by Lexi Blake
Screw that, too, she decided. Dakota Alvarez wasn’t ashamed. She’d done nothing wrong and she wasn’t going to let the haters win by acting like a scared mouse. Ginny Moreno could do enough of that for both of them. She was likely hiding in her house and would stay there until she had to go to the hospital to birth that brat of hers. Dakota was going to be out living her life no matter what they threw at her.
She put her shoulders back and walked through the doors. The good news was no one was pointing a gun at her telling her to leave.
The bad news? Every single person in the bar turned and looked her way. Yeah, it was easier to be brave out in the parking lot. She heard the whispers start as more heads turned. Somehow she thought they weren’t talking about how hot she looked in her outfit. Which was a shame because she did.
“Hey, Dakota.” Patrick Murphy practically leapt over the bar to get to her. “What are you doing here?”
His voice was soft, his eyes somewhat sympathetic, and Dakota realized that she hadn’t come here for some damn French fries. She’d come here for him. She’d come because Patrick was the only person in this awful town who might see things her way. She needed someone, anyone to be on her side.
Mallory had been great to her this morning, but she couldn’t face her mother right now. Her mother would sigh and say I told you so. Dakota couldn’t face that right now.
“I wanted something to eat, of course. It’s dinner time.” She’d sat in her apartment all afternoon until she couldn’t stand the silence a minute longer. Every moment that had gone by felt like an hour. She needed a distraction and someone to tell her it wasn’t the end of the damn world, because it sure felt like it was.
“All right then, why don’t you come in the back with me and I’ll see what we can rustle up.” He gestured to the little hall that led behind the bar.
“I can’t even get a table?” This was what she was afraid of. No place would be open to her. Had Payton Rush spent her whole day calling businesses and making sure they wouldn’t serve the woman who’d outed her husband?
Patrick leaned in. “The only table that’s open right now is beside your brother and Brittany Rush. Do you really want me to seat you there?”
She glanced over and sure enough there was her brother and pretty, perfect Brittany Rush. They seemed to be the only ones who hadn’t looked over and seen her standing there. They were far too wrapped up in each other to notice someone like her. The urge to run was nearly overwhelming but instead she allowed Patrick to guide her into one of the back rooms. Not before she’d glimpsed Logan Murphy manning the bar. He’d definitely seen her and it looked like he’d picked a side. Logan’s eyes were practically glacial as he watched her.
For the first time she had to really think about what she would do if she had to leave town. She doubted the Rush family could kick her out, but they could make it very difficult for her. They could ensure she had nowhere to go.
“Ah, there it is. I knew it was in there somewhere,” Patrick said, pulling a chair out for her.
“There’s what? And what is this room? I’ve never been back here before.” It was small but contained a table and chairs and a sideboard.
“Private dining room. Pops told me when he built this place he wanted it to be very similar to some of the Irish pubs he knew. They often were hundreds of years old and had private dining rooms for the gentry. Pops never rents it out. It’s used for family and staff most of the time. It’s more intimate than sitting out in the public room. And as to what I was talking about, well, it was the look on your face. I knew you had the brain to really understand how badly you screwed up.”
Tears welled. She’d hoped for some understanding from him. He seemed to like her well enough. Certainly more than his brothers. “I didn’t think I screwed up at all. I don’t understand why everyone’s so mad at me. I did nothing but tell people the truth. These people have been sending Sebastian Rush to represent them for years. Shouldn’t they know what he’s really like?”
“People don’t always appreciate the truth,” Patrick said with a sad shake of his head. “Haven’t you ever heard of shooting the messenger?”
“I’ve heard it’s something you’re not supposed to do. I’m the victim here.”
“I know that, though I don’t know I’d call you a victim per se. You’re certainly less culpable than Rush. Unless you’re going to tell me you didn’t know he was married.”
“I’m not married,” Dakota said sullenly. “I wasn’t cheating on anyone.”
The only boy she’d ever really cared about was gone now.
“I’m sure that excuse has been used to justify many an affair, but it’s wrong, Dakota. And I think deep down you know it. You knew he was married and you still said yes.” Patrick’s eyes narrowed. “Unless you didn’t. Is that what you’re telling me? Did he force you?”
Wouldn’t that be a good way to fight back? She could tell everyone that Sebastian Rush had forced her and she’d fought, but he’d been too strong for her. It would be her word against his. It would serve him right to have to face a trial and maybe even go to jail. It might be a very good way to stop the bleeding she was doing and get some people back on her side.
She shook her head. “No. He didn’t force me.” Somehow, she couldn’t even play at it when she was around Patrick. It was like he saw through her. Or maybe he was the only one who was nice enough to her that she didn’t feel like she had to be a bitch. “He manipulated me and got me a little drunk that first night, but it wasn’t rape. I was really stupid. I thought he was interested in me. I thought he saw something special in me.”
She’d been so lost that night. How could it have been mere months before? It felt like a lifetime since she’d walked into that dive and found Sebastian sitting there, willing to listen to her, willing to make her feel like she mattered.
