Line of Scrimmage (28 page)

Ryan nodded. “I can get you the canceled check to prove it.”

“Did he say what the money was for?”

“Gambling debts. After I left him I drove over to the house in Cherry Hills. My wife and I were estranged at the time. I sat
outside for a long time. I wanted to talk to her, but . . . ”

“So you didn’t go in?”

Ryan shook his head. “I didn’t think I’d be welcome.

Eventually I went home.”

“To your place in the city?”

Ryan nodded.

“Did you see or talk to anyone in the building?”

He thought about that. “Not that I can recall, but it was more than six months ago. The one thing I know for sure is I didn’t
have sex with this Misty Carmichael or anyone else for that matter.”

“He’s told me this before,” Susannah said in a voice that sounded high and almost hysterical, even to her.

“This whole thing about seeing his father and the money and coming over to the house afterwards. He told me this a month ago
after we got back together.”

“Give us a chance to confirm what you’ve told us,”

Cooper said. “We’ll be back.”

“This is good,” Chuck said with an enthusiastic grin.

“This is really good.”

But one look at Ryan told Susannah it wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all.

Chapter 29

RYAN FIXATED ON A FADED POSTER-SIZED PICTURE OF the Rocky Mountains but didn’t say a word while one hour stretched into two
as they waited for the detectives to return.

“I need to use the restroom,” Susannah finally said, and Chuck showed her where it was.

She was washing her hands when the door opened and a pretty young girl came in. Only her pregnant belly gave her away as the
girl who was trying to turn their lives upside down. Her long blond hair was in a ponytail, and her blue eyes were red from
crying. Susannah was startled to realize the girl was a younger version of herself. She could have been her sister or her
daughter.

“Why are you doing this?” Susannah asked her. “My husband has never met you, let alone slept with you.”

“Please excuse me,” she whispered. “I need to use the bathroom.”

“
You’re lying!
I don’t know what you hope to gain from this, but you’re not going to destroy his life—our life. I won’t let you.”

The girl began to weep. “Please . . . ”

A female police officer came in to check on the girl.

“Mrs. Sanderson, please be on your way.”

“I just want some answers,” Susannah pleaded.

The cop gestured to the door, the warning clear in her expression.

With one last pointed look at the girl, Susannah left the bathroom. “I saw her—Misty Carmichael,” she said to Ryan and Chuck
when she returned to the interrogation room. “She looks just like me.”

“What do you mean?” Ryan asked.

“Just what I said. She could be me fifteen years ago.”

“What the
hell?
”

Chuck shook his head. “This whole thing stinks to high heaven.”

By the time the detectives finally returned an hour later, it was after one in the morning.

“I’m afraid we owe you an apology, Mr. Sanderson.”

Ryan’s sigh of relief was audible. “I
told
you she was lying.”

“Did she say
why?
” Susannah asked.

“She was hired to say Mr. Sanderson fathered her child. However, she wasn’t counting on
her
father bringing the police into it.”

“
Hired?
” Ryan roared. “By who?”

Ortiz consulted his notebook. “A Henry Merrill and a Betsy James. Do you know these people?”

Susannah, who had been pacing the small room, sat down hard when her legs gave out under her.

“Yes,” Ryan snarled. “We know them.”

“And do you know why they’d want to do something like this to you?”

“I know exactly why.” He told the cops about Henry’s history with Susannah and the restraining order he had out on Betsy.
“That should be easy enough for you to confirm,” he said, barely managing to contain his hostility.

“We have people running their names through the system right now.”

“Please tell me they’re going to be charged with something substantial,” Chuck said.

“They’ve both been arrested and are on their way in right now to face numerous charges. We’re still sorting out the details,
but apparently Ms. James knew Ms.

Carmichael’s family and somehow discovered the girl was hiding a pregnancy.”

“So who’s the father?” Ryan asked.

“Ms. Carmichael has been seeing a University of Colorado student, whom her parents didn’t know about, and he’s the baby’s
father. When Mr. Merrill and Ms. James offered her twenty-five thousand dollars to name you as the baby’s father, she saw
it as a way for her and the boyfriend to live together. That she closely resembled Mrs. Sanderson was a bonus to them. According
to Ms. Carmichael, they figured it’d make sense that you’d be attracted to someone who looked like your estranged wife. Their
scheme fell apart because they took a gamble and picked a date when you had a solid alibi, which your father has confirmed,
by the way. Eventually, DNA would’ve exonerated you, but that would’ve taken a while.” He didn’t have to add it would’ve taken
just long enough to ruin Ryan’s life, which, of course, had been the goal.

