Her breath hitched in her throat, and she pushed against the table, trying to move her barstool back. Tom reached for her arm, and she jerked it out from underneath his touch.
“Don’t touch me,” she screamed, and the entire bar seemed to still. “I can’t believe —”
“Shelby, stop. Please listen to me.”
She jumped off the stool and staggered slightly as she reached in her purse. She pulled out her phone, hit a few keys, and then held it up to her ear, slamming through the doors to leave.
Tom jumped down and followed her, listening as she evidently called the same taxi company that had dropped her off. He waited until she hung up and then tried again.
“Shelby, please listen to me,” he begged. “You probably heard the story —”
She whirled on him. “Stay away from me, Tom!”
He raised his hands in surrender. “Would you just listen to me?”
She shook her head. “I’ve been in an abusive relationship for almost four years. One question! That’s all I had. One question and you failed!”
“Is everything okay, Miss?” a man asked from behind him.
Without taking his eyes off Shelby, Tom waved off the man. “Everything’s fine —”
“No, everything’s not fine!” Shelby screamed again, cutting off his words.
The man stepped in front of him. “I suggest you stay away from the lady.”
As much as Tom would love to practice his new skills, he still had to think about his career. The firm wouldn’t look too kindly on the police arresting him for assault.
He lifted his hands again. “I’m not touching the lady. So, please just stand between us while I explain this, okay?” The man narrowed his eyes as if he didn’t understand English, or maybe he wasn’t used to someone wanting to settle an issue amicably.
“Shelby, while this man is standing here, will you listen to me, please?”
She crossed her arms and threw out her bottom lip, but didn’t say no.
“As short as I can make this … okay. I was engaged to a woman who was obsessed with my best friend, only I didn’t know it. She kidnapped his pregnant wife and held her hostage.” He exhaled a breath. This was not how he wanted to tell her, but it’s clear he had to tell her everything. “She had a gun. She tried to shoot me and Cassandra, and I hit her to get the gun away, then tied her up so I could get Cassandra, who was eight months pregnant, to safety.”
Shelby’s stance loosened a bit, and he could see the recognition of the story dawn in her eyes. Anyone living in or near North Carolina would have heard.
He continued, “Next thing I knew, she was shooting through the door. I begged her not to come up the stairs. God, I begged her.” Tears welled in his eyes. “I didn’t want to shoot her. I’d known her since she was a kid, for God’s sake.”
Shelby took a step forward and Bruno the Bouncer stepped back.
She narrowed her eyes. “That was you?”
Tom inhaled a deep breath and gazed up at the night sky, an attempt not to look like a complete idiot in front of this woman he was mock proposing to only minutes earlier. He nodded his answer.
Shelby shook her head. “Oh, my God. That’s horrible. I heard about that. She lived in an old house not far from my momma’s trailer.” She took another step forward. “And you’ve never hit a woman other than her?”
A burst shot out of his throat. “Shelby, I haven’t even hit a man before. Couldn’t you tell when your brother took me down?”
She covered her mouth to keep from laughing. “Yeah, that was a pretty sad sight.” The taxicab pulled up alongside the building. “Maybe I should go home.”
“Please don’t,” Tom said. “After all … you just agreed to marry me.” He laughed again in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“He’ll be ticked,” she offered, and Tom couldn’t help the relief that washed through his body.
He approached the cab, pulling out his wallet. He selected a twenty and handed it to the driver. “Sorry, sir. We won’t need a ride.” He turned to Shelby and held his hand out to her. “Can we go inside, please?”
She accepted his hand, allowing him to escort her to their table.
The mountain of a man guarding the door and his date, seemingly satisfied, walked off. Tom guessed that in the next few minutes the entire establishment would know who he was, and would be posting to Facebook how the lawyer who’d shot his fiancée was now upsetting another woman.
But he didn’t care. Shelby was still with him.
Chapter Fifteen
“Now what?” Tom asked, taking his seat after helping Shelby onto her stool. “That threw off my entire night. One minute we were speaking of kids and marriage, the next we’re fighting.”
