From the start she’d had him off-balance and rushing to keep up. The only thing he knew for sure was he wanted to be with her. Like, all the fucking time, which was a first for him.
He respected women. Loved talking with them, listening to them, sleeping with them. But everything was different with Sophie. More intense and immediate. He hoped with her secrets behind them and the promise about the jewelry, they could build the trust and see what came from that.
None of that fit neatly on a greeting card or in a sentence he could package and sell to his mom. “This thing with Sophie is—”
“Oh, please. Don’t try to tell me it’s nothing or informal.” His mom emphasized the comment with a disapproving frown.
“I actually was going to say new.”
“That’s okay then.” She tucked her hand under his elbow and walked to the curb as they waited for the light to turn again. “Your brothers say you’ve been interested in her since day one.”
He doubted they said interested. “My brothers should shut up.” Beck made a mental note to bang their heads together when he got back home.
“Usually, yes.”
Running to Mom to talk about his love life? They were acting like little girls. Beck half expected that from Declan. He’d fallen in love and lost most of his mind over Leah. But Callen?
Cars kept going by, none of them rushing and most slowing down as they passed. Suddenly the sleepy Main Street had turned into whatever Sweetwater’s equivalent of a freeway might be. “And you know it’s weird talking with you about my love life, right?”
“You used to.”
“Okay, last time I did I was twelve, and I still say Dawn Premble shoving me while knowing I wouldn’t shove her back was uncool.”
“You wouldn’t have hurt a girl back then or any woman now.”
When the light turned, he stiffened his arm for more support and eased forward, balancing his weight between the street and sidewalk so his mom could take a step down without trouble. “All men should have that rule.”
“Amen to that.” His mom smiled and her whole face lit up. “I like who you are with her. Sophie, I mean.”
He worried this was the look his mom got when she wanted a grandchild. Yeah, she could throw that at Leah and Declan. “I figured you didn’t mean Dawn.”
“She makes you get out of your head.”
He thought about laughing the comment off until he realized his mom had lost him. “Do I want to know what that means?”
She stopped on the opposite side of the street and stared up at him. “You’re my peacemaker and thinker. I admire that, but sometimes you need to step back and enjoy life. Not be so focused.”
Not the first time he’d heard that. Not that he agreed. As far as he saw it, he had a decent life. Good job. A girlfriend he never expected who kept both his dick and his brain well satisfied, and approximately four thousand square feet of a house that needed floor-to-ceiling repairs.
Compared to others, he was pretty damn lucky, which wasn’t a word he ever thought he’d use to describe any aspect of his life. “What are Declan and Cal?”
“My rescuer and my loner.”
Those labels Beck could see. “Not hard to figure out which is which there.”
“I wasn’t going for subtlety.”
His fingers cramped from where he gripped the grocery bags, but Beck had a topic he wanted to discuss. If she could nose her way in, so could he. “But you are stalling. I know you rushed here to tell Callen something. I’m also thinking you haven’t done it.”
“I came to see all my boys and meet the women who grabbed their attention.” She turned toward the car.
Funny how she looked ready to run now. “Mom, whatever it is will not get better by ignoring it.”
The noises on the street from closing car doors to fragments of conversation all faded into the background. A stray honk of a horn and the sudden appearance of the pharmacist in front of his store didn’t matter. The whole world stopped as he waited to see his mom’s reaction.
She pivoted, slow and deliberate, to face him again with the smile long gone. “I’ve been around for a long time, seen a lot of crazy things. I survived your father and near-poverty, a crushing blow to my self-esteem, a loss of friends and a spiraling depression that nearly stole my life. None of that mattered because I had the three of you, even though Charlie tried to destroy that, too.”
In an instant, Beck saw he’d miscalculated. He never wanted her to feel like she had to explain her life or justify it. Not when he’d only felt amazement and pride for all she’d overcome and achieved. Whatever success he managed in his life came from her.
Beck reached for her, ignoring the bags swinging from his arm. “Mom—”
“I had children I loved with every ounce of my soul but there were days when I couldn’t feed them. A family that pretended I didn’t exist, and still do.” She swallowed as her fingers wrapped tighter on her purse strap. “A whole lifetime of horrible things I never dreamed would happen but did. When I was nineteen I foolishly fell in love with Charlie and believed every word. I followed him across two states, leaving everything I knew and knowing far less than I should have, to be with him.”
Beck hated his father for many things. He hated most what Charlie had taken from his mom.
Still, Beck couldn’t understand what else could be lingering out there and how it could be worse than what she’d endured. “So you don’t think you’ll survive whatever this secret is with Callen?”
“My point is that so much has happened in my life that wasn’t on my terms. I need this to be.”
Beck opened his mouth then closed it again. “Fair enough.”
“You understand?”
Only too well. “Actually, yes.”
She shook her head as she gestured for him to join her on the rest of the walk to the car. “You can’t solve every problem, my dear son.”
