Truth and Humility (32 page)

Having had enough, Danny shoved the barrel away from Austin’s head and clung to the sheet as she rose up on her knees.  “Back off, Derek.  We’re not hillbillies, for Christ’s sake, and you don’t decide who I sleep with.”

Just as Austin was about to rise to his feet, the barrel came back around and took aim at his chest.  “Don’t push me, Danny.  We discussed this, remember?  You swore to me you weren’t going to let him in.”

“Don’t blame her,” Austin interjected, keeping his eyes locked on his opponent’s.  “We both tried to stay away from each other.”

“Oh, I don’t blame her, Cahill.  Danny’s a far too trusting soul, which is why it was so easy for you to take advantage from the moment she walked through your gates.  Now, get up.”  Derek wasn’t satisfied with the slow pace.  “I said
get up!
  You leave her the sheet, I want you to stand there with your dick hanging out when I blow your chest apart.”

But Danny wouldn’t have it.  Tangled in the sheet, she stumbled off the lounge chair to shield Austin from whatever might come his way.  “You don’t have it in you to shoot anyone, Derek, not even Austin.”

“I’m not worried, Danny,” Austin said from behind her, moving her out of the way.  “I’ve wanted to do the same thing to him for the last eight months, but I didn’t have it in me, either.  It’s past time we did this.”

“I offered myself up to you on a silver platter in order to keep her safe from you, Cahill.  But it wasn’t good enough for you then.  You had to test me, see how far you could take this before I snapped.  Well, congratulations, asshole!”

“Derek, that’s enough!”  Danny’s voice came out shaky despite her attempt at a harsh tone.  “Just let him leave, we’ll all talk about this like adults as soon as you calm down.”

“This has to end now, Danny.  I can’t have him sniffing around you, I
won’t
have it.”

“Go ahead and shoot me, then!” Austin roared, tired of the threats, tired of the fight.  “But you better aim true, because if I live through it, it won’t change how I feel about your sister.”

Both pairs of eyes were on him.  Derek felt the weight of their emotions drain him of the stamina he’d been clutching to for so long.  The look of his baby sister, fresh from a night of rigorous sex with his worst enemy, clearly in love and torn between loyalties.  Just how Cahill had wanted it.

But Danny was his to protect.  Always had been.  And he’d tried his best, but, dear God, he was exhausted.

Derek’s chest weighted with the decision he’d been forced to make.  All he could do at the moment was pray it was the right one.  Quietly, slowly, he lowered the shotgun.  The heavy weapon thunked upright into the corner and Derek stepped back to use the railing for much needed support.  The secrets he’d been keeping for over eight months had taken a hard toll.  Now it was time to come clean…for Danny’s sake.

“I can change it,” he declared, his voice resigned, tired.  He didn’t need to look up to know their eyes were on him.  “I’m ready to tell you what happened to Rena.”

The pair stood together, squaring off against him as a unit, tensed as one body in the early morning air.

“Derek…” Danny warned, a wave of unease quickly spreading through her bones.

But before she could finish, Austin gave her shoulders a reassuring squeeze as if he needed her as a barrier now that the shotgun was no longer in play.  “It’s okay, Danny.  This is what I’ve been waiting for.  I need to know.  If Iow. should’m going to get past it, I need to know what he did.”

Feeling painfully alone, Derek ran one hand through his hair, fisted tightly.  Shit.  “Not what
I
did.  That eyewitness saw someone fighting with Rena that night, but it wasn’t me.”  His tortured gaze locked onto his sister’s and his brow creased with an unspoken plea for forgiveness.  “It was Danny.”

It took a moment for the words to register.  When they did, Danny straightened her spine.  “What?” she blew out incredulously.

“I’m sorry, Danny.”

Austin was furious.  “What kind of coward are you, putting this off on her?”

Derek continued, speaking only to his sister.  “All we wanted to do was protect you.”

“From what?” she shouted, sinking back into Austin’s arms as if she’d just been burned.

“I found you in the river, hanging tight to some crap by the bank, near drowned.  You were hypothermic, delirious, knocked out from exhaustion.”

“Are you seriously trying to convince me I was there when I know I wasn’t?”

“You only believed what we told you.”

Her shoulders tensed beneath Austin’s hands.  He transferred his attention to the top of her head.  “Believed what?”

“Danny’s been under the impression she was injured on the job that day.  Fell and hurt her head, which explained the loss of time.  As long as she didn’t know, we didn’t see the harm.”

“If I ever laid eyes on Rena,” Danny spat hatefully, “I would have remembered.  I saw pictures of her in Austin’s house!”

“You didn’t remember anything from that night, baby.  That’s what scared us most.  Especially knowing the woman had gone missing.”

“It was your car, Derek,” Austin interjected, terror gripping his insides.  “Your voice on her phone.”

“Danny had my car that day.  We were meeting the group at the river, but she was early.  I was running late.  I found my car, but no Danny.  That’s about the time I heard a cell phone ring and I picked it up from the ground thinking it was hers at first.  Until I saw your face.”

Austin bared his teeth.  “I’m not buying this.”

“I was itching to cause you trouble, thinking it was harmless.  Just being a prick, you know.  I realized how stupid that was when I found Danny.  Then I began to suspect she’d run into Rena.”

Noticing the woman in his arms had gone deathly still, Austin slowly lowered his hands to his sides.  “But why would Danny have your cny as she ar when she has her own?”

Derek also noticed his sister’s white pallor.  Was she remembering?  “Do you want to take that one, Danny?”

“Mine was on jacks,” she whispered.

