Font Size:  

“You should know all about that.”

She felt the muscles of her back stiffen, but when her eyes met his, she knew that the old animosity had mellowed and that Trevor hadn’t meant to bring up his accusations against her father.

“That reminds me,” she said, wiping her hands on a dish towel near the stove. “I have something for you.”

His gaze sharpened. “You found some proof?”

“I wish I knew what it was,” she admitted. “It’s in my purse . . . in the den.”

Once back in the cozy study, Trevor stoked the fire, while Ashley turned on a table lamp and extracted the documents condemning her father and cousin.

When the fire was blazing to his satisfaction, Trevor dusted his hands on his jeans and approached Ashley. She started to hand him the documents, but Trevor shook his head. “I don’t want to know what you found, if it’s something that will hurt you or your family.”

Ashley’s eyes narrowed a fraction. “I don’t understand. You asked me, no, demanded is a better word, that I look for evidence against my family. For the last six weeks I’ve worked my fingers to the bone. Now you don’t want it?”

“What I don’t want is to hurt you—not anymore. If there is something in those pages—” he pointed to the papers she was clutching “—that would be better off hidden, then I think you should burn them. Right now.”

He was offering her a way out, a lifeline for her father’s reputation, but she couldn’t accept it. If she and Trevor had any chance at happiness, it was by destroying all the myths of the past and laying to rest the lies.

Any future they might share would have to be founded on truth.

“Here.” She put the papers in his hands. “Let’s start over—a clean slate. Remember?”

He took the pages from her trembling fingers and sat on the hearth near the fire. “I’ll be damned. . . .”

“It’s what you wanted, isn’t it? Proof that my father and Claud were behind the bribery charges.”

His broad shoulders sagged. “Was there anything else?”

“Not that I could find,” she said roughly. “John Ellis and I worked day and night with all the company records. Sure, we could have overlooked something, I suppose, but I doubt it. There was nothing I could find around the date of your accident that would lead me to believe that Claud had any part in it. As for your father’s disappearance . . .” Trevor’s eyes sharpened and he watched her face. “I checked, everything I could think of, as far as ten years back.” She shook her head and the firelight caught in her raven-black hair.

“I suppose that may be one mystery that’s never solved,” Trevor thought aloud. He rubbed the tension from the back of his neck and wondered, for the thousandth time, what had happened to his father. “Now it’s my turn to be honest,” he stated.

Ashley’s heart chilled. Had he been using her? Were all his words of love only to extract what he wanted from her? She couldn’t believe it, and yet her heart was filled with dread. “About what?”

“I had a meeting with Claud.”

His words settled like lead on the room. “You what?”

“I instigated a private confrontation with Claud—just yesterday. That’s why I didn’t show up at Pioneer Square. I was in Seattle.”

“But Everett said you were in Salem.”

“That’s where he thought I was. If I had told him that I was flying to Seattle to have it out with Claud Stephens, Everett would have hijacked the plane.”

“So what happened?” Ashley asked, almost afraid to hear.

“Claud was his usual friendly self,” Trevor replied cynically.

“I’ll bet.” Claud’s words again rang in her ears: We can’t let that son of a bitch win.

“He wanted, make that insisted, that I pull out of the senatorial race. There had already been some rumors to that effect and Claud wanted to substantiate them.”

“But that’s ridiculous.”

“Precisely what I told your cousin.”

“And?”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like