“Quick. This way.” Steel led the way to a stand of trees that hadn’t been burnt and gave a quiet laugh when a dilapidated structure came into view high among them. He’d forgotten all about this. “Up here.” He tested the boards that were nailed into the tree trunk as a makeshift ladder. They held his weight. He clambered up them and onto the small platform high among the branches. Stella made it up after him a moment later.
“I have to get to work,” she said absently. “I had no idea this was here, though.”
“Olivia and Maya built it years ago. They used to come and hang out here. Which is how they spotted the pot crop.”
“And set off a chain of events that upended everything. What would have happened if they hadn’t seen it?” She moved to the edge of the platform and peered down.
“Dad and William would have harvested it. Dad would have become a petty dealer, he’d have made the kind of connections they needed to find—” Hell, he couldn’t talk about that.
“To find what?” She turned, and when he didn’t answer, she came nearer. “Liam told me our fathers were working together for some reason and that you said it wasn’t just for money. So what were they doing?”
He wished he could tell her. Instead, he only shrugged.
“You know what it was, right? Don’t lie to me.” She folded her arms over her chest.
He didn’t want to lie. “Yeah, I know what it was.”
“They’re both dead. Why keep it a secret anymore?”
“Because… it isn’t over. What they were doing.” And he was telling her far too much, but Stella’s direct gaze made it hard to stop. She surveyed him for a long moment.
“Are you… still after whatever it was they were trying to accomplish?” she asked slowly. When he didn’t answer, her brows raised. “You are, aren’t you? How did you get mixed up in this—whatever it is?”
Her suspicious tone made it clear she wasn’t convinced of his motives. What had she seen of him so far? He skulked around town, hung out with ne’er-do-wells, flirted with teenage girls. He made himself sick. “I’ve always been involved,” he admitted, not knowing what else to say. He wanted her to understand. “Since Dad went to jail, anyway.”
“What happened to the pot crop? And the money you earned from selling it?”
He was already shaking his head. “I didn’t sell it. I burned it.”
“You expect me to believe that? You’d just throw away all that money when your family always struggled to make ends meet? Why? Why would you do such a thing?”
“To save your father’s ass!” Steel blazed, then immediately wished he’d held his tongue. He moved away from her, jamming his fists in his pockets. “Your father was just as much a part of it as Dale was. He started the whole thing.”
“Why?” This time her question was anguished. “Why would my father be involved in something like that? I can’t understand it.”
Of course she couldn’t. Not without knowing it all, and he couldn’t tell her everything without putting her in possession of a secret she might not be able to keep.
A memory surfaced unbidden in his mind, and he had to smile. Maybe she could understand what he was doing—without knowing all his secrets.
“What?” Stella demanded.
“You were always the girl next door when I was growing up. Never paid much attention to you until the day you knocked out Leon Warner.”
Stella pulled back. “Hell, Steel, that’s ancient history. We’re talking about now.”
“We were all riding home from school on the bus. Always did hate that. The minute I got my license I bought a beat-up truck just so I would never have to ride that damn bus again.”
“I know what you mean.”
Steel took heart from her expression of distaste. “That day everyone was a bit crazy. Mr. Sanders wasn’t even paying much attention.”
“Did he ever?” Stella asked. “God, the things that went on while he was driving.”
“You were sitting with Laura Gibbs, both of you the picture of utter decorum.”
“That’s an exaggeration.”
Not much of one. Back then he’d thought the Turners were a bit prissy, Stella most of all with her perfectly matched clothes and neat ponytails.
“Laura was doing her math, getting her homework done before we even made it home from school. Most kids didn’t bother doing it at all.”
“I did,” Stella said pertly.
“I know you did.”
“Leon Warner grabbed Laura’s textbook.” Stella picked up the story. “Her work went everywhere and everyone was laughing—it made me so mad. Why do people pick on the ones who actually do their work? Seems like it’s the ones who don’t who should get made fun of.”
“Spoken like a teacher’s pet,” Steel said.
“No one did anything. Mr. Sanders certainly didn’t.”
“He kind of did, though.” Steel figured she didn’t know this part of the story. Couldn’t know it—she’d been too busy attacking Leon. “You jumped up onto your seat, grabbed the book away from Leon, gripped it in two hands and bam! Crashed it down on his head.”
Stella covered her eyes with her hands. “It’s the worst thing I ever did. I can’t believe I didn’t get suspended. Guess it was a good thing Mr. Sanders didn’t see it.”
“Oh, he saw it all right.”
Stella looked up. “No, he didn’t. He couldn’t have—he didn’t even stop the bus!”
“He was definitely looking back when you hit Leon. I saw his eyes in the rearview mirror. Then he snapped his gaze to the road as if he’d been looking that way the whole time.”
“You mean—he condoned it?” She shook her head, but she was fighting a smile. “Leon yelled like a stuck pig. Some bully he turned out to be.”
“You picked up Laura’s things, gave them to her, and everybody behaved themselves the rest of the way home. That’s when I became your number one fan.”
She smiled at the memory, but then she sobered. “What does that have to do with what our fathers did—what you’re doing today?”
“You think
