Karma (11 page)

“Where is he?” she asked, unable to meet his gaze.

“I know that someone from the department drove him home and confiscated his car keys, so he’s home. He’ll have to come down to the station to get them when he’s sober.”

“And my parents? I’m guessing someone called and told them what happened?”

In Dare’s mind, this was a tougher revelation. “Yes. They’d heard about Brian’s scene.”

“And that he hit me?” she asked, her eyes wide in her pale face.

He nodded.

“And? Don’t hold back on me. Wait, I’ll make it easy on you and tell you what they said. How could I let Brian make such a public scene? Why didn’t I stop him? Is he okay, or should they come home and be with him?” She stared at him, her expression hard. “Well? Which one was it?”

He swallowed over the lump in his throat. “A combination of all three. After they got past the fact that a strange man had answered your phone and how would that look to their friends here. I explained that I was a local cop as well as a friend who was just here looking out for you until you could take care of yourself.”

Liza blew out a long stream of air. “You shouldn’t have wasted your breath. They don’t care about me.”

Though he wished he could argue, his quick talk with her parents merely confirmed what she thought. Which really made him sick. They hadn’t asked about Liza or her
condition. Their only concern was for Brian or, more accurately, Brian’s behavior and how it reflected on them.

“You really stepped into a lot more than you bargained for by helping me.”

“Why? Because your family is as dysfunctional as mine?” He shook his head, amazed that she really couldn’t see it. “You do know the infamous Barron family history, right?”

“I know your parents died in a car accident,” she said softly. “But I’d switched schools by then and Brian started getting into real trouble…so not really.”

“Are you sure you want to hear it? It’s a long story.”

She smiled. “I have nowhere else to be and you volunteered to hang out here, so you might as well make yourself comfortable,” she said, laughing.

The sound settled inside him. He preferred this lighter, warm version of Liza. “Is the pill kicking in?” he asked.

“Mmm-hmm.” She patted the space beside her. “So come tell me a story.”

He grinned and accepted the invitation, easing back into bed. To his surprise, she curled into the crook of his arm, resting her head on his chest. Man, that pill vanquished her inhibitions, he thought, his every breath filled with the scent of her shampoo. He was hard and aching. He wanted her badly.

Good thing he knew just how to take the edge off that particular problem. “My family was a mess even before I knew they were,” he admitted. Yeah, that took the edge off his desire, all right.

Until he felt her easy breathing against his chest.

“Keep going,” she murmured. “It takes my mind off the pain.”

“Well, it turns out my dad was having an affair with his assistant. I didn’t know. I’m not sure my brothers knew. We just knew it wasn’t always happy around the house. Ethan stayed out more and more and got into trouble. One night when I was fifteen, he was arrested for joy riding. My parents
went to bail him out and they were killed by a drunk driver.”

She sucked in a breath. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s been a long time,” he assured her. Yet the pain accompanying those words never went away. “Ethan was eighteen. Nash and I thought he’d take care of us, but…” Dare shook his head, still unable to believe what happened next. “He took off without a word.”

“God.”

He found comfort in her presence and began to run his hand up and down her arm, her bare skin soft to the touch. “We ended up in the foster care system. Nash went to the Rossmans.”

“I don’t think I really knew this,” she murmured.

“You’d have been away at school by then.”

“Stuart Rossman’s parents?”

“That’s them.”

“You didn’t go with him?”

He shook his head. “It’s a long story.” And one he wouldn’t get into now, since ultimately it involved the night her brother threw the party and the punch that killed the couple’s son. He had no desire to get into a discussion over her brother or that part of his past. “It wasn’t the right place for me, so I ended up with the Garcias on the other side of town.”

She struggled to sit up but Dare held her in place. He didn’t want her looking into his eyes and seeing his pain, his guilt, or anything else. “You need to rest, so keep still and relax,” he said.

Liza immediately snuggled back into him. “Was it bad?” she asked.

