** I was going to stop at the last chapter but decided you guys prob wanted to know what happens with Landon so here it is ;) **

Jon’s POV

            I heard someone yelling outside a few minutes after Lina left and walked over to the window that faced the front part of the barn to see what was going on; when I looked out I seen that Landon was outside and they were having some sort of argument about something. I didn’t want to get involved knowing that whatever it was Lina would have to work it out on her own; she was a strong girl and feisty I had no doubt that she could hold her own. I was just about to go and sit back down when I seen Landon grab a hold of her arm and pull her to a stop as she tried to walk away; something about him touching her like that just set me off and I took off down the stairs and out of the barn without a second thought.

“Stop bein’ a little bitch Lina! You need to just get over it; it was a one time mistake.” Landon yelled back at her as she went to turn away; she stopped mid-step and turned back around to face him with a look of pure rage on her face, I stayed frozen in the spot by the door, neither one of them had even noticed I was there yet.

“What the hell did you just call me?” She said stomping back over to get right in his face.

“Babe, I just mean… we just need… can’t we talk this out?” He stuttered over his words as he went to wrap his arms around her waist.

“I will give you one more warning Landon; you get the fuck off of my property right now or I will make you leave.” She growled not backing down an inch.

“Baby come on.” He said reaching for her arm but she quickly slapped his hand away.

“You are the lowest piece of shit that I know; you are nothin’ to me, nothin’, you hear me!” She screamed at him; his face turned to anger and before I even knew what was happening his hand came up and slapped her hard across the face.

            Pure rage took over my body as his hand connected with her skin and she stumbled backwards falling to her knees from the impact; his face filled with regret as he took a step towards her like he was going to help her off the ground. Lina had a look of hatred and shock on her face as she got to her feet on her own and turned on her heels; before Landon could take another step I was in front of him and landed a punch straight to his jaw. He fell to the ground and cupped the side of his face as blood started to drip from his busted lip; I was just about to pick him up from the ground and beat the living shit out of him when I heard the sound of a gun cocking behind me, the sound made me freeze and Landon’s eyes went wide. I slowly turned around and found Lina standing there with a hard look on her face and a gun in her hands pointed directly at Landons head.

“I’m givin’ you to the count of three to get the fuck out of here.” She growled while her hands stayed steadily planted on the gun that was still aimed at him; I took a few steps back to make sure I was out of the line of fire.

“Babe…” Landon started but Lina quickly cut him off.

“One!” She shouted as he fumbled to get back to his feet.

“Lina just put the gun…” He started again.

“Two!” Landon didn’t think twice after that and quickly made his way to his truck starting it up immediately.

“Three!” Lina said with a smirk as her finger pulled back the trigger and shot out one of his headlights; I stared at her with wide eyes and Landon’s mouth dropped open in shock as he stuck his head out the window to assess the damage to his truck.

“You fuckin’ bitch, you’re gonna’ to pay for that.” He said going to get out of the truck.

“The next one’s goin’ in your head.” Lina countered as she raised the gun to point it at him again; he stopped in his tracks and turned back to get in the truck.

            Not wanting to see Lina go to jail for murder and from the look on her face she wasn’t far from doing exactly that I took a few steps towards her and asked her to lower the gun; she didn’t even look in my direction as she held her gaze and the gun on Landon as he put the truck in gear and started to pull away.

“Lina.” I said cautiously as I started to approach her; I could see her finger twitching slightly on the trigger as if she was fighting herself on whether or not to put a few more bullet holes in his tailgate as he pulled away.

“Lina put the gun down.” I said calmly trying to talk her out of whatever she was thinking about doing next; her eyes flashed over to me for a second before she lowered the gun and popped out the clip letting it fall to the ground with a thud.

            She just stood there with the gun hanging loosely in her hand with a spaced out look on her face; my guess would be that maybe she couldn’t believe what she just did. I closed the distance between us and placed my hand on the gun carefully pulling it out of her grip as she stood there not moving; after I had the gun in my hands I cleared the bullet out of the chamber and reached down to grab the clip off the ground. I loaded the bullet into the clip before sliding it back into the gun and stuck it in the waistband of my pants; looking back over at Lina she still hadn’t moved an inch so I placed my hands on her shoulders before pulling her back into my body in a hug.

