by Aycart, Elle
“So all that crap about not liking to be photographed?”
“I don’t want my face on social media. But Audrey did have scopophobia. I didn’t make that up.”
“If all this is as you say, why the fuck didn’t you come clean with me earlier? I guess the ‘more than a project’ dude doesn’t need to know?”
“What do you mean, ‘if all this is as you say’? Of course it is. Why would I lie to you?”
His expression shut her mouth. Yeah, she probably wasn’t coming across as the most reliable person around. “I didn’t mean any harm, I swear. I hated lying to all of you—especially you, Con, but I feared your reaction would be exactly the one you’re having now. I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me and you’d turn me in. The longer I waited, the more difficult it was to come clean. It’s not like I can go back to being Nicky Rubin.”
The silence between them stretched to uncomfortable lengths.
“Is your story going to check out once I start digging for information about the real you?” he finally asked.
“It’s not my story, it’s the truth. And yes, it will all check out. I deleted my profiles from social media, though. You probably won’t find much there.” She grabbed her cell and searched for the only two pictures she had of herself and Audrey. “You can’t see her face properly because she was covering it, but here, this is Audrey and me.”
“That proves squat. The bottom line is you’re impersonating somebody else. Bullshitting a whole town while you’re at it. What about your brother with PTSD—another of your lies?”
She shook her head. “That part is true. I didn’t plan on telling you about my brother, but you caught me off-guard that first day and it slipped. What I told you about me and my family is true. Yes, I lied about the name, but Audrey and I were in a similar situation where family was concerned. Her dad was a no-show for most of her life. I was a military brat, moving all the time until my dad died. My mother died when I was in college, like Audrey’s. I only have my brother.”
“Who thinks you’re dead. What an exemplary sister.”
She didn’t like his tone, but given the circumstances, she decided to ignore it. “He knows I’m alive. I told him some shit had gone down and that I was going to lie low for a while.” She loved her brother. No way would she have let him think she was dead. Not for a second.
“Give me a reason why I shouldn’t call the sheriff,” he said, his gaze cold. “One reason why I shouldn’t turn you in. Identity theft is a serious felony. You not only stole her name; you stole her money.”
“I used Audrey’s money for the inn, which was what she intended to use it for. I didn’t use a penny for myself.” On the contrary. She’d used all her savings to help cover the down payment. She’d even gone into debt to finance the remodeling. “I know identity theft is serious crime, but you have to believe me when I tell you I meant no harm. I was trying to make the best of the rotten cards I’d been dealt. I lived with Audrey for many years hearing stories about Alden and the friends of her grandmother. I promised I was going to help her once she gathered enough funds. This was her reason for living, so this is what I am doing.” It was the least she could do to honor her friend.
“What you’re doing is lying to everyone. Is that the plan? Lie to everyone forever? Use the fact you resemble some old lady everyone loved to perpetuate the lie?”
She lowered her gaze. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. “No, I guess not. I thought… I don’t know. I thought I’d get the inn up and running, and then see from there. Maybe leave?” she ventured, totally lying now. She was getting too attached to the place. And to Connor. But that was probably a non-issue now. He was right; she was a fraud, and he was going to turn her in.
“What? Assume a new identity and start over in another corner of the US?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Who do you think I am? A criminal mastermind, assuming others’ identities for profit every other year?” She’d been in dire straits and had stolen her best friend’s identity, true, but she was here, busting her ass, trying to fulfill Audrey’s dreams. It would never make up for getting Audrey killed, but she was trying her best.
“That’s the problem. I don’t know who you are, Audrey.” He grimaced. “Nicky. Fuck, I don’t even know what to call you now. I can’t believe you conned me. I’ve been sleeping with you. Fucking you bareback. We talked about exclusivity, for fuck’s sake. And I didn’t even know your real name!” He stopped. “Wait. Am I part of your cover? Is fucking the grandson of one of the grannies you stalked on Facebook your way to blend in? Part of whatever fucked-up plan you’re lying about?”
