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“I really hope they find the bastard who did this.”
“Me, too. Do you know if Jake saw anything?”
Meagan wrinkled her brow. “Why would Jake have seen anything?”
“I saw him outside in the area earlier last night. Thought he might have heard or seen something.”
She planned to wait until her parents weren’t at home before confronting him, but even though they were out that night, Jake was, too. The next night they were all sitting down to dinner when a call came in about another fire. Her father rushed out to head to the station and the next time she saw him, he was in the hospital, hours away from death due to the injuries he’d sustained as a result of the call.
There weren’t any more strange fires after that. Then again, she had to lose her father to get them to stop. She never thought it was a fair trade.
Chapter Eight
Back at her apartment, Meagan took a long, hot shower and then pulled out her file containing all the news articles she’d clipped about the unsolved fires.
She’d been so certain she’d done the right thing all those years ago in covering for her brother. Back then, she’d told herself if she went to the police, it’d make her dad look bad. For sure, he wouldn’t get the promotion he’d been talking about for the last eighteen months.
And, there was a part of her that wanted to help her brother. If she kept quiet, maybe he’d recognize he’d been given a second chance and he’d straighten up. She reasoned with herself that no one had been hurt, other than her father, and it was only property damage. Plus, her father had asked her not to tell.
All those years, she’d kept her brother’s secret and as time went on, she felt she could no longer come forward. It was much too late. In all honesty, she was now as guilty as he was. It really hadn’t done her any good anyway; someone had obviously known the entire time. Which brought up again: how did The Taskmaster know?
And again the questions came that she had no answers to: had he always known or had her brother let something slip in a recent conversation? Was he there when it happened? If so, wasn’t he as guilty as they were? Not to mention the one question that wouldn’t leave her alone: what did he want with Luke?
She knew what she had to do and before she could change her mind, she turned on her laptop and typed an e-mail to The Taskmaster.
I know where he keeps his photos, but it doesn’t matter because I’m not doing anything else for you anymore. I’m done. D.O.N.E. Done. I don’t care what you do or what you say or what you threaten. Find someone else to do your dirty work, this bitch is done.
The reply back was almost instant.
HAHAHAHAHAHA.
Which only made her angry. She typed back a reply, but thought better of it and deleted it before sending. He wanted her angry. He wanted a reaction. She’d be damned if she’d give him the satisfaction.
Instead she typed a quick text to Luke.
Dinner tomorrow night at my house?
His reply was almost instant.
Love to. What time?
7 okay?
See you then.
She smiled as she put her phone down. There. That was much better than going off on a man who could potentially ruin her. Dinner with Luke. Two weeks ago, she’d never have thought it possible. Especially when she’d convinced herself he was an ass and she wanted nothing to do with him.
Now she could admit that she wasn’t sure she’d ever gotten over him all those years ago. She should probably thank The Taskmaster for forcing her to reconnect with him. Had it not been for him, she and Luke would still be strangers. She’d have completely missed out on discovering what an incredible man he’d become.
Not to mention the insanely good sex.
Speaking of which, she needed to straighten up the house and put clean sheets on her bed. And figure out what she was making for dinner tomorrow night.
On second thought, scratch that. She needed to figure out where she was getting takeout from.
* * *
The next day Luke showed up at her apartment at five minutes till seven. Of course he was punctual, of course he was. Meagan was still running around, trying to decide which shirt to put on.
“Coming!” she yelled at his knock, dragging a short-sleeve silk blouse over her head. “Be right there.”
He was smiling when she opened the door.
“Hello,” he said. He looked devilishly handsome in blue jeans and a T-shirt.
“Come in.” She held the door open wide so he could pass through.
He dropped a kiss on her cheek before stepping over the threshold. “Thank you for having me tonight.”
She smiled at the potential double meaning. “It only seemed fair, seeing as how you had me the night before last.”
He laughed softly. “Nice place.”
Meagan looked around her apartment as if seeing it for the first time. It was neat and tidy, perhaps overly so. But that was just the way she was. She had a tendency to stress-clean. And between her brother, Luke, and The Taskmaster, there had been a lot of cleaning going on. The decor was more contemporary than traditional, though the one thing she insisted upon was comfortable furniture.
Her place wasn’t very large, so it took only a few minutes to show him everything. She ended the tour in the kitchen, where the fresh-baked smells of the lasagna she’d picked up at a local Italian restaurant filled the air.
“Something smells good,” Luke said.
“Lasagna.”
“You made lasagna?”
“I didn’t so much make it as I picked it up from a nearby restaurant and reheated it.”
“Either way, it smells delicious.”
Once more he was charming and down-to-earth. He had a breezy, nonchalant air about him. She liked that; it buffered her more type-A personality. They talked over dinner about their families, their current careers, and where they wanted to be in five years.
As they were finishing up eating, Luke grew serious. “I feel the need to apologize for what happened all those years ago.”
“You don’t have to,” Meagan said. “I get it. You didn’t like me then.”
“What the hell? Didn’t like you? I liked you too much.”
She snorted.
“Don’t do that. Listen to me.” Luke took a deep breath and started. “After that remarkable weekend we had together, I spoke with a close friend of mine. He was older and more experienced, and I trusted him. I was so happy after that weekend and I wanted to be with you so much. I was so young and naive, I thought we would always be like that.”
As he spoke about it, the memories of that time came back to her. She remembered the joy and elation after they had spent the weekend together. And her heartache and despair when he ended it.
“But my friend told me I was walking on thin ice. To have an affair with the model in my shoot? Especially one of my first models? In that day and time, he told me I was only asking for trouble.”
She remembered when they’d broken it off. She’d thought she’d just move on, but days after, she went to another shoot with a different photographer. She’d forced herself to be all smiles and giggly and happy, but it didn’t take long to see that something wasn’t right. The guy was different, standoffish, almost cold, borderline indifferent.
Meagan, in her insecurities, thought she had done something wrong. For the duration of the shoot, she wondered what it could’ve been. Was she acting odd? Was the guy just having a bad day? Or was it more? Had word spread about her and Luke?
Her heart pounded. Did the photographer expect her to sleep with him? That was why he acted so strange. Then she realized it would probably always be that way. The men she worked with would just assume she’d sleep with them. Suddenly, modeling didn’t appeal to her anymore. Though she’d thought she’d cried herself all out over Luke before, she remembered crying herself to sleep that night, and for many more to follow. She mourned what she saw as the loss of her modeling career.
“Don’t ap
ologize.” She reached across the table and took his hand. “Yes, you hurt me, but that’s part of growing up. The truth is, you left me with much more than you took away.”
“How’s that?”
