Best-Kept Secrets

“My daughter worries about me,” Mrs. Thomas was saying. “I was recently diagnosed with a heart condition and my family thinks they have to pamper me.”

Jake pulled his thoughts back to the here and now. “I don’t blame them one bit. Are you certain you’re all right?” She did appear pale, now that he really looked at her. Pale and badly frightened. Shadows of fear lurked in her eyes.

Well, who could blame her? She’d come for lunch, not to be flattened by a ten-ton truck.

Jake realized he’d gone soft. Before his last mission had gone sour and left him with injuries he was still trying to overcome, his reaction to what had just happened would have been quicker, more decisive. But those days were definitely gone, and if he didn’t set this woman down soon, the whole town would realize just how far gone he was. He could feel the pull of weakened muscles and restored skin across his back. The bullet wound and the shrapnel from the exploding boat had left permanent damage that no amount of operations would ever restore. His shoulder was growing white-hot with the pain of holding even this woman’s slight weight.

Ben Dwyer, his new bartender, met him at the restaurant door. Jake gave him a stern nod. “Get everyone back to work. Free drinks, but nothing alcoholic. Chief Hepplewhite wants us to keep everyone inside and able to answer questions.”

“You got it.”

Of necessity, Jake set Mrs. Thomas down at the table nearest the door. “I apologize for the excitement. I’ll be right back.” He didn’t look at Amy who was sputtering protests as he left, but he could feel her gaze bore a hole through his back as he strode toward the rear of the restaurant and the stairs leading up to his private quarters.

Lifting the woman had been an incredibly stupid thing to do. The pain spread. He grit his teeth, hating the necessity of taking pills, but he wouldn’t be able to function if he didn’t get the spasm to pass quickly.

He focused his thoughts on Amy to get them off the pain in his back. This was turning into one heck of a day. First the bodies, then the truck accident. Naturally, Amy would have to pick today to drop into his life again. She always did have exquisite timing.

He’d thought he was prepared to see her again after all these years, but he’d been sadly mistaken. He’d known this day would eventually come when he’d made the decision to move to Fools Point, the town where she’d grown up. Deep in his heart, he’d hoped for the chance to see her again. But his secret fantasies hadn’t prepared him for reality. Amy still had the power to touch something elemental inside him—something that only responded to her. What surprised him was that Amy was still upset after all these years.

Jake sighed. He’d never known Amy to hold a grudge, yet anger had radiated from every stiff line of her carriage as she’d walked ahead of him into the restaurant. He deserved that and more. He’d walked out on her and what they’d had because of his own insecurities. He’d been able to face death without flinching, yet he hadn’t been able to face what she’d made him feel. Instead, he’d told himself he couldn’t offer her the sort of life she ought to have and he’d left like a coward. Loving Amy had made him vulnerable, and a big, tough navy SEAL couldn’t afford to be vulnerable that way.

What a self-centered jerk he’d been.

Over the years he’d wondered about Amy, if she was happy and well, if she’d found someone special to fill her life. He’d known she probably had, but for some dumb reason, he hadn’t pictured her married with kids. Maybe part of him hadn’t wanted to take the image that far.

Yet Amy had a daughter.

The knowledge ate at him. He hadn’t really believed she’d been waiting for him all these years. Not after the way he’d left her.

Jake sighed. He took two pills, chased them down with a glass of water, and told himself to stop thinking about the pain. He was alive. Three of his men weren’t.

He turned his thoughts away from the memory of a mission gone bad and tried to focus on the bodies under his parking lot. Who had put them there and why? He walked back downstairs slowly, knowing it was going to be a very long afternoon.

His guess proved correct. Jake was left with little time to think about Amy or anything else once the police descended on the Perrywrinkle and his customers.

AMY WATCHED JAKE move about the room and tried not to be too obvious. She ate her food with mechanical precision, barely listening to her mother and daughter. He still moved with an economy of motion, but the fluidity wasn’t the same. There was a stiffness about him now. It was especially noticeable when he’d bent to retrieve a napkin that had slipped from an older woman’s lap.

Had he been injured?

Had he hurt himself when he’d tackled her in an effort to protect them?

