I tossed the four-by-four onto the pile and stepped back to swipe at the sweat on my brow.

“You need to put those in the back of the truck, kid,” Miguel, the supervisor, called to me.

Of course, he was telling me that now, now that I had them piled on the driveway where he’d told me to put them thirty minutes ago. He thought it was funny to mess with the boss’s kid. I didn’t really care. It didn’t take the smile from my face.

I’d spent nearly an hour with Whit that morning. That was all that mattered to me.

I lifted the four-by-four I’d just tossed and began loading the wood into the work truck. Whit had held my hand and laid her head on my shoulder, content just to be close to me. We hadn’t even talked all that much. We just sat together. We were just…together. And it was the best thing I’d done in weeks. Months, even.

Was this what true bliss felt like?

My cell phone rang as I tossed the last bit of the lumber into the back of the truck.

“No personal calls on the job!” Miguel yelled.

I ignored him. It was the tech guys working for the Guardians. I was pretty sure my father would back me up on this one.

“Tucker says that you can decipher some of the things we got off Stone Security’s computer.”

“I can.”

“Meet us at the church in an hour.”

It was as simple as that.

Tucker had given me a card with a number on it. I’d dialed it and gotten some guy’s voicemail. I didn’t know what to say, so I just left my name and number as instructed. I guess that was message enough.

I was in.

“You can’t take lunch now!” Miguel insisted when I gathered my stuff to head out.

“I think I can.”

“You may be the boss’s kid, but you’re on my crew! You walk off, I won’t let you come back.”

“Take it up with my father. And, while you’re at it, you can explain the three boxes of aluminum screws hidden under the front seat of your truck.”

Miguel’s face darkened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That’s okay. I took a picture. I’m sure my father will find it very interesting.”

He glared at me. “Go ahead and leave! You aren’t much use to me, anyhow.”

I just smiled. But I guess I’d spent too much time with Crispin because, in my head, I was saying, Fuck you!

My father would be horrified.

The church was quiet when I pulled up in my little black car, the same car Jack had given me to use when I was officially working for Stone Security. No one had asked yet why I hadn’t returned it. I don’t think anyone had even noticed.

“Matthew Pearce?”

I inclined my head. The man who’d opened the door to the church office stepped aside and waved me in. He gestured to a chair set in front of an extensive computer system, one that was clearly higher tech than a church secretary might require to write and print the weekly bulletin.

“We’ve found a lot of websites these people visit on a daily basis. Some seem to be related to several law enforcement agencies across the country. Some seem to be a little more of a dark web sort of thing. Tucker thought you might be able to pinpoint activity that’s illegal.”

I inclined my head, my eyes already scanning the information pulled up on the screen. Jack had described to me what I would see, told me what to highlight for them, what to ignore.

Did these people really think that Jack would be unaware of a virus on his own system? Did they really think he would allow them to pull real information from his business dealings? If they did, they had no idea who they were up against in this game.

I gestured to the mouse. “May I?”

“Be my guest.”

I scrolled through the page, reading a bit here and a bit there. It was actually pretty amusing. Some of this stuff was outright outrageous, and some of it was so mild as to be comical. Stone Security was a high tech security firm. They were much more sophisticated than this implied.

Anyone with any experience with firms like this would see right through this. It was a good thing this guy didn’t appear to be all that informed.

“This,” I said, pointing to a frame on the screen. “This is someone at the firm trying to access the FBI database.”

“Yeah?”

I nodded. “And this. As far as I know, no one outside of Homeland Security should be allowed to access this website. Don’t you think?”

He moved up close behind me, squinting as he studied the screen. “That’s kind of what I thought.”

“And here, too.”

I pointed out over a dozen items, everything Jack had told me would appear fishy to anyone without inside knowledge. I had to admit, though, some of it did look authentic, even to me.

“I need to go call Tucker, see if he wants to come take a look.”

“Sure. Do you want me to go?”

“Wait here. He might want to talk to you.” The guy headed for the door. “Damn cell phones don’t work in here for some reason. Internet signal comes through loud and clear, but the cell phone gets less than two bars. Go figure.”

He walked off, leaving me alone with his system.

Perfect.

I pulled the teeny zip drive out of my pocket and slid it into a USB port. A small window flashed on the screen, but immediately disappeared.

