He chucked his mom beneath her chin. “I’m sure. Go on.” He waited until the door closed, then he pointed a finger at Angel.
“You! You have a lot to explain.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Angel wanted to be anywhere but in a room filled with too much testosterone, especially the Whitfield type. Everyone stared as if they waited for her to hiss and bare fangs. Seeing herself reflected in a picture frame, she smirked. Maybe they had a reason to feel that way.
“Well, Sally?” Jake pressed.
“Angel,” she said between gritted teeth. Why was it so hard for him to remember? He probably did it to irritate. “Big Judd should’ve already told you. That’s why my brother and I can’t believe you didn’t already know. He’s our lawyer, too.”
A wash of relief lifted the pressure from her shoulders when Jake’s cold stare turned toward the big man.
Judd lifted his hands, palms out. “Client-attorney confidentiality. No matter what you think of me, I know when to keep my mouth shut.” He shifted his eyes from Angel to Jake and back. “Unless you want me to―” When she glared at him, he snapped his jaw shut.
“Yes. Might as well now. He should’ve been there when Mac’s will was read,” she said.
From the dark expression on Jake’s face, he didn’t care for the accusatory tone.
And it really wasn’t Big Judd’s fault. But then again, she was tired of being surrounded by men who let their gonads think for them instead of using common sense.
“Of course.” Big Judd lifted his briefcase and pulled out a sheet of paper. “You will find the details here, but the overall gist of Mr. Tally’s will is that Angel must marry you if she wants to maintain control over her brother’s estate. Her brother inherits everything of Mac’s. She has a small trust set aside that will help her pay some bills, she won’t go hungry, but nothing else unless she marries you.”
When Big Judd stopped, Angel motioned for him to continue. “That’s not all. Tell him the last bit.”
“About Buddy?”
She glanced over to Jake. So far he’d been quiet though his piercing blue eyes cut into her. No way could she look at the other two men in the room. The brothers were as scary as their older brother. “He’s talking about Damien. Like me, he prefers to go by his middle name.” Returning her attention to Big Judd, she nodded. “Tell him about Damien.”
“Yeah. That. I was getting to it. Per Mac’s Last Will and Testament, you’ve been named Damien’s guardian.”
“And why in hell didn’t someone come and get me, so I could attend the reading?” Jake leaned over the desk, hands flat on top.
“We did. But we were told you were too busy to be bothered. You were celebrating your good fortune.” She spit out the last word. The day after his dad died, he and his brothers had gotten drunk at another establishment owned by the Whitfields. Mary’s Place was more of a neighborhood bar than anything fancy. She really didn’t have a word to describe how she felt about their behavior. To think of it, disgust worked perfectly.
He turned his head. Hatred caused his eyes to nearly glow. Were they only going to replay what had been going on for the last three generations in Sand County?
Mutual hatred was common between the Tallys and Whitfields. Her granddaddy had never gone into the details of how the feud started but she’d heard the rumors. Dick Whitfield had loved her grandmama even after she tied the knot with Mac. They said it was why Dick never married any of the women he impregnated. Everyone had thought the feud would end when Mary Tally died from cancer at the age of forty-nine. When the grudge continued, they’d hoped it would end a couple years later with the birth of Jake, followed shortly by Sen’s and Ethan’s arrivals. But instead, Dick opened a new bar and called it Mary’s Place and then declared the crossroads where the bar was built as Marystown. Mac wasn’t amused to see his dead wife’s name everywhere by another man’s decree, and being a stubborn man, he refused to move.
But things changed after the incident at school. She couldn’t say her granddaddy’s hatred of the Whitfields had waned, but the last few years, the two old men acted as if they had repented of their past and wanted to bring the feud to an end, but weren’t sure how. That was what she thought until the will had been read. Obviously, they thought they had the ideal solution. A peace offering of a sort. Only, she was their sacrificial lamb.
She refused to be anyone’s sheep.
“Someone told you a lie.” His square jaw shifted.
