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But the conversation had done exactly what she suspected Marin had intended.
Dusty didn’t feel so afraid any longer. For now.
2
Secrets.They had a way of finding life.
Wayne Pryor was a man on a mission now.
There were those out there who knew what he had been apart of. People who knewenoughthat they could destroy him now, even decades after what had happened. Maybe he had disassociated himself from Morris Preston and that dumbass Bruce Tyler a good ten years back—but the memories, they remained.
Peopleknewwhat he had done. The good. And far too much of the bad.
He’d done far too muchbad.But he’d replaced it with good. He had. His girls—they were everything that was good about the world. He’d built himself a reallife. He had a wife and four beautiful daughters, young women now, dependent on him to be there when they needed it.
Morris Preston getting arrested now threatened to upend all of that. To destroy all Wayne had worked toward. To destroy what was good in his world now.
Wayne just couldn’t let that happen. He just couldn’t.
If he lost Linda and the girls—her girls, he’d adopted them when they’d been young girls, after he’d married their mother—he would be nothing. They were hiseverything.
Wayne wasn’t going to lose them. No matter what he had to do to protect what he’d built now.
Wayne had packed up his family and moved them to damned Idaho, to get himself out of range of Preston ten years ago.It had pissed Preston off, but Wayne had told him a wallop. That Linda’s father had threatened to disown her if they didn’t. Said the man was getting on in years, and he wanted to know his granddaughters better—before he considered leaving them all that money of his. Preston had believed it—understood.
He’d lived under his own father-in-law’s thumb, once. For about a year.
Then the old man had up and died like he had.
Wayne wasn’t stupid. Preston had had something to do with it. Anytimeanyonegot in Morris Preston’s way, well, they were eventually gotten out of the way.
Sometimes, Wayne had been the one to do that “getting.”
Not exactly something he was proud of. That was for sure.
Moving his family away had been the best decision he had ever made. But Morris Preston, the people Morris hadhurt, people who knew all about Wayne Pryor and what he had oncebeen.What he haddone.What he had threatened to do to them, just because Morris Preston had ordered it.
He’d bought in to everything Preston had promised.
Wayne had been stupid all those years ago. Dumbest thing he had ever done. He’d practically given Preston all the ammunition he needed to keep Wayne under his thumb for years.
Sweat covered his brow. He wiped it quickly. Linda was looking at him, a curious look on her sweet face. She’d never been a great beauty, but she’d made him feel important. Not that he was that great of a catch either. He loved her, more than words could ever say. And the girls? Being theirdadhad given him real meaning. Made him feel like he’d belonged right there with them, like he wasneeded.For the first time in his life, someone had needed him.
Linda and the girls were his world. Everything that mattered. Everything.
Morris Preston’s secrets threatened to destroy everything he’d ever worked for.
And with Preston in jail—those loose ends might just start to unravel.
It was time to go back to Wyoming.
Wayne couldn’t escape it any longer.
3
Her shift started off slow.Tuesday nights usually weren’t too bad. It was mostly regulars. People she had known for years. That made it a bit easier. Dusty didn’t really enjoy waitressing. But the diner was a part of her life. Her responsibility. And she wasn’t quite ready to give it up yet.
It was home. It mattered.
