Tangled Hearts (Passion in Paradise)

by Sarah O'Rourke

  “You have a gun? You think you need a gun, Melody?” he asked, his voice rising as he pinned her with his flashing eyes. “You’d actually shoot me?”

  “Only if I had to,” Melody responded quickly, eyes narrowing. “And yes, I have a gun. I’m a woman alone now, Bradley. I have to protect myself.”

  “From me? You know me, Melody!”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Bradley. I don’t know you. You’re just somebody that I used to know. Now, you’re a stranger. One that I want off my property immediately. We’ve got nothing left to say to each other,” Melody insisted as she saw two women walking up the driveway toward them. Relieved to see one of the women was Patience McKinnon, Harmony’s sister, she relaxed slightly. At least she’d have some witnesses now.

  “Hey, girl,” Patience called as she walked toward Melody. “Harmony called me. Abel’s in a meeting, but I dropped the kids with Faith and ran by his office to get you a secret weapon. I might not be able to bring you my hubby, but I did snag his right-hand woman and trust me, Maggie Winstead, here, is twice as dangerous as Abel ever thought about being,” she added, jerking her head toward the well-dressed red-headed woman walking beside her while simultaneously nailing Bradley with an ugly look.

  Melody absently noted that Patience looked even better than she remembered. The younger blonde woman might have recently given birth to triplets and been in a horrible car accident, but she still managed to look amazing. Her clingy blue hoodie and tight, black yoga pants hugged her curvy figure and left very little to the imagination. The woman Patience had called Maggie was also gorgeous. With long red hair and a dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose, she possessed a fresh-faced, wholesome beauty. And, boy howdy, could the woman fill out a dress, Mel thought as she gazed at the obviously expensive, tasteful black sheath the auburn haired woman wore. She barely choked back a laugh as she watched Bradley openly leer at the two other women. She supposed he wasn’t going to bother hiding the fact that he was a faithless prick any longer.

  “Thanks, Patience. It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Winstead,” Melody murmured, greeting the pair. “But, I think I have things under control. Bradley was just leaving.” Watching Brad frown at the two women now staring at him, she noted his flushing cheeks. She wasn’t sure whether it was anger or embarrassment turning his face red, but Melody was sure she didn’t care. She just wanted him gone.

  “Well, we’re here anyway and I think we’ll just stay and help you see your intruder off,” Maggie returned sweetly, her twinkling green eyes dancing merrily as she winked at Melody.

  Shooting a scathing look at Maggie, Bradley sneered, “I’m not sure who exactly you are, Miss, but I am by no means an intruder!” Clearing his throat loudly, Bradley took another step toward Melody. “Mellie, I’m not going anywhere until we sort things out between us. I love you, darling. I know I might have made a few mistakes, but it’s nothing we can’t work through alone. Perhaps your….friends should come back another time. Honey, we’ve got to work through our problems and we don’t need an audience for that. Put the gun down, baby, and tell these nice ladies to go home,” he demanded, keeping his voice low, but gentle.

  “First of all, we’re not nice ladies. Not to you, that’s for sure, you cheating prick. We’re the bitches that are here to make sure you don’t do any further fucking damage to my friend. Let’s be real clear on that. And the way we heard things, those so-called problems you’re whining about belong solely to you, asshat,” Patience snarled, glaring at Bradley with a hateful gaze.

  Melody automatically smiled at Patience’s defense of her even as Bradley’s face tightened in anger. He wasn’t used to anyone going toe-to-toe with him. Usually his money and status intimidated any opponent he had into submission. Obviously, he’d never met anybody like Patience McKinnon.

  “And from what I was informed,” Maggie added, “You appear to be trespassing at the moment. That’s a criminal offense, you know,” she warned coolly. “Local law enforcement doesn’t look kindly upon intruders harassing innocent women around these parts.”

  “I’m not trespassing! This is my fiancée’s home,” Bradley snapped harshly, his tall, lean body nearly vibrating with anger. “If anyone should go, it’s the two of you!”

  “No, it isn’t,” Melody denied sharply. “You are the uninvited party, Brad. I do not want to talk to you. Now or ever again. We’re over. There is nothing you can say that will change that. E-ver,” she explained tightly for what felt like the thousandth time.

