Kristen Blooming (29 page)

Something somebody had tried to destroy.

Somebody who knew how her parents would react, and there was only one person Kristen could think of who knew all of that
⎯
Gwen. That bitch. After all the times Kristen had stood up for her, she couldn’t believe her cousin would betray her like that. She needed proof, needed to confront Gwen and hear it from her cousin’s lips why she’d do something like this.

Determined to get that answer, Kristen aimed her scooter for Gwen’s place, only she wasn’t there by the time Kristen arrived. It was dark out, and she knew Gwen probably wouldn’t be back for hours. She also knew Dylan and Brandon were probably growing anxious, but Kristen didn’t pass by Gwen’s dark house and keep on going. Instead, she pulled into the driveway, intent on tearing Gwen’s house apart until she found the proof she was looking for.

It didn’t take her long, and she certainly didn’t have to go through the whole house. Kristen stumbled into a nightmare within five seconds of starting her search. She began, as seemed appropriate, in Gwen’s den and her precious desk. Two drawers down, she found the files that proved Gwen was capable of anything.

Kristen stared at the pictures of her cousin in all sorts of intimate poses and embraces with more men than Kristen had ever realized. There were at least twenty of them, and she recognized more than one face. There was a journal stored with the files, and as Kristen flipped through the pages, everything just clicked and she knew what she was looking at.

Her cousin’s blackmail ledger and the evidence she was using to force her subjects to pay.

It was horrible, and very real. What was she supposed to do now? Turn her cousin in? She couldn’t do that. Even after what Gwen had done to her, she couldn’t destroy Gwen’s whole life or that of her marks. She couldn’t do that, but neither could she stay there any longer.

Tucking everything back into the desk drawer, Kristen told herself it wasn’t any of her business, but those men weren’t exactly innocent victims either. They were married men, respected pillars of the community, many elected to office. They didn’t deserve her sympathy, and she didn’t deserve to carry this weight.

The more Kristen thought about it, the more she came to realize that there was only one solution to her problem. She had to walk away from this situation. That was just what she did. She walked slowly down the hall to her borrowed bedroom and began packing everything up. She didn’t have much, and it didn’t take long, but she still couldn’t cart it all up to Brandon and Dylan’s on her scooter.

Kristen was left with no recourse but to call them and ask for help. She didn’t doubt for a single moment that they would come, but they arrived faster than she’d thought, and she was still lugging suitcases and bags out onto the porch as both men jumped out of Dylan’s truck and came rushing toward her.

“What is all this?” Dylan frowned, pulling to a stop as Brandon wove his way around her luggage to swoop her up in his arms.

“It’s okay, beautiful,” he murmured, crushing her in a bear hug as he seemed to instinctively know that something was very wrong. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it.”

Kristen knew that was true, but his words still helped her believe in that truth. Pulling back, she met his gaze with her own, unable to mask her worry as she finally greeted him.

“My parents know about us.” Kristen didn’t have the heart to tell them what Gwen had done and didn’t think it necessary.

“Oh, princess.” Dylan sighed and looked pointedly at her luggage. “Please tell me you didn’t agree to move back in with them.”

“No.” Kristen hesitated, for the first time feeling a little awkward about her plan, but that didn’t stop her from pushing through. “I was thinking I’d move in with you two.”

“Is that right, beautiful?” Brandon cocked a brow, his amusement betrayed by the twitch of his lips. “Are you sure you are ready to make that kind of step?”

“I’m sure I love you, and I’ve been spending every night with you…so…you going to help me move or not?”

“Of course, princess,” Dylan instantly assured her. “All you had to do was ask.”

Sunday, July 20
^th

Kristen fell silent as it dawned on her that she might have revealed too much, but Wanda simply patted her hand and smiled.

“It sounds to me like you made the right choice.”

“I don’t know.” Kristen sighed, not doubting that she’d made the best decision ever when she’d decided to move in with Brandon and Dylan but unable to escape the guilt at having abandoned her cousin. “There was a break-in a few days later, and then Gwen was dead.”

“And you feel bad because she died while you were still angry with her,” Wanda concluded, amazing Kristen with her perception. Even Dylan and Brandon hadn’t figured out the secret she’d been harboring.

“I should have tried to help her more,” Kristen whispered, thinking of all the things she could have done but hadn’t.

“She probably wouldn’t have let you.” Wanda smiled slightly, a sad twist of the lips that held way too much sorrow for her emotions to have only been touched by Gwen.

This was a woman who knew about those poor souls who lost their ways. Kristen had a feeling Wanda knew how to guide them back to the right path. If only Gwen had had that chance. The thing Gwen had a chance at now was justice, not that it would do her any good.

“Did you tell Dylan or Brandon any of this?” Wanda drew her attention back to the moment, back to the one subject that ate at her. Kristen had no choice but to slowly shake her head.

“No. I…I didn’t want them to do anything to Gwen
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”

“Like arrest her?” Wanda cut in, taking an accurate guess at Kristen’s motives.

“Yes,” Kristen admitted with a slow nod. “After she passed, I was afraid that…”

“Somebody might think you were guilty because of the pictures she sent your parents?”

“Yes.”

“Did you ever wonder if maybe somebody else sent those pictures?” Wanda pressed, causing Kristen to frown.

She never really had. “Who would have? Why?”

“I don’t know.” Wanda shrugged. “Just a thought, and here’s another one, you better tell those boys of yours what you know before they find out you know it some other way.”

Kristen knew she was right, had known what she had to do for weeks now. It was just cowardice that had made her hesitate. Things were going so well between them, but more than that, she just didn’t want everybody to think of Gwen as a blackmailer…even though she was one.

