Bitter Justice (Cowboy Justice Association Book 12)

by Olivia Jaymes

  "Fine," the mayor said loudly, his lips flattened into a line. "You're fired, Tanner. Fired. I'm bringing in someone younger. You have until the end of the day to clean out your desk."

  Fired? What the fuck did that even mean?

  4

  A busy day seeing patients took Maddie's mind off all of her issues but it all came rushing back when it was time to pick up Amanda from school. Going forward, Sherry would pick up all three of the kids but on this important first day Maddie wanted to do it herself. She wanted to hear all of the exciting activities her daughter had done today, plus she and Sherry had decided to take their new kindergarteners for ice cream as a first day of school treat.

  Because I'm happy that she started school.

  And I'm comfortable with how quickly she's growing up.

  At some point during the day, Maddie had decided that the power of positive thinking just might do the trick. Instead of allowing herself to wallow in a quagmire of questions and few answers, she needed to buck up and be optimistic. Look forward to all the great changes that were coming her way. Sherry was thrilled that her twins were starting school and Maddie was determined to do the same.

  They met at the ice cream parlor and it was hot fudge sundaes all around. The kids were chattering excitedly about their day - Benjamin the rabbit, the story Mrs. Walker had read, the art project, and of course recess.

  "Recess was my favorite," Sherry laughed, wiping a bit of whipped cream from Jack's cheek. "I liked art, too. Maddie liked math."

  Sighing, Maddie nodded in agreement. "I did, I admit it. I thought it was cool. No one else did, though."

  The bell over the ice cream parlor door rang and Clarice Daugherty walked in with her three kids. Sherry and Maddie waved and the other woman promptly strode over to their table.

  "Oh my gosh, Maddie. I didn't expect to see you here," she said in a hushed tone, glancing around the store. "You're so brave and strong. I'd be a mess."

  What? Did everyone know about how she was dealing with Amanda's first day of school? Sherry would never in a million years tell anyone.

  Giving her best friend a look, Sherry's eyes widened and she shrugged. She didn't know what Clarice was talking about, either.

  "It's only the first day of school," Maddie finally replied. "I'm sure I'll be fine."

  Clarice's forehead wrinkled, her brows pulled down. "I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about Tanner getting fired today. You're taking it really well. How's he doing? I can't even imagine this town without him as the sheriff."

  Maddie had never seen Sherry's eyes that large and round. She could only imagine her expression right now because inside she was a mess. Her stomach roiled, almost immediately wanting to purge the chocolate mint ice cream with hot fudge sauce, and a sweat broke out on the back of her neck. She actually felt faint.

  But there was no way she was going to let Clarice know.

  "We're fine," she said, although she was in no way okay. "Everything is fine."

  "What's fired mean?" Jack piped up, shoving another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. Sherry shushed him, and distracted the kids by pointing out a dog walking down the sidewalk.

  Clarice said something else that Maddie didn't hear, the blood roaring in her ears and blocking out sound, before being pulled away by her kids wanting their ice cream.

  When she was finally out of earshot, Maddie pressed a hand to her forehead. It was damp with sweat. Then she checked her phone to make sure she hadn't missed any calls or texts from her husband.

  No. None. What the hell?

  "Maybe Clarice has a drinking problem," Sherry suggested. "She's always been a little flighty."

  "Clarice doesn't have a drinking problem. Her husband works at the town hall. He must have told her."

  Sherry shook her head. "Tanner would call you if something like this happened. There's no way Clarice has this right. She's confused. Worst case scenario, Tanner got mad and quit. The mayor would never fire him."

  Maddie didn't know what Pete Carlisle would do. She did think Tanner would have told her but he'd been acting strangely lately. Not like himself.

  "Perhaps he did quit," Maddie said softly so the children wouldn't hear. Luckily, they were busy giggling and eating and not too interested in the drama among the adults. "He's been acting different these last few months."

  "You didn't tell me that."

  "I know," Maddie admitted. "It's not anything that I can put my finger on. He's just acting a little differently, that's all."

  "If you want to run home and talk to him, I can take Amanda with me for a few hours. It's no trouble."

  That was an offer Maddie was enthusiastically going to accept.

  Tanner Marks, just what is going on?

  Tanner was in the kitchen chopping garlic when he heard Maddie at the front door. His stomach twisted in his gut at the sound of her footsteps on the hardwood floor. Fast and unhappy. He was probably going to be sleeping on the couch tonight, and it was his own fault. He should have called her after his meeting with the mayor but just how did a man tell his wife that he got fired?

  He'd been thinking about that all afternoon and he still didn't have an answer.

  Which was why he was about to get his ass handed to him by his wife.

  Maddie breezed into the kitchen and dumped her handbag on the table. The color was high on her cheeks and her eyes sparkled with anger. Whew, she was mad. He didn't even get a chance to step forward and greet her before she was firing a question at him.

  "Tanner, is there something you want to tell me?"

  Want? No. Need? Yes. Time to talk, whether he wanted to or not. He didn't like this feeling in the least. The smell of the spaghetti sauce he was cooking was making him queasy.

