Crossing the line

Chapter Twenty-Seven

July 2012

A beam of sunlight filtered in past the window and hit Tabitha’s hair in such a way that it lit up just like Wyatt remembered. The silky strands danced with every color from copper to gold, and he fingered them thoughtfully as Tabitha lay over his chest, sleeping deeply, as if she hadn’t had a decent moment’s rest since she left.

There was a strange collision of joy and agony that made his heart hurt. He knew he should slip out from beneath Tabitha, get dressed, and walk away, but just thinking about it was like asking Wyatt to stop breathing. He had loved Tabitha for as long as he could remember, and what people didn’t understand was that kind of connection didn’t just stop because he wanted it to.

There were plenty of easier women to love, but for some reason, fate had thrown them together. She was magnetic, and he was steel, and even the most malevolent forces couldn’t force them apart once she got near enough to touch.

He could hear his cell phone buzzing in his jeans that had been tossed so carelessly on the floor earlier. He would have ignored it if it weren’t the fourteenth time he heard it go off, and those were the times he was counting. As gently as possible, he reached over the side of the side of the bed and felt blindly for his jeans. When he found them, he struggled to pull his phone out of his pocket one-handed and then looked at the screen.

Jules

Missed Calls (16)

If that wasn’t bad enough, there was also a whole list of text messages from his sister that ended with the not so subtle, If you have even an ounce of common sense and self-preservation, you’ll finally give her those divorce papers I know you’ve got stuffed in the back of your desk drawer.

That had actually been Wyatt’s plan when he’d left Hal’s Diner that morning after finding out Tabitha was back in town. He’d been determined to get some answers and discuss finally ending their ruse of a marriage, but the idea had seemed ridiculous in the face of actually seeing his wife again.

The next text confirmed his sister knew him better than he knew himself.

But we both know she makes you stupid. You’re probably curled up naked and daydreaming about happy endings and redheaded grandbabies.

He rolled his eyes, not for the first time cursing the powers that be that stuck him with a twin. He and Jules thought and acted alike more than either of them was willing to admit. It made very little difference that Jules was a woman. The reason she knew he was dumb for love was she was more than guilty of the exact same thing.

The past year taught them all that.

He was still pondering it when another message popped up, and he could almost hear the panicked desperation in Jules’s voice as he read it.

Please don’t let her hurt you again.

Wyatt held down the button until his phone turned off rather than acknowledge his sister, who had just put voice to his darkest fears and left him feeling open and exposed to the point that the pain in his chest doubled and his breathing fell shallow.

He tossed it on the bed with more force than necessary, and Tabitha shifted over him, as if sensing his sudden bout of anxiety at the thought of losing her again. She smoothed a hand down his chest, making it clear they still shared a truly unique connection that left them joined in far more ways than just the superficial sexual attraction that had always been crippling in its intensity.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice heavy with sleep.

He hated that everything in him tensed at the sound of the soul-deep exhaustion he could hear beneath her concern. It made him want to wrap her up in his arms and keep her safe from the world. He wanted to resent her for churning up his protective instincts so easily, but it just wasn’t there. Instead he just soothed a hand down the slender curve of her bare back, savoring the feel of her smooth skin.

He leaned down and kissed the top of her head, unable to help the action because her hair really was startlingly beautiful in the sun. “I’m fine, darlin’.”

She blinked up at him, studying his face intently for several long seconds before she whispered, “Liar.”

A smile quirked at the corner of his mouth. He couldn’t hide from her. He was anything but fine, but rather than confirm her suspicions, he just caressed her back once more. “Go back to sleep.”

She hummed. The sound was soft and sweet, and something that made the nostalgia almost overwhelming because Tabitha had always been a very quiet person. To others she was often hard to read, but Wyatt had always heard the unspoken message in those little sighs. He wasn’t even surprised when she pressed her lips to his collarbone next. He could feel the sheen of goose bumps travel over his skin at the brush of her breath, warm and featherlight against his chest as she continued to press soft, loving kisses against it. Her hand ran over his abdominal muscles and down to his waist as she shifted over him, giving herself better access to his body. His dick was already trying to come back to life again despite the two of them doing it three times before she’d fallen asleep.

He watched her, entranced as her eyes drifted close as if she were savoring touching him as much as he enjoyed letting her. Her hand slid down to his ass, cupping it as another soft sigh of indulgence slipped past her lips.

“I missed you, Wy.” The confession was barely audible, but he heard it, and he groaned in response.

He pushed both his hands into her vibrant hair, holding Tabitha to him with the thought that his sister was fucking crazy if she thought he was capable of handing this woman a stack of papers that would break his connection to her. He could feel it, a complete surrender to the hold Tabitha had on his heart, and he didn’t even fight against it. The poison was too sweet, too wholly addictive for Wyatt to complain about the pain it caused him to know he was never going to be free of the heartache loving her caused.

He didn’t release his hold on her as she moved lower, kissing and licking his fevered skin until he was shifting under her, hard and restless for the feel of her slick, tight heat once more. “Lemme love you,” he rasped when she nipped lightly at his hip bone. Then she cupped his balls, and his entire body jerked from the sensation. “Fuck, Tab.” He dropped his head heavily against the pillow and squeezed his eyes shut against the pleasure, robbing him of the image of her beautiful face hovering near his dick that was straining for another taste of her. She stroked him next, and he pushed his hips into the embrace of her hand with another low curse. “Shit.”

For one brief second, the thought that he hadn’t showered drifted into his mind. Tabitha didn’t seem to care as she took him in her mouth, tasting both of them on his dick. He could feel her hum of pleasure against the head of his cock as she sucked him, and it was as if the other three times hadn’t happened.

The bliss of her mouth on him made the need so blinding he felt it in every muscle in his body. He tightened his fingers in her hair as she took him deeper. He let out a choked sound of pleasure, because he’d forgotten how amazing it was to let her love him like this. How had he survived without it?

It didn’t take her long to have him sweating and pushing his hips up over and over again as she stroked and sucked him. Even if there were a few awkward moments as she reacquainted herself with the feel of him, it didn’t matter, because this was Tabitha touching him. Just being near her made him ache.

He found himself hovering on the edge of oblivion for a long while. The time they spent together earlier gave him the ability to really enjoy everything about this moment, and he was able to truly appreciate it in a way he hadn’t when he was younger. The hot rush of pleasure. The pulse of desire that made it impossible to think about anything other than the image of Tabitha’s lips stretched wide over his cock. Her short hair brushing against his stomach. Her smooth, capable hand sliding up and down his length in a steady rhythm that was pushing him toward a release faster than he realized.

He was so caught up in everything that when his climax did slam into him, it was so hard and fast it startled him. He shouted in warning and loosened his hold on her hair, but that was all he could manage before the energy that had been building finally exploded, hazing everything around him with the velocity of it, and then he was pulsing in her hand and shooting in her mouth. Just like it was before, Tabitha seemed to enjoy his taste as she sucked greedily, suspending the bliss for what felt like an eternity, because that had always turned him on like crazy.

He was still humming in the afterglow when she released him and kissed her way back up until she was draped over him once more as if the episode had never happened to begin with, but Wyatt wasn’t going to let something that mind-blowing go without reciprocating.

He shifted their positions and rolled over with Tabitha until she was curled into his side. He buried his face into the curve of her neck and placed a kiss against the steady thump of her heartbeat that was faster than normal and told him what she wasn’t going to voice out loud. His pressed his lips against the shell of her ear and reached down between her legs that she parted without him asking. He slid his fingers between the small triangle of red hair, finding her wet for him. “Are you sore?”

She was quiet before she confessed in a disappointed whisper, “Yes.” She grasped his wrist, squeezing softly. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” He traced the outline of her sex, making her breath catch. “I can be gentle.”

“You don’t have to—”

“Hush,” he scolded, still teasing her lightly. “I like touching you. I like listening to you too.”

Her breath hitched once more, and she tilted her head forward from where it rested on his arm. She lifted her leg, draping it over his thighs behind her, opening herself wide to his exploration.

“Are you gonna come for me, Tabby?”

She gasped with pleasure, before she let out a shuddering sigh and nodded.

“Tell me,” he pushed, because he never believed it was good for her to be so closed up about what she wanted from life. “Tell me what you want.”

“Make me—” She paused for a long moment, as if searching for the right words. When his touch became more insistent, moving up to rub against her clit, she shuddered. “Make me feel good, Wy. Please.”

It wasn’t bold and brassy like he would’ve said it, but that was okay. She told him what she wanted, and he was intent on giving it to her. His touch was never more than soft and light, making the rising tide of ecstasy slow and profound. By the time she came, Tabitha’s skin was dewy with pleasure, her breathing labored, her little moans turned to gasps and broken phrases of desperation begging for more and more until she suddenly stiffened in his arms. Her body shuddered. She was no longer quiet and reserved as she let the tide wash over her. Wyatt held her, feeling as if his heart was swelling until the point that it might burst with how deeply he cared for this woman.

He held her after it was over, his arms so tight around her small frame he was likely crushing her as he tried to hold her close enough to keep her from slipping away again. Yet even in the afterglow, he knew how very unlikely that was. She didn’t want to be in Garnet, and he had six generations’ worth of obligation that said he was supposed to be sheriff until the day he died. He had a whole town that counted on him to do the job he was born to do, and it wasn’t something he could just walk away from—even for her.

