Watch What Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  “He will be mine,” Natasha remarked back. “When I get out, he’ll run back to me.”

  Austin didn’t budge, she didn’t let that seed of doubt implement into her mentality. There was no way she could allow Natasha to work on her irrational side and play her against herself. “Tyler will never be yours.”

  “What makes you so certain?” Natasha asked Austin. “I mean, knowing Tyler, he’s on the other side of that glass panel,” she moved a little to the side to look at the glass, she grinned towards it before looking at Austin again. “How about we invite him in? He can see what he is really missing out on. He can come in here and see who he really loves.”

  “He doesn’t love you!” Austin literally bellowed from the bottom of her soul, her hands crashing down on to the table top as she stood up to tower over Natasha across the table. “Leave him alone, Natasha. He doesn’t care about you.”

  “I love that I can still get so easily under your skin, Austin,” Natasha sneered at Austin, feeling happy with the reason she caused this volatile behavior. “Even now, all these years on, even with the wedding ring on your finger and that baby of yours, I can still rock the very foundations your relationship with Tyler sits on.”

  “That’s not true,” Austin mumbled back, the wind taken out of her sails. She knew that Natasha was right. She was the only woman that terrified Austin the most. She had played such an important role in the past why would that stop her from doing the same in the future? Looking over at the window herself, Austin imagined Tyler being here, his arms around her, keeping her sane. She drew strength from the memory, and stood up straight. “Natasha, if you loved him, like wholeheartedly loved him, like you say you do, why did you feed him so many lies? That isn’t love. Deceit doesn’t make a happily ever after. It just gets worse every single day.”

  “You got forgiveness, and your lies got you a happy ever after,” Natasha sneered at her, her face full of disgust. “You ran away, hurt everyone and came back, and look at you. Probably the Austin everyone loves, goody two shoes, perfect woman.”

  “I ran because I was scared,” Austin professed to Natasha. “I didn’t want to, but it felt right, and looking back it wasn’t. I hurt Tyler in so many ways, but he loved me enough to forgive me once I told him why I left. It’s in the past. We don’t throw it in one another’s faces.” Then, without thinking, Austin sniped back and hit out at Natasha at the only way she knew would hurt her most. “He loved me after what you did. He forgave me, saved me, and then fought for me. He gave me a perfect marriage, a perfect daughter, and I got the perfect life.”

  “Well look right here,” Natasha sneered at Austin. “Once again, Austin Pearson got what she wanted.”

  Giving up on this, Austin decided to reserve her energy and head home. Except she had to have the final say, she had to leave with her last words spoken. “You got it wrong,” she spoke back with a stern, cold tone and watched Natasha glare at her across the room, “Austin Armstrong got what she wanted.”

  Chapter Twelve

  WALKING back to the house, Austin took her husband’s hand and looked up at him. “Thank you for coming with me.”

  Releasing her hand, his threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in closer. “I wouldn’t have let you face that alone. I just wish I had stepped into the room and given her my two cents.”

  “And given her the satisfaction of laying eyes on you?” Austin joked possessively. “I don’t think so, Sunshine.” Her teasing ignited her face wholly and carried onwards towards the house.

  Tyler laughed as he opened the door for them to enter the house. He allowed Austin to go in first while he followed close behind. “Now, who’s being a greedy wife?”

  “I am,” Austin teased, and giggled as her husband spun her around, drawing her close to his body. “Do you have a problem with that, Mr. Armstrong?”

  “Oh no! I mean a woman like yourself; hot, independent, powerful, intelligent, staking claim is something only men can dream of,” Tyler commented, his musings coming across in a huskily seductive tone.

  “Well aren’t you a lucky man?” Austin responded, a teasing grin crossing her lips. “You get all that in reality!”

  “It’s a turn on of mine admittedly,” Tyler groaned at her, pulling her closer, lowering his head to bring his lips to hers.

  “Mommy!” Grace’s shrill voice burst the moment, “Daddy!”

