Sunshine and Whiskey: A Garden Falls, TN Romance

by Allie Kay

  I was glad for the silence.

  34

  Sean

  Walking into Garden a few minutes before five, I was already tired. Sleep eluded me since I’d broken up with Talia. I lay awake thinking of her for hours. Only when I was near collapse could I actually sleep. I'd managed about eight hours of sleep this entire week.

  Laney called out from across the dance floor. "Hey, did your brother find you? He came by a little while ago. I figured you were with Talia so I told him that. He said he would come out there and find you. I didn't even know you had a brother."

  "What? Brian was here? Here in the club and not on the phone?" That made no sense. I ran a hand across my ribcage and sucked in a deep breath. Brian should still be rotting away.

  "Yeah, in person. Did you not know he was coming?"

  "Fuck." I turned and ran outside. My brother had never been good about taking punishment. Brian had probably broken out of prison months ago and laid low, waiting for another chance to ruin my life. Not this time.

  I revved up the Harley and sped out toward the Richmonds', praying that I would get there before Brian, praying that Talia was safe. Why the hell wouldn't the cops have told me that Brian escaped? Shit. They should have known Brian would come after me. I could have been prepared. And now Talia was in danger because of me. Because I loved her. Because I'd given in and dated her. If I'd known Brian was out of prison, I'd never have let her get so close. I roared up Lake Road and nearly laid the bike over as I turned the corner. Sam and Helen were sitting on the porch when I ran up.

  "Where is Talia? Is she here?"

  "What the hell are you doing here? Talia is none of your damn business anymore. Get off my property."

  "Damn it, Sam. Is she here? Tell me she is safe! Please," I pleaded.

  "Sean, she lives with Zane now. I talked to her a bit ago and she was perfectly fine. What's going on?" Helen asked, stepping between me and her husband.

  Releasing a breath I hadn't known I'd held, my knees felt weak. I grabbed on to the porch column for support. I sank down on the steps and hung my head in my hands, willing my heart to stop racing.

  "My brother broke out of prison. He was at Garden a little while ago and Laney told him he could probably find me here, not knowing our history…" I broke off.

  "Oh my! So you think he could be coming here?" Helen asked, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth. Fear shone bright in her eyes.

  "Helen, he shot me. Just to see how long it would take me to bleed to death. The last time I saw him was at his trial and he told me he would kill me when he got the chance. I wouldn't put it past him to try to hurt Talia just because I love her."

  "Did you call the cops and let them know he might be heading over here?" Sam grumbled.

  Shit.

  "I didn't take time to even tell Laney where I was going when I ran out. Garden doesn't have a bartender at the moment. Hell, she doesn't even have a cash drawer."

  Pulling out my phone, I called Jack. I clued Jack in to the situation, asking him to go work the bar for now. I'd have to pay Jack extra for tonight. I owed him.

  Helen was on the phone when I hung up. "The police said we should go inside and wait for an officer to show up. You too, Sean. They want to take a statement from you and are sending someone by your club to take Laney's statement."

  Sam looked like he wanted to argue, but Helen pushed us into the house. Sam hung up his phone and told us Zane was bringing Talia over where we could all be together. A few minutes later, Zane's truck pulled into the driveway. Talia stepped out of the passenger side. She wore that beautiful white dress that I'd loved so much. The one she had on the night we first made love. God, I had missed her. She almost fell up the stairs rushing to me. She flung herself into my arms. Pulling her close, my eyes squeezed shut and I inhaled. Soft vanilla, exactly as I remembered.

  "Just because the cops said you had to stay here until they arrived, doesn't mean you get to resume your relationship with my daughter. Hands off."

  "Cops? What?"

  Talia had tears in her eyes by the time I had finished recounting the day's events. She didn't move away though, and I didn't release her. Her father could get over it. She was safe. That's all that mattered to me today.

  A knock on the door drew all our attention. I pushed Talia behind me before Sam opened the door. Sam stepped back to let in a pair of uniformed police officers. Giving our statements didn't take long. The officers advised us to stay in for the evening. They would increase patrols in the area, standard. When they left, Sam told me to leave too.

