Chapter 20

I wasn'tthe type of guy to back down from a fight. I didn't actively seek them out, but I also never walked away from one.

This time was different.

There was a lot more at stake than just me. Judah's career and life was only the beginning. Now that Ellis and Hilton had an internship at Dailey Tires, their future was at risk, too. Ellis deserved the world, and Judah could give that to him, as long as he kept his position in the company.

I was a liability.

Judah hated backing out of a fight, too. This battle with his mum wouldn't end. They were both too stubborn, and neither would show weakness. I needed to be the one to walk away, just like I had before, even if that had been for more selfish reasons.

Ellis texted me by the time I arrived at Judah's house.

Ellis

Where did u go? Everything ok?

I stared down at the message on my phone screen and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. If I left right now, Judah would take care of him. Judah was a good person, and Ellis would live a better life with him. Yet, a part of me rebelled at the idea of leaving both of them. In a lot of ways, Ellis had become more than a kid I'd taken under my wing. He'd become a little brother I never had. And I'd only just found Judah again. Could I really walk away from us? If it meant saving his career, then yes. He deserved the world, and his mum could rip it from him, too.

Could I really abandon him again? I didn't want to.

Was I taking the easy way out by walking away? I knew Judah would say it was.

I groaned and stared at the bag I'd brought my clothes in, which was now sitting inside Judah's wardrobe. He'd cleared drawers for me, and it had honestly begun to feel like I was living here and not just visiting.

Did I really want to pack up my clothes and leave?

No.

Fuck no.

I sat down on the edge of the bed, burying my face in my palms. My head was a mess of questions and choices. Leaving Judah would've been the best thing for him, but I'd done that before and I'd lost him for twenty years. I couldn't do another twenty, or worse, forever. It was selfish to leave, but it was also selfish to stay.

My phone buzzed again, and I checked the screen.

Judah

Don't do anything stupid, Puffin. If you run this time, I will chase you.

I smiled, despite the somber feeling that settled in my bones. He fought for us, why shouldn't I? Closing my eyes, I sighed and came up with a decision. I'd stay, and whatever came from Judah's mother, we'd fight it. She was powerful, but so was he.

I replied to his message.

Tav

I won't. I'm staying.

Judah

Good. You wouldn't like it if I had to follow you. Next time, I'll handcuff you to the bed permanently.

Tav

Kinky.

I added a devil emoji to the message and snorted.

Judah

I'll show you how kinky I can get.

I laughed through a few tears and shook my head, clicking off my phone. If I wanted to stay, I needed to check on my trailer. I hadn't been back since Ellis and I'd left with Judah, and if it was obvious I hadn't been there, then someone might try to break in. Which, to be truthful, wouldn't be a problem because I didn't have any valuable belongings, but if they ruined something I'd lose my security deposit.

I gave my empty bag one more glance before I took a deep breath. This wasn't happening. I refused to run again.

I headed downstairs and grabbed my keys. Once I was inside my truck, I turned the ignition and the old beauty rumbled to life, shaking so hard that it rattled my teeth. It'd been a while since I'd used my truck, and I'd forgotten how old it really was after driving Judah's new Honda.

Twenty minutes was all it took for me to get to the park, and I pulled into the driveway slowly, making sure Virginia, our local little girl who liked to wander with her white pit bull, didn't come out of nowhere. Her mother worked a lot of hours and usually her big brute of a brother, Moose, watched her, but there were times she slipped away from him.

To my relief, I saw her in front of her trailer. She waved enthusiastically, and I returned the gesture out the window with a wide grin. "Hey, Ginny!"

"Hey, Tav! Welcome home!" She giggled and twirled her finger in her brown ringlets, and her innocence made my smile falter. Children like Virginia weren't meant for this type of trailer park. This lifestyle was too rough, with too many criminals who hung out around here, which was what made Moose so protective of her. But people like Virginia's mother didn't have a choice. The price of living was too high and places like Lakeview were their last option.