“You are the second person to tell me that in twenty-four hours.”
His mom stopped as quickly as she’d started walking again. “Kristin Accord.”
The response made no sense. “What?”
“By your car.”
Beck’s gaze shot down the block. There, leaning against the hood in her usual long skirt stood Kristin Accord. Beck’s mind flashed the last time he saw her and her two calls since then. He’d missed both and returned neither. And she’d shown up again.
No fucking way.
A white fury clouded his vision as he motioned to his mom. “Stay here. I’ll take care of it.”
Her shoes clicked on the sidewalk behind him. “No, I will.”
Not being weighed down by bags and fueled by an emotion Beck thought might be anger, his mom passed him. Big steps ate up the trail to the car. He tried to stop her but from the way she held her shoulders and back rigid that looked impossible.
“Mom, no.” Beck reached the car the second after his mother did. He dropped the bags on the sidewalk with a soft thud and kicked an orange that rolled out of one.
But it was too late. His mother hovered over Kristin, making the woman jump.
Kristin stepped away from the car with her gaze darting around and her hands twisted together in front of her. “Mrs. Hanover . . . I didn’t know—”
“I am in town to visit my sons. And you should leave.” Tension pounded off his mother and her body was pulled tight enough to snap.
Beck understood because the same fire ran through him. This woman kept popping up, bothering Callen. But that was nothing compared to his mother’s disdain.
“I am trying to help,” Kristin said in a soft voice.
“No, you are interfering. You want to control this and the answer is no. This is not your business.” His mother put a hand against her chest. “I will tell Callen what he needs to know.”
Like some show of
defiance, Kristin’s chin rose. “You haven’t in thirty years.”
The flash of defensiveness sent Beck’s temper spiking. He wanted this woman, whoever she was, away from everyone he cared about. “I told you what would happen if you came near my family again.”
Not that filing charges would do any good. With Police Chief Darber and his hatred for the Hanovers, nothing would ever happen to someone who threatened them. Hell, Darber would likely deputize anyone who claimed to be their enemy.
“Let me be clear, Ms. Accord.” His mother put a hand on his arm and stepped in closer. The intensity in her words and movements demanded attention. “If you come near my sons, you will face me. And, as you well know, at this point I have very little left to lose.”
“You’re telling him?” Kristin asked.
“Yes, because it is my story to tell. My decision. My timing.”
Kristin shook her head. “It’s not so simple.”
“If Callen wants to call you after, he will.”
After what? Beck wanted to ask but didn’t. They needed a united front, no matter what it cost him to stand there. “I have your phone numbers.”
The spike of strength seemed to abandon Kristin. Her shoulders fell and she pleaded with her eyes. “Please, Kim.”
“Now you’re begging, but you’ve used threats and attempted bribery before.” His mother gulped in air as she ramped up with her words rushing together. “You sent lawyers after me.”
“I was desperate.”
And with that information, Beck was done.
More people gathered across the street. Sure, they pretended to look in shop windows or in one case read a newspaper, but it was clear they’d come out looking for a showdown. He had no intention of giving them one.
He would not have his mother attacked on the sidewalk of Sweetwater. “Last warning, Ms. Accord.”
A charged silence filled the air. “I’ll wait to hear from Callen.”
Then she spun away. In a walk that verged on a run, she got to the corner and turned out of sight. But the energy pulsing around them didn’t dissipate. It built and kept slamming into Beck.
His main concern was his mom. “Are you okay?”
She broke her stare with the empty sidewalk in front of her and glanced at him. “Except for the part where you’re right.”
The sadness in her blue eyes almost destroyed him. “About what?”
“I need to talk with Callen.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sophie stood in the middle of Callen’s third-floor bedroom and stared at her cell phone screen. Beck’s message about the run-in with Kristin Accord had Sophie shaking with unspent anger on his behalf. She didn’t understand what fueled the argument, but she ached for Beck’s mother and wanted to rush to Beck’s side. If he needed support, she needed to be there.
They had passed that relationship threshold with her feelings shifting into overdrive. She thought about him what felt like every minute and cursed the times when they were apart. She tried not to cling. She even tried to play it cool and act like it was okay if he wanted to spend the night in his own bed instead of hers.
Yeah, that wasn’t okay. Good thing he kept choosing hers.
She dropped the lid back on the box she’d been searching. Thanks to an offhand comment by Leah, Sophie waited until the house cleared then rushed upstairs. She ignored the clothes hanging off the old rocking chair and Callen’s still unpacked bag at the end of the bed.
The plan had been simple. Just one box before Beck got home. But hearing about this, her search could wait. He had other things on his mind and Callen’s sudden decision to donate the boxes stacked in the corner of his top-floor room didn’t rank as a priority.
