AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He took in a deep breath. “This is the room I’d reserved for the winter formal.”
What might have been.
CHAPTER34
Boone
It wasa sunny morning at Lake Java, and with a nice, hot cup of coffee in front of me, it was sure to get more bearable with every sip. I hadn’t been looking forward to today, but it wasn’t something I could avoid—the good with the bad. On the good side of the ledger, Grace would be back to take care of the hotel so I could fix the problems at the store. On the negative side, Angela was still insistent on leaving for a while. It was the unknown length of thewhilethat sucked the most.
Today the quote on my mug read:A yawn is a silent scream for coffee.Pretty apt most mornings.
But what had started out nicely quickly turned to shit as I looked up to see Devlin fucking Pollock angling himself toward me with a quick stride. It was already too late to get up and leave. I didn’t know where Denmark was, but something was rotten there, because Devlin had a smirk on his face. That never meant anything good.
“Here to accuse me again of having something to do with Lee leaving town to get away from your miserable ass?”
“Aw, hell no.” He grunted out a laugh. “Pa set me straight that he’s sure my stupid cousin is messing with us, hikin’ off somewhere in Alaska. Too cold up there, if you ask me, but Lee never did have much sense.” He laughed again. “I mean, datin’ your sister is pretty fucking stupid. But I guess that’s what antibiotics are for.”
I lurched out of my seat a few inches before controlling myself. Fear showed for a second in his eyes. I settled back in the chair. If provoking a fight was his game today, I wasn’t playing along. “Maybe so. But I never knew Lee well enough to judge if he was as stupid as you.”
That scored a hit. Devlin’s grin turned down into something more sinister for a few seconds. “I’m here as a courtesy,” he finally said. “I hear Jared Lebow is coming back to town for a few days. Said he’d look me up. Maybe you want to join us and congratulate him for getting the big football scholarship you expected.”
I let my silence tell him what I thought of that invitation.
“And getting drafted by the Giants.” He chuckled.
There was no way I wanted to reconnect with Jared. “If that’s why you’re here, thanks for the offer, but no thanks.” I raised my mug. “Can I get back to my coffee now? In peace?”
“In a minute.” He laid a paper on the table and helped himself to the chair across from me.
“That seat’s reserved for friends of mine,” I told him.
He ignored the insult, or he hadn’t understood it. With him you could never be sure. “We were cleaning out the file cabinets, and I came across this.” He shoved the paper forward.
“I thought you might want to know who was behind that arrest that cost you your shot and gave Jared his break.”
Without picking it up, I made out that it was a police report. It started:
Investigating officer: Chief Earl Pollock
Incident: Theft of tractor
I didn’t need to go further to know what it was. Pushing it away I asked, “What’s your game, Devlin?”
“You always blamed me for you missing out on going to NC State. I want to clear the air between us. I had nothing to do with it. It was your cute girlfriend who fucked you over.”
The arrest and jail had been his father’s ploy to screw me over, and it had worked. I’d only once accused Devlin of being involved, but that was just because he was a Pollock and we all knew they conspired together.
He tapped the paper. “Finish it and you’ll see it wasn’t me.”
I pulled it closer and went back to reading the report.
Mr. Reginald Lerner, a citizen of Peterville, visited this station to report that he and his daughter, Angela Lerner, had witnessed the driving of a tractor into the lake at or near Sunset Road by one Boone Benson, a resident of Clear Lake at five PM the prior afternoon.
I had to stop and choke down the rage I felt, even after all these years.
Devlin smiled as he watched.
Fucker.