“It’s designed to work in the background, so if you have to upload it while someone’s in the room, just make sure they’re looking away in the second immediately after you insert it.”

He’d been right. I could have done this with the guy in the room, but it was safer this way.

The zip drive blinked three times when the upload was complete. I tugged it out of the USB port and slipped it into my pocket, done long before the guy came back. In fact, I had time to look through some of the paperwork just sitting on the desk.

Interesting.

There were deeds for local properties. Event schedules. Pictures of the area taken both from the air and on the ground. Property line maps. A list of names.

I didn’t understand, but something about this particular collection of information frightened me a little. I don’t know why. It just felt…dark.

“Tucker says you’re free to go, brother.”

I stood up and shook the man’s hand. “I never caught your name.”

“Leo.”

“Are you from around here?”

“No, I’m from Portland. I came down a couple of months ago to help this Briggs fellow with the virus. When he died, I hung around to see if they might need me to follow up on it.”

“You a computer science major?”

“No. It’s just a hobby. I’m actually working on my master’s degree in theology.”

“That’s interesting.”

The guy shrugged. “My parents think it’s a waste of time. They keep asking what the hell I plan to do with it. I don’t even go to church. I keep trying to explain to them that it’s not about going to church. It’s like studying history or literature. It’s about the people and their customs more than it is about the religion itself.” He sighed. “That’s why I took this job. It’ll pay my tuition for the next year or two, keep them off my back for a while.”

“Cool.”

He gestured toward the door. “You should probably go. Tucker’s on his way, and he didn’t want you here when he arrived.”

I took the cue and walked out, my thoughts on the paperwork I’d seen. I still had the scanner in my pocket, so I’d taken a few scans, hoping they would get to Jack through Ms. Gray at the bank. Maybe they would know what they were looking at.

Mother was singing when I walked into the house, a sound I hadn’t heard in a very long time. I slipped up behind her where she was cutting vegetables in the kitchen and hugged her.

“Oh, Matthew,” she sighed, leaning back against me. “Thank you so much!”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

I stole a carrot and stepped back, forgetting the pain in my jaw until I took a hearty bite. My mother stole the rest out of my hand and tossed it in the trash before handing me a soft piece of tomato.

“You have to be kinder to yourself.”

“It’s healing.”

She looked me over and shook her head, a heavy sigh slipping from between her lips.

“It’ll all be over soon, Mom.”

“Will it?”

“I promise.”

“What promises are we making tonight?” Father asked as he came into the room.

Mom shot me a fearful glance.

“I was just promising to keep my laundry picked up.”

Father chuckled. “That’s a promise you’ve been making and breaking since you were a small child.”

“Yes, well, I’m a grown man now, and I understand that I’m making Mom’s life harder by scattering my clothes all around the room. I will try.” I kissed her temple lightly. “I’m going to get cleaned up.”

“Matthew?”

Father followed me into the hallway, his brow furrowed. For a moment, I thought he was going to ask me if I’d been in his study. His arms were crossed, and he looked deeply troubled.

Uh oh!

“Did you leave the job early today?”

Huh?

“Uh, yeah. Tucker needed me to see something at the church.”

“You were with Tucker?”

“No, Leo. His computer guy.”

Father nodded. “And Miguel? Am I right? Is he stealing the screws?”

“There were three boxes of aluminum screws under the seat in his truck.”

He sighed, clearly disappointed, but not surprised. “I’ll fire him tomorrow. Third supervisor in a row who’s felt the need to steal from me.”

“I’m sorry, Father.”

“It’s not your fault.”

He walked away, still mumbling quietly under his breath. I went into my bedroom and picked up my clothes, ashamed of myself for such childish behavior. I really did need to be more respectful toward my mother.

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, I went to help my mother finish up dinner. Father came into the room just as we were setting everything on the table, strolling to the table like he was a king. I watched him, realizing for the first time how the entire family was centered on Father and his moods. We all worked each day to please him. I always thought that was the way it was in every family, but I was beginning to see things a little differently now. Crispin was the one who cooked in his household, making Alli these incredible dishes in a matter of minutes. And Jack would occasionally cook for Ruth, and always insisted on doing the dishes for her even before everyone knew she was pregnant.

