Dirty Truths (11 page)

Wade grabbed the front of his hooded sweatshirt and dragged him from the doorway. The screen door slammed, its metallic clang like a thunderclap. William stumbled but managed to stay on his feet and backed away, circling until he stood against a large tree looming over the house. Wade followed him with the gun and smiled.

“They haven’t found me yet,” Wade squeezed the trigger a heartbeat before William’s body slammed against the old maple.

“Fuck you, William.”

Slipping the gun into the waistband of his jeans Wade squatted in front of the dead man. His forehead had caved where the bullet mushroomed and shattered the skull. The tree was now decorated with blood and bone fragments the rain had already begun to wash away. The back of William’s head was a mess of matted hair and gore. Wade grabbed his shirtfront once more and hauled his body up. The head lolled forward and Wade grunted with the effort of getting under the man’s arm and righting his legs. He grabbed the hood of the shirt and pulled it over his shattered head. To anyone braving the rain, it would look as though Wade was helping his buddy—who had maybe drunk a bit too much—to his truck so he could drive him home. The street had no lights and William’s head slumped so his chin touched his chest. No one could see the wound.

Wade wedged the body against the truck and opened the passenger door, glancing around to make sure they were still alone. He reached behind the seat, pulled his old blue tarp and spread it over the black leather. He hated getting blood out of leather, damn near impossible. Bending down, he lifted William up and onto the seat before closing the door. As he walked around to the driver’s side a thud rattled the windshield. William had slumped over, his bloody forehead pressed against the passenger window.

“Shit,” Wade opened the door and climbed in. “You’re more trouble than you’re worth, William Allan.”

He pulled the body back up and reached once more behind the seat. His hand brushed a roll of paper towels. Wade unrolled a large strip and wiped the worst off the window, cursing his poor planning After tucking the bloody paper towel into the front pocket of William’s shirt, Wade started the truck, backed out and turned right, toward River Street which led out of town and should be deserted this time of night. He’d drive to the highway and drop William at the old talc mines. Once William disappeared in the large pit, now full of water, they’d be a while finding him. Considering he hadn’t thought it through, Wade was pretty impressed the only speed bump had been the mess on his window. So many other things could have gone wrong. Good thing he’d left the old tarp behind the seat after returning from his last job. Thomas would kill him if he knew, but Wade didn’t plan on anyone knowing about William. Not even Thomas.

He whistled again as he drove through the rain, which fell from the sky in torrents now, and thanked whoever watched over him for waiting until he’d gotten out of town before opening up the heavens. Kristina’s eyes floated into his mind again, haunted and longing for his touch; such a difficult combination to walk away from. He’d figure out a way for them to be together. If that meant another visit to the mines to get rid of an ex-husband, or a wife, then so be it.

CHAPTE
R 13

Giant grey clouds drifted over the sun, casting gloomy shadows and heaviness to the humid air. Rain was inevitable. Cadence squealed, crawling across the dry grass to her small green pool. She liked to lean on it and touch the water but never actually got in. Kristina leaned against the fence watching as she splashed around on the edge and giggled. Cadence loved baths but something about the pool scared her.

A drop on Kristina’s shoulder and her gaze shifted to the darkening sky above. “Come on, Monkey.” She knelt and picked a squirming Cadence up.

The drop multiplied and suddenly turned into a downpour as she raced toward the back of the house. When she stepped through the door and into the kitchen, they were both soaked, Cadence a slippery screaming bundle she could barely hold onto. Kristina set her on the floor and wiped hair from her eyes. Now she’d have to change before meeting her parents for dinner. Her mother had insisted to celebrate her birthday in some way and although she’d rather stay home, Kristina agreed to go.

