Shades of Truth

by Sandra Orchard

  “I don’t know. I don’t know them that well.”

  “If any do, it would help if you could find out who they buy from.”

  “The likelihood he’d be connected to the resident recruiting pushers would be slim. Don’t you think?”

  “In a town this size, the pushers are all gonna be cogs of the same wheel. And I think we need to seriously consider that the one working the manor is an employee, not a resident.”

  “Surely you’re not suggesting Aaron, because he—”

  “Not Aaron.” Ethan glanced at the rearview mirror and made a sudden left turn.

  Kim braced her hand on the dash. “What are you doing?”

  “Tony has been following us since we left the manor.”

  Kim twisted sideways to peer over her seat. After a week of double-checking her surroundings every other second for signs of her purse snatcher, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed the black pickup that swerved onto the road behind them. “I can’t see the driver.”

  Ethan flicked on his right turn signal and coasted to a stop in front of a strawberry stand.

  The driver sped past, cap pulled low over his eyes.

  “Are you sure that was Tony?”

  “No doubt.”

  Kim squinted after the truck. “There’s got to be a reasonable explanation.”

  “Yeah, Tony doesn’t want us to contact former residents. And I can think of only one reason why. And you’re not going to like it.”

  Ethan waited another minute before pulling back onto the road. The stench of chicken barns filtered through the car vents, and up ahead, he noticed something else that smelled rank—a black pickup half-hidden behind a hedgerow.

  He lifted his foot from the accelerator. “Looks like we’ve got company again.”

  Kim looked to where he pointed. “This is ridiculous. Let’s just confront him. I’m sure a simple conversation will sort this out.”

  Ethan let the car slow to a crawl. “What makes you think we can believe Tony’s explanation?”

  “He’s a terrible liar. I’ve seen him play board games with the kids. He can’t bluff worth a hoot.”

  “It may be easy to tell if he’s lying. The hard part is figuring out why.”

  “I don’t see a better option. Do you?”

  Ethan worked his jaw. He didn’t mind a woman who challenged him—kind of liked it, in fact—but did she always have to be right? The last thing he wanted was to put her in any more danger. He parked a car length shy of Tony’s position and motioned for Kim to stay put.

  He might as well have tried to stop the wind.

  “Why are you following us?” she blurted the instant Tony jumped out of the truck.

  Tony moved in on her.

  “Stay where you are,” Ethan said, his tone low and dangerous. “And answer the lady’s question.”

  Tony veered toward him. “You’re the one who needs to answer the questions. You weren’t on the job a day before you started making moves on the boss’s daughter. What’s your story?”

  “He was not making moves on me,” Kim protested. “Don’t you think I have any sense at all?”

  “Sure, but you’re vulnerable right now. Some men—” he flashed Ethan a scowl befitting a cockroach “—like to take advantage of that.”

  “I would never take advantage of a woman.” Ethan’s throat constricted. When this was over, that’s exactly how it would look.

  “No? What do you call showing up at Kim’s house on a Saturday morning with coffee?”

  Kim gasped. “You were spying on me?”

  “I’m watching out for you. Your brother asked me to keep an eye on you after that kid ran you down.”

  Kim’s arms shot up, her gaze veering skyward. Then she muttered something incomprehensible before taking aim at Tony. “I am not made of glass. I am quite capable of looking out for myself.”

  Ethan couldn’t help but admire her feisty attitude even though he didn’t want to take that risk any more than Tony.

  “Yeah, well, you know how Darryl is,” Tony growled. “He has this wacky idea that someone paid Blake to scare you.”

  Kim paled. “Why would anyone want to scare me?” she demanded, but the crack in her voice betrayed the fear she’d been doggedly trying to ignore.

  Ethan hugged her to his side. She’d been denying the deliberateness of Blake’s attack for two weeks. Maybe she’d finally run out of rationalizations.

  Tony looked pointedly at Ethan’s hand on Kim’s shoulder. “So that’s how it is, is it?”

  Kim slanted a glance at Ethan across the front seat of the car. He hadn’t affirmed Tony’s innuendo about their relationship, but he hadn’t denied it, either. She could still feel the warm assurance of protection where his arm had circled her shoulders. Did he like the idea of them being a couple?

  Did she?

  What if it was just some macho, won’t-back-down-for-nobody guy thing that had prompted him to pull her a little closer after Tony’s pointed remark?

  Ethan accelerated back onto the road and flipped down his visor against the reddening sun low on the horizon. “I think there might be some basis to your brother’s concerns. Maybe this drug dealer thinks you know something.”

  “But I don’t.”

  “Think. Have you seen anything recently that didn’t seem quite right—an interaction, a conversation, a transaction?”

  Her mind whirled back over the past few weeks, but the only interactions and conversations in her thoughts were those with Ethan. And what should that tell her?

  “Kim?”

  Jerked from her daydreaming, she realized he was waiting for an answer. “Oh, um…” She rolled down the window, but the hot flicks of air only tightened the muscles knotting the back of her neck. “No, I can’t think of anything.” She let her gaze drift over the gentle dips and rises of the passing farmland. Everything that’d happened to her coincided with Ethan’s arrival.

