by Tara Rose
“I’ll tell you later,” said Rowena.
Angela’s pulse raced, but not from the tarot reading she was about to have. Finally, someone was going to tell her what was going on. And Rowena’s statement proved that she’d been right. They had been looking at something important.
But why hadn’t Ian and Nash told her? What was the big secret? And, if she allowed Rowena to tell her, would they consider it gossip? Angela blew out a loud exhale. This was so frustrating.
“Angela, if you’re not going to take this seriously, it won’t work.”
“I’m sorry, Mancie. I’m just distracted right now.”
“Well, push it away. Focus on the cards. Close your eyes. Picture yourself floating on the water. There is no sound except the gentle lapping of the waves.”
Angela tried to do that, but all it did was bring back memories of being in the pool the week before with Ian and Nash. It had since grown too cool for them to go in again, but Angela remembered every delicious detail.
“The sky is dark except for millions of stars. Can you see them, Angela?”
“Yes.” She didn’t want to disappoint Mancie.
“Now the sun is coming up. It’s brilliant. The sky turns purple with gold streaks on the horizon, and finally a deep blue as the sun rises. You’re still floating, and everything around you is still and peaceful. Now open your eyes.” Angela did so, and Mancie’s gaze fixed her with a meaningful glare. “That’s better. You don’t look as distracted now. Shuffle the cards as many times as your inner voice tells you to. As you do so, concentrate on your question, but don’t say it out loud.”
Did she have a question? She certainly did. As Angela shuffled the cards nine times, she let several thoughts play in her mind, over and over. Was this love with Ian and Nash? Was there a future with them? Would they ever love her as much as she loved them?
“Okay, I’m done.”
Mancie took the cards from her and laid out ten of them in a Celtic spread pattern. Angela had seen the spread before, and had even tried a few readings on her own, but never felt as if she’d known what she was doing. When Mancie was done, she glanced up at Angela. A frown creased her forehead. “You’re not going to get an answer to your question today, but you will know it in time. Something else is going on in the background, and that will take precedence in your life for a while. It won’t be pretty, and it will test your courage and most of all your trust.”
Mancie cut her glance quickly toward where Ian, Nash, and Van still stood, talking. “If those two are in your life in a romantic way right now, you may lose them, but the person who holds the key to keeping them is you, Angela.”
Angela actually pushed away from the table. “Mancie, you are totally freaking me out right now.”
“Damn,” whispered Rowena. “I think I just changed my mind about getting my cards read.”
Mancie shrugged. “I don’t make this up, you two. I merely read what’s there.”
“What else do they say?”
“That’s it. And remember, they don’t actually predict the future. They can only tell you what will most likely occur if you stay on the path you’re on now.”
“Thanks, Mancie.” Angela didn’t know what else to say. She paid Mancie for the reading then left with Rowena, who had decided not to get hers done.
“It’s only one reading,” said Rowena. “You could have her redo them this afternoon and they might say something entirely different.”
“Oh, I know.” Angela laughed, but it sounded so false even to her ears that she knew Rowena would never be fooled by it.
“Angela, everything is fine, okay? It’s a gorgeous day, it’s going to snow again, which means we can go skiing soon. Hey look…” Rowena pointed toward the food trucks set up across the street. “The soft pretzels are ready. Come on. Let’s get one. I hope they have mustard for them this time.”
They had mustard, and as soon as Rowena and Angela each bought a pretzel, Angela led them to a spot behind the food trucks where the guys couldn’t see them. “So what’s the big mystery? Tell me fast before they find us.” She didn’t care that it was gossiping. In light of what Mancie had just told her, Angela felt that she needed to know.
“Do you know who Jason Monroe is?”
Angela nodded. “He’s on Van’s crew, right?”
“That’s right. And you know who Trace Coleman is, right?”
“The fake ghost hunter.”
Rowena nodded, licking a bit of mustard that was running down the pretzel. “Uh-huh. Did you know they’re related?”
