Just sit and visit with Jace. Get a drink. I’m just going to make one big sweep of the area and come back. You don’t have to come with me.”

     Rush frowned and I pushed him toward the free chair beside Jace. “Go,” I ordered and looked back at Bethy. “I’m gonna go find Della,” I told her.

     “Me too! I wanna go too!” Bethy said, raising her hand like she was in school.

     “Nope. Your drunk ass is staying right here,” Jace replied.

     Bethy stuck out her bottom lip and plopped down on Jace’s lap. “You’re no fun,” she whined.

     I didn’t wait on her to ask again. I turned and made my way down closer to the fire. I saw several familiar faces. I got a hug from Jimmy and met his date for the night but I still didn’t see Della. I circled around and headed up to the outer reaches of the bonfire light to see if she was hiding in the darkness. I didn’t see anyone.

     I started to turn around and head back to Rush when I heard a high pitched voice screeching. It wasn’t a frightened voice, more like one that was upset about something. I took a step closer to the parking lot and heard another voice, definitely female and very southern trying to calm the other voice down. I glanced back in the direction I’d left Rush but he didn’t see me.

     I headed back to the parking lot following the voices. The closer I got I could make out more words. There wasn’t anyone in the parking lot so where were they? I walked over to where we had parked our car and stopped.

     “No, please. Just, talk to Woods. I didn’t do anything. I swear. Don’t, ohgod.” The softer voice was scared.

     “I’m done talking to Woods. You took what was mine. He chose you. Fine. He can have your skanky crazy ass. But first you’re gonna fucking pay for taking what was mine.” A loud slap and a cry of pain followed her words. “Hurts, don’t it, bitch? You’re a psycho. Why Woods thinks you can make him happy I don’t know. He’ll learn. He will fucking learn to screw with me,” the angry female said again and another cry of pain came from who I now knew was Della. I had no idea who the other woman was but she was hurting Della. I thought about going to get Rush but then she could have seriously hurt her by then.

     I didn’t need Rush. I wasn’t sure who the psycho was but I could handle her. I reached into my purse and pulled out my key and quietly unlocked the door. Slipping my hand under the seat, I pulled out my gun and made sure the clip was empty then checked the safety.

     I didn’t intend to shoot anyone. No need for it to be loaded. I just needed to scare the bully off and then call Woods. Hopefully, she hadn’t hurt Della too bad. Another cry from Della made me move faster. I followed the voices around a building.

     I saw the other woman first. She was holding Della by the hair of her head and calling her crazy again. She was real hung up on the fact she thought Della was crazy. This bitch was pissing me off.

     I held the gun and pointed it at the woman before letting her know she had company.

     “Let her go,” I said and watched as the woman spun around still holding Della’s hair.. Della let out another sob.

     “What the fuck?” the woman said, looking at me like I was the one who was crazy.

     “Let go of her hair and step away from her,” I said, loud and clear so she didn’t misunderstand.

     She laughed. “That’s not even real. I’m not an idiot. Go mind your own fucking business and stop playing Charlie’s Angels.”

     I flicked the safety off and cocked the gun. “Listen, bitch. If I wanted to I could pierce both your ears from here and not mess your fucking hair up. Go ahead, test me.” I kept my voice even and cold. I wanted her to believe me because I really didn’t want to have to shoot at her to prove my point.

     Her eyes went wide and she dropped Della’s hair. From the corner of my eye, I watched Della quickly move away.

     “Do you have any idea who I am? I could end you. Your ass is going to sit in jail for a very long time for this,” she snarled, although I could hear the fear in her voice.

     “We’re in the dark and there are three of us. You don’t have a scratch on you. Della’s bleeding and bruised and it is our word against yours. I don’t care who you are. This doesn’t look good for you.”

        She moved back away from me some more while keeping her eyes on my gun. “My daddy will hear about this. He’ll believe me,” she said with a shaky voice.

     “Good. My husband will hear about it too and he’ll sure as hell believe me.”

     The woman let out a hard angry laugh and shook her head. “My daddy can buy this town. You have fucked with the wrong woman.”

     “Really? Bring it on ‘cause right now you’re looking at a woman with a loaded gun who can hit a moving target. So please... bring. It. On.”

     Della was curled up with her arms wrapped around her knees as she sat silently watching us.

     “Who are you?” the woman asked, for the first time taking me seriously.

     “Blaire Finlay,” I replied.

    “Shit. Rush Finlay has married a hick with a gun. I find this hard to believe,” she spat.

     “I’d believe her. She’s holding the fucking gun, ” Rush’s voice came from behind me.

     The woman’s eyes went wide. “Are you kidding me? This town is insane. All of you.”

    “You were the one beating up an innocent woman over a man in the dark,” I reminded her. “You’re the one who looks insane here.”

    The woman held up her hands. “Fine. I’m over this. I’m done,” she yelled and walked up to the parking lot. I lowered the gun and put the safety back on before handing it to Rush then running over to Della. Her big blue eyes were wide with disbelief.

     “Did you really just hold a gun on her?” she asked with awe in her voice.

     “She was putting a beating on you,” I reminded her. She buried her face in her hands and let out a shaky laugh. “Ohmygod. She’s crazy. I swear I was beginning to think she was going to beat me until I was unconscious. I kept thinking I was going to zone out and then she’d really hurt me.” She glanced up at me. “Thank you.”

     I held my hand out to her. “Can you stand up? Or do you want to sit here while I call Woods?” She slipped her hand in mine.

     “I want to stand. I need to stand up,” she said.

     I pulled her up. “You got a phone?”

     She nodded and pulled one out of her pocket. I waited while she dialed Woods.

     “Hey.”

      “Actually, no not really. I had an incident with Angelina.”

      “No... no... she’s gone. Uh, Blaire showed up and... uh scared her off.”

      “Blaire is still here and so is her husband.”

      “Behind the parking attendant building.”

     “Okay. I love you too.”

      She hung up and looked up at me through thick eyelashes.  “He’s on his way.”

     “Good. We’ll wait with you.” I opened my purse and pulled out a wet wipe. I was a mommy now so I had those on me at all times. “You want to clean the blood off your lip before he gets here and goes after Angelina?”

     Della nodded and took the wipe from me. “Thanks.”

      I turned around to look at Rush who was watching me closely but not speaking.

     Two headlights came barreling up the road and slammed on their brakes just beside where we were standing. Woods jumped out of the truck and came running down to where I stood with Della.

    “Dammit!” he roared pulling her into his arms. “God, baby I am so sorry. She’s gonna pay for this,” he assured her as his hands ran over her checking to make sure she was okay.