Chapter Twenty-One
Tate
I lay in the bed awake next to her after we fucked a few more times wishing I could give her the world. I had no choice but to run from her, but my heart broke at the thought of it.
She snuggled against me and let out a content sigh as I lay on my side and held her. Her long brown hair was a tangled mess, her lipstick smeared, and her eye makeup not at all where she'd carefully put it the night before.
It wouldn't have been hard to tell her that I was falling for her. I'd been looking for a woman like her for so damn long, and yet...this was it. I laid there beside her until the alarm clock read five. After kissing her damn near 10 times, I crawled out of the bed as carefully as I could and got dressed.
I found a scrap of paper on her desk and left her a note letting her know that I had to get out to the house and then to work. I told her that I'd call her later, but I knew I wouldn't.
I couldn't.
Her father was going to make sure of that.
There wasn't anyone awake in the house as I snuck out the front door and jogged to the truck. I owed Sam big time for letting me take his vehicle overnight when we'd just agreed on a few hours. Though his parents were great, he hated being stranded at home. I told him that he should have learned to drive a bike and he could have taken mine out for the evening.
He scoffed and rolled his eyes. Typical Sam. Scared of everything that might leave him breathless, women included. Maybe he had things right and I was in the wrong.
Risks had consequences.
I drove out to his place and swapped out the vehicles without going up to the house. It was dark, which left me to assume that everyone was still asleep – and they should be. It was the ass-crack of dawn. I should have been asleep somewhere, too, but I couldn't have stayed with Val and not told her the truth, not after the night we had. She had been so willing to give me ownership of her beautiful body, and more so, of her heart. She didn't fuck, she made love. A tendril of pain ripped through me, stealing the air from my lungs as I got on my bike and pulled on my helmet.
I'd never been the type of guy to let anyone push me around, yet my hands were tied and my head was in a fucking noose. David Scott had far more power than any man I'd ever met.
"Figures." I started the bike and headed home, driving fast in hopes of bleeding out some of my angst before I made it there. My mother didn't need any of my attitude, and I sure as hell didn't want to unload any of my mess onto her. She had plenty of her own problems.
The ride home didn't last nearly long enough, and I was still a little antsy by the time I got there.
My mother's beat-up car was sitting on the side of the house when I drove up, which at least offered a little bit of comfort. Maybe I had the wrong idea in keeping everything from her. She was reasonable and had more sense than I could ever hope to. Talking everything through might help me find a way to get out from under Val's dad and yet still get to keep her in my life.
I chained the bike up and walked into the darkness of the house, feeling my way around for a light, but the lamp wasn't where it should have been.
"What the fuck?" I kicked something and moved down to find the lamp on the ground in pieces. My heart leapt into my throat, and I jumped up, running down the hall blindly. "Mom? Mom? Where are you?"
I flipped on the hall light and went room to room, screaming for my mother. My heart was beating a million miles an hour as I jogged back into the living room with no answers, and not finding her anywhere.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and called her number, but the damn thing was in the kitchen. Something had happened. I was sure of it.
"Ms. Crumms." I opened the back door and jogged down the stairs as I headed over to our next-door neighbor’s house. The little old lady never missed a thing. If something happened to my mother, she'd know it.
I banged on the door, trying to calm myself a little so I didn't scare her.
She opened the door and lifted her eyebrow. "Well, dang, Tate. You trying to raise the dead, boy?"
"No, ma'am. I'm looking for my mother. I was out last night and her car is here, but it-"
"That crazy bastard she was dating came back." Ms. Crumms shook her head in disgust.
Sickness washed over me. Not again. Not while I was out.
"And, the cops showed up, too. I guess they had a tracker on him, and he didn't understand what that meant. He beat your poor momma up pretty good, but she's going to be okay now, I think." She reached out and touched my arm. "Come inside and warm up. You're trembling."
"No, thank you, though." Rage pumped through me at not only over my own indiscretions to spend the night away from home, but more so because of Val's father staying true to his word. I turned as Ms. Crumms said something, but I didn't catch it. I lifted my hand and waved as I jogged back toward the house, mumbling my thank you.
David Scott knew I was with Val, and he wanted to make his point. And, he had.
