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The color fell from Monica Kendall’s face as if someone had opened a drain. “What?”

  “I also expect your cell phone records will show that you called your brother just before the robbery took place.”

  Her eyelids fluttered. “I talk to my brother all the time.”

  “Really? Is that when you two plan the robberies?”

  Monica’s sharp inhalation punctuated the end of Simone’s sentence.

  “Hey,” Luke soothed, holding up his hands. “Let’s calm this down a little. Here’s what I think…” He set his hands on her desk and pondered them solemnly. “I don’t think you’re in charge of this crime ring.”

  “I’m not!”

  “I think your brother pulled you into this. You’re obviously not a bad person. But he’s your brother. What are you supposed to do?”

  Her eyes darted toward the phone.

  “I have a brother,” Luke lied. “If he asked me to do him a favor… No big deal…just head into a business once or twice a month. Do a little flirting…”

  “That’s not how it happened! I mentioned that I was going over to the brewery. Graham asked me to do him a favor. That’s it. I didn’t know what he planned to do!”

  Well, that part was a lie, but the rest of it looked like the god’s honest truth.

  “I don’t want to go down for that idiot,” she grumbled.

  Luke nodded sympathetically. “It’s not like it’s the first time he’s gotten into trouble.”

  “That little shit is going to—” At that moment, it all hit her. Luke saw the exact millisecond that her fear turned to calculation. Her face remained pale, but her slack jaw tightened. She closed her mouth and narrowed her eyes.

  He dropped his voice to a near-whisper. “We could arrest you right now.” He angled his head toward the cruel and unyielding Simone. “We’ve got all the evidence we need to take you in.”

  Her irises flickered, her gaze bouncing back and forth between Luke and Simone. “Or we could call the D.A., call your lawyer, and we could all have a friendly chat up in Boulder.”

  “If you arrest me, what happens?”

  “Oh, we’ll take you downtown and book you into jail. You’ll be photographed and fingerprinted and searched. Then you’ll be put into lockup.”

  “Lockup.”

  “Until your lawyer gets you out. It’d probably be no time at all, though. A day until your bail hearing. Two at the most.”

  “And there’d be mug shots?” she breathed, seeming most horrified at that.

  “Yes.”

  She gingerly patted her hair and frowned at something beyond Luke’s shoulder. He turned to see a portrait of Roland Kendall on her wall.

  “I’ll talk to the D.A., as long as you can guarantee I won’t be arrested.”

  “You’ll need to discuss immunity with the D.A. and your attorney.”

  She nodded, her gaze getting colder the longer she looked at her father’s portrait. “He deserves to be embarrassed,” she said, as if she were convincing herself. “He always treated Graham like the golden child. The son who loved football and baseball. The son who liked to fish and golf. But Graham was playing him like a damned violin. He always was. It’s time for dad to wake up.”

  “Why don’t you call your attorney and gather your things? We’ll meet you at the police station in Boulder.”

  Simone leaned close as they walked through the wide double doors of Monica Kendall’s huge office. “We’ll take her ‘downtown’?” she whispered, nudging Luke with her elbow.

  “What? That’s some great imagery.”

  “So do you think she’s as innocent as she claims?”

  “Oh, not that innocent,” he said. “Are they ever?” Tessa immediately came to mind. Tessa against the wall. Tessa in the shower. He checked his phone to be sure she hadn’t called.

  “Your girl was pretty pissed,” Simone said. He jumped like he’d just been caught looking at dirty pictures. “Huh?”

  “Back at the brewery. Did you two make up?”

  “No, we definitely did not.”

  “Give her time. She’ll calm down. You two are cute together.”

  Luke paused in the act of opening the car door and glared at Simone. “We’re cute together?”

  “Well, she’s cute and you’re, you know…gaga.”

  “I am not gaga,” he huffed in disgust as he got into the car and started the engine with a hard crank of the key. “Your condition is making you emotional.”

