Читать книгу Texas Rebels: Elias - Linda Warren, Linda Warren - Страница 12

Chapter Three

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.”

Some of the anger eased from Elias as he started to see the past from her point of view. His parents had never hit them and he couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for a young girl to be hit time and time again.

“I got in my truck and drove away. I paid for the truck myself from working at the bakery so he couldn’t take that away from me. I didn’t know where to go or what to do, but as I was leaving my mom shoved three hundred dollars in my hand and told me to go to Mrs. Peabody’s.”

Elias sat on the bench beside her as she continued to talk. “As I was driving away, I thought I wasn’t the only one who had created this baby and you needed to know you were going to be a father. I went to Rebel Ranch to find you.”

Elias sat up straight. “You went to the ranch?”

“Yes. Your grandfather answered the door and when he saw me he called for your mother. The moment she saw me she demanded to know what I wanted. I told her I wanted to see Elias and she told me I wasn’t seeing her son.” Maribel wiped at her face.

Was she crying? Oh, no. He couldn’t stand it when women cried. He just held his breath and waited for more because he knew there was no way his mother would have turned away a Rebel grandchild.

“She then asked me why I wanted to see you and I had no choice. I had to tell her. I hoped she’d let me see you then, but that hope was short-lived. She said, ‘Get out of my house and if you spread that rumor around Horseshoe, I will have you arrested.’”

“Nah.” Elias shook his head. “You had me up until then. My mom wouldn’t do that. I know that beyond any doubt.”

“I’m not lying, Elias. Ask your grandfather. He was there. He even said, ‘Kate, you need to listen to the girl.’ She told him to shut up and that was it. I ran to my truck and drove straight to Mrs. Peabody’s. I told Mrs. Peabody I had nowhere to go. She said she would find me a place away from Horseshoe. She called her sister in Dallas who said I could stay with her until I got on my feet. I went to the bakery and picked up my paycheck and told Doris I wouldn’t be coming back. I drove away, leaving everything behind—the heartache, the pain and my family.”

Elias rubbed his hands together, trying to believe what she was saying. His mother’s part in this he didn’t believe, just yet. It didn’t ring true for the woman he knew, the mother who always stood up for her children and fought for them. He’d deal with that later. Right now, he was grappling with the fact that he had a child, an out-of-control son.

“I’ll pay you back, Elias. I just can’t let my son stay in jail.”

Elias got to his feet. “I’m not spending one dime to get that kid out of jail.” He headed back to the sheriff’s office with Maribel behind him.

“You don’t mean that!”

She followed him straight into the sheriff’s office. “Elias, please.”

“I need to talk to you, Wyatt.”

“Elias.” Wyatt sighed. “It’s five o’clock in the morning. I’m going home and whatever you want to talk about we can do it on Monday.”

“We have to do it now.”

Wyatt stared right at him. “Why?”

“You asked me for a favor and now I’m asking you for one.”

Wyatt laid down the pen he was holding. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but what favor?”

“I want you to release Chase McCray into my custody without any money changing hands.”

Wyatt gave a chuckle. “I think you’re sleep deprived. I’m not releasing Chase McCray to anyone. He stays in jail.”

“You released the other two boys into the custody of their parents.”

“Yes, because I know them and I know they’ll be in court on Monday morning.”

“You know me, too, don’t you, Wyatt?”

“Too well. And I know once you get something in your mind you never let it go, just like an old hound dog.”

“So you know I’m not stopping until you release him into my custody.”

Wyatt sighed again. “Elias, why is this kid so important to you?”

He took a deep breath and said the words for the first time: “He’s my son.”

“What?” Wyatt frowned and looked from Elias to Maribel. “You mean you and Maribel were a thing in high school?”

“Yes. It happened one time and we both knew that because of our families we couldn’t be together and we never saw each other again. I didn’t know Maribel was pregnant and she told me for the first time tonight. So, are you going to let my kid go or not?”

Wyatt ran his hands through his hair. “Holy cow. This is just what I need. I knew something was going on with this kid and now the Rebel/McCray feud is going to get stirred up all over again.”

“You don’t have to worry about Chase running. I’ll stick to him like butter on a biscuit. I’ll have him at the courthouse on time for the hearing. And you know I always keep my word.”

“I just can’t release someone because you ask me to.”

Elias leaned over and tapped Wyatt’s badge on his khaki shirt. “You’re the sheriff and you can do anything you want. I’ve seen you do it many times and no one has questioned you. The people in this community trust you to make the right decisions.”

Wyatt reached for the keys. “Damn it! I’m going to release him into your custody and if he does one little thing and is not there for the hearing—” Wyatt pointed to the jail cell “—you’ll be sitting in that cell.”

“Got it.” Elias took the keys from Wyatt. “I want to talk to him first.”

“No,” Maribel spoke up. “I’ll tell him. He needs to hear it from me.”

Elias faced the woman who’d just driven an ice pick through his heart. “I will tell him. You had the opportunity for seventeen years and now it’s my turn. He needs to hear this from me—his father.”

“I need to do this,” Maribel insisted.

He shook his head. “Not gonna happen. That kid has an attitude and he’s going to learn respect and manners and he’s going to learn it from me.”

