"I ran," she blurted. "I was barely sixteen, but I took the money myself, along with what my mom had given me, and I ran to Austin." She drew a breath. "There are people--you know--who can fix paperwork. Give you a life. I'd been around my dad long enough to know how to find them. So that's what I did. Little Eulalie Tucker became Taylor D'Angelo. I got a driver's license. I manufactured parents. I enrolled in high school. And I tried so damn hard to kill off that old life."
Warm tears streaked down her cheeks. "That's why I didn't tell you. I've kept that secret for over eight years now. And the money's drug money. And I stole it. I knew it was tainted, and I took it. Worse, I spent some of it. Not much. But I used it to pay for some college. Some other stuff. Mostly, though, I used my mom's money and what I've earned. Most of the stash I still have."
She sucked in a breath of air, then slowly let it out. "So there you go. I'm not the woman you thought I was."
"No," he said softly, her stomach twisting with that horrible word. "You're even more amazing."
"What?" She couldn't possibly have heard him right.
"To go through all that? To survive?"
"But I stole that money."
"I know. Doesn't change my impression of you."
"I--" But that was all she could get out. She'd been living with the secret--the guilt--for so long that to have someone be so matter-of-fact completely threw her off her game.
"I'm not saying you can pull it out of the bank and start running around town buying cars and diamonds. But I am saying that there are a lot of mitigating circumstances involved in what you did. How much money are we talking about, by the way?"
"A hundred and twenty-seven thousand."
"And how much do you have left?"
"A hundred and seventeen thousand. And change. All neat and tidy in a safe deposit box."
He actually laughed. "Almost a decade and you've only spent ten thousand? What on?"
"I told you, I used my mom's money first, and for all the stuff I had to do to get my fake IDs. I never, never wanted to touch my father's money. But later, I needed tuition money. And a place to live. And I figured that my dad owed me as much. Hell, even if Beau had taken me, he'd have put me someplace to live."
She flashed a wry smile. "Not that Beau would look at it like that. Or the cops for that matter. Oh. I mean ... shit."
His soft chuckle filled the air between them and his palm closed more tightly around her ankle. "Forget who you're sitting with?"
"For a bit. Yeah."
"Don't worry. I'm not going to slap my cuffs on you. Not for the money stash, anyway. But I can think of some other uses--ouch!"
"Watch it, mister, or the next kick will be real." She tried to sound stern, but she couldn't hide her relief. "You're really not going to, well, do anything?"
"I'm going to do a lot." He lifted her legs, then shifted them both until he was sitting by the armrest and she was in his lap. For a moment, she studied his face, though without a moon, she could read nothing in his eyes. The night was too dark. And so she simply rested her head on his shoulder and let the cadence of his voice soothe her.
"I'm going to find that bastard, for one thing."
"Good," she murmured, her lids starting to get heavy now that the adrenaline rush had faded.
"I'm going to talk to a lawyer about working out a deal for you to turn what's left of the money over to the Arkansas police in exchange for testimony against Beau and your father."
"My dad's already in prison. I looked him up once. He killed somebody outside of a liquor store. But if it'll keep him behind bars longer, I'll repeat the whole sordid story again."
"The bottom line is that we're going to get you clear."
Tears clogged her throat as she nodded. "Beau trashed your house because of me. And yet here you are, doing everything you can to help me."
He brushed her hair off her face, then gently stroked her cheek. "Well, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm rather fond of you."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," he said, then kissed her so tenderly that she almost started crying all over again. This time, from joy. Because for the first time, she truly felt like she wasn't alone in this. And that felt just fine.