“You moved on five minutes after she died.”
“Oh, I couldn’t have done that. I was passed out from the drugs she gave me when she died,” he shot back. “It was at least ten minutes. She knew how to do it right.”
Trina’s eyes widened and he knew he’d hurt her, but he couldn’t call the words back. If she hadn’t wanted to get hurt, she would have honored his wishes and stayed away.
“Okay, maybe I can find something stronger,” Ty offered.
He could use it. “There’s a bottle of whiskey in the bedroom.”
“She drugged you?” Trina asked the question with obvious shock.
Fuck. How could she not know this? “Didn’t your father get the police reports? I know he requested them. I know the director gave him as much as he could.”
She stared down at her hands. “He did, but I guess Dad didn’t tell me everything. I guess he thought it was bad enough that Jess…”
“Betrayed everything she ever said she believed in?” He wanted to be sympathetic but he couldn’t find it deep down. Trina had to have known what Jessie was doing. They were close, very close. Trina knew everything about Jessie. Certainly more than the man she’d claimed to love.
Trina blinked back tears. “Before she got so desperate she did something stupid.”
“Desperate? She wasn’t desperate. She was greedy. I know what she said right before she died. I’ve read those reports, too. She told everyone she was trying to kill that the government didn’t pay enough. She also told them all I was an idiot, so don’t expect some grand sympathy from me if that’s what you came here for.”
“You didn’t bother to come to the funeral, so I don’t expect that at all. I came here so you could sign the paperwork so I can sell the house,” she shot back. “The house that’s in both your names.”
He and Jessie had bought a little house in the suburbs. He didn’t like to think about it, didn’t like to think about the fact that he’d never gone back. He’d had a friend ship him some clothes and items he’d needed, but he’d never walked back into that house. Sometimes he dreamed about it, dreamed it was exactly how they’d left it when they’d come to Bliss on assignment. Sometimes she was still waiting there for him.
“What you want is cash then.” He should have known. It seemed to be a theme in the Wilson family.
Trina flushed a deep pink. “What I want is to believe in any way that you still care about us. What I want is to think the man my sister loved wouldn’t throw her away like she was garbage.”
“If the name fits,” he said, a chill coming over him. That was exactly how she’d treated him. She’d tossed him away without a thought.
Trina stood up. “You don’t care at all, do you? My dad…never mind. I shouldn’t have come here. I’ll let everything rot. None of it matters, right? It doesn’t matter that we took you in and made you part of our family. It doesn’t matter that my family missed you almost as much as we miss her. It doesn’t matter. You can be happy wherever the fuck this is.”
“Bliss,” Ty said in a quiet voice. “That’s the funny thing. The town is called Bliss, though for a long time I don’t think he found any here. I hope that’s changing. Let me help you out to your car, ma’am. There’s a storm coming. It might be best if you let me drive you down the mountain. Mike can bring the Jeep down.”
“I can drive myself.” Trina walked to the door. Her heels clomped against the wood floors, and the door slammed as she left.
A blast of cold air had accompanied her exit.
Ty handed him the keys. “It’s harder going down than it is coming up, and she doesn’t even have snow tires on that thing. I’ll get her into town and meet you at Trio, okay?”
“You’re not going to yell at me for being mean? Is this another grump stage of mine?” There was a nasty twist in his gut. He wasn’t the bad guy here. Jessie was. She always had been, and all Trina wanted was the money from the house.
Ty put a hand on his shoulder. “No. I was there that night, Mike. I remember. You’re not ready to deal with her family yet. I think you might have been nicer to her sister, but how about I handle that part and you take the time you need. But hopefully not more than an hour or so because I’m hungry. I’ll meet you down at Trio and then we’ll get your car before I have to go on my shift. Okay?”
Had he ever had a partner like Ty? He wasn’t sure he’d ever had a friend who’d watched out for him the way Ty was today. He’d always had to be the dependable one, the stalwart one, the one who never really felt anything. Ty was giving him space and cover. “You’ll make sure she knows where to go if she needs to stay in town?”
“I’ll take her out to Gene’s myself if I need to.” Ty stepped away.
“Thanks.” He wasn’t sure what else to say, wasn’t sure how to put the gratitude he felt into words. For all the harsh emotions seeing Trina had brought up, Ty was easing them all back down.
He wanted to see Lucy. He wanted to hug her and tell her what had happened, and then she and Ty could talk about how he should handle things.
He definitely wasn’t sure he liked how vulnerable that made him.
He wasn’t sure he liked it at all.
Chapter Ten
Ty eased the sedan onto the narrow road that wound down the mountain and would eventually lead them past Hell on Wheels. The sky was a gray that promised coming storms. If it was spring, they would have seen some rain that would wash away in hours. But this was the first storm of winter, and he feared it meant the woman next to him would be seeing a whole lot of Bliss over the next couple of days. He hoped the Movie Motel had some vacancies. “Did you fly into Colorado Springs?”
“Yes, and then I drove from there to here.” Trina Wilson sniffled into the tissue she’d pulled out of her purse. “You should know I took a picture of your license plate and texted it to a friend back home in case I go missing.”
“Good. That’s smart. You should tell her my name is Tyler Davis, and I work for Bliss County,” he replied. “And tell her if we die, she should sue the rental car company for not putting snow tires on this hunk of crap.”
She bit her bottom lip and sighed. “I didn’t know I was going to be driving on mountain roads. Which considering I’m in Colorado seems like I should have. They asked me if I would be doing any off roading. I said no, I was just visiting a friend. I think they thought I wasn’t going far. That was a lie, too. Thanks for driving. I was pretty terrified I was going to slide off the road all the way up. What happens if two cars are on the road going opposite directions?”
“It’s wider than it looks,” he promised. “And mostly you won’t see another car. There are only a couple of people who live on this mountain. I happen to know one of them, and he usually rides his bike down.”
Sawyer’s place was higher up than Mike’s and a lot nicer. So much nicer. His grandfather had left the cabin he’d built with his own two hands to Sawyer and his brothers, though Sawyer was the only one who still lived there.