ANYTHING FOR YOU
Chapter 11
By the time Matt and Bo decided to leave the Boars Nest, the hour was very late. Both were feeling happier than they had in months though. Bo had seen what he was missing by bowing to Trish's every whim. And his eyes were slowly starting to open to the short leash she had him on. He couldn't wait to get back to the farm and discuss things with Jesse, Luke and, yes, especially Daisy.
Just as he and Matt were leaving the bar, by now rowdy with a bad karaoke version of "Y'all Come," they ran into Trish.
"I was trying to call you" Bo immediately blurted.
"Sure you were" Trish folded her arms.
Bo wondered why he suddenly felt the need to hang his head and confess to all he hadn't done.
"What's your problem?" he asked, instead.
"My problem is that you were supposed to be at my place at six"
"Oh" Bo smiled. "We had a heck of an afternoon. We were stuck in traffic on the way in, Matt's orders got messed up and then we blew a tire on the way home. I had to get Luke to come an get us"
Bo and Matt exchanged lighthearted laughter at the day's events.
Trish however was not so amused. "Yes, that's what Skye said"
She waited a beat before blasting Bo. "Or maybe you just forgot that we had a date?"
Bo frowned, all trace of laughter gone from his voice. "What's wrong with you?"
Matt moved towards the door to the parking lot, deciding that the two should sort this out in private. Though the foyer of an old country pub in the middle of a party didn't afford too much privacy.
"I'll tell you what's wrong with me. I'm tired of being used by you"
"Now wait a minute" Matt intervened, forgetting about the privacy thing.
"Don't you dare stick up for him" Trish fumed. "I bet you were having a good laugh at my expense all day, weren't you?"
Bo sighed. "Trish keep your voice down will you"
Noticing that partygoers were now quietening down in favour of watching the unfolding drama in the foyer, Trish let loose. "Don't you dare tell me what to do! You know what? I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth!"
With a flick of her hair she stormed out of the pub.
Bo stood in stunned silence, not hearing Matt's urgent "Let's go" or the bartender telling everyone to go back to their drinks. "Floor shows over folks"
Matt guided Bo out of the Boars Nest and into the car.
"That's it" Bo said quietly as Matt drove out of the parking lot. "Baby or no baby, I just can't take a woman doing that kind of drama all the time"
While Matt was secretly relieved that his friend had finally seen the true colours of Trish, he hated to see him hurting for it.
"Why don't I take you back to our place tonight?" he suggested. "There's no point in trying to answer a lot of questions until you have a clear head."
"Besides" he added with a smile, "Skye will love being able to fuss over you"
That bought a smile to Bo's face. An image of Skye flashed into his mind. Not the little Skye he was so used to seeing, but the grown up, all woman Skye that had danced so closely and so eagerly in his arms just the night before. She would be happy to see him and, like Matt said, she would fuss over him until he died from kindness. Why couldn't Trish have been more like her? Skye had the kind of heart that could warm a man on the coldest of days and a smile that would light a room on its own. Not to mention that she the best legs in the county and the most amazingly soft …
Whoa! Bo suddenly straightened up, opened his eyes and took a sneak look at Matt. Had his friend known where his thoughts about his sister had wandered he was bound to be beaten into half his current size. But Matt's eyes were focused on the road. He hadn't noticed a thing. Maybe it was just a guilty conscience that had Bo thinking his mortality was limited, after all, he never daydreamed about Skye. Well, not until he'd held her in his arms last night.
Matt was right, a night away from home would do him some good. The problem was, he had the feeling that he would be avoiding one round of self-questioning, only to barrel headfirst into another.
And this one was all about Skye.
"That's what she said?"
"Yeah" Daisy confirmed.
Luke shook his head. "She's flipped, finally and truly"
"She has got to be sick to do something like that in public"
"I agree" Luke's tone was soft compared to his younger cousin's venom.
"She needs help"
"Uh huh"
"Luke!"
Sighing, the older Duke looked up from what he was doing. "What do you think you should do? Get Roscoe to put out an APB on her?"
"She shouldn't be walking the street"
"Look, I'm no shrink, Daisy, but I think she may have vented her aggression on Bo tonight, and tomorrow she'll be over it"
Daisy thought about what she knew of Trish's last relationship.
"Do you really think so?" she asked, hoping her gut feeling was wrong, knowing it wasn't.
"You really think this blow up won't trigger off that Physco Trish thing like it did to that guy in Texas?"
Luke shrugged his broad shoulders.
"Honestly, honey, I have no idea. But Bo knows where we are if he needs us"
"That's weird" Matt murmured, as the boys approached the Hardy home.
"What?" Bo asked.
"The lights are all out"
"Maybe Skye went to bed?"
"I doubt it, she usually stays up until I'm home. And even if she did go to bed, she'd leave a light on. It's something she's done ever since our folks died. They never came home, so she likes to know that I do"
Bo remained thoughtful for a moment. "It's been rough on her hasn't it?"
Matt pared the car and sighed. "More than you could ever know. Her life has been one upheaval after another. First our folks dying in that accident, then her speech therapist told us she would have a stutter for the rest of her life. She worked so hard to overcome it, but then she met Trish"
Bo's silence was almost deafening.
"I have to say this Bo, because you're like a brother not just to me but to Skye as well. You need to know how hard it's been for Skye because of Trish"
Matt waited to see his friends reaction. It was becoming a night of revelations for him, and Matt didn't know how Bo would take knowing more he thought he did.
