“I also know how Abbott’s little farm stays afloat even though ain’t nobody around here buying livestock from him.”
Dowd nervously cleared his throat. “Look, Earl …” Rubbing his no doubt sweaty palms over his pants, he stuttered out his next words. “I-I been trying to be r-real nice to y-you. Offering to marry Thea once the cancer takes you so she ain’t left here alone. But with all these accusations—”
Earl lifted his frail shoulders in a light shrug. “What accusations? I haven’t told you what I know … yet.”
“And what is it you think you know, old man?” Dowd lowered his tone, his churlish attitude making an appearance. Meanwhile, Thea grew hot under the collar. Did this fool think that she would ever walk down an aisle with him? He’d followed her around town when she’d first gotten back home like some sick little puppy and suddenly she knew why.
“Thea, hand me the house phone.”
Without question, Thea obeyed, handing Earl the phone. “Did you need me to dial, too?” His eyesight had gotten bad. Dowd watched curiously as Earl called out numbers and Thea dialed. Earl lifted the phone to his ear and waited.
“Who you callin’?” Dowd’s question went unanswered.
“Gator.” While Thea had no damned clue who this Gator fellow was, from the abject fear in Dowd’s eyes, he knew exactly who this person was and what he was capable of. Thea knelt down beside Earl and listened. “Ah, yeah. You remember you told me if I ever needed you to call? This is old Earl.” Thea heard laughter and muffled speaking on the other end of the line. “Yes, sir. Calling in a ten-year favor if you’ll let me.” There was a moment of silence and Earl smiled. His next words had her eyes flying to Dowd’s reddened face. “I need protection for my grandbaby, Thea, and her man, Lex. You know them both. You used to come ’round here with Lex back in the day.”
Dowd shot up. “What’re you doing dealing with a damned motorcycle gang you old fool?” Thrusting a finger in Earl’s face he added, “You trying to get yourself killed early?”
While Thea was ready to make her way for her shotgun, Earl smiled.
“Why, yes, one of the men they gonna need protecting from is right here.” Earl lifted the phone from his ear and thrust it in Dowd’s direction. “Here, got a friend needing to talk to you.”
Dowd reared back as if the phone could bite him. “Hell, no.”
“These ain’t the type of men you want to keep waiting.” Earl’s voice hardened. “And I am sure you know that.”
Thea’s head swam. What in the world is happening?
Thea placed a hand on Earl’s shoulder and squeezed. “Who is Gator?” she whispered.
“A friend,” were his only words as he sat back with a self-satisfying grin on his mug.
“A friend?” she repeated as she watched this friend place the fear of God in the sheriff. What kind of friends did Earl have? And what was this about a motorcycle gang, and who owed who favors? Growing up in Blackwater, Thea knew of the First Sons gang that had once rode around terrorizing the locals, but years ago something shifted. The old leader of the pack went missing and the gang changed their name, something to do with rebels or renegades or something close to that. But Thea had been too young to truly know what happened and later left town for college, so she didn’t have a clue of what’d happened. Staring into the eyes of a man on the phone who looked ready to piss his pants, Thea poked her grandpa.
“Are you sure we can trust these men because—”
“These men are gonna keep Lex out of jail for as long as you two plan on being here after I’m gone.” He placed a hand over hers on his shoulder. “You’ll need it.”
Pain filled her heart at the thought of losing both Earl and Lex. She could get along alone, had done it before in New York … well, not really, she always had her Paw Paw to call when she was feeling extra lonely. Thea cocked her head, listening for any sound of Lex in the back. She’d miss him when she headed back to New York, if she headed back. She was almost penniless and while she had a job she could go back to, it’d take months to earn enough money to find a place she’d be comfortable living in in the City. Thea closed her eyes; the enticing view of Lex’s bare chest flickered behind her eyelids.
“God dammit, Earl,” Dowd’s voice thundered throughout the room and her eyes popped open. Dowd dropped the phone on the coffee table and headed to the door. Snatching it open, he turned back, giving them both a hateful and heated glare. “I can’t believe it’s coming to this.”
