Page 16 of Claimed By my Best Friend

Even though this is his house, I didn’t fucking expect him to be here. He’s a busy man with a massive ranching operation to oversee. I hadn’t expected him to take an interest in his niece’s love life, and by the looks of it, neither did Paula. I feel her grip tighten around my hand, and I squeeze hers once more. I’m painfully aware of how much Paula values her uncle’s opinion. In the time since she moved to Valor Springs, they’ve grown close. He’s much younger than Paula’s father, his oldest brother, and I know Paula loves spending time on the ranch with him.

The unspoken judgment hanging in the air and the weight of their possible disapproval creates a tension in the room so thick, I could cut through it with a knife. If it proves to be too much, I’ll just take Paula out of here, and neither of these men can do shit about it.

“Sit,” Paula’s father, Brandt, instructs, and I urge Paula to take the empty seat across from her father before standing behind her like a sentinel.

Okay, let’s get this over with. I’m sure they have a shit ton to say to try to dissuade Paula from being with me. Her fathertried it before when Paula and I first got close, and he can try it again, but it won’t work. It didn’t work the first time, and then, she and I were just friends. The connection between us is much deeper now.

Unshakable, is what it is.

“So, this is how you decide to dishonor your mother.” My head whips up, and I feel Paula still in her seat when her father speaks. “She would be turning in her grave if she knew the man you were dating.”

“Dad!” Paula gasps a tremble in her voice. “That’s not fair!”

“It’s exactly what you are doing, sleeping around with the man that killed her. What a fucking disgrace!”

His words are harsh and loud, cracking through the room like a gunshot. I am stunned by what he’s said, and it takes me a second to process it. “I did not kill Paula’s mother!” I grind out, purely disgusted by the man’s accusation. “I’d never even met her!”

Fuck, these people are sick. I should have never agreed to bring Paula here.

“You might as well have! It was a man just like you who did!” he barks before I can move. “The man that shot my wife was a scum of the earth criminal like you. You are no different from him, are you, Darrell Nord? Since you have the same habit of breaking and entering. You might not have killed anyone, but it’s only a matter of time before you return to your criminal ways, and then who knows what you’ll do. Prison doesn’t change men like you.” His venomous eyes swing to his daughter, who has gone still. “Didn’t your mother’s murder teach you anything?”

This… It’s a low blow, something I never would have expected from a man like Brandt Tate, but perhaps I should have. Guys like him are all the fucking same. They look at me and my tattoos and label me a criminal. Sure, I have a past, but I have been living an honest life since the moment I left prison. Doesn’t that mean anything to these people?

To my surprise, Paula’s uncle jumps to his feet. “Now hold on, Brandt. Let’s not get carried away. I know you’re worried about Paula, and your wife’s death is still an open wound, but you don’t know Darrell. Sure, he’s got a record, but—”

“You know nothing about me,” I interject. “You have no fucking right to speak to me or Paula in that way!” I snap, my eyes narrowed on the man who seems to hate me for no good reason. “Let’s go, Paula.” I reach down and take her hand. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Paula doesn’t get up from the chair when I pull her hand; her entire focus seems to be on her father and uncle. “You’re lying,” she whispers, and I hear the tears in her voice. “It’s cruel to accuse someone of something just because you don’t like them.”

“If you think I am lying, ask your boyfriend where he was five years ago,” her father says, nodding to me. “No, as matter of fact, why don’t you see for yourself?”

A file is tossed on the desk in front of Paula, but before she can even open it, I already know what it is. And yet, I don’t stop her. As much as I want to grab this girl and carry her out of this suffocating room, I watch her slowly reach for the file.

Paula lets out a small gasp when she flips open the file and on the first page is my mug shot. Well, the first one anyway. My dirty blond hair was longer and unkempt back then, the mullet unevenly cut, and every detail can be seen in the photo.It feels strange to look at my younger self through new eyes. I was sixteen and scrawny, and didn’t have any tattoos yet. I just looked like a misunderstood kid caught in the act of stealing. The same cannot be said about the next mugshot or the one after that. The tattoos begin to form, and my eyes grow progressively harder. In the final shot, I’m bigger and more solidly built. My cold, unfeeling eyes stare right into the camera. I’d lost the mullet in favor of a prison-issue buzz cut.

Staring at the photo is like looking at a ghost, and I can’t tell what Paula is thinking as she takes it all in. I have a split lip from resisting my arrest, and a fading black eye from a bar fight the week before.

I am no longer that person. In fact, I don’t recognize him anymore, or any one of the others in that folder. But will Paula see that? Or will she believe only what’s in front of her in black and white?

Paula is quiet, terrifyingly so. Fuck, maybe I should have opened up about my past before and told her all about it, but everyone in town seems to have noticed I’m not that man anymore. No one talks about my past, only the positive contributions I’ve made to the town since my return. I foolishly thought that meant I could keep all of this a secret from Paula.

Paula shuts the file and tosses it back on the desk, and I notice a visible tremble in her fingers. “It’s…” Her voice breaks at first. “It’s not fair for you to bring up Mom’s death,” she whispers, letting out a shuddering breath. “It’s cruel to use that to get me to leave him. You could have left Mom out of this and made your point without being so mean.”

“Paula, I will always do whatever it takes to protect you. I can’t lose you like I lost your mother. I tried to tell you before how dangerous this man is, but you refused to see sense!”

“You’ve made your point, Dad,” she sniffs, her voice calm and even in the face of things, and I imagine it’s a skill she’s picked from dealing with temperamental kids every day.

Paula slowly rises from her seat, and her father follows as well, his face morphed in anger as he stares at his daughter in annoyance. “I forbid you from seeing this man!”

She doesn’t respond, instead, she goes to the door and walks out without another word. Her father starts after her, but Dane moves to intercept him. “Let her go,” he says.

There are many things I want to say and do in response to how Paula’s father handled everything, but I shove down my anger. It will do no one any good if I lose my temper, and I can tell Brandt is nearly vibrating with the desire for me to give him a reason to have me arrested and prove to his daughter what a monster I am. I decide to not engage the man, so I rush out after Paula in time to see her walk out of the house. I run after her, expecting her to climb into my truck, but she simply continues past it.

“Paula!” I catch up with her before she can make it off the driveway. “Hey, angel, talk to me.”

She stops but doesn’t turn to look at me. Her eyes are downcast, but I can see the wet tracks on her cheeks. “I don’t know what to say, Darrell,” she whispers.

“Okay, alright. Let’s go back to my place and talk about this. I will explain everything to you.”

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