Chapter Seven
Darrell
For as long I can remember, the Tate family has always been viewed as one of the most respected in town. They’re untouchable, which is saying a lot because Valor Springs has a powerful crime family living here. The Tates are a different kind of untouchable, the kind that stems from generations of wealthy, influential men and women.
Paula’s grandfather was the mayor, and when he retired, her Uncle Dane was asked to serve as interim mayor, despite being a rancher by trade. The only reason he wasn’t handed the position permanently was because he refused. Paula’s father stayed in the city after finishing law school and worked his way up to becoming the attorney general. He and Paula’s mother had met in law school, and she had been a powerful attorney in her own right. Not long after her mother’s sudden and tragic death, Paula moved from the city to Valor Springs, and her uncle helped her get her position at Valor Springs Elementary.
Her background is the polar opposite of mine. Valor Springs doesn’t have dirt-poor residents, but my family was close. I never got to know my mother, and my alcoholic father hated my guts. He and I constantly fought before he drove off the road and into a tree after a night of drinking. This happened when I was serving time in jail, and when I got the news, I wasn’t sure how to react. Was I supposed to cry over a man I never had a relationship with or mourn the fact that we’d never have an opportunity to try?
As we pull up at her uncle’s ranch house, I feel a sense of dread set in me. I’ve always been wary of rich people, and it’s no secret Paula’s father has never quite been supportive of my friendship with his only daughter. I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t want my daughter near someone like me either, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am utterly in love with Paula.
She’s everything.
It’s Paula who reaches over for my hand this time, and I turn to find her lips stretched in a beautiful smile that lights up her whole face. “You don’t need to come in if you don’t want to,” she reassures me. “I know you are tough and scared of no one, but my family can be a lot. I can handle them alone.”
“No.” My voice comes out hard, so I soften it a little before forcing on a smile. This is just a small hurdle we have to get over, and then everything between us will be perfect. “I’m sorry, angel,” I rasp. I bring her hand to my lips and kiss it. “I don’t want you facing them alone. It’s me they have an issue with. I want to be there for you. For us.”
She beams at me, leaning in, and I do so as well. What is meant to be a simple kiss quickly turns obscene as our lips collide in a fever of need. I tunnel my fingers through her hair and deepen the kiss, twining my tongue with hers and losing myself in the velvet-soft texture of her mouth. Christ, I could spend an eternity kissing this girl, and I plan on doing so. Heck, I want to do more than kiss her, but I imagine fucking Paula in her uncle’s driveway would not sit well with her family. I would just be proving to them that I am the scoundrel they think I am.
I haven’t been that in a long time.
“Want you,” Paula whimpers into the kiss, and that’s all I need to come to my senses.
I break the kiss and close my eyes, dropping my forehead down on hers. Our breaths mingle hotly between us, and it’s a moment so intimate it makes my chest clench painfully. “I want you too, angel, but we need to go inside and see your family.” I push back to look into those beautiful green eyes I adore. “Later, we can go back to my place, and I will fuck you on every surface. I’ll lick your pussy and make you come on my tongue before rutting you hard.”
She exhales shakily. “Now there’s something to look forward to.”
“Good, now let’s go.”
She nods, and we both climb out of the truck. I take her hand in mine when we rejoin at the front, and then walk together to the entrance. Paula opens the door for us without knocking, and leads the way down the hall into a room at the far end.
“My uncle’s office,” Paula whispers from my side, and I nod. She knocks briskly on the door before pushing it open for us. Paula guides me inside, her hands firmly clasped in mine. I can feel the nerves in her, which contradicts the confidence she’s portraying like armor, so I squeeze her hand reassuringly.
The office, like the rest of the house, screams wealth without being flashy. It’s dimly lit with heavy, dark wooden furniture. The first thing I notice is her dad sitting beside a large desk; his expression is one I’m all too familiar with. It’s that of a prosecutor. He looks up at our entrance, his eyes narrowing slightly as he takes in my presence. “You brought him.” His voice is hard, but it doesn’t have the effect he expects it to. Fortunately—or unfortunately—I have dealt with men like him a lot. In and out of Valor Springs.
Behind the desk is Paula’s uncle, perched in an old leather chair, his gaze sharp, but warm, and he smiles at me genially. Now him, I know for a different reason. Unlike Paula’s father, who only makes occasional visits to Valor Springs, Dane Tate has been a fixture here my entire life. He knows me better than anyone else in this room.
Fuck!
Even though this is his house, I didn’t fucking expect him to be here. He’s a busy man with a massive ranching operation to oversee. I hadn’t expected him to take an interest in his niece’s love life, and by the looks of it, neither did Paula. I feel her grip tighten around my hand, and I squeeze hers once more. I’m painfully aware of how much Paula values her uncle’s opinion. In the time since she moved to Valor Springs, they’ve grown close. He’s much younger than Paula’s father, his oldest brother, and I know Paula loves spending time on the ranch with him.
The unspoken judgment hanging in the air and the weight of their possible disapproval creates a tension in the room so thick, I could cut through it with a knife. If it proves to be too much, I’ll just take Paula out of here, and neither of these men can do shit about it.
“Sit,” Paula’s father, Brandt, instructs, and I urge Paula to take the empty seat across from her father before standing behind her like a sentinel.
Okay, let’s get this over with. I’m sure they have a shit ton to say to try to dissuade Paula from being with me. Her father tried it before when Paula and I first got close, and he can try it again, but it won’t work. It didn’t work the first time, and then, she and I were just friends. The connection between us is much deeper now.
Unshakable, is what it is.
“So, this is how you decide to dishonor your mother.” My head whips up, and I feel Paula still in her seat when her father speaks. “She would be turning in her grave if she knew the man you were dating.”
