Ladd Haven (26 page)

Yes, of course. Did she expect Nick to
say anything different?

But this would also affect Felicity.
She’d been appalled by her father’s behavior, not only from the
other night but from a decade ago. It cut deep, raw. Exposing his
attack would invite gossip and add to her pain.

Delaney had hoped the incident would
have ended with Jack’s departure the other night. He’d been drunk.
He probably didn’t remember half the evening. Apparently she
thought wrong. “It’s his word against mine.”

“
Wasn’t Troy a
witness?”

She shrugged. Pushing from Nick’s arms,
she gathered Sadie’s lead, removed the bit from her mouth and
replied, “I can’t say. I don’t know how long he was there, how much
he heard or saw.”

“
Have you asked
him?”

Unhooking the latch for Sadie’s stall
gate, Delaney opened the door and gave a pat to her horse’s rear.
“Go on, girl.” She secured the door, turned back to Nick. It
embarrassed her to think Troy might have seen the worst of it, but
he could have. She simply didn’t know. “Not really. Cal said he was
going to handle it.”

“
Doesn’t seem to have done a
very good job.”

Delaney leapt to his defense, “Cal’s a
good man. This isn’t his fault. I intended to talk with Troy but
haven’t gotten around to it.” Nick thrust a cynical glance down his
nose at her. “I mean it. Between the shock over what happened,
sharing the news with Felicity...”

The whole thing had gotten away from
her. And, besides, she wanted to discuss it with Nick first. She
needed him by her side before she took the steps to reveal the gory
details.

“
You talk to the police.
I’ll talk with your ex.”

“
Nick”—she reached out to
him—“do you think that’s a good idea?”

“
Any man touches my wife is
going to hear about it from me.”

“
But Nick,” she protested,
knowing his temper the way she did, “don’t you think that will make
things worse?”

“
Don’t care. Jack struck the
first blow. I intend to finish the fight.”

While she liked the idea of Nick
defending her honor, she didn’t want to consider the ramifications
should his actions slide out of control. With the hotel, Felicity,
there was too much riding on it. Nick could jeopardize everything
in one simple act of revenge. “Shouldn’t you consult with Malcolm
first?”

A wry smile pulled at the corner of his
mouth. “He already knows.”

Delaney groaned inwardly, rolling her
eyes upward before settling on Nick. As he stared down at her, his
gaze no longer hard and angry, Delaney detected a fatigue. Nick had
to have traveled all day to get here. He must have had to make
excuses to his staff in St. Kitts. Must have dropped everything and
come home. Gratitude and remorse swirled together as she thought
about what that meant to her. “I’m sorry about not telling you. It
wasn’t a call I thought you needed to receive while a thousand of
miles away.”

Nick pulled her into his arms. “How
about you let me be the judge from now on?” He nipped her nose.
“Okay?”

Delaney nodded dutifully. “Okay.” Nick
was right. She needed to stop making decisions for everyone around
her—choosing—“what” they needed to know and “when” they needed to
know it. She only seemed to foul things up.

“
Next on the agenda is
Felicity. Is she home? Have you talked with her yet?”

Relief loosened the tangle of emotion
inside her. “Yes. She’s forgiven me. She understands, but she’s
having a rough time dealing with it.”

“
Can’t say as I blame her.
No young woman should ever have to deal with such business,
especially from her father. But we’ll fix it, and in time she’ll be
able to move on. How about Troy? Do you know where he
is?”

“
I don’t know. Didn’t you
say the police came by to question him? I would assume he’s at home
by now.”

“
Where’s he
staying?”

“
I guess with his
parents.”

“
Good. I’ll need to talk to
him.”

Delaney sighed. “Should I join
you?”

“
No. You’ll be engaged in
more important discussions with members of the police
department.”

