A Better Man

CHAPTER THREE

LUNCH HADN’T GONE WELL. Roth punched the accelerator as soon as the office door closed behind Piper. She’d put him on the defensive. But he’d made his apology. Objective accomplished, albeit with some collateral damage.

The first land mine being that she still got to him. If anything, she was more beautiful than before. It had been impossible to sit across from her and not remember the way her dimples used to flash, the love that had once shone from her blue eyes or the taste of her lips and the feel of her soft curves pressed against him.

The follow-up strike had been Piper’s accusation that he’d been looking for a way out of their relationship. As much as he hated to admit it, there was some truth in her words. Leaving her twelve years ago had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done, and his pride had been eviscerated when she’d sworn she’d never have the baby of white trash like him and thrown his money in his face.

But part of him had been relieved. He’d decided long before he met Piper that he’d never have children. If he didn’t have kids, he couldn’t fail them—or hurt them—the way his father had him. His opinion hadn’t changed over the years. Marriage wasn’t high on his to-do list, either. Cop marriages didn’t last.

What really burned like a chemical weapon was her accusing him of being like his father. He’d left Quincey behind and racked up numerous commendations to wipe that connection from his life. Yet less than twenty-four hours back and the one person who’d never judged him by his father’s actions was the one throwing that at him.

The fear and revulsion in her eyes when she’d grilled him about his job had gouged deep. Uneasiness wasn’t an uncommon reaction to finding out his specialty, and it was the primary reason he didn’t blab about his missions. But he wasn’t ashamed of his skills, his success or his service, and he wasn’t going to lie about the role he’d played. He’d saved a hell of a lot of lives. That was all that mattered. Why did he care what anyone—Piper—thought?

But something about the afternoon nagged him as he drove down Main Street checking out the new storefronts, and he’d learned not to ignore his instincts. Piper’s body language had been off. There’d been a slight tremor of her hands and her gaze had bounced away repeatedly. That, combined with the deep breaths she’d taken before answering his questions led him down an unexpected path.

His training automatically identified those as traits of someone with something to hide. But in a town like Quincey where your business was everybody’s business and secrets were impossible to keep, what could Piper be concealing? Probably nothing. More than likely their past was the issue. But he would find out.

He stopped at the light and weighed his options. He could see his apartment from here, but the idea of returning to his claustrophobic rooms held no appeal. Determined to lay one more ghost to rest, he steered the truck toward the old home place.

He passed one of the deputies driving the opposite direction and waved. The gesture wasn’t returned. Maybe the man didn’t recognize Roth’s truck. But given what Piper had said about her father being forced out of office, the lack of acknowledgment could be because the deputies were loyal to the old chief. Roth would have to deal with that Monday.

A few new houses had sprung up along the rural route. He slowed as he approached the hairpin turn that had changed his life. Chuck had hit the curve at full speed in Gus Benson’s Corvette, lost control and nailed a hundred-year-old oak. The oak still stood with a scar in its trunk. Miraculously, Chuck had walked away without a scratch, as drunks often do, but he’d totaled the car.

If not for that wreck, Gus and the chief would never have known about the joyride. What would have happened then? Roth had asked himself a hundred times during those early years when he’d been fighting to forget Piper. Would they have married? Would their baby have been a boy or girl? Would he have turned into an abusive ass like his father and ended up in jail as so many people had predicted? Or would he have, as Piper had insisted today, found another way to escape?

He detoured down a back road leading to the bridge spanning Deer Hunter’s Creek. He’d slept under the old wooden trestles too many nights to count—most of the time to hunt at sunrise, but sometimes to escape the sound of his mother’s crying.

More than once after his father had beat her then passed out in his recliner, Roth had contemplated ending his mother’s suffering by using his hunting rifle on his father. But that would have made him as much of an animal as his old man. Leaving had been the only way to avoid temptation.

Something about the dense woods bordering the creek snagged Roth’s attention as his tires rumbled over the boards. One thing drilled into him as a sniper was that if something didn’t fit he’d better check it out. He pulled onto the shoulder, climbed from the cab and studied the landscape. Not one broken branch or pinecone littered the ground. Too clean.

Resting his hand on his holstered Glock, he carefully made his way down the steep, leaf-covered bank, cataloguing the signs of habitation. Someone had tucked an old metal chair and small table into a hollow. The tracks along the bank looked a few days old. A recent rain had caved in the edges, making it impossible to identify the type or size of shoe or the original depth of the impression.

The prints led to a rock-ringed fire pit. He squatted and touched the carefully positioned stones. Cold and damp. Somebody had been camping here. But not recently.

