Zoe led him through the small house. It wasn’t hard to guess which room was hers. From the time he’d been there before, he’d seen the living room, kitchen, her mother’s bedroom, and the bathroom; there was only one other door in the hallway. She opened it up, showing a small but simple room. The full-size bed took up most of the small space, but it was better than a small twin. At least it made the room seem less childlike.
He raised an eyebrow. “So this is where it all went down?”
She snorted. “Yeah, so much went on here.”
“Where’s your brother’s room?”
“He took over the basement. It’s gross down there, and about every other year it floods, but I guess he thinks the privacy is worth it.” She opened up her closet doors and stood up on her tiptoes until she pulled down an aged metal box. “All right, here it is.”
“That’s what you found the letter in?”
“Yep. I found this hidden in the woods. I was walking in there one day with DJ and nearly stubbed my toe on it.”
“And for some reason you decided to bring it home with you?”
“Hey, it was cool. I thought it could be antique or something.”
“And you needed to break into it to access the letter?”
“Nope. I mean, the box was rusted and needed some persuasion, but it opened right up.”
“You don’t think that’s odd?”
“Trust me, Wade, I think everything about this is odd.”
“It had to be planted. If somebody actually wrote a confession note, they wouldn’t leave it laying around for anybody to stub their toe on.”
“Maybe they wrote it to clear their conscience and buried it in the woods, but then over the years it ended up coming free?”
“Do you really think that’s possible?”
“No. It seemed worth considering though.”
“And we considered it. I think it’s much more likely that someone put it here recently. I don’t think it would take long for a box like this to rust. One or two heavy rainstorms combined with the humid summer and this would look pretty aged to anybody.” There were still a lot of coincidences involved for someone to find the box, read the letter, realize what the letter was talking about and then actually bother to go to the police about it. It all seemed… messy.
“So what do we do from here?” she asked.
“I think it’s time we take a walk in those woods.”
Zoe looked him up and down skeptically. “You don’t really look like you’re dressed for the woods.”
He glanced down at his Italian loafers, black slacks, and navy button-down. “Maybe not a sixty-mile hike. You can show me where you found the box, can’t you?”
“Sure thing, cowboy. Just don’t expect me to foot your dry-cleaning bill.”
The woods were a short walk from her family home. A few houses down the street, there was an entrance into one of the wooded lots; he even remembered partying here as a kid. This was one of the largest sections of forest in Birdsville. A lot of the land had been developed into factories or housing, but this little bit was still a pristine nature preserve. He remembered sneaking back here with all the Lucky Lions to grab a drink back when they were younger. He bet that even now there were still some beer bottles left by him around here. His younger self was a bit less socially conscious.
“What exactly were you and your brother doing back here?” he asked Zoe, who walked a few feet in front of him.
“You know how teenage boys are. He wanted adventure, and I got a good workout out of it.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “Do you like hiking?”
“I could,” he said as he looked her over. She’d changed out of her pristine New York outfit into some blue jeans and a T-shirt. The denim perfectly cupped her ass, and he had to clench his fists to keep from touching her. He had a feeling hiking with her wouldn’t be all that bad.
Zoe continued down the path in the forest.
“Your mom seems to be doing okay.”
She shrugged. “I can never tell with her. Whenever she’s having a bad day, she tries so hard to hide it.”
“I mean with us. She didn’t slam the door in my face. That’s a good sign, right?”
Zoe let out a little laugh. “Yes, the fact that she hasn’t immediately disowned me is definitely a plus. I never pegged you as the optimistic sort.”
“Maybe you make me a more optimistic person.”
“Of the many things I make you, I don’t think optimistic is one of them.”
As they kept walking, he noticed Zoe batting away more and more mosquitoes. They seemed to like her more than him. Made sense, considering she was the sweeter of the two.
Glancing toward the west, he saw bright glimpses of the setting sun. They didn’t have much time before it was completely dark. Suddenly, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. “Zoe, is this where you found the box?”
She turned around and shook her head. “It’s a ways up there.”
He pointed to the stump of a fallen tree. “Then what’s that?”
She put her hands on her hips and sighed. “You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s another one.”
“I need a shower. I think I’m more dead mosquito than human at this point.” Zoe itched one of the multiple welts on her arm. She couldn’t believe after thinking how spoiled, fancy Wade would suffer in the woods, she was the one who got eaten alive by mosquitoes. Did he have to be such a show-off at everything?
“All of the showers in the house work. Upstairs is the best water pressure, though.”
He brought the car to a stop, and she was quick to jump out. Sitting seemed to make the itching worse. Maybe if she kept moving, she’d be distracted enough that she wouldn’t notice. “You don’t want to shower with me?” she asked. The second the words came out, she bit the inside of her cheek.
He cocked his head and smiled at her. “Are we now on a showering together level?”
“No. Yes. I mean, you were in the same woods as me. Aren’t you feeling all sweaty and gross too?” There. She was totally asking him to platonically shower with her, and not in some tie me up and fuck me sideways kind of way.
