Unbearable (Undescribable) (23 page)

“Whatever you say,” he says, sounding bored.

I square my shoulders. “Come on. I’ll show you what
we do to set up.” I turn around, once again giving him my back. I try not to
turn around and slap him when I get the feeling he is checking out my ass
again.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Slade,” Rose’s voice comes
over the intercom.

“Yes?” I answer, finishing up some notes I need for
court tomorrow.

“You have a Mr. Tate here.” Of course he shows up
three hours late.

“Send him in please.” I quickly put the papers in
my drawer as my door opens. I link my fingers together and place them on my lap
as I sit back in my chair.

Tate steps into my office and Rose shuts the door
behind him. He just stands there as he looks around my large office. “Please,
have a seat.” I gesture to the chairs that sit in front of my desk.

“I’m guessing I didn’t come here to talk about the
break-in.”

“We can, among other things.”

He continues to just stand there. “What was so
important that you needed me to come to your office?” he asks, finally looking
at me.

“We need to discuss a few things.”

“Samantha,” he states.

I nod my head and gesture once again to the chairs
in front of me. He takes a few steps further into the room and sits, leaning
back, mirroring my posture.

“You seem to know so much about me, Tate. Yet I
know nothing about you,” I say flatly.

“It’s not like I made assumptions. I just gathered
the facts, and the fact is that you use women.”

“If you’re referring to my past. Yes. I fucked
around, but I assure that is no longer the case.” I have never denied the way I
used to live my life.

“You’re saying you’ve changed?” He pulls his eyes
from mine to look at the picture on my desk of Angel and me at the first Rams
game we attended. She has her legs wrapped around my waist and her arms around
my neck as I give her a piggyback ride.

“Yes,” I say simply.

“I find that hard to believe,” he snorts.

“That’s funny. Because I feel the same way about
you.”

“How so?” he asks.

I sit up and place my forearms on my desk. “I think
you have other intentions regarding Angel.”

“You think I want her?” he asks, raising an
eyebrow.

“What man wouldn’t?” I’m not an idiot. I see the
way other men look at her, even though she never seems to notice. I never knew
I could be so jealous. I never thought one woman would make me want to fight
every man just because I know the thoughts he has of her.

He also leans up placing his elbows on his knees.
“Any man would be lucky to have her. And for some God forsaken reason she chose
you,” he says with a frown.

I stand up and lean over my desk. “Let me get
something straight with you. I love Angel and I will kill anyone who touches
her, including you,” I growl.

He sits back in his chair with a small smile on his
face. “I promise you, you have it all wrong.”

“Then fucking explain it to me.”

“Do you have secrets Slade?” He tilts his head to
the side.

“What kind of question is that?” I snap, getting
irritated.

“It’s an easy question. Do you have secrets?” He
leans up and picks up the picture of Angel and me. “Has Sam told you about my
past? About our past?”

I shake my head, confused, as far as I know they
don’t have a past other than friendship.

“Marie practically raised me.” He smiles like he’s
remembering her. “My mom wasn’t always able to take care of me. That’s why I
helped Marie.”

The fact that he had hidden stuff from Angel has me
mad at him for a new reason. “You should have told Angel.” I slam my fist down
on the desk. “Do you know how much pain she was in? The pain she is still in?”
I growl. “I don’t care what she says, I catch her all the time looking up at
the fireplace where both of her parents now rest. Why do you think all of her
mother’s things are still in boxes in the garage? Because it’s too painful for
her to go through them.”

He stands up and folds his arms over his chest. “A
secret for a secret,” is all he says.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Fuck, this guy is
like a riddle. He keeps changing shit up on me.

“That means I owed Marie,” he spits angrily. “You
think it was easy to lie to Sam? It wasn’t.” His voice rises. “Do you know how
hard it was to see her at her college graduation? Or to see her around town
with that piece of shit, Jax? No! You don’t,” he yells.

I let out a long breath as I look over at him.
“What are you not telling me? If you know something, you need to tell me.”

He takes a step back from my desk. “Not everything
is what it seems, Slade. All I’m going to say is that I would never tell your
secret, but I know that you wouldn’t be able to keep mine.” He turns and starts
to walk toward my office door to leave.

I follow after him and spin him around.

I pull my arm back and punch him in the face,
making him stumble back. “I’m not keeping any secrets,” I growl.

He places both hands on my chest and shoves me
backward. “I don’t want to fight you, Slade. Believe me, I would love to.” He
stands there looking at me, and for a second I think we are about to have it
out here in my office. “But for Sam’s sake.” He lets out a rough breath.
“Hasn’t she gone through enough?” He looks at me and his question makes me feel
like a fucking jackass. “She needs everyone on her side right now. Someone is
after you, or possibly her.” He throws his hands up in the air. “I’m not your
enemy, Slade. I promise. I don’t want her the way you think I do. We should be
working together to protect her.”

I take a few steps back and fall into one of the
chairs, defeated. “That’s a full time job all on its own,” I mumble.

“Exactly!” he says, sitting down beside me.

I look up at him and see the true concern on his
face. “You love her,” I state, trying once again to fight the urge to threaten
his life.

He glances over at me. “There are different kinds of
love.”