I pulled my truck up to the front of my trailer and turned off the ignition before I froze at the sight before me. The front door was wide open, and the sound of banging inside reached my ears even though I was still sitting in the cab of my vehicle. I jumped out of my truck immediately and raced forward, meeting a man taller and wider than me right at the moment I reached the door. He shoved me, and I went careening backward, landing hard on my arse while the stranger fell on top of me. He thrust his fist into my gut, and I grunted in pain.

"You fuckin' arse." I curled my fingers and managed to knock the stranger in the cheek with my swinging knuckles, causing him to cry out in pain. He was big, though. The fact that he had width and height on me was new because I'd always been larger than the average person, and that meant the punch to the face would've hurt, but it didn't move him.

His fist came back down, this time striking my jaw, and my head slammed sideways. My face smacked against the ground, and I groaned, dizziness hitting suddenly with the urge to vomit. I closed my eyes when he raised his hand again, but someone grabbed the stranger, yanking him off me.

There was the sound of a scuffle as I rolled onto my front, my head spinning. I managed to get to my hands and knees before I realized Moose was holding the man down in the dirt, using his bigger body to keep the stranger still.

"Who the fuck are you and why are you in our park?" Moose hissed. The fact that he was defending me, despite the many Lakeview rules or the more specific ones related to this event?—

Rule two: Don't bring the cops to the park.

Rule four: Keep drama to yourself.

—meant a lot to me. He could easily get his family kicked out if the owner thought he was starting shite.

I stumbled to my feet and closed my eyes, taking a moment to catch my breath and stop the dizziness, before I opened them and walked over to Moose. The stranger he had trapped on the ground struggled a bit. I squeezed Moose's shoulder as a thank-you and focused on the other man.

"Why were you in my trailer?" I asked, because apparently he wasn't going to answer Moose's question about who he was.

Now that I had the chance to study him, I confirmed he wasn't anyone I'd met. His face was nondescript and plain, a sickly pale man with short dark hair and furious brown eyes. He had a wide nose and large ears, and while he was boring, to say the least, he also didn't look like he fit around here. The jeans he wore were Diesel and the leather jacket he had on wasn't that fake shite, it was the real deal.

He pressed his lips together and smirked, an obvious sign he wasn't going to give me the answer I wanted. I sighed and rubbed my jaw where it ached. If he had any idea where he was, he'd know that we wouldn't call the cops because it was a sure way to get me kicked out of Lakeview.

"Come on, mate. We'll let you go, all we want is an answer." I shook my head. "It's not you I want, is it? There's no reason for you to trash my trailer unless you were looking for something."

Moose grunted and lifted the stranger off the ground before slamming him back down again, causing him to yell out. "Tell Tav what he fucking wants to know or I'll beat your face unrecognizable, you motherfucker. Nobody comes into our park and messes with our friends, you hear me?"

I smiled down at Moose for the help.

The stranger groaned. "Fine. Jesus. I was sent here by a rich bitch, all right? She wanted me to ransack the trailer to see if I could find any dirt."

Rich bitch.I didn't have to ask him who he was talking about. I clenched my eyes shut and pressed my fingers into them. Fuck. She was never going to stop. No matter what I did, I'd never be good enough for Judah as far as she was concerned.

"Let him go, Moose," I ordered gently, and the giant did as I'd instructed.

The stranger stumbled to his feet and took off so fast that dust followed him as he ran down the dirt road. I watched him until he rounded the corner to the larger road that cut through the center of the park.

"You know which rich lady he's talkin' about?" Moose asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

I sighed. "Unfortunately."

"Anything to do with the new guy you're seeing?" His eyebrows rose in curiosity. I cocked my head toward him, and he laughed. "You know what the park's like. They gossip. But Shep told Law, who mentioned it to me. Shep said he saw you at the farmers' market with him."

I chuckled and rubbed my sore jaw again. My back ached, too, but it was a pain I could ignore. This wasn't the first time I'd ended up in a fight, and it wouldn't be the last if I continued to live here. Coming to blows was a guarantee in Lakeview. "He's my teenage sweetheart."

"Gross." Moose scrunched up his nose. "Leave that shit behind, Tav. The only good thing about your teen years is finally losing your V-card. Everything else stays in the past, man."

"Not Judah," I said with a grin. "Sounds corny, but that man's my forever."

