by Kait Nolan
He’d assumed her leaving was all about him, about the fight they’d had. Kennedy hadn’t said otherwise. But deep down, he’d wondered if there’d been more keeping her away.
“Essie, you know something about why Kennedy left. What is it?”
“I—oh dear.” Her wrinkled cheeks flushed, then went pale. “If she didn’t tell you herself...”
He rose from his desk and advanced on the dispatcher, consciously shifting into interrogation mode. “What do you know?”
Essie cast a nervous glance toward Buck’s office.
“He’s not here right now. And you’re going to tell me.”
“Xander, I’m not sure I should—”
“This is about Kennedy. Which makes this about me. Whatever it is I don’t know can impact our relationship. I can’t deal with it if I don’t know.”
Another look toward his father’s office.
“This won’t come back on you. I swear it.”
Her painted lips trembled, but she nodded once. “On the night of your high school graduation, Kennedy was pulled over in a routine roadblock. You know how they do, trying to catch the kids drinking and whatnot.”
“Kennedy hadn’t been drinking.” Xander knew that definitively because he had, and she’d been designated driver. This must’ve happened after she dropped him home.
“No, but, well, she had drugs in the car.”
“She what?” That made absolutely no sense. Kennedy never did drugs. She’d never even so much as smoked.
“Jim brought her in,” Essie said, referring to Xander’s predecessor. “Buck was here, and he said he’d handle it. He took her into interrogation. I didn’t like the look on his face, so I went back to the locker room to listen through the ducts.”
Now was not the time to chastise her for listening in on confidential interrogations.
“He asked her about them, where they’d come from. She said they weren’t hers. That some kids at a party she’d gone to were planning to use them, and she knew that was stupid, so she took them and intended to get rid of them before anybody could hurt themselves.”
Now that sounded like something she’d do.
“And then?”
“He asked her to name names. Say who all was at the party, who she’d gotten the drugs from. She wouldn’t do it.”
Because he’d been at that party. So had all their closest friends and a fair chunk of the senior class. Kennedy was no sellout.
“Buck got mad then. He hated that drugs had gotten into our county, turned into a problem. Took it as a personal attack. I knew he didn’t like her. But I never thought he’d—”
A sick feeling took up residence in Xander’s gut. “He what, Essie?”
“He told her it didn’t matter if she named other names, he had her on felony possession charges with intent to distribute, and he...he used it to blackmail her.”
“That’s bullshit. Kennedy never did drugs. She didn’t even drink.”
“I’m just telling you what I heard. The drugs were in her car. Jim was very clear about that.”
And given the laws in Tennessee, she could be charged, whether they’d been hers or not. But officers had room for discretion, as did judges, to look at the realities of each individual case.
“You said he blackmailed her. How?”
“Everybody knows Joan had a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior. He played on her fear, made her believe that this whole thing would make Joan kick her out. She was eighteen, a legal adult. Joan didn’t have to be responsible for her anymore. Scared that poor girl to death. But he said he’d make her a deal. He’d see that all the charges went away if she left town, without you. He made it clear the deal only stayed in place so long as she stayed gone.”
Xander’s hands curled to useless fists as shock slid into anger. His father had never liked Kennedy, but he never would have believed Buck would use his position as Sheriff to do something like this. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Essie knotted her hands and worried the lipstick off her bottom lip. She seemed to have aged a decade over the past few minutes. “I couldn’t risk my job. Not with Henry being in chemo. And honestly, I never dreamed she’d really do it. Everybody could see how much she loved you, and I thought she’d fight. She was never the type to just roll over when someone attacked her. So when she left, it was a shock. And then she stayed gone and...I didn’t want to bring it up and hurt you more.”
Xander’s blood was boiling, but he struggled to keep himself in check. This wasn’t Essie’s fault. “What happened to the case file?”
“There wasn’t one. She was never formally arrested.”
“What about the evidence? Was it ever sent off to the lab for analysis?”
“A few months later it was, when a similar stash was found. Arrests were made. It was after you’d left for college.”
“And what was it?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Who was arrested? Pull up the damned file.” Xander knew he was snarling, but everything he’d believed for ten years was wrong and he needed to see how bad this really was.
With shaking hands, Essie checked the computer, then went to pull a file from the cabinet.
He yanked it from her and flipped to the lab report. The way the laws were written, charges were the same whether the drugs were marijuana or something harder. He had to know what the hell she’d been caught with, what exactly his father had been sitting on for years. He read the lab report through, then read it a second time as relief and fury hit him in equal measure.
Coral plants. Kennedy had been threatened with felony drug possession over coral plants. Not even a legitimate drug. Even if he’d charged her, the charges wouldn’t have held up.
Without another word, he strode to his desk and snatched up his keys.
“Where are you going?” Essie’s worried voice floated after him.
“To talk to my father.”
Buck had taken the afternoon off for a doctor’s check-up, so he’d be home now. Xander intended to corner the bear in his den.
