Matter Of Trust (15 page)

Kayla tried to move past. “Excuse me.”

The woman shoved a lock of thick, dark hair from her shoulder but didn’t move out of the way. “I hope you enjoy the prawns.”

Kayla shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

“The chef was guilty of overcooking mine, but you’re a bit of a chef yourself, aren’t you? You understand the challenges of preparing that perfect meal. Especially for such a large crowd.”

Kayla reached up to rub her temple. Her head was beginning to pound from the loud music coming from the bar. “Do I know you?”

“No. But I know a lot about you, and I have a message for your boyfriend.”

“You must have the wrong person.”

“I don’t think so. Tell Ty to watch his back.”

The woman brushed past Kayla, knocking her into the wall. By the time she regained her balance, the woman was lost in the lobby crowd. Apprehension swelled through Kayla’s chest. It was time for her to stop pretending everything was all right in her relationship with Ty. That he hadn’t been involved in something at Abbott Financial Services.

Fear rose in her throat as she hurried into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. Stepping up to the sink, she stared at her reflection. Her eyes had dark shadows beneath them from lack of sleep. Her cheeks were flushed, but she wasn’t sure if it was from the warmth of the restaurant or the encounter in the hallway.

She pressed her hands against her chest. Her heart was racing so hard it pounded in her ears. She glanced at her left hand and rubbed the empty space on her finger. She’d hoped Ty was going to ask her to marry him tonight. Her mother had been vague about his visit, but what other reason would he have had to come out to the house to see her mom?

Someone tried the handle, then knocked on the door. Kayla jumped. If it was that woman again …

“Is someone in there?”

“I’m coming.” Kayla splashed water on her face and quickly dabbed it with a paper towel.

The room blurred before her as Kayla walked back to the table. She slipped back into her chair, then pushed the plate of appetizers the waitress had brought while she was gone toward the middle of the table.

Ty reached out to take her hand, but she pulled away. “What’s wrong? You look as if you’ve been crying.”

“I need to get out of here.” She grabbed her purse from the chair and slung it across her shoulder. “You and I need to talk.”

eleven

Ty slammed the car door, then shoved the keys into the ignition in order to start the heater. He still had no idea what he and Kayla were doing sitting in the parking lot of the restaurant—without having eaten dinner—the night he’d planned to ask her to marry him. Somewhere, between ordering shrimp and washing up in the restroom, she’d shoved their entire relationship to the edge of a cliff and left it dangling without any explanation.

He’d planned for tonight to end with her saying yes to his proposal. Instead he looked at her rigid figure beside him. Jaw clenched, lips pressed together, hands clamped tightly … The only other time he remembered her being this irate was the night she called off their engagement. Acid churned in his stomach as he gripped the steering wheel. That wasn’t going to happen again. He wouldn’t let it.

He popped the peppermint he’d grabbed on the way out of the restaurant into his mouth, then fiddled with the plastic wrapper. “What’s going on, Kayla?”

She folded her arms across her chest, still staring straight ahead. “Why didn’t you tell me the government is investigating you in connection with Abbott Financial Services?”

Her words struck like a sledgehammer against his chest, and he fought to catch his breath. “I—I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think it mattered. I’m innocent.”

The moment the words were out, he realized he’d said the wrong thing. Negating the situation also negated the importance of her in his life and his need for her. But that wasn’t true. All he’d ever wanted to do was protect her, to protect their relationship.

He cleared his throat and hunted for an explanation that would make sense. “I—”

“You didn’t think it mattered?” Her voice rose a notch. “Of course it matters. How can we have a relationship based on trust when you won’t talk to me about things that affect your life?”

“Kayla, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to drag you into it.”

“No.” She turned to him, her eyes flashing with anger beneath the white light of a street lamp. “You didn’t think I’d let you back into my life with a possible indictment hanging over you.”

Her words pinned him against the wall and condemned him in one fatal swoop. But there was more involved. Hadn’t he wanted to protect her? “It’s complicated, Kayla.”

“I don’t care how complicated things are. You should’ve told me.”

He drew in a ragged breath. Trying to protect her was nothing more than an excuse. He’d ignored the Spirit’s nudging to tell her the truth, and now he was paying for his own foolishness. “You’re right. I was afraid I’d lose you. I didn’t want you to think I’d been involved in anything illegal, to give you any reason not to trust me.”

“Well, guess what? That’s exactly what you did. And it’s about to get even worse.” The rosy flush in her cheeks was gone, replaced by a white pallor. “I’ve been getting phone calls.”

Ty shook his head. “What do you mean?”

“Someone’s been calling me, presumably to convince me you’re guilty, and then tonight—”

“Whoa, slow down, Kayla. You never told me any of this.”

“The same way you didn’t tell me? Just remember I wasn’t the one trying to hide something from you. I was hoping the phone calls were nothing but pranks or the wrong number. Tonight all the dots finally connected.” She grasped the door handle as if wanting to escape. “I thought our relationship had changed this time, Ty. You told me honesty and trust were the keys to making this relationship work … but you lied to me.”

“Wait a minute.” He wanted to reach out to grasp her hand, but he stopped himself. “I never lied to you.”

Her brow furrowed into a narrow line. “You never lied? The police interviewed you, didn’t they?”

“They interviewed all the employees who worked for Abbott during the past five years. It’s procedure.”

“And the night you told me you were working late?”

He closed his eyes and tried to remember the details of that day. There had been a family emergency with one of the employees, and his boss had asked him to oversee the end of the month accounting. In the middle of updating the computer, the police had called. He’d spent an hour being grilled on everything from his job description to Abbott’s lunch habits. It hadn’t been an experience he’d like to repeat. But he hadn’t lied to her. He just hadn’t told her.