He shook his head. "I wouldn't be sayin' that loud enough for anyone else to hear."

I winced. Bloody hell. I'd forgotten where I was. Peering around carefully, I gave Moose a short nod. "Thanks for the help. I'm goin' to go lock up my trailer again and head out."

"Want me to keep an eye on your place?" Moose crossed his arms over his massive chest, the white muscle shirt stretching to accommodate large pecs. He was another one of the few who was bigger than me.

"Aye, that'd be nice of you." I patted him on his shoulder.

"You hear about Denise?" he asked.

I froze, worry immediately assaulting me in the gut. "What? What happened? Is she okay?"

He nodded solemnly, but I hadn't seen Moose be anything but serious and gruff. "Law took her out of here. He gave up their trailer. 'Parently, he got her into a nursing home. A good one, too. Out near that nice area in Claremont."

"How did he afford that?" I frowned. The one thing about Law was that he always kept his head on straight and tried to avoid anything illegal, unlike his twin. He worked hard for his mum.

"New job." Moose shrugged. "Good for him. He deserved a break." He gave me a wave goodbye, leaving me to stare at the mess of my trailer with my thoughts caught between being happy for Denise and Law, while being devastated for the state of my home.

I hesitated before I took a breath and made my way to my trailer. I stepped inside, taking in the disaster. Papers and my belongings were scattered everywhere, a chaos created from loathing because that's what Elizabeth felt about me—she hated me. I wished I could understand why, but I never would. Like Judah, she came from a world too different from mine.

I picked up and tidied what I could, but when I came across one of the few possessions that had belonged to Mum—a blue vase she'd put fresh flowers in every day—shattered and in pieces, tears prickled at my eyes. I stared at the broken fragments in my palm and closed my fist around them, aware of the biting cuts that sliced through my skin. I didn't care. I let myself fall to my knees.

"Fuck. You loved this vase, Mum." An ache began in my chest and I rubbed it. I closed my eyes and tried to remember her face and the way she smiled. She'd been the kind of person who'd tell me that the vase wasn't important, that the memories of her were more so, but imagining her saying that didn't make it hurt any less.

I finally released my hold on the shattered pieces, and they clattered to the floor. I rose, knees shaky, and stared at the progress I'd made. I'd barely made a dent in the mess, but I couldn't stay in the trailer for a second longer. I stumbled out the door and down the step and turned to secure the lock only to find it had been smashed. The most I could do was simply close the door and hope nobody else decided to raid my home.

Once I was back in my truck, I stared at the steering wheel as I considered what to do. Judah would expect me at home, but I wasn't sure if I could go back there yet. No. There was someone I needed to see first....

I turned on the truck and headed out of Lakeview. Even though it'd been twenty years since I'd specifically come this way and many things had changed, there was also a familiarity about it. I could close my eyes and still get to the house I was heading to.

I knew for a fact that Elizabeth and Judah's father still lived in the same place because Judah had mentioned it in passing after we'd seen Elizabeth the first time. As I pulled into the driveway, all the courage I'd gathered as I was driving here withered, replaced by fear of something more—rejection.

Elizabeth never wanted me to date her son, but Tom had always been kind. He didn't know about the money she'd offered me to leave, and he'd never treated me like a maid's son. When Judah and I had dated, he'd considered me another son. Would he have changed much?

Shaking my head, I forced myself to get out of the truck and walk steadily toward the door, which opened before I could reach it. I froze as Tom appeared and he smiled kindly. He looked exactly like he had all those years ago; although, he had more wrinkles and grays.

"Hello, Tavish! I didn't expect a visit from you." His grin widened, but his gaze flicked to my jaw and his smile faltered slightly. "What happened to you, son?"

My hand shot to my face, and I winced when I touched the sore part of my jaw. "I...." Lies weaved themselves in my head before I forced them out. No. I wasn't going to tell tales anymore. If I wanted this to work with Judah, I needed to be honest. "Can I come inside? I have something I need to tell you."

Tom squinted at me before he gestured me forward.

I hesitated, uneasiness twisting in my stomach, but I stepped toward him and allowed him to guide me inside. He took me to his study, and I didn't stop to appreciate the changes they'd made to the house because it didn't matter. Despite the memories, this place meant nothing to me anymore.

