Harlequin Superromance March 2014 - Bundle 2 of 2: The Secrets of Her PastA Real Live HeroIn Her Corner

by EMILIE ROSE

  She’d have had to have been dead not to have noticed how firm and hot he’d been pressed against her earlier. And no matter how many times she might have wished in the months following the accident that she hadn’t survived the wreck, she definitely was not dead. Every cell in her body was alive and craving attention—a man’s attention.

  “Let’s go.” His low voice rumbled through her.

  She followed him to the car and after he opened her door, slid into the seat. Her heart bumped heavily as he rounded the hood, then settled behind the wheel.

  Two hours of one-on-one. How would she endure?

  His strained expression said he had something to say—something she probably didn’t want to hear. He twisted the key and the engine purred smoothly. “About what happened earlier—”

  Alarm skittered through her. She didn’t want to have this conversation. “Must we have a postmortem? It happened. It was a mistake and we both know it. It won’t happen again.”

  “No. It won’t. But—”

  “Adam, please. Just let it go.” She wished the overhead light would go out. She’d never felt more exposed. Her face burned with mortification.

  “Do you always run from your problems, Madison?”

  Her shoulders snapped back at the unexpected attack. “I don’t run from anything.”

  “What do you call passing on the burden of the funeral arrangements and settling your husband’s estate and abandoning my family the day after the service?”

  She’d wanted to avoid this confrontation, but was doing so proving his point? “My leaving was for the best.”

  “For whom?”

  The horrible scene with Helen replayed in her mind and emotion threatened to choke her.

  “Your family.”

  He braced his forearm on the wheel and faced her. “Are you kidding me? That’s the most egotistical thing I’ve heard you say. My mother needed you and you turned your back after all she’d done for you. She treated you like the daughter she never ha—”

  “Your mother told me the sight of me made her nauseous.” The words erupted before she could stop them. She didn’t want him to think less of Helen, but she was tired of his barbed comments.

  Hiked eyebrows and parted lips revealed his incredulity. “She would never—”

  “She did. Ask her.”

  “When are you alleging this happened?”

  His snide tone set her teeth on edge. “Right after the memorial service. She cornered me in the funeral home’s garden.”

  Icy, disgust-filled eyes roved her face. “You’re lying. My mother is never confrontational.”

  She didn’t have the energy for this. “Believe what you want, Adam. I don’t care.”

  She dug her iPod out of her bag, inserted the earphones and cranked up the volume to her favorite running playlist. The driving beat kept her from thinking about that cold day she’d realized she could count on no one but herself.

  * * *

  THE STORM HAD broken overnight with a fury that had matched Madison’s inner turmoil. Wind and rain had lashed her windows, and thunder had shaken her small farmhouse, making it impossible to sleep. She’d spent most of the night pacing her kitchen in the dark, because she hadn’t wanted to alert June to her wakefulness by turning on lights.

  Had Adam made it back safely? She should have asked him to text her, but that seemed...like she cared. And she didn’t. One ill-conceived kiss did not make a relationship.

  The turbulence during their flight had rattled her teeth and made her stomach swoop with each drop in altitude. She hated to contemplate what Adam had endured on the return trip and hated even worse that she couldn’t stop worrying about him.

  She glanced at her cell phone on the table, then deliberately turned away. She would not call Danny on the pretext of reminding him about Mrs. Woods’s Peaches, then casually dig for updates on Adam.

  Adam was not her problem. But she couldn’t endure the thought of being responsible for another Drake death.

  She grabbed her phone, stomped into her rubber boots and headed outside to see if the storm had caused any damage. The heavy dawn air promised a muggy day ahead, but at least it didn’t carry the panicked cry of a critter in need of rescue. The massive old oak and pecan trees surrounding the house were notorious for dropping branches, birds’ nests and baby squirrels. It had only taken her a couple summer thunderstorms to discover why the former vet who had owned the farm had also owned a very tall ladder and a collection of incubators.

  Bojangles nickered. She made her way to his enclosure, cataloging the debris on the ground. Nothing major, but enough that she’d have to find an hour this evening to clean up.

  “Morning, buddy. You and Josh getting along?”

  The gelding leaned across the fence for his scratch. She stared into his big brown eyes and fought for calm when what she yearned to do was jump on his back and ride like the wind away from this whole situation. But that would only confirm Adam’s accusation that she ran from her problems.

  Ned, her Nigerian Dwarf goat, bleated and jumped from the roof of his doghouse, then hopped and skipped across the yard toward the barn. His limp was barely visible now that he’d healed. He reminded her of the goats her family had kept on their farm in Lafayette to keep the fence lines clean.

  The chickens scratched in their coop, tilting their heads as if to ask, “What’s the holdup?” Madison picked up her pace. Three cats raced toward her. Prissy immediately started her figure eight through Madison’s feet. Bossy and Cleo strolled beside her as she maneuvered to the barn without tripping. Even before she got there she heard Wilbur, her guinea pig, whistling from his cage inside the barn. Wilbur’s racket roused Buster, the de-scented, domesticated skunk she’d adopted when his owner had threatened to release him into the wild after getting tired of his high-maintenance antics. She’d exiled him to an elaborate cage in the barn after the rascal had stolen and hoarded too many items to count.

