Page 53 of Beehives and Broken Heroes

He planted his feet, needing to get to the bottom of whatever was upsetting her so he could fix it. “That’s what I asked.”

“You lied to me, that’s what happened!” She stopped just out of his reach.

Honey sat at her feet.

Brandon’s face fell, his muscles tensing. What? She couldn’t possibly know . . .

“I metAlanaat Choco Latte.” Her posture was stiff as a board, her jaw tight, every line of her face tense, her eyes cold and calculating.

He swallowed thick. Okay, she could know. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to lie to you—”

“Then why did you?”

He breathed deep. He’d wanted this. To come clean. But it was already going so much worse than he thought. “There are things that I can’t tell you because of my job. Who Alana is was one of those things. When you asked me, I panicked and said the first thing that came out of my mouth.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Things you can’t tell me because of your job? You’re in marketing, Brandon. Marketing. You’re talking with your tongue out of your shoe.”

Now she was just being difficult. “You know what I mean. And I think this proves my point.”

“If you’re talking about the military, I’m not buying it. You’re retired. Have been for a year.”

“Nonetheless,” he said. This was getting out of hand. “I was going to tell you I’d lied.”

“How convenient.”

“Allie, calm down,” he said, using his most commanding voice. “You’re being ridiculous.”

Her face went almost the same shade as her hair. “Don’t tell me to calm down!”

Dagnabit, he knew better than to say things like that to her. Telling an overly emotional person to calm down was like telling a windstorm not to blow. His mom had been like that, and so had Maryanne. He knew better. He stepped closer to her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

She stepped back, pointed at him, and ordered, “Honey, guard!”

Honey jumped in front of her and bared his teeth at Brandon.

Brandon stepped back, hands up. “Are you serious? Allie, call him off.”

Her whole body shook, and when she spoke, her voice warbled. “You were going to tell me you lied, but you weren’t going to tell me the truth, were you?”

“Allie.” He moved again, but Honey growled deep at the back of his throat and Brandon froze.

“You want to fix this?” Allie was on the verge of tears now. “Prove to me I can trust you. That you aren’t like Tony. That you aren’t like my dad. Tell me who that woman is right now.”

Brandon clenched his fists. “I can’t believe you’d compare me to—”

“Liars?” she asked. A tear spilled down her cheek. “Can I trust you or not?”

Brandon wanted to grab her up and hold her tight. He wanted to shake her senseless, kiss away the tears, and yell at her all at once. He did none of those things. He couldn’t. It was bad enough that Allie figured out he’d lied about Alana; if he told Allie who she was, all hope of catching Grant would be gone. Alana would take away the week she’d given him to go after Grant just for breaking his contract to stay silent. Alana might love him like family, but she wouldn’t put up with disloyalty, even if she did think he was the only one who could stop Grant, which was iffy at best. But Brandon knew he was, and Grant needed to be stopped.

Honey’s hackles rose, and suddenly the dog Brandon had always thought of as a big teddy bear looked like he might do real damage. At that moment, seeing Honey’s fierce loyalty and his devotion to Allie, Brandon loved that dog almost as much as he loved his absolutely crazy owner.

“You know you can trust me,” he said.

“Who is she, Brandon?” Allie wrapped her arms around her middle. She looked like she was holding herself together.

He shook his head and looked down. “I can’t tell you that.”

A little gasp, a sob, escaped from Allie’s mouth. She swallowed. “Then I can’t trust you.” She backed toward her truck. “We’re through.”

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