  “Melody, just hear me out,” she heard Bradley began to whine, shoving a hand through his thick black hair. Once she thought that move of his sexy, the mussed strands of his dark hair sexy when he ruffled it. Now, she just felt slightly nauseated as her temper began to spark dangerously.

  “You cheated, Bradley! You shoved your dick into another woman while you were engaged to me,” she yelled, her voice a touch shrill as her bad mood amped to epic proportions. “No! Strike that shit. You stuck your penis into multiple women – women that – a-freaking-gain - were not me. Me! You know me, right, Brad? I’m that woman you were supposed to be in love with. You know, the one that you couldn’t be bothered to fuck. You ignored her. Well, that’s not completely true. You ignored me unless you had to take me off the shelf and trot me around like a good show pony at whatever function your parents made you attend. I was such an idiot. I actually thought you were just overworked… putting long hours in at the office because your demanding father was making you prove yourself. That wasn’t it, though. You were just putting long hours in between the thighs of whatever woman would spread them for you! That’s why you never had the energy or desire to screw your fiancé, isn’t it?”

  Bradley blanched as his dirty laundry was aired for the neighborhood to hear. “Melody, that is enough,” he hissed, his angular jaw clenched. “I admit, I’ve made some inappropriate choices, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am still very much in love with you. It’s always going to be you for me and me for you, darling.”

  “Do you smell that?” Patience snorted, offering Melody a sidelong glance as she clenched her fists at her side.

  “Smell what?” Melody asked tiredly, looking at her old friend with unhappy eyes as she fought the urge to howl at the unfairness of it all. Really, just when she was moving on with her life, Brad the Cad had to waltz back into her life and mess everything up for her.

  “The tsunami of horseshit this asshole is blowing all over you. I say you go ahead and shoot the mother ducker,” she announced with a decisive nod at the gun in Melody’s hand. “I can almost guarantee you that Abel will find a way to get you off.”

  “Yeah,” a deep voice grumbled from behind the women, “But it’ll create a mountain of paperwork for me, Patience. I thought you liked me better than that.”

  Turning, Melody’s eyes widened on the newcomer. Dressed in a pair of well worn jeans and a dark blue dress shirt, the tall, good-looking man had a telltale gold star clipped to his belt. “The sheriff?” she asked in a whisper to each of the women standing on either side of her.

  “The Sheriff,” Maggie confirmed with a grim nod. “Hello, Zeke. Fancy seeing you here.”

  “Maggie.” He nodded to the redheaded woman. “Troublemaker,” he greeted Patience with a kiss on the forehead and a gentle arm squeeze before turning and focusing his attention to Melody. “Ma’am, I’m Sheriff Ezekiel Monroe, but folks ‘round here just call me Zeke. I’m not sure we’ve had the pleasure of meeting before now,” he introduced himself, offering her one hand as he took his Stetson off his head with the other.

  Melody shook the Sheriff’s hand. “No, sir, we’ve never met, but my grandmother spoke fondly of you before she passed, though.”

  “Yes, ma’am, your granny was a force to be reckoned with,” Zeke chuckled, his keen eyes moving from the gun in Melody’s hand to the infuriated man behind her. “Got a call that there might be a spot of trouble over here in your neck of the woods. You alright?” he ask
ed steadily, keeping his intelligent gaze trained on Melody’s ex-fiancé.

  “My fiancée is quite well,” Bradley interrupted the sheriff, not bothering to even try and conceal his irritation. “If you and these ladies would please remove yourselves, I’m sure Melody and I can resolve our issues together.”

  “Damn, but you’re really frickin’ thick, aren’t you?” Patience snapped, staring angrily at Bradley. “There is no you and Melody. Haven’t you been listening to a word the woman said to you, asshole?”