  "Yes, I do need to talk to you."

  Her brows raised, she waited for him to say more. That was one of Maddie's best qualities. She was a good listener.

  Now she was going to hear what a loser her husband was.

  "I had a meeting with the mayor today. I wanted to discuss raises for the deputies. He had another agenda altogether. He said he wanted to bring in someone younger. I was let go from my job."

  There. He'd said it.

  Maddie blew out a long breath, her shoulders slumped. "Why didn't you call me?"

  This time he did step in closer, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against his body. For the first time today, he was at peace. She, on the other hand, was stiff as a board.

  "I wanted to but every time I picked up the phone to do it, I didn't know what to say."

  "I had to hear it from Clarice at the ice cream shop. Can you imagine how I felt, Tanner? Let me tell you. I felt like an idiot. Sherry was there and so were the kids."

  Shit, it was worse than he'd imagined.

  "Where's Amanda?"

  "With Sherry. I'll pick her up in a few hours." Maddie looked up, tears pooled in her eyes. "Are you okay? What happened exactly?"

  She wanted a play by play of his meeting? Fuck.

  "It was just like I told you. I went there to discuss salaries for the deputies and Pete told me that he wanted to make some changes. I needed to clean out my desk by the end of the day."

  Surprisingly, after all of these years Tanner hadn't had all that much personal crap at the station. It had only taken a few minutes and one copy paper box.

  Her brows were knitted together. "How did you get home? I didn't see your truck out front."

  That. He hadn't explained that yet.

  "Maybe I should start at the beginning."

  "Maybe you should."

  She didn't sound happy. He was definitely sleeping on the couch tonight. He'd fucked up royally. He and Maddie didn't argue much, both of them pretty laid back, but she was understandably pissed off. If only he knew the magic words to make it all better. Sadly, he didn't. They were going to have to fight this one out.

  "It all started with my conversation with Sam."

  They'd ended up sitting at the kitchen
table while Tanner explained his day in excruciating detail. Maddie had a bunch of questions, of course, and he'd tried to answer them without sounding like a huge loser.

  "You have a severance package?"

  Tanner wasn't sure he'd called it a package. More like a paper bag.

  "A week of pay for every year that I've been with the town of Springwood. Capped at eight weeks. It's the standard in the contract."

  He'd always known it but he'd never thought he'd have to deal with it. He'd been short-sighted, obviously.

  Maddie leaned her chin on her hand. "It's not a big deal. Financially we're fine."

  Because of Maddie's money, and the fact that her father had gifted them this house. They hadn't had a mortgage payment so they'd been able to save more than most people.

  Which was good because...

  "The SUV belongs to the city. I had to turn it in today."

  Her eyes widened but then she nodded in understanding. "Right. Of course. You've been driving it so long I'd forgotten. I guess we need to get you a vehicle right away."

  "I already called Hal down at the dealership. They have a used truck with low miles. I told him I'd be by in the morning."

  Maddie's eyes narrowed. "You called Hal?"

  "I did."

  Apparently, that had been a bad move on his part. Maddie's cheeks were red again.

  "What else did you do after you were fired?"

  "I talked to Sam and Tabby for a little while. The guys quit in protest, which I told them they shouldn't do. Hell, they need those jobs. But they said it was the principle of the thing."

  Principles didn't pay the grocery bill, though.

  "Tabby? You talked to her?"

  "Yes."

  It was beginning to dawn on Tanner why his lovely wife was getting even angrier.

  "Anyone else?"

  He shook his head. "I stopped at the grocery store to pick up supplies for spaghetti tonight."

  Maddie placed her hands on the table, the fingers splayed out, studying her nails. "Let me get this straight. You were fired and then you talked to Hal, Sam, and Tabby. You went to the grocery store, probably talking to a few people there, too. Then you came home and started dinner, and at no time did you manage to call or text me? Do I have this right or have I missed anything? Because I don't want to miss anything."

  "I know I've fucked up, babe. Really badly," Tanner replied in a rush, wanting to get back in the good graces of the woman he loved. "I just couldn't tell you that I'd been fired."

  "But you could tell all those other people?"

  He took a deep breath before answering. "Because their opinions of me don't mean squat compared to yours. I'm so very sorry, Maddie. I wanted to tell you but I just didn't know how to admit that I'd lost my job. Please forgive me."

  In his first marriage Tanner had learned how to argue. In his second, older and wiser, he'd learned that most things weren't worth fighting about. It didn't hurt to apologize as much as it had when he was younger. Especially when he knew that he was in the wrong.

  "Please don't do it again," she finally said with a sigh. "I understand what you're saying but hearing it from Clarice–"

  "Sucked," he broke in. "It was wrong and I have no good defense. Just an explanation. I've never been fired before and I didn't know what I was supposed to do."

  "You're supposed to tell your wife. First. Right away. Before all the gossips in this small town do it for you. We don't live in Chicago."

  "I don't think I was really thinking, to be honest. I was reacting."

  "I don't think less of you for being fired, Tanner. It happens to a lot of people."

  "Have you ever been fired?"

  For the first time this afternoon, Maddie appeared to relax, a smile curving her lips.