  Everybody was hungry except her, but she vowed to eat a yogurt-and-fruit smoothie before going to work rather than listen to Piper lecture. She bent over the food barrel to scoop out grain, and the cell phone in her pocket thumped against the steel. Instantly thoughts of Adam jumped to the forefront of her brain. She debated texting him, but suppressed the urge. He was fine. She’d checked the news online this morning and there had been no stories of plane crashes. If a hospital executive had gone missing, someone would have noticed.

  She fed the indoor critters first, then turned her attention to the outside pets. After delivering Bojangles’s oats, she fed Ned and scattered cracked corn for the chickens before releasing them from the coop. Coyotes had become a problem lately, requiring her to secure the hens at night. The birds filed out. Bug control at its best. There were only a few eggs in their nests. She carefully placed each one in her basket. Either Josh or June must have been collecting them during her absence.

  She finished the remainder of her chores by rote, but her routine failed to soothe her as it usually did. The phone in her pocket kept distracting and tempting her. She headed to the house and encountered June in the backyard with a pair of coffee mugs in hand.

  “Morning, Madison. You don’t look like a woman who got her groove on with a handsome man. In fact, you look worse than you did before you left.”

  “Thanks, I missed you, too,” she responded with a touch of sarcasm and accepted the dark brew. June made coffee like she did brownies—strong, dark and sweet. Heaven in a cup. She took a fortifying sip. “Mmm. Good. The storm kept me up.”

  “It was a doozy. I heard a big crash behind the vacant cottage sometime around four.”

  “I’ll check it out before I head to the office.”

  “I’m off today. I’ll do it and let you know if there’s any damage when I swing by for lunch.”

  “We
’re doing lunch again?”

  “Wednesday is your new Monday. Works for me ’cause it means I get a free lunch.” June tilted her head. “Are you losing more weight?”

  Madison braced herself for a speech. “I’m run off my feet in Norcross, but they feed me, so take off your mother-hen suit.”

  “Don’t try to snowball me. I know stress kills your appetite. If you’d unwind a little with Adam—”

  Madison held up a hand. “Not going to happen.”

  “You’re the one who always said you wanted a man from out of town for a scorching encounter.”

  “That was the margaritas talking. Remind me to never attend another bachelorette party with you and Piper.” They had partied a little too hard at Piper’s.

  June grinned. “Your brother-in-law fits your no-strings affair description perfectly unless you don’t feel any attraction toward him.”

  The memory of Adam’s mouth elicited a rush of desire so potent she missed a step. Shame scorched Madison’s cheeks, and unfortunately, the deputy’s narrowing eyes said she hadn’t missed the reaction.

  “Ah...not the case. Well, Doc, you have six more weeks to wise up and take advantage of him. And you have the added benefit of knowing he’s not going to turn into a psycho stalker afterward. Can’t say that for the guys we’ve met elsewhere.”

  “Adam can’t stand the sight of me.”

  So why had he kissed her? That question had done more to keep her awake than the thunderstorm. She didn’t have an answer.

  The few times she’d cried in front of Andrew, her husband had developed an urgent need to be elsewhere—as if she’d become contagious. He’d never held her or gently stroked away her tears. And Andrew had never kissed her as if he didn’t want to but couldn’t help himself.

  Adam had. Thoroughly. She’d felt his arousal against her leg and—

  Oh, boy. Don’t go there.

  Too late. She shuddered.

  Why had he done it? He hated her. He’d called her a liar and selfish. He resented her helping his father, though she didn’t know his reasons.

  The only way to protect herself from being sucked into the Drakes’ world was to find out and then fortify herself against them.

  “Madison?”

  She jerked to the present. “Wow. Look how late it is. I’d better get moving. Thanks for the coffee. See you later.”

  And she bolted—exactly what Adam had accused her of doing. But June was too adept at questioning, and if Madison wasn’t careful she’d get information that Madison wasn’t ready to share.

  * * *

  “DID YOU SAY it?” Adam repeated when his mother ducked her head and developed a sudden, intense interest in stirring her marinara sauce.

  “Did she tell you that?”

  The mortified flush streaking her cheeks gave him the confirmation he needed. Madison hadn’t lied. But had Madison’s motives for abandoning them been a genuine wish to spare his mother’s feelings or something more egocentric?

  “Does Dad know you ran off his star pupil?”

  His mom darted a look over her shoulder. “Shush.”

  Negative, then. “He’s in the bathroom with the exhaust fan running. He can’t hear us. Why, Mom? I’ve never known you to be malicious before.”

  She flinched. “She killed my son and grandson! I was distraught. And it was the truth. You know it was. Looking at her makes my stomach churn. You can’t tell me you don’t feel the same way.”

  What would she say if she knew he’d kissed Andrew’s wife? He certainly had no way to explain it to her. Hell, he couldn’t even explain it to himself. One moment he’d been impatient to get Madison out the door, to his parents, then on the plane and out of his way. And the next...

