A Matter of Trust (17 page)

She swallowed and slowly stood, her legs
feeling like limp noodles. She wanted to run to him, throw her arms
around his neck, and beg forgiveness, except she was terrified.
“I’m sorry,” she said.

His expression was hard. She didn’t know if
he wanted to throttle her, yell at her, or if he would even listen.
“Did you mean what you said?” he asked.

“About?” She had said so many things.

“Stop playing games, Carrie. You said you
loved me.”

She nodded. Her throat was suddenly so dry
she couldn’t speak.

“I need to hear you say it.”

She took a step toward him, shaking inside.
She could see how stiffly he held himself. “I’m sorry for hurting
you, for not believing you, for thinking you could have done such
an awful thing. I meant every word I said to those reporters. I
just wish I could take everything back, go back and have a
do-over.”

“There’re no do-overs, Carrie. We all have
to live with our mistakes.”

She nodded, dying a little inside. Was this
goodbye? God, she hoped not. She didn’t want him to leave, to tell
her he couldn’t forgive her. “If I beg you to forgive me, will
you?” she said. “I love you, Ben, and I promise I’ll never doubt
your word again.”

This time, he laughed, not loudly, but it
was a soft chuckle that took some of the edge off. “Yes, you will.
You’ll question me, you’ll argue with me, and you’ll be a pain in
the ass. You’ll probably never do as you’re told.”

She couldn’t believe he’d said that! He
reached for her and pulled her into his arms.

“Does this mean…?” She couldn’t finish her
question.

“Well, if you want an unemployed ex-oilman
with no prospects on the horizon, you’ve got him.”

She slid her arms up over his shoulder and
stood on her tiptoes just as Ben slid his hands over her hips and
her butt and lifted her. Lowering his head, he kissed her.

“I’ll take you any way I can get you,” she
said, and she touched her lips to his and kissed him.

Ben looked over at Carrie, sound asleep in
her small double bed. Her apartment was a dump, but he had plans to
rectify that. In the morning, they were moving to Boise, into his
condo, until he could figure out his next steps and what the future
held for him. Ben Wilde wasn’t broke, not by a long shot, so he
could provide for them both for a while, and having some funds left
him with options on where to go and what he could do.

He pulled the bedroom door closed so he
wouldn’t disturb her, listening to the dial tone of his cell
phone.

“Ben, it’s kind of late to be calling,”
Verna said, sounding as if he’d woken her.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I
meant to call you before now.”

She sounded so sad when she sighed. “I’m
okay. I’m just…”

He waited, wondering what this woman, who
had worked for him, been loyal to him, and was like family to him,
was going to say.

“You didn’t have to send me money,” she
said. “Thirty thousand dollars, Ben, is a lot of money.”

“I did it, Verna, because you got caught in
the middle of something you never should have been dragged
into.”

“Well, thank you. I got a call from a friend
of yours—David Brooks, your competitor—and he offered me a job. Did
you have something to do with that?”

Of course he had. He’d called in every favor
he could to make sure that Verna came out of this mess with at
least something equivalent to what she’d had. “You’re a good woman,
Verna. David will be lucky to have you working with him. You’ll
like him. He’s decent.”

“And what about you, Ben? What are you going
to do?”

“I don’t know yet, Verna. Whatever it is,
it’ll be something that makes me happy.”

She actually laughed on the other end.
“Goodbye, Ben. Keep in touch.” And she hung up.

As Ben set his cell phone down on Carrie’s
small kitchen table, he knew he wouldn’t call, he wouldn’t intrude.
Even though he cared for Verna, she was in his past, and there were
times, when things like this happened, that it was best to close
the door so another one could open.

His exit strategy, which he was thankful he
would never have to use, was still tucked away in a safety deposit
box at his bank: the photos and evidence he’d come across three
years earlier, showing the truth of the accidental oil spill in
Wisconsin. Peter had been responsible, having given the order to
proceed before all safety protocols were in place. The evidence was
damning and had been buried. Peter had paid off politicians, and
the environmental investigator hired had also been bought, but Ben
had stumbled onto the truth and held on to it, because even though
he swore while he was president of this company that it would never
happen again, he was also smart enough to realize that he needed to
protect himself.

Tomorrow, with Carrie, would be the start of
a brand new day.

Next in the Wilde brothers stories is
The
Reckoning, A Wilde Brothers,
available December 2014.

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Thank
you so much for reading
A Matter of Trust
, about Ben and Carrie. There will be more to come
from this family, with Samuel and Jakes story to follow in the
spring. But next will be a very special Christmas that will bring
together all the Wilde’s, in The Reckoning.

If you
enjoyed
A
Matter of Trust
, please
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Now, although this book and all my books
have been edited and proofed, editors, proofreaders, and I are all
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Lorhainne
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