Chapter 20
TUCKER
AS SOON as I get Kinley back to her car at the ranch, I haul ass to town.
I noticed she was unusually quiet during our drive to and from PT.
It didn’t take much to get her to fold and tell me about her conversation with Nora this morning; it was bothering her too much to keep it from me.
I immediately told her to pull over on the turnpike so I could drive and get us back faster.
“You should have told me earlier.” I growl at her.
“Don’t you bark at me, Tucker Cade, or I won’t tell you anything!” she growls right back, and turns to watch the scenery out the window, rubbing her palm over her belly. I’ll never understand why women are suddenly more interested in looking out the damn passenger-side window when they get angry.
Ignoring the ache in my leg thrumming up my thigh to my hip and back down to my ankle, I set one hand on the top of the steering wheel and rest my elbow on the door to cup my mouth in my hand.
Sliding my hand down my chin while clenching my jaw, I take a deep breath.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you.” Her frame relaxes a bit, and she turns her head to look out the front window.
With a small huff, she says, “It’s okay.”
Glancing in her direction, I can tell she’s still mad at me, or hurt; her fucking hormones have her going from mad to crying in seconds, even more in the past few weeks. “Were you able to find out what kind of threat he is?”
“It sounds like he’s some kind of big shot lawyer in D.C.
and his brother is in politics somehow, they both have tons of connections.
The way she talks, she doesn’t think he’s a physical threat, but he wouldn’t think twice about using his reach wherever he finds her, making her life miserable.
The one time he caught up with her, not long after she left, bogus charges were made against her, and he tried to have her arrested so she would be released to his custody. ”
My clenched jaw is resting in my palm again, my eyes fixed on the road ahead, as I try to hold my anger in check. “Did you get a name?”
She shakes her head. “She only said Matt; I didn’t ask for a last name.”
Matt. Pussy name. Tomorrow, I’ll call Callum to get more info on this guy.
I’m almost positive his guy can find a trail just on the charges that were made against Nora to trap her.
What a piece of shit. He completely stripped her of everything and left her in the cold, trying to force her to go back to him.
“Did she say how much money he stole from her?” Because she’s going to get it back.
“I think she said seventy or eighty grand. But she said she slept in her car rather than go back to him.” She’s silent for a moment before she huffs in anger. “After six months, he stalked her online and shut down her livelihood, Tuck, what kind of man does that?”
Exactly. What kind of man does that?
“But why?”
She shrugs her shoulders. “That’s the confusing part. When she first left and he was bombing her phone, she asked him why he wouldn’t just leave her alone, and all he could say was that they had a life together and he wouldn’t let her walk away.”
My heart drops to my stomach. “Married?” I almost choke on the word.
She shakes her head. “No, they were engaged for a couple of years but not married.”
Relief floods me, and the breath lodged in my chest rushes out.
A guy I served with was engaged to a woman for three years. We all used to give him shit because if he needed more than three years to decide the best time to pull the trigger, she’s not the one. I’ve always been of the mind that stringing a woman along is a dick move.
That asshole was probably stringing Nora along all those years.
Does she really not know why he’s trying to force her back to him? Or is she hiding something? And how far is he willing to go?
To say I’m pissed is a goddamn understatement. Nora doesn’t owe me anything, but she has to be fucking worried and scared, and I won’t let her do this by herself, not after she’s been out there for six fucking months fighting a battle alone.
Remembering how I treated her that first night on the highway makes my shoulders hug my ears in shame. I’ll make it up to her.
AND I’ll show her asshole ex what it feels like to be scared.
After looking out the window for a few minutes, Kinley clears her throat. “She asked me not to tell you.”
I swing my head to look at her. Is she fucking serious? “Why?” I shout the question and immediately regret it.
Kinley cuts her eyes to me but chooses to let it slide. “She didn’t think it would be fair to put this on you. She mentioned, tearfully I might add, that she pushed you away because she’s convinced herself she has to take care of this herself, and feels horrible about it.”
Feelings, deep and consuming, swell in my chest, and I set my fist over my heart to ease the tide. I’ve never felt anything so powerful and relentless for another person before. She won’t do this herself. She’ll never do anything she doesn’t want to by herself again.
Several cars are parked in the wide gravel driveway of the inn, and the soldier in me wonders if I should be worried about any of them.
What are the odds he might have found her?
Could he be following her? I reach under my seat to grab my gun from the holster tacked to the underside so I can tuck it in the back of my jeans but think better of it when I remember Nora’s reaction to seeing it that night on the highway.
Allison is standing behind the desk when I open the front door, barging in like a man on a mission. She looks up as if she’s about to greet a guest, but when she sees me, a Cheshire smile slowly spreads across her face.
“What room is she in?” I don’t have time for pleasantries or her teasing bullshit; I need to see that she’s okay.
With a smirk, she hooks her thumb over her shoulder toward the stairs. “Room two.”
If I could walk normal, I would take the stairs two at a time, but after the balance and strength exercises my physical therapist tortured me with today, it hurts just to put my weight on my leg.
Pushing the awareness of the pain to a place in my mind I’ve built especially for PT days, I take the stairs one step at a time.
I tap the door with my knuckles two times and wait, but there’s no sound on the other side. Taking a step back, I make sure I’m at the right door. A muffled thump comes from inside the room, and then it’s quiet again.
That’s when I realize she’s scared to answer the door.
“Nora, sugar, it’s Tuck.”
It only takes two seconds before the door swings open; the breeze from the quick movement lifts the loose hair around her face for just a moment.
Her thick red hair is down and hanging in long, messy strands down the baggy hoodie she’s wearing, except for the sides pulled up into a clip over each ear.
Her eyes are red-rimmed, and her nose is shiny from crying.
