Secret Maneuvers (15 page)

If Boyd didn’t want me to react to having to face the man who was keeping the love of my life from coming back to me, then Boyd had another thing coming. I wouldn’t start a fight or anything. No, but I would do my damnedest to show the guy that Belle couldn’t keep her eyes off me. Do whatever I could to prove that I still affected her in all the ways that mattered. That would sting for any guy’s ego.

As Boyd had promised, the game was in half time. The marching band was on the field, playing loud tunes with the crowd hooting and hollering their approval. Boyd led us to the far end of the field on the home team side. Staying close to the front of the bleachers that were over-flowing with locals, we slowly started to make our way towards the center.

I was scanning the crowd, looking for Belle, when Boyd suddenly stopped in front of me. Looking over his shoulder, I saw her standing next to the coaches in a huddle with the football team. Confused, yet intrigued as to why she would be out there, I stood as still as a statue, watching her talk to the coaches and players before the huddle broke apart. Was this ‘Seth’ one of the coaches? Maybe the tall, blonde-haired wimp wearing the baggy polo? A snort of disbelief escaped me. No way was Belle going to pass over me for that loser. My sudden desire to beat the guy to a bloody pulp didn’t mean I was jealous, either. Not at all.

Okay, so maybe I was a little jealous.

Walking over to the end of the bench where the players sat, Belle leaned against the fence, propping her elbows up on either side of her. I was just about to ask Boyd what this was all about when a player broke away from a group and jogged over in her direction. As the boy stopped right in front of her, I felt all the air seize in my chest.

Breathing suddenly seemed impossible.

He stood about three inches taller than Belle, making him about five-nine. His chestnut brown hair was cut almost military short, but liberally covered in bright blonde, natural highlights. His build was leanly muscled and sported a tan much deeper than Belle’s creamy pale skin. The kid looked around as if he was searching for someone when his head turned in my direction and I instantly knew. If his build or hair hadn’t been enough to tip me off, then his face sure as shit did. The boy was practically the spitting image of me, except for his mother’s moss green eyes.

Behind me, Declan swore loudly, “Holy shit. Tell me I’m not seeing what the fuck I think I’m seeing, man.”

My heart started to pound so hard I could actually hear the blood whooshing in my ears. Unable to move my feet, I watched as Belle and the boy turned in the opposite direction of where I stood to watch Sheriff Jenkins approach them. Jenkins reached the pair, leaning over the fence to give Belle a hug and a kiss on her forehead before reaching out to playfully slap the kid on his back. They stood there, talking and laughing, as my feet finally found motivation and started moving forward on automatic pilot like a robot.

I was vaguely aware of Boyd grabbing my arm to stop me. Declan was saying something behind me. None of it really registered. I was suffering from tunnel vision and all I saw were the three people I was quickly baring down on, acting like some perfect little family that the caveman in me knew should be mine. Wasn’t that a funny concept since I hadn’t even known I’d had a family to begin with? Something in me was trying very hard to see through the haze of anger threatening to overwhelm me so that I could sort the facts and information that was being thrown at me like a freight train going off its tracks. It was chaotic, horrifying to watch, and when it all finally hit me, it was going to crush me to an emotional death.

Before I could get very far, Sheriff Jenkins looked up and saw me. His face paled before lines of tension formed around his lips as they became a disapproving frown. Dropping a hand on Belle’s shoulder, he nodded his head in my direction. She spun around to face me as Boyd finally hauled me to a stop with the help of Declan grabbing my other arm.

Her face flashed shock seconds before she noticed Boyd standing somewhere behind me. A split second later, she transformed into the familiar spit-fire I’d known, all too well, years ago in high school. She rushed out of the small gate a few feet away from her, stalking towards us. The Sheriff was hot on her heels, as he apparently saw disaster in the making. I couldn’t remember feeling more stunned, or lividly pissed, in my entire life. I braced myself for the anger that was so obvious on her face, but frankly didn’t give a fuck what she thought she had a right to be mad over. Whatever she was feeling was nothing compared to the raw rage I had coursing through my body. The woman I’d been pining over for years had kept my own goddamned son from me!

