Soon I was sinking my fingers into his short hair, holding him in place between my legs as my head twisted on my pillow in my need for release. My need to feel even closer to him. “Jed…”
“Tell me what you want, Neely Kate.”
“You. I want you.”
“You already have me,” he said, brushing his lips against my inner thigh.
“Jed.”
He took mercy on me. Sometimes he made me be more direct, but tonight he kissed his way back up my stomach, stopping to show his devotion to each breast, before his mouth found mine.
I wrapped one arm around his neck. “Jed. Please.”
He slipped an arm under my right thigh and lifted my leg higher as he slowly entered me, fully seating himself in one thrust.
“Jesus, Neely Kate,” he grunted. “We can do this every day for the rest of our lives and I’ll never get enough of you.”
His fullness added to the delicious pressure in my groin, and I moved underneath him, lifting my hips to take him deeper. “Good thing we have the rest of our lives.”
He kissed me as he began to move, and I could tell he was trying to hold back, trying to be careful in case my few days with Kate had brought back bad memories that might make me fragile. “Jed,” I whispered.
He paused, searching my face with a worried look.
“I’m fine,” I said with a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to be careful.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Neely Kate, and I know not all wounds are on the outside.”
“You would never hurt me, Jed. Never. You’re incapable of it.” I lifted my hand to his face. “I love you. I need you. I trust you. Show me how much you love me.” Then I raised my head to kiss him.
He kissed me back with a hunger he’d been holding back, and I met and matched it with my own need.
He began to move again, picking up the tempo and the pace.
I wrapped my legs around him, the pressure building tighter and tighter, and yet I could tell he was still holding back.
“Give yourself to me, Jed,” I said, breathless. “Give me everything.”
He groaned as he slipped an arm under my side, his hand cradling my butt as he drove in even deeper. My world exploded, wave after wave of release washing through me, and just as I started to fall, Jed changed his angle and another orgasm slammed into me with an unexpected force. My world shattered into pieces but for the first time, I truly gave myself to it, knowing Jed would be there to pick up every piece.
When I started to climb out of my orgasm-induced daze, Jed was giving one last thrust as he released a long groan. He collapsed next to me, panting.
It took nearly a minute for both of us to recover, but then Jed rolled onto his side, pulling me with him so we were chest to chest.
Searching my face, he said with a soft smile, “I’m lookin’ forward to the rest of my life with you.”
Contentment washed through me. “Me too.”
“I want to marry you, Neely Kate.”
That gave me pause, and he noticed. “You seem hesitant.”
“I want to marry you too, Jed. You have no idea how much happiness the thought of being married to you gives me. But now seems like a terrible time.”
He paused. “Do you want a big wedding?”
While we’d discussed getting married many times before, this was our first conversation about it since we’d learned I was really a free woman. “Do you?”
“I want what you want, NK.”
“But I’ve done the big wedding. I don’t need or want it.” I gave him a pointed look. “Unless you do, and I need you to be honest if you do.”
“I don’t want a big wedding. Maybe a small one at our house next spring?” he said.
“Before Rose has her baby?”
He frowned. “I don’t know. Do you think we should wait?”
The thought of Rose having her baby filled me with equal parts happiness, sorrow, and jealousy. “Honestly, I don’t know.”
He looked lost in thought, then said, “I want to adopt.”
“A dog?” I asked, trying not to give in to my hopes.
He grinned. “A baby.”
I sucked in a breath.
His smile fell. “But we need to deal with Hardshaw first. I don’t want to bring a baby into this mess.” He held my gaze. “In fact, we need to get it cleaned up before Rose has hers.”
“Agreed.”
“But I want to adopt,” Jed said, his earlier happiness returning. “Several times if you are open to the idea.”
I gave him a long, lingering kiss.
When I pulled back, Jed grinned. “I take that is a yes?”
I laughed. “It’s definitely a yes.”
But the thought of Hardshaw stole part of my happiness, as well as reminding me of the discussion we needed to have with Carly when we got home. “What we learned about Hardshaw…” I said, sad that the real world was slipping back into our lives and our bed. “Where does this leave Carly?”
“Obviously, we need to tell her what you’ve learned,” he said quietly, his fingertips lightly brushing up and down my arm. “Ultimately, it’s her decision.”
“But if you were to give her counsel,” I said, my words thick with dread, “what would you tell her?”
He was silent for several seconds, then said, “You know.”
I nodded, my throat burning. I did know, but I was so tired of saying goodbye to the people I cared about.
Chapter 27
The next day, I texted Rose, Joe, and Carly, asking them to meet us at Rose’s farmhouse around three. I was concerned that Rose and Carly would have trouble getting away early from work, but Rose insisted wild horses couldn’t keep her from seeing me straight away.
She was waiting on the porch when Jed pulled in front of the house, and she rushed down the steps to meet me in the yard, pulling me into a tight hug when I got out. “You scared me to death.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not mad,” she said, still hugging me. “You had to track down your demons.” Again. I’d run off from her twice, leaving her to worry and stew both times, and both times she’d welcomed me back with open arms and a loving heart.
