Chapter Twenty-Five
"Why have you suspended Kevin Wyland?" Aaron thundered as he walked into the office he shared with his brother the next morning.
"Conduct that may bring our name or company into disrepute and swearin' at a servant of the law, though Austin will have his own form of punishment for that one," Sean answered coolly, rifling through some papers and handed them over. He'd kept Tatum's name out of the report but had otherwise written down what he'd overheard their employee saying at Bellum yesterday. He also left out that Tatum had helped him with the report afterwards so that the suspension couldn't be considered illegal, her way of saying thank you for standing up for her. "It's only for the rest of the week," the younger Miller said now, still not looking at his brother. He hoped they'd done enough to obscure who Kevin had been talking about.
"Seriously? Don't you think suspendin' him for the rest of the week is a bit of an overreaction?" Aaron asked eventually, not getting what the big deal was.
"No, I don't actually," his brother responded, getting up so he wouldn't be towering over him. "And I'm sure pa wouldn't either. Kevin was accusin' us and the Sheriff of corruption or colludin' together to get our way."
"But we do."
"I'm just lookin' out for our business interests," Sean played it now. "If we had to start buyin' people out or losin' revenue from people that overheard, that could seriously damage the company's reputation and thereby our way of life. Viv might even have to get a job," he exaggerated the potential consequences.
"Yeah, okay, I get it," Aaron shushed him, giving him an eyeroll. He knew his brother was exaggerating, but they weren't wholly outside the realm of possibility either. "But still..." he hesitated, looking at the papers again. "You know, this reads a lot like it could be about either of the Tennant girls," he said slowly, glancing up at his brother.
"Really?" Sean asked, managing to sound unconcerned despite his heart hammering wildly in his chest.
"Uh huh," Aaron answered, observing his response for any hint of uncertainty or that he might be lying.
"It definitely wasn't one of them, but I have to say I didn't catch what her name was."
"Oh... well good. I'd hate to see that we were helpin' them and turnin' our backs on our own employees," the older Miller said now, righting himself to his full height as he gave his brother a warning look. Sean gave him a nonplussed look, not wanting to give anything away or show him that he was worried. "I know you've never taken an interest in the feud, but it is very real, and I'd better not hear about you helpin' either of 'em, ye hear?" he came out directly. His brother's only response was to hold his hands up innocently. "Glad we had this chat," Aaron said with a grin, giving him a hearty clap on the shoulder now.
The two women made their way from the truck into the house. As well as the incident with Kevin, they'd had one guy unable to pay; two women get into an argument about, in their opinion, a low-life who was playing both of them; and a lot of broken glasses, as if everyone had suddenly become clumsy; they were exhausted.
"Tomorrow's gotta be better, right?" Tatum asked her sister hopefully as they climbed the porch. The brunette chuckled softly.
"Here's hopin'."
Isabella unlocked the door, surprised not to have found David waiting for her if she had to be honest. She wasn't sure if she should call for him, to see where he was. "He must be out," she said carefully, not seeing his jacket or boots in the hallway.
"Oh man, he said he was gonna help around the house," the redhead complained when she saw empty glasses and plates spread across the living room and the kitchen as if a bomb had exploded. "I can't… deal with this," Tatum said frustrated and, in her sister's opinion, a little dramatically.
"Okay, I'll deal with it," Isabella tried to assure her. In reality, that meant her tidying it up once her sister had gone to bed. There was no way she was going to lecture David.
"Except that you won't though, really," the redhead muttered as if she could read her mind.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, never mind. I'm tired," Tatum tried to backtrack. The last thing she wanted to do right now was to fight with her sister. The brunette stopped her in her tracks and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"No, come on, spit it out Tatum," she now tried to goad her. Isabella couldn't blame her sister for being sceptical, but she didn't need her questioning things or stirring up the ants' nest like she was about to; she needed her support.
"Well, if you ask me…"
"She's not," David's icy voice cut her short. Without them noticing, he'd arrived back at the house and had heard the start of their impending argument. "Sorry for not clearing up, but I got a call for an interview and I thought you'd find that more important," he explained, his cold blue eyes sizing up his girlfriend's sister.
"Of course, sorry. Hope it went well," Tatum nodded, feeling ill at ease to see how quickly her sister backed down from being ready to argue with her to timidly moving towards her boyfriend. "I think I'm just gonna head to bed now, we had a long day. Night," she told them both now and headed down the hall towards the stairs.
"That's good news, what job…" Isabella started to make normal conversation with him, her attempt being cut off by the back of his hand stinging her cheek and making her eyes water.
"There was no job interview, I just told her that to get her to shut up. See how easy that was?" David said angrily.
"But why…?" his girlfriend didn't understand why he was annoyed with her.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you would be dealing with me," he feigned surprise, now grabbing her by the arm and yanking her towards the kitchen. She let out a soft whimper, losing her footing a little before he shoved her into the edge of the counter. Her hips protested upon contact, her breath being forced out in a whoosh. "The only thing you'll be dealing with is this mess and keeping her out of our business," David told her, his hand clamping around the back of her neck to pull her back up so he could see the fear in her eyes. It had been a while since he'd had to be this forceful with her and he could see she feared what else he might do tonight; she knew he was capable of a lot more. "I don't want Tatum asking any more questions, you hear me? You take care of her, or I will," he warned her, speaking in a low and steady tone in her ear as he knew that was much more effective than shouting at her. "Am I making myself clear?" he asked angrily when she didn't respond, except to tremble. She nodded quickly. "Good. I don't want to see you upstairs until this mess is cleared. And when I do, I want you in something skimpy," David added the last part in a seductive tone, letting her know that she had better be ready to please him tonight. When she nodded again, he pressed a kiss to her neck before he pulled away and headed up to her bedroom with a beer in his hand.
Isabella stood frozen for a few minutes, silent tears running down her cheeks as she tried to process tonight's threats. She'd need to get Tatum to stop getting involved, because she dreaded to think of how he would try to deal with her. And, despite the dull ache spreading through her hips, she would need to forget about what he'd just done so she could convincingly try to seduce and bed him. Feeling a part of her soul curl up and perish, she wiped her tears away and pulled herself together, retreating into herself so she could get through tonight on auto-pilot instead of having to know what she was doing and be disgusted by herself.