by Lee Wardlow
Skylar turned and glanced out the window. The moonlight bounced off the top of his truck. Where did he leave the keys? In the truck? She looked around and didn’t see them.
“Talk to me Tag,” she begged him still looking out the window.
“What do you want to talk about Sky?” She glanced over her shoulder at him. He was downing the beer at the table. He rose and got another. “After I thought about it I still feel like I love you Skylar but maybe we were better at fucking than communicating.”
“Maybe,” she agreed. “Did you want to hurt me when you shot off those rounds while I was on Majestic?”
He tossed the empty can in the trash and grabbed another beer. His rifle was sitting by the table. Skylar contemplated grabbing it and turning the tables on Tag. He took his beer and sat down; popping the top on the can. He took another long drink.
“No, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just wanted to scare you.”
“Why did you do it?” She asked. Sky kept her voice soft not wanting to piss him off.
“I was pissed. You chose Luka.”
“I didn’t choose anyone, Tag. We aren’t dating.”
His head shot up. “Look me in the eyes and tell me that you don’t love him still Skylar. I can see it. If you tell me that you are lying to me and yourself,” he declared.
She was focused on him when he said that to her so she turned her head away. She couldn’t tell him that she didn’t love Luka because she did. Did she want to? Sometimes. Sometimes not. She was still afraid of being hurt. “Is this about your pride?” Skylar asked Tag.
He slammed his palm down on the table. “No goddammit. It’s about never being good enough. I kept trying Sky. Daddy was always on the sidelines. Run faster. Reach farther. Lift more weights. Build your strength. Always on my back.”
“I remember,” she replied.
“I didn’t get into the Division I school he wanted me to. My academics were great. My football skills were not. He wanted to watch me play college football like he did at The Ohio State University.” She never realized how bitter he was.
“You went to Ohio State.” She knew that he did so Skylar was confused.
“I did,” Tag responded swallowing the beer faster and faster.
“You didn’t play football,” she guessed.
“I did not. I was great for the small town of Haley Cove. Skylar, I still hold most of the records I set my senior year but I wasn’t Ohio State Football material not like he was. I didn’t really care. He never got over it.”
“Man, our town has some fucked up parents,” she said.
He chuckled. “Yeah, the Bradfords weren’t exactly cream of the crop either. Were they?”
“No, Tag. They weren’t.” He finished off the second beer.
“Neither was Jacob Shaw,” Skylar suggested.
Tag laughed. Then he leaned forward on his knees. “I know. I remember as kids Luka coming to school with bruises.”
That was something that she didn’t remember because she was three years younger. “Brett too,” she told him.
He nodded. “He was a mean SOB,” Tag agreed.
“He was but he was great with my sisters and me.”
He laughed again. “Shame, he didn’t have all girls.”
“Tag, did your father treat you that way?” she asked.
His eyes traveled up to her face. “No, my father was more of a verbal abuse kind of guy. His words cut deeper than any belt could.”
She smiled at him. “So now what Tag?”
“Can we just keep talking?” He asked.
She couldn’t believe how she had missed the hurt that was buried beneath the bravado of the man that she had dated for thirteen months. The man she should have known since she had gone to school with him but hadn’t really known him at all. Skylar wondered if anyone did.
They talked until midnight about their childhoods. The pain that their parents caused them. How her parents’ death had affected her and her sisters something she had never thought about before today. Each of them had their own hang-ups curtesy of Nancy and John Bradford.
Their death had made each of them stronger though. “How so?” He asked. Tag had kept drinking throughout the night. She was getting hungry. She knew that everyone at home had to be worried. Skylar wanted to reassure them she was all right.
“We had no one else but each other so we became dependent on each other but independent of relying on anyone else for anything. We learned to fix things at the ranch. The Shaw boys were good at helping us learn what we needed to run the ranch. Brett taught me how to fix fences. I worked side by side with him.”
“Will Chloe and Roxy stay away from Haley Cove?” Tag asked.
“There’s nothing there for them,” Sky told him. “Roxy is doing well where she is and she’s working on her master’s in Psychology. Chloe is loving her school. Why come back to a town that holds nothing for you.”
“It has you and Ramona. Ava,” he added as an afterthought.
She nodded. “We are there for them. They need to visit us more often,” she agreed. “Could I fix us something to eat?” She asked.
“Sure, I’m getting hungry.” She noticed his words were slurred. He had drunk a lot.
Skylar went to the kitchen and surveyed their supplies. The cabinets were stocked as was the fridge. It appeared that he had plans to keep her here for a very long time. She felt her eyes well with tears. She took out some things and began to throw them into a pot. She was going to make a quick stir fry with beef and vegetables. The smells started to waft through the air. She glanced over her shoulder and found Tag watching her.
“What?”
“I didn’t even know that you could cook,” he told her.
“Why didn’t you take the time to find out?” She asked him.
“I was too busy being the Mayor of Haley Cove,” he replied. “I was too important. I made the excuse that you were too busy running the ranch and taking care of Ava and that someday we could make more time for each other but right now what we had worked for us both.” Skylar went back to stirring the food in the big pan on the burner. “I was fooling myself,” he admitted.