"Okay" Bo finally answered softly, keeping his gaze straight ahead.
Matt gave a small sigh and turned sideways in his seat to address him.
"Trish picked up on Skye's speech trouble pretty quick and that was all she needed to have Skye become a gofer of sorts" Matt deliberately left out the part about Trish knowing that Skye was crazy about Bo, and Matt's suspicion that Trish had also been using that against his sister. That was information that Skye didn't need her brother to be telling the object of her affections.
"She bullied, taunted and all but terrified my sister to the point that Skye was like jelly whenever Trish was around. Skye would never go against anything that Trish said or did. That's why I asked her to stop working at the boutique Trish goes to, and arranged for her to get a job at the courthouse instead"
Matt paused for a moment, not quite sure how to proceed with his suspicions.
"I think Skye knows more about what happened between you and Trish the night of the party than she's told us"
Bo thought back to that night. His memory was still very fuzzy. He wasn't a hundred percent sure the baby was actually his, but had kept that knowledge to himself thinking that it was possibly a guilty conscience trying to give him a way out.
Now he needed to know for sure.
He looked over at Matt in the dim light of the trucks cab.
"I'm not sure what to think anymore," he murmured.
"Well," Matt said, opening the truck door, "all a good friend can do is wait and give encouragement"
"And you are a good friend, Matt" Bo assured him, joining him on the porch. "A real good friend"
Matt smiled and clapped Bo on the shoulder. "Thanks, you're not so bad yourself"
The pair laughed as they entered the front room of the homestead. When Matt hit the lights, the laughter stopped.
The cosy front room was a mess. Furniture tossed over, cushions strewn about, photographs smashed. The adjoining kitchen area was littered with pots, pans, broken dishes and other items.
Bo and Matt stood stunned.
"Skye" Matt breathed.
Fear propelled both towards the short hallway that led to the downstairs rooms. At the end of the hall was a magnificent staircase that led to the upstairs area.
At the foot of the stairs, Matt suddenly froze, a whirlpool of memories crashing in on him. His parents had crashed after hitting a blind patch of ice. He'd been asleep in the back of the car at the time. When he had recovered enough to realise that he had not been injured he knew from the silence that his parents hadn't fared so well. The memory of looking to the front seat and seeing their crumpled lifeless bodies was something that still haunted him. Now, standing at the bottom of the stairs, he felt the adrenaline rush out of him, leaving him limp with weakness. If Skye was up there and something bad had happened, he couldn't face it. Not seeing another loved one broken.
He turned to Bo, searching for the words to tell him what was in his head.
Fortunately, Bo knew only too well of Matt's fear. Bo had suffered the same when his own parents had died, along with both Luke and Daisy's, in a similar car crash. Though Bo hadn't been there when they died, he could imagine what Matt had gone through. Bo was the only one that Matt had confided his nightmares to.
"You go and call the Sheriff's office, tell them that there's been a break in and you think your sister may be hurt. Okay?"
Matt looked at him with gratitude. "I just couldn't bear it if something has happened to her"
Bo put a reassuring hand on his friends shoulder. "I know what you're thinking, but you may be putting the cart before the horse. She's probably fine, just hiding in a closet or something"
Matt nodded, though he didn't seem convinced.
As he headed out the front door to call the Sheriff, Bo headed up the stairs that lead to the spacious upstairs landing. As he got to the top of the stairs everything on the landing seemed in order. The massive oak bookcases were still upright, and all the books and mementos were still in their places. In between the cases was a massive bay window that served as a backdrop for an antique table and two antiques reading chairs. Skye had decided to use the landing as something of a library, where she liked to while away late afternoons reading classic novels. She often joked that all she needed was a fireplace to make it perfect.
On either side of the landing were doors leading to each of the sibling's rooms, or living quarters as Matt happily dubbed them. Each room was identical in design, both roomy, with adjoining ensuites. On the opposite side of each ensuite was another room that had originally been the living rooms of the master and mistress of the house. Matt had decided to turn the living rooms into offices for both he and Skye, which meant they could both work in private, yet still enjoy time together in the downstairs living area. Part of the living rooms had been converted into walk in closets for the pair, though Matt often teased Skye that she needed a bigger one than he did.
Bo decided that the most obvious place to start his search would be in Skye's room. With baited breath he turned the handle and opened on of the doubled doors that lead to her private sanctuary.
Her bed had been ransacked, drawers had been opened, their contents tossed around. As he made his way over to the office he could see through the open door that the small two-seater couch in front of the fireplace was overturned. Skye's precious books had been tossed off her small bookcase, many ripped apart.
Whoever did this had a burning hatred.
Bo walked out of the office and headed back to the doorway of the room. From there he could see that Matt's room was untouched. He frowned. That seemed to mean that this might have been a personal attack against Skye.
As he turned back towards Skye's office, his foot caught something on the floor. Bending down he saw that it was a small teddy bear that he'd given Skye for her tenth birthday. The bears eyes were pulled out, it's face ripped. One of its legs was twisted almost off.
Cradling the bear in one hand, Bo opened the door to the bathroom. This was also in disarray. However, it wasn't the bottles, towels and other items tossed around the room that caught his attention. It was the clumps of blonde hair littering the far side of the room near the shower cubicle.
As Bo neared the area he could hear a soft keening sound, as if someone were trying to be quiet but unable to hold back sobs.
Skye, he thought.
With a quick flick of his wrist he opened the cubicle door…