In the end, it became too much. There was no easy solution, so Wyatt gave up. He fell asleep with her. Even in his dreams, he recognized it was the first peaceful rest he’d had in a very long time.

Wyatt didn’t want it, but without his permission, his heart started beating again.

It had always beat for Tabitha.

The Storm, A Heroes of Sapphire County Novel by T.C. Rennoc

Tabitha stared at the new title to a book that had been nothing but a blank page for the past year and half. Her publisher had been beyond pissed with her for a long time now over the extended case of writer’s block. Her fans even more so.

She couldn’t tell anyone she wasn’t capable of writing it because she didn’t know how it was supposed to go. It hadn’t happened yet. Her last book, The End of Innocence, had finished with a horrible cliffhanger. The heroine, Betsy, had left her longtime boyfriend, Garrett Shaw, to protect him from a terrible secret. Her brother sold her to the villains for something as worthless as money. Betsy had been forced to leave. If she hadn’t, Garrett, a superhero with humbling strength and speed, would’ve turned into something dark and sinister. She’d witnessed the darkness in him before. She’d rather see him weakened than turned into the thing he’d been raised to fight against.

All heroes had a weakness, even Garrett Shaw.

Betsy hadn’t been raped in the book. It was a story for young people, which was why Tabitha made the reason her brother sold her a little more palpable than drugs. Money, people could understand. A quick high was beyond heartless, even for an evil minion. In the book she had just been tortured and forced to give up her own powers to the villains. Betsy’s gifts weren’t as amazing as Garrett, or his sister Guinevere, or even his best friend Rocky, but hers could be used for terrible things in the wrong hands. Betsy’s gift was to drain any superhero of their powers, which was what had made her love affair with the biggest hero of Sapphire County so beautifully tragic. Every time he touched her, he got a little weaker.

Betsy was Garrett’s kryptonite, but he loved her anyway.

When the villains had won by draining the last of Garrett’s superhuman strength from him, it hadn’t even mattered. He was a broken young man. He didn’t want to fight anymore. It was a terrible place to leave off the series. When she wrote it, she told herself she’d fix the tragedy with the next book. She was a creative person. She could make up a better ending than the two star-crossed lovers dying old, weak, and alone, but the story had never come to her. She didn’t know how to fix it.

Tabitha smiled. Wyatt had turned out much better than where she’d left Garrett off in the books. She was proud of him, and she started writing for the first time in months, and this time she wasn’t inclined to delete it twenty minutes after she started.

Tabitha began to type. Three years later. She paused, reflecting that it was better than saying thirteen years, and added in that Betsy sat at her mother’s bedside, back home in Sapphire County after so long.

Tabitha was grateful to be writing again, and the words flowed as her fingers swept over the keystrokes. It was almost as if she’d never stopped.

She even borrowed the scene of her throwing up in the flowers despite it being horrifying in reality. Somehow laying herself bare in books was cleansing in a way few would understand. She was already to the part where Garrett took her to the cabin Betsy had rented from her friend Tony—a popular side character from the earlier books—when Wyatt came into the kitchen. He was bare-chested and barefoot, wearing only his jeans from earlier.

God, he was a sight with blond hair still mussed from the sex and that big, powerful body on display. He had to weigh at least thirty pounds more than he had when she left, and it was all muscle.

“Howdy, Sheriff.” She couldn’t help but grin at him. “You’re fine inspiration for a starving artist at this late hour.”

“Starving, huh?” He sat down across from her at the table and eyed her laptop. “Ain’t ya got a movie coming out next year?”

“Not my movie.” She looked back at the computer. “Someone else is making it. They just bought the rights.”

“You think they’re gonna cast someone handsome and charming to play Garrett Shaw?” Wyatt wagged his eyebrows, though the mirth didn’t reach his eyes the way it used to.

Tabitha laughed anyway. “I’m sure they will.”

“You wanna talk ’bout these books?” Wyatt asked her softly as his smile faded, and he went back to studying her intently. “I read them, Tabby. All of them.”

Tabitha closed her laptop rather than answer, and she stared at it for a long time before she whispered, “Wyatt—”

He shook his head before she could finish. “Forget I asked.”

“No, you have a right to ask,” she whispered. “I know I put a lot of things in there. Maybe they were things you wanted kept private and—”

“That’s not what I was saying.” Wyatt cut her off. “I don’t care what you use of my life. If it helps you, I want ya to put whatever the hell you want ’bout me in those books.”

“I just wanted kids to believe in heroes,” she said, hoping he understood in a way she always imagined he did when the books got so much more popular than she’d anticipated. “Kids like I was, who don’t have a reason to hope for someone to save them. You did that for me, Wyatt. You gave me that. No matter what happens after all this, please don’t ever forget that.”

Wyatt leaned his elbows against the table and put his face in his hands. “But I didn’t, did I? I read the last book. Garrett failed Betsy—horribly.”

“No, he didn’t. Betsy failed herself. She failed Garrett too.”

“Why’d you leave?” He said the words into his hands. “Please tell me.”

“No,” Tabitha whispered because she didn’t have a better defense against the question so soon after seeing him again. She didn’t know why she was surprised he would throw it at her. This was Wyatt she was dealing with. “I’m asking you not to press it. Please.”

Wyatt’s jaw locked. She could see the fury glowing in his eyes, something dark and far more formidable than she created in fiction. He stood up with a growl and turned away from her. He ran both his hands through his hair. Then he took a long, cooling breath as if searching for sanity.

“Did someone hurt you? Brett and Vaughn were living over in Mercy at that time, but I know your mama used to have lots of people over. Your uncles, their friends, that house was always full of criminals,” he snapped as if he’d lost the battle with himself. “I read the last book. I know it was something. I never believed it was just that fight. You don’t have to tell me what happened. Just give me a name and—”

“Wyatt—”

“Fine.” He threw up his hands and turned from her again. “I’m dropping it.”

“Thank you,” Tabitha whispered, even if she knew this wouldn’t last.

He covered his face with his hand as he stood there, the anger and emotion vibrating off him so strongly Tabitha could almost taste it. Finally, he said, “Why did I leave you that night? So young and stupid. Why did I start that fucking fight? I’d give anything to take it back.”

“Please don’t do this.” Tabitha wiped at her eyes frantically. “I shouldn’t have come back. I knew this was a mistake, and I sure as heck shouldn’t have gotten into your car earlier. We can’t fix this. We’re broken, Wy.”

“No, Tab.” Wyatt jumped forward and grabbed her by both arms so quickly she gasped. He forced her out of the chair. Then he hugged her tightly and rested his chin on the top of her head. “Listen to me, darlin’. You and me, we’re going to work together to make sure coming back wasn’t a mistake. I have no idea how we’re going to do it, but we are, okay? Whatever time we have, we’re going to make the best of it. We both got demons, but we’re going to hide them. We’ll shove them in a closet somewhere until we can get to a point that we can deal with them.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s supposed to happen,” Tabitha told him with authority, because she had been going to support groups since she first got to New York and recognized what a complete mess the rape and losing Wyatt had made her. “We could be doing more damage than good by lying to ourselves and trying to make this work. I don’t want it to be impossible for us, but I think—”

“It ain’t impossible,” Wyatt told her with that hard driving confidence he’d obviously never grown out of. “Nothing is impossible, especially if it’s worth fighting for, and you have always been worth fighting for. I should’ve fought the first time. I ain’t making that mistake again, and I don’t care how many letters you write me asking me not to.”

God, she wanted to believe it was so easy.

She needed this too. It felt so good to be in his arms again, and she had been so desperately lonely without him. She had forgotten how invincible Wyatt made her feel. He forced her to believe in happily ever afters, even if life had taught her time and again, in painful and traumatizing ways, that it was impossible. She wanted to know how the story was supposed to end, but for Wyatt’s sake she should have told him no and walked away.

Tabitha had doomed them both by agreeing to move into the old Conner house instead.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

November 2012

A strange thing about demons.

Tabitha discovered they could hide in closets as long as everyone in the house was willing to keep the door shut. She and Wyatt made a commitment to keep them locked away, and it had worked amazingly well for months now.

Life wasn’t perfect, but it was close.

Her book was coming along nicely.

Jules was so busy with the final days of her pregnancy. She didn’t have much time to worry about them. Of course, that was Wyatt’s version, and Tabitha knew he always lied about those things. He spent Tuesday and Thursday evenings at her house while Romeo taught his karate classes. He usually came back bitching about Jules’s bad attitude since she’d been stuck on bed rest, but that was all Tabitha really knew about it.

Tabitha’s mother had come through her heart surgery well and was back home and recovering. Tabitha had paid a crew to do work on the house, and then she spent one full week cleaning it while her mother was in the hospital. She bought new furniture, and new linens for the beds. The house wasn’t spectacular, but it was clean and a vast improvement over what she’d found the first day back home.

She had learned well from the mistakes of the past and brought Wyatt with her this time because there was no way she was going to risk being alone with Brett. There was a part of her that knew she was delusional for being in that house at all. Her mother didn’t deserve Tabitha’s help any more than Brett did. She had left Tabitha in that hospital, knowing something terrible had happened. She’d chosen to protect Brett instead. There were days Tabitha wondered if her mother second-guessed calling 911 in the first place. At this point, she didn’t really give a fuck what her brother and mother thought about her living in the old Conner house. The whole dang town was talking about it anyway, and she didn’t owe any of them an explanation.