I watched as my mother served him his meal, and I suddenly felt a greater appreciation for all she’d done for this family.

Did my father even realize how much stress he caused for her? Did he care?

But then my thoughts returned to that stack of photos in my father’s desk drawer and the implied threat behind them. Maybe Mother wasn’t the only one under stress.

What had the Guardians done to my father? What had they done to everyone in this town?

What were they planning?

“I’ll do the dishes,” I told my mother when dinner was done, and Father had gone to his office to deal with paperwork.

“You don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

She turned a grateful face up to mine. “You’re a good boy, Matthew.” She kissed the tip of my nose and patted my arm before strolling gracefully from the room.

I watched her go, my chest swelling with affection.

 

 

She was sitting at the bar just as I’d expected. There was a notebook open in front of her as well as a half-finished drink and a discarded dinner dish. I moved up behind her and smoothed her hair to one side to plant a kiss on her neck.

“Matthew!” Surprise and joy danced in Whit’s eyes as she looked up at me. “What are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t sleep, and I thought you might be here.”

“I was about to go. You got lucky.”

“Well, maybe later.”

She blushed almost furiously, slapping my arm lightly. “You have a dirty mind for such a good Christian.”

“I try.”

She giggled, turning as I moved around her to take the stool beside her. The notebook she’d been studying was filled with handwritten notes. She closed it as she caught me looking at it, tucking it carefully into the big, hobo-style bag she carried around with her.

“Working?”

“Just making a few notes.”

“We never really got around to talking about what you do.”

“It’s boring. You don’t want to know.”

“I want to know everything about you.”

She smiled, leaning into me and stealing a kiss. “That’s sweet.”

“Not sweet. Honest.”

She moved closer, her hand sliding over my throat. “I’m glad you came out tonight. I was thinking about you, thinking how nice it would be to see you again.”

“Were you?”

“You know I would have come looking for you even if I hadn’t run into you at your house this morning, right? I was mad, but I get over it pretty quick.”

“Are you still mad?”

She shook her head, her thumb moving over my chin. “No. Just confused.”

“I know. But my father, you know how deep into the church he is, right? It’s important to him that I make nice with all the right people.”

“Why?”

“He’s not going to live forever. Maybe he’s grooming me to replace him as the head of his company.”

“What has that got to do with Kari Lawson?”

“She’s the daughter of his closest friend and one of the most influential people in this town. You do know that Todd Lawson was mayor four terms in a row, right? If he hadn’t stepped down because his wife got sick last year, he would still be mayor.”

“And he’s an impressive defense attorney. I hear he’s planning on defending that Smythe fellow, the one who was arrested a few months back on criminal conspiracy charges?”

“I heard that.”

“Do you know about this Smythe guy? Was he a member of your church?”

I frowned as I studied her face. “He was from out of state, but he attended church.”

“He was in the Guardians, right?”

“Why are you curious about him?”

She shrugged, her hand dropping from my face to my lap. She rested it on my thigh, her head lowered as though she was deeply interested in seeing what it might do there.

“I hear stories around town about all these things that have been happening, and I’m curious.”

“Smythe isn’t interesting. He was a menace that we should be grateful is gone.”

“But you did know him?”

I nodded. “I knew him. He was trouble. He encouraged people in the Guardians to do things they shouldn’t have, and it led to a man losing his life.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s true, then? That one of the Guardians ran a man off the road?”

“It is.”

I was the one to lower my head then, staring down at her hand on my thigh. I couldn’t shake the guilt that came every time I thought about Harry Cravits. Just looking at Jack or Crispin or Patrick reminded me of it, too. I hated what had happened that night, hated my role in the whole thing. I almost wished, sometimes, that Jack would hate me back. Maybe then it would be easier, maybe I wouldn’t feel so indebted to this good man who’d done nothing but try to help the people of this town since his arrival.

Or maybe I would, just less so.

She moved into me, resting her forehead against my shoulder for a brief moment.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause a dark turn in the conversation.”

“Can we get out of here? I’d like to be alone with you for a little while.”

“Definitely.”