  "Hell no. I'm not leaving Talia until Brian's been caught."

  "This is my house—"

  "And, in this case, I don't give a shit. When he's back in custody, I'll leave. Not a minute before." I sat down next to Talia.

  "I still don't want you dating my daughter."

  "I get that. I'm not stupid. But I can't leave until she's safe. That's all I want, to be sure she's safe." I started off talking to Sam, but by the end of my little speech, my gaze had turned to the beautiful redhead at my side. She snuggled into me, seeming to want every second of time together like I did.

  Helen brought us all some iced tea and Zane left to get some food.

  Talia was the only thing I cared about right now. Now that I had her in my arms, I wasn't sure how I could ever walk away again. I wanted to kiss her so bad. Sam was already glaring and watching my every move. He'd probably lose it if I did kiss her. It would be worth the risk. I licked my lips and stared down at her. I watched her soft lips part in anticipation and felt her breath hitch knowing I was about to kiss her.

  A knock on the door ruined the moment. Damn it. So close, yet so far. I eased myself up from Talia's grasp as Sam went to peek out the window.

  "Just Mike from work," Sam muttered as he went to answer the door and let his employee in.

  I stood, heart racing, and stepped between Talia and the other men. "Mike, huh? When'd you start going by your middle name, Bri?"

  "Well, I couldn't exactly go by Brian anymore, could I? You ruined that for me when you sent me to prison, little brother."

  "You fucking shot me!"

  "Wait. Mike is your brother?" Sam finally bought a clue. "But you passed our company's checks. How did you manage that?"

  "One of the guys I broke out with, his sister works for your company and helped me get past those stupid checks. Imagine my delight when the brother I was looking for was dating my boss's daughter! Pure dumb luck on that one."

  A shudder went through me when my brother cackled his amusement. Brian had issues. Big time issues. My eyes flicked down to Brian's waist. If Brian was armed, I needed to take him out. And fast.

  Brian moved to step around me, his eyes on Talia. "Your little bitch is a pretty thing, I'll give you that. I bet you loved giving it to her. I know I sure would. Mmmm. It was all I could think about the other day at the picnic."

  Sam pushed Brian away from Talia before I could do it myself. "You bastard, that's my daughter you are talking about!"

  Brian laughed at the older man before shoving him to the floor, hard. "How could you think you were good enough to date a princess like her with your background?"

  "Stop it! All of you, please!" Talia cried.

  Brian lunged at Talia and grabbed her arm. He yanked hard, squeezing even as I grabbed him. "You stupid whore, you picked the wrong man when you picked my brother. He's a weakling. You need a real man, don't you?" Talia cringed when Brian ran a finger down her cheek. "I'm disappointed, Talia. You didn't seem to like the pictures I left you. I warned you about fucking my brother. But you didn't listen. I will make you forget his touch though. You'll scream for me tonight."

  I growled and jerked Brian's hand away from Talia's face. "Get your filthy hands off my girlfriend."

  "Ah… But she's not yours anymore, is she, little brother? Oh, I've heard the tale. Not good enough for the boss man's daughter. Sent you packing, didn't he? Well, guess what? He approves of me. I
took her to the town picnic with her daddy right there." Brian shoved me back and while I was regaining my balance, he flung his fist into Talia's jaw.

  I watched in horror as she fell, striking her head on the end table. A roar of rage exploded from deep within me. I leapt toward Brian and grabbed him by the throat, slamming him into one of the bookshelves. Books went flying and cascaded down to the hardwood in a series of small thuds. Brian kicked and punched at me. He managed to bust my lip, causing a spray of blood to spurt. I drew my arm back and planted my fist in Brian's face. My brother collapsed, only staying somewhat upright because of the grip I had on his throat. Seeing that he was out cold, I flung him to the floor and rushed back to Talia.

  Sam and Helen crouched next to her prone body. A small puddle of blood pooled around her hair. Helen had her cell phone to her ear, but had already called 911.