Why the hell hadn’t Kennedy told him? He could see why she hadn’t told him then. She’d been running scared. But now? She’d had every opportunity to tell him the truth when he’d apologized for the fight. Every chance to tell him it wasn’t his fault. Instead, she’d continued to lie about it.
His mother’s car was in the garage when he pulled up to the house where he’d grown up. Did she know what his father had done? Xander slammed the door of the car and stalked into the house without knocking. Buck was watching ESPN in his favorite recliner.
“Xander. What are you doing—”
“You son of a bitch.”
Buck’s brows drew down like thunderclouds. “Now hold on a damned minute.”
Mom hurried into the room, a kitchen towel clutched in her hands. “Xander? What’s going on?”
“Did you know? Did you know he blackmailed Kennedy with some bogus felony drug charges to leave town and stay the hell away from me?”
His mother’s mouth dropped open. “Buck?”
“They weren’t bogus charges. She was picked up at a road block with a bag of drugs in her car.”
“It was fucking coral plants. Not even marijuana. Don’t even try to lie to me. I saw the lab reports from the bust you made on Nelson Rimer.”
“Didn’t know that at the time,” Buck defended. “And she’d been at a party with minors.”
“She’d been at a party with me and the entire senior class. Where she was the designated driver and one of the only sober people there. And even if she was found with drugs in her car, the likelihood that they were hers was nil. She had no history of drug or alcohol use. No criminal record of any kind. She wouldn’t, not only because was she a good girl, but she would never have done anything to risk Joan’s wrath. And you knew that. You knew and you fucking well used that against her.”
An ugly flush was rising up his father’s face. “She tell you that?”
Conscious of protecting Essie as he’d promised, Xander ignored the question. “It doesn’t matter how I found out. Why would you do that? Why would you go to such lengths to get rid of her?”
“Because I didn’t want to lose you,” Buck hollered back. He was red all the way up to his hairline and he was breathing hard. “You would’ve followed that girl anywhere, whether it made any goddamned sense or not. And if you’d left, you’d have stayed gone.” He made an obvious effort to calm himself. “I only wanted what’s best for you, son. She was bad news.”
“She was an innocent girl. You used your authority in a wholly unethical fashion and straight up lied to her, emotionally manipulating her for your own sick ends.” Rage made him half blind. “You’re a disgrace to the badge.”
“It’s not my proudest moment, I admit, but how much did she really love you if she stayed away all these years?”
The blow struck Xander somewhere around his heart. It was a question that had been circling around beneath the surface of his brain for days. And one he was damned well going to get an answer to.
“It’s not about how much she loved me. It’s about how much I loved her. How you railroaded out of town the only woman I have ever loved and made her stay gone for ten goddamned years. How is that what’s best for me? It’s only what’s best for you.”
His mother took a step closer, the towel knotted in her hands. In contrast to Buck’s face, hers had gone chalk white. “Let’s everybody take a deep breath.”
Xander barely spared her a glance. All his focus, all his rage was on his father. “You cut her off from the only family she had all this time. For the rest of her mother’s life. Years she’s never going to get back, and time she didn’t deserve to lose because you didn’t approve of her as a girlfriend.”
“Son—”
But Xander couldn’t hear it. He took a step backward. “Fuck you, Dad. You aren’t the man I thought you were. Stay the hell away from me and from Kennedy.”
Turning on heel, he stalked back out of the house.
Chapter Eleven
THE HOUSE WAS BLESSEDLY empty, at last. It had taken some creative persuasion on Kennedy’s part to convince Ari and Pru to go on to the movies without her. Not that she minded being in a house with other people. She was a social person by nature, and this house never felt quite right unless there were several people around. But she’d wanted some time to begin putting all the details of her plan together without drawing Pru’s curiosity. And to write the email to Elena she’d been composing in the back of her mind all afternoon. After Xander’s enthusiastic support, she’d finally taken the plunge and emailed back that she was interested in further discussion of the possibility of a book. It wasn’t a done deal by any means, but Elena had already emailed back to set up a call to talk about details. Caught up in equal parts excitement and terror, Kennedy had set that aside to focus on her business plan for the inn.
The living room was covered in lists. It looked like her legal pad had vomited pages on every horizontal surface. The coffee table, the chairs, the end of the sofa. Kennedy was on the verge of making a list of her lists, just to keep things straight. Which rooms could be turned over to guests, which would remain family space. Which areas of the house would be public, which would be private. Lists of supplies to price. More lists of furniture to be swapped out from the barn. Lists of details associated with building a website. If Maggie had put something like this together, it’d be all neat and orderly, organized in spreadsheets, with all kinds of estimates and profit and loss statements. That was what she responded to. So once Kennedy finished gathering all her details, she’d have to translate it into the language her sister spoke, if she wanted to be taken seriously. God help her.
But Kennedy could do it. She would do it. She might not have the business degree to go along with the presentation, but she’d learned a helluva lot more than how to do menial labor in all the jobs she’d worked. She had a solid and agile mind. She just learned better on the job than from a book or a classroom. And she intended to prove that she had something to offer this family.
