“If you thought I didn’t like you, maybe it’s because my best friend was dating you. Carter could be territorial. He had a bit of a jealous streak. His mother cheated on his father, and he never got over it. I was always aware that if you and I were too chummy, it might have made Carter doubt your affections.”
Brianne stared at Alex in surprise. Several seconds passed before she spoke. “Carter’s mother had an affair?”
“Yeah. He didn’t tell you?”
Brianne shook her head. “He never mentioned it. And I can’t imagine why. I thought he told me everything.”
Though the truth was, she had often sensed that there were things Carter was holding back. She would gently try to coax his feelings out of him, but she could tell he was never sharing his deepest feelings with her. She had noticed the disconnect more and more in the days before he’d left for British Columbia and had wondered if she’d done something to push him away.
“I don’t want to talk about Carter anymore,” Alex said and emitted a shuddery breath. “I want to talk about what’s happening between us.”
Brianne took a step backward.
“No. Don’t do that. Don’t step away from me.”
“All right.” Brianne stopped, gulped in air. “I’m not
going to deny that there’s…an attraction.” How could she, when her body was still thrumming from his touch? “But Alex, I’m here with you because we’re trying to find Carter. My
fiancé.
”
“Former fiancé.”
“Why are you doing this?” Her heart thundered. “Why now?”
Alex’s cell phone rang, and both of them started. The trilling phone instantly marred the moment between them.
“Dean’s friend,” Brianne guessed.
Alex made his way to the living room and quickly scooped up his phone. He glanced at the caller ID and then threw a look at Brianne and nodded.
“Bingo,” Alex said. “It’s Dean’s number.”
Chapter 14
B
rianne should have seen the call as a relief. As something that thankfully broke the intense sexual tension between her and Alex. And yet, oddly, she was a little unhappy about the distraction.
“He doesn’t want to talk to me?” Alex was saying.
Wrapping her arms around her torso, Brianne slowly made her way toward Alex.
“I really can’t get into it. All I can say is that it’s a personal matter. If your friend’s willing to call me, I can—”
Brianne stood behind Alex. She couldn’t help dropping her eyes to his behind, which looked oh-so-good in his jeans. Why was it that he had made her body come alive in a way that the man she’d been engaged to marry hadn’t? What was it about him?
“Actually, please tell him not to mention my name. Yeah, I know that sounds sketchy. You just have to trust that I have my reasons.”
His shoulders. His back. And, oh, those thighs. Brianne felt a hot flush just looking at him.
“Damn,” Alex muttered and lowered the phone from his ear.
“Bad news?” she asked.
“It sounds like Dean’s friend is wary. He doesn’t even want to talk to me.”
“He won’t even call?”
Alex shook his head. “Which only makes me think that Carter must be in some kind of trouble. His friends are protecting him like they think someone wants to do him harm.”
“Why don’t you just tell him who we are and why we’re here?”
Alex didn’t answer, just made a face and walked toward the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows.
“Why not, Alex?” Brianne asked, following him. “Being all secretive is only making Dean suspicious. But if you tell him about your trip to the Rockies with Carter, how he got lost and somehow ended up in Daytona, surely they’ll understand.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“I really don’t think going to the police is going to help. Carter’s going by the name Donnie. They won’t know who he is if they don’t have his full name.”
“Hmm. You could be right about that.”
“So tell Dean the deal.”
When Alex didn’t answer, Brianne eased her body between him and the window. “Don’t I get a say? You wanted me along to help you. We’re supposed to be working together. At what point am I allowed to contribute my ideas?”
“I just need a moment, Brianne.”
She frowned. “What is this? Did you lure me down
here under false pretenses? To what, get me into bed or something?”
“Wow. You really just said that.”
“What am I supposed to think right now? If you tell Dean exactly who we are and why we want to find Carter, he’ll realize we’re not a threat. If you don’t want to do that, then I have to think you had some other motive for bringing me down here.”
“Maybe my motive is to protect you.”
