A Diamond in the Dark (19 page)

“What do you want, Jimmy?” Tia hissed, looking around to see if anyone had noticed them. Mrs. Cole was standing on the opposite side of the street, waving at her.

“Howdy, Mrs. Cole. How’ve you been lately?” she asked, trying to sound normal.

“Fine, thank you, Tia. I’m fixin’ to go see my sister down in Houston. The poor dear’s been just awful sick of late.”

“Sorry to hear that, Mrs. Cole. You take care now. I’ll be prayin’ for her.”

“That’s mighty kind of you, hun. Y’all go have fun.”

Tia dragged Jimmy around the corner, so whatever he had to say wouldn’t be heard by the whole damn town. Freakin’ hell, she really should have been paying more attention to where she was. She’d just pulled him into the same alley they’d had the last altercation in. As she tried to move away from him, his grip on her arm tightened.

“Jimmy, let go. You’re hurting me,” she said, looking down at the arm that he was still holding onto.

“What, you too good to touch now too?”

Tia had always had a bit of a temper, and with Jimmy actin’ like an ass, he was about to see it.

“You have no right to touch me, Jimmy, so let me go.” She spoke through clenched teeth to stop herself from screaming at him.

“I reckon you want me to touch you, seeing as you brought me down this here alley. Want me to push you up against the wall and fuck you just like Ax did?”

Tia went to punch him with her free hand. Jimmy wasn’t as big as Axton, but he was still a large man. He caught her hand before it could make contact with his chin.

“I don’t think so,” he said, as he pushed her back into the brick wall behind her, the force making the breath whoosh from her lungs.

Panic was starting to rise above her anger. Bringing him down the alley to talk was clearly not a good idea. What was wrong with him? They’d never had a problem before. Jimmy had always been fairly pleasant to her. But he wasn’t acting like himself.

Swallowing down her fear, she knew she needed to think rationally and calm the situation down. “What’s going on, Jimmy? Why are you acting like this?”

Instead of answering, he leaned his face in closer to her. Tia turned her head before he got the chance to kiss her, and his lips skimmed her cheek. His teeth clamped down on her earlobe, causing a whimper to escape her. “You like that, don’t you, baby?”

The way he called her
baby
was nothing like when Axton said it. The sound of the endearment on his lips made bile rise in her throat.

“Let me go, Jimmy.” Tia started struggling in earnest. His body had her pinned so tightly against the wall that the only thing she was accomplishing was hurting her back on the rough surface behind her.

“Yeah, you like it. You’re squirming for me.”

“Are you on fucking drugs? Let me go.” Tia could feel his arousal digging into her stomach. She couldn’t stop the tears from pouring down her face. Why was he behaving like this?

When his hand went to unsnap her shorts she did the only thing she could think of. Opening her mouth as wide as she could, she bit down on the side of his exposed neck, clamping her teeth together until she tasted blood. His sudden release had her falling to the hard floor. His scream of pain echoed through the alley.

She heard the sound of pounding feet coming around the corner. Looking up, she’d never been happier to see Tiny standing there, taking in the scene, Rick stood beside him.

Through her tears she could see the fury in their gazes. As Tiny went to charge Jimmy, Tia scurried up, banging her knee against the hard ground as she jumped into his arms. He and Rick knew how to kill a man with nothing more than their bare hands, and the look on their faces was not a good thing for Jimmy.

Tiny stopped, catching her as she launched at him. There was a manic sounding laugh from a little further down the alley. Good, Jimmy was getting out of there, but instead of just leaving and keeping himself alive, he kept pushing his luck.

“What, Tia? Isn’t Axton enough, or are you fucking the whole family now? Sick! You’re one sick bitch.” His voice held so much malice, causing every hair on Tia’s body to stand on end.

“What the fuck did you do to her?” She heard the anger in Rick’s voice, but was grateful that he hadn’t left her side.

“Nothing she hasn’t done with either of you, or that uncle of yours. Hell, it was only a while back that I caught her fucking Axton is this very alley. Figured she wanted the same from me when she brought me down here.”

Tia couldn’t believe the shit Jimmy was saying. Looking up at Tiny, she begged him with her eyes and her words. “Please make him go away before Rick kills him.”

Tiny’s deep voice vibrated through her body. “Jimmy, I’d get going now if I was you. Or the only place you’ll be going is to the hospital.”

