by Brooke Page
“Let me drive you two home,” I said.
“That’s nice of you to offer, but—”
“I wasn’t offering,” I interrupted. “You shouldn’t drive home. You’re upset.”
Lauren scowled, but nodded, carrying Tessa to her booster seat in the back.
“Thanks for taking care of her, Vance,” Pete said, patting me on the shoulder.
The old man’s hard exterior crumbled when it came to Tessa, the wet of his eyes proof. She owned the hearts of many in Harris.
I was bound and determined to figure out what was going on in this small town. No doubt whoever lured Tessa into that cemetery was up to no good, either they were fucking with me or with Lauren, and I’d bet money it had something to do with both of our pasts.
No one spoke once we were all in the Neon. My legs were cramped as hell, and I was cursing myself for not running to my house to grab the truck instead.
“You really didn’t have to drive us,” Lauren whispered.
“I want to be here for you.” I reached for her hand, but she curled her arms around her chest. “Do you want to talk about it?”
A low sigh was her only response.
Tessa was passed out by the time we got to Lauren’s house. I planned on carrying her inside, but Lauren beat me to it.
“You can drive my car home. I’ll figure something out to get it tomorrow.”
Was she dismissing me? I wasn’t going to walk away that easy. I followed her inside, watching her lay Tessa down in her bed, taking off her shoes and covering her with the comforter. She sat on her bed, running her fingers through the blonde strands and along her forehead. Expressions on her face changed. She’d bite her lip and clench her jaw as if she were trying to stop herself from crying, but then she’d scowl, and a rush of anger would grace her heated cheeks, but then her eyes would close, a heaviness draining from her face and into her shoulders. She was reliving the evening, and I was bound and determined to get into her head.
She kissed Tessa’s forehead one last time, cautiously standing from her bed and tip-toeing through the toys. She wouldn’t meet my eyes when she passed me through the threshold.
She went into the kitchen, leaning back against the corner of the counter. “You don’t have to babysit me.”
“I’m not.”
She shot me a glare. “Yeah, you are. I’ve done just fine on my own, now please, go home.”
I shook my head. “No. I’ve left you too many other times, and I’m not going to make that mistake again.”
She took a deep breath, tilting her head to the ceiling. “What I would have given to hear you say that seven years ago.”
A ghost of a smile crossed my lips, but was soon replaced with a frown by her next words.
“I wish I could believe you.”
I stepped toward her, setting my hands on the counter on either side of her. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She kept her eyes on my chest, but didn’t recoil.
“What happened tonight?” I braved asking. “Because, I think there’s more to it.”
I watched her chest rise and fall from the deep breaths she inhaled through her nostrils. More proof she had been hiding something from me.
“It’s complicated.”
“I may not have a college degree, but my street smart game is up to par.”
“I assume that’s why you’re a Federal Agent.”
He scowled at me. “How do you know I’m a…” My voice faded, and I clamped my mouth shut.
“I know, because I figured one would turn up around here at some point.” She had my full attention now.
She wedged herself between me and the counter, and I did my best to contain my irritation. I didn’t want her to run from this discussion.
“Why would an FBI agent come snooping around Harris?”
She left the kitchen and went into the living room, turning on a lamp light and took a seat on the cream-colored love seat. She held her head with her hands, and I patiently waited for her response.
She finally spoke. “About a year after Colby and I got married, when Tessa was an infant, Colby would disappear to ‘meetings,’” she sighed and crossed her legs. “At first I believed him, but after a while, I got annoyed. Why would a small engine store have so many meetings? They were always late at night, and it’s not like there were that many employees. I thought maybe there was another woman. I couldn’t blame him, it’s not like I was ever in the mood, and I was still a mess.”
I squinted, knowing she was talking about me. “Did you ask him?”
“About another woman? No, I knew deep down he was faithful to me. I asked him where the hell he was going, and that whatever he was doing better not hurt his daughter.”
“He didn’t tell you?”
She frowned. “No, he did. He was honest with me.”
There was a bite to her tone, and I knew she was referring to how I never told her what was really going on at The Shore.
“He told me he was doing side jobs for someone. That he’d be able to pay for Tessa to go to college and keep enough money coming in so we wouldn’t have to worry about finances.”
My stomach twisted, Riley’s findings about Harris were slowly turning true. “Did he say what the side jobs were?”
“He didn’t want me to know details in case something ever happened and I had to be questioned.”
Her eyes widened, and I held up my hands. “You’re immune. Don’t worry about it.”
She opened her mouth, and I shushed her with my glare. “I promise you, Lauren, anything you tell me won’t go against you.”
“No, but I don’t want to run Colby’s name through the dirt either.” She dabbed her eye with her finger. “He was a good man and took care of us. He loved me and Tessa more than anything, but something happened to him.”
“I’m not out to destroy Colby’s reputation, but there are illegal activities happening that are hurting other people around this town, and I need to stop it.”
She sighed, but nodded. “One day he came home in a funk, and I thought he was finally going to bring up you, but it was something else, and I still don’t know, but he was gone more and more at night, later and later. He was running himself ragged, and I was worried.” She took a long blink, holding back tears. “Then we had a huge fight the night before he died.”
