Chapter Twenty-Three
Tiffany followed the men, her legs shaking so much she nearly tripped over the gravel in the parking lot. Thomas had never looked that pissed off. Not even with Dakota’s shit. And Luke—well, Luke hadn’t changed much.
Twilight hung thick around the parking lot, and it took a moment to pick them out in the shadows. They’d moved to the left of the door, out of earshot. Thomas stood with his arms crossed. Luke seemed to be doing most of the talking, waving his arms around as he spoke.
Tiffany stepped closer.
“I had to do what I thought was right,” Luke said.
“You stabbed me in the back.” Thomas narrowed his eyes to slits.
Luke grimaced and dropped his gaze, briefly. “Yeah, I know, man. And it was a dick move because you totally saved my life in Zambia.” He glanced up at Thomas. “But you know how I feel about big international business coming into these places and raping the resources.”
“That’s not how it’s going to be, Luke,” Thomas said.
Luke jabbed his finger at Thomas. “That’s a lie and you know it.”
“No, it’s not.” Playing it calm, but a new edge of impatience entered Thomas’s voice. “I started this company because I believe in progress, but not at the expense of everything else.”
“Progress?” Luke gave a bitter laugh. “Why don’t you ask those Zambians what they think of your progress?”
“I did.” Thomas stuck his chin out. “And they told me they’d like to be able to feed their families.” Thomas caught sight of her and turned to face her.
Luke glanced up, too. He muttered something beneath his breath and looked away again.
“You need to hear her out,” Thomas said.
Tiffany took her cue and stepped up beside Thomas. “We need to get a divorce. And I need you to come back to Willow Park with me to make it go quickly.”
Luke gaped and his head jerked up. “No way am I going to Willow Park.”
“It won’t take long. We file together and it happens quickly. You can be there and gone in a day or two.”
“Forget it.”
Tiffany faltered. She glanced at Thomas. He gave her a reassuring nod to continue.
“Look, if you come with me, it’ll be fast. We don’t have any kids, all the money was either your dad’s or mine, and we’ve been living apart for more than two years. I won’t contest it. Done,” she said.
“Why now?” Luke sneered down his nose at her.
She didn’t have a good answer for that one. “I don’t know. It just didn’t seem important before. I was out of your life, you were—wherever the hell you were, and it didn’t matter.”
Luke’s expression grew even harder.
“All I need is a day or two of your time and then I’ll be out of your life forever.”
“You were already out of my life.” He shook his head. “And here you are again, fucking it up.”
“Hey.” Thomas’s deep voice rumbled a clear warning. “I don’t care how mad you are, you don’t speak to her like that.”
“What do you know about it?” Luke turned his anger that way. “She totally fucked up my life. I can talk to her any way I damn well please.”
Shit, Luke had nerve saying that. “I didn’t fuck up your life. You did that yourself. You were the one who decided to sleep around.”
“I wouldn’t have slept around if I had a wife to come home to and not some spoiled princess. And you had no right to do what you did to my Miura.”
He had her there, so she stuck with the one part she could deal with. “And that’s your justification?” Tiffany had heard it all before. She wasn’t buying it now any more than she had back then. “You tell yourself it was okay to sleep around because I wasn’t a good enough wife? You never let me be your wife. You shut me out.”
“Bullshit. Daddy’s little princess never had time for anyone. You were too busy getting your fucking nails done.”
“That’s not true.”
“Which part?”
“I—”
“This isn’t getting anyone anywhere.” Thomas cut off her hot reply.
Tiffany took a deep breath. Thank God he had, because this had drifted into sickeningly familiar territory so fast it made her head spin. “I need to get our divorce. You don’t want me in your life anymore. There doesn’t seem to be much to fight about,” she said.
“So why did you have to drive all the way to Utah to find me? Couldn’t find your way to the post office? Send the sheriff after me?”
Tiffany ignored the last jibe. It wasn’t easy, but she managed. Something about Luke made her want to bite back. Like old times. “I didn’t have the time to wait.”
“Why? Daddy find out you were still married to me?” Luke threw back his head and laughed. The ugly, harsh sound scraped against her raw nerves. “Man, that would have gone down well. I’m only sorry I wasn’t there to see it.”
“My father has nothing to do with this.”
“Really?” Luke sneered. “I find that hard to believe. Your father is so up in your business, it would take an act of God to get him out of there.” Luke and her father had butted heads from day one. Another strike against her screwed-up marriage.
“Let’s leave my father out of this.” Her teeth clenched together so hard, it made her jaw ache. No way Luke was dragging her back into a stupid argument.
Luke stared at her for a long moment. Comprehension dawned on his face, followed by a huge, smug grin. “You’re getting married again. That’s it, isn’t it? You’re getting married again, only you have to get unmarried first.”
“Yes. No. Maybe.”
“Jesus.” Luke sucked in a deep breath. “Who would be that fucking stupid? Do they even know you?”
