One Wicked Night

Chapter Twelve

They were actually in the car, packed up and ready to leave town, when Nick brought it up again. Damn him.

“You should go say goodbye to Avery, at least,” Nick said quietly from the passenger seat. “If not Kaelin.”

Tyler slid his sunglasses onto his nose. It was later than he’d wanted to leave, but they’d both crashed and slept late. They’d grabbed breakfast in the hotel coffee shop and packed up, but it was noon already.

“They’re busy opening gifts at the house,” he said. “Let’s just go.”

“Tyler.”

He sighed and stared straight ahead.

“You know you have to deal with this.”

“Why?”

“Because this chip on your shoulder is wrecking your life. Fuck.” Nick turned his head away and looked out the side window for a moment. “Look at you. We’ve been arguing about the Healthy Solutions account. You want the money and don’t care about the ethics. You want the prestige of having them for a client.”

“What the hell does that have to do with anything?” Tyler asked. “It’ll make a difference. You can’t deny that.”

“We don’t need them,” Nick said. “We’ll have other opportunities to demonstrate your brilliance, to make money. And I’m not sure I want to be associated with a company who scams people.”

Tyler tightened his mouth. “Buyer beware.”

“Don’t you see? You only want them for a client because of how it will look good for us. You’re no different than your parents, for Chrissake.”

Tyler felt everything inside him shift as he processed Nick’s words. That was not true. He wanted to shout out a denial. But he couldn’t. Shit. Shit.

“You push away people who care for you. I know how you feel about Kaelin. How you’ve always felt about her. And you hurt her feelings.”

“She knew that was just one night.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. And you know it.”

Yeah. He did. Guilt washed through him. He still stared out the windshield, still parked in the hotel parking lot. “There’s no fucking way we could ever have anything,” he growled. “She’s way too good for that.”

Nick heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Do you have any idea how insulting that is?”

Tyler turned and squinted at him through his dark lenses. “What are you talking about?”

“She’s too good for you. But I’m not. What does that say about me?”

Tyler stared at Nick wordlessly, mouth open, then closing. He swallowed. His brain ran in circles. “It’s not like that,” he said. “It’s different. It’s not an insult.”

“Forget it.” Nick waved a hand. “If you go back there and try to talk to them, what do you think will happen?”

“Nothing! That’s the point! Nothing will change!”

“No, I mean, what’s the worst thing that could happen? What the hell are you so afraid of?”

Tyler gripped the steering wheel so tight his fingers hurt. His head felt as if it was going to explode, so much pressure built up inside him. His heart hammered and stomach churned. What was he afraid of?

He knew. He’d always known. He closed his eyes. Gritted his teeth.

“Tyler.” Nick’s voice was softer.

“I’m afraid—” His voice cracked. Embarrassed, he turned away. “Fuck. Fuck you, Nick.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I’m afraid…” He swallowed hard. “If I tell them the truth, I’m afraid it won’t make any difference.” The words were wrenched out of him painfully, like ripping a hole in his gut. “They still won’t love me, even if they know the truth.”

There. It was out. He’d spoken it aloud. He couldn’t look at Nick.

Nick’s hand landed on his knee. “You gotta face it, man,” he said again, quietly. “You gotta live with yourself. Thinking that is eating you alive. You have to tell them. You have to try to move on.”

“I can’t tell them everything. Some of it’s not mine to tell.” He thought of Kaelin confronting him about the wrecked car when he was seventeen. He couldn’t betray his sister by telling his parents the truth about that.

“Not all of it, no.”

“I tried to tell them. They didn’t believe me.”

“You didn’t try. Like always, you just let them blame you and never said a goddamn word.”

Tyler bent his head.

“You wanted them to have stuff to hate you about, didn’t you?”

He said nothing, but he knew the truth of it. He’d never felt he could live up to their expectations. So he made sure that he didn’t.

“How’s that working for you?” Nick asked dryly, breaking the tension. Tyler choked out a laugh.

“I can’t do it.”

“I’m with you.”

