Worth the Risk (25 page)

Stephen met his brother’s eyes, knew what he was thinking and not saying. This being the first time he’d set foot in a courtroom since the guilty verdict had been read against Tracy’s killers.

On top of that, he was being accused of something he didn’t do. The woman he loved thought their entire relationship was a lie. And he’d just lied in the courtroom and was prepared to do it again under oath. “Not so good.”

Thirty minutes later they filed back in, taking the same seats. Except for him. It was his turn in the hot seat.

The ADA wasted no time. “If Ms. Walker had gotten her way, the city wouldn’t have sold, correct?”

“I assume,” he answered.

“And if the city hadn’t agreed to the sale, your company, you specifically, would have lost a great deal of money in predevelopment for your project, isn’t that right?”

“I don’t know anything about that. I had no plans.”

“When did you sign the final contract to obtain ownership of—”

“I never signed anything.”

All business and attitude, the woman walked over and picked up what he assumed was the contract in question. “Is this not your signature?”

He looked at it, confirmed it was indeed for Hannah’s property. “No. It is not.” He spoke clearly, making no mistake. Never once taking his eyes from Hannah. Willing her to make eye contact, to believe him.

“Ten signatures were compared and the results say it
is
your signature.”

“I did not sign that paper. I’ve never even seen that paper.”

“So you’re saying what? That your signature was forged?”

“Well, since it’s my name, and I didn’t write it, yes. I’m saying it was forged.”

The lawyer sighed, changed gears. “What do you know about the canisters of acetone found in the woods near your home?”

“Nothing.”

“So you’ve never seen them before?”

“Never seen them. Never touched them. My prints weren’t on them, and if you remember, the fire chief already said even he couldn’t be sure that’s what was used.”

“Yes. I remember the testimony. Thank you.” She sneered at him. “You stated earlier, before you were sworn in, that you left Winnie, Ms. Walker’s palomino, outside the barn that day. Do you wish to change that statement?”

With his eyes on Hannah’s he answered, “No. I do not.”

“Do you understand the penalty for lying under oath?”

“Yes.” And he’d do it a million times to save her.

“So you left her horse out?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I don’t remember. We’d gone riding and when we came back, I unsaddled her and put her in the turnout paddock.”

“Why did you go riding that day? Was it to get another look at the property your company was purchasing?”

“No.”

“What did you do?”

“We had a picnic.”

“Did you have sex with Ms. Walker?”

He took a second, hating to say things he knew she wouldn’t want said. “I was with Hannah, yes.”

“Sexually?”

He ground his teeth and gave the ADA a look filled with warning and hatred before he finally answered. “Yes.”

The lawyer gave the female judge a look. “A clever way for a man to distract a woman.”

Stephen brought his eyes back to Hannah, but she was looking down. Crying? He didn’t know his chest could be this tight and not crack. “I was the one distrac—”

“One more question, Mr. McKinney. If you didn’t sign that contract, who did? Do you know anyone who would be able to duplicate your signature in such an exact forgery?”

“Yes. Dave Pietro. My partner.”

The room dissolved into murmurs. Dave glared, then leaned to whisper in Camila’s ear. How had he not seen years ago what the man really was?

“The state calls Dave Pietro, Your Honor.”

The ADA worked Dave over for a while, not really caring who went down as long as someone did.

Stephen’s chest had hurt to the point he thought he might be having a heart attack as Dave laid it all out. How the city was first pursuing it as an eminent domain case, which was a shaky claim. Then they’d switched to intestacy after learning there was no will. Something he’d told Dave.

He looked over at Hannah then. Saw her face pale even more.

“Hannah!” Outside the courthouse, Stephen hurried after her, intent on taking this moment when her watchdog brothers were distracted enough to give her a few inches of space.

“Hannah.” He touched her arm and she turned, her eyes slamming into his. Finally, after two weeks, and he didn’t know what to say.

Her gaze flicked over his shoulder and he knew he didn’t have much time. “I didn’t set that fire. And I didn’t know about Dave’s deal.”

Her eyes searched his and, God, he ached at the uncertainty. Full of shadows and closed off from him.

“That day you came out to the barn. You said it was to apologize.”