Her mouth twisted. “Isn’t that what most marriages do?”
Tom shook his head in disbelief. “You have had it rough, haven’t you? I need to introduce you to my friends. You would never say that if you spent an evening with them.” He inhaled deeply. “Chad and Cassandra make you believe in true love and all that happily-ever-after stuff that doesn’t seem possible. They’ve helped me through a long and trying year.”
“I’ll bet.” She reached across the table and rested her hand on his. “I’m sorry, by the way. I overreacted.”
“No, you didn’t, Shelby,” he said. “You should be careful. But I assure you … I would never hurt a woman. Heck, I can’t even fish. I can’t stand watching the fish struggle.”
She laughed again, and he was happy that the things about him that he’d always tried to hide made her happy. He’d have to think of more — A scraggly-looking woman dressed in jeans and a t-shirt made a beeline across the restaurant, cutting off his thoughts.
“Do you know —” But before he could get the words out of his mouth, the woman grabbed the back of Shelby’s head and pulled her off the barstool. Tom jumped up, but the wildcat was already on top of Shelby.
“You bitch!” the crazed woman screamed. “You killed him!”
Tom heard her fist make contact at least three times before he could get around the table. Bruno the Bouncer made it at the same time and grabbed the woman up by her shirt. The wild lady squirmed in the big man’s grip, landing at least two kicks to Shelby’s head before Tom could pull her off the floor.
Shelby was slack in his arms, but she tried to speak as she stared up at him through already swollen lids. “I’m sorry,” she gurgled out, blood dripping out of her mouth.
“Oh, my God, Shelby. I’m so sorry — I didn’t see … I need to get you to a hospital.” Tom stood there, not certain how he was going to do that.
The crazed woman continued to scream obscenities across the bar, while the bouncer and a couple other patrons held her locked down as the bartender picked up the phone, obviously calling the police.
“I saw you, Shelby! I was there. I saw you at the lake. The police didn’t believe me, but I saw you!”
Tom blanched at the woman’s words, hoping they weren’t true. They couldn’t be. He fished out his wallet, pulling out a couple of bills for the tab and threw them on the table.
“Get her out of here,” the bartender called out. “The police are on the way.”
Right, Tom thought. It wouldn’t look good for Shelby to be in a bar fight right after she’d been released from jail.
“Andy,” Shelby mumbled. “Call … Andy. No hospital.”
Tom grabbed her purse off the table, draped it over her neck, and then scooped her up, carrying her out of the bar.
When he reached his car, he touched the door handle with the back of his hand and it unlocked. He’d never seen the need for the automatic unlocking feature before tonight, but this time it came in handy not having to fish through his pockets for the remote with Shelby in his arms.
He used his fingers to pull open the door and set Shelby in the passenger seat, buckling her in. He sprinted around to the driver’s side and hopped into the car. “I’m taking you to the hospital, Shelby.”
“Please,” she mumbled again. “Andy.”
Tom dug inside Shelby’s purse for her phone. He scrolled the recent calls, assuming her brother would be one of her last calls. Andy … third one. He pushed ‘call’ as he started his car. He needed to get away from the bar.
Tom heard the ring as he held the phone on his shoulder while backing out of the parking space, and then the connection completed as someone answered his call.
“Shell … ’m sorry, Sis. I didn’t mean to be such a jerk ... ” Andy’s voice was tired and drawn out more than usual, his words slightly slurred.
“Andy, it’s Tom Turner —”
“Where’s Shelby?” he shot back loud and clear, as if he’d instantly sobered.
“Right beside me, but she’s pretty bad off.”
“What happened?”
“We were out having a few drinks together, and a woman came out of nowhere and attacked her.” Tom sighed as he looked at Shelby. She’d been so happy earlier about getting fixed up for him. Now, blood and scratches covered her face. “She wants you, Andy. What’s your address?”
Tom loaded the address into his GPS and headed toward Nantahala.
