Chapter One ♥
*
The bar was noisy to start. Daphne pushed past a uniformed police officer, who she could only assume wasn’t there for fun. After all, whatever he was doing, if he didn’t stop her, then he was just in the way of the conversation she needed to have. Her eyes never left the man at the bar, leaning on one elbow and grinning hard at a pair of men that Daphne didn’t recognize.
“Hey,” she snarled, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him to face her. “You’ve been avoiding me.”
“And I’m going to keep avoiding you,” Gabriel answered curtly, turning back to his companions.
“If you’re not signing a child support check in two seconds, I’m not even going to bother with the police any more. That’s obviously not getting through to you.” Daphne was beginning to shout, and even with the cacophony of the room, she could see people starting to turn to watch her. “I’ll just clobber you right here and now.”
“You hear that? She’s going to hit me. That sounded like a threat, didn’t it? Sound like a threat to you?”
“Sounded like a threat to me,” one of the men offered. He wasn’t going to do anything about it, though, apparently content to let his new friend get as threatened as he liked.
“Are you sure that you should really be threatening me?” Gabriel’s voice was low, a contrast to Daphne’s, and it left no doubt about the fact that he was threatening her right back. “After all, it could look very bad for you in a custody hearing, if you were threatening to commit acts of violence. The courts typically don’t hold a very positive view of that sort of thing.”
“If you don’t start taking your daughter seriously, then you’re not going to make it to a custody hearing, you son of a bitch.”
“Now, lady, I’ve indulged your whims plenty already. I don’t need to keep it up one moment longer.” He met her gaze, his smile never faltering. Daphne bristled at being called ‘lady’ like she was some stranger, but she tried not to show it. “You need to get out of here, before I have someone remove you. You’re coming off like a crazy person, and I’m not going to let you threaten me. You’ve been harassing me for months now, and you’re lucky that I’m such a nice guy, or I’d have gotten a restraining order a whole lot sooner.”
“Yeah, you’re a real charmer. I’m sure that the missed child support payments don’t have anything to do with your desire to avoid a courtroom with me in it, right? Because you’re such a nice fucking guy.” Daphne’s fists balled up at her sides, and her arms tensed in preparation for using one of those fists to flatten his nose.
“Bartender—can you get someone to get rid of this woman?” Gabriel’s hand went up to signal something, and for an instant, Daphne seriously considered letting fly. She kept her hands by her sides only by reminding herself that losing her temper was only going to make things worse for her.
A second specter of Daphne’s past spoke from behind her: “Is there a problem here? Daphne, who is this guy?”
“Major? What are you doing here?” She spun and looked up at him. He looked good, as good as she remembered.
There was a long time that Daphne had told herself that she was looking back on Major with rose-colored lenses. But if anything, she’d underestimated him. He regarded her for only a moment before his eyes fixed behind her.
“I think I’m the one who should be asking that. You left, but I’ve been here all this time.” The words stung.
He was more right than he realized, and it hurt to think about it. She’d never wanted to stay here, and she’d never kept it a secret. Everyone in a small town only ever talks about leaving, and she wasn’t going to let it stay talk. That didn’t mean that it was easy leaving some parts of her old life behind her.
“You should just stay out of this, Major.” She turned back to Gabriel. He seemed to have lost interest in her, choosing instead to meet Major’s eyes. Some expression that Daphne couldn’t name burned in him.
“You’ve got problems,” Major said behind her. From Gabriel’s face she could tell that he hadn’t broken his eye contact. “I can see that. But first I want to know what happened to you. Why did you run off like that?”
Daphne turned, her anger building even hotter as she realized that she was having less of an effect than the appearance of a man who Gabriel didn’t even know. “I don’t have time to talk right now, Major.”
“I’m not going to let you run off again.”
Major’s jaw was set. He broke eye contact with Gabriel, and Daphne realized what it was that had captured the other man’s attention. In high school, Major had been a good man, and drawn everyone towards him.