It wasn’t until Rick went to take a step forward that she could hear Jimmy’s retreating footsteps.

Tiny sat down with his back to the wall, Tia cradled in his lap. “You want to tell me what that was all about, Tia? There’s a bruise on your shoulder and Jimmy had a bleeding neck.”

Tia didn’t want to rehash what had just happened, she simply wanted to go home and have a hot shower. She needed to wash the feel of Jimmy from her skin. “It was just a misunderstanding.”

Rick’s gentle touch on her face made her turn her head to face him. “Okay, smelly butt. We’ll talk about it later. But you need to tell me what he meant about you and Axton.”

His nickname brought a small smile to her face as he wiped away her tears. She didn’t really want to say anything, but she knew these two men wouldn’t let it go until she did.

“Y’all remember the weekend Ax and I went down to Houston together?” Tia said as Rick sat down in front of her. When they both nodded, Tia continued. “Umm, yeah, well since then… Ax and I have been together. And a little while ago, Jimmy caught me and Ax in this alley…umm…Well, he was an asshole and Ax roughed him up a bit.”

“What the fuck, Tia! What do you mean you and Ax are together?”

She jumped at Rick’s outburst, and Tiny tightened his arms around her.

“We’re in love, Rick. We’re going to tell y’all when Ax gets back from Knoxville.” She moved as close as possible to Tiny; the look on Rick’s face scared her. If he’d looked ready to kill Jimmy, the look he had on his face about Ax and her made her think he was going to go postal.

“That fucking asshole. I’m going to kill him for using you.”

“Rick! Rick, listen to me. He’s not using me. We’re in love. Please don’t do anything to him.” The tears had started again.

“Shit! Don’t cry, smelly butt.” Rick took her from Tiny’s arms and into his own. “Fuck, Tia, I don’t know what to think about this. You’re like my sister… Crap, Dad is gonna go ape-shit when he hears about this.”

“You can’t say anything to him. Please, Rick. Just wait ’til Axton’s back in town. I promise, then we’ll tell the rest of the family.” When he only looked at her, Tia pleaded. “Please, Rick. I can’t do this without Axton here.”

“Fine. But Ax and me are going to have some words when he gets back.”

“Thank you.” Trying to lighten the mood some, she just wanted to get out of the alley. “Just don’t mess up his face, I kinda like it the way it is.”

They sat there for a few minutes, Rick holding her close, rubbing his hand up and down her back.

“Tia, you’re gonna have to watch out for Jimmy. I’ve never seen him behave that way before. Why didn’t you let me teach him a lesson?”

“’Cause I know you could kill him, and I love you too much to let you go to jail. But you’re right, I don’t reckon I’ve ever seen him like that.”

The sound of Tiny’s rumbling tummy was what had them finally moving from the alley. They dragged her to lunch with them and then followed her home, not wanting to leave her alone.

It was Wednesday, and Tia was missing Ax even more. There’d been so much going on around the ranch that they’d barely even gotten a chance to talk before he had to leave for Knoxville. Since he’d left her bed early Friday morning, there’d been one thing after another, as often happened on a ranch. The constant happenings hadn’t bothered her before, but now that she had Axton in her life, she wished things would slow down a little.

This lonely feeling was something she couldn’t understand. She’d lived on this ranch for nearly twenty years, surrounded by family and about twenty-five ranch hands. She’d never felt lonely until now. It was as if part of her was missing.

When Axton had left on Sunday without a chance for them to have a proper goodbye, it was as if she’d gone into a state of depression. The feeling of desolation was only exacerbated by the incident with Jimmy. After her lunch with Rick and Tiny she came home, sat in the bottom of her shower, and cried as the hot water hit the scratches on her shoulder, the whole time wanting Axton there to hold her.

This morning she had forced herself to do some work in the office, realizing this constant pining couldn’t be healthy.

They’d had another three mares turn up pregnant, and about twenty heifers that she and Uncle Jack had just confirmed yesterday afternoon. Part of the bookkeeping was keeping a detailed record of all breeding stock, so that was her mission today—not to think about Axton.

As her thoughts started to veer away from the charts and back to her absent lover, Leonie stuck her head in the door. “I’m about to make cookies. You want to help?”