Patrick reached over and patted her hand. “You’re not the first woman that ever happened to and you won’t be the last. You made a mistake by falling for his line of bull. There’s nothing to do but forgive yourself and move on from that. But what you did yesterday was different. You made a bad choice that hurt a lot of people and now you have to face it.”
“Why am I the only one to blame?” She simply couldn’t understand it. It didn’t make a lick of sense to her. “I know I brought it out into the open, but I’m the only one who’s paying for it. No one’s talking about what Ginny did and no one’s angry about the how the senator lied and cheated. They only seem to care about punishing me. I got fired today.”
There was a sad shake of Patrick’s head, as though he felt sorry for her but it had been inevitable. “Well, you work at a bank owned by the Rushes. You couldn’t expect for Payton to keep you on.”
Payton never walked in the bank. How on earth had that rich bitch even known she worked there? She was one of those women who had inherited the world and didn’t have to work for anything. “I outed her husband as a cheater. Why would she blame me for that? Shouldn’t she thank me? Now she can get a divorce and find a real man.”
“I don’t think it works like that when you’ve got the kind of money and power the Rushes have. All you did yesterday was create hell for her family and you destroyed her sister Celeste’s dreams.”
She didn’t like hearing it put that way. “That baby wasn’t Jacob’s.”
“It likely wasn’t Jacob’s,” Patrick corrected.
“The medical reports stated plainly that Jacob Salt couldn’t father a child.”
“And medical reports are never wrong? There have been plenty of cases of men and women thinking they were infertile and then whoops, there’s a baby. Things like that happen all the time and doctors aren’t all knowing. There’s always a percentage chance that they’re wrong. That’s not really the point of all this. Dakota, I want you to stop for a minute and really think about this. You do understand that you violated a law by stealing that medical report? You might be able to get around it because Jacob Salt is dead, but I’m
not sure. Medical records are considered private. By stealing it from a doctor’s office, you could get into legal trouble. I’m afraid that if losing your job is the only repercussion that comes out of this, then you need to consider yourself lucky.”
Lucky? Was he insane? She wasn’t lucky. She was being persecuted. “That wasn’t the only thing that happened. I got notice that I’m being evicted. I don’t think they can do that to me.”
Patrick sighed. “If the Rushes are involved, I bet they can. Do you have the eviction notice?”
She shook her head. She didn’t even understand half the stuff that document had said. It had been full of big words, but one thing had been plain. She wasn’t welcome there anymore. “I left it at home.”
“Bring it to me and I’ll have Dillon take a look at it. He can tell you if it’s legal. After all, he’ll be the one called out if you don’t comply.”
Awesome. Sheriff Dillon Murphy would likely love to haul her ass to jail and then tell her mother exactly what she’d done. “He won’t help me.”
“He helps everyone. I think sometimes you just don’t see it.”
“Why are you helping me?”
Patrick sat back. “I suppose I see a little of myself in you. I understand what it means to compete with my siblings, to always be judged by what they do. You get held up to Mallory and Marcus.”
And always found wanting by everyone except her father. Even he’d abandoned her. “My brother is out there with a woman who likely hates me. My own brother.”
“He’s not betraying you. He just fell for a girl who you happened to hurt. And siblings aren’t like parents. Parents tend to love us no matter what we do. Siblings are a little trickier. How do you treat him?”
Mostly she ignored him. “We don’t have a lot in common.”
“You have parents in common. You have a whole childhood in common. Try to see this through his eyes. Through Brittany’s eyes. I had to learn to do that. I had to learn to shove past my own issues and see what was happening with other people.”
How would she have felt? How had she felt when everyone had been talking about her father? She’d heard all the rumors. Her father abused her poor mother. Her father was a terrible person.
They weren’t true, of course. None of that nonsense was true, and she wasn’t sure what Patrick was doing besides trying to make her feel worse. She stood up and grabbed her purse. “I think I’ve lost my appetite and don’t worry about the eviction notice. That place was a dump anyway. I’ve been looking for a better place to live. Something more in line with my needs.”
She had no place to live, or at least she wouldn’t after next week. No job. No money. No friends since Patrick seemed determined to take everyone else’s side.
He was just like the rest of them.
He sat back and looked at her with nauseating sympathy. “Yeah, I recognize that, too. When you’re ready to talk, come and find me.”
“I won’t have anything to talk about.” She turned on her heels and started for the door that led out to the bar. It had been a mistake to come here. She could see that now. These people didn’t understand. They liked having their heads stuck in the sand, and obviously Payton Rush didn’t care that her geezer husband slept with every young girl in town. She just wanted his money. That had to be it.
She strode past Logan, not looking his way, and then slammed right into a body. Something wet and sticky coated her chest and she closed her eyes, brushing away the soda that had just gone everywhere.
“I’m so sorry,” a familiar voice said. “I didn’t see…you.”
Shit. Dakota opened her eyes and saw Brittany standing there, a half full glass of soda in her hand. She’d obviously been getting a refill from the bar when Dakota had run into her. This was not her lucky day. Not at all.
“Don’t worry about it.” She started to move around her. The last thing she needed was a fight. In the back, she could see her brother turning as though looking to see where his girlfriend had gone.
Brittany reached out her manicured hand, grabbing Dakota’s arm. “Hey, I want to talk to you.”
