Page 25 of Tex's Angel

Tex

When Clara reaches over to squeeze my hand, I barely manage to refrain from throwing her over my shoulder, carrying her upstairs, and having my way with her. Given what she said, I think she’d be up for it, but she’d wake up in the morning and hate me for taking advantage when she was vulnerable.

Still, after hearing her talking to her brother-in-law I knew I had to tell her how I felt. It didn’t seem right to keep crushing on her without saying something. Nope, she’s had her fair warning, maybe once this is all over, we can see if there’s anything between us. But until then, even if my cock has other ideas, I’m not gonna make a move on her.

When the meal is winding down, my cell phone buzzes with a message from the guys I sent out to Clara’s house. I bring Clara up to speed on what’s going on. “Since I’m managing the Savage Legion’s security business, I’ve sent out a team to put up cameras around your place. They’re there now but need your alarm code to get into the house.”

I hand Clara my phone and she types the code and hits send.

When she gives me the phone back, I explain. “Since I work for the Legion, y’all don’t have to worry about paying. Labor’s free and we’ll take the equipment back after we catch this asshole, though if y’all wanted to keep the cameras then we can do it for cost.”

“Thanks, hopefully I won’t be needing the extra security.”

“Well, whatever you decide, I’m here for you.” Glancing at Wade, I say, “Our list of possible suspects looks something like the neighborhood kids, the soon-to-be-ex, and you.”

Wade’s eyes fly open, but he doesn’t object.

“Naturally, we’ve managed to check you off our list. The neighborhood kids we’re still working on. We confronted them and they blew us off. My son goes to a Catholic private school with them and says they’re all a bunch of rich kids more worried about getting into the right colleges than doing stupid shit that might get them arrested. I had a friend at the police station run background checks on them and they’re squeaky clean, so I’m thinking we can rule them out as well.”

Wade speaks up, “That leaves Chris.”

“Do y’all think he has it in him to stalk Clara?”

“Chris has always been obsessed with Clara, even before they started dating. He told me stories about how he manipulated multiple situations to put himself in her path, hoping he could charm her into dating him.”

I say dryly, “Clearly, that worked. I guess it comes down to motive, opportunity, and drive to pull something like this off.”

Clara chimes in, “I thought that since the man on my door’s ring cam didn’t look anything like Chris, that it was maybe someone he hired to harass me.”

Wade’s head jerks up. “Chris would never hire anyone to harass you. He’d be too jealous of letting another man get close to you when he wasn’t around.”

“Afraid of me falling for the man he hired to harass me? Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?”

I explain it to her. “Clara, you’re clearly pretty naive when it comes to men and how possessive they can be. What Wade’s sayin’ is that Chris sweet-talked you right into bed and he’s the kind of man who knows that shit works, and more importantly that it works on you because y’all fell for his shit in the first place.”

Clara gets to her feet and glares at me. “Do you honestly think I’m that gullible? What about Chris falling in love with me, was he gullible too or is it just because I’m a woman?”

I stare up at her, surprised that she’s tearing into me over this, I was only telling her how it is. “It’s not about being a woman. It’s about being young and naive. I never said y’all were gullible.”

Wade is making a slashing motion across his neck for me to cut it out, but he’s too late. Clara spits out, “I have a college degree, I’m not some sheltered high school girl who doesn’t know how the world works. You want to try again?”

I lower my voice. “Sit down, Clara. People are staring.”

“Fuck people staring! And don’t talk to me like I’m your son.”

Well, even if she did want to jump my bones, I think I’ve gone and blown it. Maybe it’s for the best, “I’m sorry,” I stammer awkwardly. “I didn’t mean to set y’all off. I didn’t mean that y’all were gullible, only that…” I pause, before continuing seeing Wade shaking his head out the corner of my eye. “Look forget it, I’m sorry, okay?”

“Women fall in love with assholes all the time because they’re good at hiding that part of their personality until they’ve got you hooked. It’s why I dropped Chris without a second thought when I found him with my sister.”

Wade tries to help, “I think we all just need to calm down for a second.” Turning to me, he lowers his voice. “You know Tex is all twisted up about you being in danger, because it’s clear he has a thing for you. Maybe you could cut him some slack, just this once.”

Then he looks at me. “I know your heart’s probably in the right place, but you have got to stop letting every stupid thing that pops into your head come out of your pie hole.”

Wade ain’t wrong about any of what he’s saying to us. Here I thought we were saving him and come to find out, he’s the one helping us through our shit. I have the strongest feeling that we’re gonna end up being one big ole dysfunctional family one day in the future.

Wade downs his beer and stands. “My head is killing me, and I need some time alone to think things through.”

Clara stands and gives him a brief hug. “Sorry, that headache probably has Tex and my name written all over it.”

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