Did she care? she chastised herself mentally.

Unfortunately, that answer was yes. She shouldn’t care now that she’d done what she’d set out to do. She’d shown Jake his gorgeous daughter and he’d barely even noticed. Yet she still couldn’t take her eyes from him.

And that made her worse than a fool.

“Ladies, how was your lunch?”

Amy jumped, startled to find him beside her. He’d always done that, she remembered. He moved so silently that he was there before a person realized.

“Glorious,” her mother responded with enthusiasm. “The food here is marvelous.”

Amy nearly jumped again as her mother actually kicked her under the table.

“Yes. The meal was good,” she admitted without looking up. In truth, she couldn’t have said what she’d eaten. Her thoughts had never once been on the food.

“I liked the rolls best,” Kelsey put in. “And the coconut pie.”

Jake smiled. A genuine smile instead of the formal and distant ones she’d watched him use with others. Pain tugged at Amy’s heart. Her daughter had that same smile.

“I’m glad to hear it.”

“The entertainment was pretty interesting, as well,” Susan Thomas put in, eyeing the police officers who were still talking with a couple in the corner.

“Yes, well, I’m afraid I didn’t have much control over that part of your lunch, but I’m happy that everything else met with your satisfaction.”

He looked at Amy as he spoke and her cheeks immediately warmed under his penetrating stare. She’d forgotten that about him. How he could focus so intently on a person they felt as though he were peering into their very soul. She shook her head at the thought.

“Something wrong, Amy?”

Just hearing her name on his lips took her back to hot summer nights and wildly fabulous sex. What was wrong with her hormones for crying out loud?

“I’d like to pay the check.”

“Lunch is on me. And I apologize for the incident outside. We don’t generally have runaway trucks in the parking lot.”

“Just bodies, hmm?”

He stared at her and her pulses leaped erratically.

“I’ll be happy to have your dresses dry-cleaned if they were damaged from your tumble.”

“That isn’t necessary. They’ll wash.”

“Glad to hear it. It would be a shame to ruin them.”

Answering heat swept through her at his penetrating look, but she knew she couldn’t respond to the sensual pull he still exerted.

“Whenever you’re ready to leave, let me know and I’ll drive you home.”

“We can walk,” she stated firmly.

His eyes chastised her. He glanced at her mother. Amy knew she was blushing again but she couldn’t stop. Her mother’s gaze flicked from one to the other of them as if she were watching a tennis match. Even Kelsey looked interested.

“I said I’ll drive you,” he said softly.

“That would be lovely, dear,” Susan said decisively. “So nice of you to offer. I feel so full I’m actually ready for a nap.”

Jake turned the full force of his smile on her mother. “Then I’ve done my job.”

“Quite well, I’d say. Ignore my daughter. She’s being temperamental today for some reason.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” he lied smoothly.

Susan laughed as if delighted. “Are you ready, Amy?”

“The police—”

“Have assured me that they are finished questioning you for now,” Jake said smoothly. “Shall we go?”

“I knew I should have brought my car,” Amy muttered beneath her breath.

“I’m sure Mr. Collins is a capable driver. Aren’t you, dear?”

“So I’ve been told.” He stared into Amy’s eyes as if demanding that she remember.

“WHY DON’T YOU let me drive this time?” she purred, running her fingers across his lightly furred chest.

“Are you suggesting I didn’t get you where you wanted to go?” he teased as he toyed with her breast.

“Oh, you’re a capable driver, but now I want to show you what I can do.”

AMY COULD FEEL searing heat ignite her face as the memory of their erotic lovemaking that day filled her head. She refused to look at him again.

Her parents’ home was only down the street, yet it seemed to take forever to drive the short distance. She knew darn well her mother had conspired to put her in the passenger seat up front where she could all but feel Jake’s nearness.

Her mother was matchmaking! That was all she needed. Her mother wouldn’t be so quick off the mark if she knew who Jake really was. While Amy had never told her parents the identity of Kelsey’s father, could her mother have guessed?

It would be surprising, actually, if her eagle-eyed mother didn’t pick up on the likeness between Kelsey and Jake. Kelsey’s coloring, her dark eyes and square little jaw—fortunately softened in her little-girl features—were so much like her father’s that Amy had been certain Susan would see the obvious right away.