His choice of words does not help ease my jealousy.
“I know you have her parents’ rings,” he says, changing the subject and making
me nervous as hell. “That’s your secret. You want to ask for her hand in
marriage. Believe me when I say, that is not the type of love I feel for her.”

I relax back into the chair and close my eyes. The
thought of asking Angel to marry me has my palms sweating.

“I’ll help you keep her mind off looking for the
rings,” he says, getting my attention as he stands up.

I stand as well. “What is your secret, Tate?”

“I already told you. I don’t trust you to keep it.”
He then turns and walks out of my office, closing the door behind him. And now
that I know he is hiding something, I have an uneasy feeling. Even if he
doesn’t want Angel, he’s still hiding something from her. The only way to get
close to someone is to earn their trust, so that’s what I will do. I’ll become
his best friend and learn what I need to know, and then when I find out, I
won’t hesitate to tell her what he’s hiding from her.

I turn around and pick up my office phone.

“Hello?” answers Angel’s sweet voice.

“Hey, Angel. How is work going?” I ask, sitting
down in my seat.

She lets out a long breath. “Slow.”

“I’m sorry. What time are you going to be off?”

“I have to work a double.”

I frown as I look at the clock on my desk. My workday
is done. I wanted to take her out to dinner tonight. “What? Who says?”

“Well, no one told me I had to, but Becky called in
sick. I volunteered to cover it for her.”

I lean back in my chair trying to figure out why
she takes this bartending job so fucking serious. She does not need the little
income she makes working there. “Call someone else to cover for her. I don’t
like you working nights, Angel.” I have never liked her working there anyway
and I sure as hell don’t want her working nights since our house was broken
into.

“I don’t like you telling me what I can and can’t
do, Slade,” she fires back.

I sigh. “I know. I just want you to work only day
shifts until we find out who broke into the house and why.”

“It’s too late now. I’m working tonight.”

“You should have called me first,” I say, clenching
my jaw.

“Why?” she scoffs. “To ask your permission?”

“Well, yeah. What if I had plans for us or—”

“Goodbye, Slade. Don’t wait up.” She hangs up.

I smash the phone down onto the desk. Fuck, she can
piss me off with just one word sometimes.

She knew her volunteering to work tonight would
piss me off. She knows how I feel about that bar and the scummy men that walk
in there to flirt with her. Plus, if a fight breaks out she always seems to be
the first one to jump in and try to break it up. That woman is fearless, but
also a huge pain in my ass at times.

Tate’s words come back to me
. “We need to work
together to keep her safe.”

That is one thing he is right about, and I could
use him to my advantage. Angel trusts him and I want her to see me getting
along with Tate.

I dial up Josh’s number. “Hey, what’s Tate’s
number?” I ask as soon as he answers.

“Slade, don’t call and threaten him,” he says
annoyed.

“That’s not why I want his number,” I snap. “Angel
offered to work a double tonight and I plan on going up there and hanging out. I
figured I could buy Tate a few beers.”

“I don’t believe that for a second,” he offers with
a chuckle.

“Believe what you want. All I’m trying to do is
keep my girlfriend safe and she continues to get mad at me over it.”

“Yeah, who knew women didn’t like men bossing them
around,” he replies sarcastically.

“Just give me the damn number, Josh.”

“Fine.” I write down the number as he rambles it
off. “Courtney and I will come up there as well.”

“Think I need babysitter?” I tap the pen on my
desk.

“Something like that.”

We hang up, and then I dial the police station to
see if they have any new leads before I go home to shower and change.

As I clean off the dirty bar
top, I try to take a calming breath. Today has been a day from hell. I had to
train Jeremy for two very long hours and then Slade gets mad because I offered
to work for Becky. I answered the bar phone when she called and she sounded
awful. Her daughter screaming in the background probably didn’t help matters
either. I felt sorry for her, I wasn’t going to tell her I couldn’t work her
shift because it would make my boyfriend mad.

I place the rag in my back pocket after I clean off
the bar and turn to wash my hands in the sink when I hear Slade’s voice. I look
over my shoulder to see him walking into the bar with Tate right beside him,
followed by Courtney and Josh.

I smile at Courtney and Josh. “What are you guys
doing here?” I ask looking at Tate.

“We thought we would come and have a few beers,”
Slade says clearly not getting the memo that I’m ignoring him.

So, I’ll make it easy for him. “I’m ignoring you,”
I say, finally looking him in the eyes.

Tate and Josh laugh as Slade gives me a smirk. “Oh,
I figured that was to be expected.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Then what in the hell are
you doing here?”

“Actually it was my idea,” Tate chimes in, getting
my attention. “I wanted to hang out tonight and Slade said you were working.”
He shrugs. “What better place to hang out than a bar?”

The smirk on Josh’s face is telling me that is not
completely true. I look at Tate and notice he has a small mark on his chin.
“Where did you get that bruise on your face from?” I ask, tilting my head.

He reaches up and touches it. “Oh, I worked at the
repair shop today and lost a fight with a wrench.” He smiles.

The guys laugh and I feel like I’m missing an
inside joke or something. I shake it off. “What does everyone want?”

I start grabbing drinks out of the bin as they tell
me what they want. I pop the tops and place them down in front of them, trying
to ignore Slade staring at me with a smirk on his face.

“You guys want to play some pool?” Josh asks.

They all say ‘yes’ as they get up and walk back
toward the pool tables.