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    The Gallows Tree
    The Gallows Tree
    The Gallows Tree
    Ebook184 pages3 hours

    The Gallows Tree

    By RJ Scott

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    About this ebook

    Cody Garret is only just finding his way after an abusive relationship ended with his ex in prison. Coming to England to restore Mill Cottage is his way of running so he has time to heal. His goal is simple-hire a company to help make the mill cottage saleable then go back to the States.

    What he doesn't count on is meeting Sebastian Toulson-Brown, the brother of his contractor and the man who may be able to show him he can stop running.

    But first Cody and Sebastian must deal with the ghosts of lost loves and the destinies that are woven into the story of the mill and the sycamore trees that stand on its land, one of which might be the gallows tree.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRJ Scott
    Release dateApr 15, 2013
    ISBN9781301811502
    The Gallows Tree
    Author

    RJ Scott

    RJ Scott is the author of the best selling Male/Male romances The Christmas Throwaway, The Heart Of Texas and the Sanctuary Series of books.She writes romances between two strong men and always gives them the happy ever after they deserve.

    Read more from Rj Scott

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    Book preview

    The Gallows Tree - RJ Scott

    Chapter One

    I'm really starting to lose my shit here. Cody Garret gripped his cell phone tight.

    Calm down, Cody. His mom was using the patented talking-Cody-off-the-ledge technique they had perfected over the last few years. But she sounded wrong, and even though her voice was broken up by interference, he could sense her worry. He wished to hell he could reassure her and say he was okay.

    I. Can't. Calm. Down, he bit out through gritted teeth. The panic that usually stayed buried well inside him threatened to push to the surface with an insistent press of pain at his temples and a cold sweat that left him shaky.

    Can you count for me, darling? Nothing was working. Not the counting or the imagining his happy place. Jeez. His happy place was so far away from being stuck here it wasn't even funny. The traffic on this road snaking around London in one big circle was his vision of hell.

    I've been in this tiny fricking Toyota for six hours, Mom, and in the last hour we've gone four miles. Four.

    Has there been an accident or something?

    I can't see. I'm just in a line of freaking stopped cars.

    Can't you turn off from the road you're on? Maybe take a back road? He knew his mom was trying to help, but he'd thought all this already.

    I'm in between turnoffs; I'm stuck where I am.

    Okay. Do you need me to get Anna? Anna was the only other person outside of his mom that had a handle on these panic attacks, but the last thing he wanted was for his heavily pregnant sister to have to deal with his crap. His mom had managed to throw the equivalent of ice water at him with that simple question.

    No, he said quickly. I'll be fine. Listen. I'm—breathing.

    Cody—

    The lights are changing ahead, he lied convincingly. I'll call you.

    Cody, promise me you'll pull over if this gets worse.

    I promise. He disconnected the call. Tears choked his throat, and he wondered what the guy in the Lotus next to him would think if he saw Cody beat his head against the steering wheel. Claustrophobia and anxiety clawed inside him, and he was willing to do anything to clear his head. Even give himself a concussion.

    Both front windows were fully down, and the car blower was on full blast, but it wasn't enough air. He considered climbing out of the car and standing on the M25 just to feel something except the metal box around him. The noise of a horn snapped through the fog in his head, and he realized the cars in front of him were actually moving. Slowly, but moving. Shaking with tension and desperate to just get the hell off this road, he pressed lightly enough on the accelerator to join this crawling snake of steel as it carved its way through flat green countryside closer to where he needed to be. Pain banded his head, and he focused on the tension in his shoulders and neck that was causing the headache. He had to concentrate on relaxing, but dizziness assailed him. It took all his concentration to keep the car on the damn road at five miles an hour.

    Finally the sign for the exit was by the side of his car. Then he passed it, and it was a way back, and then before he had even gotten control of his breathing, he was off from the static parking lot that was the London orbital and onto a new motorway heading north from the city.

    Thankfully whatever was stopping the traffic on the M25 didn't appear to exist on this new road. He pressed his foot to the floor, and incredibly air was inside the car, whipping his too-long bangs around his face. The air coming into the car was heavy with heat; he didn't remember reading anywhere that England was supposed to have a heat wave in October and not for the first time he wished he had done more research. Not caring where it took him, he decided he needed to be off this road and took the first exit off of the M1. Turning onto a quieter road, he took a left, then a right, and finally found a place to pull over.

    Almost like his mother knew he'd managed to find a way through the metal hell, his cell rang, and he saw it was her. He answered on the third ring as he clambered out of the small car and inhaled great lungfuls of air.

    Cody? She sounded as anxious as he felt.

    I'm okay, he said quickly. Sorry. I'm okay, he repeated. The last was more for his own sake than his mom's. He needed to tell himself he was moving through to the other side of the attack and that he would stay well and sane.

    Cody, you made this decision too soon. I wish you had waited—

    I couldn't wait, Mom, he interrupted quickly. He was so not ready for this conversation again. How the hell could anyone expect him to stay in Baltimore when there was a chance he could see Vince again?

    What if the notes weren't from him, Cody? You should have taken them to the police…

    Cody closed his eyes tight against the midday sun that burned through his thin jacket and made him sweat. He wished he could take it off, but his fair skin needed to stay covered; it burned too quickly. He listened to his mom as she listed all the things that he should maybe have done. He knew all the what-ifs. His mind played them over and over again. What if he hadn't met Vince Antonelli? What if he hadn't gone home with him? What if Vince hadn't done just enough for a younger more impressionable Cody to fall in love? Would any of it have happened? Or was Cody Garret predestined to always be some man's punching bag?

