Tangled Hearts (Passion in Paradise) (7 page)

“Her new man?” Bradley echoed
on a hiss, his furious eyes darting from Melody to the huge man standing
protectively at her side.  “Who the
fuck
is this person, Melody?” he
barked, taking another step toward her.

“Callum Valentine,”
Melody heard the highhanded asshole standing beside her snap back at Brad, his
voice as sharp as a razor.  “Cal, to my friends, but since you and I most
definitely aren’t gonna be buds, you can just call me the guy that’s gonna kick
your ass if you don’t step the hell back from my woman and change the tone
you’re usin’ with her really fuckin’ quickly.”

“
Your
woman?”
Brad scoffed, his smile mocking as he eyed Cal as though he was gum on the
bottom of his shoe.  “I don’t think so.”

“I’m living with her
now, man, so I’m pretty confident of what my status is here.  You, on the other
hand, seem to have overestimated your importance to my girl,” Cal retorted, his
hand tightening on Melody’s hip when she would have opened her mouth to give
him hell.

Looking from Brad to
the man she now knew was called Callum or ‘Cal’ if she was to be included among
his friends, Melody tried to remain calm as Cal continued to hold her against
his side, playing the part of protective boyfriend to the hilt.  She wasn’t
sure what the hell his game was, but she couldn’t deny that his presence was
coming in quite handy at the moment.  As long as he wasn’t deluded enough to
believe the crap he was spouting, she just might not be forced to kill him
after all.

Maiming him, however,
was still on her agenda.  In fact, it had leapt to the top of her priority
list.

“Damn it, Melody, say
something!” she heard Brad order her loudly.  Jerking her attention back to the
matter at hand, she blinked, trying to clear her muddled thoughts.  “What?”

“I said, is what this
hulking Neanderthal says true?  Are you with him?  Are you seriously sharing
your breathing space with this… this…
man
?” Brad grilled her, his eyes
almost black with rage. 

Shivering at the sheer
force of his fury – a fury she’d never seen in him before – Melody moved closer
to Cal.  “Does it look like it’s true, Brad?  He came out of my house, didn’t
he?’ she asked, trying to keep her nervousness out of her voice.  If Brad
smelled even a split second of weakness, he wouldn’t stop until he’d tried to
fully exploit it.  She’d honestly never seen Brad like this.  The man was
usually so smooth and suave.  The degree of resentment she saw reflected in his
eyes made her stomach pitch.

“Jesus, Mellie, I know
I broke you, but you didn’t have to go slumming,” he returned snidely, eyeing
Callum.  “No matter, though.  I forgive you.  See… I’m big enough to look past
your mistake.  Now, if you’ll try to do the same with mine, we can get on with
our lives together.  We’ll reschedule the wedding and…”

“No.” Melody said the
word clearly, calmly, and definitively, leaning more heavily against Cal as she
became aware that Patience, Maggie and Zeke all stood in silent support to the
side of them. 

“Damn you, Melody!”
Brad’s temper snapped and he reached his hand out to grip the wrist of the hand
not holding her gun and yanking her toward him.

Melody yelped as the
punishing hold Brad had on her arm magnified, absently noting that his grip was
going to leave one hell of a bruise on her fair skin.  “Ow!  That hurts, Brad! 
Let me go!” she yelled, automatically lifting the hand holding the gun toward
him as Cal bellowed like an enraged bull.  She gasped as she suddenly found
herself airborne, falling headfirst against the Sheriff’s solid chest as Cal
lunged for Brad, taking him to the ground.

Zeke gripped Melody by
the shoulders as he looked down at her, the sickening sound of fists connecting
solidly with flesh echoing.  “You okay?” he asked as he took the gun out of her
hand and looked quickly toward the two men wrestling on the ground. 

Nodding wordlessly, she
saw his slight nod before he turned to try and separate Cal from Brad.  Wincing
as she watched Cal’s formidable fist connect with Bradley’s jaw with a bone
jarring crack, she shuddered as she watched blood erupt from her former fiancé’s
nose.  Releasing the breath she was holding, Melody felt Patience and Maggie
move back to stand on either side of her as Zeke hauled a barely winded, but
exceedingly pissed off Cal off of Brad.