Wyatt coughed.

Elias looked at his friend. “You think I can’t do it?”

“I just want to go home. Whatever you do with your child is your business. But I’ll say one thing for you, Elias. You’ve always shown me respect, even when you were in the wrong.”

“Elias...” Maribel called after him as he walked away to the cell. Chase lay on the cot with his hands behind his head. He slowly sat up when he saw Elias entering the cell.

“What do you want?”

Elias sat on a cot, facing his son and he couldn’t stop staring at him and reliving the memories that churned inside him. That night when he had come upon Maribel fixing a flat, he thought all his prayers had been answered. There had been an electricity between them for some time and he had just wanted to talk to her, away from school, away from their families. She’d accepted his help graciously and then they had scrambled into his truck to get away from the sleet.

Breathing the same air as Maribel had been as intoxicating as any beer he’d ever had. She’d smelled of strawberries, and being young and stupid and besotted he’d thought it was because of her strawberry colored hair. He’d loved being close to her. Her hair had been wet and he’d grabbed an old jacket from the back seat and had helped to rub it dry. When he’d touched her skin, her soft skin, something had happened to both of them and they’d kept on touching each other. One kiss had led to another and before either of them could stop, they were ripping off clothes and getting warm in an old familiar way.

She was the sexiest girl he’d ever touched. He remembered every emotion he had felt that night. It was like a movie in his head and he could bring it up at the oddest of times. Her moans, her smile, her long hair all around him. He remembered it almost every day of his life. And he regretted it almost every day of his life. Now, he was staring at the results of that night. The child they’d created, not in love but in passion. A powerful passion. And after it was gone, the only thing that had remained was the regrets.

“Are you just gonna stare at me, or what?”

“What has your mother told you about your father?”

“What? That’s none of your business.”

“You know we had this talk about manners and respect. Do we need to have it again?”

Chase frowned. “Are you a deputy, or what?”

“Or what.”

“Why do you want to know about my dad?”

“I’m just curious. Your mom is trying to get you out of jail and...”

Chase tried to see around the bars. “Is she talking to the sheriff?”

“Yes, he wants a thousand dollars upfront to make sure you don’t run or leave town.”

“My mom doesn’t have that kind of money.”

“Maybe your dad does.”

“I don’t know who he is. Mom doesn’t talk about him. The only thing she told me was that he was someone in high school, someone she shouldn’t have gotten involved with. He wasn’t ready to be a father and she had to raise me alone. She never told him about me, and that’s okay. We had Nana.”

“Who’s Nana?”

“She’s my grandmother, or the lady who took my mother in when she was pregnant. She became my grandmother and she loved both of us. It hasn’t been the same since she died. After that, we had to move into an apartment. We did okay until Mom’s boss fired her because she wouldn’t sleep with him.”

Maribel had failed to mention that. He could imagine her life must’ve been pretty hard raising the kid alone. He was glad she’d had someone there for her like Nana to help. The guilt was now beating against his head with the force of a two-by-four. He should have known something was wrong when she’d left town without graduating. He should’ve been the one to put it together, but he had been busy doing other things. Maturity hadn’t been his strong suit back then, and some people would say it wasn’t now, either.

Elias decided to let it go for now. Later, he and Maribel would talk about a lot of things. He rested his forearms on his thighs and looked at his son. “You seem to have had a pretty good life. Why are you so angry?”

Chase looked down at the floor. “I don’t like it here. No one wants us here. I want to go back home to Dallas. I play football and I’m hoping scouts will notice me and I can get a scholarship to college because Mom won’t be able to afford to pay for me to go. I want to play in the NFL. All that is ruined now and I’ll never get noticed in this one-horse town. My life is over.”

“So life is all about you. Have you even thought about what it’s like for your mother to come back here and face her family and the guy who is your father?”

“No.” Chase continued to look at the floor.

“Have you ever thought of getting a job to help out?”

His head jerked up. “A job? I don’t know how to do anything except play football.”

“That’s going to change.”

Chase narrowed his eyes. “Says who?”

“Says me. You have to pay for the beer you stole and to do that you have to get a job and make money. A new concept, huh?”

“My mom will pay for it.”

Elias’s shook his head. “No. You will, and I’m going to make sure that you do.”

“You can’t make me do anything. My mom won’t let you.”

The crux of all Chase’s problems—his mother. Elias was going to undo some of that, at least the pampering.

“You’re seventeen years old and it’s time for you to stand up and be a man and take responsibility for what you did.”

“I’m sorry, okay?” There was a note of regret in his voice and it was the first sign that it was getting harder to carry around that big ol’ attitude.

Elias got to his feet. “The sheriff has released you into my custody.”

“What? Why would he do that? I don’t even know you. My mother will not stand for this.”

“Your mother has agreed, so this discussion is over.”

“I’m not going with you. I’d rather stay in jail.”

Elias placed his hands on his hips and stared at this kid that he and Maribel had created. It was time for a dose of reality. For the kid. And for Elias. “That guy from high school who your mom said wasn’t ready for responsibility would have taken full responsibility for you.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’m that guy. I’m your father.”