The Callahan's: Secret Sins Part 12

"And that's why you have to convince Anna to leave until this has finished," John demanded, his tone harsh now. "You know she's not safe in Corbin County, Archer."

"Anna's safe as long as she stays here," Archer informed them all, surprised at the ferocity of his statement. "I won't force her to leave. I won't ask her to leave."

John lifted his head, his expression tightening as he stared at Archer coldly from intense blue eyes. "You're sleeping with her, aren't you? The rumors of you two being seen all but naked and f.u.c.king in one of the park's grottos were true."

"Watch what you say, Corbin." Archer stared back at him, doing nothing to hide the fury rising inside him. "I don't know what the f.u.c.k you said to her before you forced her out of your house with nothing but the clothes on her back, but I know you destroyed her."

"And who the f.u.c.k do you think was standing there with Robert and Lisa when she called you?" the other man grated. "Do you think I'd leave my granddaughter helpless and alone for even a second? I knew when she shimmied up that trellis into her bedroom and collected that backpack and her purse. She'd have her car, too, if she hadn't been so p.i.s.sed she forgot I always leave the side door to the garage unlocked."

"Then the fact that she's sleeping with me should comfort you rather than upset you, shouldn't it?" Archer snapped. "Because having her in my bed wasn't a decision I made lightly. I will protect her, John, with my life if need be."

"But will it be a decision that involves a ring?" John growled. "I won't let you treat her like you have your other women, Archer, never doubt that. My granddaughter isn't a f.u.c.king mark on your bedpost."

It was a lack of warmth, a feeling that something wasn't quite right, that woke Anna.

At first she felt disoriented, uncertain why she was naked and why the blankets were tangled across the bed, not quite covering her enough to keep her warm.

In a second, the memory of Archer's touch, his kiss, and the incredible pleasure he'd given her flashed into her mind. A flush stole across her face before racing through her body with remembered warmth. And renewed arousal.

He'd been beside her when she went sleep. She couldn't imagine he would lie next to her, let her think he was going to sleep with her, only to change his mind so quickly and leave his own bed to find another.

Oscar was there at the bottom of the bed.

His own pillow, her a.s.s, she thought with a smile as she felt the furry warmth at her feet.

Archer couldn't have gone very far, and leaving the house itself wasn't something she believed he would do without waking her or leaving a note next to her first.

Rising from the bed she found her gown and robe, which he must have lain across the back of the chair. Barefoot, she left the bedroom and silently began moving through the house.

Anna had made a point earlier to pay attention to which floorboards squeaked and which weren't quite flush with those around them as she had made herself familiar with the house.

Avoiding those particular pitfalls, she made her way downstairs and continued through the house until a sound made her pause several feet from the study. Her head tilted to the side to identify the sound of voices coming through the narrow slit between the door and its frame. It hadn't been closed fully, leaving an inch or so view into the room.

Archer was meeting with someone? At this time in the morning?

Moving closer she paused near the narrow opening to hear if she could recognize the voices and make certain it wasn't intruders. What she heard lit a flame of anger so deep and so hot inside her it was all she could do to remain hidden.

"Then the fact that she's sleeping with me should comfort you rather than upset you, shouldn't it?" Archer snapped. "Because having her in my bed wasn't a decision I made lightly. I will protect her, John, with my life if need be."

"But will it be a decision that involves a ring?" John growled. "I won't let you treat her like you have your other women, Archer, never doubt that. My granddaughter isn't a f.u.c.king mark on your bedpost."

"My relationship with Anna is our business, not yours," Archer stated coolly. "Remember that, John. You're the one who threw her out rather than being honest with her. I won't lie to her, and I'll be d.a.m.ned if I let you endanger her further."

"You'll get her killed," her grandfather accused him fiercely, his voice echoing with a vein of deep, tortured fear.

"I'll protect her with my life," Archer retorted. "And with the truth. Until the three of you decide to come clean with that little commodity, then you have no say in how I protect her. I'll take care of her and I'll take care of my own end of things. Until then, you do your part and see if you can't find a few more truths to give me to help figure this c.r.a.p out."

