“I found something on the Ridley property,” he said, unwilling to be distracted. When she frowned, he figured she knew exactly what he was talking about. “Does that crop belong to your family?”
“Was that your first thought?” she shot back. “Someone commits a crime in Chance Creek, and the Coopers are automatically to blame?”
“Are you saying they aren’t?” Liam pressed. “Tell me the truth. Did you come back here to join your family’s new operation?”
“Are you serious?”
“I’m damn serious. I thought I knew you—”
“For the record, I just found out about that crop yesterday—and I still showed up to save your ass today!”
“You can’t blame me for asking,” he hedged, aware he wasn’t being entirely fair.
“I’m going to law school! Do you really think I’d gamble with my future like that? Or is it so impossible for you to even imagine a Cooper as a lawyer?”
“I think you’d make a fantastic lawyer, and I don’t want to believe you’d do anything like this, but I’d be a fool not to ask. Law school is expensive. You said it yourself.”
“And God forbid I find honest work to pay for it,” Tory said flatly.
Liam sighed. “Whether you’re involved in it or not, we can’t let it happen in our backyard. What if someone finds out about it—how’s that going to impact your career? Hell, what if the certification people had gotten my address wrong and stumbled on it just now? This affects all of us. It’s not just the pot, you know. It’s the—”
Tory cut him off. “I know it affects your family as well as mine, and I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. You need to give me time.”
“Do we have time?” He thought of the man with the shotgun again—who must be connected to the Coopers if Tory knew about the crop and hadn’t come to any harm. “When our fathers started growing pot, it set off a chain of events that ended up with your dad in jail and both of our families broken apart.”
“You think I can forget that?” She shook her head at him. “Thank God for the Turners, our caring neighbors across the creek, lovingly reminding us of every misstep, every painful moment of our past.”
“Tory—” This was far too dangerous not to act on. She had to see that.
“You know what? I’m over this,” she said.
And left.
Maybe it wasn’t Liam’s fault that once again, her family was committing crimes and ruining everything, but that didn’t mean she was going to stand there and let him question her motives. She’d left her family years ago to get away from just this sort of thing, and it steamed her to find herself right back where she started. She was so mad at Steel she could scream.
The worst part was that Liam was right: if someone found out about Steel’s operation and thought she was involved, it could end her law career before it even began. Sticking up for her family was one thing, but she wasn’t going to stay here if it meant giving up her dreams. If she was smart, she’d keep driving right now. Find some other state in which to start over. Turn her back on all of this.
She’d done that once before, though, and it had been loneliness that had pulled her back here as much as financial hardship. She was a Cooper. Chance Creek was her hometown. It was one thing to choose to leave. Another thing altogether to feel driven out.
She and Liam had fallen back into old Turner/Cooper rivalry habits quick enough when the chips were down, hadn’t they? She wasn’t sure whose fault that was, although she knew she was at least partly to blame. Liam was trying to protect her as much as himself, she supposed. If Steel wasn’t her brother, she’d have appreciated his concern.
Instead she’d lashed out. It wasn’t just a family thing, she admitted to herself now that she was calmer. It was uncomfortable to have someone else tangled up in her life. She’d gotten by on her own for years before Liam came along and started trying to carve out a place for himself in her life. She’d planned to continue doing so.
Was that what she wanted?
She sat in Thorn Hill’s driveway with the engine still going. The longer she stayed here, the more entanglements she’d face. The cleanest move would be to cut all ties now.
So why was she still here?
Tory sighed, realizing she didn’t really want to leave Chance Creek—or her family. She didn’t want to leave Liam, either. She wanted to stay and see where things could go between them. That was the strangest bit of all, she decided. Wanting Liam. She’d kept herself so distant from men for so long. Even when she’d dated, she’d kept things light and easy.
This felt far from easy.
Still, their days by the lake had been… magical. Something different than she’d ever experienced with a man.
Was this… love?
God, she hoped not, but even as she thought it she knew it was true. It was the beginning of love, anyway. If she left now, she could nip it in the bud—keep the heartbreak to a minimum. Maybe.
If she stayed…
She was probably going to get hurt.
Could she stand that?
Liam had questioned if Coopers and Turners could really be together. She knew why. Her family played fast and loose with the law. His family enforced it. She was trying to bridge that gap—bring the Coopers onto the right side of things.
Steel seemed to be working just as hard to keep them in the wrong.
She couldn’t blame Liam for wanting no part of that. Steel’s operation could ruin things for Liam just as swiftly as it could ruin things for her given the Ridley property’s proximity to the Flying W. Someone could accuse the Turners for growing the pot as easily as he’d accused the Coopers.
Could she choose between Liam and her family?
