What Belongs to Her (Harlequin Superromance) (14 page)

The office was empty. She sucked in a breath as a pain assaulted her chest. Had he left? Turned his back on her? The toilet flushed in the bathroom, and she snapped her head toward the closed door. John strolled out and flashed her a strained smile before he walked toward his desk. Her held breath whispered from her mouth. “You okay?”

He rubbed his hand over his face before he met her eyes. “Sure.”

She approached the desk.

He leaned forward on his elbows, his eyes dark with concern and his brow furrowed. “I won’t let you get hurt, Sasha. Not anymore.”

Her gaze lingered on his for a moment longer before she stepped away and paced a few steps back and forth in front of him. He cared. She could no longer deny that or paint him as the enemy. His concern for her was genuine and, if the truth be told, she didn’t want him to hurt anymore, either. She stopped and met his eyes. “So what do we do?”

“We work together to find out the truth and then take it from there.”

She nodded. “Okay. And I don’t want us to fight anymore.” She smiled softly. “You’re an okay kind of guy...to a point.”

He met her smile. “And you’re pretty hot...to a point.”

Heat pinched her cheeks as the sexual tension between them soared once more. She shook her head. “Let’s focus on the here and now, mister. No more... You know.”

He closed his eyes, his smile dissolving. “You’re right. Sorry.”

She moved the visitor’s chair in front of his desk and gripped its back. “Where did these suspicions about my mother come from? Or have you known about her involvement the entire time you’ve been here?”

He opened his eyes wide. “God, no. Is that what you think?”

Insecurity and distrust hurtled into her before she could stop it. She might really like him, but it would take more than a pair of deep blue eyes and a body as hard as a brick to break her habitual suspicion.

She blew out a breath. “Then what happened for you to believe Kyle doesn’t want me to know something went on between him and my mother?”

He leaned back in his chair, his eyes locked on hers. “It was something Freddy said to me earlier.”

The floor shifted beneath her, and she gripped the chair tighter. “Freddy knows about this?”

“No. Yes. I’m not sure.”

“Which is it? Yes or no?” Now she was angry.

“Sasha—”

“Tell me.”

When he stood and came around the desk, she stepped back and his outstretched hand dropped to his side. “Freddy took great pleasure in telling me he spoke to Kyle this afternoon.” He pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and held it up. “I received this visiting permit from Kyle a few days ago. It turns out he sent one to Freddy, too, summoning us both to attendance.”

She stared at the paper. “Freddy told me he spoke to Kyle the day before yesterday. You didn’t go?”

John shook his head. “I don’t want to see him until I’m ready. He clearly thinks he’s still in control.” He glared. “He’s not.”

“He is as far as Freddy’s concerned.”

“Maybe, but I couldn’t care less about Freddy right now.”

“You should. Freddy’s pissed off and that cannot be good news for you...or me.”

He shoved the permit back in his pocket and pushed his hand into his hair, holding it there. “Freddy said it didn’t matter that I’m Kyle’s son. Kyle would always need him and Freddy would always know the fair better than me.”

She fisted her hands on her hips. “What’s that got to do with my mother?”

“I don’t know. We batted words back and forth for a while, not really getting any further before he stormed out.” He held her gaze. “Not before saying once you found out how much your mother hates this place, you’d hate me as much as you hate her.”

She flinched. “I don’t hate my mother. We don’t see eye to eye about this place. That’s as far as it goes.”

He frowned. “So you speak? You and your mum?”

“Yes.” She lifted her shoulders. “We’re not the type to go for tea and cake, but we talk.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I can’t stand the thought of Freddy knowing more about my family than I do. What would make him say that?” Frustration hummed inside her.
If Freddy knows things about my mother, what else does he know? Does he know about my past, too? Does Kyle?

Nausea rose in her throat.
Does John?

The threat of humiliation swarmed inside her. She liked John so much, had given herself to him with passion and need, but she couldn’t afford to be blinded by her feelings for him. It would lead to mistakes. Huge mistakes. Both emotionally and intellectually. She didn’t doubt for a moment that if John knew about her molestation, his need to take care of her would be grounded in that, rather than any romantic feelings he might have for her.

She lifted her chin against the pain lingering in her chest. “I’ve made you an offer for the fair, yet nothing’s changed, and I only have your word that it ever will. How do I really know you’ll give me what I want in the end?”

A flush darkened his cheeks and his eyes turned to steel. “I’m not Kyle. I don’t deal in business with a hidden agenda. I’m not a man who goes back on his word. If, at the end of this, I see no reason for you not to have the fair, I’ll do everything possible to damn well
give
it to you. I don’t want your money. What just happened...” He shook his head. “Meant something to me. That wasn’t a hit-and-run. I admit, when I first came to Templeton, everything was about Kyle and how I could screw him over, but now I’ve met you...now I know he’s dying...”

