The Librarian’s Secret Scandal Read online

  “Two Western skillets,” Bonnie Gene told the waitress. “And some good strong coffee.”

  “I’m not hungry.” Especially for Honey-B’s ham-and-cheese-laden Western skillet.

  “You have to eat.” Then to the waitress, “Two skillets.”

  The waitress glanced once at Lily, then scribbled the order and left. Lily wondered if that look was because of the rumors rather than Bonnie Gene’s bulldozing.

  “You’ve been doing so well up until now,” Bonnie Gene said.

  “I’m fine.”

  “There you go again, all defensive. It’s okay to be upset about this, you know. Anybody would be.”

  “I’m over it.”

  “You’re strong and you’ve done well with your life. You never let it get you down, but seeing him in person like that…”

  She’d overcome the trauma of her rape, but now it felt as if she were going through it all over again. Reliving it.

  “What was it like seeing him again?”

  Lily angled her head with a do-you-have-to-ask look. Bonnie Gene was trying to get her to talk.

  “I mean, how was he toward you?”

  “Actually, he never looked at me. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he seemed uncomfortable that I was there.”

  “Really?”

  She nodded.

  “What if he was?”

  “He was acting.” For the sake of the board.

  “I’ve heard some criminals get that way at their parole hearings.”

  “That’s a crock.” She’d never believe Brandon was miraculously cured. Anyone who could do what he’d done to her and have no remorse couldn’t possibly be normal, even after spending so long in prison. Especially after that.

  Bonnie Gene looked at her for a while. She didn’t have to say anything. She was still worried about Lily. “When do you find out what the parole board decides?”

  “Any day now.”

  “No wonder you’re such a mess. Not knowing must be killing you.”

  It was, but she’d get through it. She would.

  “You sure you’re going to be all right?”

  “Yes.” She wouldn’t have it any other way. “Promise.”

  Bonnie Gene smiled. “You might have been a wild child before you left this place, but you were always strong. Not too many women could recover to the extent you have.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that. Survival is a pretty good motivator.” It had been for her.

  The waitress reappeared with coffee and another long look at Lily. Lily ignored her until she left, lifting the cup and taking a tentative sip. It went down all right. That was a good sign.

  “Somebody told Maisie Colton that you dropped Wes off at the county sheriff’s building last week.”

  Lily looked at Bonnie Gene. Great. Just what she needed.

  “She asked him why,” Bonnie Gene said.

  Remembering what he’d said, she wondered if he’d stayed true to his word. She hadn’t seen him around town since that day, despite all his charm in asking her out. But maybe he wasn’t on a timetable. He was a man, after all. And it had only been a week.

  “What did he say?” she asked.

  “That you ran into him outside of town.”

  She couldn’t help smiling. That wasn’t exactly a lie. Montana State Prison was outside of town.

  “That’s what I thought,” Bonnie Gene said, and Lily knew her smile had given her away. “Spill it, girlfriend.”

  “There’s nothing to spill. I wasn’t paying attention and I ran into him and wrecked his SUV so I drove him to work.”

  Her friend’s mouth dropped open. “What? You got in a wreck? What happened?”

  “I wasn’t going fast, only about twenty miles an hour.” Which was pretty fast in a parking lot.

  “What happened?” Bonnie Gene repeated.

  Lily didn’t want to tell her too much. What if it got around town?

  “Come on. It’s me.” Bonnie Gene pointed at herself and looked injured. “You ran into our hunky sheriff and you didn’t even tell me.”

  “It was no big deal.”

  “Did he ask you out?”

  “Bonnie Gene…”

  “Oh, this is getting good. Where were you when you ran into him?”

  Lily cocked her head, not wanting to talk about this. She’d much rather lie and get on with her day. But it was so hard lying to Bonnie Gene, her one true friend through everything.

  The waitress returned with their food and left.

  “Where?” Bonnie Gene demanded, scooping up a forkfull of eggs.

