by Gayle Eden
“We’ve talked before.” Jesse was looking out the windshield absently. “We’ve been in the same area all of our lives. Nothing is going to change.”
Skye sighed and dropped it. She didn’t know Rio’s mind enough to encourage otherwise. It just seemed so….frustrating.
* * * *
“Can I come in?” Carter stuck his head in Kelly’s rooms.
“Sure.” She closed the laptop, having been sitting on the bed with it. Her hair was back. She was in sweats and socks, chilling after work.
Lounging on the foot of the bed, Carter asked about her job.
She told him it was fine, and talked about it, but he got the distinct feeling it wasn’t fine.
“You seeing Rayne?”
Her sapphire eyes moved from his face to the print on the comforter. “I see him now and then. I’ve been to the club. His place.”
“Yeah?”
She grinned. “What’s this, Carter? The inquisition.”
“No.” Carter sat up, still watching her. “I’m happy. I’m in a relationship. I’d want to know if you were.”
Her eyes met his. “You don’t think he’s good enough.”
“I didn’t and wouldn’t ever say that. I like Rayne. I respect him. I don’t know a hell of a lot about him, but I wasn’t thinking that.”
She took that in a moment, then mumbled, “If I tell you something, you have to swear to me it stays between us.”
“Now you have me worried.”
She pinned him with her gaze. “Promise me.”
“Of course.”
She wet her lips and then got up, going to the window, wrapping her arms around herself. “I’m involved in something…I should never have gotten mixed up in.”
He eyed her back. “With Rayne.”
“Inadvertently.”
“Kelly? You need to be clearer.” He could read her tension and nervousness. “You’re not dealing drugs or—”
“Hell—no.” She laughed and turned, but it was a nervous laugh. “I’d never do that and Rayne’s not a junkie or a dealer.”
“Okay. What?” Carter waited feeling queasy.
“I only part time doing research. The rest of the time—I work for Brice Salinas.”
“What? How—”
She sat down; arms still crossed, and looked at the floor. “I like Rayne. I really like him. And I feel like I’ve betrayed something because he was honest in talking about his background and everything…”
“Kelly. How’d you meet Salinas?”
“In town. At O’Malley’s one night. He approached me.” She shrugged. “He’s a handsome man, smooth and intelligent. He joined me… and I don’t how, but he knew… I guess he saw Rayne and me together. He keeps tabs on him.”
“And he hired you to…”
“To do pretty much that, only I’m supposed to be trying to convince him to see Salinas or at least answer his calls.” She stared at Carter again. “That man loves Rayne. I could feel it. See it. As much as I know Rayne hates him.”
“Jesus, Kelly.” Carter shook his head. “You shouldn’t be mixed up in this shit.”
“I know.” She drew in a breath. “I thought…well, never mind that. I obviously don’t think sometimes.”
Carefully Carter asked, “Have you slept with Rayne?”
She closed her eyes. “That’s another thing. I wanted to. I mean he would turn any woman on. I am attracted. I had hoped to…have that. But after I met with Salinas, I realized it would be worse. All I do is listen, hang out, and talk to him. In my defense, I think bitterness eats at him. He won’t be okay until he does talk with Salinas.”
“What’s Salinas expect?”
“Not expect. He is a man who is almost desperate. Under all that urban charm and handsomeness, the intellect, there’s just this man who has tried everything to get the son he loves to talk to him.”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Carter muttered, “This is not good.”
“No.” She got up again and paced. “I’ve never had a friendship, let alone anything else, with someone like Rayne. I realize, given his past, how few people he lets in. Actually, for all Salinas is what and who he is, I gather he is not surrounded by confidants. It’s an open secret he’s Rayne’s father. But I gather he buries himself in his practice and the ranch he owns.”
There was silence, then Carter suggested, “Just call an end to it, Kelly. That’s my advice.”
