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SHE JUST WALKED AWAY. Clive watched her just walk away. As if he, as if Jay, didn’t matter. He rubbed his hand over his face as he watched her.
Maybe they didn’t matter to her anymore.
There were others outside, watching. Watching him. Curious.
Gossips, the lot of them. Looking for a show.
He wasn’t going to be their damned entertainment.
She shifted again, small and fast and headed to that new baby of Masterson’s. He’d scared her away, no doubt.
He hadn’t meant to do that. He’d just wanted to talk to her. That was all.
Like he hadn’t done before.
Clive took another step toward her. Then another. Until he caught up with her. He had her shoulder in his hand before he’d even realized he’d moved. He bodily moved her toward the rear of a pickup truck. Where no one could see.
Perci spun to look at him, a wild fear in those blue, blue eyes of hers.
Had it been the eyes Jay had fallen for first?
She and her twin—all of those Tylers—had those same blue eyes. Hers were big and round, just like her aunt Robin’s had been so many years ago.
Clive remembered Robin, too. So many nights he’d thought of her. Until Paula.
Hell, Robin had been just a kid the last time he’d seen her twenty years ago. A few years younger than this woman in front of him and hiding behind Perci’s father. Telling Clive she didn’t want anything to do with him.
Robin had walked away from him, too. “Don’t go.”
“I have no reason to stay.” The girl’s tone was cool, uncaring. Because she didn’t care.
And why should she? She didn’t have reason to care that Jay was dead. Jay had almost killed her. Some said she had scars, didn’t they?
For the first time, he wondered how bad those scars were.
She had almost died because of Jay. So why had she lived and his boy not? How was that right? There was another damned version of her walking around somewhere. One of them at least should have died. The fates could have taken one of them and spared his only son. It wasn’t right that he’d lost everything and she’d lost nothing. “Yes, you do. You’re going to answer my question.”
“Let go!” She pulled against his hand. Those eyes shot fire at him. Life.
Damn it, he needed to feel that life for a minute.
“No. You’re coming with me.” Clive tightened his grip and yanked.
He spun her around. She cried out. He just tightened his hold and pulled her into his chest. It was pitifully easy to shove the gun just under her breast.
“If you make another sound, I’m going back inside that diner. You understand me? That deaf sister of yours just walked in with that littlest brother of yours. Not to mention that baby Masterson’s mother was hauling around. You and me...we’re going to go talk. Right now.”
He dragged her back toward his truck, knowing his threats toward her family would do the trick. They always had before.