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“Rachel doesn’t know you. And I did mean what I said last night. I trust you completely.”
Her words were muffled against his shirt, but no less effective.
“Only you.”
He squeezed his eyes shut in despair. Did she have any clue what she did to him?
“What I said about my parents…”
Her chest expanded and relaxed within his arms. With trepidation, he waited for her to continue.
“Rachel thought maybe with us getting mixed up in all this…that maybe that meant in some sense we were more like our parents than we thought. That despite us trying to live normal lives, there was no escaping the past, or who we are. But I know we’re nothing like them. It may have taken Ben and Rachel a little longer to escape their influence, but it’s true.”
Her voice rang with steel conviction. He wished he could see her face. Instead, he kept her talking. “What was it like, growing up with them?”
A long minute passed before she spoke. “For the most part it was fun, like a never-ending adventure that once in awhile got a little scary. Us kids were always part of whatever elaborate scheme they were running and they’d make each one into a game. I guess you could say they conned us, too, because I thought we were close, until that one time we didn’t leave town before I saw the result of what they’d orchestrated.” She leaned back in his arms with a sigh and slight shake of her head. “I was twelve, and though I don’t know the specifics of the con, I was old enough to know I’d played a part in my new best friends’ parents losing their jobs, their house, their savings…everything…because of my family.”
Her voice had grown hoarse and she sniffed.
“I couldn’t bring myself to turn them in, even though I wanted to, but I refused to help anymore and things were never the same between me and my parents. Ben and Rachel took up the slack and watched out for me. Then, shortly after my sixteenth birthday, someone beat them at their own game and they were convicted less than six months later.”
Trent frowned at the thought of her being alone so young. “What’d you do?”
“Got an honest job, finished high school and worked my way through college.”
She rattled off her accomplishments as if they were no big deal, but there was no mistaking the underlying determination and pride in her voice. He thought she’d gained strength on this wild ride they’d shared, but in truth, he saw she’d had it all along.
“Ben was already out of school, working for some courier service that took him all around the country. Rachel always had a flair for art and she started her own business not far from where I live now. She travels to art fairs all over during the summer and creates in her studio
through the winter. Ben helps her out with the books whenever he’s around.”
Call him gullible, but Trent was well on his way to reforming his hasty conclusions from a few minutes ago. Why would she tell him any of this if she was playing him?
He took one moment of clear, rational thought to consider Sean and Lorenzo’s murders and everything else they’d been through the past couple days. The twisted tangle of events leading up to this exact spot convinced him there was no way anyone could plan what they’d been through. Too many variables would’ve made it impossible, and he felt like a jerk for even going there in the first place.
Thank God he hadn’t openly accused her.
Relief clogged his throat, but he managed to ask, “And your parents…has prison made a difference for them, or you?”
“I haven’t spoken to them since the trial almost ten years ago and I don’t want to. They’ll never be a part of my life again.”
As if suddenly uncomfortable with the conversation, she brought her arms around to push against his chest. He released her with reluctance.
“What about your brother and sister?”
She shrugged. “I know they’ve kept in touch, but we don’t talk about them.” She reached up to brush moisture from her cheeks, turning her back as she did so. “I’ve never even told anyone about them. I can just imagine what people would think or say if they knew.”
Trent made her face him. “Like you told Rachel, you’re not your parents.” He saw that now without a doubt.
“Still doesn’t mean I want anyone to know.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” he promised.
He was rewarded with a brief smile. His stomach chose that moment to grumble for breakfast and Trent decided to get the morning back on track where it should’ve been.
He lifted her chin to give her a thorough good morning kiss. After a moment, her palms flattened on his chest as she rose on tiptoe to kiss him back. With effort, he sidelined thoughts of taking her back to bed and ended the kiss.
“Hungry?” he asked.