Or was Amy reading too much into things because she knew.

“’Bye, Mr. Collins. Thanks for lunch,” Kelsey called, jumping from the car. “I’m going to call Sarah and tell her about the bodies!”

The resiliency of youth. Amy stepped from the car to help her mother, but the older woman was already out and moving spryly after her granddaughter.

“Yes, thank you, Mr. Collins. It was a most interesting afternoon,” Susan agreed. “Are you coming, dear?”

“In a moment, Mom. You and Kelsey go ahead.” Amy wasn’t anxious to face the third degree she knew was coming as soon as she stepped inside the familiar house. She turned to Jake as soon as her mother and daughter were out of earshot.

“What are you doing here, Jake?”

“Running a restaurant,” he offered mildly.

“That isn’t what I mean and you know it.”

His gaze darkened, running over her with sensual knowledge of exactly what was beneath her clothing. “You haven’t changed, Amy.”

“Oh, yes. Yes, I have. That look, those old lines, they won’t work on me anymore, Jake.”

“Too bad. I remember some very good lines that led to some wonderful times together.”

That hurt. “Funny. All I remember is the way it ended. Stay away from me, Jake. I mean it.”

He regarded her for a moment, then nodded. “Don’t worry, I don’t poach on other men’s territory.” His glance dropped to her hand where it was fisted on the roof of the car. “But then, I wouldn’t be poaching, would I? You aren’t wearing a ring.”

For a minute Amy saw red. How dare he?

“Goodbye, Jake.”

“Amy?” he called after her.

She told herself not to listen, but she stopped walking and barely refrained from turning back to him.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about the way things ended.”

His voice was low, personal, intimate. Her stomach clenched right along with her fists.

“I’ve waited nine years to tell you that.”

Amy didn’t turn around. “You should have saved your breath.” And she forced herself not to run as she strode away from Jake Collins and her past.

JAKE CLIMBED painfully back into the car and started the engine. He watched her daughter come running back outside, chattering away. Amy listened and nodded, putting a hand on the little girl’s head. The two of them walked up the steps and onto the porch together.

A pain that had nothing to do with physical hurts lanced him more deeply than a cut. If he hadn’t been so stupid, so egotistically certain he knew the right thing to do, that could have been their daughter. Kelsey had his coloring, he thought humorlessly. He wondered what her father looked like. She was a beautiful child, just as her mother was beautiful. He’d been the world’s biggest fool nine years ago.

It wasn’t until he walked inside the Perrywrinkle, lost in recriminations of the past, that it hit him. How old was the child? Seven? Eight?

Was it possible?

He calculated quickly.

More than possible.

Jake thought of what he knew about Amy. She’d been a virgin at twenty-two—and she’d loved him. Maybe it was ego talking, but he couldn’t believe she would have gone from him to another man so quickly.

He’d always listened to his instincts and they were shouting now, loud and clear. If he wanted to see Kelsey’s father all he needed was a mirror.

Why hadn’t Amy told him? How dare she not have told him! Didn’t she think he had the right to know? This was his child. His only child! She had no right to keep that a secret.

“Boss,” Ben Dwyer said, walking up to him, “we’ve got a small problem. There are reporters in the bar to see you and Matt’s looking for you. He says there’s an old lady out by the construction site acting all weird and spacey—his words. He thinks she’s the mayor’s aunt.”

Jake cursed under his breath. He wanted to turn around, go back to Amy and demand answers. But first he’d have to deal with this situation.

“Where’s Matt now?”

“I don’t know. He went back outside when I told him you weren’t here. Is it true what they’re saying?”

Jake waited.

Ben didn’t flinch at his expression. Instead he went on calmly. “Some of the customers heard the cops talking. They said that someone deliberately released the brake and put that truck in reverse.”

Jake stared at his bartender while the hairs on the back of his neck lifted. “I hadn’t heard that,” he said softly.

Jake went back outside, his mind churning. That explained the questions Hepplewhite’s people were asking. He’d wondered why the police wanted to know if he’d seen anyone in or around the truck before it began to roll. He’d supposed it was an accident. If Ben was right, they were looking at an entirely different scenario.

