Arden

by Melody Anne

  “He’s going to feel like we’re attacking him,” she said. “Maybe you could wait in the car.”

  He shook his head. “Max and I come with you. I can ask Declan to hang back.”

  She sighed, but nodded. They stepped out of the car, and even Max seemed tense as they moved up the walkway that was lined with weeds. The home wasn’t in the worst part of town, but it hadn’t been maintained. There were more weeds in the yard than grass, and the paint on the side of house was peeling. The windows looked as if they hadn’t been washed in years, and there wasn’t a car in the cracked driveway.

  That didn’t mean anything. A lot of people let their houses go to hell, and parked in the garage. He couldn’t shake his fear for Keera as he stood on one side of her, Max on the other. She knocked . . . and they waited.

  There was no answer. He moved to the side and looked in a window, his body tensing at what he saw. There was garbage strewn about and a ripped couch. It reminded him too much of the scene at Keera’s not that long ago.

  “He’s not here. I think it’s time to call this in,” he told her. He wouldn’t be in such a hurry to leave if Keera wasn’t there with him.

  “Maybe he’s in the back,” Keera said, her chin up. She began walking around the house, giving him no choice but to follow. She obviously didn’t take her safety too seriously.

  They came to the back of the house and looked inside a large patio door, where the mess in the house continued. Keera knocked again, but there wasn’t a sound from inside.

  She reached for the handle and tugged, and miracle of all miracles, the door cracked open. Max instantly tensed as a low growl rumbled through him, his eyes focused inside.

  “Stay there!” Arden told her, his hand covering hers. “Max doesn’t get this upset unless something’s wrong.”

  “He might be hurt in there,” Keera said, obviously wanting to rush inside.

  “We’ll find out.” He took her hand, pulling her away from the door as he called out for Declan, who was immediately at their side. “Looks like we’re going to need that search warrant after all,” he told his brother, who looked down at the dog and nodded.

  Declan picked up his phone and called the police. This was no longer a compromise he could afford to keep with Keera. Something was in that house that wasn’t supposed to be there—and they were about to find out what that was.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Keera’s throat tightened as she stood trembling on Ethan’s back lawn. She hated the waiting but understood why it had to be done right.

  “What if he’s hurt? We need to get in,” she said, fighting back her fear for Ethan. It wasn’t as if they were best friends, but he’d been the first one in this town to take the time to know her. She felt she owed him her loyalty.

  “I’ll go in,” Declan said a few minutes later. Two squad cars were now there, and the policemen nodded. No one was going to argue with his authority.

  He opened the back door, his gun drawn as he disappeared inside the house. It felt like the longest seconds of her life as she waited for him to do a quick search before allowing anyone else to enter.

  Max was still growling as he strained to follow Declan. Something was in there that interested the dog. Keera wasn’t sure what it was, but she was definitely afraid to find out. She didn’t want any of this to be true about Ethan. She didn’t want him to be a bad guy.

  Declan came back to the door. “Ethan’s not here. You can come in now,” he said.

  Keera didn’t wait to see if that included her. She needed to make sure he wasn’t lying to her. She didn’t take him as the kind of man to do that, but right now it felt as if her world had once again been flipped upside down. And a person could only have that happen so many times before it all became too much.

  As soon as Declan allowed him to, Max sprang forward, disappearing down a hallway. They moved quickly after the dog, who entered what looked like a spare room that was sparsely furnished, with a rickety desk with papers strewn about it and a rusty file cabinet.

  Max went to the closet and sat, his growl low as he waited for them to open the door.

  “Did you check this closet?” Keera asked, terrified she was going to find Ethan’s bloody body on the other side of the door.

  “No,” Declan said. He inched forward, his gun still ready. Then he opened the door, and Keera gasped.

  “Looks like we found our drug supplier,” Arden said with a low whistle.

  “And why he might want to stop Keera from digging any further,” Declan said.

  “But I wasn’t the one who started this. Of course I don’t want drugs in the school, but why would he come after me?” Keera asked, unable to look away from the massive amount of cocaine wrapped in plastic.

  “I don’t know, but I hope you now believe he’s after you,” Arden said, sympathy in his eyes. Keera took a few steps back, unable to deny the truth any longer, but feeling betrayed by a person who’d claimed to be her friend. The sad thing was, that’s how it always happened. She hadn’t ever been able to maintain relationships because of exactly what was in front of her.

  Her father had been a high-ranking drug dealer, and apparently Ethan was, too. He certainly didn’t live like her father, though. Did he know her dad? Is that why he had been so nice to her? Was it a show all along?

  Keera was so disappointed; she didn’t know what to think or feel.

  “I’m sorry,” Arden said, wrapping his arms around her. For a single moment she allowed him to take a bit of the burden from her. Ethan was just one more person in a long line of people who had zero qualms about betraying her. It hurt more than she wanted to admit.

  “He was a heck of an actor,” she said. She pulled back to look at Arden. “I really had no clue it was him bringing drugs into the school. I guess he had the perfect cover-up, though. He knew which lockers were safe, knew the schedule, and normally had the school all to himself. He made a comment my second week there that most principals didn’t stay so late. He wasn’t happy about my after-hours activities with the kids, either. I guess it was messing with his operation.”

