Long Way Home (22 page)

“The idea of Leah sleeping with your boy disgusts me.”

There was no heat behind Marc’s words. Clearly something she’d said had gotten through but Callen wasn’t exactly sure what. “If you’re not going to listen to her, then listen to me. You want a war with the Hanovers, fine. Bring it. But don’t depend on Leah to protect you anymore. Don’t count on the Hanover brothers to hide your dirty secrets.”

The chief grabbed Marc’s upper arm and pushed him back even further. “We’ll be heading out. Sounds like Marc and I need to have a talk.”

Marc didn’t say a word when his old friend led him back to the police car. As the wind whipped up and the leaves blew across the yard, they got in and pulled away. After they turned around, the brake lights disappeared through the tall trees and down the rough and bumpy road.

Grace stared into the distance. “That was impressive.”

“It was.” Callen tried to remember the last time he’d seen his mother stand up like that to anyone other than his brothers as little boys. He couldn’t come up with an instance.

Grace sighed. “Of course, I had no idea what anyone was talking about.”

The words seemed to break the spell winding around his mom. She blinked a few times, then turned back to face Grace. “Charlie and Marc devised the original scam against this town together.”

“Another family secret.” Callen meant it less as an accusation and more as a fact.

His mother’s shoulders tensed. “One we’ve all kept for Leah’s sake.”

“I didn’t know you knew.” Worried he’d offend her or say the wrong thing, Callen tried to step carefully.

“I figured it out long ago. You?”

With the flash of trouble behind them, Callen wrapped a hand around Grace’s waist and pulled her in tighter to his side. “Declan discovered a discrepancy while looking through all the files and documents. The same ones Marc collected to convince Leah the Hanovers had to be stopped.”

Grace frowned. “Interesting Marc let that happen.”

“He didn’t count on Declan having the actual documents from back then from all the bank account–shifting. Specifically, the one that showed Marc moving money out of town accounts to where they could easily be accessed and removed.” It had all happened months ago, but Callen remembered every minute of it. Leah heartbroken at the news, and Declan devastated that he had to be the one to deliver it.

“So Marc, and not Charlie, made this stuff happen? Charlie needed Marc for access. Interesting.” When Callen nodded, Grace rolled her eyes. “There is never a dull moment in this family.”

Which is exactly what he’d been trying to warn her about. “Not many.”

Still, she looked resigned and didn’t appear ready to pack a bag and get out. Callen felt hope rush through him at the thought.

She lifted her hand and rubbed the back of it against his chest. “So, now what?”

Callen hated this part. Anything that threatened Leah and Declan’s relative peace was bad in Callen’s mind. “I find Declan and warn him, so he can keep a closer eye on Leah.”

“She’ll love that.” The sarcasm almost pulsed off Grace with that one.

There was one more thing. Callen looked at his mom. “And I’m calling Tom for you.”

His mom’s eyebrow lifted. “Did something in my tone suggest I needed babysitting?”

Grace shook her head. “Not to me.”

He was getting hit with an impressive display of female power, but Callen refused to back down. “Did something in mine suggest I would let anything happen to you?”

His mom’s mouth opened, then shut again. Some of the stress left her face. “Fine, I’ll call Tom.”

Callen wasn’t sure how he’d won that one, but he took the win anyway. “That’s all I’m asking.”

Grace knew she was playing a risky game. Callen hated Walker, and Walker hated Callen. Neither trusted the other. Callen only now showed signs of trusting her.

What a freaking mess.

She didn’t bring Walker into the house. It seemed like one step too far to give him access to Shadow Hill. The Hanovers deserved better than that. Despite a rocky start and all the questions that still surrounded her relationship with Callen and his seeming ambivalence about the baby, life was finding a strange sort of calm. Callen no longer talked about her needing to leave town and certainly welcomed her in his bed. Declan and Leah, Kim . . . Grace had grown to love them all.

They could see this as a betrayal. She hoped not, but she’d never been naïve, and the wounds here ran deep.

But it all had to end. Grace didn’t know how to do that except to drag the information out into the open. Once it was there, they all had a chance of moving on. And if that meant saving the two men she loved—the one she wanted to spend a lifetime with and the dear friend she worried hung right on the edge of reason—from destroying each other, she’d do it.

Walker stood in the side yard of Shadow Hill in a black suit similar to the one he always wore on the job. No jacket or umbrella. No nod at all to the storm that had rolled in and blanketed the area in foggy gray skies.

If he’d been terminated from the FBI, he sure didn’t show it. Even his mood still telegraphed the confidence of a guy in charge and ready to make an arrest, if needed. “Why am I here?”

“Marc Baron.” Even saying his name started an angry shake moving through Grace.

She wanted to chalk the unsettling sensation to the change in the weather. Cool had turned to cold and mist had given way to a driving rain that only let up a few hours earlier. Even now she stood outside in a raincoat and her favorite yellow boots while Declan and Callen went with Tom to the lumberyard and Leah stepped out to run errands.

That left her only minutes to make her point. Since she hadn’t been able to catch Walker since Marc’s visit yesterday, either on the phone or at the rental place he was staying, she’d had to turn to drastic measures. She texted saying there was an emergency, suggesting they meet at the diner. He showed up at the house instead.

