The Perfect Liar (37 page)

Wil ing herself to relax, she leaned back as she drove. Kalyna would be okay, she told herself. Everything would be okay.

She just had to talk to her sister before the police did.

The sight of Ava wearing no makeup and a hastily donned pair of cutoffs with a plain T-shirt and flip-flops should've reminded Luke that he'd been with prettier girls. Instead, it reminded him that she looked the way she did because she'd just been with him on the bank of the river. And that made his heart pound. Why, he couldn't say. A few minutes earlier, Kalyna had all but beckoned him to the bed, and it hadn't affected him in the least.

But Ava showed up in some baggy old clothes that did absolutely nothing for her thin figure and he couldn't take his eyes off her.

Wishing he could turn off whatever she did to him just as easily as she'd sent him away this morning, he set his jaw so she wouldn't guess at his true feelings and blocked the doorway with his body. "What do you want?" he asked.

Her gaze shifted to a point behind him, and he knew she was looking at Kalyna. "I was afraid...I wanted to be sure you were okay."

"I'm fine. We're both fine. Kalyna has called Ogitani and told her the truth. They're dropping the charges."

Ava hesitated briefly. "So I've heard."

"That means you don't have to worry about anything. Your job is done. But thanks for coming by. I'l put the donation I promised you in the mail." He closed the door, then sucked in a quick breath to absorb the sting 274

that resulted from treating her so coldly.

"You okay?" Kalyna had moved. She now stood right behind him.

Straightening, he managed a nonchalant shrug. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

Her eyebrows gathered. "I know you weren't in a good mood to begin with, but seeing Ava didn't seem to help. You--you weren't really yourself with her."

"What do you mean? I just told her where we're at with the case."

"I guess. For a minute, it seemed..." She gave an awkward laugh. "I don't know, like you
cared
about her."

"Well, I don't." At least not
deeply
, he told himself. He'd known Ava for barely a week. He respected her; that was all. She was deep and real and concerned about others--and he enjoyed being around her. No other woman he'd met could compare. But if she didn't feel the same, he could walk away. Marissa was the only woman he hadn't been able to forget.

He'd feel better in a few days.

"Maybe you're tired," Kalyna said. "Why don't you get some sleep?"

He crossed to the window. Ava was climbing into her bright yellow, rattletrap Volkswagen. Would she ever call him again? He couldn't see why she would....

"I have to go," Kalyna said.

That was a relief.

"But I'l take your laundry. I have to do mine, anyway. And helping you out is the least I can do for...for what I've put you through."

Luke caught only bits and pieces of what she said because he wasn't really listening. He didn't realize she'd asked him a question until she fell silent, then prodded him, saying, "Luke? Did you hear me?"

"What was that?" He turned to look at her.

"I said I'l do your laundry when I do mine today, okay?"

"No. Don't touch it. I'm fine."

"Please? Let me make it up to you. I'm trying to be nice, Luke. Why won't you--"

He raised a hand to stop her. "Fine. Whatever," he interrupted. As long as she left him alone for a while, he didn't care. What did it matter if he let her do his laundry? He couldn't get rid of her, anyway. She was 275

pregnant with his child. She'd be part of his life forever.

"See you later," she called.

He was stil staring out the window. "Later," he echoed. Then the door opened and shut, and finally--
finally
--he was alone.

With a sigh, he walked over to the kitchen table and sat down. Phil's letter lay right in front of him. The letter he'd never answered. Why hadn't he written back while he had the chance?

He thought of Marissa. She was trying to cope with Phil's death, not only as his wife, but the mother of his child. Would the situation be different if he'd declared himself before she married Phil? Would she have married him instead? Would they have a kid or two?

If so, he wouldn't be looking at sharing a child with a woman he disliked, and Marissa wouldn't be going to bed alone at night.

He considered calling her. In the past it'd been difficult, painful at times, to hear her voice when he called to talk to Phil. Through the years, he'd missed her smile, lamented the loss of their friendship as much as any deeper relationship. But today...today the only person he wanted to call was Ava.

