Tyler O’Neill’s Redemption (15 page)

“Which is why I can’t do it again,” he muttered. “My dad…” He shook his head and she understood why he kept the man around, despite the pain he’d caused. He was the only family Tyler had left—without Richard, he had no one.

“That’s why you’re staying,” she said. “Your dad?”

“Someone has to look after him.” He looked up at her, right through her. “But he’s only part of the reason.”

The question she didn’t want to ask ripped its way from her heart, leaving behind a thousand cuts that would never heal.

“Are you staying for me?” she asked.

Tyler looked up at the sun, over to Miguel in the distance, and all the while Juliette held her breath, knowing the answer and not wanting to hear it.

Don’t say it, Tyler. Don’t make this happen. Don’t put us here.

“Would you have me?” he whispered.

She gasped, as if taking her last breath before drowning in cold, cold water.

She fumbled with the door, needing to be out of there before her heart spoke for her. “I need to go,” she said. “I need to get Miguel and pick up Louisa.”

His hand on the bare skin of her arm froze her. Her entire body felt the press of those fingers, the heat of that palm. She closed her eyes, swamped, utterly overrun by sensation.

“You’re running,” he said. His thumb grazed the sensitive skin of her elbow. Her body loosened its boundaries, relinquished its control. It’s what he always did to her. It’s what she’d always wanted him to do to her and she wanted it again. Now.

“Answer me, Jules.”

She couldn’t, afraid of what would spill out if she opened her lips.

“I know you feel something,” he murmured. His fingertips brushed her cheek, the corner of her lip, and she wanted to hoard the sensation, the electric pulses and shocks. “I know I’m not alone.”

You’re not,
she thought.
You never were.

“I don’t know,” she said, looking up at him with old eyes. She was no longer Chief Tremblant. She was Jules, a girl in love.

“Juliette?”

“I’ll think about it.”

There was a thump upstairs and she walked across the checkered foyer to the bottom of the curving mahogany staircase. This house had been in Momma’s family for generations, and without her in it, the place seemed like a museum. Dad just didn’t have the power to fill it like Momma used to.

“What’s happening, Juliette?” Dad asked, coming to stand on the landing, his elegant face creased with worry.

The anger in her doubled at the sight of him.

“What did you do to Tyler ten years ago to make him leave?”

Dad frowned, as if the question didn’t make sense. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Cut the crap!” she cried, gripping the balustrade so hard her fingers ached. “I know you did something that night, or Owens did something worse than a bloody nose. What was it?”

Dad stepped down the rest of the stairs, back straight, eyes focused as though he was taking her out on her first cotillion again.

“Ten years ago is a long time,” he said. “It’s possible no one really remembers the truth.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t forget anything, Dad,” she said. “What did you do?”

“I gave him a nudge,” he said, with one of his long-suffering sighs. “That’s all. A point in the right—”

“Stop the riddles,” she sighed. “Look, I know since Mom died you and I—” Dad tensed, but she pressed on. “You and I haven’t always seen eye to eye. And maybe me coming back to be chief wasn’t the best idea, but I’m an adult, Dad. And you need to tell me the truth.”

He didn’t say anything, he didn’t even move. Or twitch.

“If you don’t say something, I am going to walk out that door and I swear I won’t—”

“I gave him his father’s address in Las Vegas. I told him to find his way and to let you find yours.”

Juliette rocked back on her heels, all too able to imagine what Tyler would have felt, faced with that information. Tyler, whose whole life had been steered by missing parents.

“Is that all?”

Dad shrugged. “I might have indicated that life would get more difficult for him if he stayed.”

“Difficult?” she asked. “What exactly is that code for, Dad? You’d continue to sic Owens on him? You’d arrest him? His grandmother? Maybe his little sister?”

“Maybe!” he cried, his righteous poise cracking. “They’re the O’Neills, Juliette. Every single one of them is trouble. But leaving was Tyler’s choice, Juliette. He left on his own—”

She bit her tongue and swallowed her anger. “He was a kid, Dad. And you were abusing your power.”

His eyes got wide. “I was doing what a police chief and a father does. I was protecting the good citizens from the bad.”

Juliette was suddenly so weary of this battleground. They never got anywhere and the land between them was scorched and ruined. If they kept at this, there would be nothing left. Nothing worth salvaging.

More and more she looked at him and he was a stranger.

“You need to stay out of my life, Dad,” she said. “And out of my job. Can you do that?”

“I’m not in your—”

“You don’t even see what you do, do you?” she asked, so sad, full of disbelief that their relationship was coming to this impasse.

They stared at each other a long time.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” he whispered.

“I know you don’t, Dad,” she said, and turned away.

“I’m sorry,” he said, stepping after her. Reluctantly, she turned. “I’m sorry for calling OCS. You’re right, it wasn’t my place.”

She rocked back slightly, stunned by the apology.

“And I know…I can be tough, but you’re all I have left,” he said, so small in his big empty house. “I don’t want to lose you, too.”

“You might be too late,” she said, as honest and blunt as she could be, because she had nothing else to give him. “You might be ten years too late.”

She left, her boot heels like gunshots in the empty foyer.

In the car she couldn’t find her keys. Once she found them, she couldn’t get them into the ignition. Her hands didn’t work, her whole body shook.

She dropped her keys, put her head on the steering wheel.

