He held up the paper he’d pulled from the stack. “This is a spreadsheet of Montford students who didn’t meet entrance criteria,” he said. The list of eleven.
Addy nodded. She knew she’d have to answer to this. She just hadn’t realized it would be this soon.
She’d thought she’d be the one initiating the conversation.
And she’d expected to be dressed.
He was.
“Why are you doing this?”
“I did a lot of research. I was asked to look through a lot of tedious records and see if I could find anything that flagged itself as a potential lawsuit against the university.” Was he going to hate her?
“I am a potential lawsuit?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
She could have explained about the proven external economic value inherent in a Montford education. And how any deviation from equally applied principles for all applicants put the university at risk of lawsuit.
He was staring at her. “Is my education at risk?”
“It could be.”
“Because you found me on this list?”
“I compiled the list.” He was going to know eventually.
“Who else knows I’m on this list?”
“No one.” Her “yet” was implied.
“What about the other names here?” His questions were getting harder to answer. “Does anyone know about them?”
“Only the one name I was originally looking at.”
“Which one?”
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
He was frowning. Studying her.
“But it’s not me.”
“No.”
“Does our...association...have anything to do with this?” He held up the papers, his drawl more pronounced than it had ever been.
She’d looked up his file because of their association. But his name on that list of eleven—that would have shown up regardless if she’d known who he was or not.
“No.”
“You didn’t move in here to spy on me?”
Folding her arms over her chest, Adrianna forced herself to withstand his inquisition without getting defensive. She had it coming. “Absolutely not.”
“Did you have sex with me to get more information out of me?”
“No.”
His shoulders dropped. So did his chin. He continued to watch her—his gaze narrowed and piercing.
“For what it’s worth, I was trying to tell you last night, on the patio.”
“And then the phone rang. It had to do with this, didn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“What happens next?”
“I have a decision to make.”
A raised eyebrow was the only response she got, and she knew her time to speak up or miss out on the chance forever was at hand.
“I have to decide whether I do what is ethically correct and turn over this list of names to the authorities that asked for them, or whether I throw it in the trash and pretend I never saw it.”
“If you throw it away—this whole thing goes away?”
“Where your education is concerned, you mean?”
One nod—a very succinct up and down motion of the head she’d cradled between her breasts such a short time ago—was all she got.
“There’s a chance that it will, yes.”
“A chance?”
“They’re looking at cases that could make the university vulnerable to lawsuits,” she reminded him. “Someone else could feasibly find this same information. If they knew to look for it.” She would be honest with Mark in terms of her own duplicity, but she absolutely could not reveal any information involving Will or any other students.
“If you turn in that list, what happens next?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you could make a pretty good guess.”
He was a bright man. “Yes.”
“And?”
“My guess is you’ll lose the scholarship.” She quickly added, “But you won’t have to pay back the money already spent.”
He nodded again, the tightening of his jaw the only evidence of the emotions that had to be roiling through him.
Addy took a deep breath, praying for the strength to get through this while she slowly unraveled inside.
He couldn’t see that. Couldn’t know what this was doing to her. She wasn’t going to play the vulnerable-woman card. He didn’t deserve that garbage.
“What are you going to do?” he finally asked.
“What would you have me do?” If he asked her to throw the list in the trash, would she?
Mark was silent for so long she figured he wasn’t going to answer her. When he finally spoke, it was only to ask, “Who are you working for?”
“I can’t disclose that information.”
“Why not? Is someone forcing you to do this against your will? Are you in some kind of trouble?”
Addy’s eyes filled with tears. Even now he was coming to her rescue. For the first time in her life she wished she was in trouble.
“No.”
“Is someone blackmailing you?”
“No.”
“That cop that was behind you yesterday—he has something to do with this, doesn’t he?”
“I can’t say.”
“Are you part of an investigation?”
“As a suspect, you mean?”
His gaze narrowed again and, too late, she realized she’d just given him a clue. “Yeah, that’s what I mean.”
“No.”
“So you’re involved in an investigation, but not as a suspect.”
Her silence told him what he wanted to know. But if she’d denied the allegation, he’d have known she was lying.
And that’s why it had been wrong to sleep with him. She’d handed him the keys to her heart—to the ability to read through her subterfuge.
“Who are you?”
She didn’t answer. She tried, but no words formed.
“What are you?”
“What does that mean?”
“Are you a cop?”
“No.”
“What, then?”
