Chapter Thirty-two

Scarlet

“I swear to you, it burned my mouth,” Quinn says, and we both laugh. “I told Archer I would never go down on him again if he eats spicy food. I know he likes it, but for the sake of a blow job he’ll give it—what the fuck?”

She grabs my arm and comes to a dead stop.

“What’s wrong?” I face Quinn. Her green eyes are wide, and it’s like she just saw a ghost. Following her line of sight, I turn and do a double-take. The annoying eavesdropping woman from the visitation room at the prison is standing a few feet from us.

Is this a strange coincidence or is she—

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Quinn demands, and a darkness that I’ve never seen before comes out in here. “Get the hell out of here before I beat your ass.”

The annoying lady puts her hand on her hip and shakes her head. “Nice to see you too, Quinn.”

Wait a minute. She knows Quinn?

“Get out of here,” Quinn says through gritted teeth. “Now.”

“Or what?”

“I’ll force you outside myself.”

Annoying Lady leans in. “We both know you don’t have it in you.”

“But I do.” Logan rushes forward, putting himself between Annoying Lady and Quinn. “This is my bar and I can kick whoever I want out. So get out.”

“That’s no way to treat a lady.”

“You’re not a lady,” Logan spits. “Get the fuck out of my bar, Daisy.”

Daisy? I blink. Once. Twice. She’s still there. Owen and Archer are coming over, and Dean is standing in the back of the bar, hands raised a bit as he tries to talk down Wes.

And now it makes perfect sense.

The Dawson siblings are ready to tear this woman apart because she’s Weston’s wife. She’s Weston’s wife who sat next to me while I poured my fucking heart out to my sister. While I admitted every bad thing I’ve done and planned to do.

I can’t breathe.

“Babe, you okay?” Archer puts his arm around Quinn’s shoulder, trying to turn her away. She’s still seething with anger, ready to throw the first punch.

“Archer Jones?” Daisy tips her head. “Wait a minute—you two are together?” She laughs. “I did not see that coming. How’d Dean take it?”

“Stop acting like you know us,” Logan warns. “And get out before I call the cops.”

“But one is already here.” Daisy smiles. “I’d like to talk to my husband now.” She looks right at me. “You do know you’ve been sleeping with a married man, right? Though I suppose breaking up a marriage is a cake-walk for you.”

She knows. She fucking knows.

The world spins around me, threatening to swallow me whole at any second. And I think this time I’ll let it.

“You okay?” Owen puts his hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah.” I blink and shake my head. “Shocked, that’s all.”

“You knew about her, right?”

I move my head up and down, unable to force out more words. Owen gives me a gentle nudge, leading me away. My feet don’t want to cooperate, and part of me knows that if I walk away, anything is fair game.

She’ll tell Weston what she overheard.

He’ll know the truth. Know what a horrible person I am.

And he’ll hate me for it.

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to block out the noise. My mind races, going into self-preservation mode. There’s no reason for Weston to believe a word this bitch says, right? I’ll tell him she made it all up. I’ll admit to some of the less terrible things I did, like steal a few bucks from assholes who got a little too handsy at the bar.

And then we can go on like nothing happened, because it has to go on like nothing happened. I love this man so much. And I love Jackson.

I can’t lose them. I won’t lose them.

But maybe I should.

I’m obviously not the woman Weston thinks I am. I love him. I really, truly love him. I don’t want to live the rest of my life lying to him.

“I’m not your husband anymore,” Wes says, and hearing his voice makes me feel sick, because I’m already thinking of losing him, of never hearing his deep voice again. Daisy whips around, and I see the remorse in her eyes the second she looks at Weston.

She messed up big time, and she knows it.

We already have one thing in common.

“What do you mean?” she asks.

Wes sidesteps Daisy and puts his arm around me. “I mean I filed for divorce.”

“But I didn’t sign anything.” She smiles again, trying to look victorious. Really, she’s terrified that she just lost the one angle she thought she could play.

Which is bad news for me.

“Doesn’t matter. The papers are already being processed. It’ll be official soon enough.”

“Why, Wes?”

“I haven’t seen you in three years, Daisy. What did you expect?”

She lets out a breath and shakes her head so fast it looks like a nervous tic. “I want to see my son.”

“No.”

“You can’t keep my son from me.”

Wes’s grip on me tightens, and I know he’s working hard to keep calm. I can’t imagine how pissed he is. “You can take it up with the court. You haven’t seen him for over three years. You haven’t provided any sort of support for him since he was two months old.”

“He’s my son.”

“He is. And he’s a fucking awesome kid. It’s a damn shame you missed out on him.”

“I want to see him.”

Wes slowly shakes his head. “He doesn’t even know who you are.”

Daisy’s eyes fill with tears that she angrily wipes away. She looks at me. “There’s a lot of that going around.”

Feeling like I might puke, I turn in toward Wes. “She’s not worth it,” I whisper, unable to make my voice any louder. We need to get away. Maybe she’ll disappear again, and we can go back to how things were before.

Because things were perfect.

“Let’s go,” I tell him.

“Yeah.” Wes brings his arm down and takes my hand. “Let’s.”

“Wes, wait. Please,” Daisy pleads.

“You heard him,” Dean says through gritted teeth. “He doesn’t want to talk to you. None of us do, so do yourself a favor and get the hell out of here. And don’t stop until you’re out of Eastwood.”

“I have a right to be here.” Daisy pushes her shoulders back, trying to hang onto what’s left of her dignity. There isn’t much to hold onto. “And I have a right to see my son.”

“You forfeited that right when you abandoned him,” Logan interjects. “As my brother said, take it up with the court if you want to see him again. Though if you really care about Jackson at all, you’ll stay away. He doesn’t know you. Best to keep it that way.”

“He can get to know me,” Daisy pleads. I watch her body language, breaking her down as if she were a potential client to scam. She’s desperate all right, and I think some of it is genuine.

“For how long?” Wes spits. “How long before you take off again? It won’t be any different than the last time.”

“It might be,” Daisy goes on. “I deserve a chance.”

“Not with me.” Wes shakes his head and squeezes my hand. “And not with Jackson. We’re leaving, and if you even think of coming to the house and seeing Jackson, I’ll arrest you for trespassing myself.”

“Wes, stop! Let’s just talk.”

Wes turns, pulling me with him. Logan and Owen move in, blocking the way so Daisy can’t chase after us. Wes storms out of the bar, letting go of my hand the moment we get outside. He’s upset, and I should comfort him.

Better yet, I should tell him the truth. It will sound better coming from me than from that crazy bitch. All I need to do is open my mouth and confess. Just get this over with.

But I can’t.

We get into the Jeep and Wes pulls out of the parking lot. Now’s another good time to come clean.

But I don’t.

“I’m so sorry, Scarlet.”

“Don’t be,” I tell Wes, reaching over and putting my hand on his thigh. I close my eyes, clenching my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering. If anything, I’ll blame it on the cold. “It’s not your fault.”

“I feel like it is. I have no idea why she showed up.”

I do. She showed up because she heard me running my mouth about this nanny job I took, thinking I could con money out of my new boss. She showed up because I talked about her soon to be ex-husband and son.

I was careless, thinking it was damn near impossible that someone would overhear me and know exactly who I was talking about. It has to be fucking fate. The universe is finally giving me the middle finger, getting back at me for all the shit I did.

Just a few days ago, she heard me say I was in love with Weston, and now she’s here. Which only means one thing.

She’s here to break us up. She’s here to tell him everything she knows about me.