  “Outside of town.” She pushed her eggs around on the plate.

  “Wes just said that to protect you.” Lily watched Bonnie Gene’s eyes and knew she was starting to figure things out.

  “When did you run into him?” she asked.

  “A few days ago.”

  “What day?” Bonnie ate more eggs, chewing and looking at her expectantly.

  Darn it! “A week ago.” She hesitated. “Today.”

  Bonnie Gene swallowed as her puzzle came together. “A week ago today? Was it the day of the parole hearing? Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Wes driving his SUV since….”

  “Oh, all right. It was the parking lot of the prison, okay? He doesn’t know why I was there, though, so don’t be spreading any rumors. I don’t want anyone to know.”

  She set her fork down. “Honey, have I ever failed you yet?”

  Lily relaxed. “No. I’m sorry.”

  “You’re just a little rattled right now. I understand.”

  Before Lily could respond, a woman appeared next to their table. Her pear-shaped body was stuffed into peach-colored stretch pants and a dark purple T-shirt that clung to rolls of fat. Shoulder-length red hair framed angry pale green eyes adorned by too much makeup.

  “You have a lot of nerve,” she said to Lily.

  Lily tried to place the woman but didn’t recognize her. She looked at Bonnie Gene, who shrugged her shoulders.

  “I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t remember me,” the woman said.

  Oh, no. Another piece of her past was about to rear its ugly head.

  “Karen. Andy Hathaway is my husband?” The woman said it like a question.

  Then memory came rushing back. A brief affair packed with lots of naked writhing at a downtown hotel. Andy Hathaway had been hung like a Hoover hose.

  And, my oh, my, was she uncomfortable now. “Karen, I…” What could she possibly say? Sorry for humping your husband? But it was so long ago….

  “Save it. You think anybody is glad to see you back? I don’t know why you bothered.”

  “It’s been a long time,” she said, knowing it was feeble.

  Sure enough, that only managed to anger Karen more. “It would be better if you left town. I never wanted to have to lay eyes on you again after what you did.”

  “I can understand how you feel, but—”

  Karen leaned over and pointed her finger in front of Lily’s face. “You don’t know the first thing about how I feel.”

  Lily moved her head back as Karen jabbed her finger too close.

  “You didn’t give a rat’s ass how I felt back then and you don’t give a rat’s ass now. I want you gone from here.”

  Lily wanted to tell her she was being ridiculous after so much time had passed.

  “Lily’s not the same as she was before she left,” Bonnie Gene said.

  “You stay out of this. It’s none of your business.”

  “Karen…I don’t know how to say this but…I’m sorry. I really am.”

  Karen’s mouth tightened until her lips turned white. She picked up a glass of water from the table and tossed it toward Lily’s head. Water splashed and ran down her hair and face. She wiped her eyes and looked up at Karen.

  “I want you gone, you hear me?” Karen hissed, and then turned her back and marched out of the restaurant.

  Still numb, Lily noticed the entire café had gone silent a
nd everyone was staring at her.

  “Does she really think she can make you leave town?” Bonnie Gene asked. “Seeing you must have really riled her.”

  Dabbing her face with a napkin, Lily didn’t know what to say to that. She felt bad and yet…there wasn’t a thing she could do. People started whispering around them.

  “You ready to go?” Bonnie Gene asked.

  “Yeah. Now would be good.”

  Bonnie Gene put down enough cash to cover their check and stood. Taking the napkin with her, Lily followed her outside, wiping the front of her shirt.

  “Good thing it’s just water,” Bonnie Gene said.

  “Yeah, it could have been a gun.”

  She exchanged a look with Bonnie Gene.

  Lily pushed the library door open and dug in her purse for her ringing cell phone. The strap slipped down her arm, causing her to adjust her hands like a juggler. She found the phone.

  “Lily Masterson?” a woman queried.

  “Yes.” She slung her purse strap back over her shoulder. It slipped back down to her elbow, nearly yanking the phone away from her ear.

