Read Online Guilty as Sin by Jami Alden - Free Book Online

around here.”
    For a brief moment she saw a crack in his stony facade, enough to let his real emotions shine through. What she saw didn’t put her any more at ease, as Tommy’s eyes glittered at her with resentment that had been simmering for more than a decade.
    Shame and the knowledge she deserved every bit of his resentment burned like acid in her chest. The sixteen-year-old girl still lurking inside her wanted to jump to her defense.
I had to go along with it. I couldn’t say anything, not if I wanted to make it up to my father for everything that had happened.
    But they both knew the truth. One call to the dean at the University of Idaho, one call to the press to expose her father’s strong-arm tactics against Tommy and his family, and his life at least would have returned to normal. Instead, in a last, futile attempt to regain her family’s favor, she’d stayed silent, unwilling to create a media scandal that would alienate her from her family once and for all.
    What Kate hadn’t realized, until it was too late, was that no matter what she did, her father was never going to forgive her. He was never going to love her again.
    I’m sorry
, Kate wanted to say, but she couldn’t push the words past her lips.
    CJ cleared his throat and lowered his gaze as though he’d spotted something really interesting on the brown leather tips of his boots. Jackson’s brow knitted in confusion. “You had a problem with Senator Beckett?”
    Kate swallowed hard and opened her mouth to answer when Tommy cut her off. “It’s old news and, like I said, never really amounted to much.” Kate watched as the resentment faded, Tommy’s expression turning flat and emotionless once again. So different from the Tommy she’d known, whose every emotion showed in the depths of his eyes. He could brush it off, but Kate knew the truth: The senator’s manipulations and the life Tommy had lived since then had turned him into a hard-eyed stranger she barely recognized.
    “We should get going then,” she said to Tommy. As she pushed to her feet, she added, “The reporters are going to want to talk to me about my involvement. Are you comfortable with me giving them a statement?” The question was as much for CJ as for Jackson.
    Jackson nodded. “That’s a big part of why I contacted you. I don’t want to be in front of the cameras any more than I have to, and I certainly don’t want them bothering Brooke.”
    CJ added, “As long as you don’t divulge details we don’t want leaked—and as of now there are none—I’m hoping for as much media attention as we can get.”
    “Good.” The four of them walked to the front door. She said goodbye to Jackson while CJ and Tommy followed her outside. As expected, the reporters were gathered on the front porch in a buzzing knot. The second the door swung open, half a dozen microphones were pointed at their faces. CJ quickly took his leave.
    Tommy hung back and gestured with one big hand as though to say “It’s all you.”
    Kate mentally braced herself. She’d done enough interviewsto be comfortable in front of the cameras, but she knew the press for this case would be different. She was used to rehashing her own past. It was, of course, why she’d majored in criminology at NYU.
    She’d originally planned to go into law enforcement. But after a summer spent interning at the St. Anthony’s Foundation, named for the patron saint of missing people, she’d realized she could do more good leveraging her own notoriety to draw national attention to cases that might otherwise linger in obscurity.
    This time, she knew, the rehashing would be worse. Because this time when she was talking about her past, she would be in the same town, breathing the same air, seeing the same familiar places she’d seen that night long ago.
    And not only that, she was surrounded by people who had been there. Who remembered what had happened that horrible night, who had lived through it with her.
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