Read Online Keeping What's His: Tate (Porter Brothers Trilogy Book 1) by Jamie Begley - Free Book Online Page B

brow, not at the stern tone the judge was using, but the direction the questioning was going. He had expected to be given a couple of days in jail despite not being guilty of confronting Lyle.
    “Would you like to drop the complaint before I ask the bailiff to play the tape?”
    Lyle’s face turned a bright red as he glared at him. “Yeah.”
    “Case dismissed.” Judge Creech raised his gavel and slammed it down on the sound block.
    Diamond rose, turning to him and smiling. “That worked out well. I might not even charge you this time.”
    Tate opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, she changed her mind.
    “Of course, that wouldn’t be good business.”
    “I’ve been giving you enough business lately. You should let this one be a freebie.”
    “I would, but there is a new pair of heels I’m dying to buy.” She picked up her briefcase. “Maybe next time.”
    Tate watched as his lawyer left the courtroom. He was sure she would be able to buy several pairs of those expensive shoes she liked to wear on the fees she charged him.
    Lyle gave him a smug-ass grin as he asked the bailiff to escort him out of the courtroom. Tate’s hands clenched at his side. If he wasn’t sure he would be forking over another fee to Diamond to buy matching purses, he would kick Lyle’s ass.
    “Tate.”
    He turned to see Judge Creech motioning to him from a doorway at the side of his bench. Surprised, he followed the judge through the door and down a small hallway to his office.
    The judge closed the door behind them. Then he took off his robe, throwing it over a chair next to his large, wooden desk before taking a seat. Opening the drawer, he pulled out a whiskey bottle and poured himself a drink.
    “You need to give Lyle a wide berth, or you’re going to find yourself in jail again.”
    Since when did the judge offer anyone advice, much less him?
    “I’ve been trying to do that, but in a town the size of Treepoint, it’s kind of hard to do.”
    The judge lifted the whiskey glass, draining it before pouring himself another. “Try harder.”
    “Since when do you give a fuck what I do?”
    Judge Creech leaned back in his chair, gazing down into his glass. “I don’t.” He swallowed his second drink then set his glass down on the table before staring up at him.
    “Have you seen Sutton since she’s been back in town?”
    “Is that what this is all about? Are you worried Sutton and I will start something again?” Tate snorted. “I don’t fuck married women.”
    Tate refused to feel guilty when the older man’s face whitened at his choice of words.
    “Her husband has been dead for six years.”
    Tate hid his surprise by shrugging. “It still doesn’t matter. Your daughter broke up with me, remember?”
    “How could I forget?”
    Tate didn’t understand the expression that crossed the judge’s face. It was a mix of agony and regret.
    “If you do see her again, tell her that her mother isn’t doing well and would like to see her.”
    He didn’t know how to reply, stunned that he was asked to pass along a message to Sutton when all they had to do was pick up the phone.
    “Why don’t you call her and tell her yourself?”
    “Sutton hasn’t talked to her mother or I since she graduated high school.”
    Shocked by the judge telling him his family’s problems, it took Tate a minute to realize the man was waiting for an answer.
    “I only saw her for a few minutes when she was at Pap’s house. We didn’t exactly spend any time shootin’ the shit. It was more ‘hi and bye’, which is the way both of us want to keep it. What Sutton and I had ended when she cheated on me with Cash.”
    “Sutton never cheated on you. She’s not capable of cheating on anyone she loves.”
    “Really?” Tate said mockingly. “Then who got out of Cash’s truck the day I saw them together. It sure fucking looked like Sutton.”
    The man’s shoulders slumped. The confident judge Tate had known for years was replaced by a