The gaze that fixed her now had an intensity that the boy could never have managed, all those years ago. The rest of the room seemed to fade away. It was all that Daphne could do to remind herself that it was her choice whether or not she let him order her around.
“Look, I’ll give you all the answers you want, okay? But right now I’m trying to deal with something, and it’s kind of important, so if you don’t mind…” She tried to turn, and it took every part of her to make the effort. His hand caught her shoulder, gentle yet absolutely immovable.
“What’s so important? Some kind of attempted murder you were going to pull off?” He sounded like he was joking, but his expression held only the barest hints of sarcasm, if that. And the whole time, those embers burned in his eyes.
“Only if he’s lucky,” Daphne said, shoving her shoulder against his hand. He kept it on her a moment longer, as if he were trying to prove that she couldn’t force him. “If he’s not lucky, then attempted murder is just going to be the start of his problems.”
“You look good,” he said in a voice like a growl. His hand came off her shoulder.
Daphne turned back to the bar. A woman had slid between her and the stool, and the bartender was pouring her a very generous double martini. He dropped the olive in as Daphne registered what she was seeing.
“Oh, fuck you, Major. Now he’s gone.” She turned back to Major, and now her anger, which had been contained when it was targeted squarely at Gabriel, turned on him along with her.
“Maybe that’s a good thing,” he said, as if he didn’t notice that she was nearly ready to stab him right then and there. If she’d had a knife, she wasn’t confident she wouldn’t have used it. He was being an idiot!
“Maybe you can leave me alone!” Daphne clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms enough to hurt. Now she had to start all over again, and this time Gabriel was going to know that she was on his trail. Great fucking job, Major.
“When will I see you again?”
Major walked back to the table. His jaw hurt, and he was ready to do a little more serious drinking. He was over her. At least, that was what he had told himself. Apparently he’d been mistaken, and to be slapped by her wasn’t the kind of closure that he had been looking to get.
Fable looked tense when he sat down. “Was that Daphne?”
“… Yeah. Where’s Leo?” He had gone. There was a feeling in Major’s gut that he hadn’t just gone to the bathroom, and it was his habit not to ignore those feelings.
Bardot said what Major was thinking, taking a sip of her club soda. She kept her eyes down, leaning into Dane. Major wondered why she wouldn’t meet his eyes. “What’s she doing back in town?”
“I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.” He didn’t know how much they cared. Maybe they didn’t. They probably wanted him to leave it. But even knowing that it was going to ruin him, Major knew that he wasn’t going to stop.
“What the fuck is her problem? Why did she run off like that?” Fable took a deep drink and made a face like she tasted something bad. The way that she took another drink afterward left no doubt about what it was that left such a bad taste.
Major’s response was automatic, and had more anger in it than he wanted. “Don’t talk about her like that.”
It was impossible not to interpret as a threat, and the way that Fable’s eyes met his told Major that she didn’t miss it. She spoke deliberately and dared him to do something to try to back the unspoken threat up.
“I’ll talk about her however I like. You’re not my boss.”
Major sat for a moment in silence before he shook his head. His shoulders slumped and he leaned over the table. He finished his drink and stood. “You can talk about whoever you want, however you want, Fable. But I’m not going to sit here and listen to it. I don’t want to fight with you, okay? So just let it go.”
As he spoke, he pulled his wallet out and started to count out a tip. Bardot reached over and set a hand on his. It was an apology, a plea for him to stay, even if she wouldn’t say those words. “What did she say?”
Major sat back down and let out a long, low breath. He picked up the empty glass and looked at it like it was something foreign. He wanted more of it. Soon, he knew, alcohol was going to become a very good friend to him again. The less he remembered of the next few days, the better, as far as he was concerned. A bitter instinct in his gut made him set the glass down, as if he was going to punish himself by keeping from getting stone drunk.
“She said she had something to take care of. And I think it’s got something to do with that guy she was talking to. I just hope she doesn’t do something stupid. Now. What happened to Leo?”