A Gentleman's Pride: The Tainted Series Read online

  A Gentleman’s Pride:

  The Tainted Series

  By T.L. Tate

  Copyright 2017 by T.L. Tate

  Distributed by Smashwords

  Cover Photo Copyright of NeonShot/Shutterstock

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  ***ATTENTION!***

  Hearts that Bleed has been released! Check inside for a link to a free sample of the novel.

  Thanks for your support!

  ~T.L. Tate~

  ~Pride without Wisdom makes a Fool~

  Contents:

  Main Story

  Hearts that Bleed! –Sample–

  About T.L.

  More Stories

  A Gentleman’s Pride:

  The Tainted Series

  Room 721. I knew what awaited me in there—my wife and her lover. After years together, she started having an affair with him, which had become sexual 4 months ago. I found all this out close to a week ago. It was the day before my 30th birthday. Rachel, my wife, had told me that she was called to a last minute conference that was to be held in San Francisco and that she wouldn’t return until the following Monday. This was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. Up until then, I had continued to put up with our deteriorating relationship. In the beginning our relationship was filled with mutual love and respect but it seems that the moment after we said our vows, all of that changed. In the following years it was like being married to a stranger. I tried everything that I could to express my love and appreciation towards her but nothing that I did seemed to matter. I doted on her. I honored her. I cherished her. Everything that I did, I did for her but with each attempt, I felt like the two of us got further and further apart.

  I felt down and was hurt after Rachel left to go on her trip. It wasn’t until her little sister, Toni, came over that I found out the truth. I’ve known Toni for almost as long as I’ve known Rachel. She’s a beautiful, curvy and capable woman who is now one of my subordinates at work. Last Thursday, before I made it home, Rachel confessed to Toni the truth behind her illicit affair. Toni gave Rachel 24 hours to tell me the truth, but instead she left on a weekend excursion to Las Vegas with her lover.

  After finding out the truth, I fell into a downward spiral. Toni was the one that helped rescue me from my heartache. Her words were supportive. Her heart was a radiating column of strength. But it was her actions that really got through to me. One minute after midnight, Toni appeared at my bedside and woke me. She offered her body to me as a way to help me heal. However, it had another effect. She helped transform me from a man that allowed his wife to walk all over him, to a man that stood his ground. Toni offered me her innocence and in that I found a wealth of strength that I never knew existed. However, despite our carnal experience, Toni still pushed me to forgive her sister and not divorce her. Given what I had taken away from Toni, I felt that I didn’t have the right to refuse.

  In a moment of foolishness, Rachel contacted me via text to wish me a happy birthday and to send me a picture of some lingerie that she claimed was bought with me in mind. Of course, she didn’t know that I had been made aware of her lies and that at that very moment she was shacked up with the guy she was cheating on me with. Therefore, all it took to bring her lies crashing down around her was me simply telling her to enjoy Las Vegas, to which she responded that she would. She failed to stick to her original lie that she was going to be in San Francisco.

  Upon realizing that I knew the truth she practically tripped over herself to make it back home, leaving her lover alone in Vegas. I wanted to kick her to the curb. I wanted to leave her and never look back but I couldn’t…rather, I didn’t. She carried on an emotional affair for 2-years and a sexual affair for 4-months. That was horrible, despicable and majorly fucked up. However, I did sleep with her sister so I wasn’t exactly Mr. Innocent in all of this. Although I didn’t think she deserved it, I had no choice but to give her a second chance.

  But that second chance didn’t come cheap. Marriage counseling, avoidance and being relegated to the guest bedroom were the prices she had to pay to keep me in the marriage. But this was nothing more than a stopgap. I wasn’t very confident that there was anything that we could do to repair the destroyed trust and to rebuild my feelings for her. But all of that changed the day that I came home and saw her crying.

  Apparently, while I was at work, her bedmate, Alex, came by the house and threatened her. I wasn’t having it. Betrayed or not, no one was going to come to my house and bully my wife. No one! While I contemplated murder, she claimed that she had it all under control. I kept refining my plans but since she wouldn’t give up his address, I had to leave it to her to deal with. Perhaps it was my lingering feelings. Perhaps it was seeing her in pain. Perhaps I was just tired of being stuck in a marriage that didn’t seem to be heading in the right direction. Whatever it was, upon seeing her, those recent wounds opened back up and my bleeding heart poured out. Despite the pain and betrayal, I loved her. Later that night we fell in bed with each other.

  The next day we had our marriage counseling with the alluring Dr. Amara Jeffries. Rachel openly admitted to having an affair and although I slept with Toni in a moment of pain after finding out about Rachel’s affair, I didn’t come clean and admit stepping out on her too. Instead, I admitted that over the years I have failed my wife in paying attention to her and her evolving needs and desires. I kept seeing her as the girl I fell in love with and not as the woman she had become. We allowed ourselves to grow in different directions. Dr. Jeffries or Amara (as she preferred to be called) suggested that this was the primary reason for the affair and suggested that we work on our relationship and remove sex as an option.