“Of course not!” she answered, irate. “I didn’t lie to you about us. I was honest about my feelings.”
“Your credibility is shit, sweetheart. You’re just telling me all this because you got caught.”
“You’re lying to everyone about your PTSD,” she counter acted, knowing it was a low blow. But what the heck, she was getting furious. Yes, there was plenty to blame her for, but she had been completely honest about wanting to be with him. “You told me about your condition because you got caught. Otherwise you would never have said a word, so please don’t give me lectures about integrity. You’re also keeping things from the people who matter to you.”
He scoffed. “Of course, because lying about the reason for one’s discharge from the military is comparable to robbing human traffickers and impersonating a dead person and getting loans in her name.”
“I didn’t rob human traffickers,” she muttered. “Not intentionally, at least. Besides, they got the money back.”
“Yes, after killing your roommate. The one you’re now impersonating. Didn’t you stop to think about the consequences of your actions? What fucking world did you two live in?” His tone was rising.
She closed her mouth at his raw words and tried to breathe around the lump clogging her throat. He was right. She had no excuses to offer. Besides, talking about it only seemed to enrage him more. “If you believe nothing else, please believe this. I never intended any harm. Especially not to you. I’m sorry.”
Con’s eyes were ablaze. He was angry and hurt, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could say to make those feelings go away. “The OGs love you. You played them.”
“I love them too.” What the real Audrey had expected to find in Alden—all the love and acceptance—the fake Audrey had gotten instead. And she’d badly needed it. She’d never had issues socializing, and her brother loved her to pieces, but she’d never had a real home. Never belonged anywhere.
Audrey had never been so happy to get interrupted as she was then, when someone knocked at the cottage door.
“Audrey?” It was Red. “We need to check some things for tonight’s event.”
“You better go,” Con said ironically. “Audrey Fleming is very busy, after all.” He opened the door, brushed past Red, and left.
* * *
The evening was off to a good start. The outdoor spaces were perfectly decorated with tiny lights all over the place, trees included. Music was blasting, security was tight, and even though the band had just arrived and was still finishing their press conference, there were already lots of people around. The local caterers Audrey had hired to augment her existing staff were doing their thing, Red’s canapes were very popular, and champagne flowed freely.
Audrey still had no clue how she’d managed to get everything ready on time. Her day had gone by in a haze. She’d expected the sheriff at any second, but so far he hadn’t shown up. She clung to the fact that tonight’s event was happening at the inn because Kyra and the OGs had lobbied for it. Regardless of whether she ended the day in a holding cell, she wanted everything to be perfect. After all, this might be the last party she ever hosted not dressed in orange.
The preparations had kept her busy and now she was feeling weirdly calm. Resigned to her fate. Deep down, she’d known the charade couldn’t continue forever, that she would get caught sooner or later. She
was just sorry it had been sooner. She would have loved to stay for a while in Alden, with Connor. For the first time, she had a life she truly enjoyed. Plenty of people cared for her and greeted her when they met in the street. And Connor. She kept coming back to Connor. She was going to miss him so damn much. Well, she would get to see him when he came to testify during her trial. There was that at least, right?
Be that as it may, tonight the inn was entertaining a very select clientele, plus many people from the town. Leave it to her to get arrested in the most public circumstances possible.
She’d been avoiding the press, but once they were gone, she did the rounds and made sure everything was going as it should. As she checked the buffet table, the OGs and Rachel waved at her, pulling her out of her reverie. Smiling, Audrey walked toward them.
Greta took her hand and patted it. “Look at these pictures, dear,” she said, showing her a cell phone. Greta’s eyes shone with excitement.
On the screen there was a familiar motorcycle with a sidecar, looking much better than the last time Audrey had seen it. “Wow.”
“Rachel is a crack mechanic, as you guys say nowadays,” Wilma added, hugging her granddaughter.
