Fury on Fire (Devil's Rock #3)(43)

North said nothing, merely held her brother’s unflinching gaze. It was the only agreement needed.

“When did you get out?” Hale continued, all friendliness gone from his voice. Her brother was gone. There was no sight of the mischievous boy who used to leave garden snakes in her backpack or the big brother who popped in with barbecue. Now the steely-eyed sheriff of Sweet Hill stood in his place.

“Two years ago.”

Again, her brother lapsed into silence. The quiet was excruciating. She hoped he was processing what North said and realizing that two years was a positive. He was two years out and leading a clean life. No criminal activity. Two years as a good citizen. That had to mean something. That had to matter.

She shifted uneasily on her feet. He stared at North for so long it was beyond uncomfortable, and she knew. Two years didn’t mean squat to Hale.

Her brother wasn’t looking at North Callaghan and applauding him for turning things around and honoring the terms of his parole. He was looking at him and thinking how much he disliked her living next door to him.

North stared at her then, his gaze probing as though trying to assess her reaction to the news that he was a former convict. She swallowed thickly and lifted her shoulders in a fraction of a shrug. Because she already knew. Only he didn’t know that. He didn’t know she already knew the ugly truth about him.

He probably expected her to be horrified. Maybe even disgusted as any good woman would be when she learned a guy she had made out with had been to prison for murder.

North was waiting, his jaw locked. Watching her for some such reasonable reaction. She couldn’t even pretend. Couldn’t fake it. She had known about his sordid past. She knew he was a murderer.

In her own mind, she had come to terms with his criminal history. Did that mean she wanted to know more about what happened? Naturally she wanted to hear about his past. What he had felt then, when it happened, and how he felt about it all now. But she had already made up her mind that it was not her place to judge North Callaghan.

Her brother, however, was of a different opinion.

Hale snapped his gaze back to her. “You knew about this?”

Looking at North, she nodded slowly, never breaking eye contact, speaking to him even though she was answering her brother. “Yeah. I knew.”

North’s nostrils flared with a sharp breath and she felt that breath like the cut of a strong wind. This was a problem for him. Faith knowing . . . and not letting him know she knew.

“Does Dad know?” Hale asked.

She stared at him. Was he serious? If she hadn’t told him, she sure as hell wasn’t going to tell her father.

“I didn’t think so.” He shook his head at her again and then looked back at North.

“I’m sure you remember our father. He was the sheriff before me. He just retired a couple years back.”

There was the barest flicker of something in North’s eyes that indicated yes. He remembered her father.

Hale continued, “I believe he was the one that made your arrest. Yours and your brother.”

No. Oh no no no. Please don’t let that be true. Her father had not arrested this man.

“Yes,” North said quietly. “He came out to the farmhouse and arrested us both.”

Hale nodded and looked at her, his expression saying it all—saying everything. See? This is f*cked up. You’re living next door to a guy our dad locked away for a seriously long time.

And it was f*cked up.

“How long?” North bit out, not even looking at her brother anymore. It was like Hale wasn’t even there to him. It was just the two of them. “How long have you known about me, Faith?”

She shrugged uneasily. “A while.”

She didn’t say the rest . . . she didn’t voice the words, but she told him with her eyes.

Since we started texting. Since before I saw you naked outside the house. Before I touched myself in the shower with your image burning a fire through me.

Since you kissed me.

Since I kissed you back.

His chocolate eyes went dark, the pupils almost indistinguishable from the irises. He was not happy. She thought she had seen him unhappy before, but this was true misery. It might even go deeper than that. It was something else . . .

“Guess you weren’t going to mention that to me?” Hale inserted, his entire body one rigid line. She knew this sight of him. She had seen it before in many a childhood squabble when he lost his temper and tried to bulldoze over her.

“Why should I, Hale?” She set her hands on her hips. “It had nothing to do with you.”

He looked at her like he didn’t even know her. “When my sister lives next door to a parolee, I should know about it. Damn straight that’s my business.”

“Hale!” Angry heat flushed over her face, she shot a quick glance at North.

“It’s the truth.” Hale swung around to glare at North again, speaking of him, about him as though he were not even present. “This guy went to prison for murder, Faith.”

“If you know who he is, then you know why,” she hissed. “You know the circumstances.” She wasn’t pretending North didn’t do the crime, but she wasn’t going to pretend either that he was just any criminal. He wasn’t a heartless killer. She knew that. Even as much as they bickered, as much as he drove her crazy, as much as she both longed for and regretted kissing him, she knew he was not without decency.