  "She's unconscious," Sam choked out as he gently brushed her hair out of her face. "They said we shouldn't move her."

  I dropped to my knees beside her, reaching out to engulf her still hand in my own shaking one. Her breathing was still ragged; the pallor of her face sent a pang of fear deep into my stomach. When Sam looked over at me, I struggled to blink away tears.

  The ominous wail of multiple sirens carried through the walls. Helen rose to go out and meet the first responders. She was back quickly with a flurry of activity that heralded the arrival of the EMTs and a police officer. Talia was slowly starting to wake up, but the EMTs loaded her onto the bright yellow gurney to take her to the emergency room. There were major concerns about the head wound and amount of time she'd spent unconscious. One EMT asked about medical history while the other was putting gauze against the gash on her head. Sam told him how Talia had been sick a lot and had lost a good deal of weight recently.

  I looked at her stomach—the gentle swell there, despite the weight loss—and a flicker of hope sparked within me. "Uh… I could maybe explain that. She, well, she might be pregnant," I told the EMT.

  "What!" Sam shouted, turning away from the medic to face me.

  I stood, running my fingers through my hair, blood dripping from my lip, as I stared at Talia lying pale on the gurney. Sparing a glance at her frantic father, I repeated, "She could be pregnant. I'm just saying it's possible, Sam."

  "You son of a—"

  The cop interrupted us to fill out the incident report. Coordinating with an officer outside, the cop had cuffed Brian and placed him in the back of a squad car. They were going to run him by the hospital too since I had knocked him out. The first officer came back in with someone with a familiar face—Officer Jess Taylor.

  Shaking hands with Sam, Jess was brought up to speed on the situation. With an apologetic look, she told me that they were going to have to take me in too. Brian wanted to press assault charges.

  Of course he did. Some things never changed.

  "I'm sorry, Sean. It's a shitty situation. I know you were trying to protect Talia. I'd have hit him, too, but I have to take you in."

  With a wry smile, I turned and spread my legs, clasping my hands behind my head. The other cop stepped up to pat me down. Once cuffed and read my rights, I was escorted outside. The last time I was in the back of a police car, I had been high and combative, flailing and screaming in the back seat. My journey toward the city jail was a much more sedate affair this time around.

  35

  Sean

  Opening my eyes, I fought to make sense of the dreary concrete wall I was facing. It took a few seconds for the fog to lift. The county jail? Muscles protested as I rolled over and stretched. The narrow bed was barely wide enough to lay flat on and my feet hung off the end of the thin mattress. The smell of unwashed bodies was hard to bear and the heat in the cell was only contributing to it. Sticky with sweat, I wanted a shower something fierce.

  Hearing my name, I looked up to see my attorney, Jericho Smith, standing outside the cell. "I have good news! I was able to push and get things moving quicker. Your brother is being transferred to a maximum-security prison upstate."

  I huffed and rose to walk over to him. I tilted my head and tried to loosen the crick in my neck. "How is that good news? That's expected news. He successfully escaped once, where else would they stick him?"

  "Oh, the good news was not about him. The good news is that they're dropping the assault charge on you. You'll be free to go shortly," Jericho told me with a smile.

  Making a noise that was somewhere between a cough and a chuckle, I agreed that was good news. My shoulders sagged and I leaned against the bars of the cell door in relief. "How long, you think?"

  "It shouldn't be too long, maybe an hour or so. I'll come spring you as soon as the paperwork is done."

  I watched him walk away. It amused me that not only did I have an attorney that I considered a friend, I'd developed a friendship of sorts with a cop who'd arrested me twice now. If anyone had told me that we’d become friends back when I’d been arrested the first time or that I’d be friends with cops and lawyers, I would have laughed in their face and called them crazy, yet look at me now.

  True to his word, Jericho was back within the hour and escorted me out. Since I'd had to leave my bike when they took me in, he even gave me a ride back to pick it up.

  "How's Talia doing?" I asked quietly, keeping my gaze focused out the window on the buildings we were passing by. “Have you heard?”