  “Really? I thought your condition was making you emotional.”

  “Ridiculous,” he muttered. But Simone’s look said she didn’t believe that any more than he did. He was worried. He’d never seen Tessa look so serious. It gave him a bad feeling. Maybe he’d underestimated her anger. In her mind, he’d damaged her family, and her brothers meant everything to her.

  Christ, he wanted to go to her. His muscles ached with the need to take action. If he could only explain himself and apologize again, if he could only have some time with her. She’d understand. She’d have to.

  “Come on,” Simone said. “Let’s get this over with so you can go buy some flowers.”

  “Flowers. Right. You think that’ll work?”

  “It’ll work,” she assured him.

  Luke took a deep breath. Yeah. It’d definitely be fine.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  THE WALLS WERE CLOSING in on her. Even in this house with too much space and too many rooms, the walls were squeezing in, making it hard to breathe. “Where is he?” she whispered.

  “Stop pacing,” Jamie ordered. “Eric will be here.”

  “He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago. Eric’s never late.”

  “Well, he’s had a hell of a day. Cut him some slack.”

  She stopped in her tracks to glare at him. “How can you be so relaxed?”

  “Tessa,” he groaned, letting his head fall back on the couch. He put his feet up on the coffee table and stretched out. “I wanted to tell him, remember?”

  “But that was stupid! He’s so angry, just like I said he would be.”

  “Well, right now, he’s angry because we lied to him.”

  “Oh, he’s pissed about you and your magically disappearing pants, too.”

  He opened one eye, but closed it without responding. Tessa resumed her pacing, trying to draw a steady breath to keep the walls at bay. “Fifteen minutes,” she said when the clock ticked to six-fifteen.

  “Well, I hope he hurries up. Chester can only cover the bar until seven.”

  She breathed in and out, in and out. She knew he wasn’t gone. Eric might leave at some point, or Jamie might leave, but they’d say goodbye before they left. They wouldn’t just disappear.

  Jamie raised his head. “Are you hyperventilating?”

  “No. I’m breathing. I’m calming myself.”

  “Sounds more like wheezing. Cut it out.”

  Tessa grabbed a throw pillow from the chair and chucked it at him. “Hey!”

  “Stop being so calm!” she screamed.

  “Jesus Christ, Tessa. You’re losing it.”

  “I know I am!” The sound of a car door slamming snapped her out of her breakdown, and Tessa rushed for the door. Eric stalked up the front walk, his face a mask of cold fury.

  Folding her hands, she backed away from the door until her legs hit the coffee table. Eric stepped through the door and gave both of his siblings an equally quelling look. “Well?” he snarled. “What did you two want to discuss?”

  Jamie slid his gaze toward Tessa. “You’d better ask her.”

  “You know what we need to discuss. Both of you. We need to figure out what we’re doing here. What’s going to happen.”

  “Nothing’s going to happen,” Eric countered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The deal stands.”

  Even Jamie jumped up at that news. “Excuse me?” he sputtered.

  “I’m not backing out of the deal.”

  Tessa felt sweat br
eak out all over her body.

  “They’re criminals and psychos!” Jamie yelled.

  Eric stared him down. “They’re a tool for expanding our business. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  Tessa shook her head frantically. “We don’t want to expand.”

  “Since when?”

  “Since Jamie and I talked about it and agreed we don’t want to expand. You’re supposed to involve us, Eric.”

  “You’ve both been involved from the start. I haven’t kept one damn thing secret, unlike the two of you.”

  She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I just didn’t want you and Jamie to fight. I thought if I got the deal back on track, it wouldn’t matter.”

  He bowed his head and stuck both hands in his pockets.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again.

  “I’m honestly disturbed by the magnitude of this. You betrayed me. And embarrassed me. What else are you lying about?”

  “Nothing!” she said quickly. “Nothing. And Jamie didn’t want to lie at all. He wanted to tell you what happened, but I was afraid.”

