Keeping What's His(28)

“Shut up…she doesn’t hang out at the clubhouse with the Last Rider’s anymore.”

“That’s only because they didn’t let her join, doesn’t mean she isn’t still putting out to them at her place. Heard her and Cheryl need to both put a counter on their bedroom door to see which one of them is the biggest slut in town.”

“I already know the answer to that. Diane has them both beat hands down.” Dustin gave the killing blow to Greer’s ego. “There isn’t a pair of jeans in town that Diane’s hands hasn’t been down.”

Greer punched Dustin knocking him backward into Tate who was fed up with the brothers riling each other.

“Cut it out!” Tate snapped, leaving them behind. He hadn’t waited an hour to talk to her to miss the chance because of their squabbling. When Greer was bored he inevitably resorted to picking a fight to relieve his boredom. He didn’t care who it was, as long as they would give him a good fight. Unfortunately it usually was his brothers because they were around each other so much, and they liked a good fight as much as he did. Because Dustin was younger and a dirty fighter who usually ended up kicking both their asses, while Tate and Greer were pulling their punches so as not to hurt their little brother. They were going to have to stop that shit, Dustin was ruthlessly taking advantage of it and was gloating afterward. Tate was going to put baby brother in his place one of these days, but first he needed to deliver a message.

Tate slammed his hand down on the car door before Lisa could open it.

“You don’t want to say hi?”

The sound of fake laughter filled the air.

“I didn’t see you, Tate. How have you been?”

“I’ve been better.” Tate leaned back against her fancy sports car.

“Sorry to hear that, I heard the police were looking for you.” Her eyes darted around the parking lot, Tate was sure she was searching for someone to help her escape. She was shit out of luck. Greer and Dustin had both positioned themselves out of view while Greer’s truck kept anyone from seeing them from the other direction.

“That’s all been straightened out.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t sound so disappointed.”

“I’m not, of course, I’m glad you’ve been cleared.”

“Sutton’s back in town.” Tate controlled himself from strangling the lying bitch. “She told me that you said you were having my baby.” Her expression became carefully blank as she opened her mouth to respond. “I would think twice about lying if I were you.”

Her mouth snapped shut.

“I take it back, you’re not as stupid as I thought you were. At least you aren’t trying to lie your way out of it.”

“I was pregnant.” Lisa lowered her voice, so that only he could hear her.

“Maybe, but we both know it wasn’t mine. Why blame it on me? That last night we were together you tried like hell to get me to fuck you without a condom, telling me you had it covered, that you couldn’t get pregnant. That was the only piece of truth you spewed. You couldn’t get pregnant because you already were, weren’t you?”

“Yes.” She admitted unable to look him in the eye. “I was pregnant, and the father refused to marry me, I thought if you had sex with me I could say it was yours. I knew you would marry me if you believed it was your child.”

“You’re right about that, there would have been no way a kid of mine would be raised alone with you.” Tate snarled. “You underestimated my intelligence if you believed I would have fallen for that bullshit.”

“I was young and didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry, I felt terrible right after I said that to Sutton.”

“Not bad enough to fix it though were you? You’ve let her believe it for years.”

Guiltily she remained silent.

Tate straightened from the car. “I’ll thank God everyday for the rest of my life that I was fortunate enough not to fall into your trap. Because of you, Sutton and I lost years that we could have been together. You hurt her in ways you’ll never know because I don’t want you to have the satisfaction. You’re damn lucky you’re a woman, if you were a man I would shoot you dead where you stand.”

Greer glanced over his shoulder. “I’ll do it I don’t give a fuck if she’s a woman.”

Tate ignored the tempting offer. “Instead I’m going to take away from you what Sutton lost.”

Lisa’s face turned a sickly shade of white. “What are you going to do?”

Tate reached into his pocket pulling out a photograph flinging it at her, uncaring of whether she caught it or not.