“I’m not sure that helps.” Tyler lifted his head and gave Nick a rueful smile. “You want me to tell them about us?”

“If you want to, I’m fine with it.” Nick held his gaze steadily.

“Fuck, man,” Tyler whispered. “You fucking kill me.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m fine if you don’t tell them, too. Your choice.”

Tyler felt as if his guts were being ripped out of him. “Fuck,” he said again.

With a smile on her face but a heavy heart, Kaelin watched Avery open another lovely gift. She’d admired the gifts, helped Avery keep track of who’d given what, fetched more drinks and coffee for the family members who had gathered in the Wirth living room the day after the wedding. It wasn’t a large gathering, and Tyler’s absence was very conspicuous.

Even though he wasn’t there, the tension in the room was palpable. Dr. and Mrs. Wirth looked as if they hadn’t had much sleep. They barely spoke to each other—in fact, they barely looked at each other. Even Avery, glowing and happy, had a glimmer of worry in her eyes. Again, Kaelin and she didn’t speak about what had happened the night before, and Kaelin wasn’t even sure if Avery knew anything about it.

Secrets. So many secrets. Probably many she didn’t even know about in this complicated family.

She sighed, remembering Tyler’s anguish the night before. Both his parents’ reaction and his seemed a little out of proportion about the whole thing, though she had to admit maybe she’d feel differently if she’d been identified as the “hooker” they’d taken up to their room.

She rolled her eyes, earning a puzzled glance from Avery. “You don’t like these candlesticks?” Avery asked.

“Oh no! They’re lovely.”

Avery nodded and packed them back into the tissue.

She’d rolled her eyes because she was suddenly so tired of worrying what people thought, and annoyed with Dr. and Mrs. Wirth’s insistence on maintaining the perfect image. All through the wedding plans she’d had to battle with that, to keep what Avery wanted in the forefront, not what her mother wanted or thought they should have. She was exhausted from all of it.

And then the front door opened and closed.

“Can you see who that is, Kaelin dear?” Mrs. Wirth called from the kitchen.

“Of course.”

And just as she arrived at the French doors, she came face-to-face with Tyler, Nick following right behind him. They stopped and stared at each other.

“Hey,” he finally said. “Just stopped in on our way out of town to…uh…”

His hair was going every which way, he hadn’t shaved and his usual devilish smile was absent. His gray T-shirt hugged his wide chest and abs, and faded jeans, the ones he’d dragged on the other night to go searching for munchies for them, sat low on his hips, low enough to reveal a thin strip of golden skin between the hem of his T-shirt and the jeans. Nick’s dark jeans and black shirt were just as sexy, but in a different way.

“Come in,” Kaelin said.

“Hey, Tyler, come see what we got,” Avery called from where she sat in an armchair. “I thought you two weren’t coming.”

“Yeah. Well…”

The smooth-talking devil seemed at a loss for words today. Worry gnawed at Kaelin’s tummy and she exchanged a glance with Nick that, for once, didn’t reassure her. He didn’t look much better than Tyler, tired and quiet. Though Nick was always quieter than Tyler.

“I wanted to say goodbye to you. And Scott,” Tyler said. “When are you leaving on your honeymoon?”

“Tonight. We drive to St. Louis and fly out from there.”

“Three weeks in Europe. Sounds amazing.”

She smiled up at him. “Yeah. I’m excited.”

“Where are Mom and Dad?” Tyler asked, looking around.

“Mom’s making more coffee. Not sure where Dad is.”

“He’s in the den watching golf,” Scott said, walking into the room. “Hey, Tyler, Nick.”

A muscle twitched in Tyler’s jaw. “I guess I’ll go find him. Need to talk to them both.”

Kaelin met Nick’s eyes. He pursed his lips and folded his arms across his broad chest, then sighed as Tyler disappeared. She moved closer to him. “What’s going on?” she asked him quietly.

“He has something he wants to talk to them about.”

She squinted at him unhappily. “Is it about last night?”

“No. Well, sort of. But it’s not about you. Don’t worry.”