She pulled away, sliding off her stool. She took my hand and led the way out the door, no hesitation in her movements at all. We took her car to the motel, walked into the room hand in hand. I pulled her tight against me the moment the door was closed, stealing her lips. I could taste whiskey on her tongue, could feel the harsh tingle of it as it burned against mine. It was almost as hot as the sigh that slipped from her lips as we stood there, holding each other like we needed one another to keep us on our feet.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said softly, pulling back to touch the bruises on my face.

“You couldn’t possibly. You make it feel better.”

She smiled, but it was a shy smile, so different from the confident, delighted smiles she’d offered before. I liked this one, liked the bashfulness that suddenly overcame her whenever we were alone.

I pushed her back, my hands on her hips, guiding her to the bed. She cried out in surprise when her legs hit the frame, and she fell back. I knelt in front of her and slid my hands under the skirt of her dress. She blocked my movement for a moment with her hands, holding them tight against her thighs so that I couldn’t go any farther. But then she lifted them, trust radiating from those perfect blue eyes.

I pushed her knees apart, my hands sliding over the tops of her thighs all the way to her hips. She watched, her eyes filled with everything from fear to excitement to curiosity. I kissed the fronts of her knees, my lips moving from one to the other, and then sliding along the outer edge of one, the inner edge of the other. Slowly, as she had done to my bruises earlier in the day, I made my way up her inner thigh, kissing and nibbling at the soft flesh, loving the taste of her, the feel of her. She smelled like her soap—roses and lavender—like the heat of the day, and the warm aroma of her own skin. It was more intoxicating than I could imagine her whiskey could ever be.

When my path up her thigh came too close to her hidden secrets, she closed her legs, a little whimper escaping her lips. I pulled back and looked up at her, moving my hands in a slow, gentle massage along her hips.

“Do you trust me, Whit?”

“With my whole heart.”

I rose up and kissed the tip of her nose before stealing a long, lingering kiss from her lips.

“Relax,” I whispered.

She watched me closely as she slowly lay back, her muscles tense for a long moment before she finally did as I’d demanded. I lowered myself back to my knees, pushing her skirt up until the underside of her belly became visible. She rested her hands across her abdomen, holding her dress right where I’d positioned it, making it clear that she was doing this, but she wasn’t ready to go any further.

That was okay with me.

I pushed her legs apart and kissed her inner thighs again, my tongue teasing her smooth skin, unbroken by blemishes or hair. Such smooth skin! It was the color of cream with just a hint of caramel, soft as worn cotton against my lips. She continued to relax as all I did was kiss her thighs, moving from one leg to the other, taking my time with those places that led to a promise we both ached to fulfill. By the time I turned my attention to that center spot, to that hidden secret, her hands had fallen from her abdomen, and she was on the verge of completely submitting to my ministrations.

I pressed my mouth to the heat and moisture at the center of her simple cotton panties. She gasped, her legs automatically closing against my head. I sighed, my arms snaking around her thighs and holding them in place. I was content to sit like that for as long as she desired. But I could already feel the muscles in her legs relaxing.

I reached up and kissed her belly, one hand sneaking under her dress to touch her warm skin, to brush my fingertips against the underside of her bra. She laid her hand on top of mine, trapping it against her chest. I was okay with that, too.

I nibbled at the puffy lips hidden under her cotton panties, drawing a whimper from between her lips. And then I slid a finger under the soft material and watched as she arched her back, surprise and pleasure mingling on her beautiful face.

I’d been with a few women. Not as many as most men my age, I supposed, but a few. I didn’t think I’d ever seen pleasure as beautiful on any other face.

I wanted to see more of it.

I slid my finger along her beautiful folds, feeling the heat and the excitement her body couldn’t hide from me. She chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes closed as she again arched her back. I held still then, let her move against me, let her guide where I touched her and how hard that touch was.

After a minute, I exchanged my finger for my thumb, pressed it against the hard little nub some pretty waitress in Texas had taught me about. She cried out, her hips moving again. I watched her face, watched the transformation that took place on her face as she allowed herself to enjoy my touch. I loved it, loved the way she moved, loved the sounds that slipped from between her lips, loved the way she gave herself to it, to my touch. I loved most of all that it was my touch that was making her writhe on the bed, that was bringing her such intense pleasure.