In his office, he pointed at one of the brown leather chairs that faced each other, and I took it while he sat in the other.

He leaned back and stared at me seriously. "Did something happen?"

I resisted the urge to laugh. Did something happen? Too many somethings. The thing about Tom was that he let his wife run rampant. He was a peacekeeper, the white flag between his wife and son, but that would only work for so long.

"Elizabeth sent someone to destroy my trailer looking for blackmail material."

Tom tensed. "Are you sure?"

I didn't stop my laughter this time. "Yes. It was her."

He linked his fingers together and sighed. "I was worried she'd go too far. She's the kind of person who has strong ideas about how to protect Judah."

"It needs to stop," I whispered harshly, tension coiling inside me. My muscles tightened as I resisted the urge to snap. Like Tom, I was the white flag. I needed to be to help Judah. "She's threatening to take away Judah's job at Dailey Tires to make a point. Mr. Dailey?—"

"Don't call me that. Tom. You're an adult now, Tav." He smiled gently when I nodded in gratitude.

"Tom, I love your son. I've always loved him. I'm in a tough position right now. I want to fight for him, but if I do that, he'll lose his career. Judah says he doesn't care, but I don't want it to come to that." I leaned forward, desperate. "I walked away once before because of my mum. I was a teenager in a horrid position. But Mum's gone now, and Judah shouldn't have to choose between me and Dailey Tires. He's done amazin' at his company. Please. You have to stop your wife from destroyin' your son's hard work." I swallowed around the lump that lodged itself in my throat. "I don't want to walk away, but if that's truly what will make her leave him alone?—"

"Don't be silly," Tom interrupted sharply. He stood and took two large steps until he was in front of me before he fell to one knee. He grabbed my hands and squeezed them in his own. The cuts from Mum's vase stung. "It isn't about Elizabeth's happiness, but Judah's. I know my son, and he loves you, too. I'm not the kind of person who gets involved in their arguments, but I will let Elizabeth know my opinion on what she's doing. Don't worry about Judah's position, I'll make sure he stays where he is. The investors listen to Elizabeth, but she listens to me." He patted my cheek gently so as not to hurt my bruising jaw. "I'm sorry I haven't stepped in before this. I should've."

I smiled in relief. "Thank you. Judah needs you on his side right now."

"I'm glad he has you again, Tav. My boy missed you." He stared at me for a moment before he huffed. "Is it true she bribed you with money for your mother's hospital bills when you were eighteen? Is that why you left him?"

My gaze dropped to the floor and I nodded. "Aye, that's true."

"Goddamn it, Elizabeth." He heaved another sigh and stood, groaning. "I'll handle this. Go back to Judah."

I shot him a glance and rose, too. "Thank you. I promise I love him with my whole heart."

He chuckled and patted my shoulders. "I know you do. You always have. I knew it back then, too, which was why I was confused with the breakup. I'm glad you're back. Now, you should probably head home before Judah realizes you're gone."

He certainly knew his son well. I hugged him gently like we used to do when Mum worked here, and he returned the gesture, and it felt like everything was being slotted back into place. Missing pieces of a puzzle once again found.

I left his house and made it about a mile down the road before I finally pulled over when my hands began to shake. I stared at them as a mountain of emotions hit hard. "Fuck."

I leaned my head against the steering wheel and sobbed. My shoulders trembled, and outside, it'd begun to rain, then pour. Fat droplets slammed against my truck, and thick gray clouds drowned out the afternoon sun until it was dark. It felt almost as though the weather was responding to the waterfall of my feelings, and despite still crying, I hiccupped out a laugh.

I wiped my eyes, but still more tears flooded them and streaked down my cheeks.

A sharp, hard rap to the window had me jerking back, and I glanced with wide eyes at Judah, standing outside my truck with an open black umbrella.

"Jude?" I yelled over the pounding rain. "How did you?—"

"I put a tracking device on your phone," he snapped angrily. "Open the damned door and move over, Puffin. You're not leaving me again."

I blinked, then did what he'd ordered me to do.