Betrayal of Trust (5 page)

“I know, but sometimes I can’t help myself.”

“Work on that.”

“Okay, I will.”

“Ready to say your prayers?” Matthew pushed back the comforter to reveal the rest of his pajama-clad daughter. She swung her skinny legs over the side of the bed and knelt beside him.

“Take off the cap,” Matthew said.

He listened to her say her prayers, the sweet fragrance of fellowship wafting to heaven from the precious lips of his little girl. She was worth every sacrifice he could have possibly made to insure her safety and peace of mind.

Father, I know You love her even more than I ever could. Help me to keep her safe.

R
aven glanced around the crowded deli. She wasn’t sure who to look for, but somehow, she found herself seeking out anyone who might resemble her—to explain her own dark hair and brown eyes when her sisters, with their red hair and fair complexions, clearly favored their mother.

Several single—or at least sitting alone—men caught her attention, but smoldering eyes and seductive smiles clearly relayed less than brotherly intentions. Finally, after several minutes of futile searching for Sonny, Raven found an empty booth and plopped down.

She
was
five minutes early after all. Sonny might be the kind of person who had on-the-dot punctuality. Although, truthfully, she couldn’t imagine any brother of hers possessing such a quality—or flaw, depending on how you looked at it.

The waitress strolled by and set a glass of water in front of her.

“Thanks,” Raven said. She smiled, ever conscious of her public image, despite Ken’s perpetual insistence that she flattered herself when she thought anyone
recognized her. So maybe her station was a small cable network, not some big network affiliate, but there
were
viewers, Mac and her sisters, to name a few, otherwise they wouldn’t be on the air.

“What can I get you today?” the waitress asked, friendly, but obviously rushed.

“Nothing just yet. I’m waiting for someone.”

The waitress sighed. “All right. I’ll check back when I see two heads instead of one.”

Raven smiled again. “Thanks.”

She waited twenty more minutes, watching as the crowd ebbed and flowed, endlessly repopulated by different faces. Glancing at her watch, she realized she wasn’t going to have time to eat before getting back to work. She snatched a couple of dollars out of her purse and tossed them on the table. No sense in the server losing out on a tip just because she’d been stood up.

Just as she walked outside into the fresh summer breeze, her phone beeped. Anticipating Sonny’s apology or excuses, she snatched it from her purse and answered with a clipped hello.

“Hey, how’d you know it was me?” asked the male voice on the other end of the line.

“Who is this? Sonny?”

“Sonny? Ah, so you’re annoyed with someone else.”

Matthew
. Now there was a surprise. Raven had planned to give him a couple of days to forget her bad manners, then she was going to call him to apologize.

“Why did you think I knew who you were?”

“I didn’t figure you’d bark at anyone but me after last night.”

“I didn’t exactly bark,” she said. “I just…got stood up for a lunch date and now I’ll be starving all afternoon.”

“Why didn’t you just order something to go?”

“No time.”

A pregnant pause filled the lines. “All right, I’ll get to the point. Have you ever been kayaking?”

“Kayaking?”

“Yeah, little boat on the water? You know.”

“I know what kayaking is…but no I’ve never gone. We just use plain fishing boats in the river back home.”

“Well, I thought I’d get away this weekend and do some white-water kayaking. Want to come with me?”

Raven swallowed hard. After the way she had treated him, he was asking her out? “I…Hey, how did you get my number anyway?”

“I called the station.”

“And they gave you my cell phone number?” Outraged, Raven made a mental note to make some heads roll as soon as she made it back to work.

“I asked for you, told them who I was and they connected me to some guy.”

“What was this guy’s name? Do you remember?”

“Ken.”

“That explains it.”

“What?”

“Ken is my camera guy. He probably smells a story.”

“I see.”

“Don’t worry about him,” Raven said quickly, feeling him withdraw from her.

“No, I know. So what do you say?”

“I guess I could take a Saturday off to do some kayaking.”

“Great. Can I pick you up around eight?”

“Sure. Do you need my address?”

“I have it.”

“Let me guess, Ken gave you that too?”

His low chuckle tickled her ear and quickened her pulse.

She cleared her throat to steady her nerves. “All right. Pick me up on Saturday then. I’ll be ready at eight.”

“Great. Bye.”

