One More Taste (36 page)

“That's not my plan,” Knox countered. As scared for Carina as Ty clearly was, as out of control as it must feel to have his child's and grandchild's lives at risk, it came as no surprise that he'd unleash his feelings on Knox.

Ty prowled around him, forcing Knox to pivot in order to keep eye contact. “Bullshit. You did this. You ruined our lives. And I'm sure that was your plan all along. Revenge for Clint, am I right? You have no place in this family. Consider our blood ties broken.”

Granny June tugged on her son's arm. “Ty, no. He's family. He's your—”

“Like Wendell said, he's nothing to me but a Judas,” Ty snapped.

Eloise's flask was back out. She held it aloft in a mock toast. “Like you were to Clint, all those years ago?”

“Woman, don't you dare play that card here, now.”

Eloise drank deeply from the flask, then licked a drop off her lower lip. “Oh, please. It's time. The rift was more than thirty years ago. Enough with the damn secrets. I kept them for you because I loved you. More than that little whore ever did, but this might be the only way to save our home.”

A tingling started on the back of Knox's neck.
Little whore? Who?
And what did that have to do with the rift? What did any of it have to do with the Lux Universal sale? “What secrets?”

Eloise opened her mouth, but Ty thrust his open palm in front of her face. “Stop or I will make you stop.”

Granny June sagged into her cane, tears in her eyes. “No. Eloise is right. Enough with the lies, even though it was for the best, all these years.”

Eloise whirled on her mother-in-law, sloshing liquid from the flask onto her hand. “The best for whom? For you and your precious family legacy?”

“I'm warning you. Stop this now.” Fists clenched, red-faced, and nostrils flared, Ty looked like a bull that was ready to charge.

Afraid Ty might actually physically assault his wife, Knox stepped between them.

“For Knox,” Granny June said. “All of this—the secret, the rift—Tyson and I knew it was best for Knox, and that was the only thing that mattered.”

Knox had just about had enough of them talking about him like he wasn't there. “Someone had better fill me in—now.”

Eloise pulled her flask from her purse and unscrewed the lid. “What's your birthdate, Knox?”

“August fifteenth.”

“Which means you were conceived in November. Do the math.”

What the hell was she getting at? “I've done the math, so I'm not sure what point you're trying to prove. My parents eloped on the second of November, right after the rift, and my mom got pregnant with me a couple weeks later.”

Knox wasn't putting it together, the importance of his birthday and Eloise's vitriol about
that little whore
and laying claim to Ty. What did the rift have to do with Knox and what was best for him? He hadn't even been conceived yet.

“November, hmm? Not December? Have you seen their marriage license?” Eloise said.

No. No, he hadn't ever seen their license.

Granny June's color blanched. “It wouldn't matter, Eloise. Chaplain Roberts fudged the date.”

“Are you're trying to tell me that my mom got pregnant before they were married? Is that the big secret? I mean, I'm only half-surprised because that helps clarify why they had such a low-key wedding.” And, if they got married because his mom was pregnant, then that helped clarify why they'd never seemed much in love.

Eloise said, “Don't you ever wonder what the rift was all about? Why Clint and Ty would have killed each other that night if Tyson hadn't gotten in the middle of it with his shotgun?”

“Of course I have.” A terrible foreboding made Knox's stomach churn, even as anticipation sped his pulse. This was it. The revealing of a thirty-five-year secret. Eloise was going to tell him what the rift was about. He turned, searching out Emily, and found her behind him, obviously hanging on every word, as Knox was. He took her hand firmly in his. “It's time for the truth,” he told Eloise. “Spit it out.”

Ty surged forward, knocking Knox and Emily out of the way. “Damn it, woman. Don't you dare.”

Granny June's cane came up and rested against Ty's chest. “I raised you better than this. Get back and stop threatening your wife.”

Eloise gestured to Granny June with the open flask, sloshing clear liquid onto her hand. “Thank you, June. And, Knox, here's the truth. Thirty-five years ago, in early December, Clint dragged Ty out to a field in the middle of the night and beat him up pretty bad. Probably, he would have killed him had Tyson not intervened, and it's hard to blame him because it turned out that Linda, the sweet little Christian girl Clint was dating, got herself knocked up on the night of the Sadie Hawkins dance, and Clint wasn't the father.”