  Some days nothing ever went right.

  “This is Karla Harrison from Montana State Prison?” the caller said, her inflection rising at the end.

  The mention of the prison stopped Lily’s breath and a tiny shock wave made her stomach turn and her heart jump into faster beats. She stopped walking.

  “Yes?” She remembered the woman. The victims’ officer who’d walked her to the parking lot.

  “Is now a good time to talk?” Karla asked in an overly gentle tone, as if she had to walk on eggshells in order to talk to a poor, helplessly traumatized woman.

  Lily hated being treated like that. She started walking again.

  “Of course.” This was turning out to be a real crapper of a day. She kicked her office door open. It bounced against the stopper and swung back toward her, tapping her arm and knocking her purse off her shoulder again.

  “The parole board has reached a decision in Brandon Gates’s hearing.”

  Now consumed with apprehension, Lily walked to her desk and sat down, letting her purse slip to the floor beside her chair. “Yes?”

  “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but they’ve decided to release him. You’ll be getting a letter in the mail.”

  “You’re releasing him?” How could they?

  “It was the board’s decision.”

  Apprehension morphed into outrage. “What did they base it on?” Prison overpopulation?

  “He went through treatment while he was incarcerated and according to the board, has a valid plan for reentering society.”

  “Plan?” she all but shouted. Valid plan? It was maddening. “What plan? A rapist tells you he’s moving to North Carolina and that’s enough for you to set him free?”

  “The board is very careful when they make decisions like this, Lily. Please try and understand that. They wouldn’t have released him if they didn’t think he’d do his best to stay rehabilitated.”

  “I don’t believe for one minute that he’s rehabilitated.” A hundred images assailed her, all of them from the endless hours she’d spent in that cabin. Tears burned her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Masterson. I know this is hard for you. If you’d like I can give you the name of a good counselor near your home town.”

  “I don’t need a counselor,” Lily snapped. “Stop talking to me like that.”

  “I’m sorry, Ms. Masterson, I—”

  “When?” Lily swallowed the lump of hurt in her throat.

  “Excuse me?”

  “When will he be released?”

  “Next week. Friday. It’s all in the letter.”

  Lily never hung up on anyone, but today she did. She ended the call and held the phone in her palm, staring down at it, shaking, lost in a maelstrom of old pain and a deep sense of injustice.

  She wiped a tear that had slipped from her eye.

  There was no punishment that would change what she’d endured, both during her assault and after. The month that followed it had been the worst, with no one to turn to and nowhere to go that felt like home. No wonder she’d tried to obliterate the experience with a one-night stand. It wouldn’t have been her first.

  Having sex with a stranger had been a mistake, an attempt to somehow minimize what had happened to her. Instead, that last wild night—like so many she’d had before her rape—had done the opposite. It had made her feel dirty and cheap and had thrown her into a severe state of depression.

  Hearing a sound, she looked up to see Emily, her assistant, standing in the doorway. She blinked her eyes clear.

  “You okay?” her assistant asked with a worried frown.

  “Yes. Fine.” Lily held up the phone. “Just a personal call.”

  Emily didn’t look convinced. “We got a couple of boxes of books from a donor yesterday.”

  “Good. Let’s get going on sorting them.” She could use the distraction right now. Putting her phone down, she stood and moved around the desk.

  Brandon Gates was going to be released. It didn’t seem real. It was so unfair.

  “They’re all romance novels. I don’t think we have enough room for all of them.”

  Lily forced a smile. “We won’t keep them all. Just the ones in good condition.” She passed Emily and headed out into the main library.

  Karla’s news hung inside her like low, dreary fog. It was what she’d been dreading since the hearing. Her worst fear had come true. Would he really go to North Carolina? Or would he risk going back to prison to come and find her? That would be very stupid, unless he thought he could get away with it. Lily had to smother a shiver with the thought of him finding her. And she hated that, her reaction, what he was still capable of doing to her.

