Cross My Heart Read online

  “Are you okay?” Lacey asked, panting as she spoke, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

  “I think so. What happened?” Molly pulled her knees toward her, hugging her legs tight.

  Lacey shook her head. Unexpected dizziness assaulted her. “I guess some idiot took a joy ride through the parking lot and aimed for the only people around. Us. Whew!” Lacey lay on her back and stared at the sky, willing her pulse to return to normal.

  “Did you notice anything about the car that we can report?” Molly asked, joining her on the ground.

  “Other than the fact that it was dark out and so was the car? No. I just saw that it wasn’t a New York plate as it drove off, but that’s it. You?” Lacey rolled her head toward the other woman.

  “No.” Molly closed her eyes and exhaled hard. “I can’t get behind the wheel just yet.”

  “Me neither,” Lacey muttered, shutting her own eyes, too.

  “When I came on this shopping trip, I didn’t know what to expect. Who knew?” Molly laughed, slightly hysterical. “Accidents happen, but that was way too close for comfort.”

  “Lacey and Molly’s Excellent Adventure.” Lacey shivered. Accident or not, she was unnerved but good.

  Ty decided to take his mother up on her invitation to come over for lunch. With Lilly’s return, they needed to talk. Ty stopped by the office to check up on their borrowed P.I. who was now handling the missing husband case of Ty’s, while Derek handled surveillance on Dumont. Then he headed over to his mother’s. He hadn’t seen her since he brought Lilly back, and he dreaded the conversation.

  His mother still didn’t know Ty had had a role in Lilly’s disappearance, and though she’d made her secret deal with Marc Dumont, that knowledge didn’t make Ty’s role in his mother’s pain over the years any easier to bear.

  She’d raised him and she’d done it alone. As she always said, she’d tried her best even if some of her choices had been misguided. With Lilly’s return, Ty was forced to see his mother in a new light. She’d kept her secret from him, and he realized now he’d kept his.

  When he arrived, his mother was puttering around the kitchen. The decor had changed since Ty was a kid. The cabinets were no longer old stained wood but a modern white laminate, and the once hideous yellow appliances had been replaced with shiny stainless steel. As always when Ty stepped into the renovated kitchen, he had to push aside the reality of where the financing for this upgrade had come from.

  “Ty! I’m so glad you could come by.” His mother greeted him with a huge hug.

  Wearing an apron that signaled she’d been cooking along with a huge smile, she was the mother he loved, and he wrapped his arms around her, too.

  “You didn’t have to cook for me. But I’m glad you did.” He stepped back and surveyed the stove and its many simmering pots, inhaling the delicious aroma that filled him with warmth.

  “I still love cooking for you. I made your favorite homemade tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich with butter on the bread.” She smiled. “But I have to admit, you’re not the only reason I’m so busy in the kitchen.”

  Was it his imagination or did her cheeks flush before she rushed over to the oven to peek inside? “What’s going on?”

  “I’m cooking for a friend.” She didn’t turn to face him.

  “You’re cooking for a man?” he asked, surprised.

  His mother had always claimed she was too busy to get involved again. Although he’d believed that line while he was growing up, a part of him had long suspected that she said it to protect his illusions of her as his mother. But he was a grown-up now and could handle his mother dating. In fact, he’d much rather she wasn’t alone.

  “Dr. Sanford asked me out and I accepted. We went to the movies one time, dinner another. I’m cooking for him tonight.”

  Ty nodded. “I hear he’s a good guy. Is it serious?”

  “It could be,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. She busied herself pouring soup and serving their lunch before sitting down beside him at the table.

  “Well, I’m happy for you,” Ty said. Nobody deserved to be alone for all the years his mother had been.

  His mother smiled. “I’m happy for me. And for you. Now tell me when you’re going to bring Lilly by because I don’t think I can stand another day without giving that girl a big hug and a kiss.”

  He’d known this subject was coming and he was prepared. “I know you missed her and you’re relieved she’s fine, but before you see her, we need to agree on something.” He turned his attention to his lunch. Any food was delicious as always when his mother prepared a meal. “This is excellent,” he told her.

