Xander felt his soup start to churn in his stomach. He’d known that Billy being in a cell didn’t bode well, but he’d hoped for check fraud or tax evasion. A crime, but one that didn’t hurt anyone. He’d never anticipated armed robbery.
“Billy just sat in the car and drove off when they ran out. He had no clue what actually happened inside the bank, but apparently, things went badly. One of the guys shot and killed a security guard. It was a big mess.”
Yes. Yes, it was a big mess. Xander tried not to outwardly react, but the universe seemed to be conspiring against him. He’d managed to avoid scandal all this time. Now he had enough circling around him to end his political career forever.
Illegitimate children, murder, armed robbery—it was getting downright juicy. Heaven forbid one of the news outlets got ahold of this. If all this was so easily uncovered, he couldn’t imagine what a determined reporter could find if he really tried. On the bright side, he’d have plenty of fodder for a second book if all this didn’t tank the first one.
Xander wouldn’t lie. He wanted Rose. Badly. Before she got that call, he was pretty certain he’d been on the verge of having her. Her cheeks had been flush, her lips bee-stung with kisses. She’d been pressing against him and making those soft sounds of desire that he remembered from all those years ago. And then everything fell apart. He still wanted her, but was it even possible now? He’d sensed her pull back after their kiss at the restaurant. She might’ve just been worried about her son, but it seemed like more than that. As if she regretted it.
And even if that wasn’t true, the night had ended far more complicated than it had started. They could try to keep Joey and her father’s incarceration a secret, but eventually, word would get out that he was romantically involved with Rose. It wouldn’t take much digging for a reporter to find out the rest and start connecting the dots.
And that was just Rose’s family. Never mind that Xander was fighting to keep his own skeleton buried. “How did Rose take it?”
“I’m not sure. I know that’s when she moved back here with her son. She tried to run her dad’s garage for a while, but her brother took over eventually. Molly mentioned that Rose always seemed so positive when she spoke to her. I think she copes by trying to pretend it didn’t happen.”
“That’s probably true,” Xander said. “She didn’t mention it to me at all last night. That’s sort of a big thing.”
“You can’t blame her. If one of you committed a stupid and violent crime, I wouldn’t be shouting it from the rooftops.”
Xander swallowed a mouthful of soup and opted not to respond. The last year and a half, he and his siblings had been struggling—not to stay out of jail but to keep Tommy Wilder’s death and their involvement a secret from their parents. They’d never wanted or intended to do what they did that day. Their hands had been forced by circumstances and the fear of losing their new home and parents.
But they had committed crimes that day. Heath had killed Tommy while trying to protect Julianne. Wade had hidden the body. Xander and Brody were both guilty of destroying or fabricating evidence. Brody had taken Julianne to the bunkhouse to clean up and change out of her torn and bloody clothes. Xander had gathered her clothes and burned them, along with all of Tommy’s belongings, and then forged a note from Tommy. Heath had cleaned up the scene.
They were just kids. Hell, Heath and Julianne were only thirteen at the time. They’d panicked and done what they thought they had to do to protect themselves. If pressed, they could prove Tommy’s death was an accident that happened while defending their sister from Tommy’s attack. Anyone who knew Tommy back then knew what he was capable of. He stole, he got into fights and he didn’t do his fair share around the farm. He’d been brought to the Garden of Eden as a last-ditch attempt to find him a foster home when his own family could no longer control him and no one else would take him.
But that didn’t mean the truth wouldn’t disappoint their parents. That the shock of it wouldn’t give Ken another attack or break Molly’s heart. At the very least, Ken would beat himself up for being sick that day and unable to protect his young daughter when she needed him. He might feel guilty that his sons had had to do it for him and carried the burden of their actions for all these years.
Xander couldn’t disappoint his parents. Or Rose. Or his son. He wouldn’t disappoint his constituents or the people who depended on the Fostering Families Center, either. They had put their faith in him and he wouldn’t abuse their trust.