“But later?”
“It was too late,” her father said.“I think she hated to admit … it hadn’t worked out.Her family didn’t want her to marry me, fought it every moment until we eloped.She might have been afraid they wouldn’t take her in, so she told everyone I had died.I kept asking her to join me, but she begged me not to interfere with her life.She never told me about you.”
His eyes begged her to believe him.They were full of regret and grief and longing, and she believed he really felt those things.But she also knew that Sara Randall wouldn’t have been daunted by hard times.Not the Sara Randall that Shea knew.
“I … I found a clipping among her things,” Shea said.“About a court-martial.”
“There were several when I was in the army,” he said, a muscle twitching in his neck.
“It mentioned some payroll robberies, an officer named Tyler.”
There was a long silence.“I would rather not talk about that, Shea,” he said.“It … was very painful.He … I … liked the young man.”
Shea wanted to slow the fast beating of her heart.She had found a father, and now she might lose him.She shouldn’t care if he had done what she was now fairly sure he had.But she did care.She cared desperately.
“It was … your word against his.”
“They found some of the money in his quarters.”
“Someone else could have put it there.”
Her father’s face changed slowly as several minutes went by, aging as if each minute added years.He took her hand that was folded in her lap.“Why?Why are you so interested?”
His fingers pressed against hers, as if it were a lifeline.
“I … I just want to know more about you,” she said, not yet ready to give him information that might hurt Rafe but desperate to discover the truth.
But his gaze met hers, searching.“Where were you those days you were missing?”
“I told you.I was lost.”
“You’ve met Tyler.”It wasn’t a question but a statement.
Shea didn’t answer.But her heart beat even faster.She knew he would realize she was lying if she said no.Her interest had given her away.
“You were with him in the mountains.”His voice was sad rather than accusing.“The bastard,” he said then in almost a whisper.“He used you to get even with me.”
“No.”The word escaped Shea’s lips before she could think.
He closed his eyes, and pain flooded Shea.In a matter of weeks she had found a love and a father, and they hated each other and accused each other of motives and deeds so dark, she could barely comprehend them, much less accept them.
“No,” she whispered in denial again.
“What did he say, Shea?”he said defeatedly.
Shea rose and went to the window without answering.
“Did he …?”
Shea didn’t answer.
“Dear God,” he said, his voice strained and close to breaking.
Shea turned.“Did you?Did you lie during the court-martial?”
“No,” he said flatly.“And if he touched you, I’ll see him dead this time.Kidnapping a woman is a hanging offense.”
“I was just lost,” she insisted.
