by Cynthia Eden
And Davis felt the same way. “I believe what Jamie has told me.” He’d looked into her eyes and seen the truth. “You say this Sean Nyle went to the cops and told them Jamie was some femme fatale? Then I say check his financials.” Because he had his own suspicions. “The Westports got to Jamie’s family before. They like throwing their money around. And I’m betting they did the same thing with him. They followed her. They found her, and they used her relationship with Sean against her.”
No wonder you don’t trust easily, sweetheart. They kept battering you from all sides.
“Better yet,” Davis said, nodding, “let’s go find the guy. I’d love to have a little sit-down with Sean.” His jaw clenched. “And with Henry.” No, he’d love to beat the hell out of that guy.
“Someone needs to fly up to Travers,” Grant said. He’d been watching them all, his gaze intent. “And find out for certain...is Henry really there or is he still locked on Jamie? Did he slip down here despite what we’re hearing? Is he hunting her right now?”
Jennifer shook her head. “If you confront him directly, and he’s not the one doing this, that could stir him up again. I mean, if he doesn’t know where Jamie is, then we have to keep that information secret. He could track us back here and straight to Jamie.”
That was the last thing Davis wanted.
“We have to confirm his whereabouts,” Grant said grimly. “That’s our first step. We need eyes on him. We need to see for certain if he’s up there or hiding in the shadows down here.” He nodded. “I’ll fly up there. I’ll see him, but he won’t see me.”
“And I’ll track down Sean,” Davis said. He tried to keep the rage out of his voice. Two lovers...two men who’d both hurt Jamie. His Jamie.
“I already tracked him,” Sullivan said, surprising him. “He’s in Houston.”
Davis swore. “He’s that close?” And he was supposed to buy that as coincidence?
“Moved there about six months ago,” Sullivan told him. “And started up a veterinary practice.”
And Jamie had moved to town a little over a year before.
His eyes narrowed. “I think I need to take a road trip.” Because he was going to get the truth out of Sean Nyle, one way or another.
* * *
“I APPRECIATE YOUR keeping watch on me,” Jamie said softly. She’d just finished up her rounds at Belmont Ridge, a local farm with the sweetest cows she’d ever seen. Now she and Mac were back in the parking lot of her clinic. “I know this probably isn’t the most exciting thing for you...but...”
“Why are you scared of me?”
At Mac’s question, Jamie’s gaze flew up to his face.
“I can tell, you know. This is the first time you’ve looked me in the eyes since I started guard duty.” His hard lips lifted in a faint smile. “Despite what you may have heard about me, I don’t bite.”
Jamie wasn’t so sure of that. Sylvia had told her that Mac was ex-Delta Force, and the so-called “wildest” McGuire brother. When he’d been a teen, Mac had apparently never met a fight he didn’t like.
“I just don’t want anyone put at risk for me.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I feel bad, having you out here.”
“Risk?” Mac repeated, and he laughed. “I live for that.”
And she could see the wildness then. In his eyes—eyes that were darker than Davis’s.
“Davis wants you safe, and that’s why I’m here. Nothing is going to happen to you on my watch.”
They were near her car. Mac had followed her out to Belmont Ridge, then trailed her back. “But what about you?” Jamie asked as she glanced over at his SUV. For an instant, she saw the smashed remains of Davis’s truck. “What if something happens to you?”
“It won’t,” he said simply.
Cocky McGuire. “Despite what you might think, you’re not some kind of indestructible powerhouse. None of the McGuires are. You can get shot, stabbed, hurt, just as easily as anyone else.” And that was why she’d been avoiding his stare. Not out of fear but because of guilt. She’d agreed to stay in the area, but she hadn’t agreed to pull someone else into the crosshairs of danger.
Not even someone who seemed to thrive on the risk.
“So, look, I—” Jamie broke off because she heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. The growl of tires. Someone was coming toward them, fast. She tensed just as a big, white SUV came rushing toward them.
She caught sight of the driver when the SUV braked to a quick stop about twenty yards away. “Davis?” She ran toward him. If he’d come all the way out there to find her, instead of just calling, then something must be wrong.
He opened the door and hurried to meet her.
“What happened?” She caught his arms. “Is everything all right? Did Henry come after you again?”
“Everything is fine.” He looked around. Nodded to Mac. “I just... I needed to talk to you in person. Before I left.”
“Um, left?” She stepped closer to him. “Where are you going?” He’d been the one telling her to stay just hours before, and now he was leaving her? Her stomach clenched. No, no, I can’t be wrong. Not again—
“Sean Nyle.”
She stiffened at the name.
“He was the other lover, right, Jamie? The one that lasted a few months.”
And as she stared up at him, Jamie’s heart sank. He knows.
Chapter Seven
She glanced over her shoulder. Mac was close enough to overhear everything, but, well, Jamie figured if Davis had already uncovered her ex-lover’s name, then all the McGuires would be learning this dark tidbit from her past, too. “Yes. He was the one.”
“He told a court that you confessed to him, that you said—”
Jamie caught his arm. “Not out here, okay? Let’s go inside.” Because her clients could come up, and this wasn’t the type of thing she wanted just anyone to overhear. It was humiliating enough as it was.