“It was livable. A lot of kids, which made it easy for me to fly under the radar. And Nash used to bring me his old clothes and extra food at school.” And though he was grateful, he still felt so damned guilty accepting anything from the couple at all.

“What happened when Ethan came home last year?” she asked, perceptively jumping ahead to the real family drama.

“Nothing good. Nash and I wanted nothing to do with him and I doubt we would ever have made peace if it weren’t for Tess.” As always, he couldn’t help but smile when he thought of his half sister. “She was the result of the affair we didn’t know my father had.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. Kelly is her half sister too. They share the same mother and she’s another story all on her own. But she abandoned Tess, and when Kelly couldn’t deal with her anymore she dropped her off on Ethan’s doorstep for the summer. And that’s what forced us to come to terms with the past and with each other.”

“And you’re all living happily ever after?” she asked.

“Nothing so fairy tale–like, but yeah, we’ve become a solid unit.”

“You’re so lucky,” she whispered.

Dare was uncomfortable, his arm falling asleep. He readjusted his position on the bed, helping Liza settle into the pillows beside him. Then he propped himself up on his other arm and met her heavy-lidded gaze.

“You need sleep.” The pain pill had obviously kicked in.

“Soon but not yet.” Her brown eyes studied him earnestly. “I like talking to you.”

Dare smiled. “I do too.” In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d bared his soul to anyone about his childhood, but he couldn’t regret having done it with Liza. “Your turn, though.”

He knew the medication had lowered her inhibitions, but that didn’t mean he minded getting whatever information she wanted to give.

She yawned and he thought that would be the end of their sharing.

“My parents should never have had kids.”

He was wrong and he couldn’t be more pleased she was opening up to him.

“But they had me and then they had Brian. I don’t know why, but I was always in the way. Brian was the golden child, the boy who made Dad proud just by being born. But even with that, my parents couldn’t really be bothered with us. They were rarely there. Even when they were present, they weren’t there.”

Her eyes had glazed over with the memories and Dare hesitated to interrupt. Her voice was slurred a bit and he knew she didn’t have much more talking left in her.

“So Brian started acting out early on. He ran with a rough crowd, my parents never knew where he was and he’d always come home drunk or high.”

She frowned, which wrinkled her nose, and it was all Dare could do not to lean over and kiss her right then and there.

“And then there was that party…” She shook her head.

That she didn’t groan in pain told him the pills were definitely working. And knowing where she was headed next, Dare almost wished he could take one of those pills too.

“I was supposed to be home that night keeping an eye on him because my parents had grounded him and taken his car keys. But I’d just started going out with this older guy and he kept begging me to go out with him that night.” She exhaled hard. “I agreed. I figured since Brian couldn’t take the car, I could leave for a couple of hours and come back home after.”

Dare didn’t ask what happened next. He already knew.

“What I didn’t know was that Brian had told Jesse—that’s the guy I was seeing—that as long as he brought him a keg of beer, he wouldn’t tell my parents I ditched babysitting.”

“So that’s where the alcohol came from.”

“I felt so guilty,” she said, her voice cracking.

“Hey, you did a normal teenage thing. You weren’t the one who bought alcohol for minors.”

“But I brought Jesse into Brian’s orbit and I bailed on my responsibility. If it weren’t for me, Stuart Rossman would still be alive.”

Apparently Dare wasn’t the only one who suffered with major guilt from that one night. He wondered if the only one who didn’t was the man who threw the deadly punch.

“Baby, there’s a lot of blame to go around,” he assured her.

“You called me baby again.” Her eyes lit up at the endearment that slipped so easily off his tongue. “I like it,” she admitted.

He liked
her
. Reminding himself she was injured and in pain, he curled his fingers into fists, preventing him from reaching for her. In time, he promised himself.

Right now she needed something different. “I don’t think you’re in any way close to being responsible,” he assured her.

“Too bad my parents didn’t agree with you,” she said in a small voice. The sparkle disappeared from her eyes. “Brian was my responsibility and I failed him. He never would be as bad as he is now if that night hadn’t happened.”