Had someone deliberately tried to dump that load of gravel into the pit to cover the scene of a murder? Why bother? The bones had already been discovered. On the other hand, the gravel would compromise the crime scene, making it much harder for the forensic team to do its job.

Jake looked around as he neared the roped-off area. The truck still canted oddly over the hole. Gravel was everywhere and the crowd had grown. Cindy Lou Baranksi would not be happy if her aunt turned up on national television. Image was everything in an election year and the mayor’s aunt was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia. Cindy Lou had the added responsibility of looking after her aunt. Gertrude Perry was generally monitored closely.

If he hadn’t been so busy thinking about Amy when he returned, Jake would have spotted the older woman hanging around outside. He also would have noticed the network news van on the far side of the building.

Jake had no one to blame but himself for the past. But he needed to deal with the future right now. By the time he got to the end of the parking lot where the workers had exposed the horrible tomb, Gertrude Perry was gone.

No doubt one of the locals had run her home. Everyone knew old Ms. Perry. As a relative newcomer to town, Jake had quickly learned that Gertrude and her brother Marcus were direct descendents of the Perry family who had founded Fools Point. Marcus Perry had been the last to marry and have offspring. Only his daughter, Cindy Lou, had ever felt the need to keep up appearances for the sake of the family name. She was a decent mayor from what he could see. And it wasn’t her fault people had started to refer to the town as Mystery Junction behind her back. Today’s gruesome discovery would only add fuel to the already smoldering talk around town. Cindy Lou wouldn’t want her family featured in that talk, but this was their old family homestead.

Police officials were still at the site. Chief Hepplewhite had called in the support of the Montgomery County Police. His six-man force couldn’t possibly deal with this situation. The county police would deal with the evidence and probably assist with the investigation. But first, someone was going to have to move a ton of gravel.

Jake frowned. He scanned the crowd again, but his nephew Matt was nowhere to be seen. The time had come to do something about the youth. To the locals, Matt was nothing but a wild teen, constantly in trouble. To the aunt and uncle he had lived with since the death of his parents, he was an unwanted burden. But to Jake, he was the reason for the Perrywrinkle and Jake’s presence in the small town of Fools Point.

Jake sighed and returned inside to face the reporters. The after-work crowd had descended by the time Jake finished, then the supper crowd began to arrive and mingle with the curious. The restaurant staff was kept hopping, especially him. He stewed, knowing there was nothing he could do about the question gnawing at his insides until things quieted down for the night and he could turn the bar over to Ben’s capable hands.

The young man was working out even better than he’d expected. Solid, dependable—honest. Jake would bet his military pension that there was a story behind Ben’s presence here in Fools Point. In time he’d learn what it was, but he wasn’t thinking about that as he swallowed a couple of aspirins and, ignoring his car, set off down the path that would lead to the street and ultimately Amy’s front door.

He strode briskly in the cool night air. Maple trees were just beginning to display their colorful fall cloaks. They still obscured most of the houses from the view of the street.

Overhead, the moon was dancing with the clouds so not much light filtered anywhere along his path.

Admittedly his senses had turned rusty in the past year and a half, but not so rusty that they’d shut down completely. Jake slowed his pace as he neared the house. Years of training kicked to life the moment he saw a dark figure dart from behind a tree to scamper surreptitiously behind the house.

Jake flattened himself against the nearest tree, doing his best to melt into the shadows. His white shirt and pale face would act like a beacon if the intruder looked in the right direction. Stealth was not easily accomplished in a business suit. Using the overgrown bushes for cover, he followed the dark figure around to the back of the house.

The feeble glow from inside the kitchen offered little illumination on the porch, but it was enough for Jake to see the figure begin working feverishly on the door.

Someone was attempting to break into the house where Amy and the little girl he was certain was his daughter lay unprotected.

Chapter Two

Amy fretted, knowing it was useless, but worried just the same. Her mother hadn’t asked, and by late evening Amy felt she should have been pushing for answers to Amy’s relationship with Jake Collins. That she hadn’t was so out of character, Amy grew worried. Her mother must already suspect the truth.

