The Ranger's Forgiveness (Army Ranger Romance Book 5) Read online

  Julie leaned back, her mouth agape. “I should be surprised, but I don’t think I am.”

  “I don’t know how, but Ruth had found out that Elijah and I were running off graduation night to get married. We were going to come back after. I was going to tell Momma before I left, but I didn’t get the chance.”

  “Ohhh, wow.” She touched her fingers to her lips. “Now it makes complete sense. I can’t believe you didn’t tell anyone.”

  Taylor stood and began pacing. “I couldn’t. She held that threat over me, but I did stick it to her a little.”

  “How?”

  “I couldn’t risk getting my mom kicked out, but our debt was massive. I threatened to tell Elijah everything if she didn’t pay our debt off. I told her he’d forgive me, and if she’d ever had an ounce of hope he’d take over the company, it would be gone the second I told him.”

  “And your dad?”

  “That he loved me enough to take the fall or whatever if it came to that.” Of course, that was true, but Taylor just couldn’t risk it. Not with her mom needing her dad so much. She’d told that lie with less conviction, but Ruth was just as desperate as Taylor at the time.

  Julie palmed her forehead. “Wow. That’s crazy.”

  “I know, and the day I was supposed to meet Elijah, I stood him up.”

  “Elijah didn’t take that well, did he?”

  “No, and he came to my house looking for me,” Taylor said and stopped. “Ruth was standing in my house, listening to everything. If I didn’t sell it, she’d have seen my dad put in jail and my mom pulled from that trial the next morning.”

  “And he believed it?”

  “I was so…cruel.” Taylor choked on the words. It was still hard to think about. The hurt look on his face, the pain in his voice as he pleaded with her. It had been horrible. “As part of the deal, I’d already started pulling away so it would be believable. Spending less time with him, missing dates. If there was one thing Ruth was good at, it was being thorough.”

  Julie crossed her arms over her chest. “Did Elijah tell you he was leaving?”

  “No, I found out from Ruth the next day that Elijah had run off and no one knew where. She came to my house, ranting and raving. She thought I’d done something. She took my phone and checked it to see if it was me.”

  Her friend’s eyes went wide. “Is that why she cornered me at the Stop’n’Shop and demanded to see my phone? Because she thought you’d used it to contact Elijah?”

  Taylor’s jaw dropped. “She didn’t.”

  “She did, but you were hurting so bad that I didn’t want to bring it up. Not when I thought Elijah was the one who hurt you.”

  “I guess she was blaming everyone but herself. She’s the one who ran him off. He’d never wanted to take over the company. He hated the money. When we were in high school…he wanted nothing to do with any of it.”

  Julie scooted back on the bed and crisscrossed her legs. “Well, now you can tell him.”

  Shaking her head, Taylor walked to the bed and flopped down. “I can’t. You remember how she was. I mean, I know the statute of limitation for fraud is up, but bribery doesn’t have a limitation. And that’s what my dad did. He bribed a doctor. And who knows? With Ruth, she’s probably got lawyers still watching me, just waiting to pounce. I can’t risk my dad going to prison. How would I even prove it wasn’t him? I mean, she had everything to prove it was.”

  Julie shook her head. “I’m just floored. I mean, you aren’t wrong about Ruth. I can totally see her doing that.”

  “Exactly. Besides, it’s over and done. You saw how Elijah looked at me. I let people think he broke up with me. That he was the bad guy. It just reinforces all these years of hard feelings. Plus, he’s gorgeous. He probably has a girlfriend.”

  Julie snickered. “I’m not sure about the girlfriend part. Him being gorgeous? Good grief. He filled out in all the right ways.”

  “And he’s taller, right? It’s not just my imagination?”

  “At least two inches, if not more. His chest is massive.”

  “Right? He hugged me, and I could barely get my arms all the way around him.”

  Her friend touched her arm. “Wait. He hugged you?”

