True to You

by Jennifer Ryan

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “He gave her a bunch of baggies of drugs.”

  She swore under her breath and turned away. The sun brightened her hair, setting sparks of golden rays off the silky stands. She raked her fingers through the mass he’d somehow loosened from her ponytail during their kiss. She turned back to him and the earlier hurt and anger clouding her eyes glowed full force.

  “Is she selling out of the shop?”

  “I’ve never seen her do it, but it’s possible.”

  Cara spun around and took two long strides to the door before Flash caught her by the arm and stopped her. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what? Don’t call the cops on her ass? Don’t fire her? Why?” she shouted. “Because you want to fuck her.”

  He caught Cara by the wrist as she swung to slap him. He tugged and she stumbled forward into his chest. He glared down at her, frustrated and angry she still defaulted to seeing the worst in him and didn’t see what was right in front of her. “Damn it, Cara, I want you. Right here. Right now. Every second of every goddamn day. I work beside you day in and day out and all I want to do is touch you. But you know what I want more than that? For you to look at me and believe that I would never hurt you. I would never betray you. I would never lie to you. So hear me when I say this, because it’s the goddamn truth and the last time I’ll say it. I do not want Tandy. But I do want to know what she’s up to. If she’s betraying you, I want to know how and why.”

  Cara fell against him, her forehead pressed to his chest, her hands gripped tight at his sides. “I’m sorry.”

  He gave in to temptation and buried his fingers in her bright, soft hair, then leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry your friend is doing something that goes against everything you believe in.”

  “I thought she wanted to turn her life around.”

  “I know, sweetheart.”

  “She took the opportunity I gave her and threw it in my face. She’s working for my father.”

  “Did you mean it when you said you wanted to do everything you could to take your father down?”

  She leaned back and stared up at him with watery eyes. “Yes.” It wasn’t easy for her.

  “Then don’t say anything to Tandy. Don’t do anything until I figure out exactly what she’s doing.”

  “If she’s selling drugs out of the shop, that puts me, my employees, you,” she emphasized, “and my business at risk.”

  “I know. The shop is slowing down. Send her home early. You’ve done that before, she won’t suspect anything. I’ll stay. She’ll think it’s because we want to spend time together.”

  Cara cocked up one eyebrow.

  “It’s to our benefit that she doesn’t suspect we caught her out here doing something she shouldn’t.”

  “Maybe now she’ll stop throwing herself at you.”

  “The only person I caught in my arms is you.” He hugged her close, making her focus on the fact he did in fact have her in his arms, not Tandy.

  “Fine. But how are we going to find out what she’s doing?”

  “Not we. Me. I don’t want you involved, especially if this has to do with your father and his business.”

  “If this has anything to do with him, then I need to find out before it messes up my life again.”

  “That’s exactly why I want you to stay out of it. If I get caught snooping, I can blow it off as nothing more than taking Tandy up on the many offers she’s thrown my way, or that I’m actually interested in working with Iceman and his crew.”

  “If the cops get involved, you could find yourself in violation of your parole and end up back in jail.”

  “I don’t think it will come to that, but if it does, I’ll handle it. I want you safe and out of it. Your father has ignored your pestering his business. If this turns out to be something he really doesn’t want you to know about, he might have no choice but to make you stay out of it.” He let the underlying threat sink in. “Tandy and that guy have something going tonight. Let me check it out and see what’s what. If she’s doing more than dealing drugs, I’ll find out and make an anonymous call to the cops just like you do. That way you’re clear and so is this place. If that’s all she’s doing, you can fire her tomorrow. If she gets caught in the future, that’s on her.”

  Flash would make sure she got caught. He’d set up an undercover buy and bust Tandy for the drugs and for betraying a woman who’d been a damn good friend to her. Maybe the DEA could get some valuable intel out of her.

  Cara sighed deeply, her breasts brushing up and down his chest, making him ache.

  “Fine. But I’ll meet you at your place tonight. I want to know exactly what you find out.” She gripped his sides tighter and gave him a shake. “I mean it. I want to know everything.”

  “I’ll tell you exactly what I find out. I swear.”

  If he came back tonight. If Tandy led him to taking down Iceman, he’d have no way back because Cara would discover who he really was and why he came here.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Cara shut down the desire to turn back from her trek through the woods to her uncle’s place and go after Flash. With night falling, it wouldn’t be long before he discovered what Tandy was up to. If anything. Cara wanted to believe Flash misunderstood what he’d seen and heard today. Tandy might be involved with that guy, but it was nothing more than a fling. Tandy couldn’t be selling drugs. She wasn’t involved with Iceman. She couldn’t be. Not right under Cara’s nose.

  No, she didn’t want to believe it. But deep down, she had suspected Tandy of something but never wanted to look too closely. Tandy had been a good friend. She worked hard. Customers came into the café to flirt with her. They enjoyed her bubbly personality in contrast to Cara’s more reserved demeanor.