“Dad!” Paula gasps a tremble in her voice. “That’s not fair!”
“It’s exactly what you are doing, sleeping around with the man that killed her. What a fucking disgrace!”
His words are harsh and loud, cracking through the room like a gunshot. I am stunned by what he’s said, and it takes me a second to process it. “I did not kill Paula’s mother!” I grind out, purely disgusted by the man’s accusation. “I’d never even met her!”
Fuck, these people are sick. I should have never agreed to bring Paula here.
“You might as well have! It was a man just like you who did!” he barks before I can move. “The man that shot my wife was a scum of the earth criminal like you. You are no different from him, are you, Darrell Nord? Since you have the same habit of breaking and entering. You might not have killed anyone, but it’s only a matter of time before you return to your criminal ways, and then who knows what you’ll do. Prison doesn’t change men like you.” His venomous eyes swing to his daughter, who has gone still. “Didn’t your mother’s murder teach you anything?”
This… It’s a low blow, something I never would have expected from a man like Brandt Tate, but perhaps I should have. Guys like him are all the fucking same. They look at me and my tattoos and label me a criminal. Sure, I have a past, but I have been living an honest life since the moment I left prison. Doesn’t that mean anything to these people?
To my surprise, Paula’s uncle jumps to his feet. “Now hold on, Brandt. Let’s not get carried away. I know you’re worried about Paula, and your wife’s death is still an open wound, but you don’t know Darrell. Sure, he’s got a record, but—”
“You know nothing about me,” I interject. “You have no fucking right to speak to me or Paula in that way!” I snap, my eyes narrowed on the man who seems to hate me for no good reason. “Let’s go, Paula.” I reach down and take her hand. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Paula doesn’t get up from the chair when I pull her hand; her entire focus seems to be on her father and uncle. “You’re lying,” she whispers, and I hear the tears in her voice. “It’s cruel to accuse someone of something just because you don’t like them.”
“If you think I am lying, ask your boyfriend where he was five years ago,” her father says, nodding to me. “No, as matter of fact, why don’t you see for yourself?”
A file is tossed on the desk in front of Paula, but before she can even open it, I already know what it is. And yet, I don’t stop her. As much as I want to grab this girl and carry her out of this suffocating room, I watch her slowly reach for the file.
Paula lets out a small gasp when she flips open the file and on the first page is my mug shot. Well, the first one anyway. My dirty blond hair was longer and unkempt back then, the mullet unevenly cut, and every detail can be seen in the photo. It feels strange to look at my younger self through new eyes. I was sixteen and scrawny, and didn’t have any tattoos yet. I just looked like a misunderstood kid caught in the act of stealing. The same cannot be said about the next mugshot or the one after that. The tattoos begin to form, and my eyes grow progressively harder. In the final shot, I’m bigger and more solidly built. My cold, unfeeling eyes stare right into the camera. I’d lost the mullet in favor of a prison-issue buzz cut.
Staring at the photo is like looking at a ghost, and I can’t tell what Paula is thinking as she takes it all in. I have a split lip from resisting my arrest, and a fading black eye from a bar fight the week before.
I am no longer that person. In fact, I don’t recognize him anymore, or any one of the others in that folder. But will Paula see that? Or will she believe only what’s in front of her in black and white?
Paula is quiet, terrifyingly so. Fuck, maybe I should have opened up about my past before and told her all about it, but everyone in town seems to have noticed I’m not that man anymore. No one talks about my past, only the positive contributions I’ve made to the town since my return. I foolishly thought that meant I could keep all of this a secret from Paula.
Paula shuts the file and tosses it back on the desk, and I notice a visible tremble in her fingers. “It’s…” Her voice breaks at first. “It’s not fair for you to bring up Mom’s death,” she whispers, letting out a shuddering breath. “It’s cruel to use that to get me to leave him. You could have left Mom out of this and made your point without being so mean.”
“Paula, I will always do whatever it takes to protect you. I can’t lose you like I lost your mother. I tried to tell you before how dangerous this man is, but you refused to see sense!”
“You’ve made your point, Dad,” she sniffs, her voice calm and even in the face of things, and I imagine it’s a skill she’s picked from dealing with temperamental kids every day.
Paula slowly rises from her seat, and her father follows as well, his face morphed in anger as he stares at his daughter in annoyance. “I forbid you from seeing this man!”
She doesn’t respond, instead, she goes to the door and walks out without another word. Her father starts after her, but Dane moves to intercept him. “Let her go,” he says.
There are many things I want to say and do in response to how Paula’s father handled everything, but I shove down my anger. It will do no one any good if I lose my temper, and I can tell Brandt is nearly vibrating with the desire for me to give him a reason to have me arrested and prove to his daughter what a monster I am. I decide to not engage the man, so I rush out after Paula in time to see her walk out of the house. I run after her, expecting her to climb into my truck, but she simply continues past it.
“Paula!” I catch up with her before she can make it off the driveway. “Hey, angel, talk to me.”
She stops but doesn’t turn to look at me. Her eyes are downcast, but I can see the wet tracks on her cheeks. “I don’t know what to say, Darrell,” she whispers.
“Okay, alright. Let’s go back to my place and talk about this. I will explain everything to you.”
She shrugs my hand from her shoulder and shakes her head, her action making my heart sink. “I don’t want to talk to you right now. I need time alone to think and process everything.”
“Don’t say that. Don’t push me away, Paula.” My voice is broken like it’s never been before. I have been terrified a handful of times in my life, but none of those could live up to this moment. The thought of losing the one woman I have ever loved leaves me paralyzed with fear.
I can’t lose her! But she’s pulling away from me. Not just physically, I can sense her emotionally building a wall between us. Creating a distance that wasn’t there before, and it doesn’t just break or wound me.
It shatters me.