“Even if something in her background might be coming back to haunt her? I’m just trying to protect her.”
“You’re trying to control the situation, just like you always do. Sometimes you’re not going to have all the answers. You’re not going to be able to fit every piece into the puzzle.”
“It’s not about control—it’s about protection.”
“Then why didn’t you just ask her about this other man?”
“I did,” he said, rubbing a hand over his face. “She told me they were married and they got divorced. That’s all she said.”
“Then that’s all you need to know. For now.”
He was shaking his head. “I want to know who he is and why he’s not with his wife and child. I want to know what his intentions are before I—”
“Before you what? Take his place?”
He remained quiet and shrugged. Sean wasn’t a hundred percent certain what he was getting ready to say—or if taking her ex’s place was what he really wanted.
“Listen, if you are developing feelings for this woman, you are going to have to trust her.”
“Even if I know she’s holding something back?”
“That’s her prerogative, son. I know you men think you are the end-all be-all because your last name is Donovan. And truth be told, I know my boys are damned good catches. But that doesn’t make you indispensible. You either trust her or you’ll lose her.”
His mother’s words resonated in his head. An hour later, he hung up with Trent without asking about the search into Tate’s background. Instead he’d given his cousin all the information he had on Sabine Ravenell and Onyx Publications.
Chapter 14
“Got yourself a new car, huh, Tate? Where’d you get the money for that?”
Tate didn’t even flinch when she heard his voice. After the phone call earlier, she’d known he was close. Actually, she’d spent the better part of her afternoon trying to figure out why her ex-husband would show up in Miami, of all places. He didn’t love her, so she didn’t believe for one moment that he’d come all this way to see her. There was a small bit of hope that he’d come to his senses and at least decided to be a part of his daughter’s life. But even that she knew was too much for the selfish bastard.
“What do you want, Patrick?” she asked after she’d turned to see him standing a few feet away from where Sean’s car was parked.
“Is that any way to greet your husband?” he asked, smiling as he came closer.
He’d been smiling the day she met him. In fact, Patrick was always smiling. Even the day he’d tried to explain to her why he was naked in their bed with another woman. Everything seemed to be a joke to him. He wore dark jeans and tennis shoes and an Ohio State hoodie. He liked to collect college shirts, said it was his way of donating to higher learning.
“We’re divorced. Didn’t you get your decree in the mail?”
He shook his head. “Must have gone to the wrong address.”
“Pity,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you,” he admitted. He reached out a hand—now that he was close enough—and touched her hair, twirling it around his finger like he used to do.
Tate pulled back. “Why?”
“I gotta tell you, Tate. I’m not feeling any love from you at the moment.”
She had to laugh at that. “Whatever I felt for you disappeared the second you took that slut to my bed.”
“Awww, that’s in the past. Can’t we move on?”
“I did. And now you’re here. Can’t you stay in the past?” she replied tartly and then looked over his shoulder to the elevator doors.
She’d sent Sean a text that she was on her way to the garage. His reply was that he’d meet her there. The last thing she wanted was for him to walk out and see her with Patrick. She had to get rid of him.
“Really, Patrick, what do you want? And why do you keep calling my phone and hanging up?”
“That was my mistake. Wasn’t sure I had the right number.”
“You’re such a pathetic liar,” she said with disgust building. He wasn’t going to tell her why he was here and she was tired of asking.
“Just stay away from me,” she told him, moving to the passenger side as if she was going to get into the car.
But she didn’t have a key. She wished she did so she could get away from him. But he only followed her, grabbing her arm and pushing her up against the car.
The action set off the car’s alarm, and a blaring noise filled the garage.
“You took something that belongs to me,” he told her, pushing his face close to hers.
“What are you talking about?”
“When you packed up your stuff from the house, you took something of mine, and I want it back!”
He’d raised his voice, his eyes growing darker. Patrick was a darker complexion than Tate and Briana. His eyebrows were thick and usually arched to give him a sinister look. Why she hadn’t noted that when she first met him, Tate had no idea. But looking at him now, feeling the bite of his fingers as he grasped her arm tightly, she felt the first tingle of fear.
“Let go of me!” she shouted, but her voice was nowhere near as loud as the car alarm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
He opened his mouth to say something else and then was suddenly pulled away from her. Rubbing her arm, Tate righted herself just in time to see Sean’s fist plowing into Patrick’s jaw. Patrick stumbled backward and hit the ground. He rubbed at his face, looking up to see who had hit him.
“You bastard! You almost broke my jaw!” he yelled.
“Then get up so I can finish the job,” Sean said.
It was happening so fast that Tate almost didn’t have time to react. But when she saw Sean lean in to help Patrick up just so he could knock him down again, she ran forward and grabbed Sean’s arm.
“No. Stop. He’s not worth it,” she told him.
