Sweeter Than Sin (24 page)

“No. But then again, he’s never been sucker punched like that.” He lingered another moment, lifted a hand to cup her cheek. Eyes intent on her face, he pressed his thumb to her lower lip and dragged it across the swell.

Heat gathered like a storm inside her and then he moved in, replaced his thumb with his mouth, soft at first, like he wasn’t sure of his welcome. She sighed against him, unable to pull away, unable to even think of it. When she opened for him, he banded his arm around her waist and pulled her flush against him, so that not even air separated them. The heat of his body was shocking and she wanted to curl around him, rub against him like a cat. His mouth ate at hers, his tongue stroking, teasing, tasting … and then she was back on her feet while he put distance between them. “This isn’t done,” he said as he turned away. “You know that.”

It wasn’t a question.

So she didn’t bother answering.

The door banged shut behind him as she sagged against the counter.

She was in so far over her head. And not just because of what happened twenty years ago.

*   *   *

Everybody had a place, that one spot they went to when the entire world had just been ripped away.

Adam’s spot was the path along the river.

Noah’s was in the park. He liked hiking up to one of the more secluded waterfalls and he’d stay there until the park rangers basically kicked him out. Adam wasn’t particularly happy about dragging his tired ass down one of those trails after his run, but as he pulled into the spot next to Noah’s truck, he knew there wasn’t much choice.

Noah was already on the trail, and if Adam wanted to talk to him, he was going to have to catch up to him.

This really wasn’t the kind of talk people had on a cell phone.

It wasn’t really the kind of talk people had
anywhere
as far as Adam was concerned. Just how did he approach this?

He didn’t know, and in the thirty minutes it took to catch up to Noah, no bright, shining revelations slammed into him, either. Of course, it might be easier to think about if he didn’t still have the taste of Lana on his lips, if he wasn’t still feeling the sweet weight of her breasts against his chest, the strong, determined grip of her hands on his shoulders as she wound herself around him.

He found himself facing Noah with absolutely no idea what to say. That turned out to be okay, because before he even had a chance to catch his breath, Noah slammed him up against one of the massive, mossy rocks that had fallen away from the cliffs hundreds of years ago. Staring into Noah’s haggard face, Adam stood there, passive and unresisting. Waiting.

“How long have you known?” Noah demanded. His hands fisted in Adam’s shirt and he shook him. “How long?”

“Just a few days,” Adam said softly.

“Don’t lie to me!”

“I’m not.” He reached up and closed his hands around Noah’s wrists, squeezed. “I’d lie to a lot of people, Noah, but I wouldn’t lie to you. I didn’t know until I saw her down at the river. She just came back a couple of days ago; I swear.”

Angry, confused eyes stared at him.

Then, just as swiftly as Noah had grabbed him, Noah turned away. Without saying a word, he dropped to the ground, harsh, ragged breaths coming out of him.

*   *   *

The logical thing to do was stay inside.

Lana knew that.

She didn’t give a damn.

She’d already screwed up, hurting the last person on earth she’d ever wanted to hurt.

Now, before she could do anybody else any damage, she needed to find the man she’d come back here to find.

Nothing could change until she could talk, but those secrets … they weren’t hers to share and she needed to know if he’d kept the video.

She almost called for the information she needed, but paranoia had been her constant companion over the years and in the end she decided she’d make her request in person. Other than what had had happened with Noah, she was actually pretty damn good at evading notice, and she figured she could get to where she needed to be without being seen.

She should have done it the first day she’d seen him—no, the first day she’d arrived—but the shock of seeing Adam, her father, the shock of being home … all of it. She’d taken a few days to hit her stride, but enough was enough.

She hit her small cache of clothes and changed, going with yet another pair of baggy, wrinkled pants that hung too loose on her hips, a skintight bodysuit and a baseball cap she pulled down low over her face. The clothes were dark, leaving her looking paler than she really was, and she hunted down the glasses, putting them on before she left.

She didn’t leave a note, just took the key to Adam’s side door and set off.