Tiffany gasped. It hit her like a punch to the gut. For a second she had no comeback; she stood there and blinked at Luke.
“That was an asshole thing to say.” Thomas came to her defense, his face tight with anger. She’d seen him angry about Dakota and the drugs, but this was a new level of frightening. He took a step closer to Luke and got right in his face. “You’re being an asshat.”
“You don’t know what she put me through.” Luke stepped into him.
“Yeah, I do,” Thomas said. “And I also know what you put her through. You owe the lady an apology.”
“Fuck that.”
Thomas grew deathly still beside her. He clenched his fists, the muscles in his arms and chest swelling.
Holy shit! It was like the eye of the hurricane. She didn’t want this. Quickly she inserted herself between the two men. Waves of anger battered against her back from Thomas. “It doesn’t matter. I just want the divorce and then we are done with each other.”
“Move out of the way, Tiffany.” Thomas’s voice sent chills chasing up and down her spine.
“No,” she said to Thomas, but kept her gaze on Luke.
“Why should I do anything for you?” Luke glared at Thomas over her head.
“There’s more.” She got the words out quickly. “Dakota is with us. He is waiting for you back at the hotel.”
Luke glanced at her. “Dakota?”
“Yes. Lola is out of town and she left him with me. He doesn’t want to be with me, he wants to be with you.”
Luke’s jaw worked again. “Not my problem.”
Tiffany sucked in a shocked breath.
Thomas’s hands fastened around her arms as he lifted her and set her out of the way. And then he was on Luke, hauling him up by a fistful of his shirt. “That’s your brother, you dickhead.”
“I walked away from that.” Luke ripped free of Thomas. “And I am not going back.”
Thomas growled low in his throat and lunged for Luke.
Tiffany got in the way again. Thomas’s forward momentum carried him straight into her. It was like being hit by a truck, and she went over. He caught her seconds before she hit the ground and jammed her up against his chest.
“Leave it.” Her heart beat so fast it almost jumped out her chest.
Luke glowered from Thomas to her and back again. He curled his lip up in disdain and stalked away. “Stay away from me.”
Thomas sprang, grabbing Luke by the shirt and turning him. His fist shot out and connected.
Luke’s head snapped back. He staggered a few steps and hit the car parked behind him.
“No.” Tiffany grabbed the back of Thomas’s shirt. She hung on for dear life as he dragged her forward with him. Fabric ripped and she lost her grip on Thomas.
Luke stood, braced and ready for Thomas.
“Stop it,” someone yelled from behind her. Luke’s three friends sprinted across the parking lot. The woman reached Luke first. The two men came on slowly, eyeing Thomas warily.
“Leave him alone.” The woman latched onto Luke and fussed with his face. “Can’t you just leave him alone?”
With a growl, Luke jerked his head away from her.
Scalding glare locked on the men flanking Luke, Thomas breathed hard.
“Come on.” Tiffany grabbed his arm and tugged on it before he decided to take them all on. Her money was on Thomas, but she still didn’t like the odds. His shirt hung in two strips, ripped nearly in half down his back.
This time, he allowed her to pull him away. “You need to man up,” he said to Luke.
“Come on, Thomas. Leave it. For now.”
“You have responsibilities,” Thomas said. “And a man doesn’t spend his life running away from the people who need him.”
Luke raised his head and glared at Thomas.
Tiffany pulled, hauled, and coaxed Thomas back to his SUV. Her nape prickled as any minute she expected Luke or one of his friends to start up again. Her hand shook so badly she fumbled the driver’s door open and shoved Thomas behind the wheel. He let her, because no way would she be able to move this much bulk unless it was willing.
He started the SUV in silence and peeled out of the parking lot. He didn’t drive fast or say anything, but stared straight ahead in a deafening silence.
Tiffany risked a peek at him. An angry Thomas was a scary Thomas.
“Fuck,” he whispered.
That about covered it, and Tiffany sighed. “Yeah.”
“Did I hurt you?”
“No.” Tiffany shook her head.
“You have really shitty taste in men.”
Tiffany blinked at him. Where the hell had that come from? And ouch! “Are you trying to say this is all my fault?”
“No.” He cut a glance at her. He took a deep breath and seemed to release a tiny bit of tension. “What I mean is, for a beautiful woman, you sure don’t pick the men who will value you as you deserve.”
“Ryan is nothing like Luke.” Her hands shook so badly she tucked them under her thighs. “Ryan is kind and considerate, and he never yells at me or tells me what a bad person I am.”
“No,” Thomas said, his jaw locked tight. “He just tells you how to be all the time, which in my book amounts to the same thing. Only Ryan’s more polite about it.”
“That’s bullshit.” Her voice shook and she cleared her throat hastily. “That is such bullshit.”
But it wasn’t bullshit, it cut so close to the truth it hurt more than any of the insults Luke had hurled her way. And now that she had admitted it, what the hell was she going to do?