If Tabitha was being honest with herself, she enjoyed the pale-faced look on her brother’s face when she walked into the house with baskets full of fresh towels and Wyatt towering at her back like a dark guardian from Brett’s worst nightmares.

Good, let him sweat about it.

She wasn’t going to tell Wyatt what happened, but Brett didn’t need to know that. She hoped he passed the word on to Vaughn, and they both disappeared into the night. Tabitha might still battle with a lifetime of post-traumatic stress thanks to those two, but she wasn’t twenty-one and naive anymore. She knew how to protect herself, even if that meant Wyatt was stuck cleaning that horrible house with her.

He hadn’t even complained about it. Tabitha suspected Wyatt enjoyed the fear he caused as much as she did. Tabitha was almost sorry Vaughn wasn’t there, but then again, she knew it was a good thing he wasn’t. She wasn’t ready to face him again. Just knowing he was in town somewhere had her holed up in Wyatt’s house when she wasn’t forced to run errands.

Anytime she was out without Wyatt, she broke into a cold sweat. She was constantly looking over her shoulder, and she detested Vaughn for it. If she didn’t love Wyatt as much as she did, she would have told him just to rid herself of the fear.

She hated it.

But today was a good day as she and Wyatt shopped together in the hardware store for some supplies for his house. All that work on her old place had the two of them plotting to fix up his. He didn’t want it modernized; he wanted it restored, and it was a fun project.

“What’d you think of this?” Tabitha held up a sample of wallpaper to him. “It’s ’bout the same yellow as the one you got in the kitchen.”

Wyatt picked it up and studied it. “I guess. Lighter than what we got now.”

“I think it’ll look nice.” Tabitha took it back and held it out. “Terry told me any yellow you buy should be two shades lighter than what you think you want; otherwise you’ll hate it once you get it on the walls.”

“Why?”

Tabitha shrugged. “I dunno, but I reckon he knows what he’s talking ’bout.”

“Yeah, I reckon so,” Wyatt agreed and then turned around with a scowl as if sensing someone staring at him in that cop-like way he had. “Can I help you, Davis?”

Tabitha sucked in a hard breath but refused to turn around.

“What? Is it illegal to be in a hardware store?”

The icy shiver of fear spread from the back of Tabitha’s neck into her limbs. She reached out to the sample book of wallpaper and placed the piece back, looking for something to hide the shake in her hands.

“What you buying there, boy?”

“Nothing,” Vaughn said defensively.

“Yeah, you better put it back.” Wyatt turned to Tabitha, a scowl still on his face. He stepped closer to her and said under his breath, “You know, they use those scrubbing pads to smoke crack. They think I’m stupid, but I ain’t. I know my business. I’m calling Adam when we get back. I want him patrolling round the Davis place. I swear to God, if it’s the last thing I do, I’m gonna make sure that boy dies behind bars. You know he got off on two counts of possession with nothing but time served and parole. Ain’t that some shit?”

“Yeah, it is.” Tabitha nodded.

“I hate that fucker.” Wyatt’s voice was still low in fury. “I ain’t never got over him threatening you like he did. I know it was a long time ago, but still. I think the only reason I do this job is the hopes of catching him red-handed one of these days. I’m glad he saw us together. Scare him a little. Scare him even more when he sees Adam’s patrol car rolling past his house every half an hour.”

“Yeah, it’s good,” Tabitha whispered as she fought the bile rising in the back of his throat. “Is he gone?”

“You okay?” Wyatt leaned in and studied her. “You look like you’re gonna be sick.”

Tabitha swallowed hard. “I ain’t all that fond of him either.”

“Yeah, I bet not.” Wyatt put an arm over her shoulder and pulled her close to him. “Come on, Tabby Cat. Take a deep breath. I got ya.”

Tabitha did as she was told, taking one more deep breath as she whispered, “I know.”

“Let’s get out of here.” He closed the sample book. “We’ll grab a bite at Hal’s.”

“I can cook.”

“I can buy my girl a meal.” Wyatt rubbed her arm and gave her a smile. “You’re always cooking.”

“I’d rather go home. I like seeing Hal, but Clay’s girlfriend works there and—”

“You don’t like Melody?” Wyatt asked in surprise. “Everyone likes her.”

“She’s very sweet,” Tabitha agreed, still feeling dazed. “But I know Clay’s bitter over the drug overdose. I know he has issues with stuff like that. He hasn’t said more than two words to me since I got back and—”

“Hey.” Wyatt cut her off, his eyes wide in shock because Tabitha had accidently opened one of their demon closets while she tried to work on recovering from the horror of hearing Vaughn’s voice again. “Anyone could take extra medication on accident. No one’s holding that against you.”

Tabitha turned to him in surprise, still completely caught up with the horrible anxiety attack. “Is that what she told you that night?”

“Who? The doctor?” Wyatt scowled. “Yeah. Why? Was she lying?”

“You think Clay bought that?” A manic laugh burst out of her. She understood Wyatt was in some sort of massive denial over that night. He would never believe she was capable of taking illegal drugs, but Clay knew her mother wouldn’t have called 911 unless Tabitha was almost dead. “You honestly believe he’s been avoiding me like the plague because he thinks I took too many over-the-counter pills?”

“I actually think he’s avoiding you because he’s watched me hurt for so long over our breakup. Sometimes he’s too loyal for his own good.”

“We should go.” Tabitha pulled out of his arms before Wyatt could argue.

“Tab—”

“I’ll cook,” Tabitha announced as she kept walking to the door, hoping to God Vaughn had already peeled out of the parking lot.

Wyatt stretched out on the bed his sister shared with Romeo Wellings—a man who had been one of Wyatt’s least favorite people for a long time. Earlier that year Jules and Romeo had run off and gotten married in secret. Who said God didn’t have a sense of humor?

Wyatt folded his arms over his chest and looked away from the television to dart a glance at Jules. She was propped up next to him, surrounded by pillows, books, and electronics. Romeo had spent a small fortune to keep Jules entertained when the doctors put her on bed rest a month ago.

There were days when Romeo still grated on Wyatt’s last nerve, but he didn’t envy the man for putting up with Jules when she was cranky, bedridden, and uncomfortably huge in the last few weeks of pregnancy. Romeo had to love Jules, because she had been unbearable for a while now, and he hadn’t complained once.

“Tabitha and me have been talking ’bout finally changing Dad’s room,” Wyatt started cautiously.

Jules’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t look away from the Bruce Lee movie. “I’ve been asking you to update that house for years, but Tabitha comes along and—”

“We’re not updating. We’re restoring,” he countered, keeping his voice even rather than upset his sister. “I ain’t gonna do it if you don’t want me to. I was just asking what you thought. Your opinion on it matters, Ju Ju.”

“Are you gonna move into Daddy’s old room with her?” Jules still hadn’t looked away from the television.

“No,” Wyatt said defensively. “I ain’t ready for that. I just thought we could get the demons out.”

Yeah, the demons were slowly starting to drive Wyatt crazy. He couldn’t tackle the ones with Tabitha, so he started taking down other ones, and the agony over his father’s death was a big one.

“Have you asked her why she left yet?”

Wyatt closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He hated that Jules could read him so easily. “No.”

“Wyatt—”

“This is gonna start a fight.” He cut her off. “And Romeo threatened to hurt me if we got into it again. Just forget I asked.”

“You can’t keep on pretending she didn’t hurt you like she did,” Jules went on as if she hadn’t heard him. “You know I’m telling the truth. Why can’t you—”

Jules stopped talking when the heavy footfalls of someone stomping up the stairs echoed into her room.

“For the big mama!” Tino burst in, full of energy as usual as he held up two pints of ice cream triumphantly. “I got chocolate fudge and caramel swirl. Mama gets first choice.” He looked to Wyatt with a grimace. “I don’t buy ice cream for cops. Sorry, Sheriff, you’re shit outta luck.”

Wyatt flipped off Jules’s brother-in-law.

“Chocolate.” Jules took the ice cream and a spoon Tino had obviously grabbed from downstairs when he got home from the gym. “You’ve got to stop doing this. Neither of us can afford to gain any more weight.”

Despite the complaints, Jules started happily eating her ice cream.

“Aw, it’s just baby.” Tino fell down on Jules’s other side, making himself at home as he patted her rounded stomach affectionately. Then he pulled the lid off his ice cream and snuggled against the pillows, completely oblivious to personal space. He dug into his ice cream as he looked at the television. “Bruce Lee, cool.”

Wyatt rolled his eyes at Tino, who was always underfoot. Wyatt thought his family was bad growing up, but they didn’t touch the Italians. They were constantly in each other’s business. He didn’t know how his sister stood it, but oddly enough, she didn’t seem to mind.

“You know, Tino,” Wyatt started as he watched him inhale that ice cream, “you got another fight next month. I know you’re over the upper limit in your weight class. You can’t keep eating that shit.”

“Why do you give a fuck?” Tino took another bite and left the spoon in his mouth as he turned to Wyatt with his eyebrows raised.

“Because the Cellar is your sponsor. We back you,” Wyatt went on. “I have a vested interest in your success, and watching you put away carton after carton of ice cream is starting to make my blood pressure go up. Now I gave you a diet to go by; you should be following it.”