Chapter Twenty

Frustration boiled, spurting from her
pores as Delaney stood before her friend and police officer Gavin
Shore. Gritting her teeth, she tried to remain calm but her
patience was quickly draining. Gavin had arrested Troy on
aggravated assault. It was a serious charge and he wasn’t budging,
wasn’t listening to reason. She didn’t know what to do other than
shake some sense into him. A move that would likely land her in
jail. “How many times do I have to tell you? It’s what happened.
Jack tried to rape me.”

Gavin sat on the corner of his desk,
one leg hitched up over the end of it. He was dressed in his full
uniform, the black clothing adding an authoritative air to him. His
office was plain, the bureaucratic basics consisting of a metal
desk and file cabinets, rolling chair, computer and a miscellany of
manila files. One probably had Troy’s name on it. Easing his weight
backward, Gavin said, “Mr. Foster told me you’d probably come in
here and stick up for the boy.”

“
Gavin, I’m not sticking up
for Troy, I’m telling you the truth!”

“
He said you pulled a gun on
him and he was trying to defend himself.”

“
He pulled a gun on
me!”

“
He said you drew first.
Said you took a shot at him.”

“
Jack attacked me, Gavin. I
pulled a gun because he attacked me. Attacked me and then drew his
gun.”

Gavin roamed her figure with a cautious
gaze, searching her body from head to toe. “I don’t see any marks.
Unlike Mr. Foster.” Pulling a paper from his desk, Gavin read from
it. “I was standing in the stables, having a private conversation
with my ex-wife when Troy Parker jumped me, proceeded to attack me
with his fists before using Delaney Wilkins’ gun to threaten my
life.” Gavin looked to Delaney. “Which goes to intent. No
self-defense.” Setting the paper down, he asked, “Do you know
that’s considered a Class C felony, carrying three to fifteen years
in prison?”

Prison. The single word gutted her.
Troy could go to prison because of her. He’d have a permanent mark
against his record. Would Nick keep him on at the hotel? Could he
keep a convicted felon on the payroll? Friendship aside, business
was business. Nick had a company to think about. Then there was
Casey. Delaney didn’t even want to think about what this could do
to Casey and the baby!

Staring at Gavin, a man she’d known
since grade school, Delaney was stunned. She couldn’t believe he
was being so difficult. Sure, his mother was friends with Victoria
Foster, the two families closer than blood, but to defend Jack’s
heinous actions was disgraceful. Gavin was an officer of the law,
not a kingpin in the good old boy network!

Steeling her resolve, Delaney tamped
down her temper. “Gavin, what can I do to convince you? What can I
say to make you understand it’s the truth?”

Gavin looked at her, an odd mix of
curiosity and distance coalescing in his hazel gaze. A smile tipped
the corner of his mouth. “How about we start from the
beginning?”

“
I told you
everything.”

“
Did you, now?”

She didn’t appreciate the sarcastic
roll of his tongue. He was mocking her. He was treating her as
though she were the criminal here. She was beginning to grasp the
reluctance women experienced in coming forward. If a friendly face
could do this to her, make her feel awkward and embarrassed, what
was a stranger capable of? It was enough to drive her home and lock
the doors, never to breathe another word of the incident again. But
she couldn’t. Troy’s future depended on it. “I did, Gavin. I told
you everything that happened.”

“
Are you having an affair
with Troy?”

The question knocked the wind from her
lungs. “What?”

“
You heard me.”

“
Of course not—that’s
sick!”

Gavin smiled. “C’mon now, Delaney.
You’re an attractive woman, your husband spends a lot of time
traveling...”

Delaney recoiled at the picture he was
painting. “You are way off base.”

“
Am I?”

“
Yes,” she replied, and it
took all she had not to smack the smirk into his skull bone. Gavin
was being rude and disgusting, and it felt like she was being
violated all over again.

“
What was the boy doing in
the stables at that hour?”

“
Working late.”

“
Hm. What kind of work does
a stable hand have at night on a Friday?”