  “Agree on what?” she asked, refusing to be deterred.

  “The money remains our secret.” He’d thought long and hard about this, and as much as he’d hated the lies that had sprouted between all of them, he couldn’t see any good reason to compound Lilly’s pain by telling her the story that still haunted Ty.

  Marc Dumont had met Flo in her position as school nurse. He’d overheard Flo discussing being a single parent and wishing she could give her son the quality time and things he deserved. Dumont had asked Flo to take his niece into her home and say she was a foster child from the state. In return, he promised Flo enough money to invest wisely in her son’s future. To allow her to give Ty the things she’d wanted him to have, she explained, after Ty had uncovered the truth a few years ago.

  “I don’t see what good hiding it will do now,” his mother said, frowning.

  “Lilly already lives with the fact that her parents were killed and her uncle sent her to foster care. She doesn’t know that you took an ungodly amount of money for the privilege.”

  His mother slapped her napkin onto the table. “Tyler Benson, you know good and well I loved Lilly like my own daughter. If she’d landed on my doorstep without a penny to her name, I’d have treated her as well and loved her as much as I love Hunter. And the state only paid me a pittance to care for and feed him.” His mother turned pale as she spoke.

  Ty placed a hand on her more fragile one. “Calm down, please. It isn’t good for your heart to get so upset.” She had a heart condition and took medication, but since the heart attack years before, Ty was always nervous.

  “I’m okay,” she assured him.

  Ironically, it was her first heart attack and subsequent surgery during Ty’s junior year in college that had led him to the paper trail regarding Dumont’s money. He’d been temporarily in charge of her accounts while she was laid up, and he’d discovered almost immediately that his mother had a ridiculous amount of money saved for a school nurse.

  He’d gone to visit her, loaded with questions, and she’d revealed the whole sordid tale, grateful to have the secret out in the open. Once the truth had set in, so had Ty’s reality—everything his mother had bought for him, everything she paid for, including college—had been at Lilly’s expense. Not that she’d have been better off with her uncle, Ty understood that. But he hated the fact that he’d lived well, while she’d had to fake her death and run off to New York City. Alone.

  “Are you sure you’re not dizzy? Light-headed? Anything like that?” Ty asked, focusing on his mother.

  “No, I’m fine,” she said.

  “Good.” He tried to believe her and relax. “For the record, I wasn’t trying to say you loved Lilly more because of the money. All I meant was she doesn’t need the additional burden of knowledge right now. That’s all.” He met her gaze.

  Flo nodded. His mother still appeared paler than before and Ty decided a subject change was in order. “So tell me a little more about Dr. Sanford and his intentions.”

  “Andrew is a widower with no children. He’s nearing retirement and he thinks he’d like to travel. I might like that, too,” she said, her voice lightening.

  Ty breathed a sigh of relief. With the subject change, her coloring returned to normal and she grew excited about Andrew Sanford. He wondered if he needed to meet the man who made his
mother so happy.

  Ty’s cell phone rang and he pulled it from his pocket. “Hello?”

  “Hey, Benson, it’s O’Shea.”

  “What’s up?” Ty asked Russ O’Shea, a cop he’d met during an investigation, who was now one of his poker pals.

  His mother cleared off the table as he spoke.

  “There was an incident at The Cove,” he said of the local mall.

  Every muscle in Ty’s body stiffened. “What happened?” he immediately asked, knowing in his gut it had something to do with Lilly.

  “Lilly Dumont and Molly Gifford had a close call with a car. Some bastard took a joy ride through the parking lot, narrowly missing them. A patrolling security guard showed up as the car skidded out of the lot. The women say they’re fine. They dove out of the way just in time. Since it was Lilly, I thought you’d want to know.”

  “Thanks, Russ.” Ty snapped the phone shut and rose from his seat. “Gotta go, Mom.”

  “Is everything okay?” she asked, concern in her eyes.