The old man was going to tell her what she needed to know.

He had to know.

He knew every damn thing that happened in this town.

He didn’t know about the club.…

She swallowed the nausea roiling in her gut and pushed that thought off to the side.
No. He hadn’t known about that.

But he did now.

Too many people knew now and they weren’t going to be able to brush it under the rug.

There wasn’t going to be another kid like David who went to the police desperate for help and instead of getting help, he was beaten, threatened, brutalized even more.

Fury locked her jaw and tightened her muscles.

David got away,
she told herself.

It was the one thing that had kept her sane. That scared, skinny kid with bruises and scars and a broken soul had managed to get away. That was the one thing she knew to be true.

Now she just had to find him.

*   *   *

If he was smart, he would have acted on this man first.

William T. Merchant had been a deputy sheriff before he retired and he’d done a stint in the army.

But that didn’t necessarily mean much, not to his way of thinking. All of that should have meant Willie T. would be a good, honorable man.

Not a child molester, a brutal, ruthless predator.

But things were what they were. He’d done his own time in the army, and he knew you could find honorable men standing side by side with abusers, thieves and killers.

He would probably be considered an honorable man by many. He was also a liar and a killer. A person could wear many masks.

Willie T. was proof of that. Deputy. Soldier. Protector. Rapist.

The mask was coming off tonight. Even if they both died over this, it was a price he was willing to pay. He just hoped those who loved him would understand why he’d done the things he’d done.

He had known it wouldn’t be easy to get inside Willie T.’s house, although when the opportunity presented itself, it had been almost miraculously easy. It had proven to be harder for him to get away from his own. The mid-day was never easy and he had to figure out a way that wouldn’t raise suspicion. Sooner or later he would be caught, and he was well aware of that fact. He just wanted to settle as much as he could before it happened.

The way he saw it, he was taking out the men who would either stand a better chance at making a jury believe their lies or find some other way to evade prosecution.

He could see Willie T. taking the same road that Jeb had taken.

It was too easy.

Willie T. needed to look somebody in the eyes and know that he had been seen for what he was.

Then he could die and rot in hell.

It had been a godsend, really, the way Shannon Kirchner had left her key ring at the house. Shannon cleaned houses for a living and she was as reliable as the day was long, but that one day her youngest had ended up sick—the day care suspected chicken pox. Shannon shared custody with her ex-husband, and her ex couldn’t pick the kids up. His new wife had been diagnosed with breast cancer and the chemo made it too easy for to pick up anything and everything. Chicken pox was a big
no
on that front, so Shannon had been scrambling to get things covered … and the keys had just been … forgotten.

She’d called the next day and he would feel guilty, later, lying to her as he’d done.

But he’d seen the neatly labeled keys and he’d seen keys for not just
one
but
two
of the men he needed to deal with.

Really, it was too easy.

So he’d go after Willie T. now, before the man got it in his head to be any more careful.

He’d already be putting two and two together after Troyer and Quimby. He couldn’t have Willie T. shutting himself away.

Killing a former officer of the law wasn’t going to be the easiest thing as it was.

Fortunately, Willie T. lived outside of town.

Another thing that played in his favor … a number of the cops and deputies in town were rather careful about their security, even in a town as small as Madison. They had dogs or security systems. But Willie T. didn’t like dogs and he was notoriously tightfisted. Too tightfisted to pay for a security system, a fact that was going to make this much easier.

He even recalled the discussion where Willie T. had lit into Brad Collins, one of the small-business owners in Madison—he had a satellite office or a franchise, whatever they called it. Basically, he operated his own business, selling security systems for a larger nationwide company, and Willie T. had called him a thief when he heard how much the service had cost. Brad and Willie T. had words about that, right in the coffee shop, just a year or two ago.

Willie T. seemed to think his being a former deputy would keep people from breaking into his home.

And for the most part, that was probably a fair assumption.

But he wasn’t there to steal anything.

This was all about justice.

He chose his place carefully, making his way up the stairs and groaning as his knee popped. He’d only have one shot at this, and if he failed he was likely going to die.

