“What? Make a scene? You would have already done that if that was your intention in coming here. What were you hoping to accomplish here, Maura? Were you hoping to convince Aidan to love you?” He sneered at her.
She tried to push past him again, but he gripped her arm, preventing her from leaving without making an attention-getting commotion. And she really wanted to avoid detection.
“Maura, I thought I made it clear the other day when we talked there’s nothing that happens between you and Aidan that I don’t know. He tells me everything. And I know you and he don’t sleep together. At least not since your wedding night. Now, does that sound like a man who is in love with his wife?”
Maura’s stomach felt sick. It wasn’t the baby this time. Aidan talked about her—to Tommy? Did he talk about their lovemaking to his other friends too? Dear God, it was disgusting to even think about.
“We do sleep together, Tommy. Every single night, Aidan—"
“You know what I’m saying, Maura. I know for a fact that other than your honeymoon, and who can blame a guy for taking what’s offered, Aidan hasn’t slept with you, in the biblical sense, that is.”
Maura was beyond insulted. She was livid. “How dare you—?”
“What? Talk to you like that? Come on, Maura. You and Aidan got married because of your parents’ business arrangement. That’s it. You hate him. He hates you.”
“That’s not true. Aidan and I—” She stopped short, afraid to expose herself to this man who obviously wanted her out of the picture. But why?
“What were you going to say, Maura? That you and Aidan love each other?” Tommy barked a laugh that made her skin crawl. He gripped her arm even tighter and turned her around to watch her husband and the woman he professed to love wrapped in each other’s arms.
“You see it. You know you can’t hide from that. Make it easy on all of us and leave. The only feelings Aidan has for you is his contempt at being chained to you when he could be making love with sweet Beth Chaplin.”
Maura shot another pained glance toward the couple dancing alone in the middle of the bar. Her heart was broken. She couldn’t deny it. Aidan was still very much in love with the woman dancing in his arms.
Maura jerked her arm from Tommy’s grip, stifling a sob. Tears pooled in her eyes and ran down her cheeks. Her emotions were all over the place, and the stale beer and cigarettes inside the windowless bar made her sick to her stomach. She was going to be sick.
She turned and ran out of the smoky bar and into the parking lot. To her chagrin, Tommy was right behind her.
“I tried to warn you that day in town. I was giving you a chance to leave with your pride intact. But you didn’t take it, did you? Now Aidan is going to leave you for his true love—”
“Shut up, Tommy! What do you want from me? Leave me alone.” She tried to run around the corner of the bar to get throw up, but she didn’t make it. And Tommy was a witness to it all.
“What’s wrong with you? You sick or somethin’?”
Maura finished emptying the contents of her stomach and wiped at her mouth with her sweater sleeve. “You know, Tommy, for someone who thinks they are so damned smart, you aren’t very observant, are you?”
Tommy’s arrogance slipped a bit when he heard Maura’s words. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about morning sickness, Tommy. Ever heard of it?” She couldn’t help but taunt him, but she realized what she had just given away to Aidan’s best friend. She had to get out of her before Aidan decided to leave with his tramp of a girlfriend.
The look on Tommy’s face scared Maura. He looked furious. She turned away from him and headed to the spot where she parked the truck.
“Are you telling me you are pregnant?” He screamed after her.
She kept walking hoping he’d get tired of harassing her and go back inside to tell Aidan he had done his dirty work for him.
She was almost to the truck when a hand reached out and grabbed her by her hair. “Ow, stop it! Let go of me!” She tried to pull out of Tommy’s grip, but he pulled her around to face him. Fury colored Tommy’s face an ugly shade of red and Maura feared for her safety.
“Why, you manipulating bitch. Do you realize what you’ve done? You’ve screwed me out of everything!” he screamed at her.
Maura had no idea what Tommy was talking about, but right now all she wanted was to get away from him. She pulled against Tommy’s vice-like grip, but she was no match for his strength, and he pulled her off into the darkness.
