“Smelled fine till you came along.” Cain grinned as he used a paper towel to wipe the melted lipstick off his hands.
Tiger rubbed the blond tips of his bleached hair, which he’d gelled into spikes. “I didn’t think you were the type to play with makeup.”
Cain righted the fallen chairs. “Don’t worry. I left the panties and high heels for you.”
Tiger laughed, but sobered as his eyes wandered around. “So this is where it happened, huh?”
“Looks that way to me.”
“She’d only been in town for a night and a day. How’s that for a welcome party?”
Taking a rag from the drawer next to the sink, Cain began wiping off the table. “How do you know how long she was in town? Did you talk to her?”
“No, Amy got the date from the contract on Sheridan’s rental car.”
“Whoever did this moved fast.”
Tiger’s expression turned grim. “He definitely came with a purpose in mind.”
“The question is why? Why Sheridan? Why now?”
“I can’t tell you. I mean, we didn’t part friends.” He seemed to realize that put him in Sheridan’s “enemy camp.” “But I’d never attack her,” he added.
Cain set the sack with her belongings on the table he’d just cleaned and dusted off the chairs. “Have you had any contact with her over the years?”
“Nope. I don’t think anyone has. She was pretty freaked out when she left. The whole family was. They packed up and took off and never looked back.”
He tossed the rag into the sink. “She’d been shot for no reason. And she watched my stepbrother die. That would be traumatic for anyone.” Steeling himself against the stench, Cain got another sack, placed the spoiled meat inside and carried it out to the garbage.
“So what’s she like?” Tiger asked when he came back. “Has she changed much?”
She’d grown more beautiful. And she probably wasn’t as sexually inexperienced. But Cain wasn’t about to speak those thoughts aloud. Finding a broom in the utility closet near the entrance to the garage, he started sweeping. “I don’t know. She’s been pretty incoherent since it happened.”
“It’s interesting that she’s at your place.”
“Why?” Cain paused to glance up at him.
“I always thought maybe she had a thing for you.”
No. She’d been trying to get back at her controlling parents by doing exactly what they were afraid she’d do. At least, that was what Cain liked to tell himself. It was the only explanation that made him feel better about ignoring her after such an encounter. Acknowledging that she was infatuated with him made him feel too guilty. “Why did you think that?”
“When she broke up with me, she told me she liked someone else, but then she never got with anybody. Any other guy would’ve snapped her up in a minute.”
Cain went back to sweeping. “That was just an excuse to get rid of you.”
Tiger didn’t go for the joke. “Maybe, but her little sister made an interesting comment once.”
Cain wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what it was. The trust Sheridan had handed him that long-ago night had terrified him. He’d rather not have any proof that there was real feeling behind it. That would only make it harder to convince himself she was merely rebelling. “Little sisters say a lot of things.”
Tiger hesitated, then appeared to shrug it off. “Right. You two were so different in high school, I could never imagine you together.”
Neither could Cain. And yet…
“It’s nice of you to do this for her,” Tiger said.
Why was he doing it? Why was he letting himself get more and more involved? He could hear the question in Tiger’s voice, but he didn’t completely understand, either. Maybe it was because, for the first time in her life, the girl who’d had it all needed someone—needed him. “It wouldn’t be pleasant to come home to this after everything she’s gone through.”
“She’s coming back here, then?”
“I’m assuming she will, when she’s strong enough.”
“Would you mind if I stopped by your place to visit her sometime?”
Cain didn’t want anyone bothering her. Not for a few days. But he knew Tiger would misinterpret simple concern for her well-being as something more if he said no. “Of course not.”
“Okay, I’ll see you around.”
After Tiger left, Cain finished dusting, vacuuming and scrubbing. Then he packed her luggage, hauled it out of the bedroom and locked up. He hadn’t been able to find Sheridan’s phone charger and was just wondering if she might’ve forgotten it in California, when he opened the door of his truck and found a gigantic box of condoms on the seat.
There was a note on top. And he was pretty sure it was Amy who’d written it. At least wait until she can walk…
7
John Wyatt hadn’t been sleeping well, so he’d taken a week’s vacation from his janitorial job over at the high school. He’d been at the school for so many years, he had plenty of vacation time and needed to use some of it anyway. But he should’ve settled for a day or two. Anything more left him with too much free time. He had no idea how long he’d been staring at the picture of the son he’d loved more than anything in the world. He only knew Jason was gone. For good.
Sometimes, even after twelve years, it was hard for John to believe that. He’d wake up in the morning, thinking he had a son who was everything a man could ever want, a son of whom he could be proud. And then he’d realize that the only children he had now were Robert, who wasn’t much to admire at all, and Owen, who was so intellectual and reserved he was almost…odd. He didn’t count Cain, of course. John had never counted his stepson.
He shifted his eyes to the small box he held in one hand, hesitated, then flipped open the lid. A half-carat diamond ring sparkled against a blue velvet background. He’d bought it for his girlfriend, Karen, nearly a month ago. He’d planned on asking her to marry him, planned on walking into her classroom in the middle of her high-school English class and proposing in front of all her students. He knew the kids would get a kick out of that, knew she’d enjoy the attention. She deserved something big like that for her first proposal.
But that was before the rifle that’d killed Jason had been found in Cain’s cabin.