Chapter 16

How do you lose ten pounds without cutting out Mexican food? Asking for a friend.

Tyler

“What?” I asked Rodriguez.

“You’re going to want to listen to the 9-1-1 recording before you do any more yelling,” he informed me.

I frowned. “What are you talking about?” I asked, confused.

“Just listen.”

And that was what I did for the next ten minutes. Listen to the woman that I loved beg and scream for a man to get off of her.

She’d never used his name, but it didn’t take much to guess who it was based on what Reagan was saying in those ten minutes.

Ten minutes—nine minutes and fifty-two seconds, technically—that she would never get back. Ten minutes that she was so scared for her life as she screamed for help and begged the man to get off of her.

Son of a bitch.

Closing my eyes, I counted to ten.

“She didn’t say anything,” I murmured.

“You didn’t give her a chance to,” Rodriguez informed me bluntly. “You went in there, guns blazing, because you were pissed off.”

And suddenly, I was chastised by one of my newest police officers. He was a year out of the police academy and he was looking at me with such disapproval that I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

Me, a thirty-five-year-old man, who’d been through wars and every goddamn thing imaginable that a police officer could go through, hardened and experienced and now the chief of police, being yelled at by a rookie officer and realizing that I’d made a huge mistake.

“Goddammit.” I pressed my fingers to my eyes and tried to rid myself of the tension headache. “I’m so fuckin’ stupid.”

Rodriguez grunted in response.

I knew that he agreed, though, but he didn’t want to express that verbally, which somehow just made it worse.

There was nothing he could say that could make this any worse. I was already starting to understand what I’d done and I totally understood that it wasn’t good.

She deserved better than the scene I’d just given her…regardless of what I’d just learned or not. I’d fucked up.

Bad.

“Fuck.”

Turning on my heels, I headed for the closed door, only just now aware that Rome and Liner had followed my stupid ass inside.

They moved out of my way silently, not saying a word.

But I’d caught the look on Rome’s face as I did and he wasn’t happy with me either.

My hands were shaking as I made my way out of that room.

What I’d heard would haunt me for a long time to come.

The moment that I was out of the surveillance room, my eyes scanned for her.

But…she wasn’t there.

***

Reagan

“You’re not acting like yourself,” my father murmured.

I shrugged.

I wasn’t acting like myself because I’d just had my heart ripped out of my chest and stomped on by the man I loved, but my father didn’t need to know that.

Why didn’t he need to know? Because I didn’t want him to hurt Tyler and he would.

My dad would do anything for me—as long as it didn’t hurt me.

And, to be honest, that would hurt me. Seeing Tyler hurt in any way, even if he deserved it, would break me.

“It’s okay, you know,” he murmured. “I realize something else happened, but you need to tell me, or I can’t fix it.”

I didn’t want him to fix it.

Honestly, I just wanted to eat my hamburger, drink my extra-large sweet tea and dip my fries in my milkshake while I ignored my troubles.

“You haven’t done that fry in the milkshake thing since you were a kid,” he said, watching me lift a fry, covered in strawberry deliciousness, up to my mouth and devour it.

I shrugged. “Sometimes one just needs comfort food. I feel like it’s the perfect way to commemorate getting arrested for the first time and, you know, losing the scholarship that was paying for my education so you didn’t have to.”

He winced.

“Don’t worry, Daddy. You won’t have to pay—I do have a job, after all,” I told him.

“I know,” he murmured. “But we had some money set aside for you for college. When you got the scholarship, we decided to just leave it there to pay for your wedding someday, but if you need it now, I’m more than willing to…”

He trailed off when someone caught his attention.

“What?” I asked.

His eyes went wide. “That’s Rome…Rome Pierce. He is…was…the tight end for Longview’s professional football team. Holy shit, he looks different.”

My mouth went up at the corners as I saw my father staring obviously at Rome as he walked across the room toward us.

I frowned.

What was he doing here?

“Shit,” my dad sighed. “I gotta go to the bathroom.”

Then he was up and moving, stopping in front of Rome as if he had every right to.

Then again, that was my dad.

He was larger than life—my own personal hero—and he didn’t see people as better than some or worse than others. He saw everyone as equals.

So, he’d see no reason at all that he couldn’t go up to a professional football player and ask him for an autograph, because in his mind, they were both just two men, one who played ball and one who was a cop.

Luckily, Rome felt the same way.

Even though I had a feeling he wasn’t here to sign autographs for my father—something that was proven correct moments later when he came to a stop next to our table.

Without asking, he took a seat and stared at me with unblinking eyes.

“You look like shit.” His words came out so softly, that at first, I didn’t understand them.

It didn’t take me long to process them and when I did, I remembered all over again why I looked like shit.

I hunched my shoulders and wished my dad hadn’t gone to the bathroom.

Keeping my mouth shut, I kept my eyes on my lap and refused to say anything.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out why he was there.

I had a brain, after all. After today, it may not have been as smart as it should be, but it was what it was.

“You did me a favor,” he murmured. “Now it’s time I do you one.”

I blinked.

“One thing you should know about Tyler,” he muttered. “He’s passionate.”

I snorted.

“Give me a minute.” He held up his hand. “And I’ll explain stuff to you.”