Tino pulled the spoon out of his mouth and gestured to Jules’s stomach with it. “She’s supposed to eat it, and family has to stick together. That’s more important than a fight.”

“No.” Wyatt shook his head. “It ain’t good for her either. Stop buying ice cream behind Romeo’s back. Every time I come over here during his classes, you two are eating it in secret.”

Tino huffed with indifference and turned to Jules. “What’s wrong with him?”

Jules snorted. “I don’t even know where to start with that one.”

“It’s that chick Tabitha,” Tino mused as he took another bite of ice cream. “I know you’re always giving him shit about her, but I think she’s hot. I like redheads. They’re my favorite flavor.”

“Tino,” Wyatt started warningly.

“What?” Tino asked him with a laugh as he waggled his eyebrows. “Scared?”

Wyatt growled and reached over Jules. He grabbed the carton out of Tino’s hand and tossed it across the room.

“Hello!” Jules shouted. “That carpet is new!”

“I don’t know how you stand him.” Wyatt fell back against the bed and folded his arms again. “I would go fucking crazy in this house. Visiting is bad enough.”

“Then leave if you don’t like it.” Tino got up and fetched the ice cream. Obviously deciding it was no worse for the wear, he stuck the spoon back into the carton. “Jules is right. That chick does make you stupid even if she is smoking hot.”

Wyatt turned to his sister, giving her a look of disbelief.

Jules shrugged unapologetically. “She does. It’s observable. Is there ice cream on the carpet?”

“Nah.” Tino walked back to the bed and then fell down next to Jules again. “Maybe you need to give him a break. I was stupid for a redhead once. I get it. I’d throw ice cream and end worlds for her too. I did end worlds for her, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

“Well, here’s hoping you two never hook up.” Jules sighed. “One of you is enough.”

“Yeah.” Tino took another bite. His gaze was on the television, but his thoughts seemed far off. “That would be bad. Very bad. Don’t ever tell Nova I mentioned her.”

Jules took another bite. “The secret’s safe.”

Tino still had that far-off, haunted look to him that Wyatt knew so well. It stirred up his own turbulent emotions that had been troubling him since they ran into Vaughn Davis at the hardware store. Wyatt reached over and took the spoon from Jules, helping himself to a bite of her ice cream before he confessed, “She’s started having nightmares. It’s disturbing me. I know she’s hiding something.”

“Her mama’s almost recovered from that surgery.” Jules held out the carton, letting Wyatt have another bite. “Maybe she’s planning on leaving again, and the stress is giving her the nightmares. She does have a life back in Key West. I don’t think she expected to be here this long.”

Wyatt took a breath past the crushing sensation the thought of losing her again caused. “God, Jules, if she leaves again, you might as well take me out to the firing range and use me for target practice.”

Jules hit his shoulder. “Stop being stupid!”

“It ain’t even a lie either.” Wyatt dug into the carton again. He let the ice cream melt on his tongue as he considered the past four months that had been blissful and happy as long as he and Tabitha didn’t acknowledge the lie they were living. “It’s the reason I’ve been keeping you two as far apart as possible. Last thing I need is for you to start barking questions and scare her away.”

Tino laughed. “She is pretty scary, especially when those pregnancy hormones start raging.”

Jules gave him a look of annoyance. “Tino, you are a pain in the ass.”

“See what I’m saying?” Tino snorted. “Be glad you’re across town getting busy with your redhead instead of dealing with her shit every day.”

Jules reached over and punched him, getting him hard in the arm, but Tino just laughed and grabbed one of the pillows, using it to deflect her next hit.

“Ain’t she supposed to be taking it easy?” Wyatt pointed out with a frown.

“I am so sick of this bed.” Jules grabbed another pillow and hit Tino with it. “You’d be in a bitchy mood too.”

She shoved Tino, using considerable strength to push him over the edge. They both laughed when he landed on the floor with a loud thump.

Tino reached up with his pillow and hit her, knocking the ice cream out of her hand. She screeched when the chocolate spilled on her bedsheets. It got Wyatt too, and he wiped at his jeans as Jules grabbed the carton of ice cream. She stuck her hand into it, grabbing a fistful of chocolate fudge, and then leaned over the edge of the bed far enough that Wyatt grabbed her flannel nightshirt in fear of her falling.

She smeared the entire handful into Tino’s inky hair.

“Oh, hell no.” Tino bounced up, carton of ice cream in hand. “You do not mess with my hair and get away with it.”

“Tino, no!” Wyatt shouted, but it was too late.

Jules had thrown her hands over her face protectively, but that didn’t stop Tino from squeezing the entire carton of ice cream onto her head. It ran down Jules’s forehead and coated both of her hands. They were both laughing hysterically.

“You do need to get out of this bed,” Wyatt said in concern. “This shit is driving you crazy, and Tino sure ain’t helping the cause. He started out unhinged.”

Tino ran both his hands through his hair and then reached forward and smeared the chocolate over Jules’s face. She was a mess, and Tino wasn’t much better.

“My sheets.” Jules’s entire body was shaking with mirth. “You’re buying me new ones.”

“What the hell?”

They all turned when Romeo walked into the room, still sweaty and wearing his karate gi, making it obvious he had forgone a shower to get back home to Jules. His jaw was hanging open as he stared at the ruin of his bed and his sticky wife and brother.

“You’re supposed to be watching her.” Romeo glared at Wyatt accusingly. “Now I gotta put her in the shower. The doctor said—”

“Stop.” Jules held up her hand with another giggle. “I wanted a shower anyway. Tino did me a favor.”

Romeo put his face in his hands and mumbled, “Five more days.”

“Your brother has a problem,” Wyatt announced. “And my sister’s got too much energy to be on bed rest for a month. The two of them together is more than anyone can handle.”

“I know.” Romeo looked completely exasperated as he walked over and picked up one of the cartons. “Madonn’, Tino, the carpet. Go get a towel to clean it up.”

Tino left to find something to clean the mess.

“Why aren’t they doing the C-section? These babies have got to be huge.” Wyatt eyed his sister’s stomach pointedly.

“Five more days,” Romeo repeated as he picked up the other carton with a grimace. “And she’s not supposed to be standing for more than a couple minutes. If something happens, we’re so fucking far from the hospital. I should’ve rented a place in Mercy, but she wanted to stay here.”

“Romeo, if something happens, you put in a call to dispatch, and I promise we’ll get you there,” Wyatt told him seriously as a surge of fear hit him in the chest. “You do not hesitate.”

“I won’t, but what the fuck? Juliet—”

“I hate this bed.” Jules covered her face with her hands and let out a sob. “I want to get up. I need a shower. I need to wash my hair. I need to wear something besides flannel.”

Wyatt frowned at his sister, unable to believe she had gone from laughing to crying in that short amount of time. For a moment, he was reminded of Jules as a teenager, when everything was a drama. He thought she had mellowed with age, but this pregnancy was making him second guess that assumption.

“You don’t know what just laying here is doing to me.” She wiped at her sticky cheeks. “I won’t last another five days.”

“Okay, come on, baby.” Romeo crawled into the bed despite the ice cream spilled everywhere. He leaned forward and placed a kiss against her forehead. “You’re gonna do this. You’re strong. I know you’ll make it.”

Jules shook her head in denial. “I don’t think so.”

“We’ll take a quick shower. I’ll wash your hair for you.” Romeo wrapped an arm around her and caressed her arm. “Deal?”

“Deal.” She nodded. “It’ll be a power shower.”

“Will you wait until I get her out?” Romeo lifted his gaze to Wyatt. “You got the sheriff SUV.”

“Yeah, I’ll wait.” Wyatt rolled out of bed and tried not to think about Romeo in the shower with his sister. “Downstairs.”

Romeo gave him a wan smile. “Thanks, Wyatt.”

“I love you, Wy Wy,” Jules whispered, the tears still sounding in her voice.

“Okay, Ju Ju,” Wyatt said softly. “We got your back, darlin’. You’re almost to the finish line.”

Jules nodded as Romeo helped her up.

Wyatt walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. He ran into Tino in the hallway and yanked the kitchen towel out of his hand. Then he went one step further and snapped it harshly at his face.

“Merda!” Tino dodged the attack and shouted, “What the hell was that for?”

“You know she ain’t supposed to be standing long enough to take a shower,” Wyatt growled at him. “You’re lucky I ain’t punching you for putting her health in jeopardy.”

Tino held up his hands in challenge. “Bring it, but be careful. I fight dirty.”

“Yeah, that ain’t a lie.” Wyatt huffed as he walked past him. “We got to work on that with you. I’ve never seen a fighter get more penalties than you do.”

“Hey, man, it’s survival of the fittest in the cage. I gotta do what I gotta do.”

“It ain’t a street fight, Tino. It’s a sport,” Wyatt said defensively. “Winning by following the rules is part of the art.”

“Rules have never been my friend, Conner,” Tino said as he followed Wyatt down the stairs. “I’m not Mr. Sheriff of Hicksville who never broke a fucking rule in his life. Where I come from, you gotta break rules to survive.”

“Tino, I’ve broken rules too. Plenty of ’em, but I’m older than you. I’m telling you at some point you got to learn to follow them, and if I catch you breaking a law in my town, I’m gonna forget we’re family.”

“Yeah, I know, Sheriff,” Tino said sarcastically. “You remind me every time you see me.”

