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“Because she once had a crush on me? That was years and years ago. We never even dated, so it seems unlikely that she would’ve talked about me very much.”

“Let’s just say you left an impression. And your twin left an even greater one.” He checked his watch. “That’s all you’ll get from me.”

Addy’s ex knew the whole story; Noah could tell. That made the rape, and what happened afterward, all too real.

“She told you she caused my brother’s death.”

Clyde’s eyes widened. He started to say something, then, smoothing his goatee with a thumb and one finger, changed his mind. “If you already know, why are you here?”

Because he’d needed some kind of confirmation. He didn’t want to think his brother could hurt
any
woman in that way, especially an innocent sixteen-year-old. Especially
Addy.
And he certainly didn’t want to believe she’d caused the cave-in that took Cody’s life.

But Clyde, someone who wasn’t remotely connected to Whiskey Creek and all the loyalties and prejudices that existed there, obviously had a clear understanding of Addy’s past.

His brother had helped gang-rape a girl on the night of his death.... “I guess I’m having a hard time coming to terms with it. She told me quite a story.”

“Yeah, well, whatever she told you, you can bet it was that bad and worse, because she probably modified the truth to protect your feelings. What those bastards did to her messed her up for years. It cost thousands of dollars in therapy, and it ruined our marriage.”

Noah dropped his head in his hand. “I was hoping you were going to say something else.”

“You’d rather believe she’s lying?” he challenged.

That was a good question, but there wasn’t a good answer. He couldn’t win either way. “Cody wasn’t just my brother...”

“I know. He was your twin. Why do you think she gave him the time of day to begin with?”

“Because he reminded her of me?”

“That’s the version I’ve always heard.”

“God.” He still wanted to see Adelaide, to touch her. That hadn’t changed, even now. She seemed so...good, so down to earth. He couldn’t really believe she’d lie about something that could destroy so many lives.

But taking her side would pit him against his family, several of his old friends and those in the community who supported them. And he’d only known her, in any significant way, for a couple of weeks.

“Did she tell you someone kidnapped her from her bed and dragged her back to the mine after she returned home? That he threatened her with a knife?”

Clyde shook his head. “Is that why she finally decided to tell the truth?”

Noah remembered the look on her face when he’d confronted her at Just Like Mom’s last night. “I think after everything that’s happened since she’s been home, she just reached her breaking point.”

“I begged her to come forward years ago,” he said, “but she wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Why not?”

“She had a lot of reasons. But part of it was that she didn’t want you and your family to have to know what your brother did and what she’d done as a result.”

“She was worried about
us?
”

“She once told me you were the only man she ever wanted with her whole heart.” He laughed but there was no humor in it. “You asked me a second ago why I remembered your name. Now you know.”

29

W
hen Noah returned to town, he told himself to drive right by Milly’s. He had no business siding with Addy, a woman he’d known for such a short amount of time. He owed his family more loyalty, especially because Adelaide could’ve lied to her ex-husband. Kevin, Derek—they were all denying what she said. And his parents were supporting them wholeheartedly. He’d received several calls on his way home, enough to know where everyone stood. He’d even received a call from Shania Carpenter.

But it didn’t matter. He couldn’t escape the fact that he believed Addy, couldn’t add to what she’d been through by calling her a liar. Now he understood why she wouldn’t say exactly what had happened the night she was abducted, why she’d told him they couldn’t see each other, why she got threatening notes while dating him, even why she’d reacted to Kevin Colbert as she had at Black Gold Coffee.

Maybe his family would hate him for it, but he was going to stand by her.

When Milly answered the door, she didn’t seem to know what to say. Instead of being her usual cheerful self, she was somewhat subdued, and he could tell she’d been crying.

“Is Addy okay?” he asked.

“Chief Stacy just left. It was...rough on her to...to have to recount everything in such detail. Those details weren’t easy to hear, either.”

He was grateful he hadn’t been around for that part. He was afraid of what he’d do to Kevin and the others, despite the fact that his brother seemed to have instigated the attack.

“Can I see her?”

“She doesn’t want to put you in the middle, Noah. She told me to tell you, if you came by, to go on about your business. She—she wishes you well and wants you to be happy.”

She started to shut the door but he stopped it. “Nice try, but no thanks,” he said, and squeezed through the opening despite Milly’s walker. “Addy?” he called.

Helen came out of her bedroom. “I just gave her a sleeping pill,” she said. “She’ll be fine after she gets some rest.”

“I’m glad to hear that, but I’m not leaving.” Circumventing Helen, too, he let himself into Addy’s room.

She lifted her head when she heard him come in. “Noah, you need to leave before someone sees your truck.”

He didn’t respond. He scooted her over to make room in the bed. Then, even though it was only midafternoon, he got in, wrapped his arms around her and drew her up against him.

“Go to sleep, Addy,” he murmured. “We’ll figure it all out when you wake up.”

* * *

“Addy? Chief Stacy needs to talk to you again.”