She swallowed, as sympathy whispered across her heart. “Now what?”

He stared into her eyes. “Now my head’s more of a mess than it was before.”

Her heart picked up speed. He must be grieving, despite his determination to believe the opposite. Is that what was making him reach for her? What was making this thing between them as irresistible to him as it was to her?

He stepped closer. “Everything is so much less about Kyle...and more about you.”

Hope shot through her. She wanted more than anything to believe his care for her was genuine, but the man had to be reeling with confusion and grief. She would be a fool to believe John could really walk into her life and make it better. Make her feel less lonely; less afraid of ever trusting anyone but her best friend.

He continued forward and she stepped back. He kept coming until her butt hit another desk. He stood in front of her, his darkened gaze lingering at her lips. “I’ve already told you. I like you. I like you a lot. I won’t let you hurt anymore.”

Sasha tipped her head back to meet his eyes, her tears burning. “I’m not hurt. I don’t hurt.”

“You hurt, Sasha. You hurt bad, and now that hurts me, too.”

He leaned his hands on the desk on either side of her. Trapping her in his cage, he lowered his mouth to hers. Her heart slammed against her rib cage as a raw need for him to protect her erupted. Her lips remained rigid beneath his for the briefest moment before softening. Her surrender kicked like a steel-capped boot into her gut. He drew his free hand over the crown of her head, lower to hold her jaw...

She couldn’t do this. She’d given him her body—and maybe far too big a part of her heart—but she refused to entirely give him her trust. Not yet. Not until she was sure.

She eased her hands against his chest and pushed him backward. “No, John. I have to find out what Freddy knows. It’s too important.”

She stormed toward the door, chasing the habitual control of her life that had somehow vanished.

“Sasha, wait.”

She moved like lightning, slamming the door behind her so hard, the glass rattled in its frame.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“S
HIT
.”
J
OHN
RUSHED
to the door and yanked it open. Breaking into a sprint, he caught up with Sasha as she pivoted expertly between teenagers and the grown men towering above her. He gripped her arm. “Sasha, just hold on.”

She pulled her arm from his grip. “If Freddy knows something about my mother’s past relationship with Kyle, then I damn well want to know what it is. How dare he keep that from me? He had no right.”

Her tears and the crack of her voice sliced through John’s heart, revving his resolve to cause his father more pain than he’d ever inflicted on anyone. Why should he care Kyle was dying? Kyle had caused Sasha indisputable hurt, along with himself and possibly her mother.

He reached for Sasha’s hand, not caring it might be the final straw that would earn him a slapped face. “You need to stop and think this through. Freddy’s not on your side. If my suspicions are right, he’s never been on your side and is working his own agenda. If that’s true, the more knowledge you have and keep to yourself, the better. Right?”

She didn’t slap him but stared, her eyes wide with the adrenaline undoubtedly ripping through her. Her breasts rose and fell with each harried breath. “This is so damn unfair. All of it. Why can’t I trust the people around me? Just for once.”

The whistling and screeching around them, the rumbling and thumping, pumping dance music and blowing horns, reverberated louder than ever. John ached to touch her, to pull her to him, to feel her skin beneath his lips again, inhale Sasha’s scent and tell her he’d fix her pain and the situation.

Instead, he stood like a man trapped on a square of sand in the middle of a turbulent ocean—helpless and trying to think of the best way forward. The best way to make her dream come true without handing her the one thing she thought she wanted. His gut told him Funland hid more secrets, more destruction for her, than anything else.

He glanced around, part of him hoping to see Freddy before she did. The asshole was nowhere to be seen. He faced her. “Come back to the office. Let’s talk some more. It’ll do no good for you to run headlong into Freddy when you’re this worked up.”

She glared. “Worked up? You think this is me worked up?” She huffed out a laugh. “You’ve no idea what I’m like when I’m worked up. I suggest you get out of the firing line.”

A smile pulled at his mouth, and he pursed his lips. Was it perverted that the sudden vision of Sasha tossing him onto a king-size bed with the ease of a superstrong ninja turned him on?

“Are you laughing at me?” She fisted her hands on her hips.

John blinked and fought his smile into submission. “Of course not.”

She closed her eyes and pressed a trembling hand to her abdomen. “I feel sick. My grandfather meant the world to me, and I promised him...
promised
him I’d get Funland back.” She opened her eyes and a tear escaped as she jabbed her finger toward the sky. “He’s up there looking down and knows his daughter, his
daughter,
John, had something to do with us losing what he treasured. Something my ancestors treasured until my mother deemed herself above tradition, above what generations of Romany people have kept sacred before us.”

“Don’t you know how messed up families are?”