  "She's still in the hospital. I figured you’d ask, so I called the hospital and spoke to her mother, Helen. She told me Talia's still having some serious dizziness. I didn't speak to her myself, but Helen said her head is still pretty painful."

  Silence filled the car for the remainder of the ride, but it wasn't awkward. When Jericho pulled up next to my bike, I thanked him for the ride.

  "Sean, take this for what it's worth. I think you should go see Talia. You are obviously crazy about her. Enough to go back to jail just to protect her, and I know how hard you've been working to stay out of trouble. I'm really glad to see how you've cleaned your life up. I don't know what happened between you and Talia, but surely it can be worked out."

  Running my hands through my hair, I contemplated how to respond. "It isn't that simple. Did you hear that her father threatened to cut her out of his life if she kept seeing me? You know what kinda shit I had for family. Talia has a good family. I couldn't…" I trailed off knowing he could fill in the blanks.

  Jericho snorted out loud. "You have got to be kidding me. I never would've thought that a former druggy with an assault record would be so noble. Go talk to her, talk to her dad. He owes you one now. You protected his daughter. That should earn you at least a chance."

  I didn't say anything. I'd been the one who'd put her in danger in the first place. I got on my bike and rode home. Feeling much more human after a hot shower, I sat on the couch considering my conversation with Jericho. He was encouraging me to pursue a relationship with Talia? It didn't seem possible. However, stranger things had happened.

  Sam had approved of both Caleb and Brian and look how that turned out. In Sam's mind, both of them were good enough to date his daughter but one beat her and the other put her in the hospital.

  I decided two things—Sam could fuck off and if Talia would even consider taking me back, I'd fight for her.

  I jumped up and grabbed my keys, running out the door before I could talk myself out of it. When I arrived at the hospital, I had no trouble obtaining Talia's room number. Getting in to see her though? Not so easy. Keeping the knock quiet so as not to disturb her if she was sleeping, I rapped on the closed door. Muttering to myself that I had every right to be there and to check on Talia after yesterday, I shifted my weight from foot to foot as I waited outside the door.

  Sam opened the door. Drawing himself up to his full height, Sam stepped into the hall and glowered at Sean. "What do you want?"

  With a cynical laugh, I shook my head. "Man, you just don't quit, do you? I want to see how Talia's doing. I don't know why I even let myself think you
might cut me even a little slack." I closed my eyes and ground out through clenched teeth, "May I see Talia, please?"

  Sam looked like he might disagree when Helen walked out of the room behind him.

  "Hi, Sean, Talia has a room full of visitors at the moment. Will you go with me and get some coffee and maybe it will clear out a little bit," Helen asked, putting a hand on my forearm as she stepped between her husband and me.

  I didn't want coffee and started to argue when she added, "Please."

  At my reluctant nod, she gave Sam a pointed glare before leading me down the hallway to the elevators. Once we made it to the little coffee shop downstairs, I paid for our coffee and followed Helen to a corner table that afforded us a little privacy.

  "You know this is hard on Sam, don't you? Seeing his daughter grow up, date. Knowing that she's not a little girl any more—he's struggling with that. And you, well, even you have to admit that you aren't what a parent wants for their child."

  I stared down into my coffee cup, the little stirrer in my hand making ripples across the surface of the dark liquid. "Doesn't her choice matter? Is nothing I've done over the last six years worthy of consideration? I can't change my past, Helen. I didn't have the support that Talia, Zane, and Karly had. I made mistakes. But I’ve also done everything I could to make up for those mistakes."

  Reaching across the small table, Helen squeezed my hand. "I know you didn't have a good upbringing. I don't think you're a bad guy, Sean. I really don't. And I know you've treated my daughter well. I tried to respect her choice in dating you. I didn't interfere, even when I knew she was staying with you. I wasn't happy about that, mind you. She’s young and you two got serious too fast. But I didn't say anything. Sam, he's going to be harder to convince."

  I'd thought Helen liked me, not just tolerated me. Damn, that hurt. Well, I still wasn't going to let that stop me from getting Talia back, if she'd have me.