Dakota tried to pull her arm away but the bitch obviously worked out. “Let me go or I’ll call the cops.”
“You’ll call the cops? On me?” She shook her blonde hair. “You’ve got a lot of nerve, Dakota. Do you even understand how horrible that was for my family? Why would you do that to me and my mother and my brother? To my Aunt Celeste?”
She hated the way the question made her stomach turn. “I wasn’t doing anything to you. I was simply telling the truth about your scumbag father.”
“You could have written a note or come to me or my mother personally. You did not have to tell the whole town. You humiliated my mother. I don’t care about my father right now. I really don’t, but you humiliated my whole family and to do what? To make some kind of point? I don’t understand.”
“Yeah, your mother would have taken a note so seriously. I’m sure if I’d tried to make an appointment with her that would have gone so well.” These rich people were just mad because she’d shown the town how rotten their lives really were. “You wouldn’t have done anything if I’d told you privately. Your family would have swept everything under the rug. You probably knew about it the whole time.”
Brittany released her arm and shook her head. “I didn’t. I had no idea what my father was doing. I thought they were happy. Maybe not happy exactly, but content with each other.”
So she was an idiot. “Then aren’t you better off knowing?”
“How can you stand there and say that?”
Every eye in the pub was now on them, and she could see some of the men moving. Patrick had followed her out, and he immediately started to make a beeline for them while Marcus was at his girlfriend’s back.
“Hey, baby, I don’t think this is a good idea.” Marcus’s hands cupped Brittany’s shoulders. “Why don’t we go back to our table and we can talk.”
“I want to know why she really did it,” Brittany said, her eyes not leaving Dakota. “I want to know what she thought she would get out of wrecking all those lives.”
“She didn’t think at all,” Marcus said, his eyes finally meeting hers. Naturally there was a judgmental gleam in big brother’s stare. There always was. “She never does. She could wreck a hundred lives and not be able to tell you why.”
She hated this. She hated that no one in the whole damn world understood.
“That’s not good enough, Marcus,” Brittany replied, not taking her eyes off Dakota. “She did think this through. She’d been planning it. How else would she have managed to pull off what she did?”
Because she’d been smart and she didn’t let people walk all over her. Sebastian Rush knew that now. “Of course I planned it. I wanted everyone to know how awful your father is.”
“Do you have any idea what you did to us? We’ve never done anything to you and yet you ripped us all apart in front of everyone.”
“She doesn’t care,” Marcus said in Brittany’s ear, though it was loud enough for Dakota to hear. “She’s never cared what happened to anyone but herself.”
“Like you never did anything? How about looking down your nose at everyone in this town?” Dakota pointed out because she couldn’t let Marcus have the last word. “You Rushes are too good for the rest of us. I just showed the whole town that you’re not. You’re actually worse than us.”
“We’re human.” Brittany’s head couldn’t seem to stop shaking, as though no words Dakota said were making sense to her. “We all make mistakes. That doesn’t give you the right to walk in and wreck our lives.”
“Dakota, I think you should walk out of here right now,” Patrick whispered her way. “You’re only making things worse for everyone.”
She didn’t care about everyone. It seemed to Dakota the only life that had gotten wrecked was hers. Now this rich girl was trying to make her look bad when it was her family trying to drag Dakota down. All the pain of the day came cr
ashing down and found a perfect victim to vent on. Pretty, blonde, rich Brittany, who got everything she ever wanted. “I told you why I did it. Your father is a disgusting pig who preys on young girls. God, he even fucked your roommate. He probably did her in your bed.”
“That’s enough,” Patrick said.
Dakota wasn’t listening anymore. “Did you think about that? Have you thought about the fact that your bestie is having your daddy’s baby? How high class are the Rushes now?”
One minute Dakota was talking and it felt so good to let her anger flow. The next minute she was on the floor because blonde Brittany apparently took some kind of boxing class. Dakota’s eyes welled as the pain flared along her cheek and she prayed Brittany hadn’t broken anything.
“I want the cops called.” She looked up but Marcus was already holding his girlfriend back.
“I think you should just leave,” Patrick said. “You deserved that.”
She scrambled to her feet in time to see Brittany’s eyes go wide. Dakota turned in time to see Ginny Moreno standing in the doorway. She looked pale and her mouth was slightly open. So she’d heard everything. Nice.
“I think I will go. There’s nothing for me here.” Dakota turned and strode out into the night.
Maybe there was nothing at all left for her in this town. She got in her car and drove toward the only bar that might serve her. A little White Lightning. That was what she needed.
That was all she needed.
Chapter Six
Ginny slipped inside the doors to Murphy’s pub. It was a stupid move, but then she’d made a whole lot of those lately. She needed to see Logan. Even if he wouldn’t give her the time of day, she needed to see him. Being in the same room with him would give her some kind of comfort.
After the debacle at the Salt house this morning, she’d thought about staying in her room and never coming out again. Or moving. She’d thought about packing up and walking away. She could go to Dallas and find a job and no one would know her. No one would know how horrifically she’d screwed up everyone’s lives. She’d be just another single mom in the city.