Maura screamed out, but the loud music from inside the bar drowned out her pleas for help. She was certain no one was going to come to her rescue when a sudden flash of blue merle fur and bared canines flashed in the dim light of the bar’s neon sign.
“Willow!” Maura screamed. She had forgotten about her four-legged companion waiting for her in the back of the pickup truck. Willow ran at Tommy in a dead run, leaping at him with all her body’s weight. She hit him square in the chest, sending him rolling to the ground. Tommy’s grip on Maura released, his attention now focused on the fiercely loyal Australian Shepherd, doing her best to protect Maura from someone who should have been their friend.
Maura fell back against someone’s car, and she took a moment to gather her wits about her. She looked around for something to use as a weapon. There was nothing, so she screamed again, hoping someone would come to her rescue.
No one did. Desperate, she picked up a rock from the parking lot and whacked Tommy on the back of the head. All that did was piss him off.
"Why, you bitch!" He grabbed her wrist and shoved her against the car while he repeatedly kicked at Willow. He got lucky when his fancy shoe kicked her in the ribs. She yelped and went rolling to the ground. He pushed her toward his car parked at the end of the row.
"Now get in the damn car, or I'll shoot the dog."
Maura stopped struggling. "You wouldn't dare. She's Aidan's dog. You are supposed to be his friend."
"I am his friend. I'm trying to save him from the likes of you. Once you are out of the picture, Aidan can sell off his land to my investors. He'll make more money than he will ever see in his lifetime. And with my commission, I can get back to the life I was meant to live.”
Willow recovered in the few seconds Maura held Tommy's attention. She sunk her teeth into Tommy's calf. He kicked her hard this time. The forty-pound dog flew through the air. She landed on her side with a thud and rolled twice before staggering to her feet, shaking herself free of the dirt and dust from the bar's parking lot. She wasn't giving up, but Maura could tell the dog was hurt.
Maura tried to pull out of Tommy's grasp. "Let her alone, Tommy. She's hurt."
Willow limped closer, growling at him through her bared teeth.
"Get in the car, or I swear as God is my witness, I will shoot her."
Tommy picked up a gun from the floor board of his car and pointed it at Willow.
"Tommy! Don't shoot her!" Maura begged.
Chapter Twenty-four
Aidan left Beth standing in the middle of the dance floor. He dug his hand into his jeans pockets and threw a few coins onto the bar when he walked by. "Thanks, Gino. Watch out for these outlaws. They are troublemakers," he joked, suddenly feeling lighthearted and happier than he had been in a long, long time.
He waved goodbye to his buddies. He saw Mike and Jerry, but Tommy was nowhere to be seen. What on earth had Tommy been thinking when he arranged for him and Beth to meet tonight? He’d take care of Tommy’s attempt at matchmaking later. Right now, he just wanted to go home to Maura.
Aidan smiled to himself. He was no longer under the spell of the dark-haired beauty he left on the dance floor. She had done her best to tempt him with her willowy charms and smoldering dark eyes.
He didn’t blame her for taking him for granted. He had always gone running back to her—until now.
His heart was free to love again, and the only woman he wanted was the petite, curvy, blonde with Jackson-
green eyes and a fiery attitude to match. And she was waiting for him at home in their marriage bed.
It wasn’t until he reached the parking lot that he realized he hadn’t driven his pickup. He had hitched a ride with Tommy.
“Damn it.” Aidan turned and headed back inside to call his dad for a ride. He reached for the door when he heard a woman's scream. He had heard that scream once before, alongside a creek bank. “Maura!”
His mind stuttered, unable to come up with an explanation as to why Maura would be outside Gino’s Bar and screaming at the top of her lungs, but it was obvious she was in trouble. Before he could come up with any plausible explanation about what the hell was going on, he heard a dog in attack mode. But it wasn't just any dog. It was his dog. Willow.
Aidan ran toward the fracas just around the corner of the building. He saw Tommy shoving Maura against his car—and a pistol aimed at his dog.
“What the hell is going on here? What the hell!” Aidan screamed to no one in particular.