"f.u.c.k my part. And don't think for a second you won't get her killed if you tell her what we've just divulged. I've protected her from the so-called truth for a reason. She's a d.a.m.ned good girl, but she trusts people, Archer. Too much. She'd need someone to talk to and she'd tell someone. She tells her friend Amelia everything. I can't tell you the times Wayne Sorenson has snickered over Anna sneaking out of the house to catch sight of you at those d.a.m.ned socials over the years. Or how often his daughter has told him about the arguments Anna has with me. Because Anna can't keep her mouth shut. And that's beside the fact that she doesn't know how to stay the h.e.l.l away from those boys. They'll get her killed." Her grandfather was raging, albeit without the raised voice she was normally used to.

Her fists clenched as humiliation tore through her.

Her grandfather didn't trust her with whatever this "truth" was, because she told Amelia about their arguments? Or because she'd slipped from school a few weekends, hoping to see Archer or find a moment to talk to the cousin who had been so unfairly ostracized?

She had been told all her life to stay the h.e.l.l away from the Callahans. Crowe was her cousin and she wanted to get to know him, especially now that she had been disowned as well.

But to be thrown out of her family, to be forced from her home and never told why, because they based whether or not she could be trusted on those few instances?

It was beginning to feel as though there was a h.e.l.l of a lot more going on than her family's arrogance and determination to have their way. She'd always known something dark existed in her family, but she'd never revealed that suspicion. Not to anyone. Even Amelia.

Still, her family didn't trust her.

It hurt.

Oh G.o.d, it hurt so bad.

That knowledge was digging razor-sharp talons into her chest and ripping her apart.

She was twenty-four years old, not a baby. She was a grown woman, and regardless of what her grandfather believed, there were a h.e.l.l of a lot of Corbin family secrets she did know. Knew, and had never told another soul.

"The Callahans aren't a threat, John," Archer argued. "But they could d.a.m.ned sure help. And don't try to tell me how to do my job or how to protect Anna. I won't stand for it."

Anna's eyes narrowed at his tone. He sounded awfully possessive for a man who had already made the whole no-emotion-no-relationship rule. And it was beginning to sound as though the feeling she had of a conspiracy revolving around her was true.

"Whoever's behind this knows you're sleeping with her." Her grandfather's harshly voiced declaration had Anna flushing with mortification, even though she knew there wasn't a chance anyone could know about it. h.e.l.l, it had only happened little more than an hour before. "It's one of the reasons I agreed to meet you, Archer. Not just to explain what we could, but to try to get you to see how much he knows and how dangerous he is. That b.a.s.t.a.r.d has been blackmailing us since before those boys were born. And no more than hours before you called, he contacted me. He knew she was here, and he knew she would be sleeping in your bed."

Who the h.e.l.l was this "he"? There had been no time for anyone to have known anything.

"He told you he knew Anna was here?" Archer asked carefully. "If you don't know who he is, John, then how does he communicate?"

Anna could feel the confusion building inside her now.

"He calls. I can tell his voice is disguised, and tracing the call to find the number has been impossible over the years. He's furious that she's here, and still in Corbin County. When she came home two weeks ago he contacted me by letter. Said she would die if she didn't leave. He's threatening to make certain she pays for it if I don't get her out of your house and get her out of Colorado."

"If he's becoming angry, then he'll make mistakes," Archer decided.

"He knows the two of you were in that grotto two weeks ago. That's how I found out about it. G.o.d, Archer, please listen to sense. She can't know about this, and she can't stay here."

"If he doesn't like her living arrangements, then he can take it up with me," Archer drawled, his tone dangerously low. "Because Anna will be with me, and I promise you, to get to her, he will have to go through me. You're not going to keep her safe by lying to her, or hiding this from her. She has to at least know her life is in danger. She can make the decision after that."

A flood of weakness-fear- or anger-induced, Anna couldn't differentiate-raced through her body. She could feel her knees trembling, her lips shaking as she lifted her fingers to them to hold back the rage that wanted to consume her.

The fact that Archer was demanding she be told the truth did nothing to ease the unbelievable knowledge that her family had kept such things from her.

