Chapter Seventeen
News of their attack had made it around Seven Roads but, apparently, had a few key facts omitted in the retelling.
The first was who exactly it was who broke into the house.
Sure, word had gotten caught in the rumor mill nets that Ray and Mater had gone to the hospital, but as for the third and fourth unknown men who had attacked, no one spoke of them.
Blake wondered belatedly if that had been due to Liam’s constant low-voice talking he had been doing to everyone who had stepped onto the scene that morning.
Or maybe it was fear. There hadn’t been an outpouring of violence like this in a long while in town.
Maybe they didn’t want to incur the unknown men’s wrath by idly chatting about them.
Either way, it was perhaps the second piece of information that was absent that really surprised Blake.
No one seemed to know that Liam had been with her.
That was apparent in how Corrie greeted them as they walked into the coffee shop. She side-eyed Blake while motioning to a separate table for Liam.
Her face was wholly shocked when he shook his head and declined.
“I’m with her,” he said simply.
Corrie’s eyes went wide. Blake’s nearly did too.
Heat started to whirl in her belly. Damn that baritone.
Though, could she really only blame the octave of his voice for making her have to fight a blush?
Blake didn’t need to have a good memory to recall the fact that no more than two minutes ago, she had kissed the sheriff in the front seat of his truck like they were teens parking.
She hadn’t lingered as long though. As quickly as she had moved to him, as quickly as she had felt the soft strength of him, smelled some kind of spice on him, heard his breath momentarily pause, Blake had ended the kiss.
Then, as if she had reverted right past that confident teen making out in a parked car mindset, she had settled on an awkward resolution.
Pretend it didn’t happen while not addressing it at all.
She’d broken the kiss and then coughed.
Then said, “Let’s go.”
And, to his credit, Liam had.
Now he stood firm at her side until Corrie redirected her open hands to one of the tables against the window. Instead of following her suggestion, however, Blake felt his hand on the small of her back.
“We’ll sit over there instead, thanks.”
Blake let herself be guided to a table in the corner of the room with a good sightline to all entrances and exits. She would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy Corrie’s dumbfounded expression as they walked around her.
There wasn’t time to talk, or not talk, about their kiss as Blake settled into a chair. Liam left her to go to the main counter to order, and no sooner had he done that, a man with golden floppy hair and a too-wide smile came into the coffee shop.
Kyle Langdon, Missy Clearwater’s ex-boyfriend.
Like she couldn’t deny seeing Corrie baffled by Liam wanting to be next to her, there was no denying that Kyle heard the news about the attack.
He was barely holding it together as he took the seat opposite Blake. He didn’t even notice Liam or Corrie at the counter.
Which was good. That way he wouldn’t leave before she could start prying.
“Are you okay?” Kyle said. He had those big doe eyes and they suited him nicely. He was handsome and, she’d bet, charming. The stereotypical image of a good old Southern fraternity brother who went to the beach for spring break and wore the same shirt for every football game his team played.
Blake smiled into his concern.
“Bad news travels fast, I see. But I’m good. I just needed a change of scenery, is all.”
She motioned to the room around them. Kyle’s eyes were glued to hers.
“I bet! I couldn’t believe it when I heard, and then you texted me to reschedule? I really couldn’t believe something like that happened here in town.”
Blake had already suspected that Kyle would hear the news and, with it, would figure out who she was with all the additional town talk through the years. Kyle, however, went in a different direction.
“If I knew you were Beth’s sister, I would have been way chattier when we first met.”
Blake, who had been at the ready to pepper in questions that would lead to Missy and her life right before her death, stalled. She’d been 100 percent focused on a Missy conversation. Talk of her sister hadn’t even been on her radar.
“Beth? You knew my sister?”
The Bennet family had never been a simple one.
Their go-to family move was to leave after all.
Their mother, Blake, Beth’s husband, and then their dad after Beth’s death.
Even Beth had found a way to go, though she hadn’t intended to.
There had been a lot of time between Blake’s exit and Beth’s, and logically, Blake had known that.
But, sitting across the table from the smiling man, Blake finally understood that space.
She had no idea if Kyle Langdon knew her sister.
She had no idea if they had been friends.
If they had passed each other on the streets every day or went to the same church.