Picking up Phil's letter, he read it again--but this time, even though he had nowhere to send it, he wrote his best friend back.

And apologized.

It wasn't easy to tail Ava. Especially once they entered the delta.

There wasn't enough traffic to go unnoticed. But Kalyna had two things going for her. As far as she knew, Ava had never seen her car. And she wasn't expecting to be followed.

Actually, Kalyna was pretty sure she had
three
things going for her.

She suspected Ava was too preoccupied to notice anything short of an earthquake. Something had happened at Luke's, something to upset her.

While they were waiting at a stoplight, Kalyna had seen Ava wiping her eyes, and those tears confirmed what she'd sensed when she'd seen Luke and Ava together--they cared about each other. How, Kalyna couldn't imagine. They'd met so recently. It didn't seem fair. But in the three months Kalyna had known Luke, she'd never seen him treat a woman, or anyone else for that matter, so rudely. Unless provoked, he was always friendly, 276

always smiling.

Except when he'd seen Ava in the hall. Kalyna had felt her own stomach knot with the tension that'd entered the room as soon as he opened that door. His body language, his voice, the look in his eyes--it'd all changed so drastically. And then there was that moment afterward, when he'd ducked his head as if Ava had slugged him. Kalyna had known instantly that he longed to go after her, and she'd barely been able to breathe ever since.

After what she'd been through, she couldn't let Ava get in the way.

Not again. She finally had a chance with Luke. He believed she was pregnant, believed it could be
his
child. He was letting her do his laundry.

That was a start. Eventually, she'd win him over, prove she could be everything he'd ever want in a woman--if she didn't have to compete with Ava. She didn't want Ava calling or showing up and ruining everything. She couldn't bear the thought of Luke daydreaming about Ava when he was supposed to be thinking of
her.

As they passed over one bridge and then another, traffic all but disappeared, forcing Kalyna to hang back until she could barely see Ava's car. She lost her when Ava made two quick turns but she got lucky. One road had a sign that indicated it was a dead end, which sent her down the opposite one, and she caught a glimpse of the bright yellow Volkswagen just before Ava parked next to a pickup truck by a pier.

At the end of that pier was a houseboat, but Kalyna couldn't go any closer. After pulling off the road, she hid her car in a copse of trees and got out.

Crying always gave Ava a headache. She hated it--the blotchy face, the clogged sinuses, the swollen eyes. She tried to remain as objective as possible about her work and religiously avoided anything else that might cause tears, like sad books and movies. But she'd thought Luke's life was in danger, so she hadn't been able to dodge coming face-to-face with
him
.

And once the tears started, she couldn't fight them.

Finally letting herself go, she'd blubbered during the whole drive home. She cried for her mother, and her father, and Bella, and all the cases that hadn't ended the way she'd hoped since she'd begun working at The 277

Last Stand. Most of all, she'd cried over Luke. Over what she wanted and what she couldn't have. Over her own shortcomings and what she perceived to be his. She'd assumed she could stand in her shower and recover for as long as necessary, maybe even take the day off. But when she got home, she didn't find the privacy she was expecting. She found her father waiting for her.

"No way," she muttered as she got out of her car. Although she'd studiously avoided glancing at herself in the rearview mirror because she didn't want to see how pathetic she must look, she knew she wouldn't be able to hide the fact that she'd been crying. She also knew he wouldn't be impressed. He wasn't the type who appreciated displays of emotion; they made him even more uncomfortable than they made her. And here she was, fresh from the biggest crying jag she'd ever had. "This oughta help our relationship."

"You talking to me?" How he'd heard her, she had no idea. The wind must've carried her voice, since he wasn't that close. He was already on the houseboat. When she pulled up, he'd been sitting in one of her patio chairs on the deck, but now he stood at the railing.

"What are you doing here?" she called back.

"I came to see my little girl."

Ava felt the lump in her throat swell again. She wasn't his "little girl"

unless he wanted something. What was it this time? Did he need her to dog-sit Carly's spoiled poodle again? She hated that dog almost as much as she hated its owner.