"This is all my goddamn fault." I jogged up to the house and locked all the doors. I assumed my mother was back at St. Mark's hospital. There was no reason to call when I could be there in 15 minutes.
The torrent of emotions that raced through me was numbing by the time I reached the hospital. I felt murderous toward Mr. Scott, and yet he had warned me. I had made the decision to disobey him and in that one selfish moment thought that I could dance with the devil and win. That I was something special.
I needed to let Val go. It was the only choice I really had. Time to own up to it.
*
The nurse that showed me to my mother's room was nicer than she had to be, but I was grateful. I was close to losing it, and it wasn't just about all the shit that had happened with Val and her dad, but my worrying over my mother's mental state. I'd finally gotten her past being afraid of her own shadow and now this...three times in the last few weeks.
"Mom?" I walked into the room to find her in a reclined position in the bed, watching the snow fall outside of her window.
"Tate. Hey." She looked over at me and extended her hand. Her lips were busted up pretty bad, as was her eye. She had a few stitches, which was nothing new, and yet my stomach sickened over it. Tears burned my eyes as I moved toward her and pulled her into a careful hug.
"I'm so sorry," I mumbled against her shoulder. "Please forgive me."
"Baby, you're being silly. This was Daniel's fault. He's a bastard, and it's my fault for loving him as much as I did. I shouldn't have ever let him in the house. Not back then, and not today." She tightened her frail arms around me. "The cops said that there will be no more bail for him. He's not getting out again, no matter what."
I nodded, unsure that I trusted myself to speak without bursting into tears, which wouldn't help anyone. I held her against me for a second longer before moving back and wiping at my eyes.
"This is my fault. I should have been there." I glanced behind me and grabbed a chair to pull up beside her bed.
"No it's not. You need to live your life." She gave me a crooked smile and winced. "Damn stitches."
"It is my fault, Mom. If I was there-"
"Then, the idiot would have probably killed you. It's all good. He's gone, and I'm done being anyone's punching bag. When I get out of here, we're going to start looking for a new place to live." She reached up and touched the side of her eye.
I dropped down into my seat and gave her a look. "With what money, Mom?"
"My raise." She tried to smile, but didn't pull it off too well. "I got a raise at the hospital, and Dr. Barnes said that if I fill out a few forms, he'll look into putting me into a sponsorship program for battered women. They do all sorts of stuff for you, including help pay for your degree."
"Really?" This was the best news I'd heard in forever.
"Yep. I'll be in college right beside you." She laid her hand beside her, palm up.
I reached up and took it, clasping my fingers around hers softly. "So, there's no way for you to lose your job?"
"What? Heavens, no. Dr. Barnes thinks I'm the one who tugs the moon into the sky every night. There's no way anything can happen to my position. I work too hard, and there is already too much stacked against me, which they're aware of." She patted my hand with her free hand. "Now...tell me where you were last night. With that pretty girl? Val?"
"Yes, ma'am, but we're not going to see each other anymore." Sadness like I'd never experienced filled up the cavity of my chest, and I took a shaky breath.
"Well, I think that's the dumbest thing you could do. It's a mistake. She's the one. I just know it." She laid back and narrowed her eyes at me. "What's really going on? Tell me."
"Nothing. I'm just a little butt-hurt over her not wanting anything to do with me." I pulled my hand back and slumped down in my chair. "She's a Scott, Mom. Those people are takers and abusers. She's no different. I'm not interested in being her puppet."
"You a puppet?" She snorted. "I think you're full of it, but you'll talk to me about it when you want to. Until then, suffer in stony silence like you always do."
"I don't suffer in silence." I rolled my eyes and leaned back farther, letting my eyes close. "I'm glad you're okay. I almost had a heart attack when I got home and you weren't there."
"I know. I'm sorry for all I've put you through." Her voice was soft, but I had a hard time hearing what else she was mumbling. Now that I knew she was okay and the rest of our lives were relatively intact, sleep was taking me under.
"I love you, Mom," I grumbled and clasped my hands over my stomach as the darkness took me far away from my concerns. I had lots of them, but the top concern followed me deep into my dreams and plagued me without reprieve.
How am I going to let go of Val without hurting her?
You're not.