I wasn’t just wrong about one lover. I had the terrible taste of choosing two men who hurt me.
Not saying another word, Jamie turned on her heel and headed inside the clinic. Sylvia looked up and gave a friendly smile. That smile dimmed a bit when she saw Jamie’s face.
Sylvia jumped to her feet. “Is everything okay?”
Not even close. “Fine,” Jamie said. “Just fine.” She forced a smile. “Davis and I just need to have a quick talk.” As she passed by Sylvia’s desk, Jamie bent down and automatically rubbed Jinx’s head. He usually hung out with them at the clinic, and just touching him for a moment made her feel better.
But when she entered her office, it wasn’t only her and Davis. Mac had followed her inside, too. “Um, can you—” Jamie broke off. She’d been about to ask him to wait outside, but Mac was guarding her, so didn’t he deserve to hear all of this, too?
She just... She wanted to keep some pride. She hated baring every bit of her pain to those men, even if Davis was her lover.
“Never mind,” Jamie mumbled. She shut the door, sealing them all inside.
The little office was the only haven she had left. She had a few personal effects scattered around the room, and the picture of her and her brother—she’d tucked that into her top drawer. She’d get a new frame for it. She’d put it up soon. And remember what it was like to be loved so completely.
He never doubted me.
And she’d never doubted him.
Jamie paced to her desk. She didn’t sit down behind it. Instead, she stopped in front of the desk, and she braced her hands on its surface. “What do you think you know?” Maybe she should have told him this part sooner, but she hadn’t wanted Davis to doubt her. And Sean...he wasn’t in the picture anymore. Not in any way. The situation didn’t involve him, so she’d wanted to keep that particular skeleton shoved as far back in her c
loset as possible.
“I know you were involved with him, during your sophomore year of college.”
Right. When she’d still been hurting. Still raw from losing her brother and desperate to fit in. She’d wanted to be like everyone else. All of the other students seemed happy. Normal.
But I wasn’t like them. No matter how hard she’d tried to be.
“After it ended, he went to the Westports,” Davis said. “In the documents I saw, he said he felt he had to share what you’d told him.”
Hearsay. At least, that’s what the legal term should have been but...
Money and power can do so much.
“You told him you were at fault.” There was no emotion in Davis’s voice or in his eyes. He was watching her, so carefully, and she wondered what he saw when he looked at her.
Her hands flattened against the desk.
Davis cleared his throat. “According to Sean Nyle, you confessed that you’d manipulated Henry. You were angry at your parents because they never paid any attention to you.”
No, they hadn’t. Her parents had barely noticed when she was home. Only Warren had noticed. They’d always been so close. Almost like Davis and Brodie. As long as she’d had Warren, she hadn’t really cared that her father was always working or that her mother spent so many days with a wineglass close by.
“So you concocted this plan. You wanted to stage an attack, you wanted to make them notice you. You pushed Henry and told him how to get inside your house—”
“And I told him to stab me.” Her hand lifted, sliding over her scrubs, over the scar on her left side. “I told him not to hit anything vital. I was already taking college-level biology courses in high school, prepping for my plans to be a doctor, so I knew just where he should cut me. I was never going to identity him, of course, just say that some masked attacker had hurt me.” Even as she told this story, fury and disgust twisted through her. “I had it all planned out, but in the end, I changed my mind and decided to point the finger at Henry. To blame him when it had been my plan all along.” At least, that was what Sean Nyle had stated. But Sean was always such a liar.
Jamie forced herself to hold Davis’s stare. “And Henry was enraged when he found out that I’d turned on him. Poor, tormented Henry.” Her cheeks felt numb. “He came looking for me at the university because he wanted to force me to admit what I’d done. But my brother—my trusting, foolish brother—believed my lies. He believed I was the victim. And Warren was caught in the middle when the gun went off. Accidentally, of course, because Henry never meant to hurt him. It wasn’t his fault.” Her chin lifted. “It was mine.”
Davis gazed back at her. Still no emotion showed on his face. His eyes glittered at her. “That was Nyle’s account of things.”
Right. She glanced over at Mac. The McGuires were sure good at wearing those emotionless masks. She’d remember that. If only she could cut off her feelings that easily. After a tense moment, her focus returned to Davis. “And do you believe that story? Do you think I’m the crazy one? That I’ve been somehow playing you? What...do you think I staged the fire, the hit-and-run, the—”
Davis surged forward and caught her hands. “I want to hear your story.”
Mac cleared his throat. “Think I’d like to be hearing it, too.”
Others had heard it. They hadn’t believed her.
She didn’t want to talk with Mac there. She wanted to confide in Davis. He was the man she’d been with so completely the night before. And now...now he was the man staring at her with a stranger’s gaze. So cold. Jamie shook her head. “Do you believe Sean Nyle’s account?”
He didn’t answer.
“I want to know.” She’d held nothing back the night before. She’d never been so open with anyone. Maybe she was just destined to misjudge people. Maybe she’d been right to steer clear of deep friendships and lovers. She’d turned to veterinary science because animals...animals didn’t hurt you. What you saw was what you got, and people—
“I want to hear your story,” he said again.
