Page 46 of Playing for Keeps
“Rylan, listen,” he started to say.
She was already shaking her head. “No. I’m not going to do that,” she told him. “I want you out of my shop. Now.”
She had no idea how she managed to keep her tone so calm and serious when inside she was raging, but it had Del blinking twice before dropping his hands to his side. He opened his mouth to say something else, but she went to the door and held it open, waiting for him to walk out of it. And out of her life.
He stared at her for another few seconds before shaking his head and leaving. Rylan inhaled deeply as he passed, getting a whiff of his cologne and resisting the urge to cry out.
What had happened?
Why had it happened?
And what the hell was she supposed to do with all the feelings that had been building inside her these past few weeks? How was she supposed to deal with the fact that the man she was in love with had just accused her of setting him up?
14
“What did you tell the sheriff about Del?” Rylan asked her father twenty minutes after Del had walked out.
It had taken her that amount of time to get herself together before initiating this confrontation. While she’d been boiling with anger about the entire situation, the sting of Del’s cruel accusations had gripped her heart in a vice that she hadn’t immediately been able to break free of. She wasn’t feeling totally better at this moment but the questions surrounding this circumstance needed answers. Whether or not those answers would assuage any of the hurt and disappointment she was feeling right now, she wasn’t sure.
Her father had been sitting behind the old scuffed up desk he’d insisted on keeping in his small office toward the back of the body shop. He looked older and a bit thinner in the seconds it took for him to fold his hands on top of the desk and lift his rheumy eyes to her. “I didn’t tell the sheriff anything about your boyfriend. Even though you neglected to tell me you were sleeping with one of those Greer boys you used to like hanging around so much.”
She shook her head. “I hung around with Camy, not her brothers. And that doesn’t matter. What matters right now is that Del thinks you told the sheriff that he was keeping that car here. He thinks we set him up!” Her chest heaved with those last words, fury and pain wrestling for dominance in her mind.
Her father stood and pushed his chair back. “Now wait a minute. Just calm down and tell me exactly what you’re talking about.”
“No, Daddy, you tell me what’s going on here. Tell me why the man I’ve been involved with just accused me of doing something I’d never think of doing to him, or to anyone for that matter. Tell me what you told the sheriff about him.”
“First of all, the sheriff came to see me about half an hour after I opened the shop this morning. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, not until he mentioned he’d gotten a tip about that car being here,” Will told her.
“I don’t understand,” she said still trying to make sense of this crazy situation that was ripping her heart in pieces. “Who’d tell the sheriff about a car being serviced in our shop and why? Were they looking for the car?” If it belonged to a well-known drug dealer that was definitely a possibility. Maybe she would start asking the occupation of their customers now, or at least requesting a work number under the pretense of needing an alternative way of contacting customers about their vehicles.
“I thought it was odd too because it was the second time in two days somebody’d been in here asking about the car. Somebody other than the owner who still owed us a ton of money for fixing that fancy thing.”
“The second time?” she asked. “Who else had come in asking about the car?”
He shrugged. “Mal Penning came in last night just before closing. You’d already left and I was just about to lock up when he pulled into the parking lot. I thought something might’ve been wrong with his car again. You know he doesn’t know how to drive a stick.”
Rylan suddenly had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. “What did Mal want?”
“Just small talk. Said he was thinking about trading his car in for a newer model or possibly an SUV.” Will stopped then. He dragged a hand down the back of his head, a similar motion to what Del had done in her office a while ago. “Shit. Mal said he was thinking about getting an SUV like Del’s.”
Realization settled over her slowly. “Del hadn’t picked up his truck yet, but we’d moved it outside to the parking lot so we could pull that Acura in to be worked on today and because Del was coming to get his truck this morning.” She’d been with Del last night after work and she’d told him the truck was ready. Since she’d been spending more nights at his place than her own, they’d decided that instead of coming to pick up the truck last night, they’d just ride to the shop together this morning and he’d get it then. Which he had, and then they’d kissed longingly, neither of them wanting to part but knowing they’d had to get started with their workday and had reluctantly done so. If she weren’t so pissed off right now, she’d cry with the bittersweet sentiment that memory brought to mind.
“I still had the bay doors open when he was here and he walked over and started asking about the car. Price, how it ran, and stuff like that. I didn’t think anything of it,” Will said.
Rylan could only shake her head as the pieces to this puzzle began to slowly fall into place. “Mal still hates Del. He hates that Del broke his nose and made a fool of him fifteen years ago and hates that Mel and his brothers are back now making something out of the bar.” But she’d never thought that hate would go this far. And besides that, she had no clue how Mal knew who that Lamborghini belonged to and how it connected to Del’s case.
“I thought that was kid stuff and they’d both grown out of it.” Will came around the desk to stand in front of her. “They’ve both got good jobs now and really have no need to butt heads. At least not that I know of. I mean, sure, Mal and his daddy can be assholes. Everybody in town knows they’re racist bastards.” But they’d had no choice but to bring their cars into Kent Automotive for service or take them into the next town more than fifty miles away, so they’d each been in here on numerous occasions, giving fake smiles but signing checks that cleared.
“Mal’s father is the district attorney,” she said, wondering if that meant anything in this situation. Of course, it did and her fists clenched with the knowledge. “I bet that’s how he knew the authorities were looking for that car and once he saw it here, he went running to the sheriff to tell. Mal would do anything to get back at Del.” And he’d done it, finally. Only Del thought it had been her and her father.
“Okay, okay, I see what’s happened here.” He father took her by the shoulders. “You listen to me. I’m gonna go right over to Del’s place and clear the air. I’ll tell him what I told Sheriff Johansen and why. I’ll fix this for you, babygirl. I will.”
But Rylan’s eyes were already welling with tears. She took deep breaths and shook her head willing those tears not to fall. “No. There’s nothing for you to fix for me,” she told him. “I’m not the one in trouble with the law.”
“No,” her father said, “But your heart’s in trouble. I can see it on your face. And now you’re shaking. It’s my fault and I’m gonna fix it.”
“No, Daddy. It’s not your fault. Del didn’t have to come storming in here saying the things he said to me.” If he’d loved…no, if he’d trusted her, he wouldn’t have.