Half an hour later, Tom was reading the signs on the dimly lit street, attempting to decipher which house was Andy’s.
The GPS had directed him to the street, but the house numbers were all rural route numbers the GPS didn’t recognize.
At last, he saw the big red truck and pulled off the dirt road in front of a singlewide trailer that hailed from the seventies, he was sure. A wooden deck surrounded the front half of the mobile home, directly in front of the door. Several aluminum chairs, a PVC table, and a gas grill sat off to the right side of the area.
Andy came running out of the mobile home as soon as the BMW’s beam of light washed across the front door. He jerked open the passenger door before Tom even turned off the car. He unlatched Shelby’s seatbelt and pulled her up into his arms, walking easily toward the house. The man was strong, no doubt.
“Who did this to her?” he asked as he pushed through the front door. “Momma?” he hollered toward a room off the living area. “Get out here and help me!” he screamed again. “Shell’s hurt.”
The bedroom door opened and a tiny woman with light reddish-brown hair and golden eyes — he couldn’t tell if they were brown or hazel they were so light — stepped into the room. “What happened?” she asked, looking to Tom for an answer. “I thought that loser was dead.” Her voice was soft, but venom dripped from each word the petite woman spoke. He could see where Andy got his spunk.
Tom dropped his head and exhaled a long breath, embarrassed that he hadn’t seen the attack coming until the woman was on top of Shelby. “It was some woman … I don’t know who she was. She came out of nowhere. But she acted as though she knew Shelby.”
The room fell quiet other than Shelby’s labored breathing. He stood in the middle of the room, feeling completely helpless.
Andy shot a glance over his shoulder as he positioned Shelby on the fabric-covered sofa. “Get the first-aid kit, Momma. Tom, go into the bathroom off the hall and get some washcloths and then get a pan from under the far left kitchen cabinet and fill it up with warm water.” He motioned toward Tom’s left.
Tom walked off in the direction Andy gestured, thankful to do anything other than stand there. As he walked down the hallway, he realized Shelby hadn’t so much as let out a moan from her injuries, and yet, she had to be in pain. He found all the items Andy had requested and brought them to him.
The three of them spent the next half an hour or so cleaning up Shelby, while her mother pelted him with questions. She seemed more concerned about whom he was than what had happened to her daughter.
“Momma,” Shelby grunted out, her voice barely audible. “Leave … Tom ’lone.”
Grateful to hear her voice and that she wasn’t furious at him for not protecting her, Tom moved from the end of the sofa to her head. They were the first words she’d spoken since he’d dug her phone out of her purse.
“You okay?” he asked. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to the emergency room? I can pay if you’re worried.”
Andy shook his head. “The hospital asks too many questions.”
Tom sighed, wondering if leaving the scene had actually been a good idea.
“I need … ” Shelby struggled to speak. “Pain. My head and butt … ”
“You might have a concussion, Shelby,” Tom tried again. “I heard a crack when she pulled you off the barstool. You may have hit your head.”
“My tailbone,” she forced out. “Ugh … God, it hurts … ”
Andy stood and walked across the room to a cupboard above the fridge. He pulled out a glass bottle with white liquid and stuffed it under his arm. After grabbing four thick lead drinking glasses from another cabinet, he came back to the living room and plopped onto a tattered, overstuffed chair next to the couch.
He poured half a glass and handed it to Tom. “Here. Help her drink that.”
“I don’t think —”
“It won’t hurt her none, but she won’t feel no pain.”
Tom held the cup up for Shelby to drink. She took a sip, shook her head like a cat tasting something sour, then returned, gulping down the entire glass of liquid. She collapsed back onto the sofa, her eyes rolling back.
Andy held out a glass to him, and Tom shook his head. “No thanks. I’m not much of a vodka drinker.”
“This here’s moonshine, some of the best you’ll ever have.”
Great, Tom thought, rubbing his head. Now he was in the company of illegal substances. Maybe he did want to lose his job, as it seemed he’d been pushing the limits these last few days.