“I did want to apologize.” But that’s not why he’d been there and he wouldn’t lie to her. No matter what, he wouldn’t do that. “Yes. I was looking at the property, but I knew I didn’t want it. I was only—”

“You lied.” She pinned him with wounded eyes. “You pretended not to know what was going on the entire time and you did. You told me not to worry about it.”

“I’m sorry. I should have told you. I—”

“Was it ever about me?”

The question and the look in her eyes when she asked were a direct hit, the punch to his heart instant and vicious. “It was always about you.” He took a step toward her and with tears welling, she took a step back.

“Was I your opponent? Was it all just you trying to find out what it took to win?”

His throat was raw as he tried to speak.

She shook her head, looking so tired. “I was wrong again. I should have been afraid of you after all.” She spun and started down the steps again.

Desperate, he grabbed her arm. “I didn’t know Dave went behind my back. You have to believe that.”

She turned, her eyes a storm of confusion and disappointment. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

Yes, he could see that, and the toll this was taking. What could he say now that would make things okay between them? He’d lied by omission, about the property and worse. About himself.

He raised an unsteady hand to her face, brushed his thumb across the dark smudge under her eye. “You’re not sleeping.”

“Hannah.” Nick advanced from behind. “You’re not supposed to be talking to him.”

Her bottom lip quivered and his heart broke again watching her fight to be stoic. And then she left, not completely sheltered by the men in her family as she’d been when they first met, but in their midst and away from him.

He could go after her, try to explain, tell her the real truth he thought Dave had revealed that day. The truth that he rode the line of being a killer. But wouldn’t that hurt her even more? Undermine every bit of confidence she’d gained? He’d already hurt her so much. Could he risk hurting her even more?

The next day, Stephen stood in the doorway of Dave’s office, not willing to let anyone else supervise the man’s packing and departure. He’d sent Dee home an hour ago, so it was just the two of them.

Dave shot a glance over his shoulder. “You look like you want to hit me.”

“Oh, I want to do more than that.” His hands fisted at his sides as he stared at the man he thought he’d known.

“Look at yourself. Pining away here, paying homage to a dead girl.”

Stephen ground his teeth, barely holding himself back. “I don’t even know you.”

“You don’t know yourself,” Dave spat.

I like who you are now.

“Don’t stand there looking at me like I’m the only guilty party.”

“Aren’t you?”

Dave turned, gave him a disgusted book. “We both know that’s not true.” Dave forced a few more things into a box, then crossed and slapped a file against Stephen’s chest. “Here you go. That one’s for you.”

Stephen took it and read the label. Hannah’s address.

“You’ll see on the last page that there’s a new buyer in town. The city wanted out of the whole mess, saving their asses. I was kind enough to teach them the art of the quick sale.”

Stephen had figured they’d be anxious to sell. Was counting on it. He’d already set up a deeply buried account that would buy her property. Already planned how he would work it around until it was back in Hannah’s hands again. Curious, he flipped to the last page.
Sinclair.

Stephen looked up to find a sinister smile crossing Dave’s face.

“Why would Sinclair want—”

“Exactly,” Dave said, seeing the answer dawn on his face. “Because you wanted it. Seems your enemies have become my friends.”

He should have anticipated this move. “Well, I hope it was worth it to him.”

“You know better than anyone, the worth of something is all in how much you want it.”

“Your last strike before you leave?”

“Something like that. I hope it hits your bitch as well.”

Dave’s head jerked back before he ever realized Stephen’s fist was coming.

He stumbled, raised his hand to strike back. With two more blows to his face, he went down in a heap and lay there, breathing hard, glaring up at Stephen with pure hatred. “I needed that land! I needed that money!”

“I don’t give a shit what you need.”

Lying on the ground at his feet, Dave’s face morphed and hardened. His eyes narrowed to slits and his bloody lips curved. “I can bury you just as easily from a jail cell as I can from the office down the hall.”

“Try it. But first get your ass out of my building.”

Stephen followed him out just to be sure, then left a message for Sinclair as he drove. He’d reconsider the St. Kitts project. And if it came to it, he’d grovel. He’d buy Hannah’s land for way more than it was worth. Whatever it took.

Ah, to hell with it.
If he was going in, he’d go all in. He dialed another number.

Blair answered, listened. “Of course. I’d be more than happy to make a deal with you, seeing as how we have a history and all. Eighty million should do it. Don’t you think?” She actually sounded amused.

“You’re crazy.”

“I don’t think so.”