Cadence crawled past her legs and over the step from the hallway into the kitchen. Kristina smiled, knowing where she’d go; right to the blocks she left on the living room floor. Daniel would never have allowed it, which made her enjoy leaving them out even more. She followed Cadence’s progress through the living room. At the stairs, Kristina unlatched the gate, ran up to gather towels and dry clothes for both before hurrying back down to the living room. Her daughter hadn’t tried the stairs yet, but Kristina wasn’t about to give her enough time to consider it. Cadence had scattered her blocks in a circle around herself, picking two up and banging them together before tossing them and finding a new pair to pound.

Pulling her tank top over hear head, Kristina cursed as the tiny buttons on the straps caught in her hair. The phone rang as she tried to pull the damp, knotted mess free. She sighed, rushed to the phone and picked it up muttering a distracted greeting.

“What’s wrong?” Wade’s voice sent goose bumps over her skin.

“Nothing, why?”

“You sound upset.”

“I just said hello. How do you get upset from that?” Kristina laughed and tugged at the shirt. It pulled free, along with a good-sized chunk of her hair.

“You’re out of breath.”

“I’m fine, just got my hair stuck in my shirt after getting thoroughly soaked.”

Wade laughed.

Her heart beat a staccato against her chest.

“Hmm, I’d like to see that. Too bad I’m stuck over here.”

Kristina opened her mouth but couldn’t think of anything cool or even remotely smart to say.

Wade cleared his throat and broke the uncomfortable silence. “So, I gave you the weekend off, right?”

“Yes, you did.”

“Um, about that,” Wade paused.

She stifled a shiver of excitement at the possibility of working anyway. She wanted to see him.

“Can you come in tonight? You can have tomorrow off, and Monday if you need it, but Amy can’t work tonight. I could force it but I don’t really want to fight.”

“No, it’s okay. But she wasn’t scheduled, was she?” The mention of Amy dampened her excitement.

“Well she wasn’t, but Sheila can’t come in until later and I won’t be there until at least ten. I need someone here for the first half of the shift. Can you come in around eight or nine? I can probably get Lynne to stay an extra hour so you don’t have to do the regular shift. If it’s dead you can go when Sheila gets here.”

“Yeah, I just have to call my mom.”

“Okay, I really appreciate this. I’ll make it up to you somehow.”

Before she could argue, he hung up, leaving her staring at the receiver in her hand.

She replaced it on the base and picked the towel off the floor to dry her hair. Cadence had crawled to the once neatly folded stack of clothes Kristina had set on the floor and tossed them around.

She wrestled her shorts from Cadence’s surprisingly strong grasp and pulled them on before tackling the job of changing her daughter as well.

“You want to go to Nana’s?” Kristina asked as she laid her down on her back.

Cadence’s eyes brightened and took a deep breath.

“Let Mommy get you changed and we’ll go see Nana and Papa, okay.”

Cadence stilled, as though she understood, and Kristina changed her quickly before calling her mother. So much for dinner. Maybe she could convince her mom to do it tomorrow instead.

***

While walking to Dirty Truths, a tiny bubble of anxiety burst in Kristina’s belly. She wondered about the man from the other night, her heart racing at the memory of his threats. But she couldn’t expect Wade to jump to her aid each time she felt threatened. She didn’t bother to tell him her father wasn’t home or he’d have come and picked her up or arranged a ride.
Wade was obviously busy, or he’d have covered the shift. It made her uncomfortable knowing he changed his plans often to accommodate hers.

Keeping his word, Wade drove her home each night before he balanced the cash and did his daily paperwork. She couldn’t stand the awkward silences, but did her best to behave naturally. Now and then, Wade would stare with a strange light in his eyes that made her want to put her arms around him, forgetting everything and everyone and just losing herself in the moment. She felt the questions in his gaze, but had no answers for him. She didn’t know what to do about her feelings.

Wanting someone so desperately the thought left you breathless didn’t mean you just forgot about right and wrong. Did it? It was a question she couldn’t answer, not with any certainty. Now and then, her grandmother’s voice would echo in her mind, a voice she missed terribly. Her grandmother had been a feisty woman, outliving three husbands and, in her last years, finding the man she’d pined for since high school.

