*Author's Note*

Thanks for reading, faving, following, and reviewing.

Well who Novella called to come get her is revealed in this chapter. I think ya'll are gonna be like whoa…or maybe not, who knows. LOL!

The Ride

Novella POV:

I was standing by the mailbox on the edge of the back hills country dirt road, my arms crossed over my chest trying to stay warm as the temperature dropped slightly. I was patiently, or perhaps impatiently, waiting for my ride to come pick me up. I still can't believe shit went down the way it did with Tolbert, even though I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since he always had a cruel, raging, bad temper.

I noticed bright headlights coming up the road, indicating that my ride was here. Hopefully it was my ride. The bright lights shined over the area I was at by the mailbox as the black car I knew too well came halting to a quick, tire screeching, stop. The passenger side's door flew open, the owner of the car leaning over the seat indicating that he had just opened the door.

"Get in, babe." I was told in a rough rolling wave of a voice as the driver sat back in his seat properly.

"Thanks for picking me up, Will." I gratefully told him while sitting down in the car and quickly shutting his car door.

"No problem." He answered while speeding off down the road, away from Tolbert's. "So, why'd he kick ya out after he nailed you?" I just narrowed my eyes at him, but I'm not sure if he noticed in the dark car barely lit by the dashboard lights though. "I'm not stupid. It's after midnight and you need a ride home from his house." Cap pointed out before quickly going on to say, "I'm not upset that you scratched an itch with him, hell I've been scratching a lot of itches with Mary Lou since I moved back. I'm just wondering why he tossed ya out like trash's all."

"He made a remark, I made a remark, then the past got brought up, he got pissed and told me to get out." I said, giving Cap the short and sweet version of what occurred with Tolbert tonight.

"Well, that's not a good enough reason."

"Cap…" I deeply sighed.

"Cap? Oh, Nova, only a few minutes ago it was Will. Don't do me like that, baby." I heard him tell me as I stared straight ahead at the road lit up by the high beams of his car. "So, why'd ya call me? I mean out of everybody 'round the Tug you called me."

After a few moments of silence my flowing voice, tinted with embarrassment and insecurity, broke out in an explanation of, "It's gonna sound stupid, but out of everybody I knew that you'd come. That you wouldn't try to talk me into making up with Tolbert or camping out on his couch to try and apologize later like everyone else would."

"It doesn't sound stupid to me." Cap told me, his hand patting mine comfortingly. Placing his hand back on the wheel he added, "You're right too, I came and got ya."

Shaking my head, I let out a small scoff of disbelief while remarking, "God, this is so messed up. You giving me a ride home from Tolbert's, deep in McCoy territory."

"Yep, sounds like a country song in the making too. You know, girl goes home with ex to fool 'round only to get tossed out like trash and calls her other ex to rescue her so she don't gotta walk 30 miles home in the cold midnight." Cap teased, trying to lighten the heavy mood looming in the atmosphere.

"Oh no, it does sound like a country song."

"Yee-haw." Cap jeered jokingly. Even though it was dark I could see in the soft glow coming from the dashboard a slight smirk-like line crossing his face. "Seriously, though, are you going to tell me the reason he got mad? I mean I did roll my ass outta bed to come get ya."

I let out a long sigh before giving Will the lengthy explanation of, "In a nutshell he wanted to get together, but I told him no cause of lawyer-client ethics. He accused me of using him, told me he missed me and I didn't care which made me tell him that him missing me way his fault cause he left a decade ago with only just cause as a reason. Then I asked what the reason was, he still said just cause. Then he got mad when I told him that wasn't good enough and told me and I quote 'If ya can't accept the answer I gave then get out. Go on and get, ya know yer way to the door.'. You know the rest since I called you."

"Damn. That's fucked up, babe." Will told me, repulsion dripping from his rough wave-like voice.

"I know."

"Damnit." Cap snarled coldly, his hands tightly gripping the steering wheel. Looking between me and the road he remarked icely in a rough tone, "I should turn this car around and go beat his face in for the shit he pulled."