“Protect me?” Brianne stared at Alex, but his expression gave nothing away. “Alex, I’m not really sure what’s going on here. But let’s get on with this already. You talked about Carter having issues of trust because his mother had an affair. Maybe there’s a psychological reason for his amnesia. Maybe he’s running from his pain. In which case he needs us more than ever. He needs someone to nurture and love him back to emotional health.”
“Are you serious?” There was an edge to Alex’s voice.
“Yes, I’m serious. Maybe Carter was always going off on some adventure as a coping mechanism. He was avoiding dealing with his past the way a person turns to alcohol to avoid dealing with their emotions.”
Alex rolled his eyes.
“See! What’s that about? You’re rolling your eyes. Suddenly I’m starting to feel that you’re not here to find Carter because you’re his friend, but for another reason. I’m a big girl. Tell me if there’s something else going on.”
“You want to know the truth?” Alex asked, sounding exasperated.
“Yes, I want to know the truth.”
“All right, then. You’re going to find out soon enough.”
Brianne’s heart slammed against her chest. Alex’s tone suddenly had her scared.
“Carter lied to you, Brianne.” This wasn’t the way Alex
had envisioned telling her about Carter, but maybe it was time. Because since Dean’s friend wasn’t cooperating, it was time for Plan B. And he was tired of the lying, the pretending that they were on the hunt for a friend who was suffering some kind of memory loss. He hadn’t expected that lying to Brianne would bother him so much, mainly because he’d been focused on his goal. But seeing how she was suddenly focusing on Carter’s emotional issues and concocting another reason for his memory loss, how she was clinging to the fairy tale that they would pick up the pieces and sail off into the sunset… Well, no more.
“Carter isn’t this helpless victim of emotional trauma that you’re making him out to be. In fact, I’m starting to think he was a very skilled liar.”
Brianne’s mouth fell open as she stared at Alex. First, she looked baffled. But then her expression became defiant. “I see what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?”
She stepped away from him. “Suddenly you’re bashing him, calling him a liar.”
“He is a liar. He was.”
“Yeah, now that you’ve decided you’re attracted to me. Yes, I kissed you. Yes, there was a spark of something. So now you want to turn me against Carter before we find him again!”
“That is not true.”
Brianne shook her head back and forth, the expression on her face cutting him like a knife. “I…I’m leaving.”
She marched away, but Alex was right on her heel. “Brianne—”
“No, Alex. I’ve had enough of this. If you don’t want to find Carter, fine. But I’m going to Dean and—”
Alex grabbed her by the arm and whirled her around. “I assure you, I am not trying to badmouth Carter as a
ploy to win you over. That’s not who I am. That’s not what I’m about. But there are some things about Carter…some things I know, some things I suspected. All of it I should have told you about before we came down here.”
Brianne whimpered. “I want cake.”
“What?”
“Or chocolate. Or both.” Gone was her defiance. She looked vulnerable and sad.
“Brianne.” Alex pulled her into his arms.
She shrugged out of his embrace. “No. Don’t.”
“Why don’t we sit down?” Alex said gently.
“Just tell me.”
“Let’s sit.”
A tear fell down her cheek. “Is the news going to be better if I’m sitting?”
Heck, this wasn’t how Alex had planned to tell her. Truthfully, he hadn’t had a plan. He should have known it would be like this, with Brianne in tears and him feeling like a world-class jerk.
“You mentioned your friend Tracy earlier. That she always flirted with Carter. That you felt she secretly wanted to steal your man.” Alex paused, hoping to let his words register. But Brianne just stared up at him, still confused, still hurt. “Well, you were right, Brianne. Tracy did have a thing for Carter. And he…he had a thing for her.”
The seconds that passed seemed like hours, as Alex’s words registered. He saw every muscle in Brianne’s face collapse.
“No.”
“Brianne, I wish it wasn’t true. When I found out, I tried to make Carter see reason.”
“No!”
“I wouldn’t mention it if it didn’t fit in with my theory of what’s going on now.”
Brianne looked so lost, Alex wasn’t sure she’d even heard him. She went limp and began to collapse. Alex reached out and caught her before she fell to the floor. This was why he’d wanted her sitting down.
“No…no…” She pounded his chest.
“I’m sorry, Brianne.”