On the far side of the bridge a neatly stacked pile of branches acted as a screen and/or fuel supply. A metal can hung from a bungee cord suspended between two bridge supports. Pretty smart to hang it out of wildlife’s reach. He took down the can and pried off the lid with his pocketknife. Matches. Beef jerky. Packages of sunflower seeds and peanuts. A resealable plastic bag with two cookies. A small pocketknife.

No drug paraphernalia. No booze.

He returned the bucket and scanned the makeshift camp again, looking for any clue to who’d been here. Probably not a hunter judging by the lack of spent shotgun shells or rifle casings. And not likely pot-smoking teens, who tended to leave snack wrappers lying around. He hadn’t noticed any beggars in Quincey. Did the town have homeless people? Charlotte’s street corners had been littered with them.

He scanned the area one last time. Today, who camped here wasn’t his concern, but come Monday morning, once he’d donned his badge, it would be. He’d check for crimes in the vicinity and ID the squatter. A known hazard was easier to control.

Determined to get the next item checked off his list, he returned to his truck. The pine forest gave way to fields. He braked involuntarily when he spotted a white clapboard house that shouldn’t be there. This was his family’s land, wasn’t it? Or had he been away so long he’d lost his orientation?

He checked the side mirror. Sure enough, there at the base of the oak tree he’d carved his and Piper’s initials in stood the hundred-year-old cement post marking the beginning of Roth land. His mother’s family had owned this property, and she’d given him her maiden name in good ole Southern tradition.

He rolled forward again, finding two more houses in what had been soybean fields. Not that his father had ever farmed. After his grandfather died Roth’s parents had leased the land to supplement the meager income his father made from the garage.

Roth had hunted the fields to put meat on the table. Deer. Rabbit. Turkey. Quail. Wild boar. If you could eat it, he could shoot it.

Had his mother sold the property? Or had it been repossessed for nonpayment of taxes? She hadn’t mentioned either when she’d called to tell him about his father’s pending release three months ago.

He’d never been able to understand why she hadn’t divorced her good-for-nothing husband. Her name was the only one on the property deed she’d inherited, and she had the income from the acreage to support herself. Eloise had always claimed it was because she loved Seth, and no matter how hard Roth had tried, he’d never been able to convince his mama that love didn’t blacken eyes or break bones.

It was a shame a deputy had to die before the cops did anything about his father’s actions, and for that he blamed Lou Hamilton. Hamilton’s department had been useless whenever Roth called them as a kid because Roth’s mother had refused to press charges. Seeing his father hauled off to prison had been a tremendous relief.

Roth’s muscles tensed and his grip on the wheel tightened as he crested the hill leading to the home place. He focused on tactical breathing, exhaling slowly and forcing each kinked muscle to relax the way he had before taking a shot.

He emerged from the copse of dense oaks and holly trees. A new mailbox and post marked the property. Lush green grass carpeted what had once been a muddy, weed-choked, car-parts-strewn yard. He drove up the gravel driveway and the house came into view. For a moment he sat in the truck trying to make sense of it all. The place looked nothing like he remembered. Even the old garage had been spruced up.

He’d expected to find the structure rotting from almost twelve years of neglect. Instead, the house looked better than it ever had when Roth had lived here. Pale yellow paint coated what had once been peeling white boards, and the black shutters hung parallel to the windows instead of dangling at a weird angle or sitting on the ground propped against the foundation. Somebody had put a lot of money and work into the place. Who?

The brightly colored toys dotting the lawn looked as out of place as an iceberg at the equator. A child’s squeal rent the air then a medium-size mutt raced around the corner of the house with a hip-high redhead on its heels. The girl skidded to a halt beside Roth’s truck, her tail-waving, tongue-lagging friend beside her.

“Hey, mister.”

Opening his door, he climbed out. His experience with children was limited to encounters with fellow officers’ offspring. “Hey, kid. You live here?”

“Yessir.”

The front door opened. A woman in her late twenties with dark red hair and freckles to match the girl’s came out. She descended the stairs quickly and put a hand on the child’s shoulder. “Can I help you?”

“I’m Roth Sterling. I lived here. A long time ago.”

The stiffness left her frame. “Oh. Are you the owner? I thought I remembered the agent saying a woman was moving in.”

“My mother.”

“We’re going to miss this place. It’s a wonderful house.”

She didn’t have the memories attached to the place that he did. “It’s in great shape. Did you fix it up?”

“Oh, no. It was in perfect condition when we moved in and the rental company has folks who come out whenever something needs fixing.”

Who was paying for this? He and his mother would have to have a talk. “Have you been here long?”