  Taylor waved her off. “Yeah, but it was when the house was burning down. He was just being…Elijah.”

  Julie stretched her legs out and crossed them at the ankle. “If you say so.”

  For just a moment the day before, Taylor had let the idea that he still cared for her flit through her mind. She sure wanted him to, but she knew it was foolish. Plus, there was nothing she could do. If Ruth had done what she promised…Taylor was too afraid of the woman, even when she was no longer living.

  “I think it’s time to watch some movies and pig out on junk food.”

  “I can get down with that.” Julie smiled.

  Inside, Taylor sighed with relief. They could move on from talking about Elijah. A topic she didn’t need to dwell on, especially since she had the entire next day to spend with him. She’d considered asking Julie to come, but Taylor knew Julie’s day was already planned by her mom. Nope, it would be her and Elijah. Alone. All. Day. Long. What was she going to do? Sleep the entire way? With him just a foot or so away?

  Being held by him the day before made her want more. She’d never stopped wanting him. Oh, she’d lied to herself in an effort to move on, but it didn’t change the facts.

  Facts or not, though, she needed to keep her wits. Even if she could come clean, Elijah didn’t want her anymore, and the last thing she needed was a broken heart. She’d never recovered from the last one.

  Chapter 11

  If the tension in the car were any thicker, Elijah would be rolling down all four of the car’s windows. Man, he wished Julie had agreed to come when he’d asked her, but she’d had plans with her mom. He couldn’t fault her for keeping those.

  Still, the past hour being stuck in the car with Taylor was making it nearly impossible to breathe. The discomfort of it was eating at him. He didn’t want to be stuck with her, and he could feel it was mutual.

  Under different circumstances, if she were a normal client, he’d be calling for a truce. Laying on some charm to get her to cooperate. Not to trick her, but just so she wouldn’t be working against him. It was much harder to protect someone when they didn’t want that protection.

  But Taylor wasn’t a normal client, and as much as Elijah had tried to psych himself into believing it, he couldn’t. They did have a history, and until graduation night when she’d stood him up, it had been a great history.

  A clearing of her throat stopped his thoughts at just the right moment. He didn’t need any memory-lane trips. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

  “Well, for one, if you keep pressing down on that pedal, you’ll be getting a ticket, and two, I could use a bathroom break.”

  Elijah glanced at the speedometer and quickly pulled his foot off the gas. Eighty in a fifty-five. Yeah, that would have been a ticket, all right. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you, and at the next sign of a rest area, I’ll stop.”

  Silence fell over them again, but this time, he kept his thoughts firmly where they needed to be: on the road and finding out who was threatening Momma Mabrey’s family. He’d checked Taylor’s car the day before and found no signs that she’d been tracked. That led Elijah to believe she’d been followed from Roswell to Las Vegas. It also meant someone was watching and waiting for her to be alone. Or… “Have you ever lost your phone or had it go missing for a while?”

  Her lips curved down. “Not that I recall. Why?”

  “Because there wasn’t a tracking device on your car, so I’m wondering if they used your phone to trace you.”

  Taylor pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket. “My phone?”

  Elijah nodded. “It’s a possibility.”

  “Should I turn it off?”

  “Actually,” he said, handing his phone to her, “send a text to Mia Wolf. She should be in my co
ntacts. Tell her my suspicions. She should be able to access it and let us know.”

  A moment later, Taylor handed him his phone. “Okay, done.”

  “If there’s anything on your phone, Mia will take care of it.”

  “Do you think we should cancel this trip, then? If they’ve traced my phone, they’ll know where I live.”

  He shook his head. “I think we need to be careful, but we’re two hours out. That’s plenty of time for Mia.” He smiled.

  Taylor twisted her fingers in her shirt. “Wow, she must be really good.”

  “She’s the best, but Ryder might argue.” Why did he say that? Taylor didn’t need to know details about his life. She didn’t need to know anything about him.

  “Ryder?”