“He was sleeping with her?”
There was no sugar coating this. “Yes.”
“After we got engaged?”
“Yes.”
Brianne began to cry. Alex held her, even as she twisted in his arms. He comforted her while she cried, alternately clinging to him and trying to free herself of him.
After a few minutes, she looked up at him. “But how? When? Tracy had moved away before we got engaged.”
Brianne abruptly stopped. She stiffened in Alex’s arms as she looked up at him in horror. She understood now. Finally.
She shook her head. “No. Alex, please. No.”
Alex led her to the sofa. “Brianne, take a seat.”
“No!” She shook out of Alex’s arms. “Tell me the truth, and tell me right now. Tracy moved to Daytona, didn’t she? You—you think he’s
living
with her!”
Alex said nothing.
“But that would mean he…” Her voice trailed off as pain streaked across her face. “He faked his death? He…he left me for her?”
“Please, Brianne. Sit.”
“And you knew.” She shot him an accusing glare. “You
knew.
”
“I didn’t know, Brianne. But when I saw him on television, in Daytona, I began to suspect. All these years, I thought he was dead—”
“But you knew he was involved with Tracy!”
That Alex couldn’t deny. “Yes,” he admitted quietly.
“And you never told me. You—you were going to let me marry him.”
“I tried to talk him out of what he was doing. I told him that living a double life wasn’t fair to you. Even the last day I saw him, I told him that he needed to stop what he was doing and be honest with you. That was the last conversation we had on the mountain.”
Brianne gasped and gripped her belly. “Oh, my God.”
“Brianne, sit.”
“No!” She shouted the word, her chest heaving. Alex didn’t know what to do to comfort her, to ease her pain. She looked like she was going to fall apart.
And then she looked at him again, as if she’d just had another revelation. “Wait a minute. What do you mean double life? Cheating is cheating, but a double life…”
“Brianne, I’ll tell you everything. I just want you to sit down. I want to have a calm chat about the facts.”
“How can we have a calm chat about Carter playing me for a fool?”
Alex stared at her, several beats passing. There was no doubt that she was crushed. But seeing her so devastated was like a kick in the gut. Especially after the explosive passion between them earlier.
“Three years have passed, Brianne,” Alex began carefully. “Are you honestly this devastated?”
Brianne’s eyes flashed fire, and for a moment Alex thought she might slap him. “How dare you. How
dare
you!”
“Okay, that came out wrong. I just mean…it’s not like this is a fresh wound. All this happened in the past.”
“I hate you,” she snapped.
The words cut him. Cut him deep. “Brianne—”
“I mean it, Alex. You’re too self-absorbed to realize that
this isn’t about the past. It’s about the present. Right now. The fact that
you
lied to me about Carter. You had me come down here with you under false pretenses, acting like we were on a mission to find a man who had likely lost his memory.”
“That was your theory—”
“But you went along with it! You never once said that I was off base. Way off base.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It is that simple. You tell the truth, or you lie. You chose to lie to me.”
Alex dragged a hand over his head. “You’re right. I should have been honest.”
“I’m leaving.”
“Without your shoes?”
Brianne wagged a finger at him. “Don’t talk to me.” And then she turned, running to the front door.
“Come on, Brianne,” Alex called after her. She wouldn’t get far. Not without her shoes. “Hear me out.”
She threw the door open and charged outside.
Alex trotted to the doorway. “If you’ll let me explain…”
Brianne was sprinting across his lawn toward the sidewalk.
“Damn it, Brianne,” Alex muttered.
He contemplated chasing her but knew that right now he had to step back and give her her space.
She would be back. She just needed some time.
Chapter 15
W
hen, an hour and a half later, Brianne hadn’t returned, Alex got worried. He grabbed the car keys and left the house, determined to find her.
After all, she couldn’t have gone far. Not in her bare feet.
But what if she was so despondent that she had put herself in harm’s way?
The thought had Alex quickening his pace. He rushed into the Navigator and started it without hesitation.
You screwed this up royally, didn’t you, Alex?
He drove along every street in the neighborhood and saw no sign of her. That’s when his stomach tightened and he truly began to panic.