“Almost eight years. Quincey is a lovely community. Close enough to Raleigh for convenience, but far enough away for privacy and safety. We don’t want to leave the area. Ann Marie is looking for another house for us nearby.”

“Ann Marie Hamilton?”

“Yes. Do you know her?”

Piper’s mother. “I did. I’ve been gone a while.”

“She’s Quincey’s only real estate agent. If you’re looking for a place near your mama, maybe Ann Marie can help you find one.”

He might not be planning to stay, but no one else needed to know that. He could use a fictitious house search to find out what Piper was hiding. “I appreciate the tip. I’ll give her a call.”

Time for a little recon.

* * *

“SPILL IT,” MADISON SAID as she set down her med-kit.

Piper tried to gather her scattered thoughts and pretended to be busy shuffling the charts on her desk. “How’s Pebbles?”

“Routine delivery. Mrs. Lee exaggerated as usual.” Her boss/friend hitched a hip on the counter, parking a butt cheek on the files and effectively ending the shuffling. “And don’t ignore the question. Who is Roth Sterling? How do you know him? And what is he to you?”

Piper had exceeded her fib quota for the year with Roth. She could not look Madison in the eye and lie. “We dated when I was eighteen. It was a long time ago.”

“Will you be dating him again?”

“No.” Piper winced at her sharp tone, and sure enough, Madison’s hiked eyebrows said she’d picked up on it.

“So you’re saying he’s available?”

Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom. Piper’s heart slammed against her rib cage then lodged in her throat. “He says he’s single.”

“That’s not what I asked, Piper. I don’t have to tell you how limited the selection of eligible men is around here. At least your father parades potential dates in front of you.”

Her father. Roth’s story had Piper so conflicted. There was no way her rule-following father could have done as Roth said. Her father would never deliberately hurt her or break the law. She believed that with every fiber of her being.

But Roth had sounded so convincing. She ached to confide in Madison and ask her opinion. But Piper said nothing. She couldn’t risk it. The person she needed to talk to was her father.

“Each of the men Dad brings home has been screened more thoroughly than an FBI candidate. They’re so squeaky clean they don’t even have dirty thoughts.”

“Hmm. Sounds like you have a penchant for bad boys. And I think Chief Sterling might be one. He has an edge that’s kind of sexy.”

Piper remained mute. The less she said the better. Roth had definitely been a bad boy and he’d abandoned her.

But was he a liar? He had to be.

Madison sighed. “I remember the last time I had sex. Do you?”

“Do I remember the last time you had sex?”

“Funny girl. I know you too well for playing dumb to fool me. I’m saying we’re both overdue for someone to satisfy our biological urges. I don’t think you’ve hooked up with anyone in the five years I’ve known you.”

“Neither have you.”

“No, I haven’t.” The sad tinge of her voice reminded Piper how little she knew about Madison’s life before Quincey. She knew her friend had been married and suffered a miscarriage. But that was it. Madison didn’t like to talk about the reasons she’d relocated from a busy suburb of Atlanta to a sleepy Southern town. But that was okay because then Piper could keep her secrets without feeling guilty.

Madison rose. “I might be ready for something…temporary. Scorching hot and brief. That’s what I need. How about you? Is Roth going to be the one who breaks your drought?”

Adrenaline shot through Piper’s veins. “Absolutely not.”

“Why? Is he a jerk? Did he cheat on you with another woman? Another man?”

Piper nearly choked on a shocked laugh. “You are awful. He didn’t cheat on me.” He did something worse. He made me love him then he left us. “If you want him, he’s yours.”

“Hmm. I’ll think about it. He definitely has the tall, dark and handsome thing going for him.”

Piper’s stomach churned and she realized this would be one of those sour grapes situations from the fables she’d read to Josh. She didn’t want Roth, but she couldn’t handle a ringside seat watching him sweep another woman off her feet either.

* * *

PIPER MADE A BEELINE for her father’s immediately after work. She had to know who had lied. Roth or Lou. She was almost certain it was the former, but that twinge of doubt had nagged her all afternoon and turned her into such a clumsy idiot that even Madison had started looking at her funny.

Piper whipped the Jeep into the driveway of the house where she’d grown up and leaped from the vehicle.

Her father stepped onto the porch. “Piper, this is a surprise.”

He didn’t look like a man with dark secrets.

She stalked up the sidewalk. “I had lunch with Roth Sterling today.”

He stiffened and his welcoming smile faded. But that didn’t prove anything. He’d always hated Roth.

“He didn’t waste any time looking you up.”

“Did you coerce him into joining the Marines?”

His hesitation made goose bumps rise on Piper’s skin. No. Please no.

