A Simple Twist of Fate (22 page)

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 lesson. “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.

“I found Beck’s girlfriend going through my things,” Callen said, answering his mother and the shock in her voice. “Seems she wanted to get into this envelope.”

Beck’s gaze shot to Sophie. “
What?
”

She could read and hear his stunned confusion. The promise she made to stop searching. The concerns he spelled out for her. She had to get the words out before his focus shifted and he teamed up against her with Callen. “I can explain.”

Callen paced the small area in front of his bed. “I’m surprised you waited until today. You’ve had a month to handle this.”

From Callen’s jerky movements and the sudden frown on their mom’s face Sophie knew she’d lost their trust, violated it. But Beck would understand this was something blown up to feel like something bigger than it was. He knew about the jewelry. He knew this wasn’t an anti-Hanover thing.

She tried to breathe in and fill her head with oxygen but her words stumbled. She reached for Beck’s hand but it lay limp in hers. “Listen to me.”

“Let go of him,” Callen shouted.

Their mother blinked and pulled her oldest back when he would break Sophie’s hold on Beck. “Callen, stop.”

“Why were you up here? You’re not supposed to be here.” A certain hollowness rang in Beck’s voice as his gaze traveled around the room. It landed on his mother and brother, even the envelope. It glanced over Sophie then skipped away.

He sided with Callen
.

A sob hiccupped in her chest. Everything she cared about slipped out of her grasp. The powerful surge of relief she’d experienced just a few minutes ago ebbed and she was desperate to mentally hold on.

“I just needed . . .” Words failed her. Every way she put the sentence together damned her. She was in this room. She did resume her search, if only in a few boxes. She did touch the envelope.

It all sounded so wrong even though she believed it to be innocent. Beck’s face, with his drawn cheeks and sunken eyes, showed a pain that had her closing her eyes.

“Sophie, say something.” The words ground out of him on a harsh whisper.

She stared at him again. He offered a way out but she didn’t know how to take it. Every explanation contained a “yes, but . . .” and there was no way Callen would give her the second to say everything she needed to say. Not that she even knew what those words were right now. Her brain went blank and her body numb.

Callen let out another string of profanity. “You want to hear another lie from her? No thanks.”

Beck took the envelope from Callen and held it in front of Sophie. “Did you touch this?”

She glanced at Callen and his scowl all but dared her to say no. “Yes, but not how you think.”

“You promised me.” Beck was the one cutting her off now. He leaned in closer, blocking out the room behind him. “We talked about this. I don’t understand. Why would you be near that envelope?”

“It was a spur of the moment thing.” It sat there and she saw it. She’d never touched it before and never would have opened it now. But those were empty words when faced with the horror of Beck’s dead eyes. The spark had all but extinguished.

“What kind of answer is that?” Beck was every bit the lawyer now, listening and ripping apart her responses before they could even form in her head.

She swallowed back the hard ball of panic rising in her throat. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Nothing—”

“That’s even worse, Sophie. Come on. I mean, are you really here for the envelope? Damn it.” Beck shook his head then turned away.

The cut shredded her. Her heart that had been so full for him deflated. The pain mixed with the blankness inside her until the darkness closed in.

Called stopped pacing right in front of her. “Your story is a moving target. But you were compelling, I’ll give you that. Most of the people screwing with us hide it. You walked right through the front door and did it.”

“Okay.” Their mother walked into the middle of the fray. The color had leeched from her face. “We should go downstairs and calm down so we can talk this through.”

“There is nothing else to say.” Callen kept his attention focused solely on Sophie. “Get. The. Fuck. Out.”

His mother’s mouth dropped open. “Callen!”

Beck said nothing and that told Sophie everything. The hope, the belief in him, died. The argument was silly and stupid, but with his family’s background and all the betrayals handed to them by Charlie, everything became magnified and open to question. The way she came into the house and getting caught in Callen’s room made her an understandable target. All those doubts spun and grew into this mass. It choked her and messed with Beck.

He talked of separating parts of people’s lives. He saw things a certain way. And she may have blown her one chance to make him believe.

But she couldn’t stand there. She had to get out. Think. Regroup. With one last glance at Beck, she wiped her hands on her jeans. “I’ll go. We can talk later.”

A hand touched her arm and Beck pinned her with a blank expression. “Just make me understand.”

“Don’t bother,” Callen said.

This time he was probably right. “I’m sorry.”

And now she knew what heartbreak felt like.

***

Silence screamed through the room as soon as Sophie stepped into the hall and out of sight. Callen wanted to close his eyes and forget all of this. Really wanted to take that envelope and shred it before it caused one more minute of damage.

Words and arguments formed in his head but jammed up when he saw Beck’s face. Callen shook his head. Damn it, he’d been right. Beck loved Sophie and now the fallout of her lying would be ugly and harsh.

Callen knew he should say something but this shit was not his thing. He’d messed up with Declan and Leah and tried to stay out of Beck’s screwed-up sex life for as long as he could. Give a warning and then prepare to do some digging if he had to step in.

That had been the plan. Then his mom came to town and the focus shifted. Now Beck would pay the price for Callen not going with his instincts from the start.

Their mom broke the silence. Her gaze traveled between her sons. “What is wrong with you two?”

“I said what I needed to say. Sophie had to go and she’s gone.” Guilt smashed into him but Callen pushed it out of his head.

She
did this. Not him.
She
broke Beck’s heart, or whatever the hell was happening behind his fallen face. He stood there, staring at the wall and not saying anything. Callen couldn’t remember the last time Beck didn’t have a comment or an opinion.

“Your behavior was appalling.” His mother grabbed Callen’s arm and turned him to face her. “Since when do you talk to women like that?”

The smart-ass comment, always sitting right there ready, slipped out. “I guess you missed a few years. Maybe you don’t know me so well anymore. “

She pulled back as if he’d slapped her. “Callen, you’ve got to—”

“What?”