Getting up from his desk Tristan caught up with her as she was leaving.
“You’re not even going to come and say hi to me?” he asked. She stopped and turned toward him. The sadness on her face never disappeared. He couldn’t recall a time when she’d smiled since losing the baby. Tristan constantly kept an eye on her. He knew he shouldn’t and that he should give her space, but he couldn’t stop himself. Vicki meant everything to him.
“Hi,” she said.
That one word made him angry.
“Is this how it’s going to be between us?” He reached out to touch her. Vicki flinched away from his touch. “There was a time you wanted my touch.”
“Those days are gone. I’ve got nothing else to say, Tristan.” She folded her arms underneath her breasts. He noticed how much weight she’d lost in the last six months. When they’d been together Tristan had watched her curves fill out. She looked like skin and bone now. When was the last time she had eaten?
“It’s Sunday, and I’ve got work to do,” she said.
“Working for Stefan Jackson is not a job.” Anger and jealousy consumed him. She’d quit working at The Dugout days after she’d been shot and had immediately gone and worked for Stefan, who was one of the Law Castle Bad Boys.
Stefan wasn’t the head or a leader, but he was there amongst the ranks. He organised the parties and the events that brought tourists to their small town.
“I get paid, and right now that’s all I care about.”
Vicki turned on her heel and walked away. He watched her walk away like he’d watched every Sunday morning when she gave baked goods to their receptionist. Going back inside, he saw Marla on the front desk. The middle-aged woman always had a smile on her face, and he’d hired her a few months back.
The woman had a lot of history, and he’d offered her a safe place to live as long as she kept a low profile.
“Every time I see that girl I swear she’s thinner,” Marla said.
“I’ll be in my office. Let me know if anything else happens.” He didn’t wait for an answer. Walking back to his office, he closed the door and sat behind his large desk.
Tristan loved his large desk. The desk is what separated him from the others. It was like his throne in the small town. He despised violence, and this was his control over it.
Opening the drawer he took out his wedding band. He never wore the thing because in his head and heart he was no longer married. Kate Carmichael was his wife and the woman who’d introduced him to the world of BDSM. He’d become a master for her, but what she wanted from him, he could not give her. There was only so much he enjoyed about dominating women, but Kate needed more. His wife always needed more.
They’d separated on good terms as neither wanted the trouble or expense of a divorce. The expense didn’t bother him. He came from a wealthy family, which gave him the freedom to be the Sheriff in Law Castle. Tristan hadn’t seen another woman in his life or in his future, but then Vicki seemed to explode out of nowhere. He picked up the ring with Kate’s name inscribed on the inside of the gold. Grabbing his wallet from his back pocket, he pulled out her folded picture. The edges were ripped, and the picture overall had seen better days.
Kate was blonde, thin, and everything women seemed to be fighting to be. Her breasts were small, but her skin had been silky soft. He recalled the way her ass would turn red at the swipe of his hand.
There was no arousal in the memory. His feelings for Kate no longer affected him. Kate may be his wife, but now she was more like a friend than anything else.
Placing the ring back in the drawer and folding her picture up, Tristan hung his head. Behind the picture of his wife was another picture. A picture the doctors had given him on the scan of Vicki’s abdomen. She hadn’t been able to afford the picture of the ultrasound, but a picture had been on file.
Staring down at the small blob on the photo, grief unlike anything he’d ever known clawed at him. This picture could have changed everything for him. Having children wasn’t something he thought about. Tristan had long given up the hope of ever fathering a child. The one woman who’d almost given him one now hated his guts.
He didn’t have a clue how to tell her otherwise.
****
Vicki kept walking without looking back. She wanted to look back, but she fought the urge. Tristan had pushed her away before, and he broke her heart. She wasn’t going to allow herself to be broken again. The first man she’d given her heart to was the only man to ever break her heart.
There was nothing for her to smile about anymore. No baby, no lover, or guy to call her own. She was all alone in Law Castle. Not for long. She intended to leave Law Castle and go to the city. Her parents were already looking for apartments for her.