In a calm voice, Earl said, “So, can I assume these bogus charges will be dropped and you’ll leave these two alone?” Dowd grumbled under his breath. “And, I assume whoever actually assaulted that young lady will be brought to justice?”
“Yeah,” Dowd threw over his shoulder as he headed out the door. Slamming it behind him, Dowd rattled the entire old house with his anger.
Thea went and sat in his empty spot. “You gonna tell me what the hell is going on here and what motorcycle gang you got yourself wound up in?”
Lex entered the house the same way he had in the early morning—through Thea’s window. Once in, he glanced up to Thea, hands firmly perched on her hips.
“Jesus, we have a front door.” Holding out a hand to him, Thea tried to help him lift up from the floor. “Where’d you go?”
Lex took her in. She was dressed in a pair of lived-in jeans, a fraying Beavis and Butthead T-shirt, and barefoot with cute little toes painted in a dusty rose, a beautiful contrast to her soft brown skin.
“What are you looking at?” Her nose crinkled like it did whenever she was confused. The skin he kissed and tasted only hours ago beckoned to him, demanding its daily due. He watched her, his mind racing with all the ways he’d make love to her and show her just how much he regretted walking away all those years ago.
Lex moved a step closer, his heart racing in his chest. “You.” Smoldering eyes took him in as recognition finally dawned on her face. Her voice lowered into that husky tone he hoped to hear for the rest of his life.
With a casual smile, she gracefully moved into his arms. “You’re the second man today to look at me like you plan to eat me.” Her warm, lush body melded smoothly into his embrace as if she hadn't just said another man was ogling her. As if her words hadn’t made him want to wring the necks of any man past, present, and future who’d even have the audacity of dreaming of her. Trying and failing to rein back the panic, his chest constricted at the fear of losing something that was never his to begin with. Because her words had felt too casual for the maelstrom of emotions racing through his treacherous heart. Did she want to be his?
Lex placed his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her backwards.
“Was it the fucking sherriff?” He tried to keep the growl from his voice, but failed, miserably. She nodded. “Fucking hate that piece of scum. He still got the hots for you?” His early lustful needs tampered a bit at the idea of some crooked cop touching his Thea. Hell, any man who placed their hands on her would pay.
Confusion sounded in her voice. “Still?” Wrapping her arms around him, Thea pulled him closer to her, her sweet scent enveloping him in a soothing grip. Fuck, he was a goner. While Thea’s touch screamed that she wanted him and had feelings for him, Lex feared her need for him was one based off a love from the past.
Burying his face in her hair, Lex inhaled the sweet, citrusy scent of her shampoo. “Hell yeah. That boy has had a crush on you since I can remember.” Her head popped up and that disbelieving honey gaze met his. “Back in the day, he used to talk about how pretty you were.” Lex lifted a hand and touched a springy curl. “How he’d never been with a black girl before and that he wanted you to be his first.” Thea’s abrupt laughter caught him off guard. He glared at her. “I’m not kidding.”
“Jeez, I guess I should feel lucky that he wanted to fuck me instead of hang me from a tree.”
“What the fuck?” Lex gawked at her. “Who threatened you with that?” Ice filled his veins at the thought of some
one hurting her based on the color of her skin. Then shame hit next. Had she been exposed to racism? While Earl, Thea’s grandpa, was white as a damned snowflake, Thea’s momma was black and her daddy white, giving her smooth brown skin and a mutiny of jet black coils atop her head. Almost every physical attribute he found insanely gorgeous about her he could attribute to her mixed-race heritage and suddenly, Lex wondered if their children would don her stunning brown skin. Growing up, Lex hadn’t noticed her race. He’d only seen her intelligence and the keen gleam in her eyes as she debated anything. If he’d ever stumped her, she would run off, study the subject, and come back ready for more. So, more than anything he loved her intellect.
Thea rolled her eyes. “Lex, you can’t be that damned daft. The sheriff is as racist as they come. I’ve heard him talking with the boys and nothing he said makes me think he’d be happy to have my half black butt in his bed at night.” A shadow cast over her eyes and Lex wondered at the shit she’d been forced to hear. This was the South, racism was more than prevalent, but he and Earl had done their best to shield her for from that shit.