A knock on the door dragged her away from all her lists. The vague sense of irritation fled as she saw the familiar broad shoulders through the sidelight.
“Xander!” The instant spurt of pleasure faded as she registered the hard set of his jaw, the glittering temper in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t wait for an invitation before stalking past her. He’d changed to street clothes, so he wasn’t coming straight from work. Fury radiated off him like heat waves. The moment he turned those hard, dark eyes on her, Kennedy went cold.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” His quiet, deadly tone was more terrifying than any shout.
“Tell you what?” But she knew. Deep down in her gut, she knew that somehow he’d found out about what had really happened the night she left Eden’s Ridge.
“The truth. About why you really left. I asked you for honesty, Kennedy.”
Her heart beat thick and fast and her knees went loose, as she felt everything she’d wanted begin to tip out of her grasp. “I…I couldn’t. Those were the terms I agreed to.” She hated that her voice trembled, hated that she’d been caught in this lie of omission.
“Why?”
“How could I tell you I’d been facing drug charges? Your father had me over a barrel. He didn’t give me a choice. Not really.”
Xander’s nostrils flared. “Tell me what really happened that night. All of it.”
She’d done everything in her power to avoid this moment, but she knew she owed him this or she’d lose him for sure. “When we were at the party that night, I overheard a bunch of people planning on getting high and going over to Peter Bevridge’s house. They wanted to take out his dad’s gun collection to shoot up beer bottles.” She’d tried so hard not to think of it. To block the entire horrible experience out of her mind. But she remembered the scents of alcohol, the too loud music and the press of people as everyone gave in to the insanity of finally being free of mandatory education. “Jason Mather was mouthing off about some weed that he’d scored. There was already a lot of drinking going on, and I figured the whole thing was a recipe for somebody getting killed. So, while everybody was distracted, I hid their car keys and stole Jason’s bag. It was loaded with weed. Too much to just flush down the toilet without risking it getting stopped up. I figured I’d find some other way to get rid of it after I dropped you off at home. I didn’t count on the road block.” She still remembered the flashlight blinding her before Deputy Bailey shone it into the back seat. The zipper on Jason’s bag had been busted. After the fight with Xander, she’d forgotten all about the drugs.
“I got hauled in and your father took me into interrogation. I explained what had happened, but he didn’t believe me. I could see that before I’d even finished. Then he asked for names, for who was at the party. And I—I didn’t want to get every single person I knew in trouble. Especially you. Your dad would’ve absolutely had a conniption fit if he knew you’d been drinking. I was trying to think of who to tell him, if anybody, but then he said it didn’t matter whether I cooperated or not because he had me on felony charges.”
Xander interrupted. “Did anyone ever read you your rights?”
“I—” Had they? That part of the night had been something of a blur. She’d been too shell-shocked at the prospect of a felony to absorb a lot of what came after. “I don’t remember. I don’t think we got to that part.”
A muscle jumped in his jaw. “Keep going.”
Kennedy tucked her icy hands beneath her armpits in a vain attempt to warm them. “All I could think about was protecting you and what Mom would say. How upset and disappointed she’d be. It was the one thing she never, ever tolerated out of any of us. You know Jeanette got kicked out for bringing pot into the house. I guess your dad could see I was scared shitless. And then he said he’d make me a deal. He could make all this go away, waive the charges so Mom would never know, as
long as I left town immediately without contacting you.” It had been like taking a knife to the gut. A choice that had been no choice. “You were the good son, who’d never party with a bad girl like me, and he wanted me out of your life. No longer a temptation. He’d hang on to the file, and if I ever came back, ever contacted you again, he’d use it. So I took the deal. He drove me to the bus station in Johnson City himself.”
Her throat wanted to close up at the look of utter betrayal on Xander’s face.
She was crying again, big, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It was never that I didn’t love you. But I couldn’t lose my family. I just...couldn’t. And I couldn’t go to jail for something I didn’t do.”
Xander pinched the bridge of his nose. “You wouldn’t have gone to jail. The charges were bullshit.”
Kennedy stared at him. “What?”
“You were never formally arrested. You weren’t properly mirandized. Even if you had been, a judge would have taken your history into account, the fact that you didn’t drink or smoke or do drugs. At most, you would’ve faced a fine. Buck saw an opportunity to box you into a corner, to manipulate you, and he took it.” His hands were curled into fists and he looked ready to drive one through the nearest wall. “The son of a bitch split us up with some goddamned coral plants. It wasn’t even real drugs.”
The implications of that cut the knees right out from under her. She sank to the rug, her legs just folding like a house of cards. She’d been played. She’d been played, and she’d lost everything. Him. Her family. Years she could’ve spent with her mother.
Xander stalked to the window and back, his body snapping with barely leashed violence. “If you’d told me, I’d have rolled on every fucking person at that party. Someone else saw, someone else would’ve remembered, pointed fingers. The truth would’ve come out, and you wouldn’t have had to go.”
“I didn’t know,” she whispered. “He threatened me, and I believed him. Why wouldn’t I? He’s the sheriff.”