  Austin giggled a little, falling against her husband in defeat. “Later on, Daddy,” Austin promised with a wink. She pressed away and turned just as Grace bounded into the main foyer of the house.

  “You’re back!” she shouted and ran to her mother. Immediately she wanted to be picked up, and when Austin did so, she looked at her father and grinned. “I have pictures for you, Daddy!” She then looked back to Austin, “And I have more for you too, Mommy! Gran-Gran helped me do them!”

  “Ahh well let’s go and see them,” Austin replied, adding enthusiasm at seeing her daughter’s latest pieces of artwork. Her office walls in the house were already a multitude of colors and shapes; she wondered what else Grace had managed to create.

  “Can’t,” Grace replied and pursed her lips. “Unca Tommy said he had to see you, and the pictures aren’t quite done yet! You can’t see them until they’re done.”

  “Okay, okay,” Austin cut in, looking between her husband and daughter. “How about I go and see Uncle Tom with daddy, and you go and finish those pictures because daddy has to go work. He’s going to need something to take with him.”

  “Oka!” Grace squirmed in her mother’s arms, telling her she wanted to be put down. The moment she was, she ran out of the room and back in the direction of the den.

  “Situation sorted,” Tyler laughed as he put his hand to the small of Austin’s back and pushed her towards the doorway. “Let’s go and make drinks and just chill out before I need to go to work in a bit.”

  Walking into the kitchen, Austin found her brothers standing together, talking. The moment she walked in the conversation dried up instantly. Throwing her hands up in the air, Austin acted in defense. “Hey, don’t stop talking on my account.”

  Tom sniggered a little. “Well why do we need to carry on speculating when you two are back?”

  “Yeah, we’ve been waiting to find out all the details,” Danny joked as he watched his sister grin at them. “It’s good you made it out unscathed.”

  “You should see her. She didn’t need a physical fight to look like shit,” Austin kidded with them as she walked passed them. “Who wants a drink?” she asked, looking between them all. She saw her husband go for the cupboard with all the cups and decided to grab the kettle.

  “So how is she after all these years in the clink?” Dean asked, joking with his sister.

  “She’s still a sanctimonious bitch,” Austin sneered in disgust as she filled up the kettle. She turned back, seeing Grace standing in the archway that led into the kitchen, drawing book in hand, a look of expectancy on her face.

  “What’s a bee-itch, mama?” Grace asked innocently.

  Everyone laughed, their attention firmly fixing onto Austin as she stood trying to think of her best response.

  “It’s a word you’re too young to hear,” Austin responded, looking to her husband for help, but he clearly had other ideas. She landed herself in this mess of a situation; she had to get herself out of it. “It means many things, but you don’t need to know them at your age.”

  Grace crinkled her nose in disapproval. “Why not?”

  “C’mere,” Tyler spoke up, reaching down to take his daughter. “Mommy was using a grown up word. One that little girls, like yourself, don’t need to worry about. Can you promise not to say it again?” He watched as Grace nodded, and he smirked pleased with how easy that was for once. “Good girl.” He then kissed her cheek, and began to put her down. Something about holding his daughter forced him to face one of today’s challenges - Robert. “Right, I’m heading to work to deal with an issue,” Tyler said af
ter placing Grace back onto the ground and watching her race off. “I don’t intend to be long.”

  Austin blocked his way slightly, waiting for him to give her eye contact. “Don’t do anything stupid. He isn’t worth it.”

  “No, but you are,” Tyler responded by putting his hands around her face, cupping it gently. “I will fight for you night and day, and right now, it isn’t any different. He will know that.”

  “I think he already does,” Austin stated, her voice holding all notes of her conviction.

  “Well there’s no harm in reminding him,” Tyler stated. He gave her a kiss before leaving the house and shouting out a goodbye to Grace and Jane. He grabbed his keys and disappeared from everyone’s sight.

  Austin looked at her three brothers and gulped deeply. “Go with him,” Austin pushed her brothers. “Please.” She was more than grateful when they jumped up and raced out of the house after Tyler.