She swallowed—twice—and managed to say, “Sean and I were friends for months. He knew who I was...everyone knew. I hadn’t changed my last name then, and I hadn’t run far enough away.” Because the scholarship had been there, waiting for her. A scholarship she’d worked so hard to get. She’d still thought she could salvage part of her old life back then.
She’d been wrong.
“We became lovers.”
A muscle flexed in his jaw. The only sign of emotion.
“A few months, that’s all. I wanted to feel more with him, but I didn’t.” She’d started to worry that she couldn’t feel anything for anyone, that her emotions had shut down because of Henry. I was too afraid to feel. “After we broke up, I thought we were still friends. I thought we had that, at least.” Because it hadn’t been some terrible vicious breakup. They’d both seemed to realize things weren’t working. No drama. Just an end.
“Then later, I found out what he’d done.” The betrayal had eaten right through her. “And I saw him on campus, driving a brand-new sports car. I learned that all of his tuition had been paid for the next four years, and I—I confronted him.” Because the whispers had surrounded her. Gossip. Accusing stares. “He said he’d had a choice to make. That he hadn’t hurt anyone...and that he hoped I understood.” He’d stared at her as if she should understand. He’d seemed confused when she started crying, as if she truly didn’t get that he hadn’t hurt anyone.
“He’s still locked up...” She whispered those words, and her throat actually hurt as she said them. “That’s what he told me. ‘He’s still locked up. He won’t get you. He’s getting help.’ As if the lies he’d told didn’t matter. But they did matter. Because I knew Henry would get out sooner. He’d be free and he’d come for me.” Her shoulders sagged. She felt so weary then. All the way to her bones.
Mac took a step toward her. “You’re saying Henry’s parents paid Sean to come forward with that tale?”
“I’m saying they paid him to lie. I’m saying they bought their son’s freedom, again, and I knew that they wouldn’t stop...not until my life—what was left of it—was destroyed. And my parents...” This hurt so much. It gutted her. “They backed up Sean’s story. They said...they said they’d seen me acting out before, that they should have known...” She could still remember going into the prosecutor’s office, not understanding why her parents would do that.
Everyone had turned on her.
So she’d left them behind.
Jamie looked down at her hands. “You know, I don’t think I’d believe me, either.” Not once she’d said the story out loud. “My parents said I was responsible, my lover—both of them—they said I manipulated them. I wouldn’t believe my story, either,” she repeated. My brother’s blood was on my hands. “I’d just walk away. It’s the best thing.” She looked up. “It’s exactly what you should do. Just walk away from this mess.” From me. “And don’t look back.”
He kept staring at her. What do you see when you look at me?
She tried to make her face as expressionless as his. Because when he left, she didn’t want him to see how much it hurt her.
He should leave. It’s better. It’s—
“Go outside, Mac,” Davis ordered.
Mac hesitated. “I don’t think—”
“I need to talk with Jamie. Alone.”
Now he wanted to talk alone? “I’m done talking.” Done trying to convince him that she was innocent. The deck was stacked against her. When so much money and power was involved, why expect a different result?
She’d done some digging into Henry’s life. She’d needed to know where he was, especially once he was released from the psychiatric facility.
She knew he was supposed to be some kind of model citizen now. That he spent millions on
charity work. That he was slated to take over his father’s company—
And I’ll always see him as that wild-eyed boy who stabbed me, the monster in the dark. The monster who wouldn’t stop no matter how much I begged.
Mac headed for the door. “I’m outside, if you need me.”
Her gaze jerked to his face. He was staring at her...with sympathy?
“Just call,” Mac said. Then he glared at Davis. “Watch your step, bro. Watch it.”
And Mac yanked open the door and left her alone with Davis.
Jamie didn’t move. She was almost afraid to speak.
What now?
* * *
“STOP!” SULLIVAN RAN through the airport, and grabbed Grant’s arm. His brother whirled toward him, frowning.
“Sully? What the hell?”
“I’m going to Connecticut.” So what if that hadn’t been the original plan? He’d changed his mind about their plan thirty minutes ago.
Because my brothers are right. I am changing. And I’m not sure I like the man I’m becoming.
Too much bitterness. Too much anger. Too much time spent longing for what he couldn’t have.
“Since when?” Grant demanded as his gaze hardened. “You’re supposed to be running down intel—”
“And I will, in Connecticut.” Where he could get an up-close and personal look at the Westports. “I need to go, all right? Davis is swearing that Jamie is the victim, and I—” He shook his head. “I have to see for myself if he’s right.” He had to follow this case down the rabbit hole and see exactly where it went. “Stay with Scarlett.” Because Grant had a woman who loved him, a woman who wasn’t afraid of any darkness that Grant carried. “I’ve got this one, okay?”
Grant hesitated. “What have you been holding back from me?”
A mistake. One that Sullivan might have made because, hell, unlike Davis, he hadn’t trusted the woman who’d come to him. He’d believed the other stories, instead.
Another time, another place.