She leaned back and looked me in the eyes. “Did you get your answers?”
I nodded. “And some I wasn’t even looking for.”
Worry filled her eyes, but then Rose was always quick to pick up on things. She wrapped an arm around my upper back and steered me toward the porch steps. “October is hittin’ us full force and you’re not wearing a coat. Let’s get you inside.”
I glanced back at Jed. He gave me a soft smile and a nod.
Carly was waiting by the front door and she gave me a hug too, tears in her eyes. “I’m so grateful you’re safe. We were all worried.”
I swallowed the burning lump in my throat, hugging her again. I knew it would have to last me.
Rose looked really concerned now so I said, “I’m fine. I promise.”
Carly went to the kitchen to make us all some tea while we waited for Joe.
He arrived a few minutes later and hugged me with such exuberance he lifted me clear off the ground. “Thank God you’re safe and you’re home.”
“I missed you too.”
When he set me on my feet, he searched my face for bruises. “You’re sure she didn’t hurt you? You’re not hidin’ it from me?”
“No, Joe. I’m fine.”
He hugged me again and kissed the top of my head. “I love you, NK. I need you.” His voice broke.
I smiled up at him. “I need you too.”
Carly emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray with three mugs. “Oh, Joe. Would you like me to make you some tea?”
“No,” he said, releasing me again. “I’m good.”
“Did you find out anything else about the break-in at the attorney’s office?” I asked.
Joe shot Rose a worried look. “No. None of the neighbors saw a thing.”
We all
sat down in the living room and I nursed my tea for a moment, trying to figure out where to start. I was slightly worried about Carly’s reaction to Joe finding out her secrets, but he needed to hear it all, and she had bigger concerns. After our stop in Little Rock this morning on the way home, Jed was prepared to address them.
I might as well start at the beginning.
I launched into the story, starting with Kate showing up at the landscaping office.
Carly turned white as a sheet when I got to the part about her father being part of the crime syndicate, but Rose grabbed her hand and squeezed, reassuring her that we were here for her.
That hurt my heart even more. If Carly left, she’d be on her own again, and I knew how that felt. All too well.
When I finished nearly forty-five minutes later, having told them everything except for the more personal parts of my conversations with Ronnie and Kate, Joe said, “I have a few questions.”
I nodded. “I would expect nothin’ less.”
“Do you really plan to send part of the money to the Secret Service?”
I prepared myself for an argument. “Yeah. I do.” I glanced at Jed, then back to my brother. “We’re going to give it to them anonymously. We’re still figuring out the best way to make that happen, but we’ll make sure they know what they’re getting so they can check for Carson Roberts’ prints.”
“Can I make a suggestion?”
“Yes…”
“Send part of it to the FBI too. Just to hedge your bets.”
My mouth parted in surprise. “Good idea.”
Jed tensed behind me, still not fully on board with the plan, but he’d agreed to let me take the lead.
Joe asked a few more questions about Hardshaw and the counterfeit business. I told him what I could, and when he’d exhausted his questions, we all sat in silence for several seconds.
“We need to figure out what’s next for you, Carly,” Jed said in a subdued tone.
Her eyes flew wide, then her gaze darted from me to Jed. Rose reached over and took her hand again.
“You have several choices,” Jed said. “None of them ideal.”
“I suspected as much,” she said, keeping her gaze on him.
“One, you stay in Fenton County, but I’m certain they’ve either caught wind you’re here or will soon enough. Hardshaw’s too big of a presence in this county for you to keep flyin’ under the radar.”
She was quiet for a moment, tears flooding her eyes. She swiped a stray one, then something about her changed. Her back straightened, and while she still held Rose’s hand, it was as if she’d become the comforter rather than the one in need of comforting. “Go on.”
“Two, you can go to the authorities, but it wouldn’t be an open and shut deal. They’d need evidence that your father is involved. Do you have any?”
She shook her head. “Nothing but hearsay.”
Joe piped in, “They’d probably ask you to try to entrap your father. Wear a wire. Place bugs in his office. They’d expect you to go back home.”
Her eyes filled with fire. “That’s not my home.”
Joe nodded. “If you go to the authorities with what you know, they’ll try to convince you to do it anyway, tellin’ you how many people you’ll save, etcetera, etcetera, but I’ve never gotten the impression you’re close to your father.” He held her gaze. “Knowin’ what I know now, I suspect you saw something and took off runnin’, which means you’d be totally ineffective as a plant. I worry that the Feds’ eagerness to get someone on the inside would make them take chances with your life. Chances that aren’t worth what I would expect to be a very low payout. Your father would be unlikely to confide in you and your life would be at risk for nothing.”
“What did you see, Carly?” I asked. “What made you run?”
Her gaze turned to me. “I overheard my father and Jake talking,” she said. “Jake was only marrying me to be part of the oil company board.”
“But you heard more, didn’t you?” I said. This was the story she’d told Rose and me before.