The rush of blood in Knox's ears sounded like a gust of wind as he was sucked backwards, forced to helplessly watch the scene in front of him as though looking through a long tunnel. He swallowed back his revulsion. “No. Impossible.”

Emily slipped between Eloise and Knox and cupped his cheeks in her hands. Her gaze bounced between Ty's and Knox's faces, then tears crowded her eyes. “My God.”

“The resemblance is uncanny, isn't it?” Eloise's every word dripped with poison.

Knox closed his eyes, unable to bear the truth and horror in her expression. His pulse pounded in his throat, in his ears. None of this was real. None of this was happening. The rift had been about business. Nothing more. Had to be. Knox's mother was a devout Christian, there was no way she would have … The thought died in his mind, the idea was so unthinkable.

“It doesn't matter what happened,” came Ty's growling drawl. “You are not my son.”

Knox's eyes flew open at that. “Goddamn right, I'm not.” Knox's whole life was
not
founded on a lie, with everyone from his mother and father to his grandparents complicit in the deception.
No.

Knox raised a hand to his mouth, but it was shaking. The corners of his vision were narrowing. Anger whipped through him, frenzied and powerful. His dad's command echoed through his mind.
Never lose control.
Oh, but he was perilously close. He refused to desecrate his father's memory by violating his number one rule. His father—the man who'd taught him everything and loved him until his last breath, the man who was watching Knox from on High. The man who haunted his truck.

Emily's hands had slid down from Knox's cheeks to rest on his chest. He couldn't quite bear to look at her, but he took her hands in his and held on tight, the better to steady the trembling.

Eloise flattened her back against the wall and glared at Ty through slits of eyes. “Did you think the truth wouldn't come out? You brought him here. Isn't this what you wanted? Your bastard son to take over our family business, to steal everything we hold dear? I told you this would happen, but you didn't listen to me. You never listen to me.” Her voice cracked. A ripple of raw emotion shimmered through her and was gone just as fast. She swallowed, the sneer returning to her lips. “It was always her, wasn't it? It was always Linda. I guess it's time for me to get out of this marriage and get my slice of the pie while there's any pie left. I'll wait for Carina to get out of surgery somewhere else. June, call me when the baby's born.” With a dignified shake of her hair, she pushed away from the wall and walked toward the exit.

Knox was a lot of things, but he was no man's bastard son. No way had Ty brought him to Briscoe Ranch as some sort of gesture of atonement or to reveal himself as Knox's fa—.
No.
He refused to think the word.

Ty chased after Eloise. He grabbed at her wrist, but she jerked her hand away and sped her pace. “Eloise, don't go. Not now. We have to stick together now. For our girls, for our grandbaby,” he shouted after her. “I was a stupid kid. You know that's all it was. Linda meant nothing to me. She never did.”

But Eloise was out of there. Granny June sped past them on her scooter. “I'll go talk to her,” she said. “We've got to make this right. For everyone in the family.”

Knox watched his grandmother leave, while all the while Ty's words rang through his mind, loud and clear.
You know that's all it was. Linda meant nothing to me.
Ty really had slept with Knox's mother. My God.

Ty whirled to face the room, zeroing in on Knox. “Linda never meant anything to me and neither do you. You're not my family anymore than she is.”

Emily squared a searing look at Ty. “Stop this. Right now. Before you say something you can't take back.”

Snickering, Ty jabbed a finger at Emily's face. Her flinch was unmistakable. “That's rich, you giving me advice. You stay out of this, girl. You have no dog in this fight.”

“Like hell, I don't,” Emily said.

Ty's attention dipped to Knox and Emily's joined hands, then gave a bark of mad laughter. “Because you're fucking him? You think I don't know? You think we all don't know what's been going on between you two, you little slut?” Every word was hurled at her like shards of glass, meant to wound.

That cleared the fog from Knox's mind right good. “Don't you dare speak to her that way.”