“My family is nothing like yours.”

“Why?”

Color rushed to her face. “Because my family isn’t Kyle.”

He deserved the jab. His demons had nothing to do with Sasha’s. He pushed his hands into his hair. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

They stood in silence as John grappled with what to do next. He wanted so much to take this pain away from her, but he couldn’t. His gut instinct told him her anger went so much deeper than family tradition. Frustration and pride weighed heavy on his heart and soul. Neither felt good nor worthwhile. He needed to know he was strong enough to wipe his bitterness toward his father out of his life once and for all.

He came to Templeton to expose Kyle for the man he really was, to fix the wrongs that had tormented him ever since Kyle walked out of his life. He wouldn’t leave until everything was out in the open, until Sasha and he himself accepted he was nothing like his father.

He faced her. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

She scowled, her shoulders coming up around her earlobes and her dark eyes flashing fire. “How?”

Their gazes locked. They were on the same side of the playing field, but their wants were so different a hard rock remained between them. From the raw and stormy frustration in her eyes, it was clear their lovemaking was forgotten. So far from her mind, a pain constricted his heart to see her look at him with such mistrust. The possibility she saw him as little more than the flesh-and-blood reason the entirety of what she had planned for her life was going wrong hurt more than it should. He wasn’t Kyle and he wouldn’t leave her to drown in a hole he’d inadvertently slashed wide open.

He shook his head. “I didn’t ask for any of this, but here it is...for both of us. We can sort this out if we work together.”

She raised her hands. “I’ve had enough.”

“Enough of what?”

“Standing here doing nothing. I need to speak to Freddy, my mother and your father.” Her cheeks flamed with anger. Her pulse beat fast in the hollow at the base of her neck. “It’s pretty clear all three know something that I’ve got every damn right to know, too.”

He gritted his teeth as fear struck through his blood. “There’s no way you’re talking to Kyle.”

She fisted her hands on her hips. “Do you really think you can stop me?”

“He won’t see you.”

“I’ll try anyway.”

“There’s no way I am letting you within ten feet—”

She spun away, and this time he let her go before he did something stupid like throw her over his shoulder and lock her in his bedroom for the rest of her damn life. The passion of their lovemaking couldn’t be denied—but that didn’t mean Sasha wouldn’t ignore it had happened. He was already beginning to know her. His teaching had put him in good stead for dealing with the anger pumping through her right now. Spending day after day with kids, and their unrelenting honesty, gave him the insight and experience to recognize tenacity. Sasha had it in spades.

Her resolve was indisputable. She had a lightning fire inside that both attracted him and scared him senseless. She stirred an overpowering need to protect and help her. Thoughts and possible decisions raced around in his mind as the whirlwind he cared far too much for ran into the crowd. God help Freddy when she caught up with him.

If
she caught up with him.

John whipped his head left and right, narrowing his eyes as he scanned the area above the heads of more and more people as they filled the fairground, looking for fun...and God only knew what else. He couldn’t stand by and let her face Freddy alone. As for her confronting Kyle, that wasn’t even an option.

He glared ahead. Feeling Sasha’s heartbeat beneath his palm and her lips on his had brought his mission to a dangerous place. Freddy worked with Kyle, spent time in prison with him and, as far as John knew, could be equally as ruthless. He’d yet to find out what Freddy had done to get his ass thrown in jail, but he damn well would. Who knew what Freddy would do to Sasha if she unwittingly messed with whatever the hell he had planned?

Freddy had made it perfectly clear he felt used by Kyle. How would that manifest itself? He had to get to Freddy before Sasha did and shield her from more potentially painful revelations. He wanted her to know the truth but not be alone when she found it.

From now on, supporting her was his priority. Until he figured out what the hell Kyle wanted the fair for and what he’d done to get it, he would make sure Sasha knew he was on her side. Her frustration was burning her up from the inside out, and he wouldn’t rest until he got to the bottom of what had taken place between Kyle and Sasha’s mother.

He stormed forward, brushing past families and teenagers, his eyes darting manically as he searched for Freddy’s bald head amidst the throng. The prison visitor’s permit in John’s front pocket scratched against his thigh as he jogged, reminding him of his refusal to see Kyle today as he’d requested.

His father clearly sent a permit to Freddy for the same day because Kyle wanted to see his second-in-command and his son together. No doubt wanted both of them in front of him for confessions...or manipulation. John gritted his teeth. What had he missed by refusing to see Kyle? Had his stubbornness meant Freddy now held a better hand of cards than him and Sasha?

He scowled. Kyle had once again played his son for an idiot, but this time John only had himself to blame.