The moment she got within feet of me, she pointed her finger at my chest. “You need to leave, Bobby. Now is not the time or place for this and it sure as hell isn’t how I intended to tell you.”

Brushing past me, she stomped right up to Boyd before Sheriff Jenkins could catch her. “And you! You son of a bitch! You had no right!” Her fist pulled back and, before anyone could stop her, she punched Boyd square in the face. A loud crack ripped through the air as Boyd fell backwards to the ground, clutching his nose. Blood poured between his fingers and down his chin. The Sheriff now had Belle restrained with both of her arms pulled firmly behind her back so that she couldn’t do anything else. “Dammit, Boyd, you had no right!”

Declan’s hand was still clutching my arm firmly. As if he was afraid I might flip my shit on someone. Staring coldly at Belle’s furious face, the kid in question ran up to grab her arm, hauling her backwards.

“Mom! MOM! What are you doing? Come on, you know what coach said. If you get in anymore fights they’re going to ban you for the rest of the season. You promised not to get in any more fights. What’s going on here?” He was shaking Belle gently to get her attention.

Suddenly panicked, Belle started to push the boy backwards towards his team. “Seth, go back to the bench, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make a scene. I swear, but I need you to go back to the bench now.”

Seth planted his feet, effectively stopping Belle from pushing him any further. Giving her a stern look, he stood there, waiting for an explanation.

“Not now, Seth! Later, I promise. Just go back to your game. We’ll talk about this later. Tell Coach I’m sorry and I promise to behave.” Giving him a push she yelled, “GO!”

Seth started walking backwards, warily watching his mother, before glancing at the rest of the group with confused eyes. Shaking his head, he turned and headed back to his team, who had subsequently been staring at the whole scenario that just took place. Belle turned back to face me, tears now streaming out of her eyes. Sheriff Jenkins was still at her back, looking at me with a steely expression on his face.

“I’m asking you to leave, Bobby.” More tears fell, her lip began to tremble and she pleaded, “Please.”

My voice came out low and rough, “How old is he, Belle?”

“I’m begging you, Bobby. Please don’t do this here. Leave now, we can talk about—”

“HOW OLD IS HE, BELLE?” I bellowed.

The rise and fall of her chest was rapid now. It was apparent to anyone who looked at her that she was trying desperately to keep herself together emotionally. That would have been something that tore me to pieces before, the thought of hurting her like that, seeing her that way. Now, I couldn’t scrape enough heart to care if her web of secrets and lies had finally caught her. She should have thought about that crap before intentionally keeping my son away from me. At this point, she would be lucky if I didn’t wrap my hands around her throat and squeezed. Without answering me, she twisted her body to face Sheriff Jenkins.

“Charlie, will you look at Boyd’s nose for me? I need to go have a talk with Bobby.”

Jenkins obviously didn’t like that request. He speared me with a look that promised retribution if I did anything he might consider out of line and then reached over to grab Boyd, helping him off the ground. Belle stepped forward, grabbed my hand tightly in hers, and started pulling me back towards the far end of the field.

There was a time when I would have done anything, absolutely anything, to have her grab my hand again. Crawl on my hands and knees over broken glass. Beg. Sacrifice a limb. Sell my soul to the devil. Whatever it would have taken to feel her smaller hand gripping mine with the kind of strong, desperate hold she had on it now. No more.

Wrenching my hand out of hers, I caused her to stumble sideways in shock from my violent reaction, I walked past her as something inside me died. I didn’t want her holding my hand. Right now, I didn’t even want her breathing my fucking air. I only wanted two things from her right now; an explanation and my son.

Declan broke off from us to sit on the end of the bleachers as I led Belle to a patch of grass behind one of the football goals. I stood there for a minute, staring down at her as my body shook with an assault of emotions, refusing to take my eyes off her for even a second. Afraid that if I did, she might disappear on me again. Or I might miss a clue to whatever might tell me what was going through that twisted head of hers.

