Always His (Crazed Devotion #1) (14 page)

O
kay, I didn’t handle that very well with Nicole. Actually, it backfired in my face. I sometimes forget she isn’t the same timid girl she was all those years ago. So acting like some dominant dick was probably not the best way to handle things. But nothing pissed me off more than knowing that sack of shit had his hands on her. It made me nauseous just thinking about it.

And now he wanted to start coming around playing the
I wanna see my little girl
card. He didn’t give a shit about Tori. The fucker was just trying to get under my skin by coming after her and Nicole.

The thought of Tyler hurting either of them made me want to beat his ass. The smug bastard thought he could play these fucking head games, and there was no way I was going to sit back and allow it.

So that was what I was doing now. Driving around town searching out that piece of shit. If Nic knew I was out looking for him, she would probably be even angrier than she already was. But he and I had to have a long-overdue talk. The problems between us stemmed from long ago, before Nic and even before we were on the football team. He had hated me from the first time we met, and things only escalated from there. He wanted to be the big shot, the guy everyone loved and wanted to be like. But when he found he had me as competition, fuck, the guy couldn’t let shit go. He was always looking for ways to get beneath my skin, and I knew he was using Nicole to do just that. It was about me, not her. She was his way of getting in one last jab.

I was just about to give up and go back to Nicole’s place to beg for forgiveness when I was lucky enough to see him pulling into the parking lot of Morgan’s Pool Hall as I was pulling out of it. The front of his truck almost took off the front of my pickup.

I threw my truck in reverse and circled back, then parked in front of him. Stupid fucker was so lit he almost fell out of his truck as he climbed down. An empty beer can fell out, and he kicked it, sending it under the car beside his. He was pitiful, and there was no way in hell I was going to let him get anywhere near that sweet little girl again. I didn’t give two shits that he was her father. She wouldn’t get hurt in any way by this tool.

“Well,” Tyler chuckled as he braced himself against the car next to his. “If it ain’t the man who thinks he can stroll back into town and take what’s now mine.”

I chose to ignore his dig and moved on to what I’d come here to say. “You and I have some things to talk about,” I stated as I squared my shoulders and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Yeah,” he replied as he also squared his shoulders and attempted to puff out his chest. “Like how you think you have rights to my daughter and Nicole. She gave up on you long ago, after you left her. But I comforted her, so no need to worry.”

He smiled, and it took all I had not to knock that grin right off his face. Normally I wouldn’t take the bait, but I was out of patience with this sack of shit. “If she gave up on me, then why am I the one in her bed at night?”

His cockiness faded and turned to anger. I just needed one sign of aggression before I laid his ass out. Somewhere in his warped mind, I figured he really thought Nicole had feelings for him.

It was pathetic actually.

“Maybe for now,” he said as he rested back against the car. “Enjoy it while it lasts, man, because it will end. You’ll fuck it up.”

“I want you to leave her alone,” I said as I fisted my hands at my sides. “If you want to be a part of Tori’s life, then clean yourself up. She deserves more than that. She amazing, and you’re missing out on that.”

He stared back at me with hate burning in his eyes. A long silence stretched out between us as I waited for him to prove me wrong. Give me a sign he cared even a bit about his daughter. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Every girl should have her father in her life. A relationship between a girl and her dad was so important. It gave her the image of what a man should be, how a man should cherish and protect his loved ones. I wished for just moment that Tyler would realize just how important his role was in Tori’s world.

“The only reason I slept with her was because I knew when that news got back to you, it would kill you.” His words made my stomach tighten in rage. “Then she had to fucking end up pregnant. I didn’t want no damn kid. I just wanted to nail your girl. I wanted to show you that for once you didn’t fucking win.”

It was as if my body reacted before my mind could catch up. I had him pinned to the side of the car right before my fist connected with his jaw. I unleashed years of hate as I hit him again and again as his words raced through my mind. To him, Nicole was just a way of getting revenge on me.