“I’m a lawyer.”
Mark’s jaw dropped. He swung around toward the door. Swung back. Stared at her as though she’d sprung up from the sewer, turned and left.
And Addy learned something new.
It took only one second for a heart to break.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
MARK MADE BACON. And eggs and toast, too.
He sat at the kitchen table and forked food into his mouth, chewed and swallowed, all the while pretending that he didn’t see his grandmother’s knowing stare.
He couldn’t answer to her. Not this morning.
Sometimes a man just needed space for himself.
It was something he couldn’t help.
“You slept with her!”
“That’s none of your damned business.”
“Uh-oh. What happened?”
Mark jabbed at the last piece of fried egg on his plate, turned his fork prong down and shoved the egg into his mouth.
“You didn’t hurt her, did you? She’s different than the girls in Bierly. Some girls are just raised more fragile. Don’t you worry none about it....”
Taking his plate to the sink, Mark ran water over the egg yolk and left the dish and his silverware to soak.
* * *
SHE HAD TO TURN over the
list. No matter how much Addy loved Mark, the fact remained that his scholarship posed the most risk as being the cause of the threats against Will. The timing was right. The letters had started arriving almost to the day that Mark had accepted entrance into the university. It was too much of a coincidence for her to ignore.
Will was counting on her.
She’d not only given him her word, she’d taken payment for her professional services. While technically it could be argued that because there was no formally signed fee agreement, she was not beholden to professional ethics in this case, the argument would be weak at best. And wrong.
Wiping tears from her face, Addy sat at her kitchen table, dressed and ready to leave for campus as soon as she reapplied the makeup she’d cried off, and knew what she had to do.
But first, she picked up the prepaid cell phone given to her by Sheriff Richards and dialed. Mark’s phone.
He still might not pick up if he saw the unidentified number on his caller display and suspected that it was her. She wouldn’t blame him. But figured she had a better chance of getting him if he didn’t recognize the number.
“Hello.”
“It’s Addy.”
“I figured.” And he’d still answered. She took that as a good sign.
“I’m getting ready to head out to campus to drop off yesterday’s assignment. Nonnie calls me from the porch anytime she sees me out there.” She was babbling. Stalling. And continued, anyway. “Do you want me to answer her?”
“If you want to.”
“You don’t mind if I’m in your house?”
“Do I have reason to mistrust your intentions with my grandmother?”
Oh, God. His answering hadn’t been a good sign at all. It had just been a Mark thing to do.
“No,” she said softly. “You don’t. My affection for Nonnie has been sincere from the beginning.”
As has my affection for you, she added silently, hoping he’d ask and give her the chance to say the words aloud.
“Feel free to go in, then.”
Tears sprang to her eyes again and she swiped at them impatiently. “I just...I want you to know...I have to turn over the list, Mark.”
“I figured as much.”
“If I could find a way to let it go I would, but—”
“I get it,” he interrupted. And added, “I’d like to know how much time I have. I’ll need to make plans. To prepare my grandmother for travel.”
“Just hang tight, will you? I’m hoping it won’t come to that. And if it does, I’ll make sure that you have all the time you need. At least until the end of the semester.”
“I won’t need long. We’ve got our home in Bierly to go back to.”
She wanted to die. Right then and there. “Nonnie still didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“She sold the house in Bierly, Mark.”
Silence was the only reply she received. Until she heard a tone signifying the call had been lost.
* * *
HE WANTED TO HIT something. Hard.
Stamping through the desert where he’d driven to cool off that second Thursday morning in October, Mark tried to find himself in the cacophony of violent thoughts and raging emotions that had taken possession of the man he’d once been.
It was almost comical the way things had stacked up against him. How was a guy supposed to fight things that were so completely out of his control? How was he supposed to fix them?
He’d thought about calling Nonnie, to reassure himself that Addy had been wrong when she’d told him that Nonnie sold the home she’d been born in. But he was afraid of what he might say to his grandmother if he found out the woman—the lawyer—he’d slept with had been right. So he’d pulled into an establishment offering free wireless service, gone online on his tablet and searched out recent closings in Bierly instead.
When he saw his home address right there, in black and white, he was beyond surprised.
The good news was, the savvy old lady had gotten a decent price for the place. She’d have safeguarded the sum, too. There was no doubt in his mind about that. Her money would sustain her until he could get back on at the plant, find a home in Bierly for them to rent.