Her focus returned to the present. “Why would Tick lie?” That got his attention.
He narrowed his eyes and looked over to the big man behind the desk.
“Don’t look at me. Tick probably misunderstood some order you gave.” Big Judd held his hands up and took a step back. Though he likely outweighed Jake by fifty pounds, he would never win a fight against the Whitfield brother. Jake wasn’t known for fighting fair.
“Then tell me about this guardianship. What do I get out of it besides watching after a snot-nose know-it-all teenager who hates my guts? And what happens if I refuse to marry her?”
She just raised her eyebrows when he shot a look her way. Did he think she intended to protest the truth?
“In Mac’s will, you’ve been given a large stipend to see to his needs along with a controlling interest in the Tally businesses while you’re his guardian.” After another swipe of his handkerchief across his forehead, Big Judd added, “And Angel cannot get within twenty feet of the boy or place a foot on any Tally or Whitfield property unless she marries you.”
Her heart tightened. She was homeless as of that moment. Well, if Jake didn’t marry her. The guardianship was a separate entity. He could still be Damien’s guardian and control businesses that were Tallys before. How would her people react to the change? They probably all would be murdered in their beds before it was over.
“Sounds like I come out on top if I marry her or not.”
Judd shuffled and cleared his throat. “That was Mac’s will. In Dick’s, all of the Whitfield assets will be sold off and funds placed into a trust for her and her brother. She can’t touch the trust until she’s forty and Damien at twenty-five.”
“How is any of this legal?” Ethan spoke up.
“It isn’t, but considering how much trouble it will be to go to court and have the wills thrown out, do you really want to go through that at this juncture? Not counting how it would bring to light some less than savory businesses all of you own. Let’s say Teddy and Rat Boy wouldn’t be happy with their measly thirty-thousand dollars by the time it was settled.” Big Judd was a plain spoken man.
Of the four men staring at her, Jake’s distrustful stare bothered her the most. Old crush or not, she knew better than to think they’d have anything but business between them. That was okay with her. She didn’t need a man’s attention to feel good about herself.
But it would be nice to feel like a person, instead of a weapon to be used like Mac had treated her. Yeah, it would be wonderful to be desired and wanted as a woman. Ha! Who wanted a freak like her?
They continued to stare her way. She shook her head and caved in. “What?”
“Don’t you have anything to say about this?” Jake crossed his arms.
She had to hand it to him, he surprised her by asking. After dealing with Mac on a daily basis for over ten years―he believed kids, even grown up ones, should do what they were told without any lip―and living with a self-absorbed teenager, she found it refreshing to be asked her opinion. That same teenager was the only immediate family she had left and no way would she allow someone to teach him how to be a criminal. She wanted him to graduate high school and go to college. Become a better man than their dad and granddaddy and certainly better than the Whitfields. For that matter, better than her.
Of course, she hadn’t explained what she’d been doing in the van. It was her fault that Damien also believed she’d fired on the asshole staring darts at her. How was it her fault that Jake and his brothers angered th
e wrong person? A person who wanted them dead at their father’s funeral.
Pure stubbornness had stopped her from telling the truth before. Maybe her granddaddy had rubbed off on her more than she thought. Thank goodness, she managed to keep Damien away from the old grouch’s machinations.
She should set a good example and tell the truth, but after protecting her brother all his life from the lower elements in Marystown and Sand County, she’d come to the conclusion there wasn’t hope for her. The choices she made had been tough, and she regretted a few. Yet she’d make them again if it meant Damien became a good, honest man, and lived a normal life. Similar to those people living in the beautifully landscaped neighborhoods she occasionally drove by in Birmingham.
“That’s what I like, a woman who knows how to keep her mouth shut.” Jake turned to face his brothers. They busted out laughing. The condescending assholes.
How dare he turn his back on her as if she didn’t mean anything. He meant something to her. A new life. A life taking care of her brother like she should.
Fed up with everything that happened that day, she pulled a knife from her coat sleeve.