“I’m going to. Although—I feel for them both. I don’t know the details. I believe it when he says he loves Rayne. I wish…”
Carter said, “You hate your job.”
She smiled a bit. “I loathe it.” Then Kelly laughed. “I’m going from one mess to the other.”
“Not a mess. I can understand your motive. He, Salinas, is probably persuasive. Anyone meeting Rayne can see what he carries around, with good reason. It’s just, if Rayne finds out; it’s going to feel like betrayal.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I know. I’ve already decided to meet with Salinas and explain why I can’t.”
“And the job?”
She shrugged. “I have a few more prospects.’
Before he left, Carter asked her, “What really happened between you and Kane?”
“Nothing. He was polite at the beginning. He invited me to stay here. He just got an attitude when I went out with Rayne.”
“He has nothing against him that I know of.”
She arched her brow. “I don’t know what his problem is.”
She said afterwards, “There’s a little company, a startup that I’m probably going to work for. They offered less pay but it is interesting. They have several publications. It’s more my forte.”
“Sounds good.”
“Carter?”
He turned, hand on the knob. “Yeah?”
“I should probably move out.”
“Don’t.” He shook his head. “Kane likely regrets whatever he said. He’s just not good with women or apologies. He’s not used to having family. Although he enjoys it. I can tell. Just cut him slack this time.”
“Okay.”
Carter left, hoping she was going to detangle herself from the Salinas thing. He had empathy on both sides, but Salinas should have never asked her in the first place.
As he prepared to see Skye that evening, Carter wondered if she had ever asked her mother who fathered her? She did not talk about Chloe, or her past. He didn’t blame her. When they had time together, he wanted her happy, so he didn’t bring it up.
Thinking of that made him think of Kane and his own mother. He decided he was going to make Kane bridge that gap. It was past time they healed that old wound.
* * * *
Rayne was packing his duffle, intending to spend the weekend with Skye before she got too busy with the wedding and the Thanksgiving holidays. His hair was down, loose around his shoulders. He was barefoot, in jeans, as he moved around his tiny apartment, his mind reflecting and trying not to worry about Skye, because each time they talked, she revealed her growing excitement and feelings for Carter Croft.
He didn’t have it in him dampen her expectations, although the cynic in him always expected the worst of people.
One person he had no red flags with however, was Kelly. So when a knock sounded and he opened the door and found her standing there, he was puzzled, concerned next, because she looked pale and anxious.”
“I didn’t expect you.” He waved her in. “I’d probably have called you after I got to Skye’s.”
She didn’t sit down or move after he closed the door. Intending to go back to packing, Rayne hesitated, his instincts telling him something was off. Kelly had lost most of her reticence around him. They talked a lot. She did.
When she said roughly, “I need to tell you something.”
He sat down on his couch, eyeing her, something in the pit of his stomach twisting. His back teeth cinched tight. He nodded.
She wet her lips, eyes behind her glasses moving to stare at someth
ing on the far wall. “I’ve been…talking to Brice Salinas.
“Get out.” He un-cinched his teeth to growl,
Her eyes came back to him, pleading. “He approached me. Rayne I believe he loves you. I know you are bitter—”
“You don’t know shit.” He felt his body go cold. “Get out while I’m sitting down.”
She didn’t move. “I’m going. I came to confess and to apologize if it looks like a betrayal. That was not my intention. I met with him tonight to—”
“Fuck you.” He came to his feet. “Fuck you and get the hell out of here.”
“I told him I was going to tell you. And that I felt like I was betraying you.” She said helplessly. “It’s your life and I shouldn’t have interfered, even if all I did was listen.”
“Damn straight. Now. Get. Out.”
“I’m sorry. I believe you. I believe him. I’ve screwed up our friendship—and I’ve screwed up everything since I came here.” She drew her hands out of her pockets. In one was an envelope she tossed on his cluttered coffee table.