  If . . . when she fired Tandy, she’d have to hire someone new, a stranger, another person looking for a second chance she’d have to train and trust—to a point. And what if her father recruited her new employee, too, with promises of easy money? Why else would Tandy do . . . whatever she was doing?

  Cara thought of another reason. The thrill of danger. The excitement of getting something past Cara and others. Just for the sheer fun of it. Tandy didn’t mind a little risk. She didn’t weigh every tiny detail and “what if” when she wanted to do something. She just did it, knowing the consequences but believing the odds were in her favor.

  Cara wished she could tip the scales of how she lived her life from the overprotective toward throwing caution to the wind. Experience taught her to never take anything at face value, never take a step without looking for the land mine.

  Never care too much or you’ll get your heart broken.

  Hers had been broken enough times that she needed to protect those fragile pieces.

  But she wanted to believe in others. That Tandy hadn’t betrayed her. That Flash meant everything she felt in the steamy kisses they shared. That he wouldn’t leave at the first opportunity for something better, because he was capable of so much more than working in her coffee shop.

  He was here to prove something. What, exactly, she didn’t know. But she had a feeling once he achieved whatever it was he wanted, he’d be gone. She felt it in the way he held part of himself back.

  On the other hand, he’d kissed her like it meant something.

  Everything, she hoped.

  He’d told her about losing his girlfriend and how that affected him so deeply he’d fallen into despair, made some poor choices, and nearly ruined his life. But now he wanted to do better, be better. She was a part of that.

  She wanted to be a part of his life in a meaningful way. Until she met him, she thought she’d spend her life alone. No one seemed worth the effort or the risk after what happened with Manny. Until Flash.

  Now he made her think of a future shared with a man who made her feel all those lovely, pretty things she thought would never be hers. And she wanted them. She wanted him.

  But she had no id
ea if she’d get to keep him. If he even wanted to stay with her.

  Maybe he was her chance to leave this place and have something new, different, and better.

  It scared her to think of leaving and having nothing be different, and everything be different, all at the same time.

  Could she leave her uncle?

  She didn’t want to. He needed her. He loved her. She couldn’t turn her back on the one person who had always looked out for her, even if it was in his odd way. In some ways, he was all she had. The one person who’d been a constant in her life. Maybe not the most lovable or affectionate, but her sounding board, her companion when everyone else left her.

  A bouncing light ahead caught her attention.

  “Who’s there?” she called into the darkening woods.

  “Cara? That you?” Uncle Otis pointed the flashlight beam right in her face.

  She squinted her eyes and held up her hand to block the glaring light and search the shadows for him. They were still quite a distance from his cabin. “What are you doing out here?”

  “Checking some traps I set.”

  If the still wasn’t on the opposite side of the cabin, she’d suspect he told that lie to hide his little secret.

  But her uncle knew how to hunt and trap better than anyone she knew. Now wasn’t the time to check the traps. Out here in the dark like this. Too dangerous. Especially for an older man with poor night vision and unsteady on his feet on the rough terrain.

  Her suspicions raised a red flag. He didn’t have anything in his hands. He usually caught something. Why didn’t he have his knife, or anything to reset the traps?

  Why was he lying?

  “Did you catch anything?”

  He held his hands out wide, showing her he really didn’t have anything. “I just came out to see.” His nervous glance over his shoulder to check out where he’d come from set off another red flag. “What are you doin’ out here so late?”

  “Distracting myself.”

  “Why? That new guy giving you trouble?” His sharp tone seemed unwarranted.

  “No. He found some trouble.”

  “Stay away from him.” His emphatic order surprised her even more. “He’s up to something.”

  She tilted her head to the side, curious. “Why do you say that?”

  Uncle Otis answered with a shrug of one shoulder. “I don’t like the look of him.”

  Her uncle didn’t much like anyone, so she dismissed his concern. “I think Tandy is working for my father, dealing drugs.”

  Fury filled her uncle’s eyes. “You stay clear of that man. Nothing but trouble there. Probably where the new guy goes every night.”

  “What are you talking about? Have you seen Flash leaving at night?”

  “All the time.”

  She had no idea. She never heard his truck or noticed it gone. But it would be easy enough for him to leave without her knowing since he parked a good distance from her place.

  “Did you follow him?”

  Uncle Otis shook his head, but didn’t quite meet her eyes when he lied. “No.”

  Was everyone keeping something from her? “If you know something about Flash, I want you to tell me.”

  “He’s nosy. Always looking around for something.”

  She had to give him that. Something about Tandy’s behavior made Flash sneak after her to see what she was doing with her father’s guy.

  The kiss they shared proved he didn’t have a thing for Tandy, so why the curiosity about anything she did?

  Deep down, Cara wanted to believe the kiss proved he cared about her and wanted to protect her from Tandy’s betrayal. But why the sneaking out at night? Another woman? She dismissed it the way she now dismissed his interest in Tandy.

  What could he possibly be doing at night?

  “There’s something off about him.”

  Cara had thought the same thing, but now knew Flash wanted to set his life right again and why.

  He didn’t want the sum of his life to be the mistake he made.

