Chayton's Tempest (30 page)

again, and I’ll beat the black off your fat ass!” Glaring at the

other woman, Tempest spat, “That goes for you too.”

“I see your manners haven’t improved any,” her sister,

Anita, ground out. However, she took a step back.

“You haven’t had the shit kicked out of you, so I’d go

with I have manners.”

Dakota touched her arm. “Mom, please.”

A man walked up to the group. “Sarah?”

Tempest looked at him. He was older, grayed, and

stooped, but she knew him.

Her father.

The man who was supposed to protect her as she grew

up. This man didn’t do that, he failed miserably. He not only

abandoned her, he signed off on her like she was bad meat.

She felt nauseous. Tempest wanted to run away and

hide. Stiffening her spine, she locked away her fear and

uncertainty, holding onto pride and anger. She wouldn’t cower

before these people.

“Mitchell,” she said to the old man, sans emotion. “The

name’s Tempest. Sarah died the day you sent me away.” She

saw shame flare up in his watery eyes, but her heart was

hardened.

“How could you send your own daughter away?”

Dakota demanded, stepping up beside his mother. “She was a

child.”

“She was a whore!” Carol bit out. “And you are nothing

more than a bastard.” The tone was lone and vicious.

 
“Bitch!” Tempest yelled and lunged forward. Her

motion was halted as she was hauled sideways to hit against

something solid. Something familiar. Maverick.

_

Maverick had left Dakota in the park while he went to

grab some food for supper. They’d spent the afternoon in the

homes of tribal elders. Dakota had been welcomed with hugs

and smiles. He smiled as he recalled how many times they told

Dakota that he looked like Maverick’s grandfather.

Dakota had been filled with knowledge about

ceremonies, rituals, and customs of the Lakota. He’d been told

many stories as well, which Maverick was proud to watch him

soak up eagerly.

Maverick walked out of a diner with some food and was

met with a scene he didn’t want to see ever again. Tempest

enraged. She’d just backhanded her mother and stood before

Dakota as if protecting him.

What the hell happened in the time I grabbed the food?

Dropping the food, Maverick ran towards her and their

son. He was obviously on a mission and people scattered out of

his way.

He reached for Tempest as she lurched toward Carol

Whitehall, her hands curled into claws. “No, Tempest,” he said,

much calmer than he felt. “Don’t stoop to her level.” The feel of

her body in his arms made other things leap into his mind. He

shoved his lust for the woman he held into a corner of his

brain.

Hearing a snicker, Maverick shot a glare at Mrs.

Whitehall. “You would be wise to shut it and leave.” Her

expression told him in no uncertain terms how she felt about

him. Mr. Whitehall stood there weaving with his cane, looking

embarrassed.

Tempest spun in his embrace and the loathing in her

eyes broke his heart.

 
“Let go of me!” she commanded, her tone like ice.

What did they do to you, Tempest?
He wanted to comfort

her but her expression told him she meant what she’d said.

He let go of her reluctantly. Maverick stared in her

brown eyes and waited for her to say something else. He didn’t

have long to wait.

CRACK!

She bitch-slapped him, rocking his head on his neck.

“Hey! What’d you do that for?” He reached for her but

stopped when she stepped back, almost running into Dakota.

“You…you did this!” Her chest heaved. “You exposed

my
son to the poison that I’ve protected him from his whole

life!”

Maverick frowned. “
Your
son? He’s my son as well. He

learned about his Sioux heritage today; what’s so horrible

about that? I’m his father; don’t you think I would protect

him?”

Brown eyes narrowed into slits.
Oh, boy, she’s really

pissed.

“Yeah, you did such a
great
job of it the first twenty-one

years of his life! What
was
I thinking?” she drawled

sarcastically. Her eyes snapped toward her son. “I suggest you

get your ass on the next plane home.”

“I’m not a baby anymore, Mom,” Dakota insisted. “I’m a

grown man.
I
came here to find out about a part of my past you

couldn’t help with. I’ll go home when I’m done.”

Pain unlike any Maverick had ever seen spread across

her face, filling her eyes. Her body seemed to crumple under

the weight of her son’s words. She looked much older in that

second.

“You’re right, Dakota,” she said as she stared at her son.

“I couldn’t tell you that because your father’s side didn’t want

anything to do with me. I’m sorry I couldn’t convince them to

like me.” A tear crept down her face, followed by another and

another. “I did the best I could. Sorry it wasn’t more.”

Maverick felt an inch tall as her eyes looked at her old

family and him with painful resignation. Then without a word,

she walked away.

“Mom!” Dakota cried.