She sounded like she was repeating words that had been ingrained in her over the years. Words that were untrue and absolved the wrong person of guilt and Dare’s anger at Brian returned.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

“Is that why you keep bailing him out?” Dare asked.

“It’s part of it,” she said over another yawn.

One more question, he thought, and then he’d shut up and let her sleep. “What’s the other part?” he asked.

Sleepy brown eyes met his. “Brian was there for me when I needed him. When nobody else would have bothered,” she murmured, her eyes closing, her words trailing off.

“Liza?” he asked softly.

No answer.

Well, he wouldn’t be learning anymore about her tonight,
but he’d already discovered so much about who she was and what made her tick.

What a number her parents had done on her, Dare thought, and blew out a frustrated breath.

No wonder she kept bailing Brian out and making excuses for his behavior. It was all she’d been taught, all she knew how to do.

All these years Liza had been shouldering the blame for her brother’s actions and in her mind, she was making up for failing him way back when. Dare fought to control the anger surging inside him at the damage her parents had done. Ironically, with their choices, they’d hurt both their children, including the golden boy they so wanted to protect.

Dare watched Liza sleep, emotions rioting inside him he couldn’t name or understand. Soft feelings for a woman he was coming to know and the need to shield her from any more pain. And not just because he was a cop and to serve and protect was his motto.

Liza woke up entangled with a hard male body wrapped around hers and awareness hit her immediately. Her back was to Dare, her head beneath his chin, his arms holding her tight and one leg was wrapped around hers. She ought to be mortified, but she liked the feeling too much to ruin it. Instead, she breathed in deeply, taking a minute to savor the heady sensation of heat and awareness surrounding her.

Her head still hurt but not with the same deathly intensity as it had yesterday, for which she was grateful. The last thing she remembered was their deep talk about family. He’d revealed painful memories and she’d admitted to embarrassing truths. In her mind that made them even and again she refused to be embarrassed.

The problem was she’d opened up to him in a way she’d never done before. Something about Dare Barron inspired
trust and the thought was beyond frightening. She knew she ought to give in to the impulse demanding she slam up walls between them, but he’d stepped up to take care of her and in her eyes that was huge. She couldn’t hurt him by freezing him out, and besides, that wasn’t what she wanted.

She wanted him. As long as she remembered that his presence in her life was temporary, she could enjoy the short time they had.

She lay in silence and listened to his deep, even breathing. Every place his body touched felt hot and sensitive and the longer she remained cocooned in his arms, the more aroused she became.

Suddenly she became aware of a change in his breathing pattern and a few seconds after that she felt his erection swell and harden against her back.

He was awake.

“Good morning,” she murmured.

“No need to ask how you knew.” His deep chuckle reverberated throughout her already-tingling body and he started to pull away but Liza grabbed his arms.

“Going somewhere?” she asked, wanting to keep him right where he was.

“Feeling better?” he countered.

She couldn’t help but smile, not that he could see. “Depends on your definition of better. I’m alive, and even though my head hurts, it’s not as bad as yesterday.”

She pushed herself forward, separating them only so she could roll over and look into his eyes. “Thank you for staying with me,” she said, truly meaning it.

“My pleasure. I didn’t mean to fall asleep in here.”

“It’s fine.” She’d actually slept better with him here. She was normally a light sleeper, hearing everything all around her, and though the pain pills probably accounted for her deep sleep, a part of her recognized his presence soothed her. Which scared her. She didn’t want to like anything about having him here beyond appreciating his care and
enjoying his company. She couldn’t let herself depend on anyone.

“It definitely wasn’t a hardship,” he said. “Well, until a few minutes ago, anyway.”

Despite herself, she grinned, knowing he was teasing her about waking up with his erection snuggled against her back, a hot sensation that still caused a delicious tingling between her thighs.

She took in his disheveled morning look, the messy hair, the razor stubble, and the intensity in those chocolate brown eyes. A girl could melt in that gaze. There was no harm in admitting that truth in her mind, if nowhere else.