Luring Levi (Tarnished Saints Series Book 2) (18 page)

“Well, now that’s where you’re wr
ong, brother.” Judas snuffed his cigarette in his drink and got to his feet. That’s when Levi noticed the star pinned to his chest glittering in the dim light. “Cuz you see, I am a cop. Matter of fact, I’ve been sent here to be Sweet Water’s new sheriff.”

Chapter 14

Candace heard the commotion and shouting from outside the bar when they pulled into the lot. A couple of people ran out, several of them girls wearing little clothing.

“What’s going on?” asked Thomas to a girl as she ran by.

“Don’t go in there. There’s an all-out fight going on between three guys. And one of them has a gun.”

“What?” Candace took
off at a run for the building. “Levi’s in trouble and it’s all my fault.”

“Get back here,” warned Thomas, but Candace ignored him and pushed her way into the bar. She couldn’t see over the crowd of people, and had to elbow her way to the front.
Sure enough, when she got there she saw Levi as well as two other men all throwing punches at each other.

“Levi!” she called and he turned his head to look at her, enabling the man without the shirt to label him right in the jaw.

“Oh!” she cried and held her hands over her face. Then Levi lunged at the man, knocking him to the ground.

“Levi, stop it!” Thomas pushed his way to the front of the crowd and stopped sudde
nly. “Judas? Zeb? When the hell did you get here?”

“Who are they?” Candace
asked, thinking the names sounded familiar.

“Th
ose are two of our brothers,” Thomas told her.

“Thomas, good to see you.” The shirtless man flashed a smile, then winked at one of the strippers
as he got to his feet. He ducked when another man from the bar swung at him, and Levi got hit instead.

“Judas, I’ll kill you for that,” shouted Levi, punching his other brother and sending him backwards, falling against the bar.

Everyone in the bar started to shout and cheer and the bartender emptied a bowl of peanuts on the ground and held it out. “Ten to one that Judas flattens Levi and Zeb is out in the first round,” he called out.

“No way,” called out a man from the back of the crowd, “no one can beat Levi in a fist fight
, they never have.” People started throwing money around for bets on who would win the fight, and the bartender stood on the bar, holding out the bowl trying to collect the cash.

“Someone’s going to get hurt,” said
Candace, “Levi, stop it.”

“Get her out of here,” Levi
yelled to Thomas.

A
nd as Thomas was trying to pull her away, she turned back and not even thinking what she was doing, she blurted out, “Levi I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner that you were the father of my children.”

“Y
ou knocked her up?” asked Zeb so loud that the entire bar heard, even if they’d missed her announcement.

“Candy, did you have to say that now and here?” The look on Levi’s face said not only that he was horrified she’d said that in front of e
veryone, but that he was hurt - very hurt as well.

Then, before she could even answer, his brother Judas p
ulled a nightstick from his belt, raised it up and brought it down over Levi’s head.

Candace
screamed and tried to run to Levi as she saw blood trickling down his face. His eyes rolled backward in his head and he hit the ground.

Zeb stood over him counting down like they were in a boxing ring and then the bar tender reached down from his position atop the bar and raised Judas’s hand, declaring him the winner. T
he crowd roared louder, coins hitting the top of the bar as they paid up for losing the bet thinking Levi would win.

Once again, Candace realized she had been the cause of Levi’s embarrassment and al
so the cause of all his problems.

“Ooops, sorry about that,” she said, wincing when she saw what happened. Then she broke free from Thom
as and ran to Levi, dropping to her knees and burying her face in his chest.

* * *

An hour later, Thomas’s truck pulled up to the cabin with Candace sitting in the middle in the cab of the truck, and Levi next to her holding a bag of ice on his head.

Thomas
had to tear Judas and Levi apart earlier and Zeb had been no help as he’d been laughing too hard, thinking the whole situation funny for some reason. They couldn’t put them near each other, so Judas and Zeb rode in the back of the truck while the rest of them were in the front.

“What the hell were you thinking, Levi?” growled Thoma
s as he put the truck into park. “This is no way for a mayor to act.”

“You know as well as I that I’m not really the mayor. That was all a ploy made up by you and Angel to get me out of your house.”

“Not true. You are the mayor. We only suggested you when no one else in the damned town wanted the job.”

“Oh, well that makes me feel so much better.”

“I think you and Candace need to talk,” said Thomas. “You stay here at the cabin with her tonight and I’ll take Judas and Zeb back to the house. One of them can use Gabby’s room while she’s gone and the other can have mine. The boys will understand. I’m just glad Gabby and Angel aren’t around to see this.”

“Or our kids,” said Candace, looking over to Levi for a reaction but he just stared out th
e window and didn’t respond.

“I can’t stay here,” he said. “I left my car at Burley’s.”

“I’ll go back with Dan later and we’ll get it,” Thomas assured him. “Now get out of the truck and get your ass in the cabin and discuss things with your wife like an adult.”

“She’s not my wife.” Levi just looked over and glared at her.

“Well, maybe she should be. After all, what is going to happen to those kids if you two are too stubborn to work this out?”

A p
ounding sound on the cab window had Candace turning around to see Zeb’s face pressed up against the glass.

“I need to take a piss, I’ll walk over there. Where is
your new house? The Ainsley’s Bed and Breakfast did you say?”

Candace noticed Judas just sitting with his back against the side of the truck, blowing smoke circles up into the air from his cigarette.