“How’s Nova?” Wyatt asked in concern as he sat down on the leather sofa in Jules’s family room. “Speaking of fellas who break the rules.”

Tino shrugged as he sat down next to him and grabbed the remote off the coffee table. “Why do you always ask that? You know you don’t want the answer.”

Wyatt rubbed a hand tiredly over his face. He hadn’t been getting much sleep since Tabitha started having nightmares. “Believe it or not, I like your brother. I wish I could help him somehow. I know it upsets Jules he’s still caught up with everything in New York. It’s not good for her. It’s not good for any of you. This mafia crap is real bullshit.”

“He’s got his business handled,” Tino assured him with unbending confidence. “Things have settled down.”

“Okay.” Wyatt sighed, even if he was far from convinced. “I hope so.”

“He’s good. Don’t worry about it.”

Wyatt sat there watching television with Tino, silently thinking through over everything. Something occurred to him, and he turned to Tino curiously. “When you say you ended worlds over your redhead—”

“Whoa there, Sheriff,” Tino cut him off. “You start questioning me, and I’m gonna have to call my lawyer.”

“Do you need a lawyer to talk about what happened?”

“If I’m talking to you, I do.”

Wyatt stared at Tino, who had obviously rinsed his hair in the sink. It was pushed away from his forehead, leaving him exposed as he stared at the large, flat screen. That haunted look was back, and Wyatt couldn’t help but ask, “Did you love her?”

“I still love her,” Tino confessed without looking away from the MMA reality show they were watching. “All the other ones are just a way to forget. The booze too. The partying. The fighting. All of it. Just trying to forget, but none of it works. Jules doesn’t get it, but I do. When you love a girl like you love that Tabitha chick, nothing makes it stop.”

“If you care for her that much, you should go after her.” Wyatt took a deep breath as he mourned over his decision to let Tabitha go all those years ago. “Regrets like that are hard to live with. Trust me on this.”

“Nah.” Tino shook his head. “Good girls need guys who follow the rules. That’s not me. I did both of us a favor by cutting that one loose.”

“Tino, you better not be breaking the rules,” Wyatt warned. “I ain’t kidding when I say I will arrest you if I find out you’re bringing that mafia shit into my town.”

“Yeah, but she’s not in your town, is she?” Tino countered. “She’s in my town, and in my town I gotta break the rules. So stop fucking worrying about it. I don’t do shit but hang out with my family and train. Garnet’s made me a fucking saint.”

“Then bring her back here.”

“She’s married already.” Tino turned and scowled at him. “Drop it.”

Wyatt winced. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” Tino agreed. “Sucks big-time.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Tabitha was drowning.

Slowly but surely she was sinking beneath the surface of fear, losing air and steam faster than she could fight against it. For four months, she had lived in a fairy tale. Being with Wyatt had clicked her brain back into a place before her shattered innocence. She hadn’t dreamed in all that time.

Since the hardware store, the nightmares had returned with a vengeance.

Vaughn’s face was planted in her mind, as if thirteen years of therapy hadn’t done a damn thing to help her combat the horrible reality of being raped and beaten by a man who bought Tabitha from her brother for drugs.

“I have to leave,” she whispered miserably as she looked up at Terry from across his kitchen table. “I can’t hide it from him anymore. I keep having nightmares and—”

“Sweetheart.” Terry reached across the table and grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly. “What if we told him? Have you considered that? That poor man still thinks you left over a fight.”

“God, no.” She shook her head.

“He’s sheriff now. He ain’t twenty-one anymore,” Terry said evenly. “He’s been the big man in charge now for a long time. He ain’t gonna fly off the handle like he did when he was younger. You got to see he’s grown up since you left.”

“I do.” Tabitha nodded, unable to help the flare of pride despite the horrible circumstances. “But God, sometimes I still see the old Wyatt. I don’t think I can risk it.”

“I know I’m not the best person to talk about this with. What the hell do I know about this shit? This is a very serious problem, Tabitha, and you don’t have any of your support network around. We need another opinion.”

“But Hal’s at work,” Tabitha said frantically. “I came here because you two are the only people in this dang town who know what happened. I don’t want to be this person, Terry. I don’t want to be afraid. I don’t want to be a victim, especially to someone like him.”

“Have you called anyone from your old groups?”

“They all think I should tell him.” Tabitha shook her head again. “But they don’t understand everything.”

“What if we called Melody?”

Tabitha let out a frantic laugh. “Clay’s girlfriend? Are you insane?”

“She runs a shelter for women who’ve gone through things like this.” Terry shrugged. “She’s the only one I could think of who might know what to do. She knows counselors who can help. She’s been through things like this herself. You need an outside opinion, and she knows Wyatt. That’s what you wanted, right? Support that really understands.”

Tabitha wiped at her cheeks, because tears had started running down her face without her permission. “No.”

“Why not?” Terry raised his eyebrows. “Ain’t she obligated to keep quiet? Isn’t that part of the code or something?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“I would not suggest it if I didn’t think it was the right thing,” Terry went on as he reached over and patted her hand. “You have been here four times this week. Every time Wyatt leaves the house, you show up at my door, and I don’t know how to fix this for you. You won’t go to the doctor and get him to prescribe you something for your nerves. You’re having nightmares every night. It’s obvious you ain’t sleeping, and you’re stuck in a house where you have to pretend everything’s fine and dandy. This is as unhealthy as it can get.”

“Shit,” she moaned, knowing she was already defeated. She didn’t want Vaughn to win, and she didn’t have the heart to hurt Wyatt again, or herself. She would honestly rather die than just pack up and leave like she’d never had a second chance. “Fine, call her.”

Tabitha needed to talk to someone. She knew keeping it locked up was a horrible decision. This wasn’t the only bout of extended anxiety she had dealt with, and she had learned a long time ago that when she was drowning, the first thing she was supposed to do was reach for a life preserver. It was the reason she came running to Terry, but he was right. He wasn’t the right person to help.

She covered her face with her hands as her arms shook from the force of her fear. Why couldn’t she fight back? She was a strong woman. She had survived so much. She was successful and independent. Why was she letting one chance encounter with Vaughn in the hardware store destroy her?

She had done all the right things after she left Wyatt. She went to support groups. She got therapy. She had done everything humanly possible to move past the trauma. She had even proven that she could still love and let herself be loved by moving in with Wyatt. Now it was all crumpling around her. She had no idea her house of cards was so easy to shake.

She needed someone to talk her off the cliff before she leaped and ruined her only shot at a happy ending. Clay’s girlfriend was Tabitha’s last chance at saving what she had reclaimed with Wyatt. If that wasn’t shit luck, she didn’t know what was.

It took Melody less than twenty minutes to get there after Terry called her. She walked into Terry’s house still wearing her waitress uniform from Hal’s. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a bun, and her black-framed glasses reflected bright green eyes that were swimming with concern as she sat down next to Tabitha on Terry’s couch.

“Hal said you might need a woman to talk to,” Melody started, her voice soft in a way that made her name very apt.

Tabitha leaned back against the couch and looked up at the ceiling. She needed to give Rocky a girlfriend in this book. She blinked at the fan, deciding to name her Harmony, something soft and sweet that matched this woman’s gentle nature that was impossible to ignore.

“Can I use you in a book?” Tabitha finally asked rather than talk about anything more pressing.

“Clay told me you write those Heroes of Sapphire County books.” Melody reached over and squeezed her arm. “I think that’s exciting.”

“Do you?” Tabitha asked in a dull voice.

“Yeah, ain’t they been on the New York Times list forever?”

“I guess,” Tabitha said indifferently.

“That’s a big accomplishment. I can’t even imagine doing something like that. You touched the whole world with your stories.”

The admiration was so pure in Melody’s voice, Tabitha believed it in a way she rarely did. “I’m so happy Clay found someone like you. He deserves that.” She turned to Melody and gave her a smile despite the tears. “He was my friend for a long time. My first friend. Did he tell you that?”

“He said you grew up together.”

“He hates me.” Tabitha let out a sob, finally acknowledging for the first time how much Clay’s cold shoulder had hurt since she returned. “I’ve only seen him that one time we ran into y’all at Hal’s, and another time when I met Wyatt at the Cellar, but he ain’t said more than two words to me. I know he’s angry.”

“Clay’s complicated,” Melody said softly. “He’s very loyal, and you know Wyatt was heartbroken when you left, but I’m certain he doesn’t hate you.”

“I wish I could tell him I didn’t take those drugs on purpose,” Tabitha whispered miserably as she wiped at her cheeks. “I mean, I was the dumb fool who took the drink from my brother, but I would’ve never just given up like he thinks I did. I’m not his mother. I’m not my mother either. I’m stronger than them.”

“Of course you are.” Melody reached down and squeezed her hand. “Why did you leave, Tabitha?”

“Um.” She took a shuddering breath as she second-guessed telling her, but in the end she needed to talk to someone who could possibly help. “Something happened. Something terrible. I couldn’t tell Wyatt. I couldn’t tell Clay either. I told Terry and Hal ’cause I needed someone to pick me up from the hospital and help me gather my things from my house. There was no way I could go back there. I can barely walk into it now, and it happened thirteen years ago.”

“What happened in the house?”

Tabitha turned to Melody, looking at her with tears streaming down her face. She couldn’t answer her, she just hope she understood.