I moved up onto the bed beside her, nearly laughing aloud when she grabbed my wrist and refused to allow my thumb to leave that little button. But I had no intention of stopping. I just wanted to be closer to her, to not miss a single moment of the dance taking place in her eyes, on her lips, in the expression on her gorgeous face.

I kissed her neck, and she sighed, rolling into me, her body pressed against the length of me with only my hand and our cumbersome clothing between us. It wasn’t long after that that her cries became long and drawn out, that her body began to quiver and the unmistakable intensity of her orgasm rushed through her body. I pulled my hand away and drew her closer, holding her as it slowly made its way over its peak. She collapsed against me, her face pressed to my chest, her breath hot and heavy against my shirt.

“You okay?” I asked after a few minutes.

She nodded, but refused to pull her face back from where she hid it.

“You sure?”

I was laughing, and she slapped my arm. “Don’t be mean to me.”

“I don’t intend to be mean. I just…” I laughed aloud, unable to hold it back.

She slapped me again, rolling away from me, her back to me.

“Whit.”

I moved close to her again, pressing the length of my body against her back, making her aware of what being close to her did to me. She made a funny sound and moved her hips forward, pulling away from me.

“Don’t tease me,” I said, more as a joke than anything else as I slipped my arms around her. But she didn’t take it that way.

She stiffened and jumped up, pulling away so fast that she nearly clocked me in the head with her elbow. She was on her feet, diligently tugging at her dress, pulling it into place and then smoothing her hands along her skirt to make sure every inch of her was covered.

“It was a joke,” I said, sitting up.

“It wasn’t funny.”

“Whit, I wouldn’t pressure you into anything. You know that.”

“I thought you Christian boys were supposed to wait for marriage. Isn’t that how it works?”

“Yeah, well, that’s ideal. But not all of us are as capable of ignoring the sins of the flesh as others.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re not…you’re…did you and Kari?”

“No, of course not!”

“Was it anyone I know?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes!”

She was adamant, and that made my heart swell a little.

“Are you jealous?”

Her eyes narrowed as she turned away from me. “I think you should go.”

“Whit.” I stood and went to her, forced her to turn toward me. “You are jealous!”

She shook her head. “I just…I guess I kind of thought that you would have waited.”

“I was in the Army. It’s almost a requirement to go catting around with the guys on leave. It didn’t mean anything.”

“Isn’t that what all men say? I think I heard my mother say that to her husbands a dozen times or more when I was a kid.”

I brushed her impossibly long hair out of her face. “I’m not your mother. And you were still in high school when I joined the Army, still flirting with all those football players.”

“I never went out with any of them.”

“You never wrote me, either.”

She was quiet for a long minute. “I heard that you were getting letters from Kari and Jenna and half a dozen other girls at the school. I didn’t want to get lost in the crowd.”

“But your letter was the only one I waited for, the only one that would have mattered.”

She looked up at me, her eyes once again widened with surprise. “How was I supposed to know that?”

“You could have written me and found out.” She looked away, but I lifted her chin and forced her to look at me. “We both missed quite a few opportunities to talk about how we feel about each other. Let’s not do that again. Not now.”

She moved closer to me, no longer appearing to be bothered by the evidence of my arousal. She kissed my neck lightly and then rested her head against my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her, and we swayed a little, dancing again like we should have danced at my senior prom.

“I waited for you,” she said softly after a while.

I almost didn’t catch the meaning behind those simple words. And when I did, it took my breath away.

“Why?”

She didn’t answer immediately. When she did, I once again thought I would never again take a full breath.

“Because I’ve always known you were the only one I wanted.”

I stroked the back of her head, her silky hair slipping between my fingers. I didn’t know what to say to that. We were only kids when we last knew each other. I never forgot about her, but I never imagined she would ever cross my path again. She had moved to Texas while I was still in the Army, and I…Ellaville was my home. I never imagined living anywhere else, but I knew it was never home to her. She might have lived here all through high school, but it wasn’t her home. Her mother had never given her a true home.

Was it possible to hope now that she might consider it now? That she might be willing to make a home with me?

Was it too soon to hope?

I didn’t really need to consider that for long. With everything happening with the Guardians, with the role Jack had put me into, I couldn’t ask her now. But maybe…

Maybe.