  ***

  Tyler had barely parked when he leapt from the driver side of his SUV, and began to march towards the main doors to the station. His shoulders were boxed, his chest pumped, his breathing heaving as he went to find his biggest enemy.

  “Ty!” Dean shouted out, quickly racing after him. He knew the type of man Tyler was - an identical replica of himself - and as much as he wanted to go and rip Robert limb from limb, they had to have some rationality here. They had to be the better people in all of this. They couldn’t falter and lower their level to compete. Grabbing onto Tyler, Dean prevented him from storming into the building. “Have you really thought about what you’re going to do here or are you just going to work with the moment?”

  “I was aiming for my fist to make contact with his jaw, but aside from that I haven’t got much planned,” Tyler admitted sternly, his eyes searched Dean’s and he shook his head, throwing his hand to his head, pushing his fingers through his hair. “For fuck sake, what else am I supposed to do? He made my wife lie to me, scared her, and for the last few weeks has been harassing her to the point she broke down like she did earlier. We’ve all seen how Austin’s grown over the years, how she’s gotten over everything. I don’t want the likes of Robert stealing all of her thunder.”

  “Austin won’t be the girl that walked back into our lives. She’s stronger now. She values everything so much differently. Don’t think she’s going to go back to that weak girl she hates being,” Dean tried to break the gathering tension between them. He wanted Tyler to take a grip of his own sanity again.

  Tom stepped beside his brother, joining in the feat to rationalize the moment. “Yeah, Ty, you know Austin more than anyone. You know she would never let him or Natasha win. She might falter, but she won’t let them get the glory of beating her. She’s entitled to her weak moments and even with this all coming together at the same time, she will wake up tomorrow ready to take on the world in true Aussie fashion.”

  Tyler smirked at that idea. The mental image of his wife settled him a little. Even though he was prepared to barge into his own precinct, he wasn’t going for physical contact until he was fully provoked.

  “I know,” Tyler sighed, dropping his hands down to his side. “I know, I know, but Robert threatened her, he terrorized her right under our noses. I just feel like I have to be able to catch her when she falls, be the guy that’s going to keep her strong, and be the man she loves most.”

  “You are all those things, without a doubt,” Tom stepped up, stating what they all knew.

  “We all know it,” Danny said, agreeing with his brothers. “So she knows it.”

  Nodding his agreement, his allowed his shoulders to drop, his anger still pulsating through every part of him, but he no longer was looking for a physical fight with Robert. He wanted answers. He looked to his brother-in-laws and knew they were well aware of his intentions. “Can I go in there now?”

  They all nodded, and that was enough for Tyler to strike, turning on his heels and rushing up the steps and into the main foyer of the police department. “Where is he?” Tyler asked as he stalked his way in. He saw a few of the officers look up, no one saying a word. “Where the hell is Robert?”

  “He’s in his office,” one of them spoke up, noting his chief’s angry exterior.

  “Good,” Tyler said, keeping his hardened mannerisms with him as he locked his gaze upon Robert’s office door and began the walk over to it.

  Steve stepped forward, blocking Tyler’s way. “Don’t do anything stupid, Tyler.”

  “You sound like my wife. I won’t be doing anything stupid. I just want to know what the fuck that bastard thinks he’s doing threatening my wife.” Tyler kept a mirthful tone, something he didn’t think possible.

  “Whoa, he did what now?” Steve asked, bereaved of breath for a moment at Tyler’s admission to Robert’s actions.

  “You heard me,” Tyler snarled the words out, stepping around Steve so he could continue his race to Robert’s door. “Get out here now,” he said as the door began to open. “I don’t care what you’re doing, Truman, I want you out here now.”

  “What’s crawled up your ass?” Robert asked as he did so. He had left his office casually, wanting to see what the commotion was. He wasn’t an idiot, he knew what was going on, he just wanted to amplify the moment that was unraveling.