“I was working late that night. The police called me in about seven. I might not have told you about the interview, but I never lied to you.”

“Tell me, Ty. Does the president of Farrington Cranberry Company know the last employee he hired to oversee his financial status might be indicted for fraud?”

“That’s not fair, Kayla—”

“Isn’t it?” Every ounce of trust he’d gained back from her during the past couple of months vanished into the cold night air. “I don’t know, but when I hire a person I like to make sure there’s no chance they might spend the next thirty years in prison.”

His stomach knotted at the statement. Losing his current job had been an issue he’d chosen to keep shelved in the back of his mind. No doubt the only reason he hadn’t had to hit the unemployment lines was because his new boss was an old friend from college who knew that while his personal life might have been marred with a few imperfections, his professional ethics were spotless.

Right now, though, his concern had to focus on Kayla. “Tell me what happened tonight.”

She blew out a hard breath. “A woman stopped me at the restaurant and wanted me to give you a message. She said you needed to watch your back.”

“Who was she?”

“How should I know? Some woman in a black dress, who wasn’t there to be my new best friend—I can tell you that much.”

“I don’t understand.” Ty pounded his hands against the steering wheel.

Abbott
.

The noose was tightening, and this was a message. A message that they were watching and could get to him—and Kayla. Ty felt his forehead bead with sweat despite the cold weather. It had been foolish to believe all of this would go away without Kayla’s finding out. Foolish to think he could hand over convicting files without Abbott’s turning against him. Foolish not to have listened to the Spirit’s urging to tell her the truth from the beginning.

A trickle of fear seeped through him, growing each moment as he tried to digest the implications. How low would Abbott stoop to ensure he wasn’t implicated? The police had questioned Ty regarding the papers with his signature, and he thought he’d convinced them they’d been forged. The pieces were starting to come together. Was it all simply a warning to be quiet or part of a setup Abbott was putting together with the help of his lawyers? Ty had believed that cooperating with the police was all he needed to do, but now with Kayla involved …

He turned up the heater a notch as the outside temperature continued to drop. “Tell me more about the phone calls.”

“Someone apparently thinks you’re guilty, and for whatever reason they want me to know.”

He hated the edge of bitterness her voice held. God had given them both a second chance, and for him to have blown it was almost more than he could handle. “I should have told you, and now …”

“And now what?”

“I need you to believe I was never a part of anything illegal.” He looked up at her, but she avoided his gaze. “I turned in documents to the police that I hoped would lead to implicating Abbott. But Abbott’s going to do everything he can to make sure he’s not the one who takes the fall.”

Ty thought back on the past few weeks. The car that had followed him. Misplaced items at work and at home. He’d tried to chalk it up to coincidence, but now he knew that wasn’t true. Abbott was looking for something. Warning him they could get to Kayla. And they would do anything to save their own skins. Leaving the company might have been the right decision, but it had put him at the top of Abbott’s list.

She folded her arms across her chest. “I want you to take me home, Ty.”

He looked up at her wondering what to do now. What he could say to make things right? “Don’t do this, Kayla. We can work this out.”

The hard lines that had marked her face earlier had softened into a look of sadness. What hurt him most of all was that he’d let her down. Why hadn’t he trusted their relationship enough to tell her?

“I’m sorry, Ty, but it’s too late this time.”

Ten minutes later Ty watched Kayla slip into her mother’s house without a look back. He’d told her once that their relationship would make it as long as they were honest with each other. Pulling out of the driveway, he pushed on the accelerator and sped down the road, wondering how he could have neglected the very thing he’d assured her was most important.

He slammed his fists against the steering wheel. Trust was something one earned, a fact he knew all too well. Yet in the process of proving himself to her he’d managed to destroy everything he’d worked so hard to gain. And possibly lost Kayla in the process.

Something ran across the road, and he jammed his foot against the brake to miss it. The car skidded sideways, striking the edge of the sidewalk with a jolt. The seatbelt jerked against his chest as the car came to a stop.

For a full thirty seconds Ty didn’t move. The quiet roar of the engine competed with the accusations filling his head.

“Lean on Me.”

He barely heard the words through the muddle. The wind whipped across the windshield. A car honked in the distance. Even the pounding of his heart seemed to echo in his ears.

“Lean on Me.”

He stared at the dashboard. This time the words filtered through the noise of the chaotic world around him. He’d worked so hard in the past year to make things right: with God, with Kayla. And he thought he’d succeeded until tonight. The words
lean on Me
echoed through the recesses of his mind. Maybe that was the problem. Everything had been about his getting things right. Had he forgotten to put God in the equation?

Pastor Jenkins had preached Sunday on how salvation was a gift of God’s grace. Never something a man could earn on his own merits. The thought was sobering. He’d spent his whole life working to get ahead, and his efforts had gained him huge financial success and status. But success came with a cost, and the price tag had been too high. He’d lost Kayla in the process. Yet even after realizing he needed a Savior he’d continued to go at things his own way.

Choosing to follow Christ wasn’t the end. For too many years he’d only listened to his own voice. He was going to have to make it a habit to stop and listen to the Spirit’s prompting. Learning to be quiet and hear God’s voice might have kept him from losing Kayla.

Ty held up his hands in defeat. I need Your help, Lord. Help me to listen for Your voice
.

He pulled back onto the road again, fighting the strong urge to drive back to Kayla’s. There were too many things left unsaid between them; too many things needing to be resolved.