"Cap, don't, please don't worry about it. It's my fault anyways."

"How so?"

"For letting myself get wrapped up in him. I know how he is, but…"

"But ya'll were at the bar drinking and one thing led to another. I get it, but him getting mad over you wanting the answer you deserved years ago ain't a good reason for him to throw you out in the middle of the night in the back woods."

"Yea…I know…" I sighed, knowing that Will was right.

A Garth Brooks song began to play out of the radio as Cap announced, "Uncle Wall's gonna be setting a preliminary trial date soon."

"To determine if it needs a jury trial or can be written off as self-defense and thrown out?" I asked, wanting confirmation on the situation.

"Yea, but we both know it's headed to a jury." Yea, he was right about that. I just nodded silently, which in turn caused him to say in a rough, but downhearted tone, "I wish you'd pull yourself from the case, baby. I don't want ya gettin' hurt more then you already are."

"I promised my uncle I'd help him with this case, so I'm going to." I told him before quickly adding in, "I won't get hurt and I'm not hurt either, Will."

"Bullshit. Nova, you're hurt whether ya want to admit it or not." Cap spat, shaking his head incredulously. "So, where exactly in Pikeville am I headed?" He asked, shifting the conversation away from something that would cause a fight to a fact he needed for my transport home.

"The first neighborhood off Main Street on the left, Brambleton. The address is 104 Haymitch Drive, it's about 5 streets into the neighborhood."

"Okay, sounds easy enough."

Me and Cap fell into a silence for the rest of our car ride. It wasn't an awkward silence, but one of comfort and simplicity.

"Well, here we are." Cap announced as he pulled up to the white picket fenced house that I was temporarily calling home. I just nodded at him before opening up the door. "Hey, baby, if ya ever need anythin' don't hesitate to call me. I mean it." I heard his deep wave of a voice tell me as I got out of the car.

"Thanks. I'll keep it in mind." I told him, a small ghost of a smile on my lips, before shutting his car door. I walked up the pathway and to the front door, not hearing Cap pull away until I opened the door and stepped inside the house.

Silently I walked down the entranceway and upstairs, quickly making my way down the hallway until I reached my room. Once I entered my room I quickly changed into some night clothes and got into bed. I was laying in bed for only a few minutes before my door opened followed by the light switch next to the doorjam being flicked on. I blinked my eyes, getting them used to the bright harsh light, as I heard my door slam shut. As my vision adjusted I saw my rother standing against the door, his arms crossed over his chest and his hair in a messily knotted bun.

"Why'd Cap bring ya home?" Moses bluntly asked me, one of his brows arched up.

"What?" I asked doe-eyed, trying to act like I didn't know what he was talking about.

"Don't play coy with me, sis. I heard his sporty car pull up to the house, saw it too when I looked outside my bedroom window."

"It's past one, why're you even up?" I countered, my brows knitted together, as I tilted my head at him.

"I've been playing Skyrim. Game's been out 2 damn years and I'm still nowhere near done with it, it's that damn long." I just shook my head at his answer. My brother could be such a dork sometimes. "So, did somethin' go south between you and Tolbert to have Cap give ya a ride home?"

I nodded my head while saying, "You can say that, yea."

A mischievous smirk crossed over my brother's face as he told me, "You know that everyone thinks you're with Tolbert tonight. You're gonna need a cover story for why you're home. Reckon I can say that I picked ya up after ya'll got into it. Nobody'd think twice 'bout that."

"Okay, but why would you do that?" I asked skeptically, not fully understanding where he was coming from.

"Cause I still think that the secret to winning the case is you gettin' with Cap." Moses revealed with seriousness shining in his cerulean eyes. "Clearly he likes you cause he gave ya a ride home." My brother added in to prove his point.

"Don't worry about me and Cap. There is no me and Cap." I quickly told me brother, narrowing my cornflower blues at him.