I sat down on the couch next to her. She was going down memory lane, and I needed to do my best to sit quiet and be a boyfriend. I couldn’t pressure or interrogate her, not if I wanted to keep my same intentions.
She turned to me, hugging a pillow to her chest. “It’s so fresh in my mind, as if it happened yesterday.”
“Do you want a drink?” I asked Colby. He had laid Tessa down for bed, and I was finishing cleaning up the kitchen. He’d been gone all day with work, and hadn’t made it home early enough to spend time with Tessa all week. He was exhausted, and his mood was suffering from his lack of sleep.
“Yeah, I’ll take a beer,” he sighed, putting his feet on the coffee table. “Come have one with me.”
I rinsed my hands and grabbed a bottle from the fridge. We hadn’t spent time together only the two of us in months. We coexisted, and I was perfectly fine with our relationship. We got along, and if either of us needed to talk, we’d be an open ear.
Handing him the drink, I sat down on the opposite side of the couch. He studied me, a frown on his mouth. Resting his arm on the back of the couch, he nodded for me to sit closer.
My jaw ticked, but I moved to his side, resting my head on his shoulder.
“Don’t act like it kills you to touch me,” he grumbled.
“What?”
He took a long swig of his beer, then shook his head. “Nothing.” He didn’t like confrontation with me, and I wasn’t one to start a fight, but he had no reason to be grumpy with me.
“You know, it’s not like you’ve been around a whole lot.”
He set his beer down on the end table, taking my hand with his.
“Yeah, I know. Work is getting stressful.”
“I can tell.” I twiddled my thumb with his. “Maybe it’s time to look for something else.”
He bit the inside of his cheeks, then eyed around our home. “I’ll be all right.”
I sat up, unhooking our hands. “Will you? I’m worried, Colby. You’re gone all of the time.”
He sat up straight, angling his body toward me. “I told you, there’s nothing to worry about.”
“I know you can’t tell me everything, but I’m also not an idiot. If you’re in too deep and it’s going to affect Tessa, you need to get out.”
“Tessa will be fine. Look,” he reached for both of my hands. “I’ve got one more job, Lo, and we won’t ever need money again. Tessa can go to college, hell, you can go to college. We can run away to wherever you want, somewhere that will actually make you happy.”
His eyes found my hands, then focused on my bracelet. “Somewhere that will make you happy.”
“Colby, I am happy—”
He held a hand to my lips to hush me, then trailed it along my cheek, cupping it gently. “Stop lying to me,” he growled. “You need out of this shit hole of a town. We all do.”
I swatted his hand away and stood from the couch. “Why? Is there a bigger market elsewhere for your new side job that takes up all of your time?”
I paced in the living room, my anger fueling my words. “I keep my mouth shut a lot, Colby, but one last job? You and I know that’s a load of shit.”
He stood, grabbing a hold of my shoulders. “I mean it, Lo.”
I shook my head, trying to nudge him off of me, but he kept his grip firm.
“Listen, I’ve been in contact with someone who’s offered up something big, and he knows when it’s done, I’m done. We can leave this hellhole and go live where ever you want. We can finally take Tessa to the ocean.”
“No,” I said firmly. I had no intentions of going back to The Shore, no matter how bad YaYa wanted to meet Tessa.
“I didn’t mean back to The Shore,” he snapped, reading my mind. He was clenching his jaw and trying to hold onto his patience. “I don’t want to fight about this.”
I crossed my arms and shook my head, trying to figure out how in a weird way, I wasn’t breaking the cycle I grew up with. Yeah, we appeared stable and Colby and I didn’t fight or do drugs, but his way of income was no better than my mother’s.
“What happens if you get busted?You’ll go to jail, then Tessa doesn’t have a dad anymore.”
He rubbed my biceps and pulled me into him. “That won’t happen, not with the guy I’m working for.”
“How do you know? You can’t possibly know.”
He let go of my biceps and found my waist, “I need you to listen to me.” He swallowed, his eyes drilling into mine. “If something ever happens to me, know I won’t be gone for long. Know that I’ll always find my way back to you and Tessa.”
“What? You’re not making any sense.”
His features softened, but his hold on me grew stronger. “Do you love me?”
“Of course I love you,” I said without missing a beat.
“Then we’ll be fine.” He tilted his head to kiss my lips, ignoring the confusion on my face.
“Colby, sometimes I really don’t get you.”
He laughed and spun us around. “Welcome to my world.”
“When we went to bed that night, he was different. There was more intensity, more passion.”
I held my chin in my hands, my leg bouncing from being antsy. “Lauren, I’m going to ask you something, and I don’t want you to think I’m being insensitive.”
She was staring off into space, still lost in the memory of Colby. “You’re going to ask me if they ever found a body, aren’t you?”
I nodded slowly, and after a few minutes, she finally met my stare.
“No,” she whispered.
My heart pounded in my chest. I was going to ask another question I already knew the answer. “Because he burned?”
