Bad Girls Don't (24 page)

With her thoughts spiraling so far away, Angel had to concentrate on what Tyler was saying.

“Your mother is cramping my style.” Tyler sounded irritated. “I can’t make love to you with her in the house.”

Angel sighed. “If you tried, she’d come after you with a butcher knife.”

“She doesn’t look the violent sort.”

“Looks are deceiving.”

“Yeah, I learned that when I was a prosecutor.”

Angel turned to face him, her attention now one hundred percent focused on him. “I haven’t mentioned anything about your prior life to my mother. She knows nothing.”

“I appreciate that.”

“I know you don’t like talking about that period in your life. And that you still feel guilty about what happened with that last case.”

Tyler’s expression hardened. “The one where I was responsible for an innocent man’s death.”

“You thought you’d put the right man in prison. By the time you found out different, he’d taken matters into his own hands and hung himself in his cell. You’re probably not ever going to stop blaming yourself for that, but I hope you can heal some of the pain. We’re only human. We all make mistakes.”

“Some people’s mistakes are bigger than others.”

“Yeah, I know.” Angel sure knew she’d made more than her fair share of mistakes. And she knew the depth of Tyler’s mistake went clear to the center of his soul, changing him forever.

“So, why didn’t you ever mention anything about your mother before?” he asked.

“You’ve met her. She’s a steamroller in June Cleaver clothing.”

“Even so . . .”

“My father kicked me out of the house when I was seventeen. I stayed at a friend’s house to finish high school and then headed for LA on my own. I took some classes at UCLA but never got a degree. And I got pregnant with Julia. You know the rest.”

“Not really. What did your parents think about your getting pregnant?”

“They refused to even acknowledge that fact. I wrote a letter letting them know. Even sent a birth announcement and photo of Julia as a baby. Nothing. When he kicked me out, my father told me I was dead to him. And he stuck to that until he died.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“I don’t know what I am, aside from all messed up.” Angel started to cry. She was in hormone hell again, transported there with lightning speed.

“Hey, none of that.”

“I can cry if I want to,” she said fiercely.

Tyler immediately backpedaled. “Right. Sure you can.”

“Don’t think you can tell me what to do!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Lucy and I are both having hormonal issues. Trust me, you really don’t want to mess with us.”

“Right.”

Angel brushed away her tears. “Let’s go make out in your pickup.”

Tyler blinked. “Huh?”

“You heard me.”

“Uh, we’re on an Amish farm here.”

“Oh, right.” She nodded excessively. “Not the best place to make out. You’re right. I wasn’t thinking straight. That is happening to me more and more lately.” She started to wail. “I try to keep the threads of my being from getting all tangled into knots, but nothing I do seems to work—yoga, meditation, getting my chakras in order. My meridians are totally messed up.”

“Is this because of your mother or because of Adam?”

Angel’s heart stopped. Had Tyler somehow found out about her meetings with Adam? “What do you mean?”

“You never did tell me why he called you that time.”

She breathed again. Tyler didn’t know the truth. “Listen, I really need you to be stable and normal right now and not go off on some rant about Adam, okay? You’re my rock.”

Tyler appeared very uncomfortable with this news.

“What?” Angel demanded. “What’s wrong with being my rock?”

“I don’t know that I’m that stable.”

“Well, you’ll just have to be. We can’t both fall apart at the same time. What do you have to be upset about?” Her voice rose. Angel knew it but couldn’t help herself. Hormone hysteria did that to a person. “
Your
mother isn’t living with
you
. She’s not planning on coming here, is she?”

“She died the day after I graduated law school. From breast cancer.”

“I’m so sorry.” Angel’s voice was softer now. “What about your dad? Or your siblings?”

“I was an only child. My dad died a few years after my mom. So, no, I don’t have any family that might suddenly drop in on me.”

Angel wanted to tell him that he was lucky, but she realized how shallow that sounded. Was this how Julia had felt when Angel had descended on her unannounced? Totally freaked out?

She flipped open her cell phone.

“Who are you calling?” Tyler asked.

“Julia.”