What the h.e.l.l was going on? What had her grandfather and his friends managed to get her mixed up in? And why, why hadn't her parents ever told her this? All the years of being alone, of being so lost and feeling so abandoned, all because they refused to trust her with the truth?

"You're using her as bait," her grandfather charged, giving voice to the suspicion rising inside Anna.

"For G.o.d's sake, John, she's a target no matter where she's staying. If he was going to strike out at her, he would have already. Trust me to know what the h.e.l.l I'm doing here. And trust Anna. She's not a child, nor is she unable to keep this to herself."

Confusion filled her, but it didn't obliterate her anger at her family. There was some awful conspiracy shadowing her family and threatening her? And they couldn't tell her?

As for Archer, she had no doubt he was using her, especially if he had somehow suspected whatever was going on. His desire to use her in whatever this situation was hadn't made his d.i.c.k hard, though. He wanted her for other reasons and she knew it.

She had been a virgin, but she wasn't stupid. She was a woman, and a woman knew when a man wanted her simply because he couldn't keep his d.a.m.ned hands off her.

She might not have a chance at his heart, but in Archer's arms, she had a chance at something almost as important. The chance to learn why she'd been pushed away by her family so long ago.

CHAPTER 8.

It was all she could do to stand in place, to listen, to make herself absorb what she was hearing. Remaining silent through it was one of the most painful, heartrending things she believed she had ever done in her life.

She wanted to rush in, ask questions, and demand explanations.

She wanted to rage and cry and scream- Oh G.o.d, she wanted to scream at her grandfather, to slice at his heart as hers had been sliced over the years because of the forced isolation from her family and from coming home.

She wanted to cry. But if she cried, if she let the first tear fall, then the objectivity she was forcing herself to use would be lost. She would be a child again, crying into the night and begging Mommy and Daddy to please, please let her come home.

So much of it didn't make sense. And so much of it was destroying her even as it gave her a glimpse into all the questions that had raged in her mind for so many years.

"There's no way to keep the Callahans out of this, or Anna away from Crowe, John," Saul Rafferty stated, his tone weary, surprising Anna with his presence. She hadn't known he was there. "Whoever's behind this, his only focus is destroying us and our grandsons. If she stays hidden, if she stays in the shadows and we continue to do as he orders, then he'll never reveal himself."

"And I've tried to convince you that girl could give a clam a run for tight lips if she knew the truth of this." Marshal Roberts sighed. "I understand your need to protect her better than anyone does, but Archer's right. We haven't protected her. All you've done is let that little girl grow up without family and without friends because some madman found another way to punish you. Let Archer fix this, before it's too late for any of us."

"She's too d.a.m.ned stubborn for her own good," her grandfather grumbled. "If she had just gone to France she would have been protected."

"And you would have lost even more time with her than you're losing now," Archer growled. "That's beside the fact you should have known she would never agree to it."

"She's far too much like Kim was before she died." The grief in her grandfather's voice made Anna's chest tighten.

The family had never recovered from her aunt's death. It still shadowed them, just like whatever danger was shadowing them, and her as well.

"Was he right about your relationship with Anna?" Her grandfather ignored Archer's previous statement. "Are you sleeping with my granddaughter?"

Her fists clenched at her side as she laid her forehead silently against the wall and closed her eyes.

This was none of his business.

He would have seen her living a solitary, cold life rather than trusting her. He had no right to know if she was sleeping with anyone or who she might be sleeping with now.

"My relationship, whatever it may or may not be or develop into, is none of your business, John. But let the Slasher believe whatever he wants if it means taking them out of their comfort level and making them angry enough to make a mistake." Archer's tone remained respectful, despite the fact that he had just told her grandfather it was none of his business if he were sleeping with Anna.

Had he brought her to his home and to his bed to catch a killer? Was she wrong? Had the thought of catching the Slasher, or whoever was threatening the Corbin family, actually made his d.i.c.k hard?

"She has a heart, Archer," her grandfather gritted out. "A tender one. And one I'd prefer not to see broken. She's not had a lover, and I know she hasn't taken one because she thinks she's already in love. Once she gives the man she loves that gift, she will never stop loving him. No matter how he hurts her, she'll always love him. And if you don't realize that, then you're a bigger fool where she's concerned than I ever thought you were."