  “You apparently!” Tyler bellowed at the older man, his face reddening as his rage tripled and trembled throughout him. “I know what you’ve been doing to Austin and it needs to stop.”

  “Who says I’ve been doing anything?” Robert asked, his manner remaining beyond casual and oblivious. “I mean it’s her word against mine, and well, I don’t think I’ve said or done anything apart from our little spat in here when she brought cakes.”

  “Oh, do me a favor and cut the innocent crap,” Tyler growled at Robert, sarcasm begging to mar his tone. “We all know you’re a spineless bastard as it is, but I thought it was below you to lie like this. Now what have you been saying to my wife?”

  Robert chuckled and threw Tyler a shrug. “We all know how much of a passive liar that woman is,” Robert chastised, continuing to enjoy this moment of watching the Pearson boys becoming alive with mounting aggression. “I mean she lied to you for so long, and even now she’s continuing to lie.” He then switched his gaze over to Tyler. “I wonder what else she’s lying to you about. I mean, she can do anything while she’s home alone. See anyone, sleep with anyone.”

  “Are you insinuating that my wife is having an affair?” Tyler snapped, watching Robert’s sly grin weaken as his tone harden towards him.

  “Does the thought ever cross your mind?” Robert asked Tyler, gaining his composure once again, only to start enjoying this moment of seeing Tyler doubt it all.

  However, Tyler didn’t fall for the man’s attempts. “No, it hasn’t. Unlike you, I don’t have to question my marital status. Austin and I rely on one another, and the only reason we haven’t recently is because you decided that Austin deserved some payment for what happened to Natasha. Well reality check, Robert, Natasha put herself in that cell.”

  “Oh please!” Robert scorned Tyler harshly. “You and your pack helped put my daughter away. I should have gone after you as well. I mean between you and Austin, you managed to wreak a lot of havoc.”

  “Don’t you think we paid enough?” Tyler asked exasperated. He hated that they were cast into the same old argument over and over again. “It’s been three years; we need to just get on with this now.”

  “Oh no,” Robert chuckled at him. “We’re nowhere near getting on with this. I bet that darling wife didn’t even tell you everything.”

  “Austin told me everything,” Tyler remarked, his response quick off the mark. “She told me how you have threatened our family, how you told her something would happen to her, or us, if she so much as breathed a word to me. She told us all. You have no power here.” Tyler studied Robert, trying to keep calm, trying to school his rage from spilling out. “What I would do to bury you for all the fucked up shit you’ve been
doing over the years.”

  “Oh, you have no proof to back that up,” Robert laughed Tyler off, the sound wavering slightly.

  “Don’t I?” Tyler called his bluff. He had years of watching Robert slack on the job, hell multiple times he had found him trying to get his daughter released using his power. It was never enough to point the blame on him, but it was enough to scare him. “That’s what you think.”

  “You’re lying!” Robert sniggered, laughing minimally now, trying to hide his growing fear. “You have nothing on me so give up.”

  “Oh I have plenty on you,” Tyler commented back, edging forward towards Robert. “How about the time you let your nephew off for that DUI? Or when you tried to push for parole on Natasha, regardless of how futile it would be? What about that? When you tried everything under the sun to abuse your position? I’m not alone in remembering when you tried to get her off the charges either.”

  Robert remained stunned for a moment. His eyes darted around the room, looking from each of his colleagues, and he knew from the lack of eye contact Tyler was speaking the absolute truth.

  “Now if I so much as see you breathing the same air as anyone in my family, I will make you regret even thinking about issuing some payment on us,” Tyler threatened heavily, not caring for who was listening. “Am I understood?” Tyler questioned, but got no response from the older man. “Well?

  Suddenly, Robert’s eyes morphed. They darkened, and narrowed their gaze upon Tyler. “Don’t worry, Tyler,” Robert began to say, still schooling his emotions. “You’ll have what’s coming to you, sooner than you and that little wife of yours think.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?” Tyler quizzed. He was unprepared for cryptic intimidation from someone like Robert Truman.