“Baron? He’s unhinged.” Walker shrugged. “So?”

She had no idea how he could write off the destruction of his career and the prospect of being in the vengeful crosshairs of a very angry man as no big deal. “I can think of a few other words to describe that guy.”

“I’m sorry about the scene in the diner, but I got him out of there as fast as possible.” Walker had the nerve to treat her to a second shrug. “Just stay away from him and you’ll be fine.”

Walker was not understanding the situation or her desperation at all. Maybe he couldn’t see it in the way she transferred her weight back in forth. He definitely couldn’t feel the anxiety bouncing around inside her. But he should get a hint, and soon. They’d been trained to pick up clues, after all.

Pretending not to know he was in trouble had to be a wicked case of denial, because his superiors would have called by now. The phone chain from Darber to the office would have set off alarm bells and led to meetings. She was half surprised Walker hadn’t been summoned back to the office to give an explanation.

“Walker, listen to me.” She grabbed his hand and was surprised when he didn’t shrink away from her or wave her off. “Marc complained to Chief Darber, who called your supervisor.”

“I know.” The response was so distant and cold.

She thought about shaking him but ignored the howling wind and chill seeping into her bones and focused on getting through to him instead. “How much trouble are you in?”

“A lot.” He took a few steps and looked around. “Is that why I’m here?”

“I wanted to warn you.”

He nodded but didn’t face her. “Too late.”

That the men in her life could push away feelings and ignore emotional jolts frustrated her. She consisted of a bundle of raw nerves. Every new twist in her life or Callen’s or Walker’s sent her zooming to the edge and holding on with all her might.

“Walker, listen to me.” She grabbed for his arm, but he was already walking, which forced her to call after him, “I want to help you.”

He came even with the back corner of the big house and scanned the yard behind. His gaze went from the outbuildings to the mounds of dirt-turned-mud scattered throughout the area.

His eyes narrowed. “What happened here?”

This is exactly what she didn’t want him to see. She’d kept him off the front porch and out of the house. The side yard seemed safe, but she’d missed his ability to spot the slightest change from how things should be—in this case, the mud piled over a newly filled-in hole that was visible from the side yard, but really only if someone was looking for it. Once he’d seen that, his curiosity clearly pulled at him to investigate.

And now she had a disaster on her hands and a racing heartbeat she couldn’t slow down.

“That’s not important.” She stepped in front of him, knowing she wasn’t tall enough to block his view of all the covered holes but desperate to keep the conversation on his work and away from anything relating to the Hanovers. “Look at me.”

A smile lingered on his mouth as he kept his body stiff and his gaze traveled over every inch of Hanover land. “What are they hiding?”

“Nothing.”

He finally looked at her. “Strikes me like it was something pretty big.”

“You brought him here?” Callen’s voice rang out.

It carried over the wind and the steady hammering of blood in her ears and had her glancing around to search him out. It didn’t take long. His footsteps thudded against the wet grass as he flew off the porch and down to stand next to her.

Anger had seized him. She could see it in every line of his body and the sharpness of his tone. He didn’t shout and cause a scene. No, his rage boiled. It festered under the surface as he judged and mentally wiped you clear from his memory.

Something shattered inside Grace’s head. She heard the crashing sound but seemed to be the only one. In that second she watched all their hard-earned progress as a couple fall in pieces around her feet. She wanted to run to him and explain. She hadn’t tried to spring this on him. She wanted to bring them all together, but there was so much stubbornness to wade through and exhaustion tugged at her every muscle.

Tom guided Kim across the lawn with a hand on her lower back. Leah and Declan followed close behind. But Callen was the problem. The force of his presence nearly knocked Grace over. His fury clamped like a vice around her heart.

With a reassuring nod to Tom, Kim broke from the crowd and stepped up beside Callen. Grace couldn’t read her expression. She didn’t wear her feelings of betrayal like her son did. But the cocoon of tenderness Grace had come to depend on in the last few days didn’t wrap around her. She sensed she was on her own and running out of time to fix this before being escorted back to the motel.

“This is Walker Reeves.” Grace tried to hold on to some form of normalcy in the least normal situation she’d ever known.

Kim nodded. “I know who he is.”

For a second, Walker’s gaze shifted. Before turning back to Grace, he studied Kim with the same blank look she’d worn when she walked over. “What happened out here?”

Grace had nothing else to lose. The choice to send one stupid text might mean raising her baby alone with only random visits from Callen instead of building a life with him. The life hiccupped out of her at the thought, but she couldn’t break down or beg for a chance to explain now. She needed strength to get through the next few minutes.

If she’d blown it for the final time, she would at least go out knowing she did everything possible to heal the Hanover family and help Walker navigate the emotional minefield he’d steered his life into.

She asked the question plaguing her, the one she decided lay at the bottom of everything. “How do you know Kristin Accord?”

Walker shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe that’s what she’d chosen to say. “What?”

Grace hadn’t planned on an audience for this, but no one was leaving. If anything, they crowded in closer, so she was stuck. She’d expected shouting and storming off. She got quiet attention.

