Liar's Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

didn’t, because he was already talking.
    “Tracy, I know, too, that there was something more to your father’s death. I hired a detective, too. I know all about the money deposited into Martin Smith’s account.”
    She inhaled sharply, staring up into his eyes. Years were swept away. She knew his gaze—dark, passionate, tense.
    “If you know—”
    “Tracy, you can’t wander around making accusations—unless you want a hired assassin coming after you.”
    “I’m not making accusations—”
    “You accused me.”
    “You belong in a list of suspects!” she cried out. And it was too much for her. She wrenched away from him and started for the door to the suite. “Leif, there’s no need for you to leave by the balcony. Please, go by the front door.”
    She turned around and discovered that he was standing patiently where she had left him, still watching her, still waiting.
    “Tracy, we’re not done.”
    “We’ve been done for years.”
    “I wasn’t talking about the past, but we can discuss that, too, if you wish.”
    “I don’t wish.”
    “Fine. But come back here and sit down.”
    “Leif—”
    “Tracy,” he interrupted, “you can come back and sit down, or I can come over and insist that you sit down.”
    “I’m not eighteen anymore!”
    He laughed bitterly. “You weren’t eighteen then, either, Tracy.”
    “I was almost—”
    “Almost, but not quite. You convinced me that you were twenty-three. I would have believed it until I died— if your grandfather hadn’t threatened to have me locked up for twenty years on several counts of statutory rape! Which, at that point, was exactly what I felt I deserved. I felt like a child molester!”
    “My grandfather wouldn’t have—”
    “No—he wouldn’t. He couldn’t have bo rn the publicity. He decided to knock me out with a baseball bat instead.”
    “Dammit! I’m sorry! I had no control over what happened then! I was a minor. They dragged me out— they—”
    “Yep—they dragged you out and whisked you away. And thankfully Jesse decided that he didn’t really want me dead and he called an ambulance. Okay, Tracy, so your grandfather controlled you. He controlled your mother all her life, too. I’m surprised your stepfather is sane. But tell me, Tracy, does he still control you? You turned eighteen a month later. You never called with an explanation—or an apology.”
    “You’re forgetting something, aren’t you, Mr. Johnston?” Tracy queried softly. She felt like she was strangling. “You were married to Celia a month later. I didn’t know if it was something you had discussed with your bride or not. I presumed, like everyone else, that you wanted to pretend it had never happened.”
    “Oh, it happened, Tracy. It most certainly happened!”
    Tracy felt the blood drain from her face. Seven years hadn’t really eased one bit of that horribly humiliating day. It suddenly seemed very unfair that such a miserable mistake of her youth should haunt her forever, that there was no going back. She could never explain the truth to him now; she could never tell him how sorry she was. And she could certainly never tell him that she had already paid far more dearly than he could ever know. She made an impatient sound and inhaled deeply. “Leif—has it occurred to you that being near you right now is a very difficult experience for me?”
    “Tracy—it’s not exactly easy for me ! But I’m talking about life and death! Yours. Now get over here and sit!”
    How much had the man changed? she wondered a little nervously. Or had he changed at all? The way he was staring at her, she didn’t think she wanted to risk his temper, although she despised the fact that she was going to obey him. She felt seventeen again—with someone else taking charge of her life.
    “Tracy!” It was the softest whisper of her name; it was a warning and again recall came upon her in a staggering burst of lightning. Tracy! He had said her name just the same way