* * *

S
ASHA
FOUGHT
HER
tears as she slumped forward with her hands on her knees, a stitch mercilessly aching in her side. Freddy was nowhere to be found. She couldn’t allow John’s suggestion that her mother was involved in the selling of the fair to penetrate her head and heart. It was too devastating to contemplate. The result would be the claws of her mother’s disregard being pushed deeper into Sasha’s heart than ever before.

Images and recollections flashed through her mind. Snippets of conversations when her mother denied Funland being anything of importance. Her mother blushing or turning away from Sasha’s scrutiny whenever she accused her of being able to help retain the fair in their family if she really wanted to.

Had her mother been dealing with Kyle behind her grandfather’s back while her daughter implored her for help? Had she made money from the deal? Laughed at her daughter’s ignorance?

Straightening, Sasha planted her hands on her hips and breathed deep. Where the hell was Freddy? The habitual lull between late afternoon and evening would soon arrive at the fair, and then he was bound to come out from wherever he was hiding and face her. Fewer people meant less madness, and often she and Freddy shared a cup of tea in the office before they braced themselves for the evening onslaught. He had to reveal himself sooner or later.

She narrowed her eyes and scanned the crowds once more.

Maybe Freddy had already seen her and guessed from the horror on her face that John had told her what Freddy inferred about her mother? She swallowed the ball of anger lodged in her throat. He clearly didn’t give a damn about her or he would have told her before now what he knew.

Sasha snatched her cell phone from her back pocket. Well, that was fine. She’d go straight to the source. Clutching her phone tightly, she strode for the fairground gates in the hope she could make herself heard above the screaming and music when she spoke to her mother. She stole into a nook between a wall and the public bathroom, punched in her mother’s number and inhaled a strengthening breath.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mum. It’s me.”

“Sasha.” The surprise in her mother’s voice couldn’t be denied—neither could the warmth.

Sasha closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall. She couldn’t let her mother’s care for her lessen the fact she never once supported Sasha’s need to make Funland hers one day. “I need to ask you something. I’d appreciate the truth.”

A few seconds passed before her mother spoke. “How are you? How are things in Templeton?”

“I don’t want to talk about Templeton.”

“Why? What’s wrong? Usually that’s
all
you talk about. Are you finally getting out of there? Is that why you’re calling me?”

Sasha squeezed her eyes tighter. “I’m not Tanya, Mum, and I’m not you. I’m happy here...at least I could be. I’ll never leave.”

“You know as well as I do, the only way you’ll ever be happy is to put as much space as possible between you and Templeton. You could get a new job, new friends.... You’re worth so, so much more. Why do you insist on staying? The cove brings you nothing but misery.”

Sasha snapped her eyes open. “I want the fair, Mum. I always will.”

“Sasha...” Her mother’s exhalation rasped down the line.

“Did you ever speak to Kyle Jordon about the fair? Before Granddad died?”

“What?”

“Did you?” Sasha tightened her grip on the phone.

Silence.

Anger hummed through her blood as Sasha waited. She would not be the one to fill the silence. God damn it, if her mother had anything to do with the selling of the fair to Kyle, she would never forgive her. Their relationship hung by a single thread and just one more act of disloyalty would snap it, never to be put back together again.

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. Now, please, will you listen to me? For years, I’ve been begging you to leave that place. Why do you insist on putting yourself through—”

“I’ve found out there’s a chance you were involved in the sale of the fair to Kyle Jordon. Is it true? Did you strike a deal with that man behind my back? Behind Granddad’s back?”

Her mother laughed. “That’s ridiculous.”

A throb beat rhythmically at Sasha’s temples. The sudden escalation in pitch of her mother’s voice told Sasha she was lying. Her stomach knotted with revulsion as bitterness rose in a dry tang in her throat. “Tell me the truth.”

“I’ve never made a secret of wanting the place gone from our lives, but I was not involved in the sale. That was between Kyle and your grandfather. It had nothing to do with me.”

Doubt edged into the periphery of Sasha’s mind. “Then why would someone say such a thing, huh? It makes no sense. As far as anyone was concerned, it was only me and Granddad fighting to hold on to Funland. Why would Freddy even mention your name?”

“I’ve no idea. Now, please, just let the fair go and move on. You’re better off without it.”

“That isn’t your decision to make. Moreover, I don’t believe you.” Betrayal slashed across Sasha’s heart, and she sucked in a breath as her grandfather’s face filled her mind’s eye. “I’m not leaving this, Mum. I’m going to find out what happened to make Granddad give up the way he did.”

“That place will only make you miserable.”

Sasha shook her head. “When I make Funland mine, I will make it good again. You’ve seen the photographs. The old videos. Our family was happy here, and now we’re splintered, working on our own lives. We should be coming together to protect what was ours from being overrun with drugs and God knows what else.”
Molesters. Predators. Groomers.