Thanks, Grandfather. That was exactly what she wanted her new lover to hear.

"What the h.e.l.l do you mean by that?" Archer growled.

"I mean you've been too blind to see that Anna's been in love with you since she was a teenager. And she's refused to settle for anyone else. She's always considered any other man second best."

Anna cringed. She hadn't thought anyone had realized just how deep her affection for Archer had actually grown.

"Anna's too smart for that, John," Archer argued, though his voice had changed, thickened. "Love like that is a fairy tale for little girls playing dress-up with their mother's clothes. Anna's not a little girl anymore."

Her heart broke. Right then and right there, standing outside Archer's study, wearing one of the s.e.xy gowns she'd always imagined seducing him in, she felt her heart break in half.

Because her grandfather was right; she loved Archer Tobias. She loved him with all her heart, and nothing would change that.

She couldn't deal with this anymore.

In a single conversation she had learned her grandfather was somehow tied to the Slasher through a conspiracy that now involved her, and that Archer was possibly using her to draw the Slasher out into the open.

She was turning to leave when her grandfather said, "I've lost not just my baby girl, but also her son-the grandson I have found so much pride in, Archer. Genoa and I would have given our lives to know Crowe. Now that b.a.s.t.a.r.d has forced us to push Anna out of not just our lives, but also her parents'. My son hates me, and rightfully blames me for all of it. My daughter-in-law and my wife haven't stopped crying since she left. G.o.d help us. If we lose Anna, it will finish the destruction of the Corbin family."

They were forced to disown her because of all this? Her heart was racing, adrenaline coursing through her veins as she tried to make sense of what was going on.

"The Callahan brothers and their wives were murdered, weren't they?" Archer's question nearly stopped her heart. "By the same man, or men, calling themselves the Slasher?"

G.o.d, she wished she could see her grandfather's face, and though she expected him to answer Archer, it was Marshal who spoke up instead.

"I was the one who advised the three girls to change the terms of their trusts to their children once they acquired them. We prayed it would ensure their safety. No one knew they had gone to do so that day, together. But it was the only time the couples had gone out together in years. They had known that to do so was too dangerous. The confusing part was the couples had all left separately and at different times in their own vehicles. Yet only one vehicle had been used to travel back in, while the two others were left abandoned in a mall parking lot. We don't know if it was the Slasher who killed them, just as we don't know if it's the Slasher who's been destroying us all these years, Archer. We suspect there's a plot to acquire the Callahan land. We just don't know why, or how someone could ever imagine killing our daughters or destroying their sons could help acquire it. Or why they would want it so d.a.m.ned bad."

Archer stared at the three men, careful to keep his expression blank.

So Crowe, Logan, and Rafer's parents had indeed been murdered.

"I know you suspected it, Archer," Saul stated. "Your father knew. He was sheriff at the time. But there was nothing he could do. There was no evidence, and no way to prove murder. All we had was that b.a.s.t.a.r.d and a note he sent to each one of us. If you had listened- And that was all it said."

"Listened?" he questioned them softly. "To what?"

"To his demands that we find a way to force the girls to leave their husbands and deny their sons," John said, shaking his head, confusion flashing in his gaze. "G.o.d, Archer. They loved those men. Loved them like you couldn't believe. We even tried telling them the truth. Tried explaining it and urged them to change their trusts and their wills. And still, we couldn't save them."

John swallowed painfully, turned away, and blinked at the moisture filling his eyes.

He would prove it now, Archer a.s.sured himself. The minute he identified the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, he'd make d.a.m.ned sure he proved their connection to not just the young women who had died at the Slasher's hands, but also the deaths of the Callahans.

"It's time we go." It was Marshal who glanced toward the curtain-covered windows warily. "Dawn's coming, and we don't want to be seen here. We have to leave before it begins getting light."

"Do you need a ride? Help getting to your vehicles?" Archer rose to his feet, suddenly concerned about the three men. h.e.l.l, they were in their early seventies-not exactly the best age to be tromping through the woods at night by themselves.