Raven flipped the top of her phone down to disconnect. She hurried to her car and made it to the station just in time to be blindsided by Kellie Cruise’s ten-thousand-dollar smile, sparkling with overblown wattage from behind the anchor desk.

Anxiety gripped her stomach. “What is she doing?” Raven whispered in Ken’s ear.

“They took Bruce to the hospital a half hour ago. He was complaining of chest pains.”

“Why didn’t you call me? I should be up there, not her!”

“Frank asked for you first. You should have been here.”

Raven threw him a dirty look.

“Hey, come on,” he said. “Frank said you were to go look into that robbery at Commerce Bank. We might as well get that done.”

With one last glance at the girl who was slowly inching her way into
her
position, Raven followed Ken through the hallway, and out the door.

“All right. Let’s go.” She scowled. “Oh, by the way. What’s the big idea giving out my cell phone number and address?”

He gave her a Cheshire-cat grin. “I take it your boyfriend got in touch?”

“First of all…he’s not my boyfriend. Second of all…stick to the point. Where’s your professional courtesy? We do not give out colleagues’ numbers, no matter what.”

A look of mock regret passed over his lined features.
“Oh, wow. I didn’t know that. It’ll never happen again. Scout’s honor.”

Raven rolled her eyes at him over the hood of the SUV. “You’re no scout and you have no honor.”

“I’m hurt. Really hurt.”

“Sure you are. Just get in and let’s get this stupid robbery story over with.”

Raven walked out of the station later than usual that night. The bank robbery story had actually turned out to be a good one, and as much as she hated the idea that a serial bank robber was on the loose, this sort of report, which played on the fears of depositors, kept people tuned in. She’d earned a big thumbs-up from the news director, which was extremely gratifying. But better yet, in the midst of the nightly news report, Kellie had mispronounced the word
incumbent
with a long
u
. Of course, off air, she’d been a laughingstock, and though Raven hadn’t joined in with the hecklers, she’d nevertheless felt a broad sense of satisfaction.

She smiled as she headed for her car. Footsteps on the pavement behind her alerted her senses and she tensed, quickening her own steps. By the time she reached her SUV, her heart was pounding furiously and adrenaline rushed through her veins. Grateful for keyless entry, she pressed the button and reached for her handle.

A hand gripped her shoulder. “Raven, wait.”

She sprang into survival mode. Whipping around, she drew on her self-defense training, used her knee, and with the heel of her hand she was about to connect with her assailant’s chin when she recognized her so-called attacker.

“Matt!” she gasped. “For crying out loud, what are you doing?”

He scowled from a bent-over position, obviously trying to recover his breath, if not dignity.

Raven frowned. “Are you okay?”

He straightened and lifted a bag from the ground where it had fallen. He handed it out. “I brought you supper.”

“You did?”

He nodded. “I knew you missed lunch and when I talked to Ken a couple of hours ago, he told me you hadn’t eaten supper either.”

Ken was really pushing this story. She couldn’t blame him, really. And admittedly, seeing Matt brought her a sense of joy she was nowhere near ready to try to analyze.

“I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

He shrugged and a sheepish grin showed beneath the glow of the pole lights spaced throughout the parking lot. “I should have called out to let you know it was me, but I was trying to decide what might scare you more. Guess I called it wrong.”

“Yeah, sneaking up on someone with slightly paranoid tendencies in the first place isn’t necessarily a good idea.”

“I’ll remember that in the future.”

Somehow, the way he said
future
sent a shiver of pleasant possibility down Raven’s spine. She held up the bag. “What’d you get me?”

“What else?” His grin nearly sent her heart into a tailspin.

“Egg drop soup, extra crunchy noodles, and two egg rolls?”

He nodded.

“I can’t believe you remember.”

She held her breath as he took a step closer.

“I remember everything.”

“Like what?” She knew she was walking into volatile emotional territory, but couldn’t resist the heady feeling his closeness evoked. She leaned back against her door. He reached forward and rested his arm just above her head.

“I remember that you like hot chocolate in the summer and iced tea in the winter.”

“I—I guess I’m weird.”

“Unique,” he soothed.

How in the world did this man have the power to make her feel as though she was the only woman in the world?

“That’s not all I remember.”

“What else?” she whispered.