Sugar...what more could a girl mooning after her man ask for? “Sure. As long as you make the mars bar ones.” Tia was addicted to Leonie’s mars bar cookies. They had a chocolate cookie base, then a thick layer of sticky caramel, coated in a hard chocolate shell. A bitch to make, but God, they were good and her absolute favorite.

“Of course! Would I be asking for your help it I wasn’t? Come on, girl, there’s chocolate calling our names.”

Tia spent the rest of the day in the kitchen, helping Leonie bake treats for all the hands, and some for the new members of their town. Tia hadn’t heard that someone new had moved to Lewisville, but she wasn’t one for listening to all the town gossip. Seeing as how her brain never forgot anything, it was nice just to remain oblivious to as much as possible. But Leonie, being in a chatty mood, filled her in on all the details.

Apparently Sharina had moved into town just that week, taking a position at the small town library. She was twenty-five and had a seven-year-old son named Trenton. She was single. But Leonie couldn’t see that lasting, as she thought the other woman was beautiful with a Marilyn Monroe look about her, though instead of platinum blonde hair, Sharina was brunette.

By the time they were pulling the second batch of cookies out of the oven, Tia reckoned she knew everything apart from Sharina’s social security number. And if Leonie had known that, Tia would have too.

It was by far the best day, seeing as she’d gone almost four hours without thinking about Axton. Just as thoughts of him popped into her mind Uncle Jack walked in, distracting her again. God love him for that.

“Afternoon, ladies.” He leaned in to place a kiss on Tia’s head. She could have sworn he went to lean into Leonie as well, before quickly straightening up. He snatched a couple of cookies off the cooling tray and shoved one in his mouth, mumbling something around the gooey cookie before leaving the kitchen.

When he was gone Tia looked at Leonie. The other woman looked a bit flushed, and her eyes were little dreamy like she was remembering something. Tia had a lightbulb moment, quickly followed by one of those moments where her mouth kicks into action before her brain does.

“You’re sleeping with him!” All of a sudden she could see all the signs. How many times had she walked into a room just as one of them was scurrying out? “That’s why you had your shirt on inside out the other week!” Tia smiled though. It was about time they both found happiness. Although she was mentally slapping herself in the head for not noticing the signs earlier. Now that she thought about it, there had been a heap. Yes, heaps of times that she could now distinguish as them being up to some hanky-panky.

Looking at Leonie for conformation, she was surprised to see mortification on the older woman’s face.

“You are, aren’t you? I could have sworn he just leaned in to kiss you.”

“Tabbitha. Tia.” Leonie pulled on Tia’s hand to get her attention.

“Sorry, got lost in my own thoughts there for a minute.”

Leonie let a big sigh out. “Yes. We are sleeping together, but please don’t say anything to the boys.”

“Why not? Are you ashamed to be with Uncle Jack? Or are you just using him for the sex?”

Tia was starting to get angry. Her uncle deserved love, and if he was sleeping with Leonie, he would have to have feelings for her. Not that she didn’t think he had sex, but he wouldn’t sleep with someone on a regular basis if he didn’t have true feelings for them. And he definitely wouldn’t sleep with someone so close to home, as in living almost under the same roof.

Leonie, sensing her anger, placed a calming hand on her arm. “Tabbitha. I’m in love with Jack.”

“Oh. Okay. That’s good to know. So why aren’t y’all telling anyone?”

“We’re planning on it, but the timing just never seems right.” She turned back to mixing up the last batch of cookies.

Tia didn’t understand. How could the timing never be right? It wasn’t as if the boys, or even herself for that matter, were kids that couldn’t handle Jack having someone in his life. “Is this about Maggie?” It was the only thing she could think of.

“Yes and no. When we first got together it was just to help each other scratch a mutual itch. Then as time passed and we spent more time together, my feelings and his changed, became deeper. This scared me… See, Tia, I have an ugly past. I was married once, and the man I thought I loved with all my heart turned out to be evil.”

Tia didn’t say anything as Leonie made them a cup of coffee, but instead of moving to the little table in the kitchen she stayed at the sink.

“He—that is, my husband—started hitting me not long after we were married. At first, like a lot of battered women, I thought it was my fault. About a year into our marriage I realized that the nasty things he would say, and the beatings, were not my fault. I had already started making friends with other women that had gone through the same thing and who’d escaped. It wasn’t ’til I found out I was pregnant that I seriously started saving everything I could so I could leave him.