Chapter Twenty
Honor’s Edge Investigations Office
After the arraignment, Sam had convinced her babysitters to drop her off at Honor’s Edge. She’d made the excuse that she needed to do some work, pick up some things from home, and have her own damn vehicle.
It had taken some fast talking, some lying, certainly, but they’d relented once she’d promised to be back up at the ranch by dinner time.
It was a promise she didn’t intend to break. Mostly because she’d seen the relief in Nate when she’d said Aly made breakfast every morning.
Maybe worrying about her kept him busy, but she didn’t want to add to his worry. So she’d sleep at the ranch—and try to sleep. Maybe she’d even make more of an effort to eat if she could stomach it.
She sat at her computer trying to concentrate. She wasn’t taking any new cases, but a couple of old ones needed some paperwork finished up. Luckily, Nate had been in between cases, so she didn’t have any work to do on his behalf and have to explain … why.
What a positive…
Despite the sarcasm in her own head, she did feel a bit more settled.
Actually, seeing Nate had somehow been both harder—the jumpsuit, the cuffs—and a relief.
He was whole and himself and maybe there was some way for this to be okay if he was.
Maybe thinking her past had to repeat wasn’t fair to him.
Maybe this wasn’t about her historical failures. Maybe it was about how strong and good Nate was.
She held onto that hope. Doubted it, certainly, but didn’t let it shrivel up and die.
Because hope mattered. Maybe she’d failed her father for fifteen years, but she’d also kept him going with hope.
She thought about Landon telling her she wasn’t alone and fifteen anymore. It still surprised her how powerful that realization had been.
There was something really comforting about having Aly and even Landon around. Something like an anchor in feeling like someone … cared to tend her or have other people tend her.
Basically, she wasn’t alone.
And that was something she’d spent a lot of her adult life telling herself she had to be. The past year had been a lesson in letting people back in, trusting love again, and if she didn’t trust it now, that was a disservice to Nate.
So she was going to trust. Even when she had doubts.
She followed up on a few emails, set a temporary out of office up on both her and Nate’s emails. Just when she was finishing up, the bell tinkled and Sam looked up.
It was another one of those split-in-half moments. Then. Now. Some of that then trauma walked right through the Honor’s Edge front door.
Her Aunt Lisa hadn’t changed much in the course of Sam’s life. A few more wrinkles, a few more greys, but she was one of those women who’d looked like she was in her sixties when she had been in her thirties, and now that she was in her sixties, looked nearly exactly the same.
After her mom had died when Sam was ten, Lisa had been the maternal figure in her life. When Dad had gone to jail, Lisa had been there.
And when Sam had helped discover the truth about what Dad had done when he’d gotten out of jail, Lisa had blamed Sam. She had insisted Sam should have cared more about her father than the truth. Than justice.
Sam hadn’t seen her in months. They hadn’t even exchanged an awkward phone call over Christmas. Sam liked to pretend she was over it.
When faced with the woman in question, she knew she’d lied to herself.
She tried to swallow at the sudden lump in her throat. “Aunt Lisa,” she greeted on a croak.
“Samantha.” Aunt Lisa took a few more steps in. Her expression was certain, her footsteps determined. No discomfort or hesitancy showed on the woman. “I heard about Nate.”
Right. Of course. The news would start to make the rounds. She’d likely have to deal with inquiries from people off the street.
Just like then.
Sam didn’t know what to say to her aunt. Didn’t know what Lisa was trying to accomplish by being here.
“It’s an awful thing for you to have to go through again,” Lisa said gently.
So gently, Sam felt a sharp, old pain straight through the heart.
Sam inhaled, a little sharply. “Yeah, it is.”
“Well, I wanted to stop in and let you know, face to face, if you need anything, you can call me. You always have a place to stay with me if you need it.”
It was such a sudden and unexpected surprise, Sam didn’t breathe for a moment. So many people rallying around her. After being alone for so long.
It really did make it different, just like Landon had said.
Still, with all this different, she knew her aunt wouldn’t appreciate tears.
So she worked very hard to blink them back. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” She had to clear her throat to continue to speak. “I … I’ve been staying with Aly and Landon, but…”
Lisa’s expression went tight and sour. “I’m willing to overlook your feelings for Nate, but if you stay with me, you’ll be staying away from the rest of the Bennets.”
Overlook your feelings for Nate.
