10. Secrets Got Her Killed – Roman
Chapter 10
Secrets Got Her Killed
PLAYLIST: ”SECRETS” BY ONEREPUBLIC
ROMAN
Dust billowed in the air as a truck roared up the gravel drive and turned, almost careening up on two wheels as it skidded to a stop up at the big house. Cody and I both froze in the open door of the barn, and all the blood drained out of my head as I turned to look at him.
“Is that?—”
“Michael Carter? Yeah.”
“Fuck!” I bolted toward the big house on numb legs, praying with everything in my body that I’d get to Zoe before Michael did.
Cody ran right alongside me, and for once, I was grateful for the shithead’s presence. I shook my head, hardly believing such a thing had crossed my mind.
God only knows I might need Cody’s help to manage this situation if Michael really believes Zoe or I killed his little sister.
My pulse roared in my ears, but I just barely made out the sound of someone pounding on the front door of the house.
“Don’t answer it, baby, please,” I panted the words under my breath, changing my trajectory and aiming for the front porch.
Just as Cody and I rounded the corner of the front porch, I saw Michael Carter reach out a long arm and snatch Zoe out of the house by her hair, slamming my girl up against the wall, growling something in her face like the rabid fucking dog he’d become… a dog I had every intention of putting down for manhandling my woman like that.
Neither of them saw us coming, and my steps faltered when Zoe’s knee snapped up and connected with Michael’s balls almost hard enough to lift him off the ground.
“You bitch!” Michael howled, his face turning a sickly green as he grabbed his crotch.
I pumped my legs harder, not sure how Michael was going to react to Zoe fighting back.
Zoe followed through with a vicious right hook that busted Michael’s lip and sent him staggering back a half-step. “Tell me something I don’t know, asshole.”
My chest swelled with pride at the sight of her fighting back, and I shoved past Michael, trusting Cody to handle him as I pulled Zoe into my arms and kissed her until my head swam and I had to come up for air. I rested my forehead against hers, taking in her red, puffy eyes and blotchy skin.
“You good, baby?”
Zoe pointed at her face and grimaced. “This isn’t because of him, and I’ll be a hell of a lot better just as soon as somebody escorts his sorry ass off our property.”
Michael lunged toward us, snarling something that sounded an awful lot like he called my future wife a murderous whore, but I decided it was best for his health and my criminal record to tell myself that he didn’t say any such thing.
Cody wedged himself between us and Michael, gripping his old friend’s shoulders and giving him a stern shake. “Come on, man. I know it fucked you up when Missy died, but you can’t really believe Zoe hanged your sister in cold blood. They were best friends?—”
“Best friends who had a massive, vicious catfight in front of more than half the ranch hands who worked here, including you and me, and what were they fighting about?” Michael spat blood on the porch and lifted an accusing finger, pointing it right in my face. “Him.”
Cody gave Michael another shake, harder this time, like he was trying to jar the wild, hateful gleam out of Michael’s eyes as he stared Zoe and me down.
I wrapped my arms around Zoe, pulling her tighter against me, keeping my body firmly between him and Zo.
Michael’s glacial blue eyes took on a vicious, manic gleam. “That sack of shit right there was fucking them both, and when perfect little Princess Zoe found out about it, it cost my sister her life. You really expect me to believe it wasn’t one of them who killed her?”
Cody shook his head sadly and blew out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know what you should believe, Michael. All I know right now is you attacked my boss’s daughter in broad daylight on her own front porch, and you need to leave before you make shit worse for yourself.”
Michael tried one more time to lunge at us, but Cody held him back, giving him a rough shove that sent Michael flying off the porch. My mouth dropped open and Zoe stifled a squeak of shock as Michael landed on his back so hard it knocked the breath out of him.
Wide eyed and stunned, Michael glared up at us and wheezed, coughing violently as he struggled to suck in a breath. He shoved up on his elbows, glaring up at Cody, his lip curled in a disgusted snarl.
“I can’t believe you’re siding with them over me, Cody. I thought we were friends, man. That should mean more to you than finally nailing some high and mighty piece of ass… especially when that piece of ass is the reason my sister is dead.”
I saw red and dropped my hold on Zoe, ready to dive off the porch on top of Michael and cave his fucking face in with my fists.