It was when he pulled out his cell to call his former boss to ask for his old job back that he caught himself. He had a job. One he actually liked. With good benefits. Right there in Shelter Valley.
A town that he also liked.
The duplex was on loan to him only for as long as he was a student at the university—a condition of the scholarship—but there were other places to rent in town.
And someday, when he saved up the money, he’d find a school in Phoenix that would accept him and he’d get his safety engineering degree, too.
If he stayed, he wouldn’t risk Nonnie’s life with another long drive.
This was how a guy fixed things. He took what he’d learned and continued moving forward, one step at a time.
By the time he’d almost reached his truck, he’d convinced himself that life was good. And then he had a flashback: Addy, naked and open to him. He pushed the image away. Started walking faster—to the point where he was working up a sweat.
He remembered her soft skin. Her laughter. The vulnerable look in her eyes when he’d walked out on her that morning.
He almost made it out of the desert. Almost, but not quite. When his truck was only feet away, when he knew he was going to have to drive back to town and face a life without Addy, Mark fell to his knees and wept.
And then, in control once more, he went home.
* * *
“SHE CAME BY.”
He didn’t want to talk about it.
“I asked her if you slept with her.”
“I told you, you’re overstepping your boundaries. I suggest you shut your trap.”
“She said it was the most incredible night of her life. Those were her words. Most incredible.”
What did the old lady want from him? His blood and guts on the table in front of her?
“She told me, Markie-boy.”
“What? What did she tell you?” He hollered the words. Looking up from the homework due in an hour, which he now had no reason to complete, Mark glanced behind him at the frail woman in the wheelchair facing a computer with a gambling hand opened on it. His eyes dropped. “I’m sorry.”
“I can’t remember the last time you raised your voice at me.”
He could. It had been the night she’d hauled his ass out of that bar and back to Bierly. The night the sixteen-year-old boy had become a real man.
Silence filled the room and Mark told himself he was thankful for it. He spent the next ten minutes reading the same six words on the same page, trying to find any meaning in them at all.
“She told me she’s a lawyer.”
He didn’t want to know.
He read the line several more times.
“It doesn’t change what we know about her, boy. It’s her heart that matters, you know that.”
“She lied.”
“I imagine she did it for good cause.”
“She’s going to lose me my scholarship.”
“I don’t think so. But if it happens, it happens. You’ll survive.”
He wanted to argue. But couldn’t. Because she was right. The problem was, he wasn’t satisfied with just surviving anymore.
“She loves you, Mark.”
It didn’t matter.
Love passed. And all that was left was the disappointment. And the moving on.
“I think she’d marry you if you asked her to.”
Pushing away from the table, Mark yanked open the refrigerator door, grabbed the carton of milk and drank out of the container. Nonnie’s frown be damned. He was what he was. An uneducated country boy from the hills of West Virginia.
“You love her, too.”
“Don’t you ever shut up?” He didn’t raise his voice. Couldn’t even raise enough muster to sound angry. He was what he was. Tired.
“You need me to ask her?”
“You sold the house.”
“She told you.”
He chuckled, failing to keep the bitterness inside of him. “Funny how she can tell me your secrets but manage to keep her own so well hidden.”
“I sold the house over a month ago and told her the day I did it.”
And the fact that Addy had withheld such an important piece of information from him was supposed to make him feel better? Endear her to him?
“I asked her not to tell you and she abided by my wishes. Until today. She told me you knew.”
Didn’t surprise him.
“She fits us, Markie-boy.”
“She does not fit me.” Mark sat back in his chair. He had to leave for his one class that day, and then go on to work. “Course she fits you. You’re just steamed ’cause she lied to you. And I don’t blame you. But don’t be so cussedly holy that you lose the best thing that ever came your way.”
Pushing out of his chair, he paced into the living room and back again. Twice and then a third time. “She’s a damned lawyer, Nonnie! She’s got more education than I’ll ever have. Even if I don’t lose the scholarship.”
“There’s more than one kind of learning, Markie-boy. She’s got one, you got another. You fit. Just like I said. Seems to me, you two need each other.”
It seemed to Mark that Ella had been right. Schooling changed people. Those with it moved on, leaving those without it feeling as though they’d never be good enough.
He couldn’t spend the rest of his years feeling that way.
Not after a lifetime of it.
He wasn’t the town drunk’s dropout son anymore. And he couldn’t be any woman’s backwoods kept man.
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