“Fuck your apology. You played me with your shy act.” He growled, “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
Crying now, shaking, she took a step back, her eyes on his. “I got caught up in it because I care about you, and I wanted to help— and he is a desperate man who has been trying to reach you for years, to—”
“Goddamn you.” He grit, eyes like frost. “You better hope we never cross paths again.”
Kelly rolled her lips as tears saturated them. Her breath catching, she whispered before leaving, “Okay, hate me. But I wanted to help you. I was going to stay here…but I can’t seem to do anything right.” She turned and grabbed the knob, running when she hit the hallway.
His phone was ringing. Blood pounded so hard in his head that it hurt. His body shaking with nausea and rage, Rayne went over and slammed the door so hard several items fell off the shelf.
He paced, breathing hard, pumping more blood into his coiled tight muscles. Stopping, he growled a loud explicit string of curses, whirled and knocked the phone off the stand, until it stopped ringing.
He grabbed up the white envelope to rip it in half, crushing it with a snarl of disgust, every moment of a dark miserable childhood rushing in him. Images and sounds, terror and pain, the drowning sensation of abandonment. He saw himself as a boy, holding his hand over Skye’s mouth to hush her crying as they hunkered and hid behind run down houses, having snuck her out the window when things got violent, or their mother was turning tricks.
He would leave her somewhere safe, exhausted, asleep, and steal food, steal money too, when he could. He remembered winters, freezing in the car, covering her with old clothing as Chloe forgot about them and passed out.
When he was older, getting beat and slapped, getting guns put to his head. Dragging his mother’s unconscious body into the car when she passed out in a yard. Getting kicked in the ribs when a dealer caught him stealing, thinking they were all too high to notice. School. The nightmare. Defending himself, and Skye. Not being able to answer the bullying and mockery with anything but his fists. Later—later, still loving his mom, believing her lies, going among the low-life scum he loathed and ending up busted.
More, the Cassel’s… their tirades in private…shame and disgust, calling them bastard mongrels. All the hate and rage they bore Chloe directed at them.
Rayne went over to his duffle and tossed the envelope in without being conscious of doing so. His mind was trapped in a red haze when he zipped it, got his coat, and left his apartment.
On his motorcycle, driving without any real sense of his body or his surroundings, he was speeding, splintering somewhere in his mind between the man and the boy, the present and the past.
Voices crowded his head. Kids laughing. Druggies cursing. His mother bartering herself. Skye crying. Everything merging and rolling like waves through his head.
Not attending the construction sign, the orange reflectors were a blur. When the white headlights came into focus, he suddenly felt calm, experiencing a surreal peace. His speed accelerated. All the ice left his body— seconds before the collision.
* * * *
Skye jerked from sleep, her breathing shallow, eyes wide in the dark, seconds before the phone rang. She threw herself toward the side and grabbed it off the table.
“Hello?”
“Skye Cassel?”
“Yes.”
From that moment, the world tilted and spun around her. She didn’t recall dressing, grabbing coat, and purse. She called Jess as she ran breathless into the cold night and climbed in her truck.
Jesse’s voice seemed distant saying, “Please call Carter. Let him drive you.”
It took all her breath to say, “I have to go. I have to go.”
She wouldn’t remember the drive, only that her body shook and her teeth chattered. She kept blinking away tears and pushing down the nausea that wanted to turn the world completely black.
* * * *
Carter got the call at 1.AM.
In moments, every light in the ranch house was on, and everyone was registering shock.
Kane had ran down the hall in his bare feet at Carter’s yell, and because his brother was scrambling to get his keys and shoes to leave, he looked at Kelly who had fallen against the wall before sliding down it. Sitting in the hall floor, arms around her stomach and face ghostly white.
He made as if to go to her.
She looked at him, hair mussed, eyes red timed, already puffy, but dark with tormenting pain. “I did this.” She whispered horrified. “I did this.”