Willie T. was a crack shot and he had been sighted carrying a gun about town more than once.

So he was just going to have to make sure he got the first round off.

He wasn’t a bad shot himself.

And if it left him feeling unsettled about what he was getting ready to do, then he’d just think about all the names he’d read in that journal of Harlan’s. All the names … all the boys. The pictures he hadn’t quite gotten around to burning.

How far back did it go?
he wondered.

He had no idea.

But he knew one thing.

He was going to do everything in
his
power to make sure it stopped.

This time, for good.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

He wasn’t there.

Lana paced, skirting the edge of the property, knowing if she stayed much longer she was going to be seen.

The car parked in the drive didn’t belong to him and she couldn’t risk going down there if she didn’t know for certain he was there—

A footstep scuffed behind her and she turned, slowly, uncertain of just whom she might see.

Then, as though twenty years had melted away, she felt something warm and sweet shift through her. For just a moment, she was a kid again—sixteen and desperately in love.

Noah Benningfield stood there, looking at her, his blue eyes searching her face.

“Hi.”

He looked down at the ground, a sigh shuddering out of him. Silence, heavy and weighted, stretched out between them and she fought the urge to go to him. But that wasn’t her right anymore. She’d lost that.

Then he lifted his head and she found herself not seeing the boy he’d been but the man he’d become.

A tired smile slanted his lips and he shook his head. “You’ve got no idea how many times I thought about seeing you again. Just one more time. And now here you are and I have no idea what to say to you.”

“That makes two of us,” she said quietly. She glanced behind her, checked around and then eased deeper into the trees. “I … ah. Well. I hear you’re getting married.”

He nodded and the smile on his face changed.
He
changed. The smile, the absolute love he felt, lit him up. Something that might have been jealousy tried to bloom inside, but she smothered it before it could take root. He’d earned that happiness, had fought and paid dearly for it. “Yeah. This Saturday.” He grimaced and added, “I’d invite you, but…”

“That would be awkward,” she said.

“No.” He shook his head. “It’s not that. Trinity would like to meet you. It’s just—well, Adam says you’re keeping a low profile.”

“Ahhh…” She nodded and turned away, wrapping her arms around her middle, prepared for the questions, tried to think up the right answers. She’d never been able to lie to Noah. He saw right through it, each and every time. “Yes.”

“Okay.”

And that was it. She held her breath, waiting for something more, but it never came. After a full minute passed, she turned her head and stared at him.
“Okay?”
she echoed. “How can you just say
okay
?”

He laughed and leaned back against one of the trees at his back, an ancient oak that towered up into the sky. Around them, the various trees made a very effective curtain. Pine needles cushioned the ground while their scent flooded the air. Not too far away Noah and Lana could hear the rush of traffic, but in this spot here, it was like they were the only two who existed. “If you’re not ready to talk, Lana, you’re not going to talk,” he said, turning his head to look at her. “You were like that twenty years ago. I don’t figure that’s changed. Now if you
need
to talk … I’ll listen and whatever you have to say is safe with me. But I’m not going to demand answers. It won’t work anyway.”

“If anybody has a right to demand answers, it’s you,” she said, swallowing the knot in her throat.

“No.” He blew out a breath and pushed off the tree. “Maybe if I’d kept waiting, kept hoping? But some part of me stopped waiting … some part of me gave up hope a long time ago.”

And with those words, some part of her died. “I’m sorry, Noah.”

They both knew she was apologizing for more than she could possibly put into words.

“Don’t.” He closed the distance between them and lifted a hand, tipped her chin up with his finger. “I waited. For a very long time. And all the while, I did my damnedest to kill myself. Eventually, I stopped waiting, and I stopped trying to kill myself. But the life I’ve got now…” Some echo of that smile he’d worn when he spoke of his soon-to-be-wife appeared and his eyes all but burned with that love. “I don’t want to change anything that put me on this path. Every step we take, it’s for a reason. All my steps led me to her.”