“What?”
“Distant cousins of some sort.”
“Okay…so how does this tie in with the guys bent over scrapbooks for hours last Saturday?”
“They weren’t scrapbooks. They were old records Nash found in his basement, detailing some rather questionable business dealings between his grandfather, Carma’s great uncle Battista, Dalton Metcalf’s grandfather Bryce, and a man named Jeb Monroe, who was Jason’s grandfather.”
Angela glanced around, but no one was near them. “Keep going.” Was it truly gossip if all she did was listen?
“You know Carma’s ancestors were in the Mafia, right?”
“Everyone knows that.”
“Did you know that Nash’s ancestors were once tied up in some of the more questionable businesses in town as well?”
“He hinted at it once.” Nash’s words came back to her the day she rode on his property with him and Ian, right after she’d asked him about his family. He told her that they’d settled in Passion Peak during the Gold Rush, and at one time had owned a lot of businesses in town.
But Nash had made it sound like they hadn’t been all that involved with organized crime bosses, or at least had disentangled themselves from dealings with them. Was that a lie? She couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t want her knowing that, especially since he and Ian had drummed home the point about trust being so important in this relationship. If Nash couldn’t trust her with a distant family secret that he obviously had entrusted to Ian, Van, and Tommy, what else was he keeping from her?
“Earth to Angela.” Rowena waved her hand in front of Angela’s face.
“Oh, sorry. I was trying to work out why they’re being so secretive about it then.”
Rowena shrugged. “They’re probably not being secretive on purpose. Maybe they just don’t want to bother you with it? It’s ancient history, and no one in this town is exempt from a dark family past. Van and I did a lot of digging three years ago when Trace kept wanting to investigate my house, but we were looking for evidence of reported paranormal activity, not Mafia ties.”
“What did you find?”
Rowena laughed. “I have a few family skeletons in my closet, too. Aunt Loony didn’t only leave me the house when she died. She left me a bunch of stolen stocks behind the walls in an upstairs bedroom.”
“What? Are you serious?” Everyone had called Rowena’s great aunt Lunette Gallagher “Aunt Loony” because of her many eccentricities.
“Oh, I am. Tommy dug up the cold case buried in FBI records in Denver. It seems Aunt Loony’s husband, Cal, had a brother named William who ran with Carma’s ancestors. We uncovered old diaries and ledgers that hinted at items from more stocks to jewels buried behind the walls and hidden in old mineshafts throughout this town. Can you imagine?”
A shiver ran down Angela’s spine, and she suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore. In fact, the smell of the mustard was making her a bit queasy. She tossed the rest of her pretzel into the nearest trash can. Was something hidden in that abandoned mineshaft? Did Nash know about it? That meant Ian, Tommy, and Van did as well. But wouldn’t Van have told his wife? “Did Van say anything else about what Nash found in his basement?”
Rowena shook her head. “I don’t think they finished going through everything. Want me to ask him?”
“No. Please don't do that.” She glanced around again. “The guys don’t want me gossiping.”
Row
ena gave her an odd look. “Angela, are you happy like this?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I mean, are you happy doing what Ian and Nash tell you to do all the time?”
“It’s not like that. You know it isn’t.”
“I know that Carma has lectured me until she’s blue in the face about what a Dom/sub relationship is, and what it isn’t. But if everything is supposed to be open and truthful between you three, why are you sneaking behind food trucks to ask me about this?”
Angela didn’t have a chance to answer Rowena because the sound of Ian’s voice reached her ears. She and Rowena emerged from behind the food trucks and came up behind the guys, in front of Expressions Salon.
“There you are,” said Ian. He glanced at the pretzel in Rowena’s hand. “Did you get one, too?”
“I ate it already.”
“The parade is going to start. Want to watch it from here?”
“Sure.”
“Did you have your cards read?” asked Nash.