  Elijah cleared his throat. “Just a guy I work with.” But he knew he’d given her the green light to ask questions. Something he hadn’t meant to do.

  “Did you like being in the Army?” She twisted in the seat, and he could feel her eyes on him.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  She sighed. “It’s been nine years, Elijah. Can’t we try to be civil…maybe even friends just a tiny bit?”

  He cut her a glance, working his jaw. Friends? Not hardly. “You’ve spent the last nine years lying about me to everyone. Telling them I broke up with you. I’ve been the bad guy this whole time, so no, I don’t want to be friends.”

  “I never told anyone you broke up with me.”

  Taking his eyes off the road just a moment, he looked at her. “Really? Because everyone seems to think it was me.”

  She fidgeted with her fingers. “I just never corrected anyone when they assumed.”

  “That’s the same thing as lying, Taylor. Actually, it might even be worse because you didn’t have the backbone to be honest.”

  “Right,” she whispered and twisted to look out the passenger window. A few moments later, she sniffled.

  Waterworks? Really? “That’s not fair. You’re trying to make me feel guilty because I’m calling you out on lying. That’s low, Taylor.”

  She took a deep shuddering breath. “You’re right. It’s not, and…I’m sorry.” She leaned her head against the back of the seat, keeping her face pointed away from him. “I know that doesn’t fix anything. I know it doesn’t make up for what I did, but I am…I wish…I just wish I…” Her voice trembled as her sentence trailed off. “I really need to use the restroom.”

  Why did it bother him so much that she was crying? He shouldn’t even care. She should be crying for what she did to him, but man, those tears were tiny knives sliding through his ribs and nailing his heart.

  Now he wasn’t sure if he was angry or what. Being around her just made him confused. He had a right to hate her. Well, not hate. No matter what she’d done, he couldn’t do that. He didn’t even hate his mom, and she’d done worse than Taylor. Not by much. If anything, it was a tie.

  No, that wasn’t quite right. He had expected his mom to hurt him. Taylor…it was like someone walking up behind him and plunging a sword into his back all the way to the hilt. That was what hurt so badly. The unexpectedness of it. To realize what he thought was a forever love was just a fling to her. That it was nothing more than a high school romance. What Taylor had done was worse than anything his mother had done to him.

  He needed air.

  At the next sign, he took the exit. As soon as the car came to a stop, Taylor was out and running.

  “Wait!” he called and hurried out of the car. How was he supposed to keep her safe if she took off like that? “Stop!”

  Elijah continued after her, knowing he’d never catch her, but if the person following her was around, then he needed to be close. He let out a deep breath as he stopped by the restrooms. They were single-occupant, which was good. If anyone was in there, Taylor would have screamed by now.

  Her hasty retreat made him realize he needed to change his game. If nothing else, he needed to be friendly so she wouldn’t run off like that.

  Raking his hand through his hair, he inwardly chastised himself. By the time they got back on the road, he’d have his head on straight no matter what it took. He could handle Taylor. It would be a fine line, one he could certainly fall off of, but he could do it if he was careful.

  He’d be her acquaintance. Not quite a friend, but close enough that he could keep her safe. He could do it. He’d done much harder things.

  * * *

  Ripping off another wad of toilet paper, Taylor dabbed her eyes. Crying in front of Elijah. It was so stupid. She deserved his venom. He’d been hurt by her, and now he was finding out that she’d never told anyone the truth.

  It sure didn’t make it hurt any less. The tears had come without any permission from her. Just wham, and she was a mess. Why had she even suggested they be friends? It was stupid, and she should have known better. The words had just popped out because she wanted to know about him. She’d missed nine years of his life, and she still loved him.

  Hanging her head as she braced her hands on the sink, she wished she was back home. Then she could crawl under the covers and cry until she was bone-dry. To be honest, though, she was pretty sure when it came to Elijah, tears would flow no matter how dried up she felt.

