Luring Levi (Tarnished Saints Series Book 2) (17 page)

When she didn’t answer, he looked up the stairs towards Levi’s room and just shook his head. “You two had a little lover’s quarrel didn’t ya?”

She just nodded, pulling a tissue from her pocket and dabbing
at her eyes. “Gus, can you please give me a ride back to the cabin?” she asked.

“Well, yeah, I suppose I could do that,” he said, “as it’s almost nine and that’s when I close for the night, so sure.”

“Thank you,” she said, glancing up the steps almost expecting to see Levi staring down at her with arms crossed and eyes of fire. But he wasn’t there. She wished now she’d never come to Sweet Water in the first place. Because with all the damage she’d just done, she knew Levi was never going to forgive her.

Levi peeked out the window watching as Gus drove away with Candace in the man’s tow truck. He hated to just kick her out on her ass, but it was either that or show his temper in front of her. That is one thing he’d never do in front of a woman.

Candace was right. Being locked away from the rest of the world behind bars for the last seven years did screw with
his head and yes, he was not more than a drunkard and a low-life now. It hadn’t always been that way, as at one time he was successful and actually had some decent money. But because of a bad accountant, not to mention his brother Judas who had betrayed him, he’d had to pay dearly, and his life was altered. He couldn’t live like this any more.

He couldn’t let people dupe him and walk all over him. She could have told him he had kids the day he’d picked her up at the station, but she didn’t.

And though he knew Thomas and Angel had only meant to help him, he now felt like the laughing stock of Sweet Water. That is, the drunkard and low-life ex-con who was only pretending to be mayor.

He grabbed his keys from the dresser and headed out the door
, so frustrated he was ready to explode. He needed something to calm him down and he needed it fast. If he was going to go down in flames than he’d at least do it in a place that he knew they wouldn’t judge him. He got in the car and started the motor and squealed off in a hurry, heading for Burley’s Bar and strip joint at the edge of town.

* * *

Levi walked into the bar, barely able to see because it was so dark inside. And smoky. Hell, every town had rules about no smoking inside a public place, but when it came to Sweet Water, it seemed as if rules didn’t really matter.

“Mayor,” said the man behind the bar who Levi knew from growing up in Sweet Water.
He was the butcher from the grocery store who was obviously moonlighting by working here. What the hell was this town coming to?

“Give me a beer, Sam
,” he said, settling himself on a barstool. Out of his peripheral vision he saw another man sitting two stools away with an empty chair between them.

“That’ll be three
dollars,” Sam said, sliding the frosted mug of beer across the counter.

Levi was hoping he’d get it for free, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen. He didn’t even pretend he had money, instead he just looked up and said, “I can’t pay for
it.”

“The
n, I can’t give it to you,” the man said, pulling the mug of beer away.

“Leave it. I’ll pay for i
t,” came the voice of the man two stools over. The bartender just nodded and walked away. Levi took a swig of beer, letting the bitter brew trail a path down to his stomach, hoping it was going to get rid of the knot lodged there.

“Thank you, stranger,” he said, turning to get his first look at the man.

“No problem, it’s the least I can do - brother.”

Levi’s eyes focused in the darkness, now getting a clear view of the man who’d just paid for his drin
k. That knot in his stomach only got tighter and he felt a sharp knife twisting in his back at the sound of the man’s voice calling him brother. He hadn’t thought this night could get any worse until now. To his surprise and utter dismay he realized the man who’d just paid for his drink was also someone he swore he’d kill if he ever saw him again.

His hands turned into fists and his jaw clenched as he laid eyes on his traitorous brother, Judas!

Chapter 13

Gus dropped Candace off right in front of the cabin. She was planning on just running inside and hiding away from the world for the rest of the night, but unfortunately Thomas came walking out of the pole barn. Though he owned his other house right on the lake, this had been his first home and Cand
ace knew that he still housed his animals in the barn here as well as worked on refurbishing cars in the pole barn.

“Gus.
Candace,” Thomas said with a nod, wiping his hands in a rag as he walked over to join them. “What are you doing here, Gus?”

“Well, it seems the little lady needed a ride home and I
was only too happy to oblige.”

“What? Where’s Levi?” he asked her. “I thought since Angel was out of town with your kids you’d be spending the night with him?”

“They had a lover’s quarrel,” Gus supplied the information.

“What did you say to him?” Thomas asked in that same warning voice he’d used telling her not to hurt him.

“It doesn’t matter.” She tried to hold back the tears but knew that Thomas could tell she’d been crying. “It’s all over. He told me to get out and that he never wanted to see me again.”

“Well I know my brother well enough to say he’d never turn away a girl he had his eye on no matter how bad the circumstances.”

“Well, he did.”

“Then you need to go back there and talk to him,” said Thomas.

“She’ll have a hard time doing that,” said Gus. “I saw him in the rear view mirror as we left and he took off in the car.”

“Maybe he went to
the fair to see the boys,” said Thomas.

“No,” said Candace. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, then there’s only one other place he’d go feeling so upset.” Thomas looked over to Gus. “Gus, can you go check Burley’s and see if he’s there?”

“Nope, can’t do that,” he said with a shake of his head. “I p
romised the missus I’d take her and Maryanne to the fair as soon as I closed up shop for the night. Besides, she’d skin me alive if she even thought I went near that strip club.”

“Strip club,
” repeated Candace. “Why would he go there?” She didn’t like the fact he was there and realized it was all her fault.

“That’s where every Taylor boy winds up when he’s upset,” said Gus.
“Thomas, I need to get going. So if you want to find him, you’re going to have to go there yourself.”