His gaze searched hers. His thumb pressed against her lips. “I remember how your mouth quivers when you know I’m about to kiss you.”

“I-it does?” Paralyzed, she felt herself being pulled into the heady depths of the promise in his eyes.

He nodded as his head descended. Raven relaxed against him at the first, warm feel of his lips on hers. He deepened their kiss and she clung to him. Headlights pulled into the parking lot, then out again. But the distraction was enough to bring them to their senses. Matthew pulled back, leaving Raven’s head spinning and her breath short, leaving her desperate to press her mouth to his for one more kiss before they said goodbye for the evening.

“I guess I’m getting ahead of myself,” he said, his husky voice telling her more than words ever could. “It just feels like we’re taking up where we left off.”

Raven nodded her agreement. “I know what you mean. But it isn’t smart to move too quickly.”

“I promise to keep my distance.” He grinned. “At least until I see you again.”

A short laugh escaped Raven. “That’s reassuring.” But it wasn’t reassuring. The thought disturbed her. How would Matt feel when he discovered her reason for seeing him again?

Any girl who could double over a guy like Matthew Strong had to be able to take care of herself. He’d have to remember that in case he needed the information later on. Under cover of darkness he watched them.

The kiss was a surprise. First of all, Matthew was religious, so who knew he’d move so fast? And Raven Mahoney had kissed him back without a fight. A surprise for a girl with such an air of aloof inapproachability.

Then it occurred to him. These two had a history.

Matthew held the door and Raven got inside her SUV. As he watched Matthew stride across the parking lot to his own car, he digested this new scenario he hadn’t anticipated. Would he have to split them apart? Or could he use the relationship to his advantage?

Matthew pulled out of the parking lot, his heart light, downright giddy. He glanced at the city lights, wondering what he should do next. One thing was for certain, going home was no option. Too much adrenaline rushed through him to settle in for the night. He’d already tucked Jamie into bed before he left the house, so she’d be down for the count, otherwise he’d see if she was up for a game of night basketball.

He was a little disappointed that Raven hadn’t invited him to share dinner with her, but he supposed she needed to process what had happened between them. Possibility spurred a sense of hope inside him. What if they had a future together after all? He placed a quick call to let his mother know not to wait up.

Ten minutes later, he swung the Lexus into the parking lot of Randy’s Gym and killed the motor. He grabbed his workout bag from the back seat and headed into the all-but-deserted gym.

He changed in the locker room then made a beeline for the treadmill, his legs warming in anticipation of a good run.

A hint of rain scented the air by the time he left the building. He breathed in deeply, feeling refreshed, relaxed and ready to go home and crawl into bed.

“Matthew, is that you?”

He started at the sound of a feminine voice and turned.

A petite young woman stood before him, smiling brightly.

Matthew waited for her to speak. When she didn’t, he gave her a tentative smile. “Yes?”

Her smile turned to a pout. “You mean you don’t recognize me?”

The pout gave it away. “Kellie? Good grief, when did you grow up?”

She gave a throaty, not-so-little-girlish laugh. “I’ve been grown up for a while. And if you ever attended my mother’s parties with your mother, you’d have known that.”

He gave an exaggerated shudder. “Dinner parties. Please. I only attend when I must.”

“Yes, but look what you’re missing out on.” She gave a flirty little spin and was laughing when she faced him a split second later.

Amusement filled him and he smiled at the child. No, not really a child anymore. “You’re quite the young lady now. I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you.”

“Oh, that’s all right. My heart can take it.” She
stepped closer. “You—uh—know I’m working for Daddy now, right?”

“At the station?”

“Yes. I graduated with my degree in broadcast journalism.”

“So you’re a reporter.” Now, he understood her sudden appearance. “Nice try.” He tweaked her nose as though she were still the fifteen-year-old he remembered. “How’d you really know I was here?”

A pretty pout found its way to her lips. “I saw you talking to Raven Mahoney.”

He couldn’t quite contain his amusement. “You followed me and waited for two hours for me to come out?”

“Yes. That’s what good reporters do.”

“You could have just called the house. I would have turned you down over the phone without you having to wait for nothing.”

“Come on, Matt. How about throwing me a bone here? It’ll make my career.”

He gave a conciliatory smile. “You don’t need me. Sounds like you have your dad to make your career for you already.”