“Jake! Look out!” Sen kicked out just as her fingers released the knife. His foot hit her in the sternum, sending her body flying through the air and landing backwards into the chairs.
The knife zipped by Jake’s ear and crashed through a glass pane behind the desk. Her toss had been faster than Sen. His interference hadn’t directed the knife into Jake’s back, pitching him face first across the desk. She wasn’t stupid. She’d purposely missed. Just a warning. Anything different, and knowing what she heard of the Whitfields, she would have been dead seconds after.
“What the fucking hell?” Jake went to the window and looked at it in disbelief. Before she shoved a chair away and regained her feet, he marched across the room and pulled her up by the coat’s lapels. Her nose almost touched his, toe tips brushing the floor. “In my house? You attack me here?”
“As if where really matters,” she scoffed. Her temper and mouth ran away from her.
Swallowing deeply, she forced her lips to sneer. He thought because he was a Whitfield, people should be afraid of him. True, the fury shining from his eyes did cause her insides to quake and not in a good way, but she was determined to show how he couldn’t push her around.
She lifted her chin. “Maybe killing you would solve all of my problems. Then I wouldn’t have to marry your ass.”
Big Judd cleared his throat. “Angel, you misunderstood, and I take partial ownership of that error. When I said Jake was the guardian, it was because the will indicates the eldest of Dick Whitfield’s living sons. Should anyone”—he looked over his glasses at her—“kill or interfere with his ability to perform the requirement of the wills and his marital duties, the next oldest son becomes the guardian and receives the inheritance.”
Jake still had hold of her coat so her movement was limited, but her gaze cut over to Sen. Though exotic and sinfully good-looking, the salacious grin he gave sent chills down her spine. She’d heard of how dangerous he could be with or without a weapon. There was good reason Dick Whitfield used him as the family’s collector. Few people dared to be late with payments or cheat the different Whitfield businesses when they knew he’d visit. Despite the skills she’d honed over the years, when it came to hand-to-hand combat, he was a hundred times deadlier.
She looked at Jake and kicked. For such a tall, solid man, he moved fast. He held her away from his body as he turned to the side, her foot missing his knee. His other hand clutched the front of her corset. His fingertips scraped the skin between her breasts.
“Dammit!” He shook her until her stomach roiled. “You’re lucky that I refuse to hit a woman.”
“If you don’t quit, I’ll throw up on you.” She gagged, and he tossed her to his feet.
Palms down, she stopped herself from landing face first on the rug. She was tired of them shoving her to the floor. In a well-practiced move she pushed off, twisting in mid-jump to a ready stance, hands out, and holding another knife, blade slicing up. Though she’d done it as a threat, the long cut across his ribcage had gone a little deeper than planned. She normally had better self-control, but she kept letting him stoke her temper. He needed to quit treating her like a bag of trash. He thrust her away, and she landed on her butt once more. Bastard.
Her elbow, knee, and rear end hurt from the mistreatment. Fury heated her face as she gritted her teeth. She slammed a fist to the floor. Damn, he made her so mad.
He pressed an arm over the bleeding wound. “That does it. I’ve put up with your brother shooting―”
“You chauvinistic asshole! It was me shooting, not my brother! And if I had wanted to hit you, you’d be dead.”
Before she added that she’d been aiming at a sniper, she caught his brothers’ expressions. She knew they didn’t believe a word she said, and they intended not to listen to any more explanations. They stepped forward with murder in their eyes. Big Judd mumbled something about needing to make a call outside and left.
“Sen. Ethan. Guard the door and make sure I’m not interrupted. I believe Angel and I need to settle a few things.” Jake glued his gaze to hers.
Now he got her name right.
“You don’t need to—” Ethan stopped when Jake lifted a hand. Sen stood next to his younger brother, his hands in a tight clench.
“I’m fine. Go,” Jake ordered. They glared at her and then turned away.
Jake waited until the door closed before he stalked toward her. She eased to her feet.