Ryan’s lips were white, and his cheek pulsed with tension.

“I hope the girl is being charged, too,” Chuck said.

“Yes, as a juvenile. Reporting a false crime and defamation.”

“Can’t you leave her out of it?” Ryan asked. “She’s as much a victim in this as I am.”

Cooper looked at Ryan with surprise. “Mr. Sanderson, do you have any idea how much trouble you would’ve been in if we could’ve
made this case?”

“
Of course I do!
” He slapped his hand on the Formica table. “You’ve given me three hours to sit here and think of nothing else. But she’s
a kid who was victimized by two people with a thirst for revenge against my wife and me. Leave her out of it.”

“I’ll pass along your thoughts to the family court judge,” Cooper said. “That’s the best I can do. You’re free to go. I appreciate
your cooperation and your patience. I’m sorry again for any inconvenience.”

“Is this going to be all over the papers?” Ryan asked.

“We’ve had several calls from reporters. Unfortunately, it’s public information.”

“Great,” Ryan said. “That’s just
great.
”

“You were the victim of a crime, Mr. Sanderson. I’m confident it’ll be reported as such.”

“Yes, with my name and the words ‘statutory rape’ in the same sentence,” Ryan said with a bitter laugh. “I’m sure that’ll
do wonders for my reputation not to mention my endorsement deals. Damage done, Detective.”

“I’m sorry.”

Ryan glanced at Susannah. “Let’s go.”

Chuck followed them as they navigated the maze to the waiting area, which had all but cleared out in the hours since they
had arrived. The doors burst open and four cops came in, escorting Henry and Betsy, who were handcuffed. Henry’s coat hung
open, and there was a big, wet stain on the front of his pajamas.

Since Ryan and Susannah were blocking their way, the cops had no choice but to stop with their prisoners.

“You stupid son of a bitch,” Ryan hissed at Henry, who refused to look at him. “Didn’t work out quite like you planned, did
it? You just assumed I spent the time I was separated from Susie whoring it up, didn’t you? Must’ve been a big shock to hear
I had a rock-solid alibi that had nothing to do with another woman. I’ve got to give you an A for effort, though. When you
go over the edge, you do it spectacularly.”

“Fuck you,” Henry muttered.

“Ryan, don’t,” Susannah said, placing her hand on Ryan’s back. “He’s so not worth it.”

Henry’s eyes filled when he looked at her. “This is all your fault! You drove me to it by jerking me around for years.”

“No, Henry,” Susannah said quietly. “You drove yourself to this with your unhealthy obsession with another man’s wife.”

“Today was supposed to be our
wedding
day, Susannah. You made promises to me, and then you left me for
him,
just like you always do.”

“
Ryan,
” Betsy said with a frantic edge to her voice. “I only went along with it because I love you. She doesn’t appreciate you.
Not like I do.”

“Shut up, Betsy,” Henry snapped.

“All right, that’s enough,” one of the cops said. They ushered Henry and Betsy toward central booking.

“
Ryan!
” Betsy cried again before the door closed behind them.

Susannah clutched her stomach when a vicious wave of nausea rippled through her.

“What’s wrong?” Ryan asked.

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

He hustled her outside into the cold, which was a shock to her system after the stagnant air of the police station.

“Better?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

He turned to shake hands with his attorney. “Thanks for everything tonight, Chuck.”

“You might want to consider civil charges against them,” Chuck said.

Ryan shook his head. “No way. This’ll get enough ink without me perpetuating it. I just want it to go away.”

“You’ll both be called to testify if it goes to trial,” he warned them.

“Freaking nightmare,” Ryan muttered.

“Take your wife home,” Chuck said, his hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “She’s looking kind of pale. You’ll both feel better after
you get some sleep.”

He left them, and Ryan guided Susannah to the passenger side of her car. They drove home in silence to a house where the lights
were still on in the den, his guitar still leaned against the sofa, and the fire had burned down to embers. The house was
exactly as they had left it, but everything was different. Altered.

They went up to bed and lay awake for hours, both trying on their own to absorb what had happened, what had nearly happened,
and the stunning array of implications.

“Ry?” Susannah finally said as the sun began to peek through the blinds.

“What?”

“Talk to me.”

“What do you want me to say?

“Something.”

“Hmmm, how about I’m grateful to be here with you and not in jail? Or, your ex-fiancé did a real number on me? Or how about
this? I appreciated your support.