She used her foot to push the box back against the pile with the others. Once Beck cooled down and Sophie made sure his mom was okay, she’d mention the boxes. If neither of those things looked possible, maybe she could figure out an excuse and get Declan to drag the boxes downstairs or intercept them at the bottom of the staircase before Callen tried to take them anywhere. Anything to take the pressure of her problems off Beck, if he needed that.
Leah had said something about Callen looking inside a few and seeing clothes and deciding someone could use the items. Talk about messing up the day.
Sophie turned and stared at the half-made bed. There, tucked under a discarded shirt, was that stupid envelope. Everything seemed to go back to a thin folder. Kristin, that FBI Agent Reeves—everything.
She picked it up and turned it over. No writing or explanation. She ran her finger along the seam and found it unopened. No wonder the thing drove Beck insane.
“What the hell are you doing?” Callen’s voice boomed through the room.
The envelope slipped from her fingers and fell to the bed as she spun around. “I’m just—”
In one step he was at her side. He grabbed the envelope and studied the fastening.
“Going through my things.” Color flooded his face and his mouth twisted in a snarl. “Right? You’re in here, where you shouldn’t be, looking through my things.”
Her whole body slipped into a stunned shake until her teeth rattled loud enough to ring in her ears. “It’s not like that.”
God, but she knew how it looked. She stood in the one place she’d never had permission to be. Had been specifically told not to go. His personal items—a stack of letters and what looked like bills—sat on the chest of drawers just a few feet away. The space was intimate and personal and, most of all, private. Yet there she was.
“I have eyes, Sophie.” He spit out her name as if it tasted funny in his mouth.
She had to make him understand. The room spun and her muscles started to shut down, but she reached for him. “But I swear it’s not what you think.”
He pulled back out of touching range. “You want to know what I really think?”
“No.” She didn’t. Her heart raced and her knees bobbled. It was like being hit with the flu and by a car at the same exact moment. She wanted to sit down but she would give anything not to see the hatred in his eyes.
“I’m going to go ahead and fill you in anyway.” He shouted at her as he waved the envelope between them. “See, I knew from the beginning you sneaking around and lying and sidling up to Beck was all part of some act.”
“That’s not true.” She saw how he got to that place, but he twisted everything. Put a terrible shine on her actions.
She’d come to look for one thing but Beck made her promise not to tell.
Beck. She’d kept one promise but broken another. In her head, it made sense because she was going to tell him. None of it should matter, except Callen found her and the world around her started blowing up.
“What, are you collecting information for a book or for a victim? Maybe a new lawsuit is headed our way.” He tapped the corner of the envelope against his head as if he were thinking about his crazy accusations. “Or maybe you’re part of the lynching crowd in town.”
“This is going sideways.” She touched his arms then. Grabbed both forearms and didn’t let go. She had to make him understand.
They’d begun to talk and he’d finally gotten to the point where he no longer watched her as if waiting for her to mess up. But now they’d go back to the beginning.
He lowered her head and gave her full-on eye contact. “You did this.”
The fierce intensity had her shrinking back. “You’re coming up with scenarios that aren’t real.”
“Sure feels like they are.”
She exhaled, reaching for control even as her body threatened to fall to the floor. “Listen to me.”
“Oh, honey. I don’t think so.”
The sharp crack of his voice shot deep inside her. Beck never used that tone. Even when faced with terrible news, he held on to his temper and listened. His older brother could take a less
on. “Do not talk to me like that.”
“How about this?” If anything, her show of strength made the tension in the room spike even more. “I think you’re a sneaky, conniving bitch. Is that better?”
Her mind pushed out the words. He had a right to be angry, but she had her reasons. “Beck knows.”
“What? That you’re looking through my room? I don’t think so.” Callen swore under his breath but with his voice echoing through the house not a syllable was hidden. “You should think about easing up on the lying.”
“I came in here to—”
“I don’t care why you’re here.” He shouted the response. “But you are leaving. You have exactly two minutes to march your ass down those stairs and get in your car.”
No way. She would not walk away from Beck. He would listen and they could straighten this out. He was the rational one. She got that now. Boy, did she get that. “I need to talk to Beck.”
“I can guarantee you I’m not going to let that happen.”
And he would do it, too. Put his body between her and Beck. Or he’d try. “He’s a grown man.”
Callen wasn’t listening. His gaze traveled over the room. “And don’t even think about coming back here. You step on this property and I’ll have you arrested. Once I figure out what else you took, I might anyway.”
“If you would stop yelling at me for two seconds.” She didn’t know what she would do, but at least they could take the argument out of countdown mode.
“Get out.”
Beck slipped into the doorway with his hand planted on the frame. His heavy breathing filled the room, as if he’d taken all three stories in a few jumping steps. “Cal, what the hell? I could hear you outside.”
His mother pushed her way in beside him. “What’s happening up here?”
Relief rained over Sophie. The last drops of adrenaline fueling her steps and keeping her upright seeped out of her. They could fix this now.
A Simple Twist of Fate Page 22