Wary of his intentions, she stepped back. A wildness flushed his face, stretching lips tight as his eyes narrowed. He wore a blood-soaked shirt and looked ready to hunt down his prey. Surely a scratch wouldn’t bleed that much.
“You have to understand.” Unable to stop, she backed up another step. “I’m desperate to keep my brother away from Whitfields...uh...that is, I want him to grow up to be a good...you keep jumping to conclusions. Quit looking at me like that!”
Her face turned ice cold. All her life, she’d fought for respect from those who should willingly protect her. So why should she expect the man in front of her to care? She’d learned quickly, she could only depend on herself.
She raised the knife.
Jake stopped only a foot away from her, ignoring the steel point aimed at his chest. He grabbed her wrist and leaned down until they were almost nose-to-nose. “You and I are going to come to an understanding right here, right now. We’re not going to leave this room until we do. I can’t worry that you’re going to maim or kill me in my sleep or while I’m walking down the hall to the kitchen for a snack. I prefer feeling safe in my home, and it appears that you’ll be living here for the next few months. At the least, until we can get this fucked up predicament straightened out. How you come to terms with whatever my crazy-as-a-bat old man dreamed up with your screw-loose grandfather is up to you. But you better do it quick.”
The knife’s tip surely dug into his flesh through his shirt even as she tried to pull away from his hold.
He glanced down at the knife. She released it. It tumbled until the blade stuck point-first into the wood flooring between his shoes. That was close. Her temper quickly cooled.
“I don’t have time to fight you, the will, and whoever is killing our people. With the death of my dad and your grandfather, we have to be vigilant. Other organizations will want to take over. They’ll think we’re weak and disorganized. We can’t have it. Too much internal fighting will make us an easy target. Make us appear weak. You and I are going to settle our situation now.”
She looked up into his mesmerizing eyes. The sexual intensity in the room ratcheted up a hundred degrees. Intensity radiated from his body in waves, and when he clasped her shoulders, tingles of excitement raced down hers. Only once before had she felt so alive, so turned on. Only one other time had he focused his attention on her to the nth degree. That was years ago when she’d stolen his wallet in
high school. His reaction had been electrifying, and she’d used those short moments to fuel many a lonely heated night.
Her chest rose and fell with each breath. She felt her heart pounding, wanting out.
Obviously, he felt the intensity, too, as his gaze heated and then dropped to her breasts and traveled up to her lips.
She’d never been a tease, but she unconsciously licked her bottom lip, showing a little tongue. A new glimmer flared in his eyes. His broad hand eased its way to her neck as his thumb traced the edge of her jaw. His head dipped to hers.
“Or what?” Her voice cracked. Frustrated with how nervous he made her, she needed Jake to back off. No matter how he tempted her, he represented a means to an end and nothing more.
He stopped to stare into her eyes. The sigh he released feathered across her lips and warned that her words had brought finality to his indecisiveness. She knew it wasn’t in the way she intended as he pulled her body closer.
“I believe you’re due for another spanking,” he whispered in her ear.
Warmth flowed over her face and other parts of her body. The feeling excited her to the point she wished she could experience it again and again. But why did her skin burn in the same spot where he’d touched her on that fateful day?
The quietness in the room closed in on her. She needed to regain control of herself.
She roughly shrugged her shoulders, knocking his hands off, and stepped away, keeping her arms loose at her sides. Self-control remained the key to surviving the travesty being played with her and Damien’s lives, and so far, she hadn’t shown a whole lot of it.
“You have a sick fascination with what happened years ago.” Good, she sounded firm and unaffected by his threat, not counting his nearness. Her self-defense lessons with her grandfather, Mac, had taught her not to show any emotion if at all possible. Just as a dog would attack a person when sensing their fear, a man’s need to dominate intensified around a weak woman. They respected strength. “I already know you’re bigger and stronger. I thought you said you don’t hit women.”
Jake: A Southern Crime Family Novel Page 4