  She didn’t want her mistake in trusting Manny, her father’s chosen profession, or the neglect she’d suffered growing up to keep her from loving someone with her whole heart. She believed a happy life with someone was possible.

  She needed to believe that, because if it wasn’t, then what the hell was she doing with her life that mattered?

  If Flash could change his life, why couldn’t she take her rotten childhood and broken dreams and turn them into a life filled with love and a family of her own?

  She and Flash weren’t anywhere near that point, but if she closed herself off to every possibility, she’d never have a chance of finding someone. And until she met Flash, she hadn’t realized how much she wanted the dream she’d thought impossible.

  That meant something.

  He meant something. She’d never felt the way she did around him. Whatever it was, whatever it turned out to be, she didn’t want to lose it, this thing he made her feel.

  Happy.

  Wanted.

  Special.

  Maybe even needed.

  She couldn’t remember a time she’d ever felt those things all at once.

  “Cara!”

  She jolted out of her thoughts and focused on her uncle. “What?”

  “You don’t know this man. He’s not like the others. He’s not like the ones who lick your father’s boots for fear he’ll stomp them to death if they don’t cower at his feet. He’s different.”

  “Yes. I know. That’s why I like him. He’s honest and kind and willing to stand up to my father and his crew and put his neck out there to stop him.”

  “Why?”

  She held her hands out wide and let them fall. “Why?”

  “What’s in it for him?”

  “He knows I want out of my father’s world.”

  Uncle Otis frowned, his eyes sad but determined. “So long as he lives, you will never be out.”

  “I can’t do it anymore. I can’t pretend he doesn’t exist and that every day nothing happens here means it’s a good day. Chalk one up for me.” The false sarcasm and grin made her uncle’s eyes darken and his lips pull back in an angry frown. “I live each day wanting something to happen, wishing for it, but nothing ever happens to Iceman. For all the bad he does, none of it truly touches him.”

  Uncle Otis’s gaze dropped to her damaged hand. “Some of it touches him.”

  She shook her head. “He used it as a means to broker a truce between the two cartels. For his advantage.”

  “You don’t know all he did.”

  “I don’t care. Because of him, I lost my childhood and my mother. I don’t want to lose a chance to have a life and a family of my own without him in it.”

  “You barely know the new guy.”

  Despite the fact she knew Flash was hiding something, she admitted the truth. “I want to know him better. For the first time in a long time, I want to believe that there are good men out there. That he wants to be with me because he likes me. That he sees me and not a means to an end.”

  “I’m not so sure that’s the case. You’re deluding yourself into thinking he’s your white knight. They don’t exist. Stay away from him before it’s too late.”

  “Too late for what?”

  “For you to save yourself. Some of us, Cara, are meant to be alone. Your father because he hurts the people around him. Me and you because we know others can’t be trusted.”

  “That’s just it. I don’t want to believe everyone is out to get me.”

  “Experience tells you otherwise. You have no idea why he’s chasing Tandy or leaving here in the middle of the night. If you believe that he saw her dealing drugs for your father, then fire her and move on.”

  “I don’t actually know that for sure. Flash went after her tonight to see exactly what she’s doing. She’s worked for me a long time. Don’t I owe her at least the courtesy of having all the facts before I fire her?”

  “You don’t owe anyone anythin
g. No matter how many ex-cons and ex-prostitutes you take in and help, none of them will make up for all your father’s done. You can’t balance the scales.”

  “I can try.” Her emphatic tone only made Uncle Otis frown harder.

  “The only way to stop him is to eliminate him.”

  “He’s your brother. How can you talk about him this way?”

  “He’s like so many others with money and power. Once they have it, they won’t let it go. They’ll do anything to keep it. They enjoy wielding it. They don’t care about those who suffer because of their decisions and actions. They will never stop. If caught and brought to justice, they will do anything to regain what they’ve lost because once they’ve had that kind of power, they’ll do anything to get it back any way they can. The righteous know the only way to stop them is to cast them out of this world for good.”

  Her uncle didn’t often get this spirited in his conversations and convictions, not since he separated from the activist organizations he belonged to long ago, but when he did, it wasn’t easy to stop him. She didn’t want to go down this path tonight, debating good and evil and those in government who disregarded the will of the people and served only themselves and others in power.

  She lived that scenario in her little world with her father. She didn’t want to take on local, state, and the federal government. She’d leave that particular brand of tilting at windmills to her uncle. She had enough trouble dealing with her father and the new drama in her coffee shop with Tandy and Flash.

  Her father’s world had come too close to hers again. If they collided, she didn’t know if she’d survive the fallout again.

  Uncle Otis stared at her for a long intense moment until the concentration in his eyes turned to resolve. “You really aren’t like me, are you, honey? You want that pretty life. I’d do anything to give it to you.” He nodded his head as if answering a question he asked himself. “I’ll deal with your father.”

  She appreciated his sentiment and his wanting to help her, but she didn’t know what he meant by “dealing with her father.” A stern talking-to about staying away from her wouldn’t cut it. She didn’t want to pit her uncle against his brother and have even more family drama to deal with either.