            As soon as she was in my arms she broke down in tears; turning around she hugged me tightly as I rubbed her back letting her get it all out. I looked around to see that a small crowd had gathered around the barn; all the other farm hands must have came over when they heard the gun shot; I shot them a look to let them know everything was ok and they scattered off going back to their normal duties.

“Are you ok?” I asked after a few minutes when she seemed to be pulling herself back together.

“Yeah.” She said sadly pulling back from me and wiping the tears off her face.

“Are you sure?” I asked placing my hand under her chin and forcing her to look up at me.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Thanks for that.” She said motioning over her shoulder to where Landon’s truck had been parked.

“For what?” I asked not knowing what she was referring to.

“For punchin’ him.” She said with a little chuckle; I laughed too after I remembered doing it, I was so focused on calming her down that I had completely forgot that I punched that fucker in his face.

“Anytime sweetheart.” I replied pulling her back in for a quick hug that she returned immediately.

“I guess I better go tell my daddy what happened before the sheriff gets here.” She said pulling back with a sly smile on her face; I raised my eyebrows at her wondering if that was the best idea then I thought about what she said about the sheriff coming.

“Shit!” I spat out; I was still on probation and punching him was definitely going to land me back in jail, so much for going straight and staying out of trouble.

“What?” She asked pulling her eyebrows together in confusion.

“I’m going back to jail.” I said running my hands through my short hair in frustration.

“No you’re not, don’t worry I got your back.” She smiled before patting me on the back and walking up towards the house to talk to her dad.

            As much as I wanted to trust her and believe that she could get me out of trouble I just couldn’t; I knew that if I got in any trouble I was headed straight back to jail, my probation officer made that clear before I was released and I planned to stay out of trouble but I guess I just threw that out the window. As much as the thought of going back to jail sucked I still couldn’t get myself to regret what I did; I would have done it again in a second, that bastard deserved that punch and a whole lot more. I was honestly surprised that I didn’t beat him to a pulp; if it wasn’t for Lina pulling out the gun the moment she did I probably would have.

            I headed back up to my apartment trying my best not to think about what was about to happen; I knew I was going back to jail but I wanted to at least try to enjoy my last few minutes of freedom while I had it. I headed straight to the shower knowing that it was one of the things that I would miss the most; you could never really have a nice relaxing shower in prison because you always had to watch your back. The water stung my cracked knuckles from where I had punched Landon; I couldn’t stop the smile from crossing my face, I couldn’t think of a better reason to go back than for defending Lina from that asshole. It was only a few minutes after I got dressed that the phone rang and Thomas asked me to come up to the house to talk to the sheriff; I took one last look around the apartment trying to memorize everything that I would miss once I was gone before heading out the door.

            I took my time walking up to the house taking in all the things of the farm that I knew I would miss; the sounds of the horses galloping around and neighing in the pastors, the chickens clucking away in their pen and the smell of the tractor exhaust that floated through the air. I seen the sheriff car sitting out side the house and gulped at the thought that I would be sitting in the back seat in handcuffs soon; I took a few deep breaths after walking up to the house before opening the door and following the sounds of voices to the kitchen. I was surprised when I walked in to find the sheriff sitting at the table with the rest of the family sipping on a cup of coffee; he had a bright smile on his face as him and Lina laughed together about something.

“Jon, this is Sheriff Joe Brown.” Thomas introduced us when he seen me walk in; the sheriff rose from his seat and extended his hand and I returned the handshake while swallowing down the fear in my throat.

“It’s nice to meet you sir.” I said after shaking his hand.

“You too son.” He said with a smile and patted me on the back; I was confused as hell as to what was going on here. Wasn’t he supposed to be slamming me against the wall and slapping cuffs on right about now?

“Take a seat boy and let’s go over what happened.” The sheriff said motioning to a seat next to him. Umm, ok? This was just weird; I thought for sure I would have been booked by now.