“Yes, and it freaked her out,” said Rowena, wiping mustard off the side of her mouth with one finger.
“Why is that?”
“I’d rather not say.” Angela glared at Rowena, who merely shrugged.
“You can tell us later, then.”
The tone of Nash’s voice left no doubt they’d expect her to. Angela thought that was very unfair, considering the magnitude of what they were keeping from her. The sounds of the Passion Peak Cougars Marching Band reached her ears, and Angela was transported back to less than a month ago when she’d stood in almost the exact same spot, watching the rescheduled Founder’s Day parade with Nash.
Once again, she found it difficult to believe so much had happened in the space of a few weeks. But all that was now overshadowed by Mancie’s words. The thought that she could lose Ian and Nash sent her mind to dark, frightening places. But they were only cards. She didn’t have to believe what Mancie had seen in them. And, Mancie had said that she held the key to that aspect of her reading. But what did that mean, exactly?
“You okay, baby girl?” Ian’s big green eyes shone down at her with concern, and Angela forced a smile to her face.
“I am. Just tired. You guys wear me out, but in a good way.”
He winked at her and placed an arm around her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. Angela turned her attention to the parade and tried to mentally push away Mancie’s words and the things Rowena had told her about Nash’s family and the documents he’d found in his basement.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Shortly after the parade started, Angela turned toward the sound of Carma’s voice calling to her. She was with Mateo and Blaine, motioning her over toward where they stood, just past Taylor Drugstore. Why didn’t she simply join them to watch the parade?
“What’s going on?” asked Ian, whose arm was still around her.
“I don’t know. Carma keeps motioning me over.”
“Let’s go see what she wants.”
He and Angela walked toward Carma, Blaine, and Mateo. As soon as Angela got closer to Carma, she could tell she’d been crying. “What’s wrong?”
Carma motioned her around the corner and into the alley beside Taylor Drugstore. “I don’t want anyone to see me showing this to you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Angela… I don’t know how to tell you this.”
“What’s going on?” asked Nash, coming up behind them with Van and Rowena in tow.
“Carma was checking her e-mail this morning and got a YouTube alert,” said Blaine. “We were going to call each of you but then realized you’d probably be here, so we came right down.”
Angela glanced at her phone. “I had it on vibrate. I’m sorry.”
Carma shook her head. “Angela, forget that. Just listen. Ever since Brett put that YouTube video of him and Becca online, I’ve had my alerts set for new ones from him, only because at the time I decided if he ever did that to you again, he and I would have strong words. I never removed the alert.”
Angela shrugged. What did she care if Brett had posted another video? She was completely over him and his bullshit.
“Anyway,” said Carma, “this is what I found less than an hour ago. I’m so sorry.”
She started to hand the phone to Angela, but Nash took it from her instead. Carma opened her mouth to say something but stopped when Mateo placed a hand on her shoulder. “He’ll show it to her,” he said quietly. “Just hang on.”
“Show me what? You guys are scaring me. Let me see it. What did Brett post?”
“Motherfucking son-of-a-bitch. I will fucking kill that motherfucking bastard with my fucking bare hands.” Nash showed the phone to Ian, who swore just as eloquently, and then ran one hand through his hair.
Angela watched them with a sense of detachment, as though she was replaying a dream in her mind. She’d never heard either of them swear like that, and judging by the looks of anger and worry on their faces, whatever Brett had posted included her, and it wasn’t charitable.
“It’s okay, love,” said Nash. “We will fix this. I promise you.” He handed the phone to Angela, who at first didn’t understand what she was looking at. It appeared to be a video of her and Brett having sex, but how could that be? They were in his room. She recognized it. But she’d never allowed him to film her. She’d never even allowed him to take pictures, even though he’d asked her more than once if he could.
“How?” It was the only thing she could manage to say, and the word came out so softly that she wasn’t sure anyone else had heard it. The phone started to slip from her fingers. If it had been her phone and not Carma’s, she would have smashed it against the brick wall next to her.