I waited.

Rome, just a few hours ago, was in the exact opposite position that I was now.

Plus, he’d been very careful about letting me finish, so I gave him the same courtesy even though I wanted to stand up and walk right out of there.

But even I wasn’t that stupid.

With Dusty out there, unaffected by what he’d done to me, there was no way in hell that I was walking out that door and into the open air without at least making sure that I had someone watching my back.

Dusty’s parting words to me were enough to make me freeze in terror: until next time.

“His dad left when he was at an impressionable age,” he said softly. “We were young when it happened and it rocked both of our worlds.”

I looked down at my hands. “His mom lost it. Alana lost it. Everyone lost it and it was up to Tyler to make sure that they didn’t break completely.”

I gritted my teeth. “They owned a horse farm and had obligations. His mother stopped working. His sister started skipping school. Bills weren’t getting paid and everyone, including him, was failing school.”

I swallowed.

“I did his homework for a year,” he said. “I turned that shit in for him and didn’t care one single bit that he was using me. Because that’s what friends do for each other when the other’s world is completely falling apart.”

“Tyler left you for four years,” I snarled at him.

Rome grinned and sat back in his seat. “Tyler didn’t leave me, honey.”

“Really?” I asked. “Because it looks like he left you from my perspective.”

I wasn’t sure why I was getting so mad at Rome. If anyone in this world deserved my ire, it was Tyler and not Rome.

And hell, even then, my anger would still be pointed at the wrong person. All of the fault lay at Dusty’s feet, not anybody else’s.

“He checked up on me every week. He called my mom. Called my dad. Called my sisters and brothers. But, right around that same time, my family and I had a falling out, too. The only reason that I know that Tyler called my mom was because my youngest sister still talks to me. She told me that Tyler checks on me every week and that everyone says I’m perfect.” Rome sounded disgusted. “A person who doesn’t care doesn’t call your mom to check on you once a week for four years.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

He was right.

“Why did he never just call you?” I pushed.

I was angry, but Rome was starting to get through to me.

“Tyler learned a long time ago to keep his emotions bottled up inside, because if he let them out, his family would see that he was struggling, so no one will ever see him struggle. There’s just something inside of him that keeps it all closed up and the moment that he shares his troubles with you, it means he’s broken. Or it means that you’ve finally gotten in deeper than anybody before you ever has.” He leaned back in his chair.

I looked away. “He hurt me today.”

“He didn’t hurt you,” Rome said softly. “That piece of shit Dusty Rhymes hurt you. Tyler just said some things that can be repaired if you’d allow him to fix it.”

I looked down at my hands that were tangling underneath the table.

“My ex-boyfriend turned stalker almost raped me, Rome.” I glanced to the side to make sure that the only other occupied table in this roadside diner wasn’t paying attention. “And honestly? Tyler needs to get over himself. He didn’t even check on me before he started in with the yelling.”

Rome sighed. “He was scared, babe. Then he had his ass handed to him the moment he walked into that surveillance room, by one of his rookie cops, no less and listened to the audio recording of the 9-1-1 call. I’ve never in my life seen Tyler lose it before, but when he came out and you’d been picked up by your dad? Yeah, that was not good. He freaked out. Then he left. I haven’t been able to find him.”

I felt something sharp move through my stomach. “What do you mean you haven’t found him?”

Rome leaned forward.

My eyes followed the movement and it was only then that I saw my father standing there, taking in every word.

I felt something sick slide into my stomach at realizing what my father had heard.

There was no way in hell that he hadn’t heard all of it.

It didn’t take fifteen minutes to fake going to the bathroom.

“I mean, honey, that Tyler has gone out hunting and it isn’t gonna be good.”

I held my father’s eyes.

One day soon, we’d be having a come to Jesus meeting and he wasn’t going to be nice to me either.

“You mind staying here with her?”

My dad’s words had Rome turning and looking over his shoulder to the man at his back, but he looked unsurprised to find him there.

“No, I don’t mind,” Rome murmured. “Keep in mind, though, when you find Tyler, just know that anything you say or do to him won’t be any worse than what he already wants to say and or do to himself.”

My dad didn’t acknowledge Rome’s statement and instead was turning to leave before the words had even finished resonating in the air around us.

“Shit,” I murmured. “I didn’t tell him for a reason.”

Rome’s eyes were warm on me. “You didn’t tell him for the same reason that you didn’t scream it from the rooftops when Tyler came in. You didn’t want either of them to get in trouble. But let me tell you something. That isn’t your decision to make. They have a right to protect the woman that they love.”

I snorted. “Tyler doesn’t love me.”

Rome’s eyebrows went high. “I may not have talked to him in four years, but I still know him as well as I know myself. Trust me when I say that he loves you, probably more than he realizes, but it’s going to take a bit before he admits it.”

Was he right? Did he love me?

Hope bloomed in my stomach, at the same time that the waitress brought us the check.

Before I could pay, Rome handed her a fifty-dollar bill and then stood up before offering me his hand.

I took it.

“Come on, darlin’. I guess you’re coming to my place.”

I followed him out the door and wondered when in the hell I’d become Rome’s responsibility.