“I am worried. I don’t understand what’s going on. I mean, I do, but it all seems so blown out of proportion.”

Nick blew out a breath and rubbed his nearly shaved head. “Maybe you should know about it. You were kind of involved.”

“Know about what?” Confusion swirled inside her.

“Come in the kitchen.” He led the way to the now empty kitchen. Coffee dripped into the carafe of the coffeemaker on the counter. It smelled dark and delicious. The door to the den off the kitchen was open and they heard Tyler’s voice, but couldn’t hear what he was saying.

Nick turned to her, and spoke quietly. “You know that night you walked in on us? Ten years ago?”

Her stomach swooped. “Yes.”

Nick closed his eyes. Then opened them. He looked as if someone were stabbing him in the stomach. “After you showed up, Tracy uh…changed her mind about what we were doing. She wanted to go home. I think she freaked out that someone else saw her like that.”

Kaelin didn’t know what to say to that. Freaked out was probably a mild way to describe how Tracy had felt, although she’d been enjoying herself pretty well up to that point as Kaelin stood there hiding behind the door, watching and listening. “I’m sorry,” she said stiffly, wondering if they blamed her for ending their fun.

Nick shook his head. “Don’t fucking apologize, Kaelin,” he growled. “It wasn’t your fault. Tracy was kind of…psycho. If only we’d known that before. We were young and stupid and horny, what can I say. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“Really?” She searched his face. “Did it really seem like a good idea, Nick?” Remembered hurt pulsed inside her.

Shame crossed over Nick’s face and he dropped his gaze for a moment. “I’m sorry, Kaelin.”

She nodded stiffly.

“Anyway, she went running home and I guess she was so paranoid that you were going to tell people what happened, she told her parents that…” Nick paused. Swallowed. “She told her parents we’d raped her.”

Kaelin’s jaw nearly smacked the counter she fell against. “What!”

He nodded, swiped a hand over his eyes. “She told them we’d tied her up and took turns having sex with her. It was a fucking nightmare. Her parents called both our parents. Thank Christ they didn’t call the cops, although they wanted to.”

“But you said nothing happened after that.”

“Nothing did. We’d barely touched her and we for sure hadn’t had sex at that point. Other than a little making out.”

“Well, you should have called the cops! If nothing happened, they would have proved it.”

“Oh, Kaelin, think about what you just said. We’re talking Dr. and Mrs. Wirth here.”

“Oh lord.” She rubbed her mouth. They would not have wanted the police involved, and they sure wouldn’t have wanted the entire city to know about it. “What happened?”

“Dr. Wirth paid off Tracy’s family to keep quiet about it. I don’t know how much he gave them, but it was a lot. My folks didn’t have that kind of money, but they had a whole different attitude. I told them nothing happened and they believed me. We could have gone to the police and they would have supported me, even though it would have been a helluva mess.”

She nodded, hand still to her mouth, her stomach boiling, head spinning. “I gather Tyler’s parents weren’t quite so supportive.”

Nick snorted. “The stupid asshole didn’t even try to explain what happened. They were so furious they kicked him out of the house.”

Kaelin slumped against the counter. This was unbelievable. Her eyes stung and she blinked rapidly. “They did? He was only seventeen.”

“Almost eighteen, but yeah. We were leaving for college in the fall anyway. It was all arranged, except Tyler’s parents refused to pay, other than the tuition they’d already paid. They basically kicked him out and cut him off, for what he’d done.”

“He didn’t do anything!”

“You believe it,” Nick said slowly.

“Of course I believe it! You two would never rape someone!”

“Sshh.”

She hadn’t even realized her voice was rising. She took a breath, tried to calm down.

“What did he do? I know he went to college.”

“He lived with me, remember?”

Yeah, she remembered that. But…

“I had a little apartment off campus. My parents helped out, as much as they could. Tyler worked two part-time jobs while he was going to school. Didn’t sleep much. Worked all summer, every year. He did it on his own.”