The photograph fell to the ground before she could catch it, she knelt reaching for the photo with trembling fingers. She stared at the picture before glancing back at him.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to give that to the department of child protective services and make sure that pretty little girl you’ve been fostering is put in another home.”

“Please, Tate, don’t.” No tears filled the calculating women’s eyes, the only thing she was concerned about was how it would look to the town if she had the little girl removed from her home. She stood reaching out to touch his arm.

Tate jerked back out of her reach. “Be grateful, that’s all I’m going to do. You should pray tonight and give thanks to God. If you ever dare to try to harm what’s mine again, woman or not I’ll make damn sure it’s the last thing you ever do.”

Tate nodded at the picture clutched in her hand. “You can keep that one, I have plenty more.” Coldly he motioned for Greer and Dustin to leave, she stood, staring after him speechlessly as he strode to his truck. He waited for Greer to pull out of the parking lot before backing his truck up leaving Lisa still standing numbly by the car she was so proud of. She had always been too good to be seen in his truck, but not too good to pose for the pictures smoking weed and being fucked by two men at the same time with her husband watching. As he drove out of the parking lot he saw Shade sitting across the street on his big ass bike. Tate lifted two fingers to his hat tipping it forward in a salute. Shade nodded then started his bike, pulling out onto the street and accelerating out of sight.

Tate hadn’t questioned why Shade had offered the photos, too happy for the opportunity for his revenge against Lisa. He had a feeling it was for the same purpose different reason. Either way, the little girl that Lisa was fostering had spent her last night under her roof. They may have been at cross purposes, but both had achieved their goal.

“Damn.” He hated getting along with those fuckers, but for Sutton it had been worth the price of the weed he would be giving them for the next month. They had wanted two months free but Tate had Greer bargain them down after he had figured out they wanted the little girl away from Lisa.

Greer was a hell of a negotiator, he loved to argue, and he didn’t care who he pissed off. Tate started whistling as he drove home. He really needed to put a stop to Greer’s aggravating ways. He would get on it soon, but right now he was going home to Sutton. His hands curled over the steering wheel, gripping it tightly resisting the temptation to press down on the accelerator. Some things were too good to be true, and his life with Sutton made him realize how close he had came to never knowing true happiness. He had told her if was the most painful word in the dictionary and it was the truth. If she hadn’t came back…if Lyle hadn’t been murdered…if he hadn’t listened when his heart had told him he loved her. He was done looking back. From now on, the only if he had left to deal with was if he could ever get his ring on her finger and finally claim what was his.





Chapter 19



“Run Logan! Don’t let him catch you!” Sutton yelled, watching as Dustin chased after his son.

She laughed as Dustin grabbed Logan from behind, tossing him up into the air then deftly catching him. The squeals coming from Logan brought a smile to her face. She could watch the two together for hours, even if it amazed her that he was a father.

“They’re just alike, aren’t they?” she asked the woman sitting next to her at the picnic table.

“Yes.” Holly grimaced. “Sometimes, I don’t know who the child is.”

“I bet you don’t.” Sutton picked up her beer, taking a drink as she studied the woman.

When Rachel had invited them over to hers and Cash’s home for the Labor Day picnic, she had worried the police would be watching. However, after the sheriff had stopped by to talk to Tate, she had been relieved as she had unashamedly listened in as Knox had told Tate he had been officially cleared of killing Lyle, Mrs. Stevens, and shooting Rider.

“I handed over the bullets from your guns to the state police that Greer turned in to me. They didn’t match the weapon used on the victims. An unregistered gun was used in both instances. The gun you hid, I took to Knox. It was bought at a gunshow, and the seller didn’t pick out your picture as the buyer.”

“You or the state police have no idea who it could be?”

“No. Jo let us search through Lyle’s things. He was a drunk, but he didn’t use drugs as far as we could tell. Helen Stevens wasn’t, either, and all Rider does is what Shade buys off you.”