"Mhm…" Moses drawled out, nodding his head slowly. "Well I'm gonna go see if I can get a few more side quests done on my game 'fore bed. Nite."

"Nite-nite, Mo." I told my brother, using the bedtime term we used as children growing up.

Moses just nodded his head, flipped out my light switch, and walked out of my room. I was all alone in the dark, laying in my bed. I knew I needed sleep, but my mind was too wired to shut down and let me sleep. Too much had happened tonight. I sighed and turned over, hugging my pillow I closed my eyes and decided to just rest until my body drifted off to sleep.

Cap POV:

I pulled away once I saw Nova walk into her house, knowing that she was safe. I couldn't believe that crazy McCoy treated her the way he did. Fucking asshole. She's a good girl, don't deserve what happened to her tonight. To say getting waken up in the middle of the night by Nova telling me she needed a ride from Tolbert's was a shock would be an understatement. I wasn't surprised that she hooked up with him, but I was surprised that he kicked her out of his house.

Fuck! I wanted to beat his fucking ass so bad. My blood was boiling I was so mad at him for treating Nova like trash, tossing her out like some used up whore. All cause he wasn't able to man up to somethin' he did a decade ago. A fucking decade ago! Crazy fucking McCoy. I would leave Tolbert alone and unharmed, but only cause Nova didn't want me fighting over her.

But in the courtroom, I was gonna fry his ass. He was going down. Tolbert and his brothers weren't getting any sympathy from me. Oh, and after what Tolbert did to Nova tonight he wasn't getting any mercy from me when he was on the stand. That crazy McCoy thought he made an enemy out of me when he killed my uncle, but once he did the girl I decided I want to have somethin' with wrong he got onto my 'I fucking hate you and won't think twice bout shootin' a hole in your head shit' list.

While driving to my home deep up in the hills of West Virginia I decided that I was going to stay in contact with Nova, not for the case or the wedding we were attending either. I was going to text her, call her, and remind her of what a good guy looked like. I wasn't going to let Tolbert and his old sparks swoop in only to keep on hurting her. No, she'd been hurt enough by the crazy McCoy. I was going to remind her that I had her back, that I still wanted her too. Most of all I was going to let her know that I wasn't going to let her down like she'd been in the past.

Tolbert POV:

I had been tossin' 'n' turnin' in my bed for a couple hours now. My fight wit' Ella was eatin' at me. Damnit, why'd she have t'go bring up the past like she did? Why'd she have t'be so quick in dismissin' us? Couldn't she just let the past go an' accept that we've got 'notha chance at bein' together?

Shit! Guess I better go out to the livin' room, where I'm sure she's curled on the couch after I kicked her outta my room, to make shit all better. I would've thought she'd come back t'bed a while back, try to soothe things over. Reckon I gotta do the sweet talkin' even tho I didn't do nothin' wrong.

I pulled the covers off me and got up outta bed. I grabbed my boxers off the floor and pulled them on 'fore walkin' out my bedroom and into the livin' room. To my shock the room was empty. Ella wasn't here on the couch waitin' for me to cool off. No, she had actually left. I couldn't believe it, she left me. I didn't really think she would, but she did.

Now I felt like a sack of shit. Who'd she call? Why would they even pick her up? Everyone knew we always got into fights, why would somebody take her home instead of talkin' her sense into her 'bout makin' up with me? Damn, must've been her stupid lil brother. That's only person I can think of that would've listened to her.

I went over to the couch, slumpin' down on it in defeat. I fucked up. Distraught I hung my head, runnin' my hands over my face. I had t'make this right. I didn't mean for her to actually leave. She had t'know that. 'Morra at Perry Clines lawyer office I was gonna apologize to Ella, make her see that we could get 'long and even work on somethin' 'tween us.

AN:

Novella called Cap to get her and had a sort of heart to heart with him. So, both Cap and Tolbert have decided that they're going to work and fight to be Novella's man. Poor Novella's stuck in a triangle now… Oooo, interesting right?