  In the days that followed things really improved. We interacted with each other and had deep and meaningful conversations. I was finally beginning to feel like I was growing to understand Rachel and how we could co-exist.

  So then why am I marching down a hotel hallway on my way to rain down Hell? Simple. After finishing up a meeting in the restaurant downstairs and waving goodbye to my prospects, I saw him. Although I’ve never met him before, I knew it was him as soon as he walked passed me. I followed him. Then lo and behold, Rachel, my darling wife, appeared. She had made it seem like their affair was over and that she really wanted a second chance to build a relationship with me. I was a fool. I fell for her lies—hook, line and sinker.

  Now it was payback time. He rented a room and she followed him. After chatting up the desk receptionist, I was given a copy of the key to the very same room. The only thing that remained was to decide which of them was going out of the window first.

  Like a snake, I shed the layers of my clothes as I approached the room. My jacket, tie, vest and watch would all just get in the way. I cast them aside as I got closer to the room. Rolling up my sleeves I looked at the door. Rolling my head in a small circle I let the rage fill me until I was nothing more than a revenging demon, hell-bent on destruction and wrath.

  Yippee ki-yay, motherfuckers!

  Standing before the door with my rage burning a wrath-filled hole through my soul, I heard a
loud sound from the other side of the door. I knew it was the two of them going at it. Boy she must’ve really wanted it if they were knocking down furniture. I placed the card against the card reader. The light turned green and it was go time. I threw open the door and stormed in, not sure who I was going to hurt first but knowing that whoever was closest would be the one that got their asses tossed out of the window first.

  Chest heaving, eyes full of rage and adrenaline coursing through my body—I was fury incarnate.

  Once I was inside that billowing rage was quickly displaced by a more pronounced emotion. Shock.

  “Rachel!”

  I expected to see Rachel pinned to the wall or her pinning him to the ground…not this!

  Her hair was wild. Her blouse hanged open. Her eyes were alit with passion. Her feet were spread as her chest heaved. He watched her with multiple emotions dancing in his eyes. Their focus was so heavily anchored on each other that neither of them noticed me at all.

  Rachel’s lips curled back in an expression that wasn’t quite a smile. Her arm shakily stretched out as a heavy 9mm pistol was held firmly in her grip. Her hand shook as she leveled the gun at his chest.

  “You fucking son-of-a-bitch! Don’t you ever touch me again. I’ll kill you. Do you understand? I’ll fucking kill you dead you motherfucker!”

  I have seen her angry in the past. I have seen her hurt. I have seen her scared. Her expression at this moment blew all of that away. She looked like a Fury. She looked like a Fury had materialized from the pages of a Greek tragedy and was ready to exact an appropriate amount of revenge.

  That was when I saw it. The table was askew and a tall glass vase containing an assortment of colorful flowers lay broken on the floor. But that wasn’t the worst of it. As I saw Rachel’s finger twitch on the trigger, the man (Alex) stepped back and sputtered, “I-I-I’m so sorry, my love. I’m sorry. You know how I can get when I’m frustrated. I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

  If hearing another man call my wife ‘my love’ wasn’t enough to jettison me into an angry stratosphere, I saw a deepening red hand print form on the side of Rachel’s face.

  “You goddamn piece of shit!” This time they both heard me. This time they knew that they weren’t alone. My voice rang out with enough force to stop a rampaging herd of elephants.

  He turned his head just as I started to make my way towards him. “Oh shit!” He held his hands up and stepped back.

  Oh shit was right. No one is going to lay their hands on my wife and walk away.

  Rachel’s eyes grew large. “J-Jake?” And then she screamed. “Ah!”

  I tackled that parasite to the ground and then it was game on. While he was on his back I sat back on my knees and gave him two hard punches to the face. Unfortunately, he put up his guard so my punches were deflected off of his forearms. He wrapped his ankles around my hips and grabbed one of my arms and I felt myself tilt to the side. He was on top of me faster than I would’ve thought possible. He tucked his chin to his chest as I threw up punches from the ground. At the same time he punched at my stomach and ribs. I clenched to reduce the damage.

  Now, I’m not much of a fighter…that is, I’d rather avoid them altogether. Nevertheless, I would be damned if I lost this one.

  When he reached back to give me another shot, I quickly brought my legs up and hooked my ankles in front of his face and then slammed my legs down with as much force as I could muster. It was enough. His head went flying back and landed with a loud smack on the ground.

  I didn’t waste any time. Now that he was off of me, I quickly jumped up to my feet. Rachel was panicking. She kept the gun aimed at him but was backpedaling towards the door.

  “Oh my God. Oh my God! Jake! Jake, no! Oh my God!”

  He crawled up to his feet a moment after I stood. That was good. I wanted a chance to really do some damage.

  He touched his nose. I must’ve gotten a few good shots in while we were on the ground because it was bleeding nice and good. “You fucker! Look at what you did to me!” He advanced.

  “Fuck you! You hit my wife. I’m going to crush you!” I met him in the middle and our fists were flying.