    Don't. The single plea was all he managed to say. Unspoken was the begging to be left alone to work his way through all of this. His counselor had said it was Cody's form of denial. Not talking about it meant it didn't happen. Hadn't happened. Meant that he hadn't almost died. Self-consciously he placed his free hand over his heart where the worst of the scarring lay and opened his eyes to focus on the weeds and grass at his feet. I showed them to a friend and he said that there was nothing in them that meant they were from Vince.

    This friend. He's a cop?

    Not exactly—

    You should have let… Cody zoned out again. He had the notes that had been sent on to him in his suitcase, and every phone call was listed in a diary of dates. When he was ready, he would take them to the cops. Because… taking this proof of Vince contacting him to the authorities meant having to face his ex again. He couldn't do that yet.

    Cody? Damn. There was his mom's sad voice again. If he didn't know clearly every minute what effect Vince's actions had had on his mom and sister, that single small calling of his name was enough to remind him. She always sounded as if Cody's world had ended, and it hurt so badly. Straightening his spine, he pulled the cloak of invulnerability around him that he used so often.

    Mom I'm in England. This is a good thing, he said confidently. I'm an entire continent away from seeing him, at least for a while, and it's beautiful here. He looked down the road running off the main motorway. The blacktop wasn't exactly picture perfect English village; more of a road to nowhere. The banks and sides were landscaped with spindly trees that clung tenaciously to steep inclines, and he traced their zig-zag path with his eyes. She didn't have to know that what he was looking at could be a road in any country.

    Is it? his mom said wistfully. Cody was relieved he had managed to get his mom off Vince and on to her favorite subject: England.

    Very… He searched for the right adjective to bolster her mood and found the one thing that had caught his eye. …green. He finished with a flourish, and he heard his mom's sigh.

    Great-gran always said it was beautiful there. Cody bit his tongue that his long deceased great-gran couldn't have been talking about this particular unmarked road as a welcome breeze blew a familiar wrapper past him. Curling around the nearest small sapling, it stuck to the metal support that surrounded it. The golden arches reminded Cody he hadn't had anything to eat in the last seven hours. Not since he'd left Gatwick and located his rental.

    It is, he lied again. He had gotten very good at lying over the past few years. Lying about his name, his family, his lover, and his pain.

    How far is it to Lower Ferrers?

    Hang on. He leaned in through the open window and checked the navigation system.

    An hour maybe, he answered finally. Leaning back against the hot metal of the car, he cradled the phone close to his ear. Is Ben home?

    He's with your sister at her appointment.

    Irrational fear gripped Cody, but he pushed it down ruthlessly. Vince had never actually threatened his family—the threats had always been to Cody—so why did he suddenly feel so anxious?

    Why didn't you go with them, Mom?

    They need their time alone. I promise you I'm all right here, Cody. Ben has every security device available on the house. Ben's ex-career in a shady Army special ops group meant he wasn't short of a trick or two when it came to personal safety. None of that stopped the nausea Cody got imagining Vince in his family's life. It was enough that Vince knew where his mom lived, but the idea that he might hurt her in any way was unfathomable.

    Will you call me when they get back, Mom? He could have bitten his tongue at that question. His mom hated it that he worried so much about her and Anna.

    I will, she said carefully. Then she paused, and Cody could imagine her thinking hard on what to say next, about Cody over-reacting, about how Cody shouldn't worry. He wanted to stop that dead in its tracks.

    Mom, please reconsider and move in with Anna. Such an old argument, and whenever Cody said those words, he felt another inch of his self-esteem being flayed from him. His mom had friends, and his sister was going to be busy with the new child. Cody was the one who had changed the way he looked at life after Vince. Exposing himself and his fears was visceral, and it hurt.

    Hurt so much.

    Call me when you get to the hotel? She chose to ignore his plea, but Cody didn't feel hurt as the argument was one Cody would never win. She moved on to the next thing on her momma agenda. He knew what was coming next. And make sure you sign on with the doctor there. I don't know what they'll be like over there, but they need to know for your script. There, in a few sentences she had covered shelter and health. And don't forget to eat. He almost laughed at the triad of needs she always placed on him. He would have laughed if he didn't feel the familiar panic rise up in him at all the things he had to do once he found his new home.

    "I will call you, I'll sign on with the doctor as soon as I can, and I'm stopping at the next place that does food." She harrumphed at his summation of what she had said, but at least they were ending the conversation on a level of humor. That was a good thing chalked against Cody's list of bad things.

    Stay safe, Cody. I love you.

    I love you, Momma. Get Anna to email me.

    I will. Bye, sweetheart.

    The call ended. There would be at least another couple of hours until he heard his mom's voice and already he had his thumb hovering over the redial button needing the sound of her voice in his ear. She had been his constant over the last six years—the one person that knew most of what had happened and who had become his anchor as he drifted around America for the last twenty-four months.

    Emails, texts, and some limited instant messaging as he moved around the country were the only contacts he had with the family he loved. Every so often he would visit them, but he never stayed long. He couldn't stay anywhere for long. Even the idea of six months here was revving up his fears. Now he was missing the birth of his niece or nephew, and that was the full stop in the sentence he was living.

    Stay until the baby is born, Cody? Anna had asked with eyes full of compassion. That was the worst for Cody. Anna wouldn't argue with him; she simply understood he didn't want to be there for the day Vince actually managed to corner him. She didn't start the tirade of getting him to tell the cops; she understood him so well. Or rather she was willing to let him feel like he was making the right decision.

    He keyed local places to eat into the navigation system and found the closest McDonald's. A healthy food choice it wasn't, but he needed convenience. He needed carbs, and he needed them now. Closing the car door, he pulled on the belt, wincing at the wrench on his chest and arm. The reflex was automatic, and the curse that accompanied it a tried and tested way to vent the pain from his system. He

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