Derek nodded.  “Me and Marshall were changing out your rims.  I was to switch vehicles with you when we met at the river.”

“I was already out of commission by then!  You all told me I’d fallen off a damned boom!”  But she’d always thought that was a little too clumsy for her.

“
After
we asked you the last thing you remembered.”

“No!”

“Danny…if you want confirmation, you know where to get it.”

“No!  You’re just trying to run him off!  You know that, right, Austin?”  Danny turned to address the only sane person in the tower.  Austin had to know Derek was lying.  But what she saw in his eyes was far from comforting.  “This is crazy!  You know me, I don’t go around throwing people in rivers!”

His sister’s panicked cries were breaking his heart, but Derek needed to finish what he’d started.  “You had marks on your chest, Danny.  Like you’d been hit with a stun gun.  Rena carried one, had used it in self-defense according to the eyewitness.  But the marks weren’t on me.”

Derek was speaking behind her, feeding her new information, but Danny couldn’t tear her gaze from Austin.  He’d gone stone cold and it took only one glance to see his perspective of her was changing.  She wasn’t quite sure what to think herself.  There were so many details about Rena’s death that didn’t make sense.  That never made sense.  “God, Austin, please tell me you don’t think I killed her,” she begged, her voice breaking apart.  “Why on earth would I?”

It was a long, painfully drawn-out moment before he answered.  When he did, his voice hitched.  “I never thought Derek murdered her, I just knew he was responsible.”

He was backing away from her as if she suddenly repulsed him.  “And now you think I’m responsible,” she choked, the implosion of her chest stealing her breath away.  Her hands clenched the sheet between her breasts, turning her knuckles white.  “Please, Austin.  Please don’t look at me like that.”

Austin barely heard her.  All he could think of was that the woman he’d just given himself to knew how Rena died.  Whether she kept it inside deliberately or not, the information he’d been hounding Derek for was in
her
head.  And these two Bennetts had jerked him around far too long.  How had he allowed himself to get so attached?  When had he become so gullible, so soft?  And despite what he now knew about Danny Bennett, looking into her terrified brown eyes, he still wanted to belieantso ve she wasn’t capable of deceiving him to the degree she had.

Anger and personal revulsion overrode confusion. His defenses came up like iron doors.  There was just too much at stake to blindly trust her, trust that she was indeed innocent when she had a clear physical advantage over Rena.  Danny had a proven violent streak, one she’d personally unleashed on him that morning in the yard.  How could he ignore such a fact?  Rena was soft, caring and kind and wouldn’t stand a chance against the sort of fury Danny was capable of wielding.

Without another word, he turned and stormed down the ladder.

“Austin, don’t leave!  Please!”

Danny stood in the tower, shaking, terrified, fighting back sobs.  When she took a step toward the ladder to follow him, Derek’s hand was on her arm.

“Let him go, Danny.  He believes you intentionally deceived him.  That should tell you something.”

Anger and hurt sliced through her and she jerked her arm out of his grasp.  “I love him, Derek.  I’m not giving him up as easily as you did.”

This time Derek didn’t stop her.  When her feet hit the floor by the bed, her eyes sought Austin out and found him dressing, his hard tensed body silhouetted against the light coming in through the open shutter behind him.  This time she was determined to make him hear her.

“You have to know... I’m just as confused about this as you are.  I don’t remember anything about that night.  And after all we’ve been through…what we shared tonight…the least you can do is hold your judgment until we know for sure I’m guilty.”

Austin buttoned his jeans and gathered the rest of his clothes without bothering to put them on.  “One thing I learned about you is that you know how to get mad and throw a punch.”  His look warned her not to push.  There was no hint of the playful, passionate man he’d been only moments before.  “About the only thing I’m willing to do right now is leave without pressing charges.  But if I ever see your face again, all bets are off.”

Black eyes burned with hatred beneath his lowered brow.  Stunned into silence, Danny went blank and missed his rapid departure.  Soon, Derek was beside her, his hand still gripping a wrung of the ladder.

“You okay?” he asked quietly.  When she failed to answer, he laid a hand on her shoulder.  “Danny?”

“Don’t you touch me,” she warned breathily, her chest beginning to heave.  “After what you just did, I don’t want you to ever touch me again.”  He gripped her other shoulder, challenging.  She shoved him hard, releasing his hold.  “I hate you, Derek!  How could you?”  Her open palm cracked across his cheek.  She slapped him again, violently shoved at his chest when he failed to defend himself. 
“How could you do this to me?”

If she wasn’t careful, she would drop the sheet, and Derek really didn’tealou d feel like dealing with his sister while she was naked.  So he drew her close and held on to her in a fierce bear hug while she continued to shove at him, curse him.  “Shhh,” he soothed, waiting her out until her tears became more powerful than her need to fight him.  It didn’t take long for the transition.  Soon her sobs warmed the skin of his shoulder and he held on tight.

“I don’t know what happened between you and Rena,” he said calmly, his heart breaking for his baby sister’s misery.  “But I love you and I have faith in you, just like you’ve had faith in me all these months.”

“Then why did you keep this from me?” she wailed against him, drawing her arms into herself.  “Why would you lie to me unless you thought I did something wrong?”

Derek released a long held breath and stroked her hair.  “You and Rena both ended up in the river, Danny.  You came out of it alive and Rena came out dead.  It looked bad.  We didn’t know how Austin would retaliate and he already pointed the finger at me.  We didn’t want you caught up in this feud, no more than Mom or any other woman in our family.  That’s how it’s been for generations.”