“Please, it’s not rocket science,” Rachel grumbled.
Audrey totally disagreed. The OGs did too.
“It’s going to look just like new,” Rebecca stated. “Like when your grandmother got it, Audrey. Pity you didn’t find the helmet along with the bike. It was shiny black and had her name written on it in red and yellow flames. Do you remember, girls?”
Greta and Wilma nodded. “We should try to get it through the eBuy.”
“Through eBay,” Rachel corrected.
“Right,” Greta said. “As soon as the motorcycle is ready, we have to take a picture like the one we took back then. A before-and-after kind of shot. Audrey will take the place of her grandma. Let’s find the clothes we were wearing.”
Audrey tried to refuse, but there was no refusing this crowd, so she just smiled. Chances were, she wouldn’t be in Alden by then anyway. Or free.
Wilma tsked. “I can already tell you we won’t fit in those dresses.”
Rebecca frowned. “We didn’t gain that much weight, did we?”
“Not really,” Wilma admitted. “but we lost it from where we should have kept it and gained it where we shouldn’t have. Gravity is a bitch, my friend.”
They all nodded in commiseration, and Audrey felt like crying. She was so going to miss these crazy grannies.
“Or the grandkids could take our places on the bike, like an after-after picture,” Greta offered. “Audrey would have loved that.”
Audrey blinked back tears and nodded. Grandma Audrey would have loved it. The real Audrey too. Even the fake one did.
“You could park it at the inn’s entrance,” Rebecca suggested. “It would be such great advertising for your business. It will turn heads.”
“Fantastic idea. Oh, and we were thinking, if it’s okay with you,” Greta said, “that we’d like to go see her at the cemetery with the bike on her birthday. You’ll come with us, of course.”
Man, she was going to cry. Definitely.
She saw the sheriff, Adrian, coming toward them, and he wasn’t dressed for the party. He was wearing his uniform. She’d just run out of time. But the OGs deserved to hear it from her. If there was ever a moment to come clean, this was it.
“I need to tell you guys something,” Audrey started, clearing her throat.
“Yes, dear?” Greta asked with a bright smile.
Audrey could see from the corner of her eye that Adrian was almost upon them. “I… I’m very sorry to tell you this, but I—”
Then someone spoke in her stead. “—can’t continue talking to you because I owe this handsome gentleman a dance.” It was Connor. “Now, if you’ll excuse us,” he continued and, grabbing her by her waist, pulled her away.
* * *
It took Audrey a while to react. Good—the less resistance, the better for him. By the time she’d found her words, Con had dragged her to the area set aside for dancing. And not a second too soon. “Con, what—”
“Shut up, will you?” he said, wrapping his arms around her, preventing her from going back to the OGs, who were looking damned pleased as they watched. Adrian had reached them and was talking with Rachel, who laughed and hugged him. Con had known that, once Audrey saw Adrian, she’d figure he’d come for her.
He placed one hand on the back of her head, making sure her face was hidden. “What the fuck were you thinking hosting this shindig? Are you fucking crazy?” There were cameras all over the place. No sense of self-preservation whatsoever.
She looked confused. “The inn needs the publicity. Why—”
“And what the fuck were you going to tell the OGs?” Con interrupted, trying and failing to curb his anger. “If I hadn’t jumped in just now, what would you have said?”
“The truth,” she admitted.
“The truth?” he hissed. “What truth? The one that’s going to make them miserable? They’re happy.”
“What’s your problem? Do you want to be the one to break it to them? Or do you just want to be the first to tell the authorities?” She turned to look to the side, at Adrian.
“I don’t want you arrested,” Con confessed in a harrumph, bringing her face back against his chest. “And the sheriff ain’t here for you.”
She cocked her head. “Really? Because that’s not what the situation looked like this morning.”
“Don’t be stupid.” The insult didn’t improve Audrey’s disposition, but he forged ahead. “Everybody is okay with the fake Audrey. Who am I—or you, for that matter—to burst their bubble?”
