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.”“I’m sorry.” Deanna’s voice was a mere whisper.“I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to help you when you needed me the most.”“Yeah, I’m sorry, too.Sorry you weren’t able to help me.I knew you couldn’t possibly love me.I told myself I was living a lie to think I was worthy of a girl like you, but you almost convinced me that what we had was real.”“It was real!”“No, babe, it was nothing but flash and no substance.” Luke took a step toward her and grinned wickedly when she instinctively backed away from him.“When it came to the point of no return, you didn’t have the guts to stand with me against your family.All that love you professed for me was just lust.You wanted to walk on the wild side with a real bad boy.All you ever wanted from me was this!”He shoved her up against the front door, swinging it and her against the wall.She gasped when he pressed his aroused body into her and blatantly ground his sex intimately against her.He grabbed the back of her head.She struggled, but soon discovered how truly weak she was compared to his superior strength.She ceased fighting him and boldly gazed into his eyes.“Isn’t this why you really came here tonight?” he asked.“You want to hop in the sack for old times’ sake?”“Don’t do this, Luke.Please.” Oh, sweet mercy, how her body yearned for his.But she didn’t want him this way.Not filled with anger and hatred.Once, long ago, he had taken her with love and passion.His wildness tempered with gentleness.Once he had loved her as she had loved him.But now he hated her.And she was afraid of him.Of the power he possessed to break her heart.Luke leaned over as if he were going to kiss her, his lips almost touching hers.“If you’re lying to me this time, I’ll make you sorry you ever knew my name.” Spearing his fingers through her hair, he jerked back her head.“Do you understand? If I agree to help you and then find out you’re not being honest with me, I’ll—”“I promise that I’m not lying.All I want is to find out the truth about the night Daddy was killed.”He released her with the same abruptness with which he’d manhandled her.“Go home.Leave me alone.I need to think.”“Then you’ll consider helping me?”“I said I need to think about it.Come back tomorrow and I’ll let you know.”“Thank you, Luke.”“Don’t thank me, babe.I’m not the boy you remember, the boy who would have walked over live coals for you.I’m a man without a heart and without much of a conscience.Five years in Huntsville will do that to a man.Spending time with me won’t be any fun for you, I promise you that.”“I—I’ll come back tomorrow and we can talk.” She backed away, out onto the rock porch.“If your mama finds out you’ve been sniffing around me, she might not let you out of the house tomorrow.” Luke’s broad, mocking smile revealed a row of perfect white teeth.“I’m not the same spoiled, scared girl I was Fifteen years ago.My mother doesn’t control me now.No one tells me what I can do and who I can see.I’m my own woman.”“Are you?”“Yes.”“Guess we’ll find out.”She nodded.“I’ll see you tomorrow.”He didn’t reply, just stood in the open doorway, the light from inside the house silhouetting his big body.Deanna backed slowly away from him, then when she reached the patio, she turned and walked away.She had to force herself not to run.When she got in her Mustang, she glanced back at the house.Luke still stood there, big and rugged and powerful, his very presence challenging her.Daring her.Promising her both heaven and hell if she returned to him.Chapter 3“Deanna, please, darling, don’t do this,” Phyllis nervously wrung her hands.“You can’t change the past.All you can do is cause trouble for everyone involved.If you bring Luke McClendon into your insane search for another killer, there is no telling what will happen.”“Insane search, Mother?” Deanna shifted the strap on her navy leather bag so that it rested higher on her shoulder.“Just because I spent nearly five years in a private mental hospital doesn’t mean that everything I do is insane.”Phyllis followed her daughter out of the living room and into the foyer, reaching out pleadingly when Deanna opened the front door.“I’m sorry, darling.I didn’t mean to imply that you’re not entirely well now.It’s just that I cannot bear to see you or anyone else hurt by this foolish crusade of yours.”Pausing on her way out, Deanna turned to her mother.“If Luke McClendon is innocent—and I believe he is—then doesn’t this family owe it to him to find out who really killed Daddy?”A pink flush spread up Phyllis’s neck and over her face.“We don’t owe that man anything! He destroyed this family! Ripped us apart and didn’t give a damn!”“Would it matter if I told you that I’m doing this for myself as much, if not more, than for Luke? I need to know the truth.I can’t go on this way, not knowing
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