“
I don’t know,” she said,
regretting the words the instant they slipped from her tongue.
“He’s trying to do right by his girlfriend. They have a baby on the
way and—”

“
So I hear. Makes it all the
more ugly that he’s stepping out on her again, doesn’t
it?”

What was Gavin
doing
?

“
As I recall, he did the
same with Jeremiah’s girlfriend.”

“
Gavin—”

“
And the developer lady? I
heard they were pretty cozy when she was in town, too.”

Amazed by the spread of false
information, Delaney assumed Gavin was referring to the events of
Whiskey Joe’s where Jillian Devane tried to publicly seduce Troy.
According to Lacy, Jillian was running her hands all over him.
Unfortunately, Casey walked in and witnessed the entire thing. But
to hear Gavin smear it into something ugly and intentional was over
the top, like he was gunning for a fight.

Gavin lifted from his desk, circled
back to his chair. “I see a lot of holes in your story, Delaney.
And you want me to take you at your word over Jack’s?”

“
Yes,” she replied flatly.
“I’ve told you everything—the truth.”

“
Funny...” He placed a
pointed finger to his desk. “But I remember a time when you saw fit
to withhold details from me. What’s to say you aren’t doing the
same now?”

“
What are you talking about?
I haven’t withheld anything from you.”

“
As I recall, you didn’t see
fit to fill me in on the details of Jeremiah’s situation when you
had the chance.”

Blind-sided, she gaped at him. “But
that’s different. You know Jack abused me—it’s the reason I left
him!”

“
You never reported him for
it.”

“
I had a daughter to think
of!”

Gavin shrugged in what felt like a
horribly insulting gesture. The whole town knew why Delaney left
Jack. Walls talked. Families protected their own. She knew for a
fact there’d been a collective sigh of relief when Jack left town
for Nashville. Gavin did, too. He knew all this yet stood here
resisting her. Why?

“
If you’d a told me about
Jeremiah ahead of time, I could have saved the department a lot of
grief. Instead, you forced the authorities in Las Vegas to call my
boss who then directed me to bring him in.” Gavin sat in his chair,
rolled forward to his desk. “Go on home, Delaney. Let the justice
system do its job.”

She stared at him. Was she missing
something? Gavin scratched the side of his head, waiting for her to
leave.

Overwhelmed by an imploding sense of
futility, Delaney was rendered immobile. Where was the justice? The
common sense of decency? Gavin was seriously telling her to let him
and the justice system handle it? He wasn’t even
listening!

A half hour later, Delaney slugged up
the stone steps to the lobby entrance. Heedless to the beautiful
surroundings of Hotel Ladd, the luscious bloom of hydrangea, the
thriving fern and rhododendron, she couldn’t see past her failure.
Despite her best effort, she had failed to make Gavin see the
truth. More than her failure, she was disturbed by his reception.
In no uncertain terms he had shut her down, basically accused her
of making up a story to save her employee, an employee Gavin
implied she was sleeping with.

It was sick. The whole situation was
twisted, a convoluted mess of false allegations and disgusting
tongue-wagging lies. It was enough to send a weaker woman running,
but dammit, she couldn’t run. Troy was depending on her. Through
the front glass panels, she caught a glimpse of Nick. His imposing
stature towered over the young women beside him at the front desk
as they discussed something. His image of strength was emphasized
by the wall of river rock behind him, the navy of his button-down
making him a standout against the girls dressed in white. To the
right, several guests milled about the gift shop, perusing a
jewelry case filled with gold pendants formed in the shape of
wishing wells. It had been designed as a symbol of eternal hope and
spiritual fulfillment, neither of which she felt at the
moment.

Hesitating on the threshold, Delaney
didn’t feel like going in and putting on a pleasant face for
guests. She didn’t feel like hashing out her failure for others to
see. But Nick wasn’t looking outside. Sleeves rolled up, he was
working. As he should be. As Troy should be.