Noah had drifted off. When he heard Milly trying to wake Adelaide, he raised his head. “She’s finally resting. Can’t she talk to him later?”

“He asked me to wake her. He says word that the coach of the football team and other respected members of the community might’ve been involved in a gang rape is spreading all over town. Everyone’s riled up. He wants to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible, which means he needs her full cooperation.”

“
Might’ve
been involved?” Helen stood in the doorway behind Milly. “Tell him they
were
involved, those sons of bitches. My baby wouldn’t lie about that.”

The police chief’s wording worried Noah, too. Didn’t Stacy believe her? And, if not, was it because of the pressure his father was bringing to bear? Brent was, after all, the mayor.

The mere idea that his father might be actively working against Addy made Noah angry.

“Who’s at the restaurant?” Addy was coming around but sounded groggy.

“Relax, everything’s fine there,” Helen replied. “I’m going back now. I just came home to check on you.”

“I’m okay,” Adelaide insisted, but Noah was worried for her. His father would be a formidable foe.

Milly inched closer, hampered by carrying the phone while trying to use her walker. “Honey, Chief Stacy says that none of the men you’ve accused of raping you owns a white truck or a white SUV, except Stephen. And his hasn’t been in an accident. Stephen is saying you came by and saw that for yourself.”

“If they don’t own one, it has to belong to a friend or neighbor. Someone here in Whiskey Creek is driving a white vehicle that’s banged up on the front right panel.”

Noah stiffened when a vision of his father’s Range Rover popped into his mind. It was white, and it was damaged exactly where Addy said it would be.

But none of his old baseball buddies would’ve had access to his father’s car.

“What’s this about a white vehicle?” he asked.

Addy curled in on herself. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I
am
worried. How can you be sure the person who abducted you was driving a white truck or SUV? Weren’t you blindfolded?”

“I was, but I could tell it wasn’t a car. And we hit the retaining wall down the street between Lovett’s Bridal and the lawnmower shop. Stacy can check that wall himself. It has white paint all over it.”

Milly relayed this message to Stacy, who was still on the line. A moment later, she covered the phone. “Chief Stacy’s wondering if maybe your abductor hit something else and the damage to that wall happened another time, to a different car.”

“No.” Addy remained adamant. “It was only a minute, if that, after we left the driveway. I remember hearing the scrape. He freaked out when I grabbed the wheel and he slugged me.” She touched the eye that had been so swollen.

Milly repeated this to Chief Stacy, as well. But Noah had stopped listening. His mind was stuck on what he’d seen in his parents’ garage. Had his father really hit a tree? Surely, Brent wouldn’t do anything to hurt Addy unless...unless he truly believed Addy was to blame for what went on at that party.

A sense of foreboding set in as Noah slipped out of bed. “I’ve got to go take care of a few things,” he said.

Adelaide grasped his arm. “Noah?”

He smoothed the hair out of her face. “What?”

“Don’t come back.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s not too late. We’ve been seeing each other for what...two weeks? You don’t owe me anything.”

Helen had left, presumably to return to the restaurant; Milly was talking to Chief Stacy. “You don’t think what we’ve had, what we could have, is worth fighting for?”

She wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I think this is the beginning of something that could tear your family apart. I don’t want to be responsible for that. And...how will we ever get beyond it?” She paused. “You’ll meet someone else.”

But that was it. He didn’t
want
anyone else. He never really had.

He remembered Joe’s daughter, Josephine, telling him at Just Like Mom’s what it took to find a wife.
You have to fall in love with someone and prove you won’t
ever
stop loving them.

“You’re not just another woman to me,” he said.

* * *

His father’s receptionist seemed relieved when he showed up at city hall. “Noah’s here!” she said into the intercom.

His father appeared almost immediately and ushered him into his office. “Why haven’t you been answering your phone?” he asked as he closed the heavy wooden door.

“Because I turned it off.”

“Chief Stacy said you’ve been at Adelaide’s all day. He saw your truck.”

“That wasn’t meant to be a secret.”

“I don’t want you seeing her anymore, Noah. If she’ll say what she’s saying about Cody, there’s no telling what she might accuse you of doing.”

Noah found that preposterous, a desperate attempt to influence him. Addy was trying to push him away, to protect him—not hurt him. She was the only one who wasn’t pleading her case and demanding his support. “Mom said you got an anonymous note after Cody died. It’s time you told me about it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you do.”

His father made an imperious gesture, one that revealed his irritation with being questioned. “It said nothing—nothing of the truth, anyway.”

“Was it about the party? Was it a message from someone who knew what happened and was trying to alert you?” What else would have “tormented” his parents, except the fear that their dearly departed son might not have been as admirable as they’d always believed?

“What if it was?” his father responded. “There was no signature, so it doesn’t matter one way or the other. For all we know, that letter came from Adelaide.”

Noah gaped at his father. “Have you thought this through, Dad?”

“I’ve thought of little else since she returned to town, I’ll tell you that.”

