Hell On An Angel (Fated Love Book 2) (19 page)

I blinked as I let those words sink in. My brows creased in a frown and I stepped forward. “This is all a load of bullshit! Tim, Gracie and Matt were all at the age where the judge would have let them decide where they wanted to live if you had of filed for divorce. Alienation of affection or irreconcilable differences had you really have wanted to leave him, but no, you left and lost your kids anyway! So you put us all through that for no fucking reason. Good to know.”
 

I turned and walked away from them. Tim tried to stop me but I shook him off and made my way down the hall. I stopped dead when I saw Jeffrey standing at the door.
 

“Hello, Maddison.” I looked between where he was positioned and the door and couldn’t see a way past him. I wasn’t about to go near this man, though. I went to take a step backwards and ran into someone. Turning and looking to see who it was, I relaxed a little when Tim’s arms wrapped around me. “Ah, well, if it isn’t my oldest disappointment.” Tim’s arms tensed around me as Jeffrey spoke to him. “Let’s all go and have a little chat, shall we.”
 

“We’ve heard enough.” I straightened and took hold of Tim’s hand and moved down the hall towards him. I needed to get out of this house. As I reached him, Jeffrey grabbed my arm and shoved me back into the wall.
 

“You aren’t going anywhere. You are going to walk your ass back down that hall and you are going to listen to what I have to say. You never were good enough for my son. You were nothing but trash!”
 

I tried to pull my arm back but before I could, Jeffery was stumbling back into the wall. I looked to see Tim’s fist clenched as was his jaw.

“Touch her again, and I will make you sorry you were ever born. You are the scum of the earth for everything you have done to this family, and I hope she leaves you now that the truth is finally out there. I will make sure to have my security team on her if that day happens, but you will not touch her or Maddison. Come near Gracie and I and again I will make you sorry you were ever born. You don’t get to play God any more. You lose.”

 
With one last hit, he was on the ground and we were all out the door. I got in the car and shut my eyes tightly as I tried to get my head around the crap I just listened to. “Are you okay, Snowflake.”
 

“Please, just get me out of here.”
 

“You got it.” I opened my eyes and put my seatbelt on. To drown out the silence, I leaned over and turned on the radio before laying my head back against the seat. I watched the scenery as we put Alabama in the rearview mirror. I felt Gracie’s hand on my shoulder and turned to give her a small smile.
 

Resting my hand over hers, I squeezed it back softly before turning to look back out the window.
 

Some things we are better off not knowing…

Ghost

We got back to North Carolina by nightfall. After Gracie and Maddie's whispered conversation, she and Blake said their goodbyes and left us for the night. Blake was going to check and see what damage leaving Mario unsupervised had caused. We both knew that Mario would have it handled. He was my right hand, where Blake was my left. Without those two I’m not sure where I would be today. After they left, I cooked Maddie dinner while she took a long hot bath. I’m not sure where either of us thought today was gonna go, but I don’t think either of us expected that.
 

Now it was time to put this all behind us. The truth we got in no way erased the past, but I had to look at the silver lining. If we hadn’t come back here, then I wouldn’t have met Blake and Mario. I just wish Maddie would have gotten my letters. WE could have been in a different place. There was no sense in dwelling on that now, though. It was what it was, and maybe now Ma and Michael could get their happy ending. After dinner we watched a movie and went to bed. I was worried about Maddie. She was so quiet the whole drive back and most of the night. I would just have to keep an eye on her. Not because I was afraid she would do something, but just to be there for her if she needed me. If else fails, I will call in the big guns… Gracie.

The next morning, I woke up earlier then Maddie, which wasn’t unusual, and slipped out of bed. She hated waking up alone, but she hated to be woken. As much as I wanted to stay with her, I wasn’t one to just be able to lay there. So, I would go and keep myself occupied for a bit before I went to make her coffee and went back to bed with her. Moving into the kitchen, I made myself a coffee before moving to sit out on the back porch. One of my favourite things to do was to watch the sun come up from this spot. Maybe one day I could get Maddie out here for that. Maybe one day pigs would fly, but you never know. Stranger things had happened. I sat in the silence and slowly sipped my coffee. Today I was taking Maddie into Ghosting Security so she could have a look around and see if she could see herself joining me there. I knew it would only be a matter of time before she got bored and wanted to do something more with her time. I would take her wherever she wanted to go if that was what she wanted. As long as I had my girl, I didn’t care about where we were or what we were doing.
 

The sound of a phone pulled me from my thoughts. I quickly got up and answered it before it woke Maddie. “Tim, its Evan next door.” By next door he meant a good 5 minutes down the road.
 

“Evan, what’s up, bud?” “I think one of my girls got loose again. Can you check and see if she has wandered over that way?” I couldn’t help but snort.
 

“Startin’ to think your girls prefer it over my way.”
 

“Oh, stuff it. Let me know, yeah?” “Will do.” I hung up the phone and moved down the hall and grabbing a pair of jeans and a pair of boots. Moving to the side of the bed, I pressed my lips to Maddie's shoulder and whispered "I love you" before grabbing a shirt and leaving the room. Getting dressed, I headed into the garage and took the keys to my four wheeler off the hook and started it up.
 

Opening up the door, I grabbed my helmet and put it on before driving out of the garage. I headed down toward the back end of my property where Evan’s cows often found their way through my fencing, which he would be helping me replace again, and ended up at the dam I had down there.
 

Reaching the dam, I saw the cow in question and shook my head. “Back again, I see.” I chuckled as she gave me a look and moved to grab the ropes. The same cow was always getting herself stuck and either Evan or I would have to pull her out. Today, I’m guessing it was my turn. After getting the ropes on her, I moved back to the four wheeler and was quietly wishing I had brought the truck down here instead. Never mind, though. I had done it before. I could do it again.
 