His entire body was so rigid that when she touched him she’d almost pulled back. This was not the calm and reassuring man she’d come to know this week. It wasn’t the gentle lover she’d been with last night. Fury was alive and pulsing in this man, and if she let his arm go Tate had no doubt he’d beat Patrick to near death.
“Let’s just go,” she said.
“Who the hell are you, and what do you want with her?” Sean asked Patrick.
By this time, Patrick had gotten to his feet, although his legs still wobbled. But he was upright and he was looking at Sean with nothing less than contempt.
“To hell with you. I don’t have to answer to you!” he spat.
Sean shrugged. “Then you can answer to the police when I tell them you were not only trying to break into my car but assaulting this woman.”
“It’s not a big deal. Let’s just go,” Tate said, trying to convince Sean. She didn’t want the police involved, didn’t want Patrick’s stay here prolonged. But her urgings were too late.
“She ain’t no woman. She’s my wife!” Patrick said, sounding like he was in a drunken stupor because his lower lip had already begun to swell.
* * *
Sean had left his office a few seconds after Tate had texted him, only to be stopped by Gayle with some letters that had to be signed and faxed today. The delay had allowed her to be attacked. He wasn’t happy about that at all.
Regarding the bastard who’d dared to put his hands on her, Sean wasn’t completely shocked. Truthfully, he could say he wasn’t shocked at all. He’d known there was a reason Tate didn’t want to talk about her ex, had sensed it from the beginning. Now he could see why—the guy was an ass. And apparently abusive, which won him absolutely no cool points with Sean.
“You put your hands on her again, and you’re going to b
e her deceased husband,” he told him.
Tate was holding on to his arm as if she expected him to jump over and strangle the man. Which he was really considering. Instead he used his free hand to reach into his other pocket, pull out his cell phone and quickly give their location to a 911 operator.
“You can’t have me arrested for talking to my wife,” the man said.
“Ex-wife, Patrick. We’re not married anymore,” Tate said, her voice surprisingly calm, considering how badly her hand shook on his arm and how fast her heartbeat was against his back.
“I ain’t got no papers saying that. It’s your word against mine,” he said with a crooked smile. “Besides, I just want what she stole from me.”
“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Tate said defensively.
She pulled on Sean’s arm as she spoke and repeated it again. “I haven’t even seen him in months, since I left Maryland.”
It sounded as if she was trying to convince him, which was futile, since Sean didn’t believe for one minute she had anything to convince him of. If she thought he believed what this man was saying, she was as crazy as her ex-husband seemed to be.
“And that’s when you stole my belongings.”
It was Sean’s guess that in that moment, her fear turned to anger. Tate stepped away from him and fired her accusations at Patrick like she was ready to reach out and hit him herself.
“You didn’t have anything else at the house, you idiot! You took everything to go and stay with your girlfriend, remember?”
Now Sean was the one to take her arm and pull her away so that she was standing behind him again.
“So, what are you—her man, now?” Patrick asked. “This is a shock. But whatever, you can have her. I just want my stuff.”
Police sirens filled the area, and flashing lights and speeding vehicles came off the ramp, coming to a stop in front of them. One officer was out of the car before it even stopped.
“We got here as soon as we could, Mr. Donovan,” he said to Sean. “Is this the perp?”
Sean nodded. “When I arrived he was assaulting this woman and my car alarm was going off. Ms. Dennison’s car was broken into in this same area a few days ago. Her apartment was also broken into. I think this might be your guy for all those charges.”
“Right.” The officer nodded.
Then his demeanor changed as he pushed Patrick around and grabbed his wrists. “Sir, you have the right to remain silent,” he said, reading him his other rights.
“You just going to believe some suit over me?” Patrick yelled. “Don’t I get to tell my side of the story?”
The officer’s answer was to pull the handcuffs so tight that Patrick hollered once more.
“She’s a thief! A lying, stupid thief!” he yelled as they pushed his head down and stuffed him into the backseat of the patrol car.
It wasn’t until they pulled away that Sean finally turned to face Tate. But as he did, she started to back away from him, her head shaking, hands trembling at her side.
“Tate?” he said, taking a step closer to her.
“No,” she answered in a strangled whisper. “I just have to get out of here. I have to get my baby and go.”
“Okay, we’ll pick up Briana and go home.”
“No.” She shook her head again. “Home is not with you. Home is me and Briana. That’s all.”
When she turned around and began to run for the elevator, all Sean could do was curse.
Chapter 15
He caught her just as the elevator doors opened and she burst inside the small compartment.
A part of her knew he would. That same part that really wanted him to.
And yet, a bigger part of her had meant what she’d said. She had no family but Briana. From the moment she’d caught Patrick in bed with that woman, then later learned who that woman was and what he’d really been doing with her—besides the obvious—she’d known they had no other alternative but to run. She’d thought Miami was far enough away. Obviously she was wrong.