“Then maybe you can answer this: Why would Adelaide falsely accuse Cody or anyone else? Especially now, after all this time? What does she have to gain? Do you honestly believe she wasn’t raped?”

He turned to stare out the window. “Whatever happened, it was fifteen years ago.”

Noah stepped toward him.
“So?”

His father glowered at him over one shoulder. “Cody’s dead, Noah! Destroying everything he was won’t serve any purpose. It certainly won’t help Addy.”

“And the others who participated?
They’re
not dead.”

“No, but they’ve become decent men, upstanding members of the community. Throwing them in prison for something they did—might have done—a decade and a half ago won’t do anybody any good. Two have wives. Three have kids. The people who love them have no culpability in whatever took place. Do you want to see innocents suffer for an act that even she claims was perpetrated when Cody and his friends were barely eighteen and too drunk to know what they were doing?”

“So you believe her?”

“I’m saying
if.
”

His father’s logic made Noah afraid to ask his next question, the one he’d come here to ask. “Did you really hit a tree in the Range Rover, Dad?”

He whirled around. “Now you’re doubting
me?
”

“The man who kidnapped Addy was driving a white truck.”

“You think I don’t know that? You think Chief Stacy hasn’t been staying in close touch with me? I’m the mayor of this town!”

“So if you didn’t kidnap her, who did?”

He scowled. “It doesn’t matter.”

“You’re saying
you
didn’t do it, but you know who did?”

“Like I said, it doesn’t matter!”

His father was getting impatient, but Noah pressed on. He wasn’t going to settle for
It doesn’t matter.
“Chief Stacy just called Milly. He said none of the men Addy’s accused of raping her owns a white truck or SUV, except Stephen, and his hasn’t been in an accident.”

“Chief Stacy’s going to investigate, come up with nothing and let it all go. We’ve already talked about it. That’s what’s best for everyone.”

“What?”
Noah shoved a chair out of his way as he closed the gap between them. “You and Chief Stacy—you’re going to protect those who were responsible? You
do
believe her!
You’ve
just decided what justice should look like!”

“You’d rather see Coach Colbert and Tom Gibby torn from their families?”

“That isn’t what I want at all! But the truth isn’t for you to decide. Neither is the punishment. The one person you keep forgetting in all of this is Addy. She’s the
victim
here. She deserves our sympathy and our support.”

“She’s fine. You’ve been in bed with her yourself. You know she’s recovered well enough.”

The casual way he addressed their relationship infuriated Noah. His father wanted to think it was all about sex, but it wasn’t. “I have been in bed with her, Dad.
I’ve made love to her.
That’s why I know how deeply what they did affected her. They don’t have the right to sweep this under the rug—and neither do you. I won’t let you.”

“What are you going to do to stop me?” his father demanded.

“Anything I have to,” he said.

* * *

Noah didn’t leave Addy’s side for the better part of a week. Either he was at Milly’s, or he took her to his house. She knew he was afraid she might suffer some sort of backlash if he wasn’t there to protect her. That was why she hadn’t gone in to work. Too many Whiskey Creek citizens were upset with her for “trying to ruin the reputations of four good men” in addition to the memory of the golden boy they’d lost. They didn’t understand how she could accuse Cody of such a terrible crime—which meant, of course, that she had to be lying about Coach Colbert, Tom and the others, too.

Addy thought Tom might speak up and tell the truth. He’d been so contrite when he came over to apologize that night after the football game, so filled with regret. But, according to Chief Stacy, he was keeping his story consistent with that of the others.

Noah didn’t work much that week, either. He let his employees handle the bike store while he searched for a connection between Kevin, Stephen, Derek or Tom and a white vehicle that’d been damaged. He was afraid his father had been more involved than he was willing to admit and desperately wanted to prove otherwise. Addy wanted that, too. Although Noah didn’t talk about it, she understood how hard it was for him to lose his good opinion of his brother. It felt almost as if he was suffering through Cody’s death again, this time the death of his image. He didn’t want to think his father would go to such lengths to cover it up. Addy wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to forgive his father if that was the case. But they weren’t having much luck. He could find no connection between Kevin, Tom or Derek and a white truck. And Stephen was keeping his Chevy locked in his garage.

On Thursday morning, Noah had to run over to the store to help his tech finish a bike repair he was having trouble with, so Addy decided to get started on revamping the menu for Just Like Mom’s. Although she no longer planned to suggest that Gran sell the restaurant—she feared it would be too much for her grandmother on the heels of everything else—she still wanted to improve it. She’d been keeping herself busy bringing the accounting up to date, cooking and cleaning and creating new recipes, but she was going stir-crazy staying in so much. She was afraid she might have to move back to Davis in order to live a normal life. But she didn’t know how long her mother would stay with Gran. Helen had been talking to her husband at night on the phone. Addy had heard bits and pieces of their conversations and thought they’d probably reconcile. Not that it would last, even if they did. They fought all the time.