Chapter 6
Tessa
Iknew coming to the tavern was a mistake before I even stepped through the door.
Heat and noise rolled over me instantly—the scent of bacon grease, coffee, and old wood wrapped around the crowded room while dishes clattered somewhere near the kitchen.
Too loud.
Too many people.
I tightened my grip on the wildflowers in my arms and forced myself forward anyway.
Drop off the arrangements.
Smile.
Leave.
Easy.
“Hey, Tessa!”
I glanced up and pasted on a polite smile for the waitress weaving between tables. “Morning. Just bringing fresh flowers for the tables.”
“Perfect timing. Breakfast rush just cleared.”
Good.
Less people watching.
Less chance of—
“Tessa?”
The voice hit the back of my neck like ice water.
I stopped walking.
Slowly, I turned.
A man stood near the bar with dark hair and a half-finished beer in his hand. Mid-thirties maybe. Broad shoulders.
Familiar.
Too familiar.
Recognition spread across his face first.
Then satisfaction.
“Well,” he drawled. “I’ll be damned.”
My stomach dropped so fast it hurt.
Not here.
Please not here.
“Tessa Bloom.”
The room kept moving around us.
Chairs scraped.
Someone laughed near the kitchen.
But it all sounded far away suddenly.
My fingers dug into the flower stems hard enough to bend them.
“Do I know you?” I asked evenly.
Too evenly.
His smile widened like he heard the strain underneath it anyway.
“I know prison didn’t erase me from your memory after six years.”
My pulse stumbled.
I took one careful step backward.
“I think you’ve mistaken me for somebody else.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” His voice rose slightly. Loud enough now. “You look exactly like the girl who killed her best friend.”
The words sliced straight through me.
My lungs locked.
Somewhere, glass clinked against wood behind the bar.
Nobody talked.
Not anymore.
“She confessed to it too,” he continued, glancing around the tavern like he had an audience now. “Wrapped a car around a tree. Killed the girl beside her. Whole town knew about it.”
Every eye in the room turned toward me.
Heat crawled up my neck.
My fingers went numb.
The flowers slipped from my hands and hit the floor in a scatter of purple and yellow petals.
I couldn’t bend down to pick them up.
Couldn’t breathe enough to move.
Then suddenly—
Ace stepped in front of me.
I hadn’t even seen him move.
One second the man was staring at me.
The next, all I could see was Ace’s broad back between us.
“Watch your mouth,” Ace said quietly.
The tavern went still.
Not because he yelled.
Because he didn’t.
The man scoffed. “Stay out of it.”
Ace shifted one step closer.
Slow.
Controlled.
Dangerous.
“It concerns me now.”
Something tightened in my chest painfully.
The man laughed under his breath. “You don’t even know what kind of woman you’re defending.”
“I know enough.”
My eyes burned instantly.
No.
He didn’t.
Couldn’t.
The man gestured toward me carelessly. “She got drunk, drove a car, killed her friend, and went to prison for it. That enough for you?”
Ace never looked back at me.
Not once.
No hesitation.
No disgust.
No doubt.
Just a cold, steady stare fixed on the man across from him.
“You done?”
The man’s smile faltered slightly.
“I’m just making sure you know who you’re chasing.”
That did it.
Ace stepped forward once.
Only one step.
But the shift in the room was immediate.
Every Ranger in the tavern straightened.
Chairs scraped.
The man noticed too.
“Leave,” Ace said.
Quiet.
Final.
The guy hesitated, looked around the room one more time, then muttered something under his breath before heading for the door.
The tavern stayed silent even after it slammed shut behind him.
I couldn’t lift my head.
Could feel it already.
The staring.
The whispers waiting to happen later.
The shift.
Always the shift.
“Tessa.”
Ace’s voice softened behind me.
And God help me—
I flinched.
I actually flinched away from him.
Pain flashed across his face so quickly I almost missed it.
“Don’t,” I whispered.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“That’s worse.”
Finally, I forced myself to look at him.
Concern sat openly in his eyes now.
Questions too.
Questions I couldn’t survive hearing from him.
“I told you,” I said, my voice breaking around the edges. “You wouldn’t look at me the same way.”
His jaw tightened immediately.
“That’s not true.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
Why wouldn’t he stop?
Why wouldn’t he just look at me the way everyone else did and walk away already?
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Tessa—”
“I said it doesn’t matter!”
The words cracked through the tavern hard enough to make me shake.
I couldn’t stay here.
Not while everyone stared at me like they already knew the whole story.
Not while Ace looked at me like he still wanted answers instead of distance.
“I have to go.”
I backed away before he could stop me.
Then turned and shoved through the tavern doors into the mountain air.
The breeze hit my face sharply.
I kept walking.
Faster.
Faster.
Because I already knew how this ended.
Sooner or later—
everyone stopped believing you.