Regardless of what his request might be, she wasn't sure she could deal with it right now. But this was her father. She never got to pick the time or the place for whatever sacrifice he required.

"Everything okay with Carly?" she asked.

"They've been better."

She'd kicked him out. Ava could tell by the sheepish expression on his face. "Where's your luggage?" she asked.

They were only two feet from each other, and he had yet to comment on her tear-streaked face. But that didn't come as a surprise. He'd never been that interested in what was happening in her life. "I haven't packed up yet. She was throwing things. I left before she could cause too much 278

damage."

"I see. Are you going back for your stuff or hoping it'l all blow over?"

He glanced away. "I'm too old to start over again, Ava."

She drew a deep breath. Of course. He'd go back to Carly if he could.

That, too, came as no surprise. "Okay. Would you like an iced tea while you wait for her to cool off?"

He didn't answer. "What's going on with you?" he asked.

What? He'd finally deigned to notice?

She attempted what she hoped was a convincing shrug. "Nothing.

Just a tough case."

He studied her for a moment, but ultimately nodded. He didn't know her well enough to argue with her. And he wasn't going to argue, anyway.

That fell under the category of "dramatic displays of emotion."

"I don't think I've ever seen you cry before," he mused.

Not for years, anyway. Although he and Carly had sat through most of Zelinda's trial--Carly had been fascinated by the whole sordid case--

Chuck had been absent the day the verdict came in, and Ava hadn't cried since. Carly had said he wasn't feeling well, that he had a touch of the flu, but he'd been well enough to bring an extra set of keys to the houseboat that night.

Ava had always wondered if he'd missed the culmination of the trial on purpose. They'd all seen the evidence, heard the arguments, knew which way it would go. Maybe he hadn't wanted to hear the final verdict, hadn't wanted to face something so negative. Maybe he feared he'd feel responsible for his first wife's decline. She'd been a very different woman when she'd married him.

"Why bother? Tears don't help anything," she told him, and forced a smile as she unlocked the door to the cabin.

"Your mother told me you want us to move into a motel, but we're not going to leave our home, Luke. This woman, whoever she is, has no reason to hurt us."

If Kalyna was as crazy as she sometimes seemed, she wouldn't need a reason. But Luke wasn't sure whether or not he should push his father on this. Now that he knew Kalyna was here in town with him, it seemed a bit 279

extreme. "She's acting a little more stable than I was expecting. But I'm telling you, Kalyna's unpredictable, and she has your address. You have to be careful."

"I'l keep an eye out," he said.

Ed thought he could handle Kalyna. He had no idea how she could twist things in her own mind. But Luke couldn't imagine her driving down to San Diego to harm his family without some provocation, and he hadn't given her any, not this morning. "Mom told you she might've kil ed the woman who adopted her and a young teen, didn't she?"

"She told me. You've really got yourself mixed up in something, haven't you?"

He had. And he felt he deserved it for being careless enough to step into Kalyna's trap. "Just do me one favor," he said. "If she calls you guys, don't talk to her, okay? And if she sends you a package or a letter, don't open it. Call me first."

"I wil ."

"Good. Let me deal with her."

"I take it you're not going to marry her."

He laughed without mirth. "No, I'm not going to marry her."

"Is she really pregnant?"

He thought of that paper from the clinic.
Positive.
"She showed me the results of a pregnancy test she took yesterday. Looks like she might be.

But I'm not certain the baby's mine." He was stil holding out hope, although he had eight months to wait.

"Why would she tell you it's yours if it isn't? That's easy to disprove."

"I know." But Kalyna had done enough weird shit where he was concerned that he wouldn't put it past her, not for one second. "She's doing anything she can to hold my attention."

"You don't think you could ever grow to like her?"

"No. Definitely not."

"Okay. Well, I'm glad the rape charges are being dropped, anyway. It was terrible worrying about what might happen to you."

Luke hadn't had a chance to feel very relieved. If that baby was his, he was looking at a life sentence spent shackled to Kalyna. Part of him actually wondered if he might prefer five to ten. But at least he'd been able 280