“No …” She gave a light chuckle, easing the fury inside of him. “One night I heard him at the bar pissed that some local kid tore up his lawn on his motorcycle. Him and some guys in a gang, that I now know was some motorcycle gang, said they wanted to teach him a lesson—”
“By hanging him from a tree,” he finished. “Damn.” The MC gang she was talking about was the First Sons MC. Lex had made sure to stay the fuck away from the MC; his small potato crimes were nothing compared to the murders and kidnappings the members had been charged with. After being approached by one of the members for a job, Lex made fast work of getting gone and fast. Thea’s next words pulled Lex from his thoughts and into a hell that burned his damned soul.
“He asked Earl for my hand in marriage.” Her admission caused his body to go rigid and his blood to boil. While marriage wasn’t something he’d had too much time to consider in his life, it also wasn’t something he’d take completely off the table. He had just thought of children with Thea, so marriage wasn’t so farfetched.
Threading his fingers through her hair, he softly pulled until she met his gaze. “And you told that piece of shit you have a man, right? And a date with him tonight.” For Lex, there was only one right answer to this question, and Thea got it dead wrong.
Pulling away from him, Thea took a step back. “Umm … we haven’t really decided what this is.” She motioned between the two of them. He hated that she’d retreated from him, from his words and the idea of them as a couple because he couldn’t think of them in any other way. He planned to woo her, take her out on a date and spend time with her. Not just fuck her.
Lex cracked his neck, moving it side to side and releasing the growing tension. “What do you think this,” he copied her gesture and motioned between them, “is?” He hoped she didn’t think he made it a habit of running around screwing random women. That wasn’t what he wanted from her. She had to know that that wasn’t who he was … or did she? Ten years was a long time to be gone. People morphed into a myriad of different things in less time than that. Was that what she feared? Thea stuck the tip of her thumb in her mouth, and began nibbling on her nail. The foreboding silence she offered Lex freaked him the hell out. Last night, he explained his intentions and believed he’d been vocal in the fact that he cared for her. “Tell me,” he followed her to the corner of the room where she paced, “what do you think this is?”
Ignoring his question, Thea said, “Earl is involved with a motorcycle gang. Somehow, they owed him a favor and he used that to get you off the hook with Dowd.”
“Shit,” Lex muttered. “What kind of favor did they owe him?” While he wanted to finish the conversation about their relationship status, Lex understood they had bigger fish to fry and with Earl, you never knew just how big the damned fish would end up being.
Thea chomped on her thumbnail as she spoke. “He called some guy named Gator, and the name alone scared Dowd.” Thea’s pacing continued as she recounted what happened. In the end, Lex was just as baffled as she was as to what was actually going on.
He moved to her and pulled her thumb from her lips. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll handle it. Earl will tell us everything.” “Yeah, now that you’re here because he sure as heck doesn’t trust me with information.” The frustration in her voice rang loud and clear. “He said he’d explain everything just as soon as you returned. Actually, where’d you go?” she asked.
Grasping her hand, he led her to the bed. Once she was settled, Lex sat beside her. “Earl sent me to go grab my stuff from my campsite. I left it under your window.” Easily, he pulled Thea onto his lap. “Maybe I should head in there and talk to Earl about this MC gang he’s been hanging around.” He chuckled. “Can you imagine that? Earl on a bike all tatted up?”
Thea grumbled, “I’m pissed. Don’t try to make me laugh. And Earl is asleep. Told me he’d had a busy day and wanted to take a nap.”
“Just like tightlipped Earl.” The concern Lex felt dimmed as he remembered something about the dominant MC gang in Blackwater. One of the men had pushed the old leader out and had stopped the robbing and looting that’d been rampant under the first guy’s reign. They’d even changed the name from First Sons to Blackwater Renegades. “I hated leaving you here with the sheriff.” Lex felt he’d run away from enough shit in his life and it was time to stop running. Fuck, and it was time to settle old debts, like the one sitting here in his lap. Lex loved Thea, always had, and it was time for her to know it.