  He nodded. “Russ wanted to fill me in on a tip in an ongoing investigation,” he lied. His mother had just started feeling better. He couldn’t burden her with this, especially since O’Shea said Lilly was fine.

  Ty needed to see for himself.

  His mother relaxed her shoulders. “Well, don’t let me keep you then. I’m happy you came by. I just wish you’d do it more often.”

  He grinned. He saw her once a week but called her much more often. “Sometimes I think mothers were put on this earth to remind their kids of all the things they don’t do,” he said wryly. “Thanks for the meal. It was delicious as usual.” He kissed his mother on the cheek.

  She touched his shoulder. “I love you, Ty. Everything I’ve ever done has been in your best interest.”

  “I love you, too, Mom, and I’ll bring Lilly by soon. She’s been asking about you, as well.” But until they’d seen Dumont’s reaction, they’d kept her arrival quiet.

  He took off at a slow pace so as not to alarm his mother, but as soon as he was in the car, he hit the gas and practically flew home to Lilly.

  Long after Ty left, Flo couldn’t stop reliving the past. She sat in the kitchen nursing a hot cup of tea, thinking about all the things she’d done, right and wrong.

  Her son still didn’t understand why she’d taken money from Marc Dumont in exchange for Lilly coming to live with them. He couldn’t fathom why she’d claimed Lilly was a foster child when she wasn’t. But he also hadn’t had to live his life without that extra cash. The money had done more than make life bearable. The little luxuries they had enjoyed, like the new kitchen, had come later. At the time, the money had allowed Flo to have health insurance, which covered the basics like strep throat, Ty’s broken arm and ear infections. And later on, the money had been a blessing when she’d had bypass surgery. Of course, the same money had allowed her to stay home and raise Ty instead of letting him turn into a latchkey child who would have been out at all hours getting into trouble.

  Yet agreeing to Dumont’s proposal hadn’t been an easy decision, at least not until she’d stopped by the Dumont mansion and taken a look at the sad girl with big brown eyes who wandered the grounds lost and alone. Marc Dumont had claimed she was a difficult child who needed to be taught a lesson that his firm hand and guidance hadn’t been able to accomplish. One look at Lilly and Flo knew the old bastard had been lying.

  The girl needed love. Flo needed money to raise her son better. As far as she’d been concerned, it was a win-win situation. Dumont suggested she take a real foster child into her home to make Lilly’s move appear legit. The state had been hesitant to give her a child when she’d been working so many hours, but they’d finally agreed, and deep down Flo believed it’d been Dumont who’d pulled strings to make it happen.

  Flo hadn’t cared. The kids, Hunter and Lilly, needed her, and in her heart, Flo knew she’d be making their lives better by taking them in. No matter that Lilly’s situation wasn’t on the books so to speak, her life had been happier with the Bensons than when she’d lived with her uncle. Taking the money didn’t seem like such an evil thing.

  Until Lilly had disappeared. Then Flo lived with guilt over not having watched the kids carefully enough that night. Over not having protected Lilly. Still, the money had changed hands, and because Dumont was afraid Flo would reveal his scheme, he hadn’t demanded she pay him back. But he had had Hunter taken away. Afraid that if she reported him to the authorities he’d do the same with her own son, Flo had learned to live with what she’d done.

  She’d used the money on Ty after that, for better clothes, a better education. When Ty had discovered her secret, his anger had been a scary thing. He’d sold the car she’d bought him and dropped out of college. For a while, Flo had been afraid of losing her only child, but Ty had come around because they were family and they loved and supported each other. They always had and always would.

  Still, Flo knew her son had been punishing himself all these years for his mother’s choices. With Lilly’s return, Flo hoped that would change and he’d find the happiness he’d been denying himself. The happiness he deserved.

  Chapter Seven

  Lacey needed a warm bath to soothe the body parts she’d hit on her dive to the ground. Still shaken, she drove slowly back to Ty’s place after the mall security guard, who’d arrived shortly after the incident, had taken their statement. She dropped Ty’s extra set of keys into a dish on the hall shelf, propped her shopping bags against the wall and headed straight for the bathroom. Not five minutes later, the tub was filled with soapy bubbles she’d picked up in the mall.