“You mean you don’t know?” asked Nash, his voice full of incredulity. “You don’t remember him filming this?”
She shook her head. “I swear to you…I don’t. I never let him film me. I never even let him take pictures…”
“Then he must have done it secretly.”
“Oh my God…no…” She played the video again, convinced she had to be wrong. It had to a different woman. But it wasn’t. It was definitely her. As he’d done with the video of him and Becca making out like horny teens, he’d blurred the naked parts, but it hardly mattered. It was obvious what was going on in the video, and her face wasn’t blurred. And as if that weren’t bad enough, cheesy fifties porn bump-and-grind music played in the background. Nice touch.
Angela’s ears started ringing, but she couldn’t tell if that was from the marching band or something else. Her stomach contracted, and she knew with absolute certainty that she was about to puke. She handed the phone to the nearest person, not really paying attention to who that was, and ran farther into the alley.
The Dumpster bearing the Taylor Drugstore logo was the nearest and largest barrier between her and the others, so she dived behind it and fell to her knees, retching up the delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon that Ian had made them, as well as the undigested soft pretzel with mustard she’d consumed with Rowena less than half an hour ago.
She heard someone crying in huge, gut-wrenching sobs, and it took Angela a few seconds to realize the sounds were coming from her. Hands rubbed her back and stroked her hair. Someone wiped her mouth with a wet paper napkin. Ian’s voice reached her ears through the haze of shame and fear that had settled over her brain.
“You’re all right, Angela. You’re okay, baby girl. Just breathe.” Angela had never heard his voice shake before, and that only made her cry harder. She heard Nash’s voice, but it sounded far away, not next to her like she wanted it to be. She glanced up and saw him on the phone, yelling at someone. She wanted to ask who he was talking to but didn’t have the strength to speak.
Instead she leaned into Ian’s body, breathing in the scent of his cologne, and closed her eyes as his strong, familiar arms enveloped her. She wanted to go home. She wanted to crawl into bed and never leave it again.
&nbs
p; “We will fix this, Angela.”
She glanced up at him. All the anger she felt at what he and Nash had been keeping from her suddenly became mixed up with the video she’d just seen, as well as the shit Brett had put her through for ten years, and something inside Angela just snapped. It was dark and scary, and she had no control over it.
“Fix this? Fix this, Ian? How can you fix this? Do you honestly think YouTube will take it down just because you ask them to? Can you prevent everyone in this town from seeing it? And if he was able to film this, what else does he have? I was with him for ten years. I had sex with him in that room for ten years. What if there are more videos out there? What if there are pictures? You can’t fix this.”
“Angela, we can make sure he—”
“Do you have any idea how I felt when that video of him and Becca hit the Internet? I knew he was cheating on me, and I suspected with whom, but do you know how it feels to actually watch it? And now this…Do you know what it’s like to have someone betray you in this way? Dirty…cheap…in your face…publicly?”
“No, I don’t. I’ve never experienced what you’re going through right now.”
His voice was soft, without even a trace of anger. She didn’t want him to be patient and kind. She wanted him to be angry. She wanted him to feel as much humiliation and frustration as she did right now. She wanted him to understand how devastated and afraid she was.
The acrid scent of vomit wafted up, making her head hurt like a migraine was coming on. She got to her feet as Nash ended his phone call. He reached her in two strides and pulled her into a tight embrace.
“Angela, Tommy isn’t sure anything can be done about the YouTube video, but he’s calling a friend in the FBI, just in case. He’s also on his way to find Brett to make sure he didn’t actually take any pictures at the club last Friday night. He’s banned, by the way, but I want to make sure he didn’t sneak any in—”
“What?” She pulled out of his arms and stared into his eyes. “What did you just say? Did you just say that Brett was at the club last Friday night? And that you aren’t sure if he took pictures? He was there and you didn’t tell me? He might have taken pictures and you didn’t stop him?”