  “And there’s nothing else you need to tell me?”

  “No. Nothing. Please don’t be mad, Eric. And please don’t call Roland Kendall about the deal. If nothing else, we need to wait and see what Luke finds out. We can’t trust these people.”

  “It seems we can’t trust anyone,” he said quietly.

  “I’m sorry. I swear I won’t—”

  “I already called Roland Kendall.”

  His simple, quiet words hit her with the force of a train.

  Eric cocked his head. “Is there something you want to tell me? Something you left out of your confession?”

  The walls were moving again, sliding closer to her, pushing the air from the room. Tessa pressed a hand to her chest. Jamie looked from Eric to her and back again. “What is it?”

  “Tessa? Do you want to tell him or should I?”

  She shook her head, shame rolling over her for lying to his face.

  “Tessa made a new deal with Kendall. She told him that if he signed the contract, there’d be no charge for the first six months of supply.”

  “What?” Jamie gasped.

  She tried to back up a step, but the table was in the way. She ended up sitting down on it, hard. “I just wanted to help.”

  “Help, how?” Jamie asked. “Where the hell was that money going to come from?”

  “From me.” Both her brothers stared at her like she’d grown another head. “I was going to pay for it.”

  Eric’s hands rose from his sides before falling down again. “Tessa… Why?”

  “I needed to do my part. For the family.”

  “Your part? You do your part every day. We run this business together. You don’t just go off making your own plans and deals, Tessa!”

  “You do.”

  Eric’s head jerked back as if she’d slapped him. “You know that’s not fair. And it doesn’t change the fact that you’re still lying to me. Nothing changes that.”

  Tessa couldn’t move, she couldn’t breathe; she just stared at Eric and wondered how she’d made such a mess of things. “I’m sorry,” she whispered so quietly even she could barely hear it. “I just wanted to make it better.”

  A sharp knock drew everyone’s eyes to the door. Luke stood there, sunglasses on and face hard as granite. “Is everything okay here?”

  “Everything’s fine,” Eric snapped. “Do you have news?”

  “Not yet.”

  “All right. I’m done here. Jamie, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Luke stepped inside so that Eric could leave, and Tessa just watched him go, her muscles too dull to work. Jamie moved for the door, too.

  “I’ve got to get back to the bar, sis. We’ll talk more later, all right?”

  She let him go, because what could she do? The harder she tried to hold, the weaker she got. She blinked and found herself staring up at Luke. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to talk. And to…” He gestured and Tessa realized for the first time that he was holding a bouquet of yellow tulips. “I’m sorry.”

  “You should’ve warned me.”

  “I’m sorry, but there was no way to hide the information from Eric, even if I’d warned you.”

  Tessa’s mind buzzed with all the ways he was wrong. All the ways she could have prepared for this and made things better, but she didn’t have the heart to argue with him.

  “I overheard part of your conversation,” Luke said. “You didn’t tell me that you were planning on footing the bill for part of the contract.” She shrugged.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No.”

  “Why not? You’re obviously upset. Talk to me.”

  “Why would I? I don’t trust you.”

  That seemed to end his conciliatory attitude, and Tessa was grateful. She didn’t want him apologizing and playing nice. She was hurt and angry and overwhelmed. She wanted to yell and scream.

  “You don’t trust me?” he said.

  “No, I don’t. You lied to me.”

  He smiled, but the twist of his lips was bitter. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  Tessa’s anger turned to self-righteous clarity. She could see now what Jamie had been trying to tell her. She’d been looking so hard at Luke she hadn’t been able to see the people around him. “You and Simone—”

  “Oh, Jesus Christ, you’re bringing that up again?”

  “Why does everyone think you must be the father? Why, Luke? It doesn’t make any sense!”

  He was good at hiding his emotions. He had to be with what he did every day. But for one split second, Tessa saw guilt flash over his face. “You bastard,” she growled. “You did sleep with her.”

  “No! We never had sex. Not once.”