Tommy turned toward him in surprise. “Aidan, go back inside. I can handle this situation. Just—go back inside.”
“Tommy! Stop pushing Maura. You are hurting her. And if you don’t take that pistol out of my dog’s face, I swear to God, I’ll take it away from you and wrap it up beside your head. Now drop it!”
Tommy’s indecision was the opening Aidan needed.
Willow, come!" Aidan ordered the dog to come to him. She hesitated for a moment, and then she limped to him, lying down at his feet, her blue eyes never leaving Maura and Tommy.
"Now let Maura go. I don't know what's happening here, but whatever it is, we can work this out."
Aidan sent her a puzzled glance to ask her what was going on. Her answer was like a slap to his face. "Don’t act like you don’t know what is going on," she spat at him.
"I have no idea what's going on here. Why would I?"
"You lied to me. You made me believe you and I…had something we could build a future on. But, it was all a calculated plan to cheat me and my family, and your own parents, out of their land. The very thing our arrangement was supposed to save."
“Shut up,” Tommy shouted at Maura and pushed her against the car again.
"Tommy, what the hell is going on?" Aidan moved toward Tommy to stop him from shoving Maura again.
"Stay back, Aidan. You aren’t in this. Just turn around and go back inside. No one has to know you were ever here.”
Aidan stared at his life-long friend, but he was looking at a stranger. Something had gone wrong. Terribly wrong.
“But I am here, Tommy, and I can see with my own two eyes what is happening. I just can’t understand what I’m seeing. Explain it to me. Explain why you are manhandling my wife and pointing a gun at my dog.”
Tommy turned the gun on him. “I don't want to shoot you, Aidan. I don’t. But if you are going to take her side, then I’ve got no choice but to shut you up, too. I’ve gone too far to turn back now. She's got to go. She's ruining everything!" Tommy screamed.
"Why does she have to go? Where? What did she do? What did she ruin?" Aidan was really scared now. Something was wrong with Tommy, really wrong, and whatever it was, Tommy was blaming Maura.
"I told you to stay away from her. I told you not to get her pregnant because if you did, it would ruin our plans. But you couldn't keep it in your pants, could you? You could have had any girl in the county, and you couldn't stay away from this one."
Aidan turned to Tommy. “What the hell have you done?”
"I owe a lot of money to some really bad people, Aidan. And, if I don't get that money by getting the finder’s fee from the investors for the sale of your land, I'm gonna be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life. She's gotta disappear, Aidan. I don't have a choice."
Tommy backed towards his car, keeping Aidan and Willow in front of him. Maura struggled against him, but he twisted her arm behind her back. She cried out in pain. Aidan’s fury almost got the better of him. He had to keep a cool head, or this situation could get out of control really fast.
“But why Maura? What’s she done that she has to be hurt?”
“Because she’s pregnant, you idiot! You got the damn girl pregnant!”
Aidan stood stock-still when Tommy’s words sank into his terrified brain. He looked at Maura. “You’re pregnant? We’re having a baby?” Aidan took a step toward Maura. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was going to be a father. For a moment, he felt he’d been struck with a pole axe, but Tommy’s next words brought him back to reality.
"That's right, Aidan. She’s pregnant. But it ain’t yours, remember. She’s tryin’ to pass someone else’s child off as yours. I told you them Jackson’s couldn’t be trusted—”
“Shut up, Tommy.” Aidan looked over Tommy’s pistol straight into the eyes of the woman he realized he couldn’t live without. “There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s carrying my baby. But, what I do wonder about—” He sent a silent message to Maura. He hoped she understood what he was about to do. “—is if she will stand beside me until death us do part?”
The fear in Maura’s eyes told him she understood. “Don’t do it, Aidan. Please, don’t,” she begged him but Aidan knew he was running out of time and he was out of options. He couldn’t risk rushing Tommy, or he might shoot Maura. Or Willow. But he couldn’t allow Tommy to pull Maura into the car. He was terrified he might never see her again. Or his baby.
“Tommy, please don’t do this. You’ll go to prison for the rest of your life. Or worse, you’ll get the death penalty.”