  He’d screwed up.

  He had zero experience with crying women, unlike Andrew, who’d broken hearts regularly before Madison had come along. He didn’t know how to handle tears or the agony that Madison had fought so hard to hide from him.

  But the offense wouldn’t be repeated.

  His mother wrung her hands. “Adam, I don’t want Madison moving to Norcross. I know she’s good with your father, but we have to find a way to convince him she’s not the saint he thinks she is. I couldn’t stand it if he persuaded her to return to the practice and I had to cook her meals and pretend nothing happened. Please tell me you agree.”

  “I do. But let her get Dad through the worst of his treatment. Morale is an important component of his recovery. Right now he thinks he needs her, but Madison will reveal her true nature eventually. Then if he still needs help, we’ll convince him to hire the substitute service until he’s back on his feet.”

  “It’s good to know I’m not alone. It’s just that sometimes...” Her eyes closed and she went pale.

  “What?”

  She shifted, and when she lifted her lids the turmoil in her eyes made his heart contract. “Madison and Andrew were arguing before they left her graduation party. She was angrier than I’ve ever seen her. I’ve never seen that look of fury and desperation in her eyes before. Sometimes I wonder...if she wrecked the car on purpose.”

  He gaped. “That’s a serious accusation, Mom. You’d better have facts to back it up.”

  “I don’t. I just have a...feeling, a mother’s intuition that the marriage was in trouble.”

  “Are you saying Madison was suicidal and she tried to take them all out?”

  “No. But she hated the car and the house he bought her, and she resented the baby. Andrew said she didn’t want children getting in the way of her career.”

  All things Andrew had told him in the months prior to his death. But wrecking deliberately? If she wasn’t suicidal that seemed unlikely, given Madison couldn’t have controlled the outcome. And the report had said black ice.

  “If she felt that strongly about not having children, she could have had an abortion.”

  “Andrew would never have agreed to that.” She ducked her head and stirred.

  His mother could sometimes be dramatic, and he wanted to dismiss the wild allegation. But the seed had been planted. Andrew had always been closer to her than Adam had, and his brother had confided in her. If Andrew’s marriage had been less than perfect, there was a good chance their mother knew more about the difficulties than anyone else.

  But if there had been the slightest chance Madison had wrecked the car on purpose, the cops would have charged her with a more serious offense than driving too fast for conditions, wouldn’t they?

  CHAPTER NINE

  PIPER BREEZED INTO the office Friday morning like a woman on a mission. “Roth has an old marine buddy coming to visit this weekend. We need you to even the numbers at dinner tonight.”

  The way her assistant busied herself and refused to look Madison’s way set alarm bells off in Madison’s head. “You’re trying to set me up on a blind date? Again?”

  Piper hesitated. “Not exactly.”

  “You know I hate it when you do that.”

  “He’s Roth’s best friend. He used to be his spotter in the marine corps.”

  Roth had been a sniper. That had been a big bone of contention between him and Piper in the early days. “Not a good idea. If something happened then fizzled it would put you in the middle.”

  “Nothing has to happen.”

  “But you’re hoping it will.”

  Piper’s cheeks pinked. “Sam is a really good guy. He’s the only man I’ve ever heard Roth say he trusted with his life.”

  “You’re my closest friend. He’s your husband’s. Anything less than happily ever after is going to cause problems. And you know I don’t believe in fairy tales.”

  “Exactly. You’d readily accept that there could never be anything long-term between you and Sam. He’s a lifer who plans to die wi
th his boots on. He will never leave the corps voluntarily, and you won’t leave your practice. But he’s recovering from some kind of eye surgery and he needs a distraction.”

  She wished she could do it—pick up a man and have wild sex with no expectations. It would be nice to give her excess estrogen an outlet and get her hormones back under control. But she couldn’t. She’d tried it once years ago when she’d desperately needed to prove to herself that she hadn’t died with Andrew and Daniel. The night had been a disaster from the first hello to that final awkward, painful goodbye. She’d hated herself afterward, and it had taken ages to forgive herself. It wasn’t going to happen again.

  “Ask June.”

  “She’s working.”

  “Piper, I’ve never had a good blind date.”

  “You need to do something to get your mind off Norcross. You’ve been jumpy all week, and you only remember to eat when June or I feed you.”

  “The summer heat’s killing my appetite.” Her toes curled inside her sneakers. It was a partial truth. This had been a record-breaking hot and humid July.

  “You’re running more and eating less. You can’t keep going like this.”

  “I promise I’ll be fine.”

  “You need some TLC, boss. Come and enjoy a dinner you don’t have to prepare. The men are grilling. We’ll drink margaritas and watch them flex their muscles.”

  She sighed. “There’s no way you’re going to let me out of this, is there?”

  “Not a chance.”

  “Just dinner. No margaritas or man dessert for me.”

  Piper grinned. “Deal. I won’t push for more, but—”

  “See that you don’t.” She didn’t plan to pursue a relationship with Roth’s friend, but she had to admit her male-female social skills had dipped below rusty a long time ago. They could use a little polish. And she could use a night of someone’s company besides her own.