“It’s worth a fraction of that.”

“What? You don’t like my offer?” Her voice purred through the phone line. “Maybe you should think about it.”

“How much, Blair? And be reasonable.”

“Since you asked me twice, the price just went up. Isn’t that the way you like to do business?”

She named another price, this one crazier than the first.

“That’s not going to happen. I don’t even have that.”

“Hmm. What’s Trace Development worth these days?”

His eyelid twitched and his fingers clenched around the steering wheel. Sinclair didn’t want the land, but they did want to see him squirm. Payback for the loss he’d caused them. And, he imagined, payment on a personal level for pricking Blair’s pride.

“You don’t have to answer that, of course. I already know. And I’m willing to let a couple million slide. For old times’ sake.”

She was still laughing when he ended the call.

Hannah carefully wrapped a photograph of herself and her parents taken on her first birthday. She smiled back at the happy, secure baby in the picture. Her mother holding her, her father kissing her icing-covered cheek. She wished she’d had more time with them, wished she had even one real memory. Sighing, she laid that little bit of her past on top of the others. She closed the box and reeled off packing tape across the top, the ripping sound harsh in the silence.

Staying so many nights at Nick’s house over the past week since the trial ended had rubbed off on her. She checked her doors and windows again before going to her bedroom to start a new box. Slightly creepy, knowing some stranger had been out here the night of the fire. Her gaze jerked to the window. Just a heavy wind bringing down deadwood left over from winter, but a shiver ran through her just the same.

It hadn’t taken long for the judge’s decision to come back. After further implicating the dirty city officials, new evidence had surfaced proving Dave had paid someone to set the fire as a way to drive her out. No farm, no public sympathy. And worse, his plan to pin it on Stephen. She thought of the pain and disillusionment Stephen must have felt, being betrayed by someone he thought he knew so well.

Goodwin had worked the front end, making sure no one but Trace had a chance to buy the property, Dave specifically. And Dave was to take over the other end, building a private airstrip he would control to traffic illegals. Embarrassed, the city was eager to have another name on the deed, ending all association and washing their hands of it entirely.

Dave faced multiple charges. Stephen was cleared. And she’d still lost.

Her job. Her home. Her purpose. Funny how just a few months ago that had seemed like everything. Then Stephen had come along and…Now she felt like she’d lost even more.

The one man she thought could love her. Could it have all been an act? Could he have looked at her scars inside and out the way he had if he didn’t care about her at all?

She didn’t know. She hadn’t seen or spoken to him since that day outside the courthouse. It hurt. Being wrong about him, and worse, missing him. She had to fight not to break down and cry in front of her brothers, who’d upped their hovering a hundred notches.

She’d taken a chance. Stephen had been her try. Maybe her first and last because she didn’t know if she’d ever try again. If she’d ever trust someone enough or if she even wanted to.

With only ten days to vacate, she’d been busy, spending her days at the barn, her evenings packing. All the boarders had been retrieved, along with the money she’d taken for the month.

Lexie knew a friend of a friend who ran a riding school and was willing to take Hazel, Big Ben, and Mr. Ed. It was more than two hours away, but it was free. She was still hoping to find a barn she could afford to board Winnie, but that was looking more and more unlikely. Winnie would go with her buddies and be ridden every day by other people. People who didn’t know her whistle or where she liked to be scratched.

With another box filled, she picked up the tape and turned on the TV to drown out the silence. The cabin she loved felt depressingly empty.

No different really than it had always been, but she’d quickly grown used to the sounds of someone else moving about. Not just anyone. Stephen’s scent, the sound of him in the kitchen, his heavy footfalls across the floor. The dip in the mattress and the warmth from his big body curled around hers.

She wouldn’t be here much longer. Soon she’d be somewhere new, without memories of Stephen. She taped the box shut, wishing it were that easy to box up her feelings.

She decided she was finished for the day and rewarded herself with a long hot shower. She no longer closed her eyes or waited for the steam to blur her image in the mirror. She could look at herself and see beauty and survival instead of the ugliness of a nightmare. Whatever else had happened, Stephen had given her that.

Stephen looked out the window of Matt’s office thinking of the last time he’d stood here, watching Hannah arrive at Gracie’s party. How surprised he’d been, how relieved. He should have known then that the clenching in his gut was more than just desire.

“When are you going to ask about Hannah?”