When her parents had asked her about Kelsey’s father all those years ago, she’d never mentioned Jake by name. She’d told them the simple truth—she’d foolishly fallen for a man she’d met in Annapolis. A man who hadn’t been interested in being a father any more than he’d been interested in a long-term commitment. Being the sort of parents they were, they’d never pushed her to reveal more. She’d been grateful, because it had been so hard to think about Jake back then without crying.

Actually, not crying had never gotten as easy as it should have until she’d firmly locked away her thoughts of Jake.

Amy decided to approach her mother after Kelsey had gone to bed. Though she’d told her daughter pretty much the same story she’d told her parents, she’d always known the time would come when Kelsey would want more detailed information about her father. Amy didn’t intend to lie. She just wasn’t sure how to handle the situation now that the time appeared to have arrived.

Amy found her mother puttering in the kitchen, alone. Taking a deep breath, she decided to get it over with.

“About Jake—”

“Charming man. So gracious and kind.”

“Yeah. Kind.” So kind he couldn’t bring himself to acknowledge his own child. “I guess you’re wondering how I know him.”

“Well, actually, dear, I was simply hoping you could put paid to the rumor about him being in the Mafia.”

“Mother!”

“Well, it does seem ridiculous,” she said, briskly wiping her hands and folding the dish towel.

“He was in the navy, not the Mafia.”

“Good, dear. That’s such a relief.”

Her mother could be exasperating when she chose to be. And there was only one reason Amy could think of that would explain why she was choosing to be so obtuse about Jake. She suspected the truth. Amy needed to disabuse her mother of any idea she might be harboring about matchmaking.

“I met him that summer after I graduated college.”

“When you were staying in Annapolis with your friend?”

The college friend she’d forgotten all about the night she was introduced to Jake. “Yes.” She waited for the inevitable questions. Her mother couldn’t fail to make that connection.

“I’m glad, dear.”

“You are?”

“Yes, of course.” Her mother pushed absently at a wisp of silvery hair. “I never did like the idea of the Mafia in Fools Point. You know, dear, I’m feeling awfully tired this evening. Would you mind if I turn in a little early?”

Amy gaped at her. While true that her parents had always respected her right to privacy, her mother wasn’t even going to ask?

Then concern set in. “Are you okay? You’re not having any pain or anything, are you?”

“Who’s having pain?” her father demanded, coming into the kitchen on the end of her question.

“Now, Corny, don’t go getting all upset. I just said I was tired. I’d like to go up to bed and read for a while but I didn’t want our daughter to think I was ignoring her.”

“I wouldn’t think that.” But she was puzzled and very concerned. Her mother hadn’t looked well since the incident outside the restaurant. If Amy hadn’t been so caught up in her own dilemma she’d have realized that much sooner. The walk in that heat and then being thrown to the ground like that…

Cornelius Thomas laid a wrinkled hand on his wife’s arm. “That sounds like an excellent idea,” he agreed tenderly. “I just bought that new science fiction book R.J. and some of the others were talking about down at the general store. I’ll come up with you and read, too. You don’t mind, do you, Amy?”

“No. Of course not. You two go ahead. If you need anything, just call out.”

For the first time Amy accepted that her parents had aged a great deal in the years she’d been gone. They’d always been older than most of her friends’ parents. Amy had been a surprise baby coming to them late in life. That fact had never bothered her until now.

“Good night, dear. Don’t forget to check the locks before you come up, will you?”

“I won’t forget.”

She kissed them good-night, then wandered aimlessly around the house she had always called home. Despite the newly installed satellite dish and its variety of stations, there was nothing on television to hold her interest. She flipped through the channels, trying not to wonder what Jake had been doing with himself all these years. Had he stayed in the military or had he gone on to do something else? It was hard to imagine him running a restaurant. She couldn’t remember him cooking anything more than steaks on the grill when they’d been together.

Jake had changed in others ways, as well. He seemed stern now—more aloof and forbidding. No wonder the town thought he was a gangster. His facade placed a wall between him and the world at large. His eyes were watchful, but in their depths a person glimpsed a soul that had seen too much of the hard side of life.