AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Casey was still shaking his head when Andrew finished speaking. “No. She wouldn’t do anything like that.”
“The facts were covered up by her firm because they didn’t want the negative publicity,” Aaron said. “They fired her without pursuing it any further because they wanted her and the potential scandal to disappear. Andrew found someone in the firm who was privy to the facts and was willing to share them with him.”
For a price, Casey thought bitterly. Apparently, privacy ethics were rather loose in Natalie’s former firm. But he could not accept that she would sell her own. “I don’t believe it.”
“There must have been some compelling evidence against her or she wouldn’t have just gone quietly,” Aaron argued. “She would have fought for her job.”
Casey slammed a fist against the breakfast bar, making his cousins look at him in concern. “I don’t want to hear any more of this. I am not gossiping about Natalie behind her back with you two.”
“This isn’t gossip, Case. This is fact,” Andrew said evenly. “You might not like it, but that’s what happened. We thought you should know.”
“She’s Jewel McDooley’s niece, for God’s sake. What on earth made you think you should run a background check on her?”
“Because we saw what Tamara did to you,” Aaron said after a pause, completely serious for once. “You didn’t believe the rumors about her, either, and when you were slapped in the face with the truth, it hurt you. We heard you were falling hard for another woman with big secrets, and we wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt again.”
He gave them both a hard look. “You overstepped your bounds,” he said, his quiet tone seething with the emotions he wasn’t able to suppress.
He snatched up his keys and wallet and headed for the door.
“Hey. Where are you going?”
“Out,” he said without looking around in response to Aaron’s question. “You guys can have dinner without me.”
“Damn it, Case—”
But he’d already slammed the door behind him and was headed for his truck, having no interest in anything else his overly intrusive cousins had to say at that moment.
He climbed behind the wheel, started the engine and drove away from the cabin. And then pulled over to the side of the road and just sat there, staring blindly out the windshield. He didn’t know where he was going.
The things Andrew and Aaron had told him about Natalie kept creeping into his mind, whispering doubts. He didn’t want to believe any of it. And yet…
Why had she been so secretive? Wouldn’t she have known he would believe her when she asserted her innocence?
If, of course, she was innocent.
He thought of the man he’d seen leaving her cabin before noon on Friday. She had to have known Casey had seen him, that he’d been curious, but she’d deliberately made no mention of the guy. Who was he? Was he somehow involved in this whole mess?
No. He shook his head with a scowl, thinking of the things he had gotten to know about Natalie during the past few days. She hadn’t told him specifics about her life, her career, but he’d spent a lot of time with her. He’d gotten to know her pretty well.
Of course, he’d thought he knew Tamara well, too. And he had known her for several years before he’d found out how wrong he was about her. He’d spent only a couple of weeks with Natalie.
Yet, as Aaron had so accurately pointed out, he had fallen hard.
Aaron had also reminded him how badly Tamara had hurt him, Casey thought, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel. Not because he had been so deeply in love with her, he knew now. But because he had trusted her. And that trust had been painfully abused.
The thought of being so bitterly disillusioned again…well, he had to admit it scared him a little. And that was an admission of vulnerability he didn’t like making.
Natalie was surprised to hear a knock on her door at just after eight that evening. Recognizing the three rapid taps Casey always used to announce himself, she turned off the rather dull television program she’d been watching and moved across the room.“Casey?” she asked, opening the door. “Is something wrong?”
Bending to pat Buddy, who’d ambled up to meet him, Casey said without looking at her, “I need to talk to you about something. I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you, but I couldn’t wait until tomorrow.”
That didn’t sound encouraging. She glanced at the door he had closed behind himself. “Where are your cousins?”
He straightened, and for just a moment she saw what might have been a flash of irritation in his eyes. “They’re back at my cabin, I guess. Or having dinner. I don’t know.”
“You’ve quarreled with them?”
“Yeah. But that’s not why I’m here. Or, rather, it is—but…Damn it.”