“I have to touch base with the office and check my emails. But I promise you that someday soon I will be showering with you.”
That really shouldn’t make her smile, but she couldn’t help the little grin that came across her face. Maybe this whole marriage thing would work. Not like long-term, but a more than friends kind of thing. More than just partners. When she was away from him, it was so easy to think of all the ways he was a bad idea. Right now, looking at that handsome face, all the reasons weren’t so obvious.
Zoe padded into the bathroom. The crystal knobs on the door and peeling wallpaper were definitely dated. Everything in Wade’s life seem to be so well kept that it was odd to see his childhood home like this. He had plenty of money to remodel this place every year if he wanted to. Apparently this was something he wanted to forget.
Considering what she knew about his childhood, that was hardly surprising. She supposed she should be grateful he didn’t run for the hills when she said she was from this town.
Zoe started running water, and once it was a good temperature, she switched it to the shower setting. She pushed the bathroom door shut but made sure not to lock it. If Wade changed his mind about showering with her, she wanted to make sure she was at least partly available.
She winced at the thought. This was a bad cycle to get into. Hoping he would change his mind and spend more time with her. This was why she was a fake wife and not a real wife. He’d been very open about not wanting to get her hopes up, and she had been serious when she assured him that she wouldn’t go crazy girlfriend on him. How could she be falling apart so soon?
She reached up to turn the lock but stopped herself, her fingers hovering just an inch away from the crystal knob. She clenched her hands into a fist, her nails biting into her palms. She supposed she was just going to have to be okay with being
a fool.
She turned away from the door and quickly pulled off her dirty, sweaty clothes, leaving them in a pile on the bathroom floor. She got under the stream of warm water as quick as possible, as though it would wash away some of her conflicting thoughts. And as the stream bore down her neck and shoulders, she didn’t hear the sturdy vibration of her phone ringing.
Wade had just sat down on the couch with his laptop resting on his knees when his phone started to buzz. The number on it was unknown. Normally those were an automatic ignore from him, but he thought of Harper, who was supposedly driving to town right now. She never gave him her phone number, and if she was close, he wanted to know. He reluctantly hit the Accept button and brought the phone to his ear. “Yeah?”
“So this is what it’s come to? I had to call from a fake number to get you to even pay attention to me?”
He rolled his eyes and his head fell back against the sofa. “Tara, I don’t have time for this right now.”
“Funny, you never seemed to have trouble making time for me before.”
“I never had trouble making time for my fiancée. Now you’re not my fiancée, you’re not my girlfriend, you’re not my friend. You’re nothing to me.”
“Oh, that’s right. You’ve got a new girl now. Are you making all your free time available to her?”
“Zoe has nothing to do with this,” he bit out through clenched teeth. “What do you want?”
“Zoe,” said Tara slowly, somehow making his new favorite word seem menacing. “She’s a feisty little one, isn’t she? I can see why you pivoted from me to her. From glamorous to mousy; from perfection to a fixer-upper. She really is my exact opposite.”
“From deceitful to open; from conniving to industrious. I am learning that the opposite you really is an upgrade.”
“All right, you’re not funny, Wade. Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on here. I know what I did was shitty, but you have to understand where I was coming from. I was making a decision that would affect the rest of my life, and I panicked.
“Give me another chance. I promise I’ll never screw you over again. I saw the grass on the other side, and it’s brown as shit.”
Wade heard the water running upstairs. Funny, because his grass on the other side seemed brighter than anything he’d ever seen. “I’m sorry, Tara. You made your choice. This is your bed—you lie in it.” He hung up the phone before Tara could say anything else. There was nothing else he needed to hear.
He had to admit he was curious, though. She seemed so sure when she left him. How had things gone so wrong? Maybe one day he and Tara would be in a better place where he could ask those questions, but today wasn’t that day.
He logged into his laptop and entered his email, but before he read any of them, he glanced up toward the ceiling. Somewhere up there, Zoe was naked and letting the water run all over her. And he was down here, alone, like an idiot.
Tara never invited him to shower with her. The one time he tried to join her, she’d snapped at him. Apparently her shower time was sacred and not to be interrupted. Zoe, even in her filthiest moment, had invited him in with her. How stupid was he to ignore that?
He set the laptop down and stood from the couch. Taking extra-long strides, he headed straight for the stairs but was stopped when a knock came at the door. He winced. If only he’d gone up sooner.
He rolled his neck and tried to find his game face. Not many people knew he was in town. That meant whoever was there was either Harper or part of Zoe’s family. Either one he’d have to be on his game for.
But the last person he expected to see stood on the other side of the door. “Tara, what are you doing here?”
Tara smiled at Wade weakly. “Hi honey, I’m home.”
Wade started to shut the door, but she threw her body at it. He was sure he could push harder to shut her out, but he was pretty sure he would end up breaking something on her frail body.
“Please let me in! I just need to talk to you.”
Wade didn’t open the door any wider, but he didn’t try to shut it further. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know. I’m well aware that you’re done with me and don’t want me anymore. But I kind of need you right now, Wade.”
