29

29

It took Aaron more than a minute to get his head together. Her voice still resounded in his mind, the husky passion it carried when she pronounced those three words, stirring his blood.

He stared at her, dangerously close to kissing her supple lips again until she screamed her pleasure, but he held back.

And then she spoke and he blinked.

“What?”

Lauren pursed her lips, resisting the urge to inch away from him again. His body seemed to draw her in and she struggled to keep her eyes on his face.

She swallowed. “Yeah, he…uh, he was the one who saved me from Marcus earlier today."

Aaron frowned and reached over her shoulder for the black sweater. His brain worked as he tugged it on, processing this new bit of information.

If Richard Spencer saved Lauren, he had to have known where she was and that made absolutely no sense.

Aaron shook his head, seeing Lauren's wide eyes from the corner of his eye. "That can't make sense, Lauren."

"It has to. Because it was him, Aaron. I know what I'm saying."

“That man has been “dead” for over twenty years, Lauren. Do you understand that? For him to have suddenly turned up and saved you would mean he knew where you were! How the hell could he have known when we didn’t even know that Marcus Stanford planned to take you?!”

“I don’t know! Why don’t you ask him?” she demanded. “But...politely.”

Aaron swallowed, forcing himself to slow his breathing. This wasn’t making sense and he didn’t like the picture these puzzle pieces were forming.

Without another word, he stalked out of the room and down the hallway. His parents’ hushed voices silenced completely when Aaron appeared in the living room.

He towered above them, staring coldly down at Richard Spencer as Selena slowly removed her hand from her husband’s cheek, preparing herself for whatever rage her son was about to unleash. Lauren kept nervously to the side and Richard’s golden-eyed gaze went from his son to the girl hovering about behind the sofa.

“You alright, sweetheart?” he questioned gently.

“How did you know where Lauren was?!” Aaron demanded before Lauren could respond and she stared at him.

“Aaron!” she whispered fiercely, but he didn’t look at her. Lauren huffed. How rude of him. She’d told him to ask politely!

Quickly, she advanced and stood beside Selena who glanced sadly at her, her hand clenched tightly in her husband’s.

“Mr. Spencer?” Lauren said and Richard focused on her. “I’m Lauren Burns. Uh, I don’t know a lot about all this, Sir, but I just want to say thank you—”

“You don’t need to thank him for nothin’, Lauren!” Aaron said, staring at his father. His father who was alive and breathing and staring back at him. He took Lauren’s hand and tugged her to his side. “Not until he explains.”

Selena stood to face her son. “Aaron—”

“Let him explain, ma.”

Richard also stood, barely believing that this moment was real. But he had to believe it. There wasn’t any time to be in disbelief when he had to protect his family.

“I didn’t die in that storm, Aaron,” be began. “I survived.”

“Well, no shit.” Murmured Aaron, his fists trembling with suppressed fury.

Ricard went on, understanding Aaron’s rage. It was justified.

“I had to leave—”

“Why?!” demanded Aaron. “That’s what I want to know! Why did you suddenly have to disappear, let us believe that you were dead! Do you know what Ma’s been through in the last twenty-five years? You got any goddamn idea?!”

The front door creaked open. “Calm down, son,” murmured Montgomery Hutson as he walked in, leaning on his cane.

Lauren stared at the man, stunned by his sudden appearance. Whatever was going on, this man probably had the answers to it all! He was even the reason that Lauren had returned to Woodfair after all these years!

Aaron narrowed his eyes at Hutson. “You knew about this?” he asked quietly. “All these years, you knew he was alive and you said nothing?!”

Hutson was unshaken, his old face barely flinching at Aaron’s wrath filled words.

“It was for your own good,” he said calmly as he approached a chair. “Help me sit, will you, child?”

He extended an arm out toward Lauren who, startled, immediately took it and helped the old man onto the sofa.

Aaron stared down at him. “My own good?”

Montgomery Hutson sighed. “Your father was forced into hiding, Aaron. It wasn’t by choice.” He waved a hand in the air, okay with being the only seated person in the room.

Aaron lifted his gaze to his father’s, none of the ice dissolved from his cold stare at all.

“What, were you in some kind of debt? Is that why you ran?”

“I didn’ run!” growled Richard and Selena grabbed onto his arm.

Lauren was fascinated at how fiercely loyal Selena was to her husband. The man rocked up twenty-five years after he was proclaimed dead and she demanded not even an explanation, rather welcomed him with all the love and joy she’d probably kept bottled up for all those years. She knew exactly who he was and hadn’t even once confused him for someone else. Lauren wondered if Richard’s appearance had somehow cured Selena’s Amnesia.

“Your lives were in danger!” Richard said fiercely. “This town was a sick place back then, son! I looked where I shouldn’ have and found myself in the mix of things. I had to do whatever I could to protect y’all!”

“And that meant leavin’?” demanded Aaron.

“Yes! Because that’s what they told me to do, otherwise they would kill you and your mother.”

Selena gasped, a delicate hand rising to cover her mouth. Aaron moved not a muscle, growing extremely quiet.

“I left,” continued Richard. “But I never forgot about you. I watched from afar. Always making sure you were safe, always making sure you and your mother were okay.”

“Safe?! I was accused of murder and put on trial! We were ostracized from our own town, we needed you!” Richard stayed quiet as his son stared him down. “So why’d you come back now?” Aaron asked and Lauren saw the fatigue creep into his face and his body slouched very slightly.

“Because he’s been dead for a long time and we’ve gotten a chance to put them away, now that Lauren’s here.”

Lauren perked up, puzzled. “Me?”

Aaron frowned. “Because who’s dead? Reverend Burns? Did he threaten you to leave Woodfair? Or was it Martin Stanford’s father?”

Lauren’s gaze darted to Aaron. “What? That’s so ridiculous. Why would you even ask that?”

Her question went unanswered and Lauren stared around at all their grave expressions.

Picking up on the dark aura, her heart became jittery and Lauren held out her palms.

“Okay...okay. That’s it. Right here, right now, I demand to know every single thing you’ve been keeping from me.”

Aaron slowly lifted his gaze and settled it on her. “I don’ know if you can take it.”

“She will,” said Hutson. “She has to.”

“There’s plenty about your family that you don’ know, Lauren,” drawled Richard, wrapping his other hand over the one that held Selena’s.

Lauren swallowed and looked around at them. “Tell me!”

“Sit,” said Aaron.

She looked at him, nodded and sank onto a sofa.

“Those photographs, Lauren,” Aaron murmured. “Those photographs that you found in your grandfather’s bed…”

“She found them?” Richard asked, disbelief clear in his voice. “Did she look at them?”

Aaron pursed his lips and nodded.

Richard’s eyes fell closed and he cursed.

Lauren shuddered at the vivid memories of those hideous depictions. “Yes?” She inched forward in her seat. “It was Mayor Stanford, wasn’t it?”

Hutson shook his head. “Stanford is a puppet. His masters are long gone, but he’s still a puppet. He’d vomit his guts out before he’d ever have the mind to carry out such a thing.”

Lauren drew back. It wasn’t the Mayor? Then who? Could Marcus have done such a gruesome thing?

“The people who did that are dead now, Lauren,” said Richard. “I found out what they’d been doing, threatened to expose them, but very soon they had my family under fire and threatened to kill them if I didn’t shut my mouth and disappear.”

“Who were they?” Lauren asked shakily, her heart heavy in her chest as she struggled to fight off the dread creeping in on her. “Who?”

Hutson looked at her. “Lauren …Jonathan Burns was one of them…”