  “And you are my EX-fiancé, Brad!” Melody shouted at the hard-headed moron currently ruining her afternoon. “How the hell do you expect for us resolve our issues, Brad? Can you un-screw a woman? Do you have some kind of magical powers that I’m not aware of? Can you time travel? Is that it? Can you go back in time and make a different choice?” she railed, her temper growing hotter with every word she uttered. “No! You can’t. For God’s sake, you’ve been between the legs of more women than my gynecologist has, Brad, and he’s been practicing for twenty years!” Blowing a strand of hair out of her face as she continued her tirade, Melody’s hand tightened on her gun. “This is done, Brad. D-O-N-E!!! Do you hear me now? Done!”

  “Melody, honey, you and I will never be done,” Brad contradicted her in a too-calm voice that only served to heighten Melody’s fury.

  “Now, see, that sounded like a threat to me,” Melody heard a new, but reassuringly familiar voice remark from behind her. Turning, she watched the coffee nut from this morning wading into the fray.

  “And as Melody’s new man, I gotta say…that doesn’t sit very well with me.” Gasping as the hunk from this morning draped a heavy, possessive arm around her shoulders and smiled down at her, Melody could only blink as he complained with a look toward her parked car, “Woman, I thought I told you to take care of that tire this afternoon. That spare isn’t going to get you very far for very long.”

  “I…you…” Melanie sputtered, unable to believe this was happening. Was the redneck caveman actually berating her for not getting the tire to her car – which she bought and paid for all by her lonesome – changed?

  “Her new man?” Bradley echoed on a hiss, his furious eyes darting from Melody to the huge man standing protectively at her side. “Who the fuck is this person, Melody?” he barked, taking another step toward her.

  “Callum Valentine,” Melody heard the highhanded asshole standing beside her snap back at Brad, his voice as sharp as a razor. “Cal, to my friends, but since you and I most definitely aren’t gonna be buds, you can just call me the guy that’s gonna kick your ass if you don’t step the hell back from my woman and change the tone you’re usin’ with her really fuckin’ quickly.”

  “Your woman?” Brad scoffed, his smile mocking as he eyed Cal as though he was gum on the bottom of his shoe. “I don’t think so.”

  “I’m living with her now, man, so I’m pretty confident of what my status is here. You, on the other hand, seem to have overestimated your importance to my girl,” Cal retorted, his hand tightening on Melody’s hip when she would have opened her mouth to give him hell.

  Looking from Brad to the man she now knew was called Callum or ‘Cal’ if she was to be included among his friends, Melody tried to remain calm as Cal continued to hold her against his side, playing the part of protective boyfriend to the hilt. She wasn’t sure what the hell his game was, but she couldn’t deny that his presence was coming in quite handy at the moment. As long as he wasn’t deluded enough to believe the crap he was spouting, she just might not be forced to kill him after all.

  Maiming him, however, was still on her agenda. In fact, it had leapt to the top of her priority list.

  “Damn it, Melody, say something!” she heard Brad order her loudly. Jerking her attention back to the matter at hand, she blinked, trying to clear her muddled thoughts. “What?”

  “I said, is what this hulking Neanderthal says true? Are you with him? Are you seriously sharing your breathing space with this… this… man?” Brad grilled her, his eyes almost black with rage.

  Shivering at the sheer force of his fury – a fury she’d never seen in him before – Melody moved closer to Cal. “Does it look like it’s true, Brad? He came out of my house, didn’t he?’ she asked, trying to keep her nervousness out of her voice. If Brad smelled even a split second of weakness, he wouldn’t stop until he’d tried to fully exploit it. She’d honestly never seen Brad like this. The man was usually so smooth and suave. The degree of resentment she saw reflected in his eyes made her stomach pitch.

  “Jesus, Mellie, I know I broke you, but you didn’t have to go slumming,” he returned snidely, eyeing Callum. “No matter, though. I forgive you. See… I’m big enough to look past your mistake. Now, if you’ll try to do the same with mine, we can get on with our lives together. We’ll reschedule the wedding and…”

  “No.” Melody said the word clearly, calmly, and definitively, leaning more heavily against Cal as she became aware that Patience, Maggie and Zeke all stood in silent support to the side of them.

  “Damn you, Melody!” Brad’s temper snapped and he reached his hand out to grip the wrist of the hand not holding her gun and yanking her toward him.