  He didn’t love her anymore. She needed to swallow that bitter pill and remember that the only reason he’d offered to help her was because of her mom. Taylor couldn’t, for a second, let herself think maybe they could work things out and leave Las Vegas as friends, because it was dumb.

  It was pure selfishness to even try. Choices had consequences, and she’d known that the moment she broke up with him. And if Ruth hadn’t been so calculating and vicious, Taylor might even risk telling Elijah everything now. But it wasn’t just her on the line. Lucas was wanting to take over Steven Jeffers’s law firm. And her dad’s glass business? She’d used part of Ruth’s money to pay off the business loans he’d taken out.

  In Taylor’s mind, that contract was like slowly cranking the handle of a music box, waiting for the clown to pop out. Only it would be Elijah’s mom. The woman had hated Taylor from the second they met. Neither Taylor nor her family was good enough for the Emersons.

  Ruth had caught her alone more than once and told her the only reason Elijah was dating her was that he’d lost his dad. It was his way of filling the gap, or some other nonsense. While Elijah hadn’t hated his dad, they weren’t close either. Mostly, his father had been too busy working on the business when Elijah was little, and once the company hit it big, other things came before his son. Plus, Ruth didn’t know Taylor had crushed on Elijah long before he took notice of her in tenth grade.

  His money had never been of interest to her. He was shy and sweet and cute. Her crush went from seventh grade to eighth grade and all the way to ninth grade. That year, he was her biology partner. Their teacher had them dissecting a frog within the first two weeks. Taylor was a nervous wreck. Poor Elijah. Her hands had been so shaky that she’d butchered that frog. They couldn’t tell its liver from its spleen. Needless to say, they’d both scored pretty low on that one. When he volunteered to take the next one, she didn’t discourage him.

  That was the year things changed. Sitting next to him, they would talk, and he’d tell her little bits about home life. The last part of ninth grade, she’d invited him for dinner. From there, things slowly grew, and by the beginning of their sophomore year, they were dating.

  Loving him was so easy. And then Ruth had slithered her way into the garden and destroyed everything. The threat. The consequences. It was done.

  Puffing a piece of hair out of her face Taylor lifted her head and stared at the mirror. She was going to be stuck with Elijah until this person threatening her was caught. She needed a new game plan. One that kept both of them safe. He didn’t want to be friends. She didn’t want to be enemies. The only thing she could think of was letting him take the lead. If he wanted to talk to her, she’d talk. Otherwise, she was going to do her best to be invisible.
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  Besides, she didn’t need to be thinking about Elijah. She needed to concentrate on finding the person who had burned her house down. That was more important than anything else at the moment. The quicker that happened, the quicker she and Elijah could go their separate ways.

  She stopped at the door, and before opening it, she whispered a quiet prayer. If anyone was listening, she needed help, desperately.

  Chapter 12

  Since their pit stop on the way to Roswell, Taylor had been much quieter. If Elijah asked her a question, she’d respond with short answers. It was what he’d wanted, but it made him feel like a jerk. He hated that. Why did she get to make him feel so guilty all the time?

  It made the remainder of the trip both confusing and maddening. It wasn’t…fair. Which was a stupid word. Nothing was fair. Kids getting snatched from villages; his company getting captured, tortured, and then dishonorably discharged…none of it was even remotely right. But it had happened nonetheless, and he’d just had to move on. Scars were part of life, and he had plenty to show for it.

  Once they arrived and he parked the car, they got out, and Elijah scanned the area. It was a nice neighborhood. The small townhome was on the outskirts of Roswell, away from the most touristy part of the area. If he had to guess, he’d say it was young professionals and families just starting out. The little knives in his heart twisted a little more. It shouldn’t still hurt like it did. He cast the thought off. It was a high school fantasy, nothing more.

  As they reached her door, he stepped in front of her. “I go in first, okay?” he said as he took Taylor’s keys from her. “If something happens to me, you run. You understand?”

  Her lips parted as her eyes grew wide. “Something happen to you?” she squeaked.