She still didn’t respond. He took another beer out and left her in the kitchen alone. Tag didn’t go far. He was just sitting at the table a few feet away from her. Sky thought about stopping him from drinking so much but honestly she hoped that he would drink until he passed out then she would either call home or leave him in the cabin and try to find her way back to civilization.
When the stir fry was done she scooped some onto two plates. She removed the pan from the burner and turned it off. Then she carried their plates to the table where Tag was spinning his phone in circles. His eyes were glued to the table when Skylar sat the plate in front of him.
“Thanks,” he replied but he didn’t remove his focus from the spot on the table.
Skylar sat next to him. She ate a few bites and realized that he wasn’t eating. “Don’t you like it?” She asked.
“I’m sure it’s good,” he replied.
Skylar continued to eat while Tag watched his phone that every so often vibrated. When she was done eating she started to rise, he stopped her. He shoved the phone across the table and told her to call his mother.
“What do you want me to say?” Sky asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
She pressed send on his phone from one of the many missed calls on his list.
“Put her on speaker so I can hear her.”
She put the call on speaker. “Howard Richardson, where the hell are you?” His mother’s shrill voice filled the air. Skylar looked at Tag and mouthed the name Howard?
My father’s name. He mouthed back to her. Tag is a nickname.
“Howard are you there?”
“Mrs. Richardson, he’s here. This is Skylar Bradford.”
“What are you doing with my son’s phone?”
She just loved the haughty tone to her voice after her son had kidnap
ped her from her home. His look was apologetic. His apology didn’t really matter to Skylar. “He asked me to call you,” she explained.
“Why? Is he hurt?” The suspicion was obvious in her tone. “Did you hurt him?”
Skylar glanced at Tag and almost laughed. “Mrs. Richardson, you do realize your son is almost a foot taller than me. Are you really worried about me hurting him?”
Tag chuckled at that statement. “I guess not. Are you hurt?” She finally asked.
“No, I’m fine.”
“Good. Tag, bring the girl home. We’ll work this out.”
“She listens to me,” he said. Even Skylar was surprised by that statement. All he wanted was somebody to listen to him?
“I listen to you constantly Tag,” his mother complained.
“No, you really don’t. If you did you would have gotten Howard off my back at the age of ten when he was on my ass in pee wee. You would have stopped him before he completely drove me into the ground.”
“We aren’t starting that again. Are we?” His mother sounded bored and disgusted.
“Mrs. Richardson, I think I speak from experience being the daughter of Nancy Bradford, that never feeling like he was good enough in Mr. Richardson’s eyes has taken a toll on Tag,” Skylar was surprised by her outburst. Tag was even more surprised.
“Nancy was my friend. She and John provided you with every opportunity and you repaid her by giving birth to Jacob Shaw’s son’s bastard child.” Skylar gasped. She knew where that came from.
“And Luka is worth about fifty million Mother. Did you know that. His assets far exceed ours.”
“You can’t buy class Tag.”
“No you can’t but his child or children won’t be in prison for kidnapping either.” Skylar covered his hand with her own.
“We’ll find a way to get you out of this Tag. I promise,” his mother told him.
He scoffed. “Don’t you see that is the problem. Howard was always beating me down and you were always getting me out of trouble. Neither was a good thing.”
“I don’t know what you want from me Tag.” She sighed.
“Obviously. I just wanted to let you know that I was all right so you would stop calling. Call Luna Shaw and let her know that Skylar is all right too.”
Skylar tilted her head to the side. She was actually proud of Tag. She wanted him to go to prison but she was proud of him taking responsibility for his actions and thinking of someone besides himself.
“I’ll let the police know. They can call her.”
He gritted his teeth. “Mother,” he said through his clenched teeth. “She is very kind woman who cares a great deal about Skylar. Would you do me this one favor and call Luna yourself. Skylar will give you her phone number.”
Chapter 19
His mother was screaming. Luka started running up the stairs and met her at the top of the stairs. “What the hell Mom? You scared the shit out of me.”
Everyone, including Ava came out of their bedrooms. “Shawna Richardson just called me. Tag had Skylar call her to let her know she was all right.”
He turned and dropped on the steps. Luka dropped his head into his hands and cried. No one could remember the last time that they had seen Luka cry. They were all shocked. Tears over finding out about Ava had been different than these tears. He was practically sobbing into his hands.
His daughter went down the few steps to her father and wrapped her arms around his big shoulders. “It’s okay Daddy. Momma will be home soon I bet.”
He held her in his arms and cried on her shoulder for a change. Luka had never felt so helpless. This was worse than when he had walked away from her because then he had the situation controlled. What he was doing then was for the best for both of them. Now, he was just lost.
**
Later, he went to the kitchen and fixed a big pot of coffee. He didn’t know what else to do. Ramona joined him in the kitchen. He glanced over his shoulder at her when he heard her footsteps behind him.
“Still mad at me for telling Brett about the baby?” He asked.
“No, one of us needed to and I couldn’t seem to find the words.” She filled a cup with water and put it in the microwave.
“No coffee for you?” He asked her. “I seem to remember you living on caffeine.”