“Oh, honey.” Melody reached out and hugged her. When she spoke again, her voice was choked with emotion. “I’m so sorry.”

“Me too,” Tabitha whispered, still shaking with the strength it was taking to keep herself from completely falling apart. “I didn’t want to leave him. I loved him so much. I still do. I never wanted to hurt him. Never.”

“And Wyatt doesn’t know?”

“No.” Tabitha hugged Melody back, which was odd considering she barely knew this woman. “But I ran into the guy who did it at the hardware store, and it’s all just falling apart. I don’t know how to hide it from Wyatt anymore. Why can’t I fight this?”

“This is so normal,” Melody assured her as she pulled back and looked at Tabitha. Tears shone in her eyes, and she took off her glasses to brush them away. “When Clay and I had to go to the trial for my ex-husband a few months ago, I was a mess the entire time. Even though I had Clay with me, and Justin was sitting there in handcuffs, I was still a nervous wreck. I can’t even imagine dealing with that without Clay knowing what happened. You have to tell Wyatt. You have to give him a chance to help you. It’s not fair to him if he doesn’t know what he’s dealing with.”

“Did Clay ever tell you about some of the things that happened when we were younger?” Tabitha asked curiously. “Did he ever mention how he and Wyatt became friends?”

“He said they got into a fight.”

“Did he say why?”

Melody shrugged and gave her an embarrassed smiled. “He said Wyatt said something dumb.”

“He did.” Tabitha sighed. “He started that fight ’cause he saw me hugging Clay, and I swear to God, Melody, Clay and me weren’t ever anything more than friends.”

“You’re afraid he’ll do something dumb if he finds out?” Melody asked in concern.

Tabitha nodded and wiped at her cheeks. “Yes, I am.”

“He’s sheriff now. He would never break the law.”

“I wish we could tell Clay,” Tabitha whispered. “Because I think he would disagree with you. There’s a side of Wyatt that’s darker than people realize. He can cross the line with the right motivation. I’ve seen him do it.”

“Well, if you can’t talk to him, you can surely talk to me.” Melody was surprisingly understanding. “Hal called someone in to cover my shift. Clay ain’t expecting me home until nine. If Terry don’t mind, we can just sit here and talk until you’re feeling up to going back to Wyatt.”

“I can make dinner,” Terry offered from his spot leaning against the archway into the kitchen. “If y’all want?”

“Sounds nice.” Melody nodded and then reached over and squeezed Tabitha’s hand again. “We’ll figure out a plan. You ain’t alone. I promise.”

Tabitha nodded as she whispered, “Thank you.”

Melody pulled the keys out of the ignition of her new SUV. Clay had bought it for her birthday. It cost way too much money, but she would never hurt his feelings by complaining, and it was a fine vehicle. Certainly much nicer than the truck they’d traded in that was probably buried in a junkyard somewhere.

They’d put up Christmas lights last week, and Melody smiled as she looked at them twinkling in the night. Something about holidays left her cheery. Things were always a little happier once the air got crisp and the decorations went up. She’d met Clay last Thanksgiving, which just solidified her belief that November was her friend.

Which was why she hated being as brokenhearted as she was.

She walked up to the driveway, feeling her heart hurt for both Wyatt and Tabitha. She was supposed to leave other people’s problems behind at the end of the day, but she just couldn’t find a way to recover from the wrongness of what happened to them. It hit way too close to home, and it was made so much worse because no one save a handful of people know why Tabitha left. To think of everyone villainizing her was so incredibly unfair Melody could hardly breathe past the injustice of it.

She took a deep breath before she walked into the house and tried to remind herself it wasn’t Clay’s fault. He didn’t know what happened. If he did, his feelings about Tabitha would be much different. Melody was certain of it.

“Hey.” Clay met her at the door and leaned down to give her a kiss. “How was work?”

“I left early.” Melody put her keys on the table by the door. “I had a crisis call. Hal let me off.”

“That’s nice of him.” Clay frowned. “What was the crisis?”

“It was, uh”—Melody pulled off her coat and walked to the bedroom—“it was a rape.”

“Hell.” Clay sounded concerned. “Did y’all call Wyatt?”

“No, it happened a long time ago. She was just dealing with some post-traumatic stress. Sorta like me at Justin’s trial.”

“Is she okay now?”

“I think so.” Melody tossed her jacket on the made bed. “She went home to her husband. She just needed help moving past the nerves. He doesn’t know.” She choked up at the last part and turned away from Clay to hide the tears that were threatening. “I’m gonna take a shower.”

“I’ll get in with ya.”

Melody shook her head. “No, I need to be alone for a few minutes.”

“Mel”—Clay grabbed her arm and pulled her to him—“are you okay?”

“It was just a really sad story.” Melody hugged Clay despite her turbulent emotions about what he’d done. “It’s so unfair.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be going on these calls if they’re gonna upset you like this.” Clay rubbed her back. “You got your own set of issues to deal.”

“I’m fine.” She patted his bare chest and then pulled away. “I’m gonna take a shower and pull myself together. Didja eat?”

“I threw some leftovers in the microwave. Did you?”

“Yeah.” Melody started working on the buttons to her top as she walked to the bathroom. “I’m good.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to get in?”

Melody shook her head. “Let me gather my thoughts.”

Clay studied her with a scowl. It wasn’t like her to push him away like that, but she needed a little more time. A part of her was angry at Clay for hurting Tabitha worse by ignoring her since she had gotten back. Before tonight, Melody hadn’t pushed the issue with him, because like everyone else, she’d assumed Tabitha was just a rich, successful author who had left Wyatt in the dust.

Now it was something much different. Melody hadn’t had a chance to see what sort of woman Tabitha was, but Clay knew her. He should’ve known she wouldn’t just leave Wyatt without a really good reason.

Damn the men’s club.

And double damn Jules for being a part of it and fueling the fire of Clay’s bitterness even more. Melody considered Jules one of her closest friends, but she was one of those rare women who had somehow managed to become a part of the men’s club too.

But Melody most certainly wasn’t.

She closed the bathroom door and locked it for good measure.

“Okay, now I know something’s wrong,” Clay called from the other side.

“I’m taking a shower by myself,” Melody snapped when she finally acknowledged to herself how unfair his actions were to Tabitha.

“Mel—”

“Go do man things.” Melody turned away from the door and folded her arms over her chest as she reeled over the feelings washing over. “Go beat each other up and do the rest of us a favor.”

For the first time since she met him almost a year ago…Melody was mad at Clay.

She was still mad at him two hours later when the two of them were lying in bed, because they only had one bedroom, and Clay was too damned big for the couch. Melody surely wasn’t going to sleep there. So she just lay on her side with her back to him.

“It ain’t fair for you to be mad at me and not even tell me what it is.”

“Not, it ain’t fair, is it?” Melody countered. “Being mad at someone for something they did out of loyalty and nobility. That’s just plain wrong.”

“Mel.” Clay let out a pained laugh. “I honestly have no idea what you are talking ’bout. Can you at least give me a hint? Whatever it is, I promise I’ll apologize.”

“You’d be apologizing to the wrong woman,” Melody said bitterly.

Clay rolled over to drape a muscular arm over her. “Please tell me what I did.”

Melody tried to shove him off, but Clay was two hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle, and he decided he wasn’t moving. He held her tighter instead. Melody finally had to give in and stay where she was, smothered and angry.

“I love you,” he whispered in to her ear. “And I know I ain’t perfect. Whatever I did, tell me so I can make it better. I hate fighting with you.”

Melody lay there, silently debating with herself, before she finally asked, “Why don’t you talk to Tabitha?”

“What?” Clay rasped, making it obvious that was the last thing he expected.

“I just wanna know,” she went on. “Gimme a good reason, because from where I’m standing, that was mean. Both you and Jules have been giving Wyatt nothing but grief for months now for loving that woman. Tell me why.”

“I ain’t been giving him grief. I just sorta been trying to pretend it ain’t happening.”

Melody threw her elbow back into his chest and then turned around in his arms to glare at him. “Why?”

“’Cause she took off and left my best friend four days after they got married, and the way she did it wasn’t right. Tabitha was better than that. She didn’t need to turn to drugs,” Clay growled in a furious voice, making it obvious this was something that had been eating at him for years. “She went and turned out like the rest of ’em. Like my mother.”

“Are you crazy?” Melody let out a bitter laugh. “She’s written books that make millions of children happy. How do you reckon that makes her anything at all like your mother?”

“One fight with Wyatt, and she’s in the hospital with an overdose. He thinks it was something over the counter. That was fucking bullshit. I know her family. It was drugs,” Clay countered. “Wyatt worshipped her. He still does, and what did she do to repay him—”

Melody hit his shoulder hard enough to make Clay’s eyes grow wide in surprise, but she didn’t care as she got out of bed. She grabbed her pillow, deciding she could deal with the couch.

“This is all over Tabitha?” Clay barked at her. “What the hell? Why do you care? You don’t even know her.”

“You should have known she wouldn’t leave him without a good reason.” Melody lost the battle with tears as they welled in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “You were her friend. Her first friend.”

Clay paled. “Who told you that?”

“You did!”

“No, I didn’t.” Clay shook his head. “Who was the crisis call for?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Melody jerked the blanket off the bed, and Clay didn’t stop her. He was just sitting in there staring at her, his eyes wide in horror. She left him like that and stomped out of the bedroom, with the blanket dragging behind her.