Zoe clutched my shirt hard, not letting go. “No, Rome. Don’t let him bait you. Let’s go inside. I’ll call Deputy Blackwell to come get Mr. Carter?—”
Cody cleared his throat and shook his head. “That won’t be necessary, Miss Brandt. Either Michael is about to get back in his truck and leave of his own free will, or I’ll hogtie his ass and give him a ride home if he wants to be difficult, but there’s no need to bring the law into this mess.”
Zoe gave a curt, jerky nod. “If you have to hogtie him, call a towing service to remove his truck, too. I don’t want him to have a reason to come back here.”
“Yes ma’am, Miss Brandt.” Cody offered her a salute.
Zoe tried to tug me toward the front door, but I stood with my boots firmly planted on the porch and pointed a finger at Michael Carter.
“Let’s get something straight right now, asshole. You only think you know what pain is, but you don’t know shit. Not yet. But I can promise you’ll get well acquainted with it if you continue to threaten what’s mine. If you ever threaten Zoe again, I’ll skin you alive and make you beg me to kill you. You understand me?”
Michael barked out a ragged laugh and grinned, his expression one of challenge and feral glee. The blood from the split lip Zoe gave him trickled down his chin and had smeared across his straight, white teeth. Between that and the crazed gleam in his blue eyes, it left him looking like a coyote, cornered and defending a fresh kill. A chill ripped down my spine, and I shuddered as Michael turned his gaze to lock eyes with Cody.
“You really expect me to believe that a man who says things like that didn’t have anything to do with killing my little sister when she threatened what was his?”
Fuck me, fuck my temper, and fuck my big mouth. God damn it.
Zoe tugged on my shirt again, harder this time. “Come on, big guy. I think we’ve had more than enough of his bullshit for one day, don’t you?”
I blew out a sigh and nodded, letting her drag me inside. I shut the door behind us and locked the deadbolt, then turned to face Zoe.
She stood there, arms crossed and green eyes blazing like hellfire as she stared me down. “Is it true?”
I winced, my shoulders slumping with the weight of the inquisition I could feel coming. “Is what true?”
Zoe got right up in my face, her beautiful lips twisted in a predatory snarl. “Don’t pull that fucking deflection bullshit with me, Roman. Is what Michael said true? Were you fucking Missy, too?”
I looked away, unable to hold her haunted gaze, knowing that fire inside her could burn me down where I stood. “I used her, but not like that.”
Zoe planted both hands in the middle of my chest and shoved hard, slamming my back against the front door. “Look at me, goddamn it! What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
I scrubbed my hands over my face in frustration, but forced myself to meet her gaze, even though the accusation in it made my heart drop to my feet. “I don’t know if I can have this conversation with you today. Missy is the last thing in the world I want to talk to you about.”
Zoe jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the open door of the downstairs bathroom. “Yeah? Well, I didn’t want to clean the bathroom my mom died in, either, but it looks like what we want doesn’t much figure into how things are going to go today.”
I reached up to cup her cheek, and she swatted my hand away, her eyes brimming with tears. She refused to blink, refused to let them fall, refused to back down.
I slid down the door and sat on the floor, resting my arms on my knees and hanging my head for a second before I looked back up at her. “Fuck. This isn’t how I wanted our life together to start, Zoe.”
Zoe crouched, so we were eye-to-eye again. “Me, either, but let’s hear it. What exactly did you mean when you said that you were using Missy, but not like that?”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out, so I blew out a sigh and shook my head. “I can’t?—”
Zoe held up her left hand then and tapped the engagement ring I bought for her before she ever left to go to Miami. “Tell me right fucking now, Roman, and don’t you dare lie to me, or I’ll take this ring off my finger and I’ll figure shit out by myself.”
I sucked in a shaking breath and pressed my hand against my aching heart. “Baby, please, don’t do this?—”
Zoe shook her head, her lips pressed into a hard, grim line before she spoke. “I’m a big girl, and I’ve been handling my own problems for the last ten years. I’d rather not face the sheriff and his re-opened investigation alone, but I will if you make me. It’s your call, though. You can either give me the truth about Missy, or I’ll break your heart, mine, and my father’s all in one go.”
I reached out and wrapped my hand around hers, gently curling her fingers into a fist so she couldn’t take my ring off her finger. “What if the truth destroys us, Zoe? What then?”
Zoe adjusted her legs, shifting from a crouch to kneeling in front of me, her knees pressed against the dusty toes of my boots. “Hiding the truth from me will destroy us a hell of a lot faster than telling me the truth ever could, Roman. Give me some fucking credit, will you? I’m woman enough to face ugly truths with the man I’ve chosen to spend the rest of my life with, but only if you’re man enough to give me that chance in the first place.”