“That’s what I texted you to ask. About Kristin,” she said, hoping Callen would understand what that meant, that she hadn’t actually betrayed him in any way.

“You said there was an emergency.” Walker’s gaze bounced to Callen, then back to her. “I thought . . .”

Sputtering was not usual for Walker, and it threw her off stride. “What?”

Declan pushed his way to the front of the crowd. “He thought Callen did something to you.”

“You did?” When Walker didn’t deny it, she rushed to make him understand. With a hand on his arm, she leaned in and willed him to listen. To believe. “Walker, no. Callen would never hurt me.”

The calculated way he switched between ignoring her and treating her to loving attention made her sick with dread. And his words. He had the power to land the perfect killing blow with the right angry comment. She feared she’d get another taste of that as soon as the brothers kicked Walker out of there.

“Answer her question,” Callen said. He hadn’t moved or come over to support her. He stood there, stoic and drawn, across from her.

Not that Walker appeared impressed. “I don’t take orders from you.”

Callen swept a hand over the landscape. “You’re on our property.”

“Then tell me about the dirt mounds.” The rain started to fall, light but more than a mist, and Walker ignored it. “I’m seeing more than one, and I’m guessing they don’t cover dead bodies, so what do you have buried back here that you don’t want anyone to find?”

Callen studied Walker. Their intense gazes matched, neither looking willing to compromise. Grace knew from experience each could go hours without talking. It was the ultimate punishment even though the men in her life insisted it meant nothing.

After a quick look in Declan’s direction and a subtle nod, Callen turned back to Walker. “If you answer Grace’s question I’ll answer yours. No backtracking—the truth.”

The comment knocked the air out of Grace. She’d made the same suggestion and he’d knocked it down. Crushed it before it could take hold. Never would she have guessed Callen would step up with the same basic offer now. Not when it smacked so hard against his need for privacy.

She put a hand on her stomach to keep from doubling over. Then she felt the baby, and her emotions tumbled. So sure and strong a second ago, now she wanted to go upstairs and forget all of this.

The quiet dragged out for a few seconds before Walker answered, “No.”

That snapped her back to reality. “It’s the perfect deal, Walker.”

She couldn’t understand why he didn’t take it. If he could bring in some of the stolen items and help compensate Charlie’s victims, Walker might be able to prove his obsession had been well-founded all those years. Not that he knew what was in the holes. But he was smart enough to have an idea.

As if he read her mind, Declan offered his advice. “It might help you keep your job.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Walker snapped back.

Callen nodded. “We heard you’re in trouble.”

Grace didn’t want to go down that road. Callen didn’t rub it in or offer a snide remark, but he could, and this, today, needed to focus on trying to fix and repair. “Did you interview Kristin? Is that the connection? Maybe you felt bad and made her promises you’re trying to keep.”

“No. None of that.” Walker didn’t even spare her a glance as he answered. He did step back, just out of the circle of people, but Tom shifted to block any attempt at a quick exit.

“Are you related to her?” To Grace that was the only other rational explanation, but what that meant in terms of the woman tracking Callen down Grace couldn’t fathom.

None of it mattered, because Walker kept answering the same way. A terse denial in some form. “No. And stop.”

“Did Charlie steal from your family?” Declan asked. “Is that what this is about?”

As each person asked a question Walker’s head turned. His eyes grew more and more wild, until he looked cornered and ready to spring. “That’s enough.”

Grace looked at Declan and Callen and could see the joint attack coming. They wanted to demand answers and push Walker to the breaking point. She wanted to cool things down.

“Walker, I’m begging you.” Ignoring the way her foot slipped in the mud under her and the rain pelted her face, Grace reached out and tried to turn Walker so he would face her straight on and answer. “I love Callen, and I love you. Not in the same way—but I can’t stand this division. It’s ripping me apart.”

Walker threw his hands up as the raindrops dripped off his suit jacket and dampened his hair. “Then leave him.”

“Jackass,” Callen grumbled.

“Get back to Kristin.” That’s all Declan said.

“Yes, exactly. Is she a friend?” Kim asked.

The orchestrated attack had started, and the Hanover men, then their mom, moved in for the kill. Grace didn’t even think they realized how in sync they were, with each one taking a turn and unloading a theory in rapid succession. If she hadn’t been sucked into the whirlwind she might have found it fascinating.

Only Tom and Leah hung back. Neither inflamed the situation but neither stepped in to calm it either. It was as if they knew the explosion was long overdue and needed to happen.

Walker wasn’t as accommodating. He eased back, stepping around a line of bushes and putting a few feet between him and everyone else. “I’m not doing this.”

“They found some of the things Charlie stole.” At her words, Walker stopped moving. “That’s what the mounds of dirt are about.”

Callen’s gaze flew to her. “Grace, no.”

“Do you mean they found the items, or they finally unburied them now that they thought it was safe?” Walker let out a rough laugh, one completely devoid of amusement, as he looked at Callen. “I’m thinking the latter.”

She knew his mind would rush there. “That’s not true.”

Walker glanced at Callen. “How else are you paying your expenses?”