  “You never had sex? Oh, my God, you’ve been parsing your words every time we talked about this, haven’t you?”

  “No,” he said, adding nothing more.

  Tessa wanted to hit him. She wanted to slap him and scream at him and tell him what an asshole he was.

  “We never had sex,” he said again.

  “Fine, Mr. Detective, if you want to get legal about it, that’s fine. Did you ever kiss her?” When Luke’s gaze fell to the ground, Tessa heart sank right along with it.

  “It was nothing. Just one night.”

  “Oh, God,” Tessa breathed.

  “Look, I’d just moved here. We’d both had too much to drink. A few of the guys saw us leaving the bar together. But we didn’t… We never… It was a mistake, and luckily we both realized it before it was too late.”

  “Get the hell out, Luke. Get out!”

  “No. I’m not going to let you paint me as the bad guy just because Simone and I made out two years ago. I never lied to you about that.”

  “You did!” she screamed. Her anger exploded, amplified by the press of heartbroken tears in her throat. She pushed him. Hard.

  “Calm down,” Luke said, raising his hands.

  “You’re a goddamn liar!”

  “I told you we’d never had sex. I told you it wasn’t like that between us. And it’s not. I didn’t lie. If you don’t trust me, it’s got nothing to do with me, Tessa. It’s because you know you’re lying all the time and you assume other people are, too.”

  She stepped back, startled by the way his words froze all her roiling emotions. She felt as if time had stopped. “What?”

  “You heard me. You lie to people you love.”

  “How dare you,” she pushed past clenched teeth. “You don’t know anything about me.”

  “That’s not true. I know you well enough to like you despite all that. You’re sweet and smart. You’re not trying to be cruel. You think you’re lying to protect them.”

  “I am.”

  “No. You’re just trying to control them, Tessa.”

  Her anger surged again, and she jerked her hand toward the door. “Get out.”

&n
bsp; Luke took a deep breath and his shoulders slumped. “Look, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Not now while you’re fighting with your brothers.”

  “Not now? You shouldn’t have said it because it’s not true!”

  He met her gaze straight on, not looking the least bit regretful. “I can tell you have trouble opening up, Tessa. That’s understandable, but—”

  “Me? I have trouble opening up? You’re the one who won’t talk about your past! When have you ever opened up to anyone?”

  “Don’t go there,” he said roughly.

  “Oh, we’re not allowed to talk about your problems?”

  “You’ve got it backward. It’s still your problem. I know how to open up to people. I’ve been in love. I’ve been married. You’ve never even had a boyfriend, so don’t tell me I don’t know how to open up.”

  “That’s cruel!”

  “Cruel to point out the choice you’ve made to hold yourself back? I’ve made myself vulnerable. I’ve been hurt, and I’m willing to be hurt again. Are you?”

  Something powerful pushed at her throat. She thought it was a sob, but when she opened her mouth, she yelled, “No!” No, she wasn’t willing to be hurt again, ever. “I’ve had enough pain. I’m done with it.”

  “Tessa, how are you going to—”

  “I’m done with it! So get out. Leave!”

  “Come on. Don’t do this. Just…” He gestured toward her, the flowers rising from his hand like an olive branch. She wanted to take it. She wanted to fall into him and let him hold her up. He would. She could see it in his eyes. But there weren’t enough strong arms in the world to keep hurt away. She knew that to the very depths of her soul.

  “Your brothers aren’t going to leave you, Tessa,” he said softly.

  She drew in a breath sharp enough to stab her heart. “What?”

  “They’re not going to leave you, even if you stop holding on so tight.”

  “I know that,” she snarled.

  “I don’t think you do, darling. I really don’t.”

  Tessa squeezed her hands to fists, curling her fingers tighter and tighter. “Don’t think you know me. Don’t think you can point at my childhood and tell me where I went wrong. I’ve known you for two weeks. Two weeks of sex and not much else. And it’s over, do you understand? This is over.”