Con had stormed out of the cottage that morning royally pissed. Of all the insight he’d expected to find when he started digging for Audrey’s “brother”, the last thing he’d anticipated was to discover she wasn’t the real Audrey. After that bomb, he’d spent several hours running a comprehensive check on Nicky Rubin. As far as he could tell, she’d been honest with him and everything had checked out. He’d read the news clips he could find about that arrest ten months ago. She’d really stumbled upon a gang the cops had been after for years. Vicious criminals, responsible for a huge chunk of the human trafficking in the US. So yeah, she was who she said she was—namely, not Audrey.
He’d spent all day debating whether to go to Adrian, and yet he’d come to the party without his mind made up. Then he’d seen her trying to come clean with the OGs, and panic had raced through his body. That had been the answer he’d been seeking the whole day.
“Are you saying you’ll go along with this…”
“Charade?” Con offered. “Yes, I’ll play along with your charade, little girl.”
Audrey narrowed her eyes at him, her expression suspicious. “Keeping this a secret… What’s it going to cost me? I might prefer to turn myself in,” she muttered.
Fuck, she cracked him up. That idea hadn’t crossed his mind, but it had merit. Worth considering, definitely. “Am I so difficult to please?”
She pursed her lips and straightened her back. “I will not trade sex for silence, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Of course not. I’ll get the sex anyway. Regardless, you have my silence.”
“Why?” She looked even more suspicious now.
He cupped her neck, brought her flush to him, and kissed her, deep and hard and long. When he let her come up for air, they were both flustered. She was so damn beautiful, it hurt his eyes. “Does that answer your question, fake Aud?”
Yes, she’d lied to him, but the truth of the matter was, whether she was Audrey Fleming or Nicky Rubin was irrelevant, because both his heads couldn’t be without her, much less could he turn her in. If she was found out, in the worst of scenarios, she’d end up in prison, maybe even dead. Those criminals had a long reach and putting a contract on her would be a piece of cake. In the best of scenarios, she’d enter a witness protection pro
gram after being used as bait to get Andy—who, as far as Con had been able to discover, had built a solid case of “wrong place at the wrong time.” Plus there were associates who’d escaped the raid.
Both options were totally unacceptable to him. The need to protect her might be coming from a bit farther north than his balls, but he still wasn’t ready to consider that, or put it into words. Be as it may, he had her back.
“No,” Audrey confessed, touching her lips. “Your behavior creates more questions.”
“Ask away,” he grumbled. “I might answer. Then again, I might not.”
“You want me, that much is clear,” she whispered, rubbing her stomach against his erection.
Duh, Sherlock.
“Is that the reason you won’t turn me in?” she asked, looking him straight in the eye.
“In part.”
“What’s the other part?”
“Next question,” he grunted, unwilling to tell her about his feelings.
“Are you okay with me being a fake?” Now she lowered her gaze.
“You’re a fake Audrey, but you aren’t fake. What I see is what I get, right?”
That must have been what she’d wanted to hear, because she gave him a big smile and her eyes overflowed. “I’m very sorry, Con,” she whispered against his chest. “Sorry I kept this from you. Sorry you had to find out the way you did. Sorry I’m lying to everybody. Sorry I—”
He chuckled and kissed the top of her head. “I get it, fake Aud. Stop berating yourself. No more secrets, though. Okay?”
She looked up, nodded, and hugged him, hiding her face in the crook of his neck.
They danced for a long time. Not because he was such a great dancer, but he was so hard, he was going to injure himself if he attempted to walk. Audrey, the vixen, had noticed it and was playing with him, undulating against his long-suffering cock, nipping at his throat and then soothing it with her sweet lips and tongue.
“Stop,” he growled. “I’m too jacked. And don’t be mistaken; I might have forgiven you, but I’m still angry about all this shit. You don’t want to have sex with me like this. I can’t be gentle, and I’ll probably be an ass.”