  Why had she never suspected him?

  She shook the ridiculous thought from her head. From the moment she first looked into his eyes, she’d known she could trust him. She didn’t know why. She just did.

  “Could be you were threatened to ensure someone’s cooperation.”

  “Cooperation to do what?”

  “What do you think?” he said gently.

  “I don’t have a clue…” Kim felt the blood drain from her face. In its place crept a chilling numbness. “You mean, hurt Greg?”

  “I was thinking more of recruiting kids to work for the drug ring.”

  “That’s crazy. The person would just go to the cops.”

  “Unless he didn’t think they could protect you.” Ethan reached across the seat and squeezed her hand. “I want you to be extra careful until we figure this out. Okay?”

  Finding it difficult to speak past the lump in her throat, Kim could only nod.

  He stroked his thumb across her curled fingers, sending warmth spreading through her chest. “You know…contrary to what you might think, there are plenty of people who care about you.”

  Was Ethan one of them? she thought wistfully.

  Or was this just his white-knight tendencies in action?

  “People who could be coerced to do things for fear of your safety,” Ethan continued.

  He released her hand, and she buried it under her thigh, along with her fairy-tale thoughts.

  “You have far too vivid an imagination,” she said wryly.

  “Tony would. Don’t you think?”

  “Tony?” Her voice rose with the absurdity of his suggestion. “Puh-lease, he’d take out anyone who threatened me. Not do their bidding.”

  “Good point. Then there’s Aaron. He cle
arly likes you.” Ethan returned his hand to the steering wheel. “He likes you a lot.”

  “Not enough to risk his career. Trust me.”

  “You never know.” Ethan’s gaze remained fixed on the road. “Love does funny things to a person.”

  Was that a hint of jealousy?

  Heat flooded her cheeks. Yeah, in her dreams.

  “We can’t forget your brother,” Ethan continued. “He’d likely do anything to protect you.”

  She laughed. “Believe me, if someone blackmailed Darryl, he’d go straight to Rick Gray—Ginny’s cop husband. This is nothing but pure speculation, as ridiculous as Tony’s assumption that we’re a couple.”

  “But a blackmailer plays on a person’s fear of going to the— What?” Ethan’s gaze flicked to hers, then back to the road. “Tony thinks we’re a couple?”

  “Uh…” Ethan hadn’t gotten that from Tony’s remark? Her mind replayed Tony’s comment and she winced at how far she’d let her thoughts get carried away.

  “You know what I mean,” she said, feigning nonchalance in the hopes that Ethan wouldn’t clue in. “We didn’t exactly put to rest Tony’s allegations.”

  “Allegations? It’s not as if we robbed a bank.”

  “I’d just like to know how you want to handle the innuendos.”

  Ethan laughed. “Oh…the innuendos. We can’t have those.” He pulled off the road at a bluff overlooking the lake.

  “Why are you stopping?” The sound of the waves lapping to shore carried through the open windows with the sweet smell of lake air. Oh, great. Now he could focus his full attention on her idiocy instead of the road. “Go ahead, laugh it up, city boy. But rumors have a nasty tendency of spreading like wildfire in a small town.”

  “Wildfire, huh?”

  “I’m serious.” She swatted his arm. “Stop laughing at me.”

  He grinned unrepentantly. “I’m laughing with you.”

  “Do you see me laughing?” She reached out to swat him again, then gasped as he caught her hand.

  Sudden awareness flared between them.

  “I see…” Ethan cleared his throat. His gaze darkened and Kim’s heart skipped a beat. “I see a woman so beautiful she takes my breath away.”

  He drew her closer, bringing her hand to his chest. The wild thrum of his heart pulsed through her, making her own heart skitter.

  She drew in a breath. “Ethan, I think—”

  “Don’t,” he whispered and brushed his lips over hers in the sweetest kiss ever.

  A kiss that swept all qualms from her thoughts, and stole the last of her breath.

  He leaned back just a whisper. “Wow.”

  “You can say that again.”

  He smiled. “Wow.”

  She swallowed, floundering for a witty response.

  Ethan stroked her cheek. “I can see how that wildfire could get so out of control.” He looked at her for a long, silent moment.

  Wildfire? Oh, yeah, the rumors.

  He started the car and pulled back onto the road. “We’d better get to those interviews.”

  Hmm. She touched her lips, reliving the kiss.

  It hadn’t been playful at all. It had been tentative and tender, as if he were holding back, afraid to give free rein to the emotions swirling in his eyes.

  She’d never felt so moved. And amazingly, the realization didn’t scare her.

  For the first time since Nate, she wasn’t breaking into hives at the thought of letting someone get close. Maybe the coward lectures she’d been giving herself for the past four days had finally sunk in.

  I see a woman so beautiful she takes my breath away.

  Ethan couldn’t know the balm those unbidden words were to her heart, especially when he’d looked deep into her eyes as if looking beyond her appearance. With that look, he’d cut through the doubts Nate had left in his wake. She turned to the passing scenery. Everything about Ethan drew her in a way she’d never experienced. His teasing, his expressive eyes, even his protective concern that wasn’t at all smothering like her brother’s. And she was deeply grateful for his support in trying to save the manor.