“Hold your pants on, Zeb, you’re too drunk to make it through the woods in the dark without breaking your damned neck.” Then he looked over to Levi. “Get out of the truck before I toss you out on your ass. I swear I don’t know how Pa put up with you three without taking a belt to your behinds. Now man-up already and face your life whatever the hell it brings you.”

“Come on,” said Candace reaching over Levi to open the door. “Thomas is right. We need to work this all out and we need to do it before Angel gets back with the kids.”

She all but pushed Levi out of the truck and Thomas sped down the road with Judas’s cigarette glowing in the dark and Zeb standing up in the back of the truck holding on to the cab for support, howling at the moon, with his open shirt blowing in the breeze.

“Oh my God,” muttered Candace, following Levi into the house. “What did I get myself into?” She just shook her head as they entered the cabin, starting to think
that maybe Levi wasn’t the worst of the bunch. Growing up with brothers like that, she couldn’t even imagine what it would be like when they had all twelve of them together.

Levi walked into the cottage and flipped on the light, kicking off his shoes and making his way to the bathroom. He closed the door and ignored Candace and tried to drown his sorrows in the hot shower.

By the tim
e he came out, Candace had put together a meal of teriyaki chicken breasts, spiced rice and steamed kale. She’d set the table and lit a candle and had two glasses filled with a white wine. The whole thing looked too damned romantic for the tone of the whole evening. He’d pulled on his pants after his shower, not wanting to look like he wanted sex - which he always did, but was in no mood for at the moment. Still, he was without a shirt.

“What’s this?” he asked
, looking at the table while running a comb through his wet hair.

“I thought we could have a nice meal and a glass of wine and just . . . talk.”

“Aren’t you afraid to give wine to a drunkard? After all, that is what you called me.”

“Sit down, Levi,” she said, pulling out a chair. “Please.”

He threw the comb across the room, not caring where it landed. “Fine!” he spat, letting the smell of the delicious meal get the better of him. He hadn’t eaten since the food at the fair, and that was far from anything as elegant as she prepared. He sat down and picked up his fork and was about to dig in, when she cleared her throat to stop him.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to say a prayer first.”

“Sure, go ahead,” he said, putting down his fork, used to this growing up, when his father made them wait for a good five minutes while he rambled on and on like he was giving a sermon while they’d just stared with watering eyes watching the food get cold right in front of them.

“Bless this food,” she said, “and please help Levi to understand that I love him, and want him to be the father of my children even if he doesn’t want me.”

He looked up, shocked by what she’d just said. Even more shocked to ever hear a prayer over dinner so short. “Is that it?” he asked.

“Oh. Amen,” she added and blessed herself.

He couldn’t help it. She had a way of acting so cute at times that he, for the moment, forgot the foul mood he was in and smiled.

“So
, since you pray before meals, do you take our kids to church as well?” he asked, picking up the fork and taking a bite. “Ummmm, this is delicious.”

“Thank you,” she said, picking up her fork and pushing the food around her plate. “And no
, I am sorry to say I don’t take the kids to church, but maybe I should.” Then her head snapped up and her eyes opened wide, realizing what he’d just said. “Did you just say . . .
our
kids?” She asked him cautiously as if she wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly.

“I did,” he said, continuing to eat. There was a dead silence between them.

“So, are you acknowledging the fact that you are the father of Vance and Valentine?”

“I never denied it in the first place, Candy,” he said, using his pet name for her to let her know he wanted to make amends.

“Oh Levi, I am so sorry about not telling you about the kids sooner but I was afraid you wouldn’t be happy that you’re a father.”

“Wouldn’t be happy? Sweetheart, I am elated. I love kids, you know that.”

“But . . . I wasn’t sure you loved . . . our kids,” she said stressing the word our. “After all, they can sometimes be . . . should I say a handful?”

“All they need is a father in their life and they’ll come around,” he said. “I’ve already seen a change in them with just the little bit of attention I’ve been giving them.”

“They do need a father,” she said. “And I know I haven’t done a good job raising them myself.”

“Honey,” he said reaching out and holding her hand across the table. “You have done an amazing job. No one could ask for a better mother of their children.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“Does Zeb like strutting his stuff in front of the ladies?” he asked with a smile.

“I have no idea,” she said, “but I’m hoping the answer to that is yes.”

“It is,” he said, picking up her hand and kissing it. “I’m sorry I
got angry with you before, but I didn’t like the things you were saying about me.”

“And I didn’t either,” she told him. He could see the tears in her eyes. “Levi, I didn’t mean any of that.”

“Yes, you did,” he said, looking into her eyes.

“Ok, maybe I did, but I don’t anymore. And I only h
ope you can forgive me.”

“Only if you can forgive me for not being there when you needed me. Candy, I swear if I had known you were pregnant, I would have done something to help you.”

“You were in prison and had just lost everything, so don’t give me that.”

“All right, maybe I wouldn’t have, but I can do something now, so let me try.”

“Like what?” she asked, and he saw the hope on her face. He knew she wanted him to ask her to marry him, but he couldn’t do that. Not yet. Not now. She’d said she loved him in her prayer and he had feelings for her as well, but hell, he didn’t know what love felt like. He only knew the definition of lust. He’d never been in love before and these were new waters he was treading. He needed to move forward slowly.

“I don’t know, exactly. But I do th
ink we need to tell the kids as soon as they get home. And I can only hope they are going to accept me as their father.”

“I agree that we should tell them,” she said. “And don’t worry, as I can already see that they like you.”

“I hope you’re right, Candy. I need to get to know them, as well as I need to get to know you.”