Thea lay her head on his chest. “Why? I’m an adult and I can handle myself.”
He huffed.
“I only let him in because Earl made me.”
The irony in her words amused him.
“I know you can, but you shouldn’t have to.” He placed a kiss atop her head and added, “You don’t have to anymore. Not if you’ll have me in your life.” He wanted to share his life with her. The good, bad, and ugly. He wanted to be there when she came home from a thirty-six-hour shift aching, tired, and stressed out. He desired more than anything to hold her tight night after night as their relationship grew into something more. Lex was tired of running from his heart, from his desires, and from her. Thea was no longer the child who jumped naked into lakes. On his lap sat an intelligent and brave woman he watched grow from afar. He wouldn’t risk losing her again because he knew damned well that if he let her go, some man would fight hell and high water to take his place. If she’d just give him a chance, he’d prove it to her.
“Lex,” the sorrow in her voice made his chest ache, “I don’t want you saying all this because you feel obligated to. I can take care of myself. I know what you and Earl have planned.” Thea scooted out of his lap and sat beside him. Irritation flared to life in her eyes. “And it is not needed. I can take care of myself when he’s gone.”
Is that what she thinks this is? A pity fuck? Me coming back to take care of a kid who would be lost on her own?
“You’re only here because Earl called you. Had he just died and not sent for you, I’d have never seen you again.”
“Shit …” She was right, but not for the reasons she thought. “He did call me here to be with you—”
“I don't need you.” The words cut Lex deep, but he understood her anger. Her whole life he and Earl had tried to protect her. Whether it be from the fool boys hanging around her coat tail, from the rumors about her mother, or from her own damned heart—they’d continuously left her out of the decision-making process her entire life. Lex didn't regret much other than not saying good-bye to Thea. But now, added to the list was the pain he saw in her eyes.
Thea retreated as he reached for her. “Don't. After last night, after everything you said to me …”
“Damn it, Thea.” How could she misunderstand him so? Hadn't his touch revealed to her just how much he truly loved her? “You know damned well I'm not just here because Earl asked me.” Well, at least
not anymore. She was right, he would have stayed out of her life, permanently, had he not known she was unhappy and unattached. When he received the note from Earl, he believed Thea was still in New York where he thought she belonged. If he had an inkling of her whereabouts when he got that damned letter, Lex would have hightailed it to her the second the paper hit his hand. But back to their lovemaking. He’d tried to convey his emotions in every kiss and caress, but seemed to have fallen short. Not only was that a slap to his male ego, but it had him wondering if he’d tried hard enough. No, scratch that thought. Even though his actions had caused more harm than good, that didn’t change the fact that Lex fell in love with Thea as he watched her grow. She said she was an adult, he knew her to be intuitive, so she had to understand where he was coming from. He just couldn’t see it any other way.
Angered by her ignorance, he gripped the sides of the bed, tempering the need to grab her and kiss some damned sense into her. Instead, like a fool, he yelled, “Shit, Thea. It’s been ten years! I know you have more sense than that.” At least he hoped she did.
Her jaw tensed. “Oh, now I’m stupid.” Bounding up from the bed, Thea kicked a pair of jeans on the floor. Whirling around to face him as he stood, she pointed a finger at his chest. “You and Earl have always treated me like some invalid fool, yet I managed to graduate early top of my class, become a successful doctor, and handle my and Earl’s finances on my own.”
“I have not—”
“The hell you haven’t!” Thea lowered her voice and mocked Lex’s tone. “‘Thea-bear, good girls don’t cuss’ or ‘What’s a corn-fed girl like you gonna do in New York City?’” She stepped closer, her plum-red nail biting into his chest. “I am not some dumb, naïve girl. I do not need you to hold my hand through life.” Tears sprang into her eyes as she continued and Lex realized that this rant was about more than a cry for independence. “Jesus, you and Earl always want to guide me this way and teach me this or that.”
Rogue In Love: Thea and Lex: Love Against the Odds Page 8
