“He was just warning me off you,” she prevaricated, and smiled again. “It didn’t work.”
He laughed, relieved. “Thank God. I couldn’t handle having all my plans go south before we even get started good, and this is just the beginning for me and Nellie! You’re positive you want to stay?” He gestured toward her mother.
She nodded. “Thanks for the ride. I’ll see you soon.”
“Sure. Take care.” Keely closed the passenger door. He waved to her mother, who ignored him, almost dancing in her impatience to talk to her daughter. He drove away with a wave.
“What’s wrong?” Keely asked when she got onto the porch, because this wasn’t a simple case of a few drinks too many. Her mother’s face was stark-white and she was visibly frightened.
Ella bit her lip. “Your father called again.”
“Again? Where is he?” she asked. “Is he coming here?”
“I don’t know.” She took a big sip of her drink.
“What did he want?” Keely persisted.
She turned and looked at her daughter with wide, frightened eyes. The hand holding the drink was shaking. “He…he didn’t say.”
“Why did he call, then?”
Ella looked around nervously. “Let’s go inside.”
They did, and Ella locked the door. She was rattled, all right. She couldn’t even find the right light switch to turn off the porch light.
“I’ll get it,” Keely volunteered.
Ella stood watching her, biting her lower lip. She was so pale that her skin looked like milk.
Keely stood quietly, waiting for the older woman to speak.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“I DON’T KNOW where to start,” Ella said hesitantly. “I know your father didn’t tell you anything about what happened here before he left with you.”
“Nobody ever tells me anything,” Keely replied bitterly. “I know that Dad’s mixed up in something, that the police are interested in him for whatever it is and that Jock is involved somehow.” She straightened. “And I know that you’re broke and Dad is threatening you for money.”
Ella bit her lower lip hard enough to draw blood. “You couldn’t know that. Who told you that?” she demanded.
“Is it true?” Keely prevaricated.
Ella looked around wildly and brushed her untidy hair back from her thin face.
Keely moved forward a step. “Is it true?” she repeated softly.
Ella took a deep breath. For once, she really looked her age. “Yes,” she said. “I thought the money would never run out. There was so much of it. Your grandparents invested in land when it was cheap. As the town grew, more people needed land, so they started renting it out for businesses. When they died, I continued the practice, raising the rents as the land prices increased.”
“What happened?” Keely prodded.
Ella laughed hollowly. “I got greedy. My parents would never buy me designer clothes or even a good car. They made me pay my own way, from the day I started working. They wanted me to go to college, but I thought I was smart enough. Your father thought I’d get all that money the minute I married, so he married me. But it didn’t work out that way.” She drew in a long breath, her eyes with a faraway look. “All I had was an allowance. Brent and I bought expensive cars and diamonds and ate in the best restaurants and took long trips overseas. We ran up a fortune in bills. My parents paid it, then they stopped my checks.” She laughed again as she glanced at her daughter. “Brent got used to living high. He couldn’t go back to wages. He found a way to make a lot of money quick.” Her face tautened. “You were far too young to understand what was going on. My parents died in a plane crash and we inherited the estate, but there wasn’t much left. Mostly just the land—we’d spent the rest. I wanted him out of my life. He wanted that game park, so I made a deal with him. I sold land and gave him the proceeds. I was free, still relatively young, and I wanted to celebrate. So I did. Then your father dumped you here and the luxury lifestyle was a thing of the past. I resented you for that. But it probably saved us from being tossed out into the street with the clothes we were wearing. I’d gone hog wild and didn’t even realize it. By the time I did, it was too late.”
She moved into the living room and sat down, heavily, in a chair. Keely sat down on the arm of the sofa across from her. It was unusual for her parent to speak to her like this, as an equal, without even sarcasm.
Ella brushed back her hair. “I managed to salvage a couple of the properties before they were foreclosed on for unpaid bills. But my renters found cheaper rents and moved out. I was left with empty buildings that I couldn’t repair, and nobody wanted to use them. Within the past six months, it was suddenly all gone, except for the house and the land it sits on.” She looked up at Keely. “Your father and Jock are broke and they need a grubstake. They want me to sell the house and property to fund it.”
“But it’s all you have left,” Keely argued. “Tell them you won’t do it. Sheriff Carson will look out for you.”
Ella bit her lower lip. “It’s more complicated than that, Keely,” she replied quietly. “You see, your father and I did something…illegal, when you were very small. If he tells what he knows, I can go to prison.”
Keely’s mouth thinned. “If he uses it, he’ll be incriminated, as well, and he can go there, too.”
The older woman smiled sadly. “They’d have to catch him first, wouldn’t they?” she asked. “He’s been one jump ahead of the law all his life.”
“What did you do?” Keely asked, reasoning that her mother would probably close up and say nothing else.
Ella took a sip of her drink. “I’ve lived with the guilt for years,” she said, almost to herself. “I thought