“Right now?”

“Yes. I’ve got something important to tell her.”

“Hello?”

Angel heard seagulls in the background. “Julia, it’s Angel. Where are you?”

“Along the coast in Oregon. I’d forgotten how beautiful it is out here.”

“Listen, I’ve got something very important to say.”

“This connection isn’t real good,” Julia said.

“Probably because I’m out in the countryside visiting with the llamas. Lucy is pregnant, you know.”

“So you told me. Is that why you called?”

“No, I wanted to say I’m . . . I’m sorry I just showed up on your doorstep last year with no warning!” Angel burst into tears and handed the phone to a panicked Tyler.

“Hello, hello?” Julia was frantically saying.

“I . . . er . . . . it’s me. Tyler, I mean,” he said. “So how are you doing, Julia?”

“What’s going on with my mom? Did you two have a fight?”

“No. She’s just upset because her mother showed up.” Angel was making no-no motions with her hand, but it was too late.

“Her mother?” Julia sounded stunned.

Angel yanked the phone away. “Don’t yell at me,” she pleaded with Julia. “And don’t get mad.”

“I never yell. Well, almost never,” Julia said. “So, along with a father I didn’t know I had, I now have a grandmother, too? Any more relatives you’re hiding in the closet?”

“No, this is it,” Angel said in a small voice. “I didn’t mean to tell you this way.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” Julia sighed. “I suppose Skye already knows?”

“Only because Violet—that’s my mother—showed up on Skye’s front doorstep unannounced.”

“Gee, that sounds familiar.”

“She heard Skye had won a million dollars in the instant lottery.”

“Skye won a million dollars?!”

“I thought I told you.”

“No, you didn’t. But then, you and Skye have a special kind of relationship. I hope she’s doing something sensible with the money, but I bet she’s not.”

“She is so. She’s bought a movie theater.”

“A what?”

“An old movie theater in Rock Creek. And she’s restoring it.”

“I don’t believe this! You didn’t try to talk her out of it . . . ? Never mind. Of course you didn’t. You’re the one who crashed and burned trying to sell tofu hot dogs in Fair-banks, Alaska, the heart of meat country.”

“I didn’t call to discuss my past entrepreneurial endeavors. I only wanted to say that I’m sorry I threw your orderly world into chaos when I showed up unannounced. I didn’t realize how upsetting that could be until my own mother did the same thing to me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about her?” Julia asked.

Angel filled her in on the story.

“How long is she staying?”

“I don’t know. Tyler just asked me the same question.”

“I think it’s time Luke and I started thinking about going back to Serenity Falls,” Julia said.

“Really? It would be great to see you again.”

“Adam tells me the two of you have been getting along really well.”

Angel gave Tyler a nervous look. “Yeah, well, we can talk about that later. Love you.”

Julia sighed. “Yeah, I know. Same here.”

Tyler handed Angel some rumpled but unused Kleenex from his jeans pocket. “You feel better now?”

She blew her nose and nodded.

“I’m glad.” He gave her a quizzical look. “Want to tell me what that was all about?”

“Julia didn’t know that I had parents.”

“She thought you were hatched from an egg?”

“I mean, she didn’t know they were still alive.”

“Lies have a way of catching up with you,” Tyler said with a shake of his head. “And usually not in a good way.”

Angel knew. She’d lied to Julia about her biological father for all those years. She’d lied about her own
parents
. . . Well, not really. She’d simply avoided telling the truth. Surely that wasn’t quite as bad? And now she’d used the same avoidance technique with Tyler regarding the time she’d spent with Adam.

What a complicated web she turned out to be spinning. Especially for someone who’d always thought she was leading such a truthful life.

 

 

Nathan stared at his computer screen. Several pairs of fingerprints had turned up from the hammer. One set belonged to Tyler.

And the info that had come up on the handyman had surprised Nathan. Tyler had once been a prosecutor in Chicago, a man on the fast track to success until a case had gone horribly wrong, resulting in an innocent man hanging himself in a jail cell.

So Tyler was someone else who’d stopped believing. Only he’d left his career behind instead of immersing himself in it the way Nathan had.