She was busy situating herself on the couch and wiping at her cheeks when Clay came into the living room in nothing but his boxer shorts, making him look dark and intimidating with those powerful arms folded over his chest.

“Who was the call for, Melody?” He sounded dangerous in a way she had never heard before.

Melody rolled over, showing Clay her back rather than answer.

“You said it was a rape call.” Clay’s voice cracked, the emotion breaking through his steely control. “Was Tabitha raped? Did something besides that fight with Wyatt make her leave?”

Melody looked over her shoulder, seeing that Clay’s dark eyes were glassy. She knew she wasn’t supposed to say anything, but she just couldn’t let the injustice go this time. “You shouldn’t be mad at her.”

Clay bowed his head. For one long moment Melody watched him stand there shaking as if everything he had ever believed about life had been ripped apart and thrown at his feet.

Then he lifted his head, his eyes narrowed, making tears roll down his face. “Did she say who it was?”

Melody shook her head. “I really can’t tell you that.”

“Was it Vaughn Davis?” Clay whispered.

Melody tried to make her features impassive, but she was genuinely surprised the first name Clay pulled out of the hat was the right one. It must have shown on her face, because he turned around with a growl and hit the wall, tearing through plaster easily and leaving a large hole. Melody gaped, because she couldn’t remember the last time Clay lost his temper.

“You can’t tell her I told you,” Melody whispered fearfully. “It was supposed to be a secret. I should have never—”

“I won’t tell her.” Clay still stood facing the wall, his shoulders heaving as if he was battling a terrible war with himself. “I couldn’t betray you like that. Even for something like this.”

“Do you promise?”

Clay nodded. “Yeah, I promise.”

“Why didn’t she come to you instead of Terry?” Melody asked as more tears rolled down her face. “Maybe you would’ve talked her into staying here. Y’all could’ve found a way to tell Wyatt together and—”

“She probably knew I’d hunt Vaughn down and bury him before Wyatt got a chance.”

“But you wouldn’t—”

Clay turned around, giving her a look that forced the denial to die in the back of her throat. He was serious.

“She was like a sister to me, Mel,” Clay whispered, the words still heavy with emotion. “She was the only one who understood my life growing up. She wasn’t just my first friend when I was a kid. She was my only friend. When she left, it killed me too. I know I never told you any of that, because talking ’bout it hurts too damn much.”

“This is the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever heard in my whole dang life, and I’ve heard a lot of terrible things.” Melody wiped at her eyes when she realized she was crying. “I’m so sorry, Clay. I’m sorry for all of you. I want to fix it, but I dunno how. I told her to tell Wyatt. Maybe—”

Clay made a choking sound of horror. “She can’t tell Wyatt!”

“She has to!” Melody countered. “It’s the only way. Otherwise he will never know why she left him, and Jules will go on hating her and—”

“Wyatt will come unglued if he finds this out.” Clay’s voice was suddenly wild and frantic. “He will kill Vaughn Davis, and that ain’t even a lie. He will kill that motherfucker dead, and then he’ll do something stupid like turn himself in after the deed is done. You think shit is bad now, wait and see what happens if Wyatt finds out. Tabitha was right to leave, and I owe her a huge apology for being mad at her for it.”

“This is unfair to her!” Melody shouted. “It’s horribly unfair, and y’all need to get over your stupid man crap and recognize that! She’s done sacrificing herself for everyone, and if you can’t pull yourself together enough to make Wyatt understand that, then I will!”

“You cannot tell Wyatt,” Clay repeated as if he hadn’t heard a word she said. “No one can.”

“And what’s gonna happen to Tabitha?” Melody raised her eyebrows pointedly. “Y’all are just gonna go on hating her and thinking—”

“I’m gonna fix things with Tabitha,” Clay said solemnly. “I ain’t really sure how, but I’m gonna try. You’re yelling at me like you’re the only one in her corner, but you ain’t. I don’t want her to hurt any more than you do.”

Melody paused, because that made her feel moderately better. She of all people knew Clay was a good man to have in her corner. She wiped at her eyes again and asked, “H-how are you gonna make things better?”

“I have no idea.” Clay walked over to her and fell down to his knees on the couch. He hugged Melody before he leaned down and buried his face in her long hair. “I promise, Mel. I’ll make sure she knows I’m not mad at her.”

“She’ll know I told you.”

“Then, oh well.” Clay sighed. “But you’re right. It’s not fair to her. I can hardly breathe with how unfair it is, and I hate that I was part of it. We’ll fix it.”

Melody wrapped her arms him and whispered, “Okay.”

Chapter Thirty

The talk with Melody helped.

Tabitha was feeling almost human again instead of a shaky, nervous wreck who saw Vaughn’s face every time she closed her eyes. She made Wyatt dinner despite not being hungry herself because she enjoyed the task. It always brought her comfort. It reminded her of those lost days of her youth when having food in the fridge meant everything was going to be okay—until it wasn’t.

“Hey, pretty girl,” Wyatt said when he walked into the kitchen. He leaned over, giving her a kiss, and looked at the stove, where she had beef stroganoff in one pot, pasta in the other, and broccoli in the third. “You feeding an army?”

Tabitha grinned. “Just about. You eat more than any fella I ever met.”

“Yeah, you should see Clay put away food sometime.” Wyatt laughed. “Or Jules’s brother-in-law. Jesus, that boy is always eating.”

Tabitha turned back to the stove and tried to keep her voice even as she asked, “How’s Jules?”

“Bat shit over being stuck on bed rest.”

Tabitha giggled. “I reckon that’d make anyone stir crazy. How much longer?”

“Five days.” Wyatt wrapped his arms around her. “Can’t come fast enough far as I’m concerned.”

“Then you’ll be an uncle.”

“Yup.” A smile sounded in Wyatt’s voice. “You gonna come to the hospital with us?”

“Nah.” Tabitha shook her head. “I don’t wanna ruin y’all’s special day.”

“You never ruin my day,” Wyatt argued, sounding earnest. “You make my days better. I love you, Tabby. I want you there with me.”

“We’ll see what happens.” Tabitha gestured to the cabinet. “Get the plates.”

He got the plates, and Tabitha took time to make sure the food was presented nicely, which made Wyatt laugh. She even bought parsley for garnish.

“You ain’t eating that much?” Wyatt frowned at her across the table.

“I had dinner at Terry’s.” Tabitha lifted her head and smiled. “I just didn’t think you ought to be eating alone.”

“Yeah, eating alone is never fun,” Wyatt agreed.

Dinner was nice. Tabitha really was feeling much better, and she made a mental note to buy Melody a thank-you gift. It was sweet of her to drop everything and come over to talk.

Even if Clay was mad at her, Tabitha was still so incredibly pleased he’d found such a nice woman to be with. She had always wanted that for him. Something perfect and magical like Tabitha and Wyatt had once had.

They still had it—if she could just keep herself together.

When Tabitha got into the shower, Wyatt came in after a few minutes. Already naked, he pulled back the curtain and looked at her. “Mind if I join you?”

“Don’t mind at all.” Tabitha stepped out of the spray to make room.

She watched him tilt his head back, wetting his hair. It was a very nice sight as she admired his body and the way the water ran over his chest and down the deep lines of his abdominal muscles.

“What’re you looking at?” Wyatt raised his eyebrows and pushed his hair away from his forehead.

Tabitha grinned. “I’m looking at a very fine piece of sheriff.”

Wyatt laughed and reached out to her. He pulled her close, and Tabitha gladly melded into his strong, hard body and tilted her head up. Wyatt caught the invitation and leaned down to kiss her. She parted her lips to him, willing away the last of her stress. This was Wyatt. She was safe. Like food in the fridge, being near Wyatt made her feel like everything would be okay—until it wasn’t.

When he turned her around and pressed her against the shower wall, Tabitha wanted it to be okay—desperately—but she stiffened instead.

“I don’t want to do it like this,” she whispered as she fisted her hands to hide the shake in them. She turned around in his arms and studied his face. “I need to look at you when we do it, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. However you like it, I do too.” Wyatt frowned at her concern. “We don’t have to do it at all. If you’re still feeling ill, we can—”

“No, I want to,” she whispered, because they hadn’t done it since she’d seen Vaughn, and she didn’t want that asshole to take this from her too. She couldn’t feign headaches forever. “I just need to look at you. When I look at you, it’s okay.”

“Is there a reason it wouldn’t be okay?” Wyatt pulled her closer again. “You’ve been jumpy all week. Is there something you need to talk to me ’bout?”

“No,” she said a little too quickly. “I just like looking at you.”

“Come on, Tab.” Wyatt leaned down and placed a kiss against her forehead. “I think we ought to skip it tonight. I can’t do it when I know you’re not into it.”

“But I know it’s not fair to you, and—”

“Darlin’,” Wyatt started with a mirthless laugh. “I was alone for thirteen years. If I survived that long, a few days surely ain’t gonna hurt me. Let’s get clean and go to sleep. Tomorrow’s a new day, right?”

Tabitha nodded, still feeling distant. “Right.”

“Jules and Tino got into an ice-cream fight. I think I’m still sticky from it, and I washed up twice at her place.” Wyatt turned around and grabbed the soap. “I swear that bed rest has pushed her round the bend. Can you imagine what having twins is gonna do to her? She thinks she’s stressed out now. Jesus, she must’ve forgotten what pains in the ass we were as kids, and I can only imagine what we were like as toddlers.”