Planting one hand in
Cal’s chest, Zeke stared the other man in the eye.  “I get where you’re at
right now, man, but it’s time to stand down.  I don’t want to have to arrest
you, Mr. Valentine, so please, get a leash on your temper.”

Melody felt compelled
to protect Cal.  After all, he’d attacked her ex on her behalf.  “If anybody
goes to jail here, it should be Bradley,” she pointed out, glaring down at the
prone man on the ground.

“Mellie, he attacked
me,” Bradley retorted, pressing two fingers to the bridge of his bleeding nose
and squeezing.  “I could have him charged with assault!”

“You won’t,” Melody
returned through gritted teeth.  “Because if you do, I’ll have you arrested for
trespassing.”  Taking a deep breath, Melody felt the warm heat of Cal’s body
hit her back, strengthening her resolve.  “Brad, there’s no reason this has to
get any more unpleasant than it already has.  We can be civilized about this,”
Melody tried to reason as she watched her ex-fiancé slowly stagger back to his
feet and eye Cal balefully. 

“I don’t think your
savage there knows the meaning of the word ‘civilized’,” Brad bit out hatefully
as he narrowed his eyes at a grinning Cal.

“And you don’t seem to
know the meaning of the word ‘leave’,” Callum volleyed with a kind of flawless
agility that Melody admired, propping his hands on his hips as his eyes
narrowed on Brad.  “Guess that makes us even, doesn’t it?”

“Melody is going to be
my wife.  I’ve got every right to be here,” Brad spat venomously.  “You’re
nothing but a way to get even with me for the mistakes I’ve made.”

“Well, I guess you
should know that she gets even with you at least twice a night since I came
into her life, asshole,” Callum informed the other man with a mocking smile.

Melody’s jaw dropped at
Callum’s bald-faced lie and she felt her skin grow hot as Patience and Maggie
made appreciative sounds of approval beside her. 

“Cal, that’s enough,”
Melody declared with a quelling look in his direction.  “There’s no need to rub
Bradley’s nose in things.”

“He put his hands on
you, woman.  He’s lucky he won’t be taking his meal out of a straw tonight,”
Cal returned on a low growl.

Rolling her eyes at his
theatrics, she turned back to her former fiancé.  “Brad,” she said softly,
calling his attention back to her. “We are never going to be an ‘us’ again. 
You need to leave before you either end this day in the back of an ambulance or
a jail cell.  My advice is for you to go back to Knoxville and get on with your
life.”

Wiping at the stream of
blood trickling from his nose, Brad’s heated gaze moved to Melody.  “You’re
making the biggest mistake of your life.  Right here, in this moment, you have
a chance to change things.  Make the right decision,” he informed her coldly. 

“You already heard my
decision,” Melody countered firmly, unwilling to even entertain the notion of
forgiving him.  One lesson her grandmother had drilled into her during her
youth was that cheaters didn’t change.  They just got better at hiding their
affairs.

“This is absurd,
goddamnit!” Brad exploded.  “For the love of God, Mellie, I just wanted to
sample some variety before slipping the matrimonial noose around my neck!! 
It’s not as though I’ve killed someone!   It was a few little indiscretions. 
It happens in our circles, but it won’t continue after we get married.  In
fact, it stopped the instant my dalliances became indiscreet.”

“Did he just say what I
thought I just heard him say?” Patience whispered violently to Maggie as she
stared at Melody’s ex-fiancé as if a horn had suddenly sprouted from his forehead
– which, incidentally wouldn’t surprise anyone watching this drama unfold.  “Does
he expect her to reward him with a cookie or something for admitting to failing
to be discreet when he got busy banging other chicks?  This Peckerhead stuck
his wee wee repeatedly in other women’s woo woos? 
While
he was engaged
to Melody!  Even in high society that shit’s gotta be wrong!”

“Unfortunately, arrogant
assholes like this only consider it to be wrong if they get caught,” Maggie
murmured, her green eyes glittering as she looked from the asshole to the woman
she’d just met but felt a sort of female oneness with at the moment.  “Sadly, I
know this ingrate’s type all too well.  Hell, my father and brother are
probably buddies of his.  Disgusting pricks, every single one of them.”  Maggie
shook her head in disgust, beyond sorry for what the petite, pale-faced woman
was going through.   After all, Melody was in the Universal Sisterhood of Women
Wronged, dammit.  And the garbage the whiny little maggot in front of them was
spewing was enough to make even the most devout Christian woman willing to pay
whatever penance necessary if it meant they could get one good punch to connect
with this horse’s ass’ face.