“Now, baby—”

“I’m not a baby. I’m thirty years old. And I deserve the truth. Did you threaten to send him to jail if he didn’t enlist, then drive him to the recruitment office and stand over him until he signed the forms?”

“He had a choice.”

“Did you pressure him with threats against his mother?”

“I did it for your own good, Piper. That boy was headed to the same place as his daddy—prison.”

Oh. My. God. Roth hadn’t lied. A tremor started deep inside and worked its way to her extremities as the magnitude of his confession overwhelmed her.

“You knew he didn’t steal and wreck Gus’s car, didn’t you?”

“I need a beer. Want one?” He disappeared through the front door. The screen door slapped behind him like a gunshot making her jump.

Piper’s feet seemed glued to the porch. She forced them into action and followed him, anger and betrayal vying for supremacy. “You knew, didn’t you?”

Her father yanked open the refrigerator, pulled out a beer and popped the top. He took a long drink then lowered the can and wiped his mouth. “No matter what you claimed, evidence indicated him and he didn’t deny it.”

Her thoughts and emotions churned like floodwaters oversetting everything she thought she’d known, everything she’d believed to be fact. She’d believed Roth had betrayed her. But so had her father, the man she loved and trusted more than anyone.

What else had he lied about? Did she dare trust anything he’d told her? It was too much to take in.

“What happened to innocent until proved guilty?”

“Now, Piper—”

“What happened to the truth and your sworn duty to uphold the law?”

“That boy needed discipline. I knew the military would set him straight.”

“What if he’d refused to sign? Would you have prosecuted an innocent man?”

“Piper—”

“Just how far over the line were you willing to go, Daddy?”

“It wasn’t like that. I knew he’d sign the contract to protect his mama. She couldn’t survive without the money he’d send her if he drew a military paycheck. Land poor, that’s what she was. All that Roth land and she couldn’t sell it for dirt. Market’s changed now. We have new folk coming into town and property’s worth something, but back then…” He shook his head.

Piper wanted to slap his beer out of his hand, and violence had never been her thing. “Don’t change the subject. The real estate market has nothing to do with your lies. To me. To Roth. To the rest of the force. To Quincey. You betrayed your badge.”

He blanched and a spark of concern skipped through her. She probably shouldn’t upset him, given his heart condition. But damn it, he’d deliberately driven away the man she loved, the father of her baby.

“Let me tell you something, little lady. I have never done anything detrimental to this town or this badge. I gave Sterling a chance to break the mold and become something better than his no-good daddy. And apparently he has if the sonofabitch has stolen my job.”

His selfishness blew her away. How could he honestly believe he’d done the right thing? No wonder her mother had left him.

Did her mother know? Was she in on this, too?

Piper’s eyes and chest burned. “Do not try to make out like you had his best interest at heart. I don’t buy it for one minute.”

“You gonna stand there and tell me you wouldn’t lie to protect Josh? Because I know better. You’ve lived a lie for the past eight years.”

She flinched. He was right. Her life since returning had been one big lie. She’d forgiven her father for sending her away. Now it appeared that hadn’t been his only sin.

“I wouldn’t send an innocent, hardworking man to jail.”

“You’re making a fuss over nothing. Sterling would have turned on that boy before going to court. They were tight, but they weren’t kin.”

His continued justification of his misdeed infuriated her. “If you think he would have betrayed Chuck, then you don’t know Roth very well.”

“Turned on you, didn’t he? Left you in a bad way.” Rage rumbled in his voice.

“So did you, Daddy. But what you did was worse. At least Roth had the guts to tell me to my face that he didn’t want me. You, the man I loved and trusted with all my heart, stabbed me in the back. And when you found out I was pregnant you threw me out of your house for falling in love when your sin was so much worse. No wonder Mom left you. You’re a hypocrite and a liar.”

Her voice broke.

“You are not the man I thought you were, and I don’t know if I can ever forgive you. I do know I will never trust you again.”

* * *

JOSH CLOSED his math textbook. “I’m going to bed.”

Finally! Piper hadn’t had a moment alone with her mother since arriving home.

She forced herself to smile, rise and kiss Josh on the top of his head as if nothing were wrong, despite her tumbled thoughts. And then she hugged him. He tolerated the embrace. He never hugged back anymore.

“You’ll get the math. Hang in there. Sleep tight. Love you.”

“Yeah.”

She missed the return “I love you.” Those had ended within the past few months, but everyone assured her he’d be her affectionate son again sometime between eighteen and thirty. She might have to lose the closeness to him because of his age and maturing process, but she wouldn’t let Roth come between them.