“Did you see your parents at the funeral?” Wanda asked softly, touching on a subject Kristen couldn’t help but cringe away from.

“My parents didn’t attend the funeral,” Kristen stated firmly. “They didn’t approve of Gwen’s life.”

They didn’t approve of her either. They weren’t technically speaking to Kristen, but her mother was writing letters. She knew eventually her mother would come to accept the situation. Her father, she feared, never would.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Wanda paused as somebody passed to close to their table before she continued on in a softer voice. “And I want you to know that you have helped me, and I’m going to help find the bastard that hurt your cousin. She will have her justice.”

Kristen gazed over at the other woman, sensing her determination and nodded. “I don’t doubt she will, and I’m glad I could have helped. If you need anything more
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”

“I know where to find you.” Wanda nodded.

Kristen left her sitting there, thinking over all the things they had talked about. It was strange, but her conversation with Wanda had been very therapeutic. It felt as if a weight felt had been lifted from her shoulders, and now she was ready to tell her tale to Dylan and Brandon.

They were out fishing, as was their Sunday after-church tradition. Normally Kristen joined them, but that day she had chosen to have brunch with Wanda. Though it turned out she wasn’t the only one who had decided to handle other business that day.

That became clear as Kristen pulled up the driveway to find a massive pink Cadillac parked at the top. It was huge with tail fins, and it had a trunk that could damn near have fit her scooter into it. A convertible with a pure white interior, the car was a classic beauty and clearly for her, given the words written in cursive over the back of the trunk.

Pink Princess
.

“Hey, princess!” Dylan hollered from the back porch as Brandon appeared in the back door. “Guess what we got you?”

Both men came rushing down as Kristen dismounted from the scooter. By the time her hands were reaching for the strap on her helmet, Brandon was there to brush her hands away and take care of the latch for her.

“Hey, beautiful.” He smiled down at her, dropping a quick kiss on her lips before stepping back to allow her to admire the Cadillac. “What do you think?”

“I…think it is so cool.” Kristen broke into a massive grin, feeling her smile wipe away what little worry clung to both men.

“It’s for you,” Dylan explained as if she hadn’t already figured that out. “We figured you’d like it better than a ring.”

“A ring?” Kristen blinked, her heart seizing. “Is that today?”

“No, beautiful,” Brandon murmured. “We know you need time, and while you’re taking it, we want you to be safe. So, with all respect, we’re asking you to give up your scooter.”

“We’re swapping with you.” Dylan wagged his brows at her. “So what do you say?”

Kristen hesitated to look over at the scooter. She loved her little bike. She’d bonded with it. She’d also bonded with her men and loved them too much to allow them to worry. It was clear from the car before her that, despite the fact that they hadn’t been nagging her, they had been worried.

That more than anything made up her mind.

“Yes.”

Dylan let out a whop and lifted her right off her feet as he spun her around. Kristen laughed as she clutched him, infused by his excitement and forgetting for a moment she’d come home to talk to them about Gwen. That conversation got put off as Brandon insisted they all pile into her car and take a drive down to the lake.

The thing was big enough with bench seats that they could have all fit into the front, but Dylan hopped into the back as Brandon tossed her the keys. Then they were hitting the road. With the top down and the sunlight shining on them, it felt as if the whole world were celebrating with them.

They ended up down by the lake, parked under the shade of an old oak, and they strolled along a stretch of sandy beach hand in hand. It was a perfect afternoon. Kristen hated to ruin it, but her thoughts drifted back toward her conversation with Wanda, and she found herself unable to hold them in.

Slowly, with a sinking feeling that she was ruining the mood, Kristen told them the whole long, sordid tale. They remained silent through it as she revealed the truth about Gwen’s pregnancy, her blackmail scheme, and how it was that her parents came to find out about them.

In the end, they didn’t shout or yell, or tell her they were disappointed in her. They simply hugged and kissed her and explained that it was time to go to the station house. Kristen had a statement to make.

* * * *

Wanda wouldn’t have been surprised to know that Kristen had gone home and spilled her guts. She’d known and met enough people to recognize that Kristen’s innocence went deeper than a simple hymen. It sounded as if her men were actually just as decent. If Kristen confessed everything, they’d make her give a statement.

How could they not?

The real question was whether the cops already knew about Gwen’s scheming. They must have searched her house by now, and if they had, they’d have found the blackmail material…unless, of course, somebody had removed it. That would be an interesting question to find the answer to, and a pivotal one because if somebody had removed the evidence they’d likely done it for a very obvious reason.

They’d killed Gwen.

Wanda didn’t allow that thought to push her ahead of herself. She’d run enough investigations to know that all questions had to be answered before any conclusion could be made. Kristen’s tale certainly brought up a lot of questions.

The most obvious one being, what was Dean’s real role in Gwen’s life? He was clearly the closest to her, but there was more than that. He’d been the one Gwen had turned to help her with her schemes, which meant he wasn’t to be trusted. Wanda would need to know the answers to the questions she asked him before she interrogated the man. That would be the only way to know when he was lying to her, and in those moments, he’d reveal his true motives.

Wanda didn’t even want to begin to guess at what they were, not until she had more of the story. Thankfully, Kristen’s tale had pointed her in an obvious direction
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the mayor.

How had the mayor known who Kristen was?

Kristen hadn’t mentioned meeting him, and it wasn’t as though her position would have warranted his notice. What would was the fact that she was living with Gwen, but that was only if the mayor was doing Gwen. That didn’t seem like a far stretch to make, and it was the only lead she had.