by Megan Bryce
“Maggie, too.”
“It has not escaped my notice.”
Tanner chuckled. “Ginny asked why I didn’t stand up for Maggie. Protect her. I told her there was no need. Maggie can take care of herself.”
No, there was no need. But there was want. Cole wanted to protect her, smooth her path.
That she was going to give him shit for doing it wouldn’t stop him.
He paused, wondering just how mad Maggie was going to be when she learned of this, and said, “This is confidential. Specifically from Maggie.”
Tanner sat back. “I can’t tell Maggie?”
“I’m going to buy her loans from Harwood. I don’t want her dealing with him again. I don’t want to deal with him again.”
Tanner nodded slowly. “She’s going to be mad?”
“Pretty mad.”
“At you.”
Cole laughed. “You think that’ll distract her from you? Two men in her life moving the pieces around behind her back? She’ll have enough anger to spread around.”
Tanner thought for a second, then said, “I’d prefer it if my role in this wasn’t ever disclosed.”
Cole smiled. “Me, too. But I have little hope I can keep myself out of it.” He nodded. “I can keep you out of it. But it does mean you’ll probably have to keep it from Ginny as well.”
Tanner shook his head. “No, we’re in this together. She’s already planning on going with me to see Harwood. She won’t tell Maggie if I ask her not to.”
“Women don’t have secrets, Tanner. They talk about things that would make a man shrivel up. If Ginny knows, Maggie knows. Maggie will know you did it. Maggie will know we did it before we’re done.”
Tanner looked out the window a long time, finally turning back to Cole. “I’d like to help you with this, Cole. But I can’t keep it from Ginny. Is there anything else we could work on together?”
Cole looked at the certainty in Tanner’s eyes. At the acceptance that no matter the cost, he wouldn’t keep a secret from Ginny.
“You love her that much?”
“I’ve always loved Ginny. Who wouldn’t?”
“Personally I prefer a little fight in my women but to each his own.”
Tanner smirked, looking pompous, and Cole tried not to sneer at him. Could the man even help it?
Tanner said, “Must be why you’ve always liked Maggie. She’d said she worked out a deal with you. Back then. That you’d give Father some more time, that we would be okay. She trusted you. So I trusted you, even though I knew better. I thought that maybe your plan was to ingratiate yourself into society. Since your father’s way was so obviously not working.”
And Tanner had sat there, the sun shining out his ass, because he’d thought a last-minute pardon was coming. Ensuring his own destruction.
Cole said, “You didn’t even know Maggie loved you, did you?”
Tanner sighed. “I knew. But I couldn’t give Ginny up. I wouldn’t give Ginny up just to save Maggie’s feelings.”
Cole nearly laughed again. Tanner obviously had no clue that her love for him was where Cole’s rage came from, obviously still had no clue that his thoughtlessness of Maggie’s feelings made Cole want to smash his face in.
Tanner said, “I owe them. They tried so hard to save us. Tried so hard to keep the Beaumonts from feeling the sting. Carried us for far longer than they should have. They sacrificed for us and now I will sacrifice for them.”
“By working with me.” Cole shook his head. “What is it with you people? Always sacrificing. Maggie sleeping with me so I wouldn’t bankrupt your family. Now you swallowing your pride to save them.”
Tanner blinked and his eyes widened. He set his water down on the desk and stood. “You blackmailed Maggie into sleeping with you? That was the deal? She trusted you because she’d let you into her bed?”
“I take it you didn’t know the details.”
Tanner’s fist whipped out, slamming into Cole’s jaw. He stumbled across the bookcase, binders flying out, his own fists raising.
Tanner shouted, “And now you’ve blackmailed her again? She’s sleeping with you again to save us all from bankruptcy? You bastard!”
“No.” Cole gingerly fingered his jaw. “And yes.”
“Which is it?”
“Yes, I’m a bastard. No, she’s not sleeping with me to save you from bankruptcy.”
Tanner jabbed a finger at Cole. “The biggest shark in Texas is you.”
“Probably. Doesn’t mean I like swimming with the others.”
Tanner shook his head in disgust, heading for the door, and Cole said, “There’s a two, Tanner. Why I’m doing this.”
Tanner turned back around and Cole said it fast, ripped it off like a band-aid. “Because I am sorry. Because that’s who my father was, what my father did, and I don’t want to be him.”
Tanner looked at Cole as if he was trying to see inside his brain. Tanner opened his mouth, then closed it.
Tanner said, “Why do you want to buy the loans from Harwood?”
Cole sat down behind his desk, looked at his feet and said the truth. “Because he hurts her. Because every time he opens his mouth, she bleeds. She thinks it’s business and it’s not.”
Cole didn’t look up until Tanner said, “I can’t keep Harwood a secret from Ginny but I’ll ask her not to tell Maggie. It’s the best I can do.”
Cole sighed, nodding. “Just until it’s done. She’ll find out eventually; it just has to be a done deal.”
Tanner said, “You did say you liked a little fight in your women.”
“I did. You might want to tell Ginny that the only way Maggie will know you two were involved is if she tells her.”
Tanner smiled. “Might give us enough time to get it done. Ginny doesn’t like to be on Maggie’s bad side, either.”
