Page 55 of Dangerous Secrets
With an arm around her shoulders, he’dpointed out Orion, his quiet voice telling her how he always lookedfor the constellation.His father had taught him how the ancientmariners had navigated by the stars and Orion helped them find eastand west.No matter how far they sailed from home, sailors couldalways find their way back by following the stars.
Her finger moved along the arc ofOrion’s bow.“It’s beautiful.”Now she moved her finger over hischest, over the plains of well-defined muscles.“Did you misshome?”
Expression serious, gaze intent, hesaid, “I missed you.Every day.”
She shook her head.Maybe she wasbeginning to understand why he’d needed to be away for so long.Heprobably wouldn’t frame it as such, but he’d had to heal from thepsychological trauma of being accused, convicted, and imprisonedfor a crime he hadn’t committed.
But what she didn’t get was why thathad meant carving her out of his life.But he’d done exactly that,so it didn’t follow that missing her had ever been anissue.
“You don’t believeme.”
“It doesn’tmatter.”
“Yeah, Laney, itdoes.”
She drew in a deep breath, letting itout slowly before speaking.“I have a hard time believing I meantanything to you if you could so easily leave without explaining,without a good-bye, and without even once over six years speaking aword to me.”
“If I had, it wouldn’thave been fair to you.”
Incredulity had her gaping at him.“Fair?You’ve got to be kidding.How was dumping me fair?I gotthat our relationship was over, but I thought we were at leastfriends.”
“I didn’t want to hold youback.I should’ve handled it better, and I wish I had.Fact was, Iwasn’t good for you.I wanted you free to live your life withoutbeing tied to me.If I kept in touch, I would’ve been stringing youalong.I know you loved me.I’m sorrier than I can say that Idestroyed that.But cutting you loose meant you could find someoneelse to build a life with, someone who wasn’t me.It killed me tothink about it, but you deserved more than I could give you.Ididn’t want you ruining your life by hitching it tomine.”
Delaney pushed herself up to sitting.“You arrogant ass.How dare you make that decision for me?I feltlike I’d been ripped in half when you left.”
Her breath began to hitch.She’d bedamned if she’d cry in front of him.Or let the truth out that hisplan had been an abject failure because despite the gap of sixyears, she still loved him.She wished she didn’t, but there itwas.
She jumped out of bed and snatched upher pants and underwear, looking frantically for the rest of herclothing.
“Laney, wait.”He swunghis feet to the side of the bed.
She pointed her finger at him.“Don’tyou dare get up.I’m the one leaving this time.”She brushed herhand furiously across her cheek before turning to flee down thehall.In the living room she pulled on her pants.She had no ideawhere her top had gotten to so she grabbed Walker’s sweatshirt andpulled it over her head.She’d left her socks in the bedroom andthere was no way she was going back for them.She jammed bare feetinto her mud boots, grabbed her coat, and with her vision blurred,she fought with the doorknob until she could open it and flee intothe night.
***
Jerod Reed Fetterly leaned back in theseat of his car, hand hanging limply over the steering wheel.Hesipped from a tall can of Bud.The beer was already going warm andflat.The man in the passenger seat slouched against the door, agrimy gimme cap pulled over his face to block the sun.Idiot Bobbystayed up all night playing video games and smoking weed.He sleptas much of the day as he could get away with and was damn nearuseless when he couldn’t.Which meant he was useless just about allthe time.
Bobby shifted and stretched, liftingthe ballcap to reveal a face with a grizzled appearance making himlook ten years older than the forty-five Jerod knew him to be.“Hotin here,” he grumbled.“Give me a swig of your beer.”
“Hell no.You’re such adumb fuck you didn’t even have enough dough to buy your own.I’mnot letting you have mine.”
Jerod wished he was back at his place,anywhere away from the increasingly irritating Bobby, who smelledlike he hadn’t bathed in days.Kicking back in his easy chair withthe window a/c unit cranked to freezing while watching a footballgame on TV sounded so much better than sitting in his car withasshole Bobby.
Their orders were to watch the oldbat’s house and report if she had any visitors.Fucking waste oftime, if you asked him.But Neil didn’t ask him.He gave orders andexpected them to be followed.The old man wasn’t sheriff anymore,though.He’d learn soon enough his time had passed.Time for thenext generation to take control.
Days before, Bobby’d been tagged towatch the old woman and had nearly pissed himself when he’d showedup at the rendezvous spot to report that Walker McGrath and theBryant whore had walked away with a box.
Neil’d been furious, certain the boxcontained records from the sheriff’s office.Didn’t make sense tokeep watching, but Neil had made a big deal of it, said Reed neededto be thorough, do the job right.He hated his uncle called himReed.Jerod’s mother had called him by his middle name too, andhe’d loathed the bitch.She’d been a weak woman, and she’d been awhore.Hadn’t she brought home men who’d left money on the dresseras they’d buttoned their pants on the way out the door?All womenwere whores as far as he was concerned.Then one of those assholeshad paid her in heroin and she’d OD’d, and that had beenthat.
He slurped down more beer and pattedhis stomach to loosen a burp, idly wishing he’d bought more thanone can.He wiped sweat from his forehead, resentment growing overhaving to sit in a fucking hot car on a fucking hot day while hesweated like a pig.Bobby being there to keep watch with him onlyadded insult to injury.Jerod didn’t like the idea Neil didn’ttrust him.
A car drove by.Jerod watched thedriver, making sure the woman, who looked like a soccer mom with avan full of kids, wasn’t paying attention to two guys sitting in acar.After tipping back the beer to get the last drops, he smashedthe can with his fist and tossed it out the window as hisresentment grew.
What was the point of keeping an eyeon the old lady’s place when any idiot who wanted to talk to MarthaWatkins could call her?They could email her.They could fuckingvideo chat with her.They didn’t need to walk up to her door inperson.
He doubted his uncle even knew whatvideo chatting was.But he’d insisted, so here Jerod was in Sisterswhere he could be recognized by anyone driving by.And since he’dbeen watching the house for nearly an hour and not seen as much asa curtain twitch, he was pretty sure no one was home.
He gave a frustrated sigh when hereached for the radio knob before remembering the damn thing hadstopped working weeks before.The clunker of a car didn’t evensport a CD player.He deserved better.