“Tara, there’s nothing I can do for you.”
“If you want me to leave, I will. I just need some cash.”
Of the things he expected her to say, asking for money wasn’t even near his top ten. As a supermodel, Tara was more than able to take care of herself. It had been one of the things that made him falsely think they’d make a good match. “You have your own money.”
“No, I need a lot of money. The kind that only you have, Wade.”
“Well, what about your boyfriend? Doesn’t he get millions of dollars for every movie he makes?”
“Yeah, he makes a lot and saves jack shit. Listen, I’ll pay back whatever you give. I have the money, but it’s tied up. The government got wind of this transaction I was doing, and the bank froze my accounts while the investigation is happening. I didn’t even know they could do that. What the hell gives them the right?”
Wade frowned. A lot of things gave the government the right to take money if they thought something illegal was going on…. So what had Tara done to get the government on her trail? Or better yet, who was the money coming from? Realization dawned on him, and he shook his head. “You conniving little bitch. You made a deal with the Chinese, didn’t you?” He’d always been so proud of how beautiful and smart Tara had been, but he was really starting to wish she was a little bit stupider.
“You don’t understand. I—”
“What’s there to understand? You cheated on me, and on top of that, you went behind my back and fucked up a deal that would’ve made me millions of dollars just so you can get a payout? For money you don’t even fucking need.”
“I didn’t need the money, but Josh did.”
“Even better. You stole from me to get money for the guy you were fucking behind my back. Goddamn, Tara. Why even come here and ask for help?”
“I don’t care about Josh anymore. You don’t get it. I wasn’t stealing from you because I wanted new shoes or a fun trip. There are people who needed money from him. A lot of money and they’re willing to do bad things to get it. Wade, if I don’t give them some money, they’re going to kill both of us. I know you might not like me, and I know you might despise me. Are you really okay with me getting murdered?”
“I’m not a fucking bodyguard, Tara. If you want help, go to the police.”
Her eyes widened, and a shock of fear flashed over her face. No wonder she hadn’t gone to the cops. She might be afraid of dying, but she was much more afraid of prison.
Wade cursed under his breath and held open the door. “Come on,” he muttered. He had to get her to go to the police. He couldn’t watch her indefinitely, especially now that she claimed someone was trying to kill her. But he couldn’t just hand over millions of dollars to her. He could only guess how high the price tag had been for the Chinese to buy that market research off her. He remembered all the times he’d offhandedly mentioned the deal in front of her, never once thinking she would be a threat to him. How times changed. “You know I can’t give you money.” He shut the door.
“I said I’ll give it back. I promise.”
“Like you’re going to give me back the money you already cost me?”
“I’ll give you everything back. You can have the money—you can have me. I’ll be the perfect little trophy wife for you. You know we’re a good fit. That’s the only reason why you asked me to marry you in the first place. I have connections you can use, and you have connections I can use. We’re perfect.”
If this had been a few days ago, he would’ve been so tempted. He’d had his entire life mapped out with Tara. Exactly how many kids they were going to have, the parties they would attend, vacation homes they would buy.
When he thought about his future with Zoe, the future was all one blurr
y haze. But that didn’t bother him. It excited him, to be with her as the haze cleared.
“I want to help you, but I’m not going to give you any money.”
She shook her head. “I’m really sorry about this, Wade.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry about it too.”
She winced as a pained expression crossed her face. “Not about the stealing thing. I really wanted to sort this out the easy way. But now we have to go the hard route.”
Zoe reached for the shampoo and put a generous amount in her palm. It didn’t smell like Wade, but it was definitely a man’s brand. Hopefully he wouldn’t mind her smelling a bit more masculine until she got back to her own products. She packed them somewhere, but she’d been so excited to shower that she never thought to look for them.
Once she rinsed the shampoo out, she worked his soap under her arms, legs, and whatever she could reach on her back. Most of the mosquito bites were slowly settling in. She was sure it would look like she had chickenpox tomorrow, but hopefully it would be less itchy.
After she was done lathering, she stood under the spray and let the water rinse off all of the soap, dirt, and grime. The high water pressure almost felt like a back massage, and she was tempted to stay there all night. Wade said he was checking his emails. Who knew how long that would take?
Maybe there was a lead on whoever had blown the Chinese deal. Maybe he’d end up being on the phone with somebody for two hours. She didn’t really know Wade’s schedule yet to guess at anything.
But she wasn’t as lost as she was a few days ago. She and Thomas were on pretty good terms. Her mother, although not approving of anything, was at least tolerating the relationship. As of right now, everything was working out a lot better than she expected it to.
Reluctantly turning off the water, Zoe squeezed the excess from her hair before stepping out and wrapping herself up in the soft, thick, brown bath towel. Maybe she should just go downstairs right now, wearing only this. Would Wade still be able to work knowing she was just one gentle tug away from being naked?
Knowing Wade, probably.
Lucky Liar Page 14