“Will she even agree to do it?”
Tanner looked at him and said, “I think she will.”
When Cole opened the door, he found Maggie sitting at Paul’s desk. She looked up, her eyes flicking to Cole’s jaw, Tanner’s hand. She raised an eyebrow at Cole and he said, “We worked it out.”
She closed her eyes, shaking her head. “Men.”
Tanner nodded at her. He held his hand out to Cole and they shook.
Maggie watched, waited for Tanner to leave, then said, “Did you hit him back?”
He cupped his jaw, moving it side to side. “No.”
She stood to walk around the desk, softly fingering the bruise that was forming, kissing his cheek gently.
He said, “A kiss is nice. Do I get any ice?”
“You can get your own ice. You know how to move out of the way of a punch.”
Paul came out, carrying an ice pack, and Maggie took it from him, holding it to Cole’s face so softly he couldn’t feel it at first.
He closed his eyes and whispered, “Are you going to tell me I’m an idiot?”
She whispered back, “Yes. How many times am I going to have to do this for you?”
He opened his eyes, found her so close, her eyes swirling, and wanted to say a thousand times more. He wanted to feel her soft hands and hear her sharp voice every day until he died.
“This isn’t the way to deter a man, Maggie.”
“No?”
Paul backed out of the room and Cole thought he might just have to give the man a raise.
He leaned against Paul’s desk, pulling her between his legs. “Did you cancel your meeting?”
“Yes. What did you give Tanner?”
“Harwood.”
Maggie’s eyebrows hit the ceiling and he let her think he was talking about the deal. He said, “So you’d better make it up to me.”
“Were you going to give Harwood’s deal to me?”
“No.”
She laughed at the heat in his short answer and he said, “Stay tonight.”
“I can’t. I have work back in Dallas.”
“I’ll find some work for you here and you can get
started.”
She turned around, fitting her bottom right in his crotch. “And I don’t have a toothbrush.”
He smiled, wiggling her around until she was in just the right spot. “There’s a Walmart in town. They’ve got everything you could need.”
He could tell she was thinking about it and he whispered into her ear, “Need my credit card?”
She shook her head, trying to push away from him. He kept a tight hold on her, turning her back around to smack his lips against hers.
She looked at his grin and said, “Always pushing it.”
“You love it. You’d be bored otherwise.”
“It does make me want to stick around and punish you.”
“Mm. Yes. Please.”
She leaned into him, sighing. “Well, now I have to stay. If you’re going to beg.”
“I’ve got your number.”
She smiled at him, tight between his legs, happy with him, and he thought he’d beg everyday to keep her like that.
But then she’d get bored with him, so he said, “Buy some boots so you don’t break an ankle.”
She laughed, finally getting away from him and heading for the door. “You’d better make staying worth my while.”
“Don’t I always?”
He watched until the door shut behind her, then went into his office and watched her pick her way to her car.
Half the men working stopped to watch her. Cole guessed wherever she went, half the men stopped working to watch her.
He would have to keep her busy or nothing would get done out there. Give her her own office or nothing would get done in his.
Then he told Paul to find a desk for her to put in Cole’s office. ‘Cause nothing was going to get done.
Before Maggie had made it back from her Walmart run, another car slowly made its way down the drive. Cole watched and decided this was someone he would have to deal with. No one drove down the drive that slowly unless they were from the city.
By the time he’d made it outside, the driver had parked and was making her way to the office.
Cole said, “Ginny? I thought I lived far enough away from Dallas to keep visitors away but I guess not.”
Her hand whipped out, across his face, the crack of it echoing against the ring of trailers. A dozen men stopped to stare.
Cole rotated his neck and said to the men, “Women trouble.”
He got a few laughs, a few scowls, but they started moving around again.
He said to Ginny, “I was only kidding about visitors,” and tried to take her arm, lead her to the office. She ripped it away and headed back to her car.
“You drove four hours just to slap me?”
Ginny whipped around to glare at him. “I’d do it again. Stop blackmailing my sister into sleeping with you!”
“You didn’t know either? How’d you get out here so fast? I told Tanner not even two hours ago.”
“Maggie told me. This morning.”
She looked around at the men, some watching, some wishing they were anywhere but here. She said quietly, “What deal have you made with her this time?”
“This time?” He laughed, a hopeless chuckle. “I want forgiveness for last time.”
“You know that she’d sacrifice anything for Caldwell, for the ranch house.”
Cole nodded. “I know it, and I would have accepted sex as payment but she’s wised up since she was eighteen.” He pointed his finger at her face. “You know that’s not why she’s sleeping with me now. You called me, told me she wanted me. Needed me.”
Ginny relaxed, the pucker to her lips smoothing out. “I did call you.”
Cole only nodded.
She said, “I wanted her to have you if it made her happy. And then I was worried you’d rip her heart out like last time. And then she said you never did because she didn’t love you in the first place. Which I didn’t believe because why would she have been sleeping with you if she hadn’t loved you, and then she said it was to save Tanner’s family. And I felt horrible because I’d pushed her to ask you for help this time but I hadn’t known what kind of…what kind of shithole you really are.”