It guts me to see her so sad.
She doesn’t say anything, she only stares at me as her chin starts to wobble, the delicate fingers of one hand still tightly clutching the edge of the door like it’s the only thing holding her still.
I don’t wait for her to ask me in, I step across the threshold and fist the thick material at her waist to pull her into me. “Come here.”
She steps into me willingly. I wrap my arms around her soft body, her palms cool through the shirt on my back as she clings to me. I set my chin on her head and hold her tight, I won’t let go before she does. I can’t.
She fits perfectly against me, her curves, her height; she was meant for me.
In some corner of my fucked-up head, I know I’ve found the woman who fills the empty parts of me, whose mere presence soothes the constant anger that lives just below the surface.
The only woman in this fucked-up world who makes me a better person.
No one could deny that she’s got courage in spades, but every time I see her smile, or that beautiful shyness creep across her skin, flushing her cheeks, or she looks at me with those gorgeous green eyes, I become putty in her hands. She’s the woman I’ll do anything for.
“Kinley told me about your conversation this morning. You okay?”
She sniffs and sucks in a deep breath. “I’ve been so careful.”
Talking over her head, I squeeze her tighter. “You shouldn’t have to be.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t very nice to you the other night. I hated every second of it. I just didn’t want to pull you into the mess that’s my life; you don’t deserve that.” She mumbles into my shirt, melting every defense I’ve erected.
I kiss the top of her head. “Don’t apologize. You’re not alone anymore.”
Pulling her head back, she looks up at me. I can practically see all the questions stacking up on top of each other in her eyes, and her eyebrows tip down. “You can’t do that.”
Not wanting every other guest in the inn to hear our conversation from the hall. While keeping my hold on her, I walk her back a few steps and, standing on my good leg, lightly kick the door closed with my foot. “Do what?”
Her eyes volley between mine for several long moments before she answers. “Well, there are so many answers to that question that I don’t know where to start.” Her face flushes red, almost matching the color of her nose as her eyes lower to my chest.
Cupping her chin, I lift her face, so she’ll look at me. “Start with the answer that’s most important to you.”
She clears her throat and takes a breath of courage before she says, “I like you. A lot. But if you don’t feel the same way, there’s no reason to even say anything else.
But if you do, I don’t want to taint anything…
that is, if you even want to start anything with me…
with my baggage.” She takes a breath, almost as if she’s just getting started.
She rattles off things about her plans to leave town when her car is fixed, which is a whole other issue, my taking a job out of state, and the impossibility of long-distance relationships.
The most important thing I’ve heard is, ‘I like you,’ and really, that was all I needed, or wanted, to hear, and I can’t stop the smile that splits my face.
Since she rambles when she’s nervous, I set the pad of my thumb on her lips to stop her. She stops mid-sentence, and her eyes widen, the green sparkling up at me.
Sliding my thumb along her full bottom lip, I say, “I like you, too. A lot. That’s what matters; everything else we’ll figure out.”
“But...”
Cupping her head with my hands, I shake my head, and she stops.
“No buts. Starting something with you is something I want in the worst fucking way. All of you, baggage and all. You’re the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing when I’m going to sleep.
You’ve hijacked my damn thoughts every day since that night we found you on the highway. Can we start there?”
Her eyes fill with tears as she takes a deep, shaky breath and blows it out, nodding her head. “We can start there.”
Her green eyes look at me with emotions that touch every part of me. I never knew I could feel like this. She makes me feel whole again. “Good, because I’m going to kiss you now.” I don’t give her time to respond; I softly press my lips to hers.
Her fingers grasp my wrists as she opens to me, and I slide my tongue over hers, tasting the sweet tartness of… gummy bears?
The kiss becomes more demanding, and she surprises the fuck out of me when she comes back with as much passion as I’m giving - my shy redhead has some fire in her. Her soft lips suck on mine, but when she nips my bottom lip with her teeth, my dick turns to stone.
Pulling back with a smirk, I want to see her face. I want to see what she looks like when I wake up something in her that no one else sees. The feeling is fucking euphoric. Blooms of pink are on her cheeks as she lazily opens her eyes.
Her eyebrows lift in surprise, and she smiles. “What? No biting?”
With a huff, I lift one side of my lips. “Sugar, you can bite me when or wherever you want.”
Letting go of my wrists, she slides her hands up my chest and over my shoulders, pressing her body against me as she continues the kiss. The combination of her full, soft breasts and hard nipples dragging across my chest has my cock throbbing behind the zipper of my jeans.
Needing to feel her skin, I slide my hands up the perfect globes of her ass and under the bottom of her shirt to loop my arms around her waist. She’s just as smooth as I thought she would be as I wrap my fingers around her ribs. So silky soft, she’s fucking perfect.
Breaking the kiss, keeping her arms looped around my neck, she sets her forehead against mine. “I have to go to work.”
Shaking my head, I squeeze her to me harder. “No, I want to talk to Rhys and my soon-to-be-boss.”
“I have to go to work.” She doesn’t elaborate, and I know she’s thinking of her car. I make a mental note to call Ryder tomorrow.
“Just miss one night. Give me a chance to make some calls. Please.”
Trying to pull away from me, but I hold tight, she sets a palm on my chest and smiles as she holds up one finger.
“Stony is there, he keeps a weapon under the bar.” She snaps her second finger up.
“It’s Thursday night, and we’ll be busy all night.
” Another finger pops up as she brushes her lips against mine.
“You’ll be there for your dinner, and you can bring me back. ”
Our eyes are locked as I think about her points. She’s right. I’ll be there. But this time I’ll have my sidearm on me. Giving her another kiss, I let her go. “Okay, but I’m taking you.”