Unforgiven Read Online Free PDF

in the empty room. At Delaney’s request, Keith drove Mrs. Walker home an hour earlier. Alana stayed for a while, too polite to ask Marissa where she’d disappeared to for twenty minutes, but even she’d given up and gone home to Walkers Ford. Was that Adam’s next stop, his mother’s house? Darla Collins kept Adam’s bike. Did Adam know it lurked under a shroud in the garage? He’d had a plan, starting with smaller races as an amateur, making money where he could, working his way up to a sponsorship deal. He was fearless, gifted with unbelievable spatial awareness and reflexes. He would have succeeded, if not for—
    “Marissa,” Delaney asked as Stacey pulled on her coat and prepared to leave. “Do you have a minute?”
    Delaney’s father wrote her a check large enough to pay off the HVAC bill with some left over for the lumberyard. Their agreement gave Delaney access to the house whenever she wanted, and they both knew it. Or maybe Delaney still felt a tad bit possessive about her ex-fiancé.
    “Of course,” she said, and closed the door behind Stacey. So polite. It really was impossible to find fault with Delaney. Her father owned the state’s largest privately held bank, but Delaney opted for a career as a licensed school psychologist serving three rural counties and volunteering at Pine Ridge once a month. She was pretty, reserved, always dressed on the demure side of current fashion. They made a great story, the good girl and the bad boy turned Marine, until Adam ended things before the storybook finish. The news had rocked not only Walkers Ford but the entire county. Fairy tales starring Marines and pretty school psychologists didn’t end that way.
    They didn’t start with getting fucked in a pantry, either.
    The air on the west side of the great room held warmth despite the rapid drop in temperature as night fell; or maybe that was heat lingering under her skin. Delaney waited until Marissa joined her in front of the unfinished fireplace. “The house looks beautiful,” she began, genuine approval in her voice. “But the wedding is in four weeks. Will you be able to repair this wall before then?”
    Both ends of Brookhaven’s great room were finished in floor-to-ceiling oak woodwork panels that mimicked the construction of the sliding panels that defined Brookhaven’s unique style. The smaller, less elaborate fireplace in the dining area was intact and polished to a high sheen. The fireplace at the south end of the great room stood under walls stripped to the plaster and lathing. The rest of the house had been done since the spring, but summer’s busy season in construction stopped her progress. Or that’s what she told herself.
    “Not a problem,” she said.
    “What happened to it?” Delaney asked. “The other fireplace is in such excellent shape.”
    Memories surfaced from the lockbox deep inside, pushed through her skin as prickling, hot shame. She should have stopped Adam before things got out of control. Even though the county technically owned the house at that point, Brookhaven was hers. Her responsibility. Her obligation. Her dream, even then.
    “Vandals,” Marissa said shortly.
    Delaney nodded, as if agreeing, but said, “Adam looked well, don’t you think?”
    Marissa kept her gaze on the exposed brick and plaster. He did look good. His hair was still regulation short, the color of aged cedar, his eyes a true hazel, his body as hard against her stomach and breasts as the shelving was against her back.
    “A little older, maybe,” Marissa said when the silence stretched into unnecessary guilt. Adam no longer belonged to Delaney. Marissa hadn’t done anything wrong.
    Delaney joined Marissa in her close examination of the unfinished mantel, lifting her smooth, pale hand to touch the exposed brick and plaster. Keith’s engagement ring glittered brilliantly in the light, a move Marissa thought was intended to show off the diamond until she remembered Delaney was