“Have you eaten lunch yet?” Celeste demanded as she entered his office.

“Yeah,” Nathan said absently.

“Then why is your sandwich still sitting on your desk?”

“You’re not my mother. I’ve
got
a mother, back in Nebraska.”

“I should call her and tell her how badly you’re taking care of yourself.”

“You do, and you’ll find yourself out of a job.”

“Did you hear that Skye’s grandmother is here for a visit? Well, actually, she’s staying with Skye’s mother over at Julia-the-librarian’s house in Serenity Falls. Julia is the good daughter, you know.”

“Really? I heard she took off on the back of a Harley with some guy.”

“Not some guy—Luke Maguire. I heard he’s a wild one. Anyway, I didn’t come in here to gossip.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“I came in to tell you there’s someone to see you.”

“Who?”

“That comic-book man.”

“Algee is here? Show him in.”

Algee came in and closed the door behind him, almost in nosy Celeste’s face. He eased his Hulk-like body into the guest chair in Nathan’s office before he spoke.

“Look, I’m not here to cause any hassle in the castle.”

Nathan frowned. “I’m sorry, but I’m not following you.”

“I talked to Luke about it, and he said I should talk to you.”

“Luke?”

“Luke Maguire. He’s a close buddy of mine. And a former Marine, and a former FBI Special Agent.”

“I’m a former Marine myself.” Nathan pointed to his “Semper Fi” mouse pad.

“I’m a former Navy man. Anyway, I’m worried about Skye.”

“Because?”

“Because someone vandalized the Tivoli marquee. And Milton is still spreading lies about her, trying to make trouble. I offered to put the fear of God into him, but Skye strictly forbade me to do that.”

“A wise move, actually.”

“Sister Mary wanted to put the fear of God into him too, but again Skye said no. Nancy Crumpler, well, she wanted to set the mob on him, but Sister Mary didn’t go along with that plan. Lulu just wanted to TP his office, but that’s not going to do much. Of course, this was all before the vandalizing incident. Anyway, Luke said I should come talk to you. He read something about the vandalism in Mabel’s online blog.”

“Mabel?”

“She’s the biggest gossip in Serenity Falls. Somehow, she heard about the incident. Mabel knows everything—we’ve just come to accept that. Anyway, Skye won’t be happy I came behind her back to voice my concerns about her safety to you. That’s what I meant by not causing a hassle in your castle.”

“Skye’s not in my castle.”

“Yeah, right. If you don’t want to talk about what’s going on between the two of you, that’s cool. I’m just saying I’m worried about her.”

Nathan abruptly changed the subject. “What do you know about Tyler?”

“Tyler? He’s a good dude. Rollerblades in the middle of the night sometimes when he can’t sleep, but that’s no big deal. Why are you asking?”

“Just checking out everyone who had access to the theater.”

“Luke is close with Tyler. If there was something bad going on with him, Luke would have found out and done something about it. What about Milton?” Algee said.

“What about him?”

“Have you checked him out?”

“I’ve canvassed the area, and no one saw anyone near the theater that night.”

“Skye did.”

“Aside from her.”

“You’re not saying she lied about seeing someone, are you?” Algee demanded.

“Of course not. The vandalism is a fact. I just hope things don’t get worse.”

“So what are we going to do about it?”

“
We
aren’t going to do anything about it. I’ll take care of things.”

Algee shook his head. “You jarheads are stubborn.”

Nathan smiled. “Yeah, we are.”

“So, how do you plan on taking care of Skye?”

“I’m working on that.”

“Uh-huh. Well, I can tell you right now, she’s not going to like whatever you come up with.”

“I realize that. Who said I’m going to give her a choice?”

“She’s going to hate that even more.”

“Understood. But the bottom line is, I aim on keeping her safe.”

“That’s all I needed to hear.” Algee stood and held out his hand. “If you require any help, you know where to find me.”

Nathan rose and shook Algee’s hand. “I appreciate it. And . . . it wouldn’t hurt for you to keep an eye out for her as well.”