  He was faster than I thought. He stepped forward and delivered a solid jab to my chin and then followed up with a hook aimed at my jaw. His fists were heavy but I was so angry that I could’ve been fighting a heavyweight champion and I wouldn’t have backed down.

  After recovering from his blows I threw a few of my own. My first shot connected with his right eye socket and he reeled backwards. I advanced and delivered two strong punches to his abdomen and one to his sternum. He hacked.

  With his right eye swelling quickly, he threw a series of wild punched at my body and head. They were easy to see through and I dodged them without ever being touched. After a particularly wild and misaimed hook, I stepped forward and brought my fist down hard to his exposed ribcage.

  “Argh!” He clenched his side and leaned forward.

  Clutching the back of his head in a Muay Thai grip, I brought my knee up to his face. He fell backwards into the askew table, knocking down chairs as he fell to the ground.

  I mounted him, placing my knees on his arms.

  I looked down at him as he watched me with real fear in his eyes. The feeling was exquisite. Placing my hand on his throat, I brought my right fist back so he could easily see the blow coming.

  “You fucked my wife.” Smash!

  I traded fists, this time holding his throat with my right hand and pulling back my left fist.

  “You threatened my wife.” Smash!

  I traded again.

  “You hit my wife.” Smash! Smash!

  His eyes were rolling in the back of his head but I wasn’t done. I spit on him and then grabbed his face with both of my hands and growled, “If you ever look at her again—I. Will. Kill. You.”

  I gathered all my hurt and all my rage and I compacted it all into my fists. Then I went to work. Smash! Smash! Smash! Smash!

  He was out cold but I didn’t stop. Inside, I felt like there was this empty void. I no longer felt anger or rage. I was no longer sad and frustrated. I didn’t love, like or care about anything. I felt nothing at all but the sweet release of my emotional baggage. I punched him until he was a little more than pulp with a pulse.

  “Jake! Jake! JACOB!”

  I shuddered at the sound. I blinked. Looking up, it felt like I was seeing for the very first time. Before me was a beautiful woman with sharp cheekbones, long brown hair, gorgeous brown eyes and tears falling over a bruise on her left cheek.

  Who was she and why was she crying?

  I felt her nails dig into my shoulders and I took in a painful breath.

  “R-Rachel?” She nodded and sobbed. It was my wife. But what was she doing here? Where was I? I looked around and I felt lost. I was in a hotel room and Rachel was crying.

  “Oh, Jake.”

  I reached out to stroke her face and tell her not to cry but when I did my hands came up bloody and bruised. It hurt. It hurt, badly.

  “Oh, Jake.” She pressed her face against my chest and sobbed. I continued to look around the strange room and felt like I was slowly coming out of a daze. On the floor, by the door was a black 9mm. There was glass on the floor and some chairs were knocked over. I heard a deep voice groan. Rachel sat back and I looked down. There was a man (at least I thought it was a man) lying on the ground beneath me looking like he just went head-to-head with a freaking freight train.

  “W-what happened?”

  “You don’t remember?” Her voice was tarnished by pain and sadness.

  I shook my head but as I did the memories slowly came flooding back. I remembered. I remembered everything. I looked at her. I could only imagine the haunted look on my face because when she looked at me there was such a look of pain in her eyes that it was overwhelming.

  “I remember. I had a meeting and then he arrived. I followed him and I saw you. You were with him.”

  She nodded as mo
re tears fell down her face. “Oh Jake, I’m sorry. I wish I didn’t come. I only did it because he wouldn’t leave it alone. I came to tell him that we were over. I brought that”, she pointed to the gun on the floor, “just in case.”

  “S-so you didn’t come here to sleep with him?”

  Now she looked both shocked and disgusted. “No! Never again. When I told him that we were through he tried to take me by force—saying that he’ll have me anytime that he chooses. When I kicked him in the nuts he slapped me and threw me against the wall. That’s when I got the gun out and you appeared right after and tackled him. I should’ve told you what I was planning. I’m so sorry if I worried you. I just…I just didn’t want this!” She motioned to the room as I remembered the fight that we just had.

  “Ohhh!” He continued to groan.

  I looked up into her eyes. “He tried to rape you?” She nodded. My hands went to his throat and I squeezed. His left eye opened slightly as his hands moved pointlessly beneath my legs. I squeezed as he tried desperately to escape.

  I looked down at him and growled, “You tried to rape my wife. You’re dead!” I continued to squeeze down as his body started to flop. I felt my hands shake as I cut off his oxygen. His neck was thick and it was hard but I was so angry that I was going to do it regardless.

  Despite the extremity of the situation, Rachel spoke softly in my ear. “That’s enough, Jake. Anymore and he’ll die. Enough, my love. Enough.” She kissed my cheek and I shuddered but I released him all the same.

  This time I stood up and walked backwards until I fell on a small sofa. I watched as he turned to the side and held his throat, gasping for air. Rachel stood up and looked down at him in disgust and then she went and picked up the gun and placed it in her purse. She came over to me and knelt down before me.