Just like that, she understood. She understood why he’d thought what he had ten years ago. Why he’d left and even why he hadn’t told her. Because he was right—she would have gone with him. In a heartbeat.

And even though he was wrong, he thought he was doing the best thing for her. He thought he was protecting his family, and even more, he thought he might finally find his father. A piece of his puzzle he’d been missing his whole life.

He’d been eighteen, manipulated by a man who should have known better. Who should have been above hurting a kid like that.

In the end, it was easy. Ten years of anger. Of hurt. It all rode out on a long breath.

“Tyler,” she sighed.

I forgive you.

Eleven-forty-five.

Balanced her checkbook.

Midnight.

The darkness in her living room grew purple at the corners, street traffic died down and it felt as though it was just her and the quiet world and every thought of Tyler she was trying to avoid.

He’s staying? Really?

For me?

And I’m considering it?

She was losing her mind.

Finally, at one-fifteen in the morning, she picked up her phone.

It was 8:15 a.m. in Paris, a disgusting time to call a friend on the most romantic vacation of her life, but Juliette was desperate. More than desperate—she was frantic.

And Savannah, she knew, was an early riser. And forgiving.

“Come on, come on,” she muttered as the signal connected and buzzed its way across the ocean to Savannah’s cell.

“Hello?”

“Savannah,” Juliette sighed, so happy and relieved to hear her friend’s voice she nearly cried. “Did I wake you?”

“No, but—” There was a rustle and a murmur. The sound of a kiss and Juliette winced, imagining the sweet scene she was interrupting. “What are you doing calling so early?” Savannah’s voice echoed and Juliette guessed her friend just snuck off into the bathroom. “It’s the middle of the night there.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Apparently. What’s up? Everything okay at The Manor?”

“Tyler’s there.”

“Where?”

“At The Manor.”

“Really?” Savannah asked, sounding like the ten-year-old girl she always turned into when talking about her brothers. “He came home.”

“Worse, Savvy. He’s staying.”

“Until we get back?”

“Longer.”

“That’s fantastic!” Savannah cried. Juliette heard a door open. “Guess what, Katie. Uncle Tyler’s home!” There was a squeal, the rumble of Matt’s laugh, and then Juliette heard the door close again. Savannah clearly did not understand the reality of this situation. “Wait a second,” Savannah said. “He’s not looking for the gems, too, is he?”

“No,” Juliette answered, distracted by the question. Good God, she’d practically forgotten about those gems. That was the effect Tyler had on her. “You’re missing the point. He won’t stay,” Juliette said, her words harsh, a reminder to herself more than a warning to her friend. “I mean, I hate to burst your bubble, but you know your brother won’t stick around.”

“I don’t know, Juliette. He’s a grown man now, not a kid. If he says he’s staying, I think he’ll stay.”

“Of course you do!” Juliette snapped. “You always want to believe the best about Tyler despite all evidence that he’s a lying bastard.”

There was a long pause and Juliette closed her eyes. “Sorry. I keep forgetting the lying bastard is your brother.”

Savannah laughed, which was one of the many reasons why Juliette loved her. “Has something happened between you two?”

Other than the fact that he seduced me, told me he loved me and deserted me ten years ago?

She stared up at her ceiling, the white stucco giving her no answers. No solace. Everywhere she looked, there he was. Everywhere she turned there was possibility. “He says he’s staying…for me.”

“Oh. Wow.”

“Yeah. Wow.”

“What did you say?” Savannah asked.

Juliette closed her eyes and related the impossible. “That I’d think about it.”

“Wow, I picked a crazy time to go on vacation.”

“He hurt me so bad, Savannah. I can’t…I can’t do that again.”

“You know, Jules, ten years is a long time. Maybe Tyler’s different.”

Juliette snorted, thinking about Tyler lying about his father being at The Manor. She couldn’t forget that. Or ignore it. He’d lied to her—repeatedly. “And
you’re
different,” Savannah said. “You’re not that trusting love-struck girl anymore.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“I’m just saying, if you’re different and you still feel this way, maybe he’s different and feels the same way, too.”

Juliette had nothing to say to that, torn between hope and a probable reality.

“If it makes you feel better, I think he stayed away all these years because of you,” Savannah said.

“How in the world is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Well, I don’t think he abandoned you because he didn’t love you.”

“I know,” she whispered, thinking of her father’s confession.

The truth was, Tyler had been a kid, bullied by a police chief and tempted by something he’d always longed for—a father. A family.

If she’d been in his shoes, she couldn’t say she’d have resisted. And that understanding changed everything.

“You know, Juliette, one thing I’d never call you is a coward,” Savannah said.

“Or a fool,” Juliette said.

“Well, that, too. But that’s the trade-off—love isn’t safe.”

Don’t I know it.

But she wasn’t a coward, and if Tyler could risk himself like he had, over and over again, throwing himself against the sharpest edges of her anger—couldn’t she man up and meet him halfway?

She’d loved Tyler like she’d never loved another man—and never would, that much was clear. Didn’t the possibility of keeping that love warrant a little risk?

A little courage?

There would have to be an understanding, she thought, galvanized by purpose. About him keeping things from her.

And they would go slow. Carefully.

“Juliette? I have to get going,” Savannah said. “Are you okay?”

No,
she thought,
but I will be.

Maybe.