If they only knew of each other or if they had gone to a party or two as friends.
And it wasn’t just Kyle.
The last time Blake had spoken to Beth about her life and not just updating her about her own, they had been texting.
Beth was trying to remember a song but hadn’t known enough of the words to search it.
So she’d sent a voice message to Blake humming it poorly.
Yet Blake had gotten it and answered correctly. Beth had been excited and said thanks.
Remember to eat something yummy was the last text she got back from Beth after.
Then, a month later, Beth was gone.
Blake might have known the song, but she was faced with an awful coldness of realization now.
She had already lost her sister before she had even died.
Kyle, however, didn’t have a clue in the world about the emotional turmoil Blake had just found herself in. He nodded to her question with enthusiasm.
“Of course I knew Beth,” he said. “I was there when she tore Mr. Grant a new one.”
“Tore Mr. Grant a new one?” she repeated.
Kyle nodded deep.
“We couldn’t believe it, you know, the factory workers in that section,” he said. “I’ve been at the steel mill since high school and never seen someone even raise their voice at Mr. Grant, and there she was with a red face and so loud.”
Blake was stunned.
“What was she yelling about?”
Kyle still hadn’t caught on that he had, once again, thrown her for an emotional loop.
He shrugged.
“I couldn’t hear the specifics, but I think he turned down one of her suggestions for something to do with the furnaces. But to be fair, he gets a lot of suggestions from safety advisors so—”
“When did this fight happen?” Blake interrupted. Her voice had raised but she couldn’t help it. Kyle’s eyebrows went higher with it. He looked like he was finally realizing that he had said something that bothered her.
“Uh, she never really came to the steel mill unless she was working, so I guess that was around...” He let his words trail off. His eyes widened. “Oh, man. I’m sorry. I didn’t think—”
The chair scraped against the tile as Blake pushed it back and stood. She crossed the room in one fluid movement, only pausing at the counter for one question.
“Is Cassandra in the back?”
Corrie had a coffee cup stopped midair between her and Liam.
She nodded.
“She’s on a call—”
Blake kept moving, eyes on the hallway that led to the office.
She heard Liam ask after her, but there was no stopping her.
Blake flung open the manager’s office door and closed it right back behind her once inside. Cassandra was indeed on the phone, but Blake took it from her and slammed it down on the cradle to hang up.
Cassandra seemed rightly angry, but Blake spoke over any and all questions and concerns.
“Why didn’t you tell me that Beth fought with Mr. Grant before she died?”
Cassandra took the words and spat back a question with just as much heat.
“What the heck do you mean?”
Blake pointed in the direction of the main room behind her.
“Kyle Langdon said he saw Beth yelling at Mr. Grant at the steel mill and Beth only went there twice in the last year. Once to do the inspection on the furnaces and the day she died. How come I didn’t hear about the fight? You had to have known!”
She was so angry. So heated. Her hands shook, her heartbeat sped.
Had the fight been the reason Beth had been speeding? Had it distracted her and led to the accident that killed her?
Why hadn’t a town that thrived on gossip not spread that tidbit around?
And why was it making her so angry?
And why was that making Cassandra so angry right on back?
The other woman stood so fast her chair fell over behind her.
“Do you think just because I run a coffee shop that I get every piece of news that this town has to give?” she countered. “Do you think that everyone in this town runs to me like I’m a bartender and tells me everything?”
“Yes!”
Cassandra stood firm.
“No!” she exclaimed. “They don’t. I had no idea that Beth fought with Mr. Grant, and even if I had, it’s not like I know to tell you every single little detail.
Who do you think you are and who do you think I am?
I mean, is that what you and your sheriff think of me?
Do you really think I need to tell you every little piece of information I hear?
Every little detail? And even if I did, am I supposed to remember everything I see and hear? ”
Blake had apparently hit a nerve. Cassandra was fuming. She walked around the desk, anger in every movement.
“The last time you two barged in here, I was nice,” she continued.
“I was polite. I told you about Missy, about her mood, her personality, her laptop with the little panda sticker, what I thought about her death, and did all of that without anyone forcing my hand. Now you come in here, hanging up my phone to vent to me about—”
“Panda sticker?” Blake interrupted.