“Sarah!” Mitchell Whitehall yelled.

She never turned, just kept walking away.

Maverick grabbed Dakota’s arm and forced an eye

connection. “You get checked into that hotel over there and

wait until I get back.” Defiance flashed in his son’s eyes.

“Don’t,” Maverick growled. “Don’t argue; do it.” His tone was

that of a battle-hardened warrior and Dakota nodded.

With the acknowledgement, Maverick ran after

Tempest, who was quickly disappearing up the street. He wove

in and out of people as he gained on her.

A woman pushing a baby stroller got in his way and

halted his progress. By the time he got around her, all he could

see of Tempest was her getting into a vehicle and driving away.

“Damn it!” he swore.
Where are you going, Tempest?

He opened his phone and called her. It went

immediately to voicemail. He left her a message. As he tried to

figure out what his next step was, he ran a hand through his

hair.

After he made another attempt to reach her by phone, he

spun around and jogged back to the hotel where Dakota was.

Twenty

Even now, the rock retained some of the warmth from

the day despite the fact the moon had risen. Tempest watched

its reflection on the mirror-like surface of the lake. Her chin

rested upon her knees as she stared unblinkingly out over the

water.

Breathe slowly, Tempest.

It was as if a knife had been plunged into her heart when

her son had uttered those words to her. Didn’t he understand

she was only trying to protect him? He’d seemed almost mad

at her, and that had cut the deepest.

Her fingers trailed over the smoothness of the rock

beneath her. The cool, night air had long since dried her tears.

She felt alone, abandoned, and unsure.

“I’d hoped you’d come here,” Maverick’s deep, sensual

tone snuck out of the dark and wrapped around her.

“Go away,” she said without maneuvering her head to

find him in the night.
What do you want, James?

Instead, his body settled beside hers on the rock, close

enough that his scent embedded itself within her, but not close

enough to touch her.

“No.” His refusal was gentle.

Tempest wasn’t sure what to do. She needed to figure

things out; and when this man was near her, she couldn’t think.

Maverick naked,
her mind taunted. Okay, she couldn’t think

about the things she
should
think about.

“Leave me alone,” she tried again. Tears threatened to

fall again. Grateful for the darkness, she blinked them away.

“Never,
mitawin
,
never.”

A shiver overtook her and immediately she found

herself lifted and placed onto his lap. Maverick cradled her.

Her traitorous body wanted to sink deep into him and let him

shoulder some of her pain. Her pride didn’t.

“I’m sorry about today, Tempest,” he murmured in her

ear.

Warm tremors spread out from her neck to the soles of

her feet. This man was deadly to her, but she couldn’t forget

her earlier pain. “It’s over. You win.” Tempest struggled to get

out of his embrace. A deep need to distance herself from him

awoke within her.

“I won?” His hold tightened. “What are you talking

about?”

“Dakota. You…you turned him against me.” It came out

on a sob as she succumbed to tears. Tempest heard him

speaking to her in Lakota. Even though she didn’t understand,

as always, the smooth timbre he had began to soothe her.

He held her, rocked her, allowed her to cry it out. The

need to run within her calmed.

“I didn’t take him from you, Tempest. He’s your son and

no one can take your place. He doesn’t want anyone to take

your place. And he didn’t mean it like it sounded.”

The beast stirred again. “Shut up, James.”

“It’s true, Tempest. And deep down beneath the hurt

and anger, you know it.”

With strength she didn’t know she had, Tempest jerked

out of his hold and stood on the rock, glaring down at him.

“Don’t you dare presume to tell me how I should feel about

this!” She jumped off the rock and turned back to face him in

the moonlight. “You’ve not been through what I have. Damn

you!” she screeched, her voice cracking.

The hairs on her arms stood up and her body tingled.

Run,
her mind hollered.
Run!

“You want to be a parent so bad, fine.
You
do it!” She

dashed off toward her vehicle and drove off in a flurry of dirt

and squealing tires.

The road before her blurred from the tears she cried but

Tempest drove on. Never once did she look behind her in the

rearview mirror as the town of Little Creek, South Dakota

faded into the night.

Maverick should have chased her. Tackled her.

Anything, so long as she didn’t get in her vehicle and roar off.

“What do I do now,
Tunkašila
?
” Maverick asked the

night as he watched the taillights from Tempest’s car

disappear.

You really messed up, Maverick.

Maverick looked around for his Grandfather but saw

nothing. “Where are you?”

Where I always am…watching over you. And I must say, you

make me work hard to do my job.

“What am I supposed to do?” He threw a pebble into the