  She climbed into the warm tub, eased into the bubbles, and laid her head against the back of the cold porcelain, letting the tension ease away. No sooner had she shut her eyes than she heard the slam of the front door and Ty’s voice call out to her.

  “In here!” she yelled back. She assumed he’d talk from outside the door, but just in case, she glanced down, satisfied the bubbles covered her, barely but enough.

  Without a knock or warning, Ty flung the bathroom door open wide. “I heard what happened at the mall,” he said, talking fast.

  “It was one of those freak accidents.” She remained motionless, knowing if she lifted an arm to cover herself, she’d risk shifting the bubbles even more.

  “But you’re okay?”

  She nodded. “I appreciate your concern but I’m fine. Exhausted and maybe a little sore, but fine.”

  He stood in the doorway and stared, his gaze drifting up her body, his eyes darkening as if just realizing that he’d walked in on her in the tub. Nude.

  Of course, she was very aware of their situation. Her body might be barely covered, but she felt completely bared to his gaze just the same. Her breasts grew heavy, her nipples tightening into hardened peaks, and between her thighs a delicious tingling began and grew the longer his heated gaze lingered.

  She swallowed hard. “Ty?”

  “Yeah?” he asked in a roughened voice.

  “Now that you know I’m okay…”

  “Yeah. I’m out of here.” He took a step back. Then another, slamming the door shut behind him.

  Her heart racing in her chest, awareness and desire awakened, Lacey drew a deep breath and dunked her entire head beneath the bubbled water.

  Ty leaned against the bathroom door and breathed in deeply, but nothing calmed his racing heart. Lilly was naked on the other side of that door, with nothing but bubbles covering her body. He’d caught teasing glimpses of bare flesh, enough to make his mouth water and his groin tighten with need. He didn’t know how much more temptation he could take, with them both living under the same roof.

  His cell phone rang, and he answered it. “Yeah.”

  “It’s Hunter.”

  “What’s up?” Ty asked.

  “There’s a case that I’ve been working on that suddenly had the court date moved up. Which means I’m going to be busy round the clock for the next few weeks. I
hate to tell Lilly I can’t figure out her situation right now, but there’s no way I can do it myself.”

  Ty ran a hand through his hair. “Is the fact that your case was suddenly moved up on the calendar legit?” Or had Dumont decided to somehow pull strings and get Hunter too busy to work on Lilly’s behalf.

  “There are date changes all the time. It’s part of the process. But the changes are usually adjournments or postponements,” Hunter muttered. “Still, I’m one step ahead of you. I’ve already asked Anna Marie about it, and she said the information came into her office today via routine channels.”

  Ty scowled. He wasn’t so sure. Could old Anna Marie be bought, he wondered. With her family credentials in town, he doubted it. Still, it couldn’t hurt to dig a little, and digging was what he did best.

  Legitimately moved up or not, Hunter had his hands full with this case, so Ty opted not to aggravate him more by questioning Anna Marie’s reliability.

  “Don’t sweat it,” Ty said. “I’ll let Lilly know, but I’m sure she’ll say there’s no rush anyway.”

  “Well, I can give you a heads-up on something you can take care of without me. Lilly’s parents filed the original trust fund and will documents with the law firm of Dunne and Dunne in Albany. Paul Dunne is the trustee.”

  Ty frowned. “Isn’t he Anna Marie’s brother?”

  “Yeah. Are you thinking there’s a connection?”

  “I don’t know what I’m thinking,” Ty muttered.

  “You sound like hell. What’s going on over there?” Hunter asked.

  Ty walked out of Lilly’s earshot and into his bedroom, shutting the door. “I can’t take it.” He lowered himself onto the bed. “I can’t live under the same roof with her another minute or I’m going to do something I’ll regret.”

  Hunter burst out laughing. “That’s what’s bothering you?”

  “Glad you find sexual frustration amusing.”