  "Yes, and I deserved it, too. I was waitressing while in college and I was terrible at it. Just awful. I kept breaking dishes and mixing up orders. I lasted three long days before they put me out of my misery. It's not like your situation. You're great at your job. You were fired over politics. That Pete Carlisle wants to change Springwood into something neither of us would recognize."

  That was true.

  "So am I forgiven? Or at least partially forgiven?"

  "Don't do it again."

  He sure as hell wasn't planning on getting fired for a second time.

  "I won't."

  "So what are you going to do now?"

  Good question. Excellent question.

  He didn't have an answer, though.

  "I'm not sure. Get a new vehicle." His gaze wandered over the kitchen. "There's a few projects that need doing around the house. This might be my chance to finally get them done before I start looking for another job."

  That I'm not qualified for. I've never done anything but be a cop.

  He wasn't prepared for a job search at this point in his life. After the military he'd become a deputy and then the sheriff. This was it. This was all he knew how to do.

  "It might be a good idea to take some time off and figure out what you want to do," Maddie said. "You've hardly had any time off and we're fine financially. Take the opportunity to do whatever you want."

  The problem was he had no idea what he wanted to do. He only knew that this change wasn't what he'd wanted but it was here. Now he had to deal with it.

  What do I want to be when I grow up? The revised edition.

  5

  Hand on doorknob, Maddie took a deep breath before entering the house. It had been ten days since Tanner had been fired and he had certainly made the most of his time off.

  By ripping apart the house.

  She simply hadn't known that when he'd spoken about a few home improvement projects that needed to be done that he'd go quite this far. The kitchen was in a shambles, the dryer was in several pieces, and Tanner would walk around the house wearing a tool belt and muttering about the next project he wanted to tackle.

  And she'd be fine with that if only he'd finish the ones that he'd already started.

  She hadn't said anything to him, of course. It didn't seem nice or polite. After all, he thought he was helping. Plus, he'd already been through so much with losing his job that she hated to say anything negative to him if she could help it.

  In many ways it was wonderful to have him home more. He dropped Amanda off and picked her up at school, allowing Maddie to start seeing patients earlier in the day, which meant getting home earlier, too. He always had dinner cooking when she came home and since she could barely boil water that was great. When Tanner had been working, she and Amanda had eaten out quite a bit. Even her young daughter knew that Mom's cooking sucked.

  She pushed open the door and braced herself for whatever she found on the other side, giving herself a pep talk as she did it. It's not that bad. It was only temporary. Just until Tanner went back to work. He'd worked hard his entire life and he deserved some time off to rest and relax.

  There was only one problem with that statement. Tanner seemed determined to do everything but rest and relax. He was up before the sun and busy around the house almost every minute of the day.

  "Tanner," she called as she stepped in the door. "I'm home."

  The mouthwatering smell of pot roast hit her nostrils and her stomach growled. It had been far too many hours since she'd fed it. She'd grabbed a sandwich and some pretzels in between patients.

  The sound of tiny feet across the floor and then Amanda ran into Maddie's legs, her short arms wrapped around her mother's waist.

  "Mommy, you're home."

  Before Maddie could agree that she was, indeed, home, her daughter launched into a long soliloquy about her day. They'd played games, and read books, and worked on their addition skills. Like her mom, Amanda loved math.

  "And we went to the library," the new kindergartener said. "They let me check out two books."

  "That's great. We can read them tonight before bed."

  "I've already read them. With Daddy."

  "We read them after snack."<
br />
  Tanner's deep voice still sent shivers up Maddie's spine all these years later. Somehow her husband managed to get more handsome with age. She often teased him about making a deal with the devil. He'd just laugh and say that the devil was terrified of him.

  He was wearing that tool belt again, though.

  A glance towards the sink told the tale. He'd pulled apart the faucet a few days ago and it was still in pieces.

  He seemed to pick up on her thoughts, his own gaze following hers. "The faucet is on backorder. Should be in on Monday."

  The last three nights they'd washed the dishes in the laundry room.

  "That's good. How was your day?"

  "Busy. I worked on the baseboards in the living room."

  "The baseboards," Maddie echoed, her heart sinking. "I didn't know we had a problem with them."

  "They were old and original to the house, I'm guessing."

  Maddie had never noticed the baseboards in any room of the house. Did baseboards get old? How did one tell that they were aging and needed replacing?

  "Probably they were," she replied. "I didn't even realize they needed replaced."

  "The new ones I'm putting in will look better. They're higher and slightly more ornate." He unhooked the belt and laid it on the kitchen table. "But then I thought that this would be a really good time to paint the living room too, before I install the new baseboards."

  It sounded like a reasonable plan. Except that he had several projects already in the works.

  "You're going to paint the living room?"

  I ask with real fear in my heart.

  "Might as well while I have the baseboards pulled off. I think it will really spruce up the room. I have some paint colors for you to look at. Once you choose, I can pick up the paint the next day."

  He'd reached into a drawer behind him and now he was holding a stack of little cards out to her, his expression expectant. These were the paint colors, apparently.

  Now? I just walked in the door.