“You know I can’t do that,” he said, but Gus just waved and took off down the road in his truck
.

“I
’ll keep an eye on the youngins for ya at the fair,” Gus shouted out as he drove away. “See ya, Thomas.”

“Damn,” Thomas
swore under his breath but Candace heard him.

“Why can’t you go there?” she asked.

“Never mind,” he told her. “That’s a whole other story.”

“Then can you give me a ride? I’ll go in and get him while you wait outside.”

“Burley’s is no place for a lady. You stay here. I’ll go yank his ass outta there myself.”

“No. It’s my fault he’s so upset and I want to come with you.”

“Have it your way,” he said, pulling out his keys and heading for the pickup. Candace followed. “What was it that got him so upset in the first place?”

“Do you mean besides the part that I called him
a drunkard and a low-life jailbird?”

“You hurt him, didn’t you? After I warned you not to.”

“Well, I didn’t mean to, but I got defensive when he started yelling at me.” She got into the passenger side of Thomas’s pickup truck and closed the door. “And I accidentally told him the part about you and Angel getting him the position of mayor.”

“Hell, you’ve got to be kidding
! My brother will never forgive me for that.”

“That’s nothing, believe me. Because after what I told him, he’s never going to forgive me for the rest of his life.”

“And what would that be?”

“Thomas, I should have told him the day I
came to town but I didn’t. Levi is the father of Vance and Valentine.”

He looked at her for a minute with eyes opened wide, and then just grinned and nodded his head, looking the other way.
“Yep,” he said, pulling away down the road, “you’re right. He’s never even going to remember he’s mad at me when you’ve got that hanging over your head. I can’t even imagine how upset his is at this very moment.”

* * *

“Judas! What are you doing here?” Levi did the best he could to try to maintain control, but with the way he was feeling, he didn’t know how long he could do that.

“I live here,” said his
brother, taking a swig of his drink and then a puff from his cigarette, blowing it right toward Levi in an obvious defiant act of challenging him. “Besides, I heard Ma died. Some detective found me and told me. I came to pay my respects.”

“You have no respect for anyone, so don’t even pretend that you
do. And you don’t live here - you used to live here, so don’t even think of staying.”

Levi’s brother
, Judas was two years younger than him, but like all the Taylor men, he had the physique as well as acted like a man a lot younger. They were never known for their maturity - or actually only Thomas was. And while their oldest brother had been busy procreating, they’d all been busy living the crazy and carefree life of being a bachelor. Or at least he’d thought so before Candace told him tonight that he’d been procreating as well and didn’t even know it.

But Levi couldn’t forgive Judas for turning him in, and he never would. He regretted now ever sleeping with his account
ant and then telling her he only wanted her professional services afterward. Theresa, his accountant, obviously wanted revenge on him and that’s why she went to bed with Judas and whispered lies about Levi into his ears and got brothers to turn against each other.

“Hey Levi, good to see you.” Levi looked up to see another of hi
s brothers, one of the twins three years younger than him walking up to the bar with a stripper on each of his arms.

“Zeb?” he said, looking through the darkness. The man was shirtless and the snap on his pants was undone. “What the hell are you doing?”

“James Zebedee is a lawyer by day and stripper by night,” said Judas taking another drag of his cigarette. “Does that surprise you, brother?”

Levi looked over to Zeb and just shook his head. He knew his brother had been in law school for quite awhile and always wondered how he’d paid for it since their father was a minister and didn’t have extra money to send his boys to college. Now he knew.

“Are you really a stripper?” Levi asked him.

“I only did
personal parties,” Zeb said with a smile, but I don’t do that anymore.”

“Only when he drinks,” Judas added.

“Don’t belittle someone for drinking when your ass is at a bar as well,” grumbled Levi.

“It’s ginger ale,” said Judas, pushing his glass forward. “Care to try it for yourself? But then again, I don’t think you’d know the definition of
a soft drink.”

“Stop it with the almighty do-good crap,” snarled Levi. “If you r
eally were a guy who is so hell-bent on following rules and doing the right thing, then why the hell are you smoking in here when you know it’s not allowed?”

Judas looked down to the cigarette in his hand and then back up to Levi with hooded eyes. “Well, maybe I’m just human like the rest of my brothers,” he said in a low voice.

“No more fighting in front of the little ladies here,” Zeb interrupted, sending the girls away, pinching one on the butt as she left. “Thanks, girls, that was fun,” he called after them.

“And Canda
ce thought I was a low-life,” Levi muttered under his breath, but Zeb heard him.

“Are you calling me a low-life?” he asked, “I challenge you to a fight.” He obviously had had too much to drink or he would have remembered the last time Levi kicked his ass for nothing more than eating his share of dessert. Of course that was a long time ago when their parents were still alive and they all lived at home and often fought for food at the hands of their hungry brothers.

“You don’t want to fight me,” said Levi, taking a swig of his beer and looking the other way.

“You afraid?” asked Judas, obviously egging him on.

“What are we? Back in high school?” Levi didn’t need this tonight, and now he wished he hadn’t come here at all. “So why
are
you here?” Levi asked Zeb. “You two are a little late for Ma’s funeral.”

“No, we’re here to stay,” said Zeb. “Actually, I’ve got myself an office over in Benton H
arbor. I started my own law firm.”

“Good for you,” said Levi, feeling
envious of his brother’s success. “And how about you, Judas?” he asked. “Are you working for the cops as a snitch now or what? After all, you were in training for so long that I doubt anyone would ever give you a badge or heaven forbid a gun.” Levi was laughing to himself as he took another draw of his beer, remembering how Judas had always wanted to be a cop, but had been having a difficult time being accepted to the force.