  Melody yelped as the punishing hold Brad had on her arm magnified, absently noting that his grip was going to leave one hell of a bruise on her fair skin. “Ow! That hurts, Brad! Let me go!” she yelled, automatically lifting the hand holding the gun toward him as Cal bellowed like an enraged bull. She gasped as she suddenly found herself airborne, falling headfirst against the Sheriff’s solid chest as Cal lunged for Brad, taking him to the ground.

  Zeke gripped Melody by the shoulders as he looked down at her, the sickening sound of fists connecting solidly with flesh echoing. “You okay?” he asked as he took the gun out of her hand and looked quickly toward the two men wrestling on the ground.

  Nodding wordlessly, she saw his slight nod before he turned to try and separate Cal from Brad. Wincing as she watched Cal’s formidable fist connect with Bradley’s jaw with a bone jarring crack, she shuddered as she watched blood erupt from her former fiancé’s nose. Releasing the breath she was holding, Melody felt Patience and Maggie move back to stand on either side of her as Zeke hauled a barely winded, but exceedingly pissed off Cal off of Brad.

  Planting one hand in Cal’s chest, Zeke stared the other man in the eye. “I get where you’re at right now, man, but it’s time to stand down. I don’t want to have to arrest you, Mr. Valentine, so please, get a leash on your temper.”

  Melody felt compelled to protect Cal. After all, he’d attacked her ex on her behalf. “If anybody goes to jail here, it should be Bradley,” she pointed out, glaring down at the prone man on the ground.

  “Mellie, he attacked me,” Bradley retorted, pressing two fingers to the bridge of his bleeding nose and squeezing. “I could have him charged with assault!”

  “You won’t,” Melody returned through gritted teeth. “Because if you do, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.” Taking a deep breath, Melody felt the warm heat of Cal’s body hit her back, strengthening her resolve. “Brad, there’s no reason this has to get any more unpleasant than it already has. We can be civilized about this,” Melody tried to reason as she watched her ex-fiancé slowly stagger back to his feet and eye Cal balefully.

  “I don’t think your savage there knows the meaning of the word ‘civilized’,” Brad bit out hatefully as he narrowed his eyes at a grinning Cal.

  “And you don’t seem to know the meaning of the word ‘leave’,” Callum volleyed with a kind of flawless agility that Melody admired, propping his hands on his hips as his eyes narrowed on Brad. “Guess that makes us even, doesn’t it?”

  “Melody is going to be my wife. I’ve got every right to be here,” Brad spat venomously. “You’re nothing but a way to get even with me for the mistakes I’ve made.”

  “Well, I guess you should know that she gets even with you at least twice a night since I came into her life, assh
ole,” Callum informed the other man with a mocking smile.

  Melody’s jaw dropped at Callum’s bald-faced lie and she felt her skin grow hot as Patience and Maggie made appreciative sounds of approval beside her.

  “Cal, that’s enough,” Melody declared with a quelling look in his direction. “There’s no need to rub Bradley’s nose in things.”

  “He put his hands on you, woman. He’s lucky he won’t be taking his meal out of a straw tonight,” Cal returned on a low growl.

  Rolling her eyes at his theatrics, she turned back to her former fiancé. “Brad,” she said softly, calling his attention back to her. “We are never going to be an ‘us’ again. You need to leave before you either end this day in the back of an ambulance or a jail cell. My advice is for you to go back to Knoxville and get on with your life.”

  Wiping at the stream of blood trickling from his nose, Brad’s heated gaze moved to Melody. “You’re making the biggest mistake of your life. Right here, in this moment, you have a chance to change things. Make the right decision,” he informed her coldly.

  “You already heard my decision,” Melody countered firmly, unwilling to even entertain the notion of forgiving him. One lesson her grandmother had drilled into her during her youth was that cheaters didn’t change. They just got better at hiding their affairs.

  “This is absurd, goddamnit!” Brad exploded. “For the love of God, Mellie, I just wanted to sample some variety before slipping the matrimonial noose around my neck!! It’s not as though I’ve killed someone! It was a few little indiscretions. It happens in our circles, but it won’t continue after we get married. In fact, it stopped the instant my dalliances became indiscreet.”