Linda Warren – Texas Rebels: Elias (страница 6)
“For minimum wage?”
“Yes, but it’s a start.”
“What did you do in Dallas?”
“At first, waitress. Then after I got my high school diploma, I attended a junior college and took restaurant management courses. That enabled me to get a better job and I worked my way up the ladder to being a manager of an upscale restaurant. I can start over again and I can pay you so much each week.”
“I could be married, Maribel. Have you ever thought of that? My wife wouldn’t like me throwing my money away, and investing in your kid is like throwing money away.”
“You’re not married,” she stated with confidence.
“How do you know that?”
“Because no one would marry you.”
“Really? Is that the way you talk to a man you’re asking for money from?”
“You’re wild and crazy, Elias, and everyone knows it. There’s not a woman in this town who could tame you.”
“You got that right.”
“Remember that time you brought beer to school and Bubba and another boy got drunk and you tried to jump off the roof as a superhero? Someone told the principal and he came out and told you to get off the roof. You jumped and fell right on him.”
“My shirt wasn’t a very good cape.”
“See, young guys do crazy things and that’s what Chase is doing now. I just need your help to get him out of this so he won’t have a record. Please, Elias.” Begging was getting easier, especially when it concerned her son.
He rested against the back of the bench and stretched out his long legs. “Give me a good reason I should loan you money.”
“I’ll pay you back. Why do I have to give you a reason? Just call it—”
He wagged a finger in her face. “Don’t call it a friend thing because we were never friends.”
“Why do you have to be so...?”
“Crazy?”
“Yes. Why can’t you just help me? Do something good for a change.”
“Give me a reason, Maribel. A very good reason to part with my money.”
They were going around in circles and she was growing weary. He wanted a reason and she could give him a good one, but it would take a slice of her pride just like she’d known in the sheriff’s office. She would have to say the words out loud for the first time in her life. She would have to say them to Elias. There was no other way.
Her stomach cramped tight. “You want a reason? I’ll give you one.”
“Let’s hear it.”
The words stuck in her throat. She swallowed, trying to force them out. But they were trapped in the mind of that seventeen-year-old girl who had run instead of facing the gossip and the rumors and a man she barely knew. Life had come full circle and she had to say the words she should’ve said years ago.
“You’re...his father.”
Elias laughed so hard it startled the pigeons roosting on the top of the courthouse. “Wow, Maribel, you had to reach deep for that one.”
“It’s true.”
He shook his head. “No way am I that kid’s father. You’re not going to pull that on me.”
“Are you losing your memory, Elias?”
“No, my memory is fine, thank you.”
“Then you’ll remember that evening in February when I had a flat tire and you stopped to help me. It was drizzling rain and it started to sleet and you suggested we get in your truck until it let up. Remember that?”
Every day of my life since.
He shifted uncomfortably on the bench. “One time, Maribel, and we used a condom. So you can stop right now.”
“Condoms don’t work all the time.”
Elias remembered when his brother Phoenix had received the news that he was the father of a two-year-old boy. Phoenix had been surprised because he’d said they’d used a condom, but Jake was very much alive and Phoenix’s. No, no, no, she wasn’t going to pull this on him. No way was that kid his. He would know, wouldn’t he? The doubts circled like buzzards and they began to peck at his brain. He didn’t like that. He was happy with his life and he didn’t need all this drama. She was a McCray and she was yanking his chain. That had to be the explanation. She just wanted him to pay the fine.
“That was in early February and you didn’t leave town until late April. You obviously slept with someone else in the intervening time.”
“Have you really looked at Chase?”
“What?”
“Go look at him, Elias, and come back and tell me he’s not your son. And I won’t say another word.”
She was playing him like a pro but he wasn’t falling for it. “There’s no need for me to look at him.”
“Are you scared?”
“No. He’s not my kid.”
“Then go look at him. If he’s not yours, what are you afraid of?”
He got to his feet, knowing there was only one way to make her stop with all the nonsense. “Okay, and this will be the end of it.”
“Yes.”
As he walked back into the sheriff’s office, the air held a faint moistness from the early morning dew. Where had the night gone? He should be crawling out of bed, getting ready with his brothers for another day of baling and hauling hay. Yet, here he was, stuck in a nightmare.
He and Maribel had always liked each other and that night in February, sitting in his truck, things had gotten out of control. And not just him. They both had experienced something they didn’t want to talk about or admit out loud, so they didn’t. Afterward, they’d decided they would never see or talk to each other again. It was mutual. It was over. And now... There was just no way.
Wyatt noticed him walking toward the cells. “Elias, what are you doing?”
“Just give me a minute.”
“I’m ready to go home and I don’t have time to deal with all this nonsense.”
“Just a minute, Wyatt.”
Elias stopped in front of the cell and Chase jumped up from the cot. “What do you want?”
Elias stared at the kid, the dark hair, the dark eyes and the lean, lanky frame. He took a couple steps backward as the truth hit him like a sucker punch, almost bringing him to his knees. It was like looking in a mirror when he was that age. All that arrogance, all that anger and all that resentment was him back then. It took the strong hand of his father to turn him around and even then Elias had fought him all the way. He saw all that in the eyes of the kid staring back at him. Oh, man!
For some reason he pulled out his phone and took a step toward the cell. He stuck his arm through the bars and snapped a picture of Chase’s face.
“What are you doing? You can’t take a picture of me. That has to be illegal and you need my permission.”
“Give it a rest, kid.”
Wyatt grabbed Elias’s arm and pulled him away. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not sure, but you better stick around because I’m going back outside and I just might kill Maribel McCray.”
“Elias...”
Elias hit the door at full speed and didn’t even pause when Wyatt called again. He went straight to Maribel with fire in his belly. “I could strangle the life right out of you and I still might. How could you keep something like that from me? And don’t say it was because I’m a Rebel. That’s not gonna wash.”
“I tried,” came out low, but he heard it.
“How? And when?”
“I was sick in the mornings and my dad figured out I was pregnant. He demanded to know who the father was. I wouldn’t tell him. If I had, he would have killed you. He took out his belt and beat me with it, insisting that I tell him. When he realized I wasn’t going to, he told me to get out of the house and to never come back. He called me a slut.”