Shelby reached up, grabbed the glass, and slugged it back before either of them could argue.
“Shell, you’re gonna be drunker than a skunk. You know you can’t handle your liquor, girl.” Her brother rolled his eyes in Tom’s direction, but then sat back in his chair and took a few sips out of his own glass.
Shelby rolled her head back as though she were trying to bring her brother’s face into focus. “But it don’t hurt … any … more … now,” she pushed out. “I look … bad, huh?” she asked, returning her gaze to Tom.
He brushed her hair back off her face. The blood was gone and there were a few scratches along with a few bruises forming, but she still looked gorgeous. “You’re beautiful, Shelby,” he answered truthfully.
The siblings’ mother harrumphed behind him. “Just ’nother rich boy in love with my baby. We sure can pick them, huh, honey?”
“Momma,” Andy said, pouring more of the white liquid into a glass. “Drink and hush up. Ain’t Tom’s fault. He’s a good man.”
“Yeah, Tom’s good … ” Shelby said in a dreamy voice, as though she were half-asleep. She moved to get up, and he stopped her. “Wanna get up,” she demanded.
He removed his hands.
Shelby rolled off the couch, stood up, but then fell right onto his lap. “Ooh … right where … wanted.” Her head lolled back and she stared up at his face.
Andy sighed. “Tol’ya she couldn’t handle her liquor.”
“I wanna go outside. It’s hot … give me ’nother drink,” Shelby whined, sounding like a little girl.
She poked out her bottom lip in that sultry pout again. How did the southern girls learn how to do that? She attempted to stand again, so he helped her to her feet, letting her body fall against his side. It wasn’t the first time he’d helped a woman too drunk to stand to a waiting taxi.
That was one rule he’d never broken, though. Never take advantage of a woman who’d drunk too much. Andy handed her another drink, and she balanced it carefully as she tried to walk next to him.
Obviously, she wanted to go outside, so he half-carried, half-walked her to the front door. For the first time tonight, he could smell her perfume. A light and sweet smelling scent, not too flowery or fruity, though.
The scent reminded h
im of riding his bike down his parents’ long drive to their cabin. His mother had lined the road with Cleveland Pear trees. When a spring breeze had swept a dense blanket of the tiny white flowers across their property, he’d thought that it was snowing.
As he escorted Shelby onto the deck, he surveyed the night sky again. Only this time for its beauty, not to hide his sorrow. He loved being away from the city, even one as small as Ashville.
The country was so dark that you could see every star. He returned his attention to the lovely woman in front of him, though. A wash of guilt spread over him for not protecting her. He should have seen that the woman had meant her harm.
Shelby set her drink on the railing, watching it for a second as if it’d jump off. “Wanna dance?” She stumbled to the middle of the deck, pulling him with her. “We never got to dance.”
Tom allowed her to pull him along, making sure he held her close so she didn’t fall. “I don’t dance well,” he whispered, wondering if her mother and brother could hear them.
“We don’t have to move much. Just hold me,” she requested.
That, he could do. He pulled her close, lifting her arms up around his neck, then slid his hands to her back. He dipped his head to her neck and inhaled the scent of her skin mixed with the perfume.
She tilted back her head in response, and he took advantage of the front of her neck, working his lips over her collarbone. He lifted his head as he moved his hands from her lower back to her hair. She winced once from his touch, reminding him that she was hurt.
He brought his hand around to her front and pressed his palm lightly against the side of her face. He’d been dreaming about kissing her from the first time he’d seen her.
Her lips parted and her eyes closed as he moved ahead with his desire, knowing that tonight probably wasn’t the best time, but the blood rushing through his veins and the throbbing in his chest refused to allow any rational thought take control.
He took her lips softly, concerned that they may hurt too. She reacted instantly, no sign of pain. She moved her hands behind his head and pulled him toward her. Her lips moved greedily against his, and he was just as hungry.
Southern Romantic-Suspense Boxed Set (Southern Romantic-Suspense Novel Book 0) Page 125