“A few
little
indiscretions?”
Melody echoed faintly as she stood between Patience and
Maggie, barely breathing as her vision narrowed and she heard a roaring in her
ears.  “YOU CALL WHAT YOU DID A LITTLE INDESCRETION?” she repeated, her voice
thinning as her pulse skyrocketed.  “Are you for fucking real right now?”  Looking
around at the sympathetic faces staring at her, she shook her head dumbly. 
“This isn’t happening,” she mumbled, closing her eyes while she tried to will
the world away.  “I’m gonna wake up and today will just be some kind of
horrible dream.”

“Well, now, you’re just
a special kind of stupid, aren’t you, dickface?” Callum asked curiously as he
sidled closer to Melody.  “Don’t bother answering.  It’s obvious you are. 
After all, who goes out looking for another meal when he’s got gourmet cuisine
at home?  I’ll tell you who.  Only the monumentally fucking stupid.  Face it,
man.  You deserved to get dumped like a piece of trash.  Unlike you, however,
I’m a guy that recognizes a good thing when he sees it,” he continued, casting
a hungry look at Melody.

“I know exactly what
I’ve got,” Brad returned scathingly.  “I don’t need you to educate me on
Mellie’s finer qualities.”

“Evidently, you do
because you don’t
have
her anymore, man,” Cal replied with a calculating
smile.  “I can recognize a good woman when I see her, and even better…I know
how to treat one.”

Melody slowly opened
her eyes and looked from the man who’d once held her heart to the guy that
seemed to know exactly what she needed to hear.  “Give up, Cal.  Bradley only
ever saw me as a tool to get what he wanted.  Was that corner office worth
putting up with a woman that didn’t do it for you for over five years, Brad?”

“Mellie… no.  Honey,
yes, my parents expected me to settle down with a certain type of woman…”

“And what type of woman
was that, Brad?  Gullible?  Slow?  Compliant?  Did I tick off all the boxes for
them?”  Melody asked, her eyes burning with anger.  “Did you get a kick out of
knowing that I’d always be waiting patiently at home whenever you got done
screwing another woman?  Did you get some kind of perverse pleasure making a
fool out of me?”

“I hate that I broke
you,” Brad said sadly, staring at the ground as he shook his dark head.  “Sweetie,
I know I sound like a broken record, but all men make mis-….”

“I swear to God
Almighty that if you say you made a ‘
mistake
’ one more time, I’ll claw
your eyes out,” she threatened with a kind of quiet rage that immediately got
Bradley’s attention.  “I deserved better, Brad!” she yelled.  “I deserved so
much better than I got from you.  In
and
out of the bedroom,” she stated
more quietly, taking a step back and bumping Cal’s chest.  Instantly calmed by
the feel of his body against hers, Melody decided if she was in for a penny,
she was in for a pound, so she went on.  “And I
found
better, Brad.  You
didn’t break me.  You think you did, but you weren’t strong enough to do that
to me.  Sure, I might have a few cracks in my ego after what you put me
through, but those little wounds will just remind me to never put blind faith
in a man again.  So, get this straight.  I might have been left with a few
fractures from our doomed love affair, but I am a far,
far
cry from
being broken, you self-serving narcissistic prick.”

Bradley’s cheeks
flushed at Melody’s blunt speech.  “This isn’t over, Melody.  I won’t let you
leave me like this.”

“And on that note, I’m
gonna interrupt,” Zeke growled before Cal could attack again.  “Leave is
exactly
what you’re goin’ to do right now, sir,” he sternly informed the
still-bleeding Bradley. 

“I beg your pardon,”
Brad snapped, unaccustomed to anyone – least of all an officer of the law –
telling him what to do.

“He’s tellin’ you to
get the fuck gone, asshat,” Cal roared, losing his patience.  “Is English not
this fuckwad’s first language?” he asked with an irritated look at Melody.

Brad stiffened.  “You
know, I’ve just about had enough of listening to this hillbilly’s tripe,
Melody.  Send him away so that we can sort things between us.”