  It didn’t hurt that he had those chocolate-brown eyes that made her knees go weak, or that his kiss melted her heart.

  She turned her head to smile at him. His gaze was fixed on the road. His jaw looked carved from stone.

  Her heart stuttered. Was he regretting their kiss?

  Doubts gnawed at her throughout the evening.

  Hours later, as Ethan drove her home, Kim looked for a softening in his features, some sign that the kiss they’d shared had meant something to him. Not once all evening had he brought it up. Not in the hours of interviews. Not during dinner. Not even now, with a thousand stars twinkling in the night sky.

  Of course, it wasn’t as if they could’ve sat around and gazed into each other’s eyes while interviewing former residents. Not to mention Ethan had clearly been thinking more about ferreting out information on their resident drug pusher than gleaning examples for her newspaper article of how the former residents had turned their lives around.

  It was her own fault for asking him in the first place to find out if the police were investigating a connection between the recent rash of drug crimes and the manor. She supposed once a cop, always a cop. And she couldn’t help but admire his commitment to get to the bottom of whatever was going on, even if she was a little apprehensive about what it might do to the manor’s reputation.

  Yes, after the interviews, it had been perfectly understandable that he would stay stuck in detective mode, rehashing what they’d learned. She knew enough psychology to realize that a romantic lakeside restaurant was lost on a man locked in his problem-solving box.

  Oh, brother, how much more pathetic could she get?

  Now she was making excuses for him. If she hadn’t seen the truth when Ethan declined the table tucked in a private corner of the restaurant in favor of one in the middle, she should’ve when the waiter came to light their candle and Ethan told him that wouldn’t be necessary.

  Considering how easily her heart had tumbled into his hands, she should probably be grateful for his reticence.

  Her throat grew raw. She tugged her sweater against a sudden chill. Not so much a chill in the air as a chill in the atmosphere between them.

  “Cold?” Ethan asked, and part of her wanted to say yes to see if he’d wrap his arm around her again.

  Yup, she was pathetic.

  “I’m fine. Thanks.” Except suddenly, going home to an empty house was the last thing she wanted. She sat up straighter, squared her shoulders. “Would you mind dropping me off at the hospital? My mom won’t be home yet, and Darryl has a meeting for something or other tonight. I’d like to see my dad, and this way I can give Mom a lift in her car.”

  Babbling. She was babbling!

  “No problem,” Ethan assured her, then lapsed into silence again.

  She couldn’t read his expression in the dim interior of the car. Maybe that was for the best, too.

  He parked in front of the hospital. “Wait,” he said, and walked around the car to her door.

  She drew in a quick breath. Was he planning to give her a good-night kiss?

  The way he barricaded himself behind the door as he opened it answered that question loud and clear. “When you leave with your mom, be sure to stick to the main entrance and the lighted sidewalks,” he said. “Will Darryl be home by the time you get there?”

  “I’ll be fine, Ethan.” She stepped from the car, feeling as though cement blocks weighted her legs.

  He shifted, keeping the door squarely between them. “You need to be careful.”

  “If you’re so worried,” she snapped, more annoyed with herself t
han him, “maybe we should just tell the police everything.”

  “And ruin any hope of convincing the government to restore the manor’s funding? No, let’s just stick to the plan.”

  “Was the kiss in your plan?”

  Ethan flinched, but said nothing.

  Obviously not. She crushed her purse under her arm and moved to slam the door shut.

  But Ethan held it firm. “Kim,” he said, his voice agonizingly soft. He waited for her to meet his gaze. “I didn’t plan for any of this to happen. The last thing I want to do is hurt you.”

  The street lamp’s shadowy glow accentuated the regret creasing his brow.

  Regret. Right. Because I don’t want to hurt you was the line guys used just before they dumped a girl.

  And technically, she wasn’t even his girl.

  “It’s okay,” she hurried to say, but even she could hear the hurt in her voice. “I understand. With all the talk of bad guys and the sound of the waves and… Well, we got carried away. I know I already regret—”

  “Kim—” Ethan’s rumbly voice rattled her bravado. He drew her around to his side of the car door and nudged it shut. Then he cupped her face in his sure hands and looked deep into her eyes with that knee-weakening gaze and brushed his thumb across her bottom lip. “I don’t regret kissing you.”

  TEN

  Thankfully, when she reached her dad’s hospital room a while later, he didn’t seem to pick up on the wide grin Kim found impossible to contain. Still on the ventilator, he was pretty unresponsive. She wasn’t sure how much of the one-sided conversation he was following.

  “Are you okay, dear?” Mom asked, returning from her late supper at the cafeteria. Her stooped shoulders and shadowed eyes betrayed the toll of her husband’s prolonged illness.

  “Yeah.” She was more than okay. Ethan wanted to spend more time with her. “Um, I was telling Dad about the interviews for my article. Sammy—he’s in college, can you believe it?—he gave me a great quote about how grateful he is for the faith Dad had in him when Sammy had none of his own.”

  Dad’s eyes fluttered open, found Mom’s and crinkled at the corners. His pleasure at the news warmed Kim’s heart.