Kay David: Marriage To A Stranger

Turning around, Lara headed back to Conley’s room