She pressed a hand to her stomach, all tight and quivery, turned her gaze to him. “You love him, don’t you?”

He held her gaze, eyes steady as usual. “Yeah. I do.”

She nodded her head several times, hand still pressed to her stomach. “I was with you Friday night,” she said. “Yes, you tied me up, but only because I asked you to. And Tyler said I had to be untied before we…”

Nick nodded. “Yeah. That’s his thing. He’ll never take a chance on that again. A chance that someone could accuse him of forcing her.”

“I don’t believe he would ever do that,” she said fiercely. “Or you. God! His parents are—” She glanced at the den, where the voices were getting louder. “Is that what he’s talking to them about?”

“Yeah. Probably finally trying to tell them nothing happened that night.”

“I know she was there of her own free will!” Kaelin cried. “I was there! I saw it!”

“Well, you didn’t see much…”

“I saw more than you realize,” she said grimly. “Oh god, Nick. Why is he doing this?”

“Because he has to get past this somehow. Last night, his parents thought history was repeating itself. When they heard that rumor, they believed Tyler and I had done the same thing, lured some helpless girl to our room and took advantage of her. That’s why they were so furious. They let him come home for the wedding…”

“Let him come home!” she cried, almost beside herself. “Dear god!” All these years she’d blamed him for never coming home to visit.

“And then he does the same thing again.”

“This is insane!” Then she focused on Nick. “Why didn’t you ever tell me this? My god, Nick!”

“He asked me not to.” He held her gaze steadily. “Just like you asked me not to tell him we’d kept in touch.”

She looked wildly around. Tyler was in there trying to tell his parents he wasn’t the devil in disguise they thought he was. The raised voices told her it wasn’t going well. It was going to kill him if they didn’t believe him. Sure, he put on that act of being all tough and cool and not giving a shit about anything, but she’d seen inside him. Now she knew more about it and about him, she knew this was going to devastate him.

Surely his parents would believe him. They loved him; they had to. He was their son. Yeah, they’d had some problems. Tyler hadn’t made his teenage years easy, she’d admit that, but even so, didn’t parents love their children unconditionally? She knew hers had. And apparently Nick’s.

She strained her ears to hear what was being said.

“Why the hell would you wait…” she heard Dr. Wirth say.

She chewed on her bottom lip and looked at Nick.

She could tell them.

There wasn’t much else she could do to make this right, but Dr. and Mrs. Wirth liked her and respected her and if she told them the truth, they’d probably believe her. She covered her eyes. Telling them she was there that night ten years ago wasn’t that bad. So she’d walked in on something she shouldn’t have. That bad burning feeling inside her intensified and sweat popped out on her forehead. She’d have to admit she’d stood there and watched. To Tyler. And to his parents.

She swiped her forehead and leaned her elbows on the counter. Her hair fell forward as she bent her head. Nick’s hand landed on her back and rubbed in slow, warm circles. “Hey,” he whispered. She didn’t move.

But worse than that was admitting she was the girl they’d taken up to their hotel room Friday night. A wave of seasick panic washed over her and she gasped for air.

Oh for— It wasn’t that bad. So she went up to their room. After she’d kissed both of them. She could have gone up there for one drink and left. They didn’t have to know all the details.

Except…she could tell them she knew Tyler and Nick would never do that to a woman, because of how they’d treated her.

Her stomach turned over again and she fought to get oxygen into her lungs.

What was really important here? So what if Dr. and Mrs. Wirth thought she was a tramp? So what if they told the whole town? Did that really matter when Tyler was being crushed by his parents, the parents he’d always wanted love and respect from, the parents who’d never given it to him even though she knew now he deserved it. He always had. Maybe he’d gotten in a few scrapes, but it’s not as if he did drugs or stole cars or joined a gang and killed people, for god’s sake.

If she’d learned nothing else from the tragedy that had happened to her father, it was that she shouldn’t worry about what people thought of them. Her dad couldn’t help the way he was. He’d still been a good person. And so was she.

She sucked in a big breath, straightened and turned to Nick. “I have to do something.”