Emily went rigid, though her expression was one of pure control. “It's okay, Knox. I can handle this.” To Ty, she said, “You think that insult is new? You think you're the first man to call me that? Do you have any idea of the number of bruises I carried on my body as a child?” She held her index finger out like a sword and stabbed Ty hard in the shoulder. “So many of them fingertip-shaped bruises. But I'm not a kid anymore, and I don't have to take shit from anyone. Not even you.”

Ty rolled the shoulder she'd jabbed. The expression in his eyes turned rageful enough that Knox took a step back, pulling Emily with him.

“You were nothing when I took you in, you ungrateful bitch,” Ty bit out, looking more rabid by the second. “Homeless, jobless. I gave you a chance at a real life. I opened my family to you. But look at you now. All these years, it turns out you were just using my family's good fortune, and then, when the next moneybags showed up, you moved on to him. Could you be any more transparent? You were nothing before you came begging me for a job. And you're nothing now. Nothing but a user. My God, it's embarrassing to watch.”

“Shut up,” Knox said to Ty. To Emily, he added, “Let's get out of here.” He needed space to process everything Ty, Eloise, and Granny June had revealed. He'd wanted to be there for Carina and Decker, and he knew Emily would want to be there, too, but Ty had turned the experience too toxic for either of them to withstand.

But Emily wasn't ready to back down. “I'm so tired of these … these powerful men projecting their anger onto me. All these monsters clawing at me, trying to drag me down, telling me,
You're nothing,
” she said, mimicking Ty's deep voice. “I'm not nothing. I'm a goddamn phoenix, reborn from the ashes of a childhood hell. I remade myself completely and I've got the scars to prove it.”

Knox tugged Emily's arm. “Come on. Please. Let's leave. I need air.”

“Not so fast,” Ty said. “You're just as bad as her. I brought you both into the Briscoe Ranch family. I vouched for you. I tried to do the right thing for you in my own way. I trusted you. Both of you. And I guess the joke's on me because you're both a disgrace. A disgrace for everything the Briscoe name stands for. And you, Knox, will never, ever be a son of mine.”

Before Knox knew what was happening, Emily raised her hand, wound back, and backhanded Ty Briscoe across the face.

A hush fell over the room and time seemed to stop. Even Ty froze, his lips slack as a pink stain spread on his cheek.

“I get it now. This is how it works with you.” Emily said. “The minute your back's up against the wall, you turn on people to protect yourself. Is that what happened when Linda got pregnant? Is that why you abandoned her and your baby? What a coward.”

With a curse, Ty lunged at Emily, his hands up as though he was going for her throat.

Knox didn't think. He didn't plan. He released Emily's hand, made a fist, and punched Ty in the gut. The release of anger felt so damn good, that he ducked his head and went at Ty again. This time, he slammed Ty against the lobby wall, using the skills Big Tommy taught him in the ring. He raised his head, ready to tell Ty off, right in his face, but when he looked up, he was looking into the eyes of his father.

His father.
Holy shit.

In that moment, Knox's anger seceded to compassion. Ty had lost everything. The business, his self-respect. His wife, most likely. Which meant Knox had accomplished what he'd set out to do from the day he first stepped foot on Briscoe Ranch Resort. He'd ruined Ty Briscoe in the name of revenge.

Except that now, Knox didn't want any part of it. He didn't want revenge; he didn't want the resort or any profits from it. Had that been what his dad was trying to tell him by preventing the truck from driving onto the resort? Knox could almost hear his dad's voice.
Don't do this. It's not too late to turn this truck around. There are things you don't want to know.

Damn right, there were. And if he could, he would've scrubbed it all from his memory. The knowledge of what Granny June's laugh sounded like and that Shayla and Haylie shared the same eyes. He didn't want to be aware of Carina's new baby and the life she and Decker enjoyed on the resort grounds, each pursuing their dream careers—businesses that would be torn down if the sale to Lux Universal went through. He didn't want to know that the father he loved with his whole heart and whom he spoke to every damn day had lied to him. That his father and mother had been lying to him his whole life.