  She was so disheartened. But at least the drug problem was solved, or getting closer to being solved.

  “We still don’t know if anyone else is involved,” Declan said.

  “I was wondering the same thing,” Keera admitted. “I don’t know if he brought students into this or staff members. I feel like I can’t trust anyone.”

  “Right now, you can’t,” Declan said, making Keera wince.

  “You can trust us,” Arden told her, shooting his brother a look. If she wasn’t so frustrated right now, she might have found that amusing.

  “Sir, you might want to look at this,” one of the cops said, holding up a file.

  “What is it?” Declan asked. The cop looked from Declan to Keera as he squirmed on his feet. “Spit it out.” Declan wasn’t the most patient of people.

  “Uh . . . well, it has Ms. Thompson’s name on it.”

  Arden tensed next to her. Declan’s eyes narrowed as he stepped over to the cop and took the file. He looked at it a moment, and his already steely gaze became even more glacial. He looked at Keera and then his brother.

  “This goes deeper than I realized,” he said. Keera felt her insides clench. She didn’t want to read that file, didn’t want to know what it contained. But she also couldn’t bury her head in the sand any longer.

  She held out her hand, and Declan gave her the file. She knew when she opened it her life would change again. Her world so often spun out of control, she wondered what it would be like to live a boring, normal life. She would probably never know.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Keera walked next to Arden as they entered his house. There were so many thoughts spinning in her head. Who had her father truly been? What had he been up to? What did it have to do with Edmonds? How had she ended up in this town?

  She had none of those answers. Arden paced the living room as he dealt with his own fru
strations, neither of them talking a heck of a lot.

  “I could kill that man, Keera. I could put my hands around his neck and kill him,” Arden said.

  Keera had never had a white knight in her corner, and she found she liked it, found she needed it. She didn’t want to need it, but there was something so wonderful about Arden. It honestly terrified her.

  “Can I have a few minutes to process this?” she asked as she moved over to the fireplace and sat down on the couch, facing the flames as she gripped the folder.

  “Of course,” he told her.

  She sat there for an endless amount of time, staring at the flames as her fingers rubbed over the top of the folder. She was scared, so scared. Arden stopped pacing as he faced her, his sympathy almost too much for her to bear.

  “We can take all night if you need,” Arden said. “But the sooner we rip off the bandage and get some answers, the sooner you’re free from this.”

  “I’m afraid to see what’s in here,” she admitted.

  “No matter what’s there, I’m right here beside you,” Arden assured her.

  Keera looked up at this man who’d been so helpful. He’d bent over backward to keep her safe, to help solve issues that seemed to revolve around her. He seemed a little too perfect to be true.

  “You’ve done so much for me, Arden. Thank you,” she told him.

  “You’re welcome,” he said.

  “You’re learning to take gratitude a lot better,” she said.

  “Someone told me I should just accept it when a person thanks me,” he replied.

  The light bantering eased the weight that had been pressing down on her chest since the moment she’d been handed the file. She smiled gratefully at Arden before looking back at the folder in her lap.

  “Okay, I’m ready to do this,” she said as she opened the cover. She didn’t let out a breath as she gazed at the papers.

  Arden moved closer as she sifted through the file, reading things that made her blood run cold, that made her heart slow, and made her realize the world was in no way a fair place.

  She spent about thirty minutes reading and rereading. Arden stayed at her side, but he didn’t ask questions, didn’t push her, didn’t do anything other than be a comforting presence.

  “Did you know about this?” she finally asked.

  She was looking at the final paper. It had all her former addresses, phone numbers, favorite places to go, people she was acquainted with. This file contained her entire life.

  “No, Keera. Please believe me. I had no idea,” he said.

  “Did Declan know?” she asked.

  “I have no idea,” he said.

  “He’s FBI. I find it difficult to believe he didn’t know,” she said.

  “I think he might know some,” Arden admitted.

  “But he didn’t tell you?” she questioned.

  “No. I didn’t want to be biased by this investigation. I wanted to come to my own conclusions,” he said.

  “About me?” she asked. She felt so close to falling apart. She truly hoped that wasn’t going to happen, but she couldn’t guarantee anything at the moment.

  “At first, yeah, I wanted to get my own opinion of you. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure if you were involved in this or not,” he told her.

  “And now?” she asked. She was trying not to be hurt. He was just being honest with her.

  “Do you need to ask?”

  “Yes, I need to ask,” she told him. “Especially after seeing this file, especially after figuring out that my life has never been my life like I thought it was. Apparently, I’ve been a puppet on strings without even knowing,” she said, her words breaking at the end.

  “You don’t have to be strong right now,” he told her.

  Without allowing her to refuse, he lifted her, setting her on his lap and wrapping his arms around her. They were both quiet as she reluctantly allowed him to carry some of her burden.

  “You didn’t answer me,” she finally said.

