“Except white trucks are probably the most common vehicle around here. I didn’t realize that until I started looking for them.” He noticed that she kept rubbing her stomach. “Are you okay?”
She dropped her hand. “I’m alive. That’s about all I can hope for right now.”
“You should’ve told me before.”
“About…”
“The Crew.”
“And how would that have changed things?”
He didn’t have an answer. He just felt she should’ve trusted him.
Closing her eyes again, she rested her head against the door. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Why didn’t you call me tonight, let me know where you were? Didn’t you realize I’d assume the worst if you didn’t come home?”
She reached for her hair, seemed to remember there was nothing left to tuck behind her ears and shoved her fingers through it instead. “No. I was too busy trying to convince Claire that we weren’t going to flee town.”
This distracted him. He’d known Claire practically since the day he’d moved here, liked her. But she could be as evasive as Vivian. “She wanted to go with you?”
“She’s not happy here. There are too many memories. She’s wanted to leave for a long time.”
“Why doesn’t she?”
“Leanne.” A speculative expression settled over her face. “Do you think her stepfather killed her mother, Myles?”
He was surprised she’d ask in the middle of her own crisis, but he supposed it was a distraction of sorts, easier to deal with than the danger she faced. So many people had asked him the same question since he’d come to Pine view. For Leanne and Claire’s sake, he’d always said no. He didn’t want the truth to get back to them, to make their lives any more difficult—especially because he could be wrong. “I can’t answer honestly. And I think you know why.”
She tilted her head. “You thought I should trust you with my identity, my life.”
And yet he wouldn’t trust her with something as small as his opinion on this matter. “Fine. Just between you and me?”
She nodded.
“I think it’s more likely than any other scenario.”
She chuckled without mirth. “It’s always the husband.”
“Almost always,” he corrected.
“That’s especially sad in this case. Claire worships her stepfather.”
“If she suspected him, she’d lose both parents, because then she couldn’t love him. It’s classic denial.”
“I’ve had a bit of experience with that. Some people are capable of terrible things.”
He wanted to shed the weight of his utility belt, get out of his uniform, but he hadn’t decided how he was going to handle keeping her safe. He knew what he wanted to do, but he wasn’t sure Vivian would cooperate. “How’d Claire let you out of her sight?”
“I insisted. And then Leanne came over and needed her.”
“That’s about the only thing that would do it. She puts Leanne above all else. But she cares about you.”
“She has to stay away from me until this is over.” She finally seemed recovered enough to move. “Shall we go upstairs or down?”
“Excuse me?”
“We have to get off the ground floor.” She waved around them. “We’ll be safer without all these windows.”
“Up would be better.” Then he could see out, but whoever was looking in couldn’t get to them without coming up the stairs.
“Up, it is.”
He followed her to her bedroom. Decorated in beige and black, it contained a canopy-style bed made of iron and surrounded by sheer black fabric held back with big, drooping beige ties. Aside from the bed, there was the kind of chair usually found in a garden, paired with an antique dresser. Probably twenty old clocks covered one wall. But it was the elaborate chandelier hanging from the ceiling that somehow brought it all together.
As different as it was, he liked it. “I’m surprised Rex was willing to leave you here alone.” He stood in the doorway because he wasn’t too sure about venturing inside.
“You saw him.” She put her gun on the bed before kicking off her shoes. “He had no choice.”
“What’s wrong with him? Besides his drug addiction?”
“Nothing’s wrong with him, other than that.” She held up a hand in the classic stop position. “And don’t judge him, please. He’s had a hard life. I…I owe him a lot.”
“Are you still in love with him?” Myles couldn’t believe he’d asked that question. He’d told himself he wouldn’t go anywhere near her relationship with Rex, because it didn’t matter one way or the other. She wasn’t the right person for him. He needed someone with whom he could feel a bit more…indifferent. Someone nice, pleasant, a reliable companion but no one who could steal his breath with just a look.
She seemed intent on formulating her answer. Sitting on her bed, she crossed her legs. “Maybe a little.”
He wished he hadn’t asked. Her answer was too honest not to hurt. And how she felt was none of his business, especially since he still didn’t know whether he was ready to let go of Amber Rose to the point that falling in love with someone else would require. “He needs to get some help.”
“My brother will take care of that, if Rex will let him. If he won’t, there’s nothing anyone can do. Trust me. But I wasn’t finished answering your question.”
“You said yes,” he reminded her.
“I said a little. I think I’ll always feel something for him. If you knew what we’ve been through, what he’s done for both me and my brother, you’d understand. But I’ll never go back to him. What we had is over.”
“Getting serious with someone like that would be trouble. But that’s just a piece of friendly advice.” He leaned against the door frame. “It doesn’t matter to me one way or another.”
Her forehead creased. “Is that so?”
Unable to meet her gaze, he bent to pick up a penny he saw on the carpet. “Yes.”
“You’re putting me on notice that you’re no longer interested?”
“Just keeping the promise you made me give you at the cabin.”
“To find someone else for your next sexual encounter.”