He turned to face his brother, realizing now that’s why he’d come. “I don’t know what to ask.”

“I’ve seen her. Once. Took Gracie out to say goodbye to Hazel. She cried.” A smile pulled at Matt’s lips. “Gracie. Not Hazel.”

“You should buy the girl a pony.”

“Maybe I will.”

“And Hannah?” Had she cried?

“Hannah was quiet, looked tired.”

“I guess she wouldn’t be happy, giving up her horses. I tried to give some money to Nick, but…”

“I offered too. To board them somewhere nearby, but she wouldn’t hear of it.” Matt shrugged. “She wants to take care of it on her own. Maybe she needs to. But, I don’t think that’s the only reason she wasn’t happy.”

Stephen just shook his head. Did he really want to hear that she was unhappy? That he might be the cause of it? Would it change anything?

“Why are you so afraid to love her?”

“I’m not.” He was afraid to ask her to love him.

“I think you are. I think you’re terrified of loving to the point you’re brought to your knees, to the point you risk it all.”

No. That wasn’t it. He was terrified of Hannah seeing something inside him she couldn’t accept and that would kill him. “Hannah was tortured by a monster and—”

“And don’t you think that after everything she’s been through, if she was willing to take the risk, then you should too?”

“Not if she doesn’t know what she’s taking a risk on.”

“That’s so much bullshit, Stephen. What’s the risk? That you’ll kill someone? Is that what you think of now? What’s the first thought that comes to your head if I told you someone had hurt Hannah?”

Get to her. Protect her. Wrap her up and cover her. Even knowing what he knew about Dave now—knowing what he’d done, or paid someone to do, could have killed her—his thoughts were still more about Hannah than about revenge.

“If someone killed Abby I can say with absolute certainty that killing would be the least I would do. Does that make me evil or human?” Matt crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against his drafting table. “You’re not the same man you were. I think Hannah knows that. I think she knows
you.
” He waited a beat before speaking again. “She’ll find someone else.”

Stephen felt the knots in his stomach tighten. “Maybe she should.”

“Will they love her like you do?”

Before Stephen could answer screams and squeals accompanied the sound of little bare feet on hard wood. Mary, completely naked and faster than a kid her age should be, streaked between him and Matt. Charlie followed with a purple hooded towel over his head.

A second later Abby stuck her head in the doorway, looking beautiful but more tired than he’d ever seen her. Matt picked up Mary, holding her out in front of him, as she was a diaperless danger. “Looks like bath time could use some reinforcements. Come on, little man,” he said to Charlie. “Time for some battleship.” He kissed his wife’s lips as he passed.

“I’ll let you get to it,” Stephen said, patting Charlie’s head buried under the terry cloth, and let himself out.

He started up his truck but kept it in park, staring at the night sky. He rubbed a hand over his chest and just sat there, idling in his brother’s driveway.
Will they love her like you do?
No. That was impossible. He loved Hannah with every ounce of his soul. With everything he was. No one could love her like that.

Was it possible she already knew him? A different him? Maybe, if Tracy’s murder had changed him for the worse, loving Hannah had changed him again. For the better.

He shoved the truck into drive and pulled out, telling himself he didn’t deserve her. Even if he was whole he wouldn’t deserve her. But maybe it wasn’t about deserving. Maybe it was more about being blessed. Loving her sure as hell wasn’t a choice. She’d stolen his heart. She owned him.

Whatever else, he would tell her that.

Stephen dialed Agent Walker’s number as he started home. He didn’t expect a warm welcome from the man and he didn’t get one, but at least the guy took his call.

“What the hell do you want?”

“Three things,” Stephen said. “First off, I had nothing to do with setting that fire.”

Nick let out a reluctant sigh. “You don’t know how much it hurts me to say I believe you.”

Well, that was something.

“But your friend did,” Nick said, his voice hard.

“Yes.” And the fact that a man he thought he’d known was in jail facing charges of arson, in addition to everything else, was something he would have to wrestle with.

“What else?”

“Two, I did not have any part in going after that land. I did know Dave was interested, but it was a non-issue—or so I thought, and that’s on me. I’ll make sure Hannah understands.”

“Good luck with that.”

Stephen ignored him and went on. “And three, I love your sister. I’m going to convince her of that too.” He wouldn’t lose her because he was a coward. He wouldn’t lose her, period.