  His fingers were running through her hair before he leaned back so she could look into his eyes. They were so gentle it scared her. She didn’t want to trust this man, didn’t want to lean on him.

  “I don’t think you’re capable of doing anything to hurt anyone,” he said.

  “A few months ago, I could have told you emphatically that I couldn’t hurt another person,” she told him before looking at the file again. “Now, I don’t know what I’m capable of.”

  “Then let me assure you of who you are,” he told her. He leaned in and kissed her. It wasn’t a passionate kiss; it was comforting. He was taking some of her worries on himself, trying to ease her confusion and pain.

  When he leaned back, she did feel lighter, felt that he’d been successful in removing some of the weight from her shoulders. She just wasn’t sure how he managed to do that.

  “I knew my father had left us for another family,” she said after leaning against him, allowing this new information to process in her muddled brain.

  “Yeah, probably more than one family,” Arden said.

  “Definitely more than one family. But I didn’t know these lives would intertwine,” she said. “When he left us, I thought that was it.”

  “Apparently not,” Arden said.

  “It was Ethan who led me here, wasn’t it?” she asked.

  “What I don’t understand is why. He seemed to like you, then seemed to resent you for getting too close,” Arden said.

  “Do you swear you didn’t know the truth of this before now?” she asked. She didn’t trust easily, but she wanted to believe Arden’s answer. He again made her look in his eyes.

  “I swear I didn’t know,” he assured her.

  She sighed. “Ethan is my stepbrother.” Saying the words out loud seemed so unreal. “And apparently my real brother knew about it.”

  “What does that mean?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I can’t fathom it. I don’t care about him, don’t care if he was one of the many kids I’m sure my father had in his household. I probably have a dozen or more stepsiblings. They all mean nothing to me. I just don’t understand why this one person wanted to know me, why he brought me here,” she said.

  “What does he have to do with your brother and his death?” Arden asked.

  “There’s one person who knows,” she said. “I just don’t know if I can ask him or trust his answers.”

  Silence greeted these words. Arden continued rubbing his fingers through her hair as they both got lost in their thoughts.

  “There’s nothing you can’t face,” he finally assured her.

  “Maybe it’s best to just let the past stay where it is,” she said.

  “That might be the case if your life wasn’t in danger,” he countered.

  It might be time for Keera to face the one person she thought had died in her heart a long time ago. She wasn’t sure she could do it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to get to the bottom of all of this. She also didn’t know if she had any other choice.

  “Can we not think about it anymore tonight?” Keera asked after she sank a little bit closer against Arden. She wanted to simply wash it all away.

  “I’ll do anything you want,” Arden said.

  “I don’t want to think about Ethan, or my father. I don’t want to think about stalkers, or safety issues. I want a few hours to let my mind go blank. I just need your arms around me,” Keera said.

  “I’m so grateful you’ve come into my life,” he said. His eyes shimmered as he looked at her, cupping her cheek as he held her in place with nothing more than his gaze.

  “I can’t believe you’d say that with all the trouble I’ve caused,” she told him. She added a laugh, but in reality, she didn’t find the situation humorous.

  His fingers stilled where they rested at the sides of her eyes. “You’ve done nothing, Keera. What you actually bring to me is indescribable,” he told her.

  She desperately wanted to believe what he was saying. But she
couldn’t. She couldn’t open up that much to him. Instead, she pressed against him, her hands wrapping around his solid waist.

  They had a lot of problems to solve, but as she snuggled closer to him, it just didn’t seem to matter anymore. At least for tonight, none of it mattered.

  Chapter Thirty

  Daniel Thompson was a poor excuse for a father. It wasn’t difficult to find out exactly where he was, and it wasn’t with the new family he’d begun after bailing on Keera and her brother. And it was so much closer than she would have imagined.

  She wasn’t going to admit how much it was breaking her heart that he was living so close to her and still hadn’t wanted to be a part of her life. The last she’d known was he’d been in Southern California living in a gated mansion. He always lived well, and he had no guilt about it. He hadn’t cared that he’d abandoned his family—he’d just gone on to make new ones.

  Now he was living in Victoria, Canada, in a mansion on the beach. He was going by a new name and had a wife Keera’s age. Keera was unbelievably disgusted as they pulled up to the entrance, and embarrassed beyond reason to have Arden next to her to see this man.

  “I don’t know what the point of this is,” she said, not wanting to enter this place. There was a guard shack with a man gazing at their rental car.

  “We need to get answers, and that file raised more questions than anything else,” Arden told her.

  “He won’t let me in,” she said. That would be the ultimate embarrassment.

  “Oh, he’ll let us in,” Arden said, his eyes narrowing.

  The place looked as if it belonged to a movie star. While Keera and her brother had lost everything because of this man, he’d simply moved on and started a new life several times over. She now realized he’d never suffered. He probably had kept money stashed away, not caring that his former family had nothing left. That’s how heartless he was.

  Arden pulled forward, taking the choice away from her. He rolled down his window, and the unsmiling guard stepped up to the car. The man was a giant, and he didn’t look at all as if he’d let them in.