  Did he know she’d lived in Honey Creek back then? She’d never told him that night, but maybe he found out later. Did he know she’d moved back?

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Emily asked.

  Lily had forgotten her assistant had followed her. “Yeah.” She bent to pick up a few books from the first box and turned to place them on a table in alphabetical order by author name.

  “Who were you just talking to?”

  She sent a look over at Emily, letting her know she was prying too much.

  “Sorry,” Emily said.

  The sound of someone behind them made Lily turn. So did Emily.

  Wes Colton stood on the other side of the boxes, holding a book in his hand. The sight of him stole her breath and shards of excitement chased her bleakness away.

  “Looks like you got some new inventory.” His voice was masculine and as appealing as she remembered. Maybe more so.

  What was he doing here? Her insurance company was handling the transaction with his SUV. Of course, he had another reason, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to face that.

  “Wes.” She hoped she didn’t sound as schoolgirlish as she thought.

  Emily glanced from her back to Wes.

  He held up the book, the picture of a bare-chested man looking down at the soulful face of a brunette. “Interesting cover art.”

  Lily snatched the book from his hand and dropped it back into the box he’d taken it from. “It’s popular fiction.”

  He didn’t say anything, just grinned his amusement and something else. Was he flirting with her?

  “Uh…I’ll go help at the checkout counter,” Emily said, smiling secretively as she wandered off.

  Uncomfortable with the way Emily left them alone and the realization that she’d picked up on Wes’s flirting, too, Lily had to force herself to look at him.

  “How are you?” she asked.

  “Good. You?” Was he nervous, too, or was this small talk a way for him to get a conversation going?

  “Good,” she played along.

  He smiled wider. “I came by to see you.”

  His announcement dispelled the awkwardness. Gladness expanded and bloomed in her ch
est.

  “I bought a new vehicle in Bozeman yesterday,” he added.

  “Oh, that’s good. I hope you like it as much as your last SUV.”

  “More so. Cost me a little more than I expected, but it’s worth it.” His gaze floated over her face. “It’s good to see you again.”

  Another charge of excitement tickled her. She smiled and saw how he noticed. “It’s good to see you, too.”

  Losing herself as she met his smiling eyes, feeling his attraction match her own, it took her a moment to realize how they were behaving. She glanced around. Emily was busy with someone at the checkout counter. There was no one standing near them. No one had noticed them ogling each other.

  Reality came down a little harder. Did she really want to encourage Wes? Aside from the folly of him getting involved with what everyone considered the town floozy, she would be no good for any man right now.

  The news of her rapist’s release had robbed her of her strength. She was vulnerable again. The same struggle she’d overcome so many years ago was returning. Would she be able to go home and not feel as though she had to lock every door and window and double-check them periodically? She hated that kind of weakness, the power Brandon Gates still had over her. Would she ever be free of that part of her life? It was disheartening.

  No. She refused to succumb to irrational fears. He was moving back to North Carolina. That was far away from here, and he’d be foolish to try and make contact with her again. He had to know she’d expose him if he did.

  “Don’t worry, our secret is still safe,” Wes said.

  He’d given her a brief distraction from her troubles, but they weren’t going to magically go away. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

  “Would you rather we go back to the prison?”

  He was trying be funny, but he had no way of knowing how upsetting the reference was for her. She looked down at the floor.

  Wes was quiet for a few beats. “So…how do you like the library?”

  Back to safe topics. He had a way of easing her into those and keeping her enchanted.

  She glanced around at the dark wood shelves and Emily helping someone else now at the checkout counter. Something about this place made her feel good. It soothed her. Maybe it was her love of books. They’d installed new computers a few months ago. Some of the floor had been carpeted and some refinished with new hardwood. New lighting had been installed, too. It was cozy. Fresh. Clean and bright. “I like it.” She looked back at him. “I like the work, too.”