The crowds around us cheered as the football teams took the field to start the third quarter, totally oblivious to the fact that my world was crashing down around me. Never before had I been tempted to raise a hand in violence towards a woman, but right now, I was fighting back the urge to reach out, grab her shoulders and shake the shit out of her until she gave me what I needed. Words. A sincere apology. Her heart and a big shiny knife for me to stab it with on a silver platter. Something to give me an indication that she wasn’t the heartless person that my rage was starting to see her as.

Pointing a trembling finger at her I roared, “You, BITCH! You’d better start fucking talking, ‘cause I swear to God, if what comes out of your mouth doesn’t somehow make this understandable for me, I’m going to haul your ass into court and nail it to the goddamn wall!”

Belle looked up, avoiding eye contact with me and searched for Seth with her eyes. After finding him, her eyes filled with fresh tears as she crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive posture—shoulders hunched, curling in on herself, trembling from head to toe like she expected me to lash out at her physically as well as verbally.

Keeping her eyes on the game in front of her, she started to speak in a small voice, “He’s fourteen. He was born May 30, 1997 in Austin, Texas.”

A slightly disbelieving laugh slipped out of her before she continued. Wasn’t that just a giant ass joke, too? What did she have to be surprised about? Surprised that her deceitfulness had caught up with her? Shouldn’t I be the one making that kind of disillusioned laugh because I was the one who’d just found out that I had a fourteen-year-old son who I’d never met?

“I told you what happened the day your momma gave me that letter where you broke up with me. I was coming over to beg them to let me live with them, ‘cause you and I both know that if my daddy had found me after what I’d done to him…” She shook her head, looking to be lost for words. “I was sporting a multitude of bruises from his drunken rage the night before, Bobby. He would have beat me half to death this time if I’d tried to go back and I just couldn’t take it anymore. The thing is, I didn’t get a chance to ask your parents about staying before your momma handed me that letter.”

She kept her eyes averted and shrugged her shoulders.

“After I read it, well, I couldn’t bring myself to tell your parents what happened with my dad or ask for their help. You’d just got done telling me that you didn’t want us anymore. Didn’t want our forever. I knew I couldn’t stay with your parents now and I damn well couldn’t stay with my father anymore, so I left. I didn’t realize I was pregnant until a couple of months after arriving here in Texas.”

Numb. I was utterly numb. Running my hands unthinkingly through my hair, I heard my own voice waiver as I asked, “How could this have happened, Belle? I thought you were protected.”

She dropped her head until her chin touched her chest. “Remember me being sick a little over a week before you left? Apparently, those antibiotics the doctor put me on canceled out the birth control I was taking.”

I looked from her to the field where Seth—my son—was playing quarterback. Seth launched the ball down the field to where one of his teammates ran it for a touchdown. Belle’s voice cut through the awe that I was experiencing while watching what felt like a flashback from my high school days.

“He’s just like you. Looks like you. Excels at everything he does, just like you did. The only things he got from me are my temper and green eyes. The boy blows up worse than fireworks on the Fourth of July. It’s a heck of a thing to watch. He’s been hell on wheels from the moment he took his first step.” Her voice dropped to a barely audible whisper, “He’s the only reason I survived you leaving me. Seeing him every day, with your face, your nose, your… everything… Well, he made me feel like I still had a piece of you all this time. Just like you used to promise me I would.”

Clenching my jaw against the pain I heard in her voice, I shook my head in denial. With what her home life had been like, it wasn’t as big of a surprise to me as it should have been that she’d felt like I’d thrown her away for good after that dumb ass letter. Still, it didn’t change the fact that what she’d done was wrong. It didn’t stop the hurt that was burning deep into my body like a vat of emotional acid.

“You didn’t have the right to do this to me.” The voice inside my head screamed, she didn’t have the right to do that to the love that we’d shared, but I didn’t let it out. Pointing a finger that was still trembling with my anger towards the football field, I told her, “You didn’t have a right to do this to him. Did you hate me so much that you would do something as despicable as keep us apart? Did it make you feel better to know that you’d pulled the ultimate act of revenge by keeping me away from my own flesh and blood?” I roared.