Kristina reached the end of the bridge and took a deep breath as she crossed, holding it until she stepped back into the pools of light at the end of the street. Safe once more, her thoughts went back to her grandmother.

When the family had balked at the seventy-year-old woman getting married for a fourth time, claiming he only wanted to take advantage of her, she told Kristina a wonderful story. She let the man of her dreams walk away after listening to everyone around her saying he wasn’t right, and believed them when they said passion should never overrule common sense. He was younger than her and his family had money, enough so they could send him faraway so the temptation of the pretty but poor tutor he’d fallen in love with would fade.

But it never did. Through marriages and several children he’d waited, finally meeting her again at an old friend’s funeral. Her grandmother laughed when she told Kristina he latched on, and refused to let go of her again despite the wrinkles and the age spots.

Kristina smiled at the memory of the light in her grandmother’s eyes, a light she’d never seen before. The old woman had taken her hand and squeezed it. “Life without passion isn’t life at all. You remember that. You can’t experience love as it’s meant to be without it.”

Though Kristina promised to remember her grandmother’s words, she hadn’t thought of them until now, not in terms of what they meant anyway. Instead, she’d allowed Daniel to sweep her off her feet, believing the comfortable feeling of someone wanting her would be enough.

Now, as she approached the bar and walked through the parking lot full of cars, pickups and clusters of people doing God knows what in the shadows, she felt afraid. Not of Wade, but of the situation and her feelings, neither of which she could get a handle on. Excited to come to work each night, thinking of him every minute, and dreaming at the memory of his lips against hers, wore on her fragile nerves. Tempted to just cave in and do what her heart begged her to, Kristina worried one day her feelings would overrule her common sense and she’d force him into something they’d both regret. He wouldn’t say no, she sensed he’d give her what she wanted, and she didn’t want to end up hurt. Her grandmother didn’t have to worry about that; her passion held very little risk. Aside from getting her heart broken, Kristina also feared Daniel would kill her, and possibly himself trying to get at Wade. Then Cadence would have no one.

She pushed the steel door and walked through the small hallway leading into the bar. Her eyes adjusted to the lights as the crowd inside broke into a raucous ‘Happy Birthday’. She stood in the doorway, one hand on the open door, struggling to stop herself from crying. Someone grabbed her arm, and then pulled her into the room.

“You guys,” she murmured and searched for him.

Familiar faces filled the bar. Staff, friends and the regular customers who she saw every night, smiled back at her, clapping their hands. Someone placed a drink in her hand, and Kristina sipped without a thought to what they’d given her as she stared, touched by the overwhelming love in the gesture from people she barely knew.

She didn’t have to search for Wade’s face for long. He stood next to Amy, his arm draped over her shoulders. Their eyes met, his smile faltered and he stepped forward, removing his arm from his wife.

Kristina averted her gaze.

“So? Is this worth coming into work for?” he asked when he reached her.

“Yes. Thank you.”

“You’ve earned a celebration.” Wade reached out and pulled her into a brotherly hug, releasing her at once.

“I have?”

“Of course you have, silly girl.” Amy pushed Wade out of the way and embraced Kristina, the sweet smell of Poison, a scent Amy apparently felt the need to bathe in, drifted up and invaded her senses before she stepped away.

“Thank you. I don’t know what else to say.”

“Don’t say anything, just have fun. Maybe find a nice young stud to distract you from your worries.” Amy laughed.

Kristina lifted the glass to her lips and sipped again. Long Island iced tea, a drink Sheila forced her to try about a month ago. She’d said she liked it and apparently now she’d be stuck drinking it.

Amy whispered in Wade’s ear, her hand possessively on his chest.

Kristina’s stomach tightened and looked away.

Sheila took her arm and then dragged her to the bar. “Come on, we’ve got ten more where that came from. Drink.”

Kristina did as she instructed, took a big gulp of the lemony drink, and smiled. She’d have fun if it killed her. “What else do we have? Shooters?”

“Now you’re talking.” Sheila laughed and ran behind the bar.