He was that kind of shithole. And he couldn’t decide if wanted to laugh at her attempt at cussing or cry because Maggie had never loved him.
He turned away and she said, “Do you love her even a little bit or is it just a game, Cole, to get in her pants?”
He looked back at her, didn’t say anything, and she said softly, “Maybe she ripped your heart out.”
“I ripped my own heart out. My only excuse is I didn’t know I was doing it at the time.”
Hadn’t known until Ginny’s husband had sat there, golden and shining, but no longer a rival, no longer loved.
Ginny said, “Maybe Maggie still doesn’t know that’s what happened.”
Cole huffed a laugh. “I think that’s likely.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know that’s what’s happening now.”
Cole didn’t say anything again but he didn’t have to. That look came over Ginny’s face, that look that came over any woman’s face when she knew a man had fallen. A soft smile, dreamy eyes, her head tilted just a little.
All because a man had found a part of himself that he couldn’t live without, a part of himself he had no idea how to keep. Keep with him, keep loving him, keep happy.
All a poor guy could do was hope a ring would do it.
Cole already knew that wasn’t going to work with Maggie. He was having a hard enough time getting a temporary ring on her finger. How would he ever get her to wear a real one? Until death do us part, for better or worse?
Maggie had wised up since she was eighteen, and he knew the only reason she’d given in on the sex was because he was good, dammit. They were good.
Good, even great, sex did not a marriage make.
Ginny said, “She’s happy with you, Cole. Don’t screw it up.”
“Got any hints?”
She smiled slightly. “No. But I think it fair to warn you that if you break her again, you won’t survive it. I may not act like a Caldwell all the time but I am one. And I will destroy you.”
He couldn’t help but laugh at her. He was half a foot taller than her, she was thin enough to break with one hand.
He’d never thought Virginia Caldwell belonged. She’d been protected, babied, her whole life. She was the softer side of a bunch of calculating, cold-blooded sharks. They were at home in Dallas and they protected her.
But she stared at him long enough to make him want to take a step back. Long enough to make him think there was Caldwell blood running through her veins after all.
He nodded and she said, “No hints on how to keep Maggie happy, but I do have an offer for you.”
Megan BryceSome Like It Ruthless
Eleven
Tanner didn’t make it back to Dallas.
Halfway there he had to pull over. The shaking was too bad to drive, the sweats drenching his clothing, his vision blurring. He shouldn’t have driven out by himself. He hadn’t had a drink in nearly 24 hours and he hurt.
He tipped his seat back, wondering if he could call Ginny to come get him. Wondering if he should call Cole because it was that bad. Laying here wasn’t making anything better. But he knew both Cole and Ginny were a couple hours away.
Too far.
His body screamed for a drink.
It would make this pain go away. Would make everything better.
But Tanner didn’t have a drink. He’d passed Abilene miles ago, was more then ten miles from anywhere, dry shrubs and dry land was all he could see, and he couldn’t drive an inch. Couldn’t drive even to the nearest gas station for a beer.
Vomit spewed from his mouth before he could sit up, before he could open the door.
He turned to his side, letting it dribble out his mouth, drip down the side of the seat.
He closed his eyes, praying to God he wasn’t actually dying. He didn’t want to die a failure.
He didn’t
want to die penniless, didn’t want to leave Ginny a widow at twenty-nine.
His body shook, sweat poured from him. He thought he might have to vomit again and he moaned.
God. Oh, God.
He was alone. All alone. Would die alone. Would die a drunk and a failure, vomiting on the side of the highway.
Ginny murmured to him, holding her hand to his forehead, and Tanner sobbed.
He was hallucinating now, the end had to be near.
Ginny shouted, “Tanner!”
He opened his eyes to find her leaning into the car.
He pushed at her, trying to get out of the car, trying not to vomit on her. She jumped back and he bent over, heaving.
When he finished, she helped him sit back up, and he whispered, “I need a drink. Please, Ginny. God.”
He shut his eyes tight, breathed in and out.
She pulled her car up close, helped him get in. She had to stop once because he’d hung his head out the window, vomiting again, but she held his hand while she drove, talked softly until she pulled into a gas station and ran inside.
She came back out carrying a tall can. He heard the can pop open, smelled the beer, and when she lifted it to his lips the first taste was like a man dying of thirst getting a cool drink of water.
He drank the whole can. The shaking stopped, his stomach quieted, he stopped sweating.
The transformation was miraculous. He felt almost instantly better, could now smell the vomit still clinging to him, opened his eyes to see Ginny squatting beside him looking worried. The relief he felt was horrifying.
He looked into her eyes and began to cry. Tears dripped down his face as he choked, “I think have a problem.”
She ran her hand across his forehead. “That was from not drinking?”
“Why was it so bad, Ginny? It’s only been one day.”
“When was the last time you went a day without drinking?”
He shook his head. Couldn’t remember. He didn’t keep track, he just drank when he felt like it. When he needed it.
He’d needed it a lot lately. He’d needed it a lot for a while now.
He took a deep breath. “What if I can’t stop drinking? I can’t do that again, Ginny. If you hadn’t come…”