I leaned forward, still holding her hand in mine, and rested my forehead against hers, closing my eyes as I sucked in a breath and braced myself for the worst. My chest hollowed out, filling with a sick, yawning emptiness that left me cold.
How the hell do you brace yourself for the possibility of losing the only thing in the world you’ve ever really wanted?
“I never fucked Missy, Zo.” I forced myself to open my eyes and meet her gaze. “I asked her to pretend to date me the summer you left because you kept pushing me away every time I got too close, and I wanted to make you jealous. It was fucking stupid, at best, and it was selfish.”
Zoe’s face turned scarlet, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “What the fuck were you even?—”
I held up a hand, cutting her off. “Please, baby, let me finish. When I kissed Missy the day she died, I never thought it would destroy your friendship forever?—”
Zoe barked out a bitter, hollow laugh, shaking her head. “What, exactly, did you think was going to happen when you kissed my best friend in front of me?”
I crossed my arms and raised one eyebrow at her. “Are you going to let me finish explaining or not?”
Zoe rolled her eyes and held up her hands in the universal sign of surrender. “Okay, fine. I’ll shut up until you’re done. Please continue.”
Might as well rip off the band-aid all in one go, I guess. Here goes nothing.
“I was a twenty-year-old idiot and too much of a coward to just come out and tell you I loved you. I was sick and tired of you pushing me away every time shit got too real for you. I did what I did because I knew you were leaving, and I was crazy about you. I wanted to push your buttons to see if I could get an honest reaction out of you about me... about us.”
“And just look how that turned out.” Zoe snorted, shaking her head.
I winced and looked away. “I never imagined—not even for a second—that me fake dating Missy would end up with you losing your best friend, Michael losing his little sister, and worst of all, Missy losing her life.”
Zoe stared down at our still-clasped hands with a frown. “That entire two months that you and Missy were supposedly dating... that was all a lie intended to make me jealous?”
“Yes.” I nodded, sure with every bone in my body that she was going to leave me for being such a complete and total idiot... not that I would blame her if she did.
Zoe stared at me like I’d sprouted two extra heads. “No offense, but I have a hard time believing that Missy—my best friend in the entire world—agreed to go along with lying to me like that just so you could make me jealous. You two were never that close before the summer she died.”
I grimaced and reached up, rubbing the back of my neck, trying to massage away the knot of tension that had formed there since I admitted the truth. “I thought it was a little strange, too, if we’re being honest. I even went to her two weeks into our little act and told her how bad I felt about using her like that, and that I thought we should stop.”
Zoe sat back and tugged her hand free from my grip. “If you weren’t sleeping with her and you told her two weeks into your goofy-ass scheme that you thought you should stop pretending to date, why were you two still supposedly together a month and a half later?”
I tipped my head back, resting it against the front door, and heaved a sigh. “Missy said that she was using me, too, so I shouldn’t feel bad because we were even.”
“Did she say what she was using you for?”
“No.”
“And you didn’t think to ask?” Zoe narrowed her eyes at me, everything about her sharp and on high alert.
I looked up at the ceiling, unable to stand holding her unwavering gaze. “I was so desperate to push you into admitting what you really felt that I didn’t press the issue with Missy. I just thanked my lucky stars that she considered us even and kept on trying to get you riled enough to be honest with me before you left.”
“Roman, you realize what this means, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.” I swallowed hard and forced myself to look Zoe in the eye. “I’m the reason Missy’s dead, and I’ve had to carry that guilt and shame around with me all day, every day, for the last ten years.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Roman.” Zoe shook her head, her green eyes wide enough I could almost see the epiphany she seemed to be having in that moment.
“Yeah? How do you figure that?”
I don’t think there’s anything anyone could say to me that will ever convince me that it’s not my fault Missy is dead. I know better.
Zoe reached out, cupping my cheeks with her palms and forcing me to look at her. “If Missy said she was using you, too, there must have been a reason for it. She was apparently keeping secrets from everyone, including me, and she was using your fake dating arrangement to cover them up.”
My heart skipped several beats, and I sucked in a gasp as it kicked back in, beating double-time. “What secrets?”
Zoe offered me a palms-up gesture. “I don’t know, but whatever they were, I’d bet you every penny I have to my name that those secrets are what got her killed.”