She patted her belly. “Too much for the baby.”
“So how is he taking it?” Luka asked.
“He is amazingly excited about this child.”
Ramona was searching through tea bags for a particular flavor. Skylar always had different flavors to choose from. “Ah, blackberry-ginger. Just what I need.” The timer dinged signaling the water was hot. She took the bag and her cup to the table and began dipping her tea bag it the water.
Luka took his coffee to the table too. He didn’t want to talk but he thought he would explode if he didn’t. He ran his fingers through his hair. “Do you think she will ever let me back in her life?”
Ramona laughed. “I think she already has Luka. You are living in her house. You go to Ava’s soccer practice together. I see you touching her intimately. A hand to the lower back. She doesn’t pull away.” Luka gazed at Ramona who raised her eyebrow at him.
“She sent you on errands for Chloe’s birthday party tonight. I heard her talking to you on the phone when you called. Just like a husband and wife. The only difference is no sex.”
He looked down at his mug.
“Ah, you’re even having sex.”
“Just once plus a couple of close calls.”
Ramona reached across the table and touched Luka’s arm. “She loves you Luka. She never stopped but you hurt her. You have to give her time to be sure that she can trust you again.”
“I don’t have a lot of patience Ramona. Do you remember that about me?” Luka’s brow furrowed as he stared down at the cup of black coffee.
“I do but you don’t really have a choice in the matter Luka. You kind of made your bed big guy when you chose to leave her. Now you have to deal with the fall out until Sky comes around and I’m pretty sure that she will.”
He rubbed his hand across his face. “He won’t hurt her will he?”
“You know that Tag is many things but I don’t think he will hurt her. Murderer just doesn’t seem to fit him.”
**
Skylar was asleep on the sofa in the tiny cabin. After the phone call she had cleaned up the kitchen and laid down, falling asleep rather easily considering Tag had kidnapped her and she wasn’t sure what he was going to do with her. He was drinking a lot slower than before dinner.
Through the large picture window, she could see the sunlight on her face waking her. There was no mistaking her feelings of regret this morning for stringing Tag along even though she had been clear to him that what they had was nothing more than casual. She had never wanted to hurt anyone.
Rising from the sofa, she glanced around. She was alone. She explored the cabin and didn’t find Tag. She flung open the door and discovered that the truck was gone.
That son of a bitch had left her in this remote hideaway and she didn’t know where she was. Skylar closed the door. She wasn’t sure what to do. She looked around for something. Anything. In the kitchen looking for bottled water she found a note tacked to the refrigerator door.
Skylar, thank you for helping me last night. The walk isn’t as far as you think. Head down the trail, go left about two miles you’ll find a town called Principal. Ironic isn’t it? Not the right spelling but the meaning is what I’m referring to. I can’t do prison Skylar. Sorry for leaving you in the lurch.
Tag.
She was barefoot. He hadn’t thought of that. Stupid, jackass. Eventually they would catch up with him.
Skylar headed out the cabin door. She shut it behind her not bothering to lock it. What was the use? If anyone found it, they were welcome to the supplies that she assumed Tag had paid for. There were twigs and hard stones all along the path that were a bitch to walk on with bare feet. She was cursi
ng the day Howard Richardson, better known as Tag to her was born by the time she got to the main street.
The asphalt wasn’t much better. The sun had warmed it but her only other option was the berm of the road which was covered in the same tiny pebbles as the driveway she had just endured. She might as well have been walking on cut glass. She stuck to the hot asphalt.
After walking she thought at least a mile, a police cruiser pulled over in front of her. Skylar covered her eyes as the officer got out of his vehicle.
“Ma’am you all right?” He was tall, his hat pulled low she couldn’t see his eyes. Nice lips though. His voice soft and reassuring.
She was already crying by the time he reached her. She couldn’t speak. She just shook her head no. He guided her to his vehicle and put her in the back. Another new experience being in the back of a police car. More leg room than most criminals would have since she was so small. A cage blocked her from him. “I picked up an unidentified female, about five feet tall, one hundred pounds.”
Skylar started laughing and he glanced over his shoulder.
“Are you all right ma’am?”
She nodded. He didn’t look convinced.
She wiped her eyes. “I’m a little taller than that. I haven’t weighed one hundred pounds since high school but thank you. My name is Skylar Bradford.” She sniffed back her tears. “I was taken from my home yesterday in Haley Cove by an ex-boyfriend…”
She watched the surprise cross his features as she continued her story. Three hours later, Skylar had told the same story to so many people she was numb. She still didn’t know where Principal, Ohio was. The police had found the cabin. The note that Tag had left her. She had given them a description of his truck. An APB was issued for it and Tag. They had contacted her family who was on their way to Principal to collect her and Skylar couldn’t wait to see them.
Sky didn’t know who was coming but she hoped it was at least two people in particular. She was looking forward to seeing Luka and Ava.
Staring out a window, wearing someone’s jacket because the precinct was freezing cold and she was only wearing a tank top; she thought about what had happened in the last twenty-four hours. She was tired. Tired of fighting what she was feeling. They were never going to not be together and Skylar knew that now.