“Now I just left the Baker house and Landon looked pretty banged up; somthin’ you would like to tell me about that son?” The sheriff asked dropping his smile and putting on his business face; I knew there had to be some authority hidden inside there somewhere and it was just a matter of time before it came out.

“Oh take it easy on him Joe.” Lina said smacking his arm; my mouth dropped open in shock. What the hell! Did she just smack a cop? I was expecting him to give her a disapproving look but instead he just reached over and messed up her hair with his hand and she gave him a disapproving look instead.

“Alright kitten.” Sheriff Joe said before returning his attention to me. “So from what I heard the Baker boy hit Kat and you hit him in her defense, is that correct?” He asked and I heard Thomas’s fist hit the table when he mentioned Lina getting hit; I looked over to see that the side of her face was still a little red from the hit and anger ran through me again just from the thought of it.

“Yes sir.” I managed to get out through gritted teeth.

“Well then I don’t see that we have a problem here.” He said to me before turning his attention to Thomas. “Now the big question is about pressin’ charges. Now the Baker boy wants to press charges on Jon here for hittin’ him but since it was self defense there’s no case, he also wants to press charges on Kat for firin’ rounds into his truck.” He continued.

“A round.” Lina corrected him causing him to chuckle.

“Alright, firin’ a round into his truck. Now that could be some trouble for her, lettin’ off a firearm that close to people, it could get bad Thomas.” The sheriff warmed and I seen Thomas rub the back of his neck as if he was trying to decide what to do. “I’d recommend that you threaten to press charges against him for assault if he doesn’t drop the charges against Kat.” Sheriff Joe offered and Thomas looked over at Lina to see what her thoughts were.

“That’s fine.” Lina said sitting back in her chair taking another sip of coffee from her cup.

“Well lets do that then, but Joe if that boy steps foot on my property again you’re gonna’ have a hell of a lot more to deal with than assault charges; you better get your yellow tape ready for a murder scene.” Thomas threatened and I sat back still stunned at the conversation going on around me; apparently cops in the south handle things a little differently than they do in LA.

“That one might be a little harder to get you out of Thomas.” The sheriff said with a chuckle. What in the fuck; did he just laugh at Thomas threatening to kill someone? “I will make sure to pass on the warnin’ for you.” He said standing from his seat; Thomas and Katherine shook his hand and Lina pulled him in for a hug.

“It was nice to meet you son and you keep an eye on my little kitten here.” He said extending his hand to me and patting Lina on the head at the same time.

“You too sir, and I will.” I said with a smile; that was the coolest cop I have ever met!

“Tell Jen I said hi and to call me.” Lina called after him as he walked out the door.

“Sure thing kitten, you stay out of trouble now.” He said over his shoulder before shutting the door behind him.

“Told you I had your back.” Lina whispered as she walked past me with a wink and I smiled.

“Thank you Jon, I really appreciate what you did out there.” Thomas said motioning towards the driveway.

“No problem sir.” I replied as I headed for the door.

            Wow, that all turned out a lot differently than I thought it would have; as I walked out the door I was still confused as to how I was going home and not back to jail but walking out and seeing that the cop car was gone I breathed in a sigh of relief. It was clear that Lina and her family were friends with the sheriff but I never expected them to be good enough friends that they could get a guy on parole out of going to jail for almost knocking someone out; I thought about what Lina said to the sheriff as he left about saying hi to Jen and couldn’t help but wonder if maybe the sheriff was Jens father. As crazy as Jen was it was hard to picture her having a sheriff as a father but hell crazier things have happened so I wouldn’t really be surprised if that were the truth. As I made my way back up to my apartment I noticed that I had a smile still plastered across my lips; I couldn’t help but be happy with the way everything turned out. Although I would have loved to see Landon go to jail for hitting Lina it wasn’t worth her doing time for shooting up his truck; I can’t believe that the law lets things like that happen around here and people can just get away with it. Makes me wonder what exactly you had to do to actually get in trouble around here; on second thought I really didn’t want to find out.