Where do you want me to start?”

She sat up to look at him. “What’s that supposed to mean? You appreciated my support? I was right there with you the whole
time.”

He chuckled, but there was an edge to it that set her already frazzled nerves further on edge.

“If you have something to say, just say it.”

“You believed it. For an instant, you believed what they were saying about me. I saw it on your face.”

“Ryan Sanderson, I don’t know what you think you saw, but the only thing I was feeling was shock—the same thing you were feeling.”

“No, it was different for me, because I
knew
I hadn’t done anything wrong. You weren’t so sure.”

“
How can you say that to me?
I never thought for
one
second
that you fooled around with a teenager!”

He mimicked her tone and her accent when he said, “‘Are you sure you don’t know her, Ry? You meet so many people.’”

“That was a perfectly honest question! I was just wondering if maybe you
did
know her, and she’d turned something innocent into something more. We both know how that can happen to people like you who’re
in the public eye. We’ve
seen
it happen. That’s all I was saying.” When her stomach churned violently, Susannah bolted for the bathroom and vomited.

Ryan came to the doorway. “Are you all right?”

With her head hanging over the toilet, the whole thing finally hit her, and her sobs echoed through the bathroom.

He wet a face cloth and sat down next to her, drawing her into his arms. Running the cloth over her face and mouth, he wiped
away her tears.

“I didn’t believe them, Ry,” she said between sobs. “I didn’t. I believed you. I tried to help you. When I said you’d told
me that story about your father before. I tried to help.”

“Okay, baby. Let’s just forget about it.”

She pulled away from him. “Do you believe me?”

“Yeah,” he said, bringing her head back to rest on his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed.

“For what?”

“Henry. You tried to warn me he was dangerous, but I never imagined he’d do something like this to you.”

“He didn’t do it alone,” Ryan said bitterly. “He found an able accomplice in psycho bitch. We should’ve reported him when
he sprained your wrist. Maybe
that
would’ve scared the piss out of him before any of this could’ve happened.”

Susannah chuckled sadly. “I just can’t believe . . . ”

“What, baby?”

“That they hate us so much just because we’re together and we’re happy,” she whispered. “It’s overwhelming.”

“Well, they’re going to be punished for it.”

“So are you. What you said to the detective about your reputation and your endorsements was true. This’ll kill your Q.”

He shrugged. “I didn’t do anything. That’s got to count for something.”

“The whole ugly mess will be in the paper tomorrow—what happened tonight, Henry, our broken engagement, the restraining order,
a rehash of the fight at the ball. All of it.”

“Probably.”

She shuddered.

Ryan helped her up and leaned against the counter while she brushed her teeth. “Why don’t we go to the cabin for a few days
until it dies down? We’ll just pretend like nothing ever happened.”

“Won’t running away make us look like we have something to hide?”

He grimaced at the irony. “We’ve got nothing left to hide, so let’s go right now before this thing has time to settle in and
infect us with its ugliness. Do you feel up to it?”

“I guess I can be nauseous there as well as here.”

He kissed her forehead. “Hurry up. Pack what you need and throw on a coat. We’ll sleep when we get there.”

On the way to Breckenridge, they made two phone calls despite the early hour—to Bernie and to her parents in Florida. They
were all shocked to hear what had transpired and agreed Ryan and Susannah were doing the right thing by going to the cabin.

“Let me know if you need anything, man,” Bernie said. “I just can’t get over this.”

“Believe me, neither can I,” Ryan said.

Susannah’s parents were flabbergasted.

“It’s just
outrageous,
” was Dalton’s take. “That Henry would do something so evil and not just to you and Ryan but to that young girl, too.”

“I know, Daddy,” Susannah said. “I’m still trying to get my head around it.”

“We’re here for you if you need us, Susannah,” her mother said. “We’re here for both of you.”

“Thank you, Mama. We’ll call you in a few days.” As she ended the call, it wasn’t lost on Susannah that it had taken an evil
act on Henry’s part for Ryan to finally earn her parents’ support. She glanced over at him. “Are you having trouble staying
awake?”

He shook his head. “I’ll be surprised if I can sleep when we get there. I’m so wired.”

Susannah took his hand and rested her head on his shoulder. She must have dozed off because she awoke as he carried her into
the cabin. “Hey,” she whispered.

“That was a quick trip.”

“Especially when you slept for most of it.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s been a long night.” He helped with her coat and tucked her into bed with a kiss. “Go back to sleep.”