Someone pulled me off him as I watched his body sink to the ground. He sat hunched over against the car while two men pulled me away.

The sounds of sirens in the distance brought me back to the present, and I looked down at my fists. My knuckles were split and covered in blood, a mixture of my own and Tyler’s.

Did I regret beating his face in? Fuck no I didn’t. The bastard deserved it, and if I had the chance to do it all over again, I wouldn’t hesitate.

“Looks like there’s someone here to free you,” Bert announced as he unlocked the iron gate that separated us. I had been sitting in a cell for the last three hours, running over everything that had taken place tonight, with not only Tyler but Nicole too.

When I arrived here, I called my father and knew he would be less than amused that I’d landed myself in jail. Even my friendship with Bert couldn’t keep me out of this mess.

“Is he pissed?” I asked as I lifted my aching body off the concrete bench along the back wall. My anger from earlier had faded into a dull ache.

“Well, he didn’t look enthused,” Bert said as I stepped out of the cell and he closed the door behind me. “But between you and I, I’d have loved to witness Tyler getting his ass handed to him. Little cocky son of a bitch had it coming. He’s never done right by those two girls, and pathetic assholes like him need a reality check.” I cocked an eyebrow at Bert, and he chuckled. “But if asked, I’ll deny I ever said any of this.”

Bert was a good man. He was a hard-ass when he had to be, but he had a soft side too. He was one of those guys that would never turn away someone he felt he could help.

When I walked into the front of the station, my father came into view. I guess being called at two in the morning to pick up your twenty-five-year-old son from jail would have irritated even the kindest of men. I wish I could say I was disappointed in myself, but I wasn’t. Pounding Tyler’s face in for the hell he’d caused in Nicole’s life felt damn good.

“You owe me bail money,” my dad grumbled as I approached him. “And your momma is climbing the walls at the house, worried about you. You owe us both a steak dinner for this shit.”

When he turned to hide his smile, all the tension faded. My dad was as hotheaded as I was, so I knew he could understand where I was coming from.

My truck had been impounded, so I’d have to wait until tomorrow to pick it up.

After impound fees and the tow charge, it would cost me close to five hundred to get my truck back. A night that would add up to close to seven hundred and fifty dollars would put a dent in my wallet for sure, but still I felt no regret for my actions.

I was sure that would all change once Nicole found out the details of my night, though. But for now I would bask in the glory of whipping that tool’s ass.

I
woke up to the ringing of my cell and didn’t have to look at it to know who was calling. The sweet melody I had set for Ryker days ago filled the silence of my bedroom. But after the way he’d acted toward me last night, I was in no hurry to hear what he had to say.

When the ringing stopped, I curled over onto my side and closed my eyes once again. The silence didn’t last long as the same ring began again. Growing irritated with his persistence, I reached out for the phone and slid my finger over the screen, then lifted it to my ear.

“What?” I answered in my
I really don’t give a shit
tone.

“I know you’re mad. You have every right to be. I was an ass,” Ryker said in a rush. As if he was afraid to pause for fear of me hanging up before he could finish.

“Yeah, you were,” I replied. There was no need to argue. Whatever ego bullshit he was suffering from, he had taken it overboard, and I wasn’t in the mood to make things easy for him. I had spent the night wondering what I could have said or done to make last night end differently. But the truth was, I hadn’t done a damn thing wrong.

“I’m sorry,” he said in more of a whisper.

“Why aren’t you at work?” I asked, looking at the clock on my nightstand. It was a little after eight.

“I am,” he replied. “But I needed to call you. I couldn’t wait until tonight.” A moment of silence passed before he spoke again. “I need to tell you something before you hear it from someone else.”

My stomach tensed as I waited for him to continue. My mind went a little crazy with ideas of what he would say.

“I got arrested last night.”

And I sat up in bed quickly. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me right,” he said with a chuckle. “I sort of got into it with Tyler at the pool hall and got thrown in jail.”