Getting on the four wheeler, I slowly started to try and pull her out of the mud. I was too busy looking over my shoulder instead of at what was ahead of me and I didn’t see the branch until it was too late. I felt it smack me in the chest, I gripped the handlebars, but couldn’t stop myself from falling. I landed on the ground, my head snapping backwards and smacking against something hard. Everything around me went black.

Maddie

Waking up alone fucking sucked. I understand that he couldn’t just lay there while I slept when he was always up with the sun, but he could at least come back for me. He always did get sidetracked by something. I pulled the covers back off the bed, running my hand through my hair to try and get it to something not resembling the mess it was. Walking into the kitchen, I raised a brow seeing Tim’s coffee mug half full. When I wrapped my hands around it, I frowned, because the cup was still quite warm.
 

“Babe?!” I waited for him to call out to me and heard nothing. “Tim!” I called out again as a really bad feeling washed over me. I picked up his phone and saw the last call wasn’t too long ago. I dialed the number back.
 

“Tim, mate. You find her?”
 

“Find who?”
 

“Uh, sorry, I thought it was Tim. He was going to check and see if one of my cows had wandered over his way. I’m Evan, his neighbour.”
 

“How long ago was this?”
 

“Maybe ‘bout half hour. Everythin’ alright, Darlin’?”
 

“I’m not sure… Can you meet me down where you think he might be?”
 

“Sure.” We both hung up and I ran to get dressed.
 

Grabbing his truck keys, I climbed in and thanked God that Michael taught me both Manual and Automatic. Just as I was ‘bout to pull out, Blake turned up. The look on my face must have said it all, because he pulled back so I could get the truck out. When I headed for the back end of the property, he was on my tail. Seeing the four wheeler, I quickly stopped the truck just as Evan pulled up too. I looked around not seeing Tim. My heart was beating faster in my chest. I headed over toward the four wheeler and called out to Blake when I saw Tim lying there.
 

I slid down beside him and quickly checked for a pulse. Blake was at my side next, followed by Evan. Blake raised a brow at me as I checked my watch. “It’s there, but it’s weak.”
 

He gave me a nod and got up and ran back to his truck. Pulling something from the back of it, I moved out of the way as he laid the bit of board down beside him. Both he and Evan lifted him carefully on to it. Not know what had happened, we didn’t want to risk further injury. He grabbed some straps once he got him in the back so the board wouldn’t move. Climbing up beside him, Blake closed the tailgate and moved to the driver’s side.
 

“Hold on, Maddie.”
 

I nodded and moved to whisper into Tim’s ear. “You aren’t leaving me, mister. You owe me coffee and cuddles in bed.” I pressed my lips to his neck before securing myself for the longest ride of my life.
 

I let out a small groan as I felt lips running along my neck. “Time to wake up, love.”
 

“Nope! Not happening!” I heard that chuckle that always did me in and pushed him away before wiggling more under the covers.
 

“Now, you know that never works. Come on, love, I’ll make ya some breakfast.” I shook my head despite the fact that he couldn’t see me and held tightly onto the covers. I wasn’t moving from this bed and he couldn’t make me. I heard him heave an overdramatic sigh before he slipped in under the covers too. Wrapping his arms around me, they slid over my belly. I was days away from giving birth, and he still insisted on the no coffee crap they’d had me on for the last nine months.
 

“Come on, love, you and our baby need to eat.” I sighed this time and rolled over to face my husband.
 

“You know it’s no fair when you use her against me, don’t you?”
 

He chuckled and I shoved him again. He pulled me back to him and I hid my face in his neck. “I love you, Maddison Hayes.”
 

“I love you, Timothy Hayes. Even if you are a pain in my ass.”
 

After he managed to coax me out of bed, I sat at the counter drinking my juice and just watched as Tim cooked me breakfast. After his accident down by the dam, we got him to hospital just in time. Any longer and it may have been a different story, but I thanked whatever guardian angel was looking over him that we got to him in time. Since then we had completely replaced the fencing with stuff Evan’s cows couldn’t get through, and if they did, we all went or none of us went.
 

After we got him home, I helped out a little with the company while he was on rest. Once he was back on his feet, he surprised me with a trip to L.A. He had flown Hannah, Allan and Jasmine out where we were joined by Lucas, Mario, Blake and Gracie. He not only asked me to marry him there, but we got married down by the beach surrounded by all the people who mattered to us.

I heard from Hannah that Michael and Marie got to be together at last. After our trip to Alabama, she left Jeffrey and moved to Tasmania with Michael. I hadn’t asked much about them since then, because truth be told, I wasn’t interested. I knew after everything I should have let it go because life was too short, but I just couldn’t let it go. Had they had good reasons then maybe I could forgive them, but the reasons they gave us just pissed us off. Tim was in the same place with that mess as I was. We had our safe bubble and that’s all that mattered to us. I couldn’t help but smile as Tim came up behind me and rubbed my belly again. It was his favourite thing to do and he was the only one who could get away with it. Anyone else came near my stomach with hands as if to rub it like I was about to bring them luck got my death glare. Mario pushed his luck one day and I junk punched him so hard he may never be able to have kids. Since then he hasn’t dared.
 

“How’s my princess?” Tim asked as he kissed along my jaw. Turning my head to meet his lips, I smiled.
 

“She’s restless. I think she is trying to tell me she is running out of room.” I kissed him softly and just melted into his arms.
 

It hasn’t always been easy, but I wouldn’t change a thing about our time together.