Overlook.
“Overlook … Aunt Lisa, Nate didn’t do anything. He didn’t murder anyone.”
“Neither here nor there.”
“It’s here. For me.”
“The truth,” Lisa said, with such bitterness Sam realized in this moment there wasn’t going to be a magical reconciliation. Maybe Aunt Lisa had some compassion or empathy or something, but she wasn’t going to bend on the truth. “We all know the truth about the Bennets.”
The Bennets. Who, over the past year, had been more family to her, no matter their pasts. Who had made her feel … part of something.
Who had loved her, in Nate’s case. And made her believe in something beyond just … one goal. One thing.
“Well, thanks so much for bending your impeccable moral code that holds me, oh and my friends, accountable for my father’s crimes,” Sam said bitterly. “But I’m good.”
Lisa’s expression soured even more, but she didn’t leave, and Sam thought … they had both been operating under the old Price impression that you just stayed away, didn’t express your needs, and things would be okay.
Things would never be okay between them.
“I used to think I was good because you taught me to be self-sufficient. To be better on my own than depend on anyone else. And I held that tight when everyone turned away from me. Hell, maybe I even thank you for all that because it got me through a lot of hard times.”
Lisa sniffed. “The only one you can depend on—”
“Is yourself. I know. But it’s a lot nicer to depend on love. People who actually love you don’t make sure you know how much you owe them. How much they’re overlooking to take care of you.”
Aunt Lisa’s expression was angry now. “He loved you, and you turned your back on him.”
Sam thought of her father, waited for the usual wave of guilt to come.
But it didn’t. Because she just kept hearing Landon’s words in her head.
You were a fifteen-year-old girl. Alone.
No one believed you except maybe your aunt.
You had no agency, no power, and no one.
Everything and everyone you should have had to rely on and take care of you was taken away from you.
She’d done everything—everything—she’d been able. Maybe it hadn’t been enough, but it had been her all. And she’d been alone in that.
“I love him.” Couldn’t Lisa see that’s why it all hurt? “I love both of you. I probably always will, but that doesn’t mean I have to think what either of you has done is right or good or worth forgiving.”
Lisa looked at her. Nothing changed in her expression. There was no softening. No understanding. “I hope choosing them is worth it.” Then she turned on a heel and walked out.
Leaving Sam alone.
She let out a shaky breath, ran an equally shaky hand through her hair. “You know, I could take a gentle lesson every now and again,” she muttered.
She glanced up, not sure exactly who she was talking to. God. The Universe. Some bigger power.
Then she collected her things.
She would stop by the house, pick up a few items she needed, then head up to the ranch. She’d eat with Aly. Work on Nate’s case. Maybe harass Cal for some details.
Because family didn’t have to be who you shared blood with.
When she parked in the driveway of her and Nate’s house, she pressed her forehead to the steering wheel and tried to breathe. Just breathe.
Life was a shitshow, but it was her shitshow. And she had a real family now. The kind that rallied around. That cared and apologized and changed and learned and grew. Not perfect, God knew.
But good. With the foundation of unconditional love at its core.
She looked up at the house she shared with Nate, though the sight was blurry from the tears in her eyes. “We’re going to bring you home,” she whispered.
A promise she’d made and broken to someone else before, but she’d been alone then. Depending only on herself then.
She wasn’t alone now.
*
Jake Hayes wasn’t sure he fully knew what he was doing. It certainly wasn’t professional. To be here. To do this.
He wouldn’t be welcome.
But he’d seen Sam’s car parked in the driveway of Bennet’s house and he couldn’t seem to talk himself out of this.
He respected Sam as an investigator. He liked her as a person. It wasn’t any of his business if she was misguided about her boyfriend.
But he thought she should be smarter than all that. Was it really so bad if he tried to get her there? They were—or had been—friends of a sort. They’d worked together on Glenda’s case last month. Surely, with some time to really think about it, she’d have to come to the same conclusion he had.
Nate Bennet was a murderer.
All Cal’s psychobabble bullshit had been a man’s desperate attempt to get under his skin. Jealous of Nate Bennet?
He looked up at the house Sam had gone inside a few minutes ago. There was no wave of regret or remorse that he didn’t have this. Maybe his house was a little quiet and empty at times, but better than he’d grown up with. Family was not something he aspired to.
So Cal Bennet was dead wrong. Per the norm.