She slowly shook her head. “Because there wasn’t any DNA.”
“How is that possible?”
“The Sheriff declared him dead, but Jonah drunkenly shared that they never found any remains of Colby, and that he paid off the autopsy reporter.” Tears were sliding down her cheeks now, I knew she was thinking the same thing that I was.
“Do you think he was there tonight?”
“That’s what I don’t understand,” Lauren muttered through tears. “Colby wouldn’t do that to Tessa. He loved her more than anything. He wouldn’t put her through a funeral and leave her for two years, and he certainly wouldn’t lure her away and leave her in a cemetery so close to night.”
I bobbed my head. “Unless he saw us and got mad.”
She shook her head drastically. “Colby is dead. I’ve mourned him, and I’ve accepted it.”
I wanted to agree with her, that he was dead and gone, but evidence wasn’t adding up, and if they never found a body…
“Do you have any idea who he was working for?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “All I know is that Jonah was working for him, too.”
My jaw ticked while I thought. “What about where they meet? Is there a clubhouse or something?”
She blew out a big breath of air. “It’s up the hill passed the arcade.”
I knew shit was going down up there; I could feel it.
Lauren grabbed my arm when I stood, her eyes wide and wet when they looked up at me. “Please, don’t go up there. I doubt that’s where the missing girls are.”
She didn’t miss a beat, realizing I was putting pieces together in my head. She knew why I was here. I pulled her so she was standing in front of me. “We’re not going to think about all of that right now. I’m going to get you some water and give you something to help you sleep, then I’m going to make sure you fall asleep.”
“I can’t take a sleeping pill,” she gasped. “I’ve got to be coherent in case something happens to Tessa.”
I held her face in my hands. “I’m not planning on leaving tonight.”
Her body relaxed into my touch. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why? I’ll stay away from your bed, I promise.”
Her eyelids fluttered open. “I’m sorry.” She set her hand on top of mine over her cheek. “This isn’t how I planned for the evening to go.”
The corner of my lip lifted. “I’ll roll with it.”
She sighed, then pulled my hands from her face and walked to the front door and locked it. After making sure it was secure and the alarm was set, she went toward the hallway where Tessa’s room was. She stopped and checked on her, then continued down the hall.
Her room was simple with whites and creams, a beautiful painting of the ocean on a clear day hung above her bed, the white antiqued frame matching the furniture. “Does this room make you feel at home with its beach feel?” she asked, slipping her shoes off once she got into her walk in closet.
“I haven’t been to The Shore in years,” I admitted. “I only do Skype meetings or phone calls with the business owners when I need to.”
She furrowed her brows at me while she fumbled through a pile of folded t-shirts.
“The ethical side of my father’s business. They’re all mine, the touristy shops. I pay people to manage them, but I oversee them all.”
She nodded, then turned so she wasn’t facing me, pulling her tank top off to reveal her back. The gentleman in me shouted at me to look away, but I ignored it. Watching her hands come behind her back and fiddle with the strap of her bra.
She looked over her shoulder, and I darted my eyes elsewhere, not wanting her to know I had been watching her undress.
When she came out from the closet, she was wearing a t-shirt and tiny pajama shorts.
“When’s the last time you talked to your dad?”
“I’ve had run-ins with his thugs saying that he wants me to visit him in jail, but I ignore them. I know all he
’ll do is threaten me, and I don’t want to give into the satisfaction of acknowledging him.”
She fluffed her pillows and pulled back her comforter. “Why would he threaten you?”
“Because I’m the reason he’s in jail.”
“Right.” She watched me, waiting for a reaction, but I remained passive. I’d disconnected with my father and was fine with it.
She stood next to her bed, rocking on her heels, her white t-shirt baggy on her small frame. Her hair was freed from her ponytail, and although she was prepared for bed, she was stunning.
Clearing my throat, I nodded toward the door. “I’ll go lay on the couch.”
“Okay.” She chewed on her lip, and I waited to see if she was going to say more, but she stayed quiet. It wasn’t until I was halfway down the hall did she call out my name.
She was standing in the doorframe. “Thank you for bringing me home… and for staying.”
“You’re very welcome.”
Walking toward me, her arms snaked around my waist. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier.”
I hugged her back, my chin resting against her forehead. “What was that?”
“Being caught under your spell.”
I chuckled and cupped her jaw. “You were worried about Tessa, it’s all right. Besides, you’re the magician, not me. After all this time, you’ve still got me.”
Tears swelled in her eyes, and for a moment, I thought I had fucked up.
She pulled away, wiping under her eyes. “Will you lay with me?”
I wanted to say, fuck yes, but, “Are you sure?” came out instead.
She nodded and I followed her back into her room, watching her climb into bed.
Kicking off my shoes, I unloaded my pockets, debating if I should keep my burner phone hidden, but I was done keeping secrets from her. Setting both phones on the end table, I pulled back the covers and laid down. Calmness washed over me when she found my chest, snuggling into my side. I kissed her forehead, recalling the memories I’d clung to that kept me going for all these years. Her smell was still the same, so addictive and comforting.