“No. I’m sure —”
She shook her head, staring at him almost unfocused. “Tell her. Tell Skye—I’m sorry. So sorry.” She got up on weak legs and went to her room.
Kane thought she was in there crying or something, and was still confused by what she meant, but assuming weeks ago she and Rayne were dating. He was looking at Rio who was telling Willow to go back to bed, eyeing him with a grim expression.
Kelly came out of her room, dressed, coat on, and a duffle in her hand.
“Kelly.” He tried to stop her, and grab her shoulders.
She pushed at him with such force it caught him off guard and he stumbled against the wall. She was down the stairs and running out the door before he could stop her.
“What the fuck.” He shot a concerned look at Rio before running down the stairs and outside in his bare feet, still half dressed.
However, she was in his car and he was half running after her.
Crying, she said through the rolled down window, “I’ll leave your car somewhere safe.”
“Kelly. Stop. Please stop. Kelly. Listen to me.” He tried to grab the wheel.
She was rolling up the window, accelerating, so he had no choice but to withdraw. She peeled down the drive and left him standing in the cold fog.
Kane wiped a hand over his face and turned, jogging back up to the porch and absently taking the shirt Rio handed him.
“Stay with Willow.” Kane told him heading inside. “I’m going to try and catch up with her. Let me know if Carter calls.” In a while, he was dressed and in his truck, barreling down the drive.
Chapter 9
Carter turned on the faucet and washed his face, his eyes so gritty they stung as he held cold liquid against his lids. He dragged his hands down his face, grabbed some toweling and dried, studying his visage with a sense of surreally before turning, tossing the paper and leaving the restroom.
Down the hall, he entered the waiting area, his gaze finding Skye, still standing by a window that looked down into the parking lot. Beside her, a tall, well-built Brice Salinas wasn’t in his usual suit and tie, but dressed in denims and boots, an insulated flannel shirt. His silvering black hair was mussed from running his hand through it, the usual rancher’s tan lacking because of the drawn appearance of his handsome features.
They talked quietly. Carter worried about Skye, who wore jeans and T-shirt, a lo
ose sweater and sneakers. Her hair was combed but dull. She was dropping weight, her appetite was nonexistent. Coffee was the only thing she had consumed.
As soon as they had given her brother’s things to her, she had gone through the duffle and discovered the sealed letter. She had opened it and read, and afterwards called Salinas.
Carter didn’t question her decisions, although he had read the letter too. He was sick with compassion and worry for her, and for Kelly, who had not been heard from since she abandoned Kane’s car in town. For the past week, life had taken on an out of body atmosphere.
Carter was there for Skye, as much as he could be since she was in her own mode of functioning. He called the ranch, called his mother and stepfather, to see if Kelly had contacted them. Everyone was trying to piece together the whys, because there was no doubt but that Rayne rode head-on into that car.
The only good news in all the bad was that the driver was fine except for a broken leg. Salinas was on top of everything legal, and covering hospital bills. Rayne had no medical insurance. It was fortunate that he had Skye’s name down as his emergency contact. Someone had to make decisions…
Carter cleared his features as Skye came toward him, her face devoid of make up since the night of the accident, and eyes suffering from too many tears and lack of sleep. He reached for her hand and pulled her down on his lap, ignoring the fact Salinas followed and had taken a seat close to him.
Her arms were still folded, a posture he knew that was like holding herself together because she had to. He had his arms around her. His lips brushed her hair.
“What can I do, babe?” he murmured, wanting to absorb her into him, give her his strength, and make everything better than wasn’t.
She spoke listless and tired, a little hoarse from sleepless nights. “Take the keys and go pack up Rayne’s apartment. I’ll write a check for the landlord. Just take everything to my place for now. Bring me some clean clothing and my ipad, and tell Jesse…thanks, for everything she is doing.”
He didn’t argue. Carter looked at her when she sat up and asked again, “Let me get you a hotel room nearby. Please. You have to rest.”