Tabitha giggled at the thought of Wyatt and Jules as toddlers. “Your poor father.”

“That ain’t a lie.” Wyatt laughed with her.

By the time they got out of the shower, Tabitha was feeling so much lighter. Wyatt had that way about him. It was one of the things she’d missed most profoundly during their long separation. That easy charm that smoothed over even the most agonizing hurts.

Needing it desperately, just to prove to herself that Vaughn hadn’t taken it from her by showing up in that hardware store, Tabitha crawled over Wyatt. He was lying over the sheets, a towel still wrapped around his waist, and anyone with eyes would want to take advantage of what a beautiful image he presented.

“Let’s do it like this.” Tabitha pulled off her towel and tossed it aside. “Does that work?”

Wyatt shifted under her and laced his hands behind his head as his hot gaze ran over her naked body. “Works for me. I like looking at you too.”

Tabitha smiled and leaned down to kiss him. Wyatt parted for her, letting Tabitha take the lead, which was exactly what she needed. He was almost too accommodating, which scared her a little when she considered him using those keen sheriff senses to figure out what her real issue with sex was.

But she pushed it to the back of her mind.

Things had been beautiful for four months. She had already proven to herself she could still love like any other woman when she had feared for years that had been taken from her forever.

Kissing like they were, it didn’t take Wyatt long to get hard. He’d always been very responsive, and Tabitha seized the moment rather than drag it out. She shifted over him and reached down to put him in her because Wyatt still had his hands laced behind his head.

When she slid down on him, Wyatt closed his eyes and groaned. “Fuck, you feel good, Tabby.”

“You do too,” she whispered.

And he did. He felt amazing in her, stretching her with his thick cock that made pleasure dance over her skin with every subtle movement. She fell forward and grabbed the headboard, using it as leverage to arch into him, forcing him deeper.

Wyatt finally reached out for her, running his hands up her rib cage. “Is this okay?”

“Mmm,” she agreed as she started moving over him, slowly, as she allowed herself to savor being with him.

Wyatt started moving with her, matching her easy pace until they were both breathless and sweaty. He didn’t force her to go faster. He didn’t roll them over and start fucking her hard the way he was apt to do before the hardware store. Wyatt just let Tabitha take from him, and it was exactly what she needed.

He pulled her down, forcing her to fall over him, and then he licked and kissed at Tabitha’s neck. His breath was warm against her ear as he whispered, “Love you.”

“I love you too.” She tilted her head, giving him better access. “So much.”

“I won’t let you leave again.” He wrapped his big arms around her, forcing their bodies tightly together. “You hear me, pretty girl?”

She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “I hear you.”

Wyatt moaned. He tossed his head back against the pillow as he thrust his hips up, making Tabitha moan with him. The buildup was slow, but the climax was powerful. Tabitha stiffened first, and she clung to Wyatt when the pleasure slammed into her. It shook her entire body, spreading out into her limbs in warm waves that made sharp gasps of ecstasy burst out of her.

She wasn’t surprised when Wyatt came with her. It had been almost a week since they’d done this. She liked the sounds he made, low grunts of masculine pleasure that washed over her soul like a balm. Then they lay there in companionable silence as Wyatt caressed her bare back, and she fought to catch her breath with her face buried in the curve of his neck.

When they did pull apart and crawl under the sheets, Wyatt didn’t want to let her go. Instead he wrapped his arms around her, spooning her from behind, and clung to her tighter than usual. She was safe. She kept reminding herself of it as she closed her eyes and finally gave in to the exhaustion hoping that Wyatt would be able to chase away the demons in her dreams too.

Wyatt didn’t go to sleep.

He just lay there, his body tense, waiting.

Every other night this week, he’d been dead asleep by the time Tabitha jerked awake next to him, sweaty and shaking. He knew he heard things before then, fragments of sentences that filtered in past his hazy consciousness, but he was always too dazed to decipher them. By then, Tabitha would recover and tell him it was just a bad dream. She’d brush off his concern and then fall back against the pillow, snuggling up against him as if nothing was wrong, but he knew she didn’t go back to sleep.

He didn’t either.

The two of them would just lie there with the demons choking the air out of the room, pretending to be asleep for each other, when it was clear they were both haunted.

He was done with the demons.

Tonight just proved he needed to yank open all the closet doors and then deal with the consequences, because he couldn’t take this shit anymore. As he lay there in the darkness, Wyatt finally forced himself to acknowledge what he’d known since the day he’d opened that letter.

Something had happened to Tabitha.

A part of him had always known. At twenty-one he hadn’t been able to face it. But he wasn’t twenty-one anymore, and he sure as shit wasn’t going to let these demons, whatever they were, eat Tabitha alive like they’d been doing.

He knew his girl. She was hurting, and he’d rather cut out his own heart than let her hurt just to protect him from whatever it was she thought he couldn’t take.

He was waiting for it, but he still jerked in shock when Tabitha screamed. He held her tighter, and she fought his embrace rather than wake up.

“Wyatt!”

That one cry was so raw and terrified it caused an icy wave of horror to hit him square in the chest. He couldn’t resist the call for help, even if it was just a dream and likely his only way to find out what was causing this.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Wyatt shook her as his heartbeat throbbed in his ears. “I’m here!”

“No, you’re not! Make him stop!”

“Oh Jesus.” Wyatt shook her hard, realizing he couldn’t take this. “Wake up, Tab. It’s a dream.”

Tabitha jerked out of his arms with core strength driven by pure adrenaline he knew well. Her breathing was hard and labored, and she looked around the room in a wild daze, as if still disorientated.

“It was a dream,” he told her again as he sat up next to her and wrapped an arm around her bare shoulders. “Just a dream.”

“It was?” She turned to him, her brown eyes wide in the night.

“I’m here, darlin’.” He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “You don’t got a thing to be scared of.”

She nodded frantically, her breathing still harsh. “You didn’t leave me?”

“No.” The lie was choked with emotion, and he hoped to God she was still too disoriented to notice the shake in his arm. “I would never leave you.”

“But you did.” Tabitha pulled away from him and fell back against the bed. She pulled the covers over her and then whispered, “We let the villains win. They beat both of us. There are no happy endings.”

Wyatt stared down at her, realizing she hadn’t fully woken up. He could hear the haze of dreaming in her voice. Her wild imagination was vibrant in the night, letting him see the inner workings of a mind that was genius enough to turn a truly terrible childhood into stories that made children believe in the impossible.

He knew he shouldn’t do it.

It was a horrible violation of her privacy, but Wyatt had spent too much of his life digging into things people wanted kept secret to stop himself from lying down next to her and then wrapping her up in his arms. “Who are the villains? The real villains.”

“Brett’s a villain. He sold me. That was real,” she whispered.

“Sold you to who?”

“Shh.” She shifted as if fighting to fall deeper back to sleep. “Protect Wyatt.”

Wyatt’s face scrunched up as that soft, broken plea ripped at his soul in a way that stole his breath and made his heart stutter as if it was trying to give out and stop beating under the weight of agony.

“I love you, Tabby,” he whispered as he pressed a kiss against her temple. “Do you know that?”

“I know.” She sounded unbendingly confident of that if nothing else.

He held her, his arms shaking, his chest hurting as tears he couldn’t fight rolled down his cheeks. He tried to stop the hot, irrational rush of fury that throbbed in his ears for Tabitha’s sake. He honestly did. He was older, he was wiser, but he had also hurt for thirteen long years over whatever happened to Tabitha.

He almost won too.

If it had just been his suffering, he might have dropped it and let the villains win, but then he considered what Tabitha had gone through. He thought of her at twenty-one, alone, hurt, and scared in New York, and all because she had a tragic case of codependency that forced her to take care of everyone else but herself.

He already knew who it was. She’d been fine until that day in the hardware store.

“Was it Vaughn?” he whispered into the darkness.

“You can’t tell Wyatt ’bout Vaughn.” She sounded terrified, as if saying Vaughn’s name made her ill.

“Tabby, listen to me.” Wyatt rolled her onto her back and grabbed her face, making Tabitha blink up at him. He cupped her cheek and stared into her eyes, hoping she remembered this. “The villains aren’t supposed to win. I would never let them win. Do you hear me, pretty girl? They don’t get that. I’ll fucking die before I let that happen.”

“What?” She was still blinking at him in confusion, but he could see clarity filtering into her eyes.

“I just want you to know I would do anything for you.” He stroked her face and ran a thumb over her lips. “Anything.”

“That’s sweet. I’d do anything for you too.” Her eyes closed, and she turned in his arms again, making it obvious the absolute exhaustion after a full week of stress had taken its toll. “Love you.”

Wyatt held Tabitha until her breathing fell into the slow, steady rhythm of deep sleep once more. He kissed her forehead and slipped his arm out from under her as carefully as possible. Then he rolled out of bed.

Then he turned and walked to his closet. He considered putting on his uniform and relieving Deputy Cowden of duty for the night. Then he thought better of it and put on jeans instead. He didn’t feel like being a cop. he decided right then he was going to be a vigilante instead.

The villains didn’t get to win. They had thirteen years longer than they were supposed to have, but Wyatt had watched enough movies and read enough books to know they always lost in the end.

Tonight was the end.