The doors to the elevator closed just as Sean pressed her against the wall. He talked low, his lips right next to her ear.
“Don’t run from me, Tate. I’m going to chase you wherever you go.”
His voice, even in this situation, sent shivers of pleasure down her spine. Her breasts tingled and she traitorously licked her lips. Attraction should have been the last thing on her mind at that moment. And yet as he pressed close to her, it was almost all she could think about.
“I can’t stay here,” she whispered, closing her eyes and keeping her face to the wall. She didn’t want to see him. And she didn’t want him to see her.
“Why?”
“He’s dangerous,” was all she could bring herself to admit.
His grip loosened on her and she let her shoulders relax. The elevator wasn’t moving. Sean had probably stopped it, or locked it, or something, since he seemed to be able to control anything and everything. Whereas she felt more than helpless. Again. And Tate hated that feeling.
“What did he do to you, Tate? And don’t even try to say nothing.”
Sean’s tone was serious, but she picked up the compassion, the empathy, and she wanted to cry. Then again, she didn’t. She refused. After she’d caught Patrick, and the next morning when the detectives had come to her house, she’d cried and cried for three days, nonstop. That’s how she’d lost her job. On the fourth day she vowed never to shed another tear for a man, any man.
So instead, she squared her shoulders and turned so that she was now facing Sean. His warm brown eyes—the ones she was quickly becoming used to glancing into and losing all her worries—stared back at her.
“He cheated on me.” It was a simple statement. One that didn’t seem to shock Sean at all.
But she wasn’t finished.
“With my cousin. And together they both embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from my grandfather.”
Now he looked shocked, and Tate sighed, falling back against the wall. She crossed her arms over her chest because she didn’t know what else to do with them. She didn’t want to reach out and wrap her arms around Sean’s neck, pull him closer and bury her head in his chest. That would feel too good to be right.
“Patrick was an investor when we first met. When I introduced him to my family, he took an instant interest in my grandfather. I didn’t realize it then, but he knew an awful lot about my grandfather’s work in the railroad industry and how much money he’d put away over the years after he’d invested in one of the railroad stations in Maryland.
“He asked my grandfather to let him manage his investments, but Grandpa said no. Then he and my father sat me down and warned me. Said they had a bad feeling about Patrick, that he didn’t have honest eyes. That’s what Grandpa said. But I was already in love by that point. I didn’t believe them.” She shrugged. She’d beat herself up about this for months after leaving Maryland. Now she’d resigned herself to the fact that she’d been a fool, she’d brought pain to her family and then turned her back on them in the end. It was the ultimate betrayal and the main reason why she couldn’t go running to them with her baby in tow saying, “I should have listened.”
“My cousin Marsha needed a job. Patrick gave her one. Then he had Marsha convince my grandfather to invest with her, but he was really investing with Patrick. I didn’t find this out until after I found Patrick and Marsha in my bed. Detectives came to my house the very next morning. It seems Patrick dumped Marsha for some other mistress and she ran straight to the police with everything she knew. My grandfather lost his entire life’s savings.”
Sean had lifted a palm to her cheek. Tate couldn’t resist, and she leaned into his touch. Accepting his comfort was one thing. Leaning on him completely was another. She couldn’t make that type of mistake again.
But then he wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulled her to him.
“It’s not your fault. None of it is your fault,” he assured her.
And some part of Tate knew his words were true. How could she have known Patrick was a liar, a cheater and a thief? There were signs like the ones she wrote about in her column every day, but in the beginning he’d been perfect, attentive, loving, respectful. She knew now it had all been an act. One that she’d bought completely and that had ultimately cost her everything.
“I did what I warn women not to do every day. I trusted him with everything I had, everything that was precious to me. And he used that. He used me to get what he wanted. Then he left. He walked right out the door without ever looking back. He hasn’t seen Briana in almost a year, and he doesn’t care.”
“That’s his loss,” Sean said tightly. “He’s the asshole here, not you. And Briana’s much better off without scum like him in her life.”
She was nodding her head, because she actually did believe what he was saying. None of it kept her from feeling like hell, but she believed him.
“What does he think you stole from him?”
He was holding her now, and her head had fallen right onto his chest just the way she’d imagined it would. And it felt oh so good, until he’d asked her that question. She raised her head to look at him.
“I honestly don’t know what he’s talking about. He took stuff out of our house that night and he never came back. I thought he had everything he wanted. I had movers come in and pack everything else a month later when I moved out.”
Sean was nodding as she spoke.
“Do you really think he was the one who broke into my house and my car?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes. I think he was.”
She lowered her head again, feeling the “stupid” stamp on her forehead once more. The feel of Sean’s finger lifting her chin in that way he did washed it completely away.
“I’m not going to let him get near you again. Don’t you worry about that or about Briana. I’m going to take care of you both.”
Surrender to a Donovan (Kimani Romance) Page 11