For a moment, I wasn’t sure she’d tell us, but then she nodded. “They were talking about Hardshaw, and how Jake would be transitioned into it. Jake told my father he never wanted me to know about the real reason he was marrying me, that he genuinely cared about me even if he didn’t love me. My father assured him they could keep all of the group’s discussion under the guise of Blakely Oil business.” She paused and a distant look filled her eyes. “My father told Jake the real issue would arise when it came time for him to pass on his position. I’m the one who would inherit it, and while I could name Jake as my proxy—what would a woman like me understand about the business?—my father suspected I would never go along with it. Jake agreed.” She released Rose’s hand and lifted her chin. “My father told Jake that when the time came, Jake would be required to make a hard choice, just as my father had done when he’d discovered that my mother had slept with his brother.” Her jaw tightened. “That hard choice was to kill my mother. Everyone thinks she died in a car accident, but it was my father’s doing. What’s worse—if that’s possible,” she said with a bitter laugh, “is that my father encouraged Jake to get rid of me if that’s what he needs to do to clear the path to take his place on the board.”
“How could a father condone the murder of his own child?” Rose asked in shock, then shook her head. “I’d hoped J.R. Simmons was a rarity.”
Carly turned to Rose, her face a carefully constructed mask of indifference. “Because it turns out Randall Blakely is not my father. His brother is.”
Rose’s face paled. “Carly.”
“I suspect that’s why he never gave me the time of day after she died. He didn’t see me as his.”
“He doesn’t deserve you,” Rose said defiantly. “I found out last year that my own mother wasn’t my biological mother. She couldn’t look past it either. That makes them both fools.”
“My father’s a dangerous fool,” Carly said, getting to her feet and moving toward the front door. “I need to tell you the real reason I came here.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Rose said. “You’re part of our family now.”
“I truly believe that,” Carly said, her voice breaking, “which is why I need to tell you this.” She turned to me, then Joe. “I’m not sure if your plan’s going to work. Carson Roberts isn’t the only one with an interest in Fenton County. My father and Jake were discussing Henryetta and Fenton County too. I didn’t understand what they were talking about, but that’s why I really came here. I had hoped to get some answers about what they were up to, When you started talking about Hardshaw, I didn’t fully trust you yet, and truth be told, I was scared. It didn’t take me long to figure out we were on the same side, but in the beginning, I was scared you’d hold my father’s association with Hardshaw against me. And then when I did trust you, I was too ashamed to admit I’d lied.”
“So you were lookin’ for us?” Rose asked without any recrimination.
“No,” Carly said, her eyes pleading with Rose. “Divine providence put me in your path. I swear.”
After no one said anything, Carly said, “I’m sorry if I put you in danger. I’ve been researching my father’s involvement in Hardshaw online, trying to find anything useful, but I came up with nothing.” Something in her posture told me she still wasn’t telling us everything.
“You found something,” I said softly.
Carly blushed. “I’ve been trying to find my uncle…well, I guess my biological father. He disappeared around the time Mom died. I’m not sure if he knows about me.”
“We can help with that,” Jed said.
She shook her head. “No. With everything else going on right now, I think I need to put that on the back burner.”
Jed gave her a nod. “If you change your mind…the offer stands.”
“Thank you.” Tears filled her eyes as she turned to Rose. “I’m so sorry. You took me in and I lied to you. I was just…”
&n
bsp; “Scared, like you said,” Rose said. “And we were strangers to boot. You’d just discovered you couldn’t trust your own father and your best friend turned fiancé. How in heaven’s name could you trust us?”
Carly gave her a shaky smile. “I trust you now.”
Rose nodded, a tear slipping down her cheek. “I know, and that’s a gift I’ll cherish forever.”
Carly shifted her weight, looking resigned. “So what do you suggest I do, Jed? Because going back is not an option.”
“The truth?” he said solemnly. “The safest thing you can do is run.”
Rose started to cry in earnest, and I pressed my knuckles to my lips in an effort to keep from breaking down. I’d known this was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier.
Carly turned to me and Joe. “No objections?”
Joe shook his head as he got to his feet and started pacing in front of the study. “But it doesn’t have to be permanent. Just until this all gets sorted out.”
“Will it get sorted out?” Carly asked. “Even if Hardshaw backs out of expanding into the county, they’ll still exist. My father will still need me to marry Jake.” I almost gasped at that, and Carly nodded. “Yeah. That’s why he’s looking for me. Jake can’t take over without our marriage, and now that I know, I suspect they’ll shut me up permanently before the ink dries on the marriage license.”
Now I was even more determined to not only kick Hardshaw out of the county, but to burn it down.
“You have to go,” Jed said, quietly, “but you also have to know that none of us wants you to leave.”
Carly wiped a tear from her cheek. “I know. So what do I do?”
Jed took a breath. “You’re Charlene Moore now. So you can still go by Carly if you want. You’re now twenty-nine, and your birthday is March 16. You were born in Michigan, and you’ve been living in Atlanta for the past ten years, working in retail sales.” He paused. “I’m sorry. We tried to get something set up with an education degree, but there just wasn’t time. That means you can’t be a teacher anymore. Unless you go back to school and start over.”
Dirty Money Page 21