“If I don’t get that money, I’ve already been sentenced to a death penalty. Don’t you see? I’ve got no choice now.”
Tommy pushed Maura through the opening of his car door. Aidan rushed Tommy just as he saw someone come up behind Tommy and clock him on the head with something.
Tommy hit the ground. His gun falling limp by his side. Aidan rushed to Tommy's side and kicked the gun out of his reach in case he came to.
Once he knew the danger was over, he turned to their rescuer.
“Nola?” Aidan was in shock.
“I’m here too. I was gonna hit him with my walking stick, but Nola was quicker with her rolling pin.”
“Mom?”
Chapter Twenty-five
It was a long ride home, covering those five short miles to the Langley homestead. Maura rode with Rachel in her car while Aidan, Willow, and Nola rode home in the truck.
“Maura, I want you to know that whatever happens between you and Aidan, you are part of our family. And—I know about the baby. When Nola and I looked at the note you said Aidan left, we knew something was wrong. It wasn’t his handwriting. So we drove into town. And it’s a good thing we did. We were worried about you.”
“Thank you. I’m so glad you did. I have to ask where’s Sully? It’s not like him to let you come alone.”
Rachael cut her eyes to Maura. “He doesn’t even know we left. He’s gonna be so mad when we get home. Can you imagine Sully’s reaction when I tell him Nola and I knocked out a man holding a gun on our only son, his wife, and unborn grandchild? He’s gonna be so mad.” They both laughed at the image of Sully stomping around the house ranting and raving because he wasn’t included.
Maura’s conscience pricked at the revelation. “I wanted to tell you and Sully about the baby. I guess I wasn’t ready to completely trust—everyone.”
Rachel nodded her understanding. “I’m not surprised you were reluctant to trust. The bad blood that’s been between our families has gone on way too long. I was hoping you and Aidan could mend the broken fences. I realize now that was a foolish notion. I just hope Sully and I have never given you any reason not to trust us.”
Maura rushed to reassure her mother-in-law. “Not once. I knew when I told you what the man said Aidan was up to, you and Sully were as shocked and disappointed in Aidan as I was.”
“But, now that we all know it wasn’t Aidan who was planning to sell the land�
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Maura remained silent. He might not have been in with Tommy to sell the land, but he was front and center when Beth came calling.
“Promise me you’ll hear Aidan out. Hear his side of the story before you decide to leave us.
Maura’s heart broke at the sound of Aidan’s mom’s voice cracking under her emotions. She reached out and touched Rachel’s arm.
“I promise I’ll hear him out.” It was all Maura could manage.
“We’re here.” Rachel turned the car into the drive and parked on the side of the house near the kitchen door. “Good luck, Maura.” Rachel leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. Maura saw the woman’s tears glistening in the dark.
Maura got out of the car and watched Nola and Rachel climb the back stairs and disappear inside the main house.
Something wet nudged Maura’s hand. Willow. “Thank you so much for coming to my rescue. I will never forget you.” Maura sank onto the damp, dew-drenched grass next to the loyal dog and wept. The emotions of the day stole her strength, and she could do nothing but sob into the dog’s soft fur.
Maura had no idea how long she sat in the grass, hugging Willow. But it was long enough that her legs went to sleep. She knew Aidan was nearby, but he didn’t approach her. She supposed he was waiting on her to say what needed to be said. She had waited long enough.
She tried to rise, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate.
“Maura, let me help you.” Aidan rushed to her side, concern etched across his handsome features.
She recoiled from his touch. “Don’t—touch me. Please.”
“Maura, let me explain. I can explain if you’ll just hear me out.”
She heard the pleading in his voice. “I promised your mom I’d listen to what you have to say before I go. But that doesn’t mean I’ll believe you,” she hissed at him.
She walked the few hundred yards to the tiny cabin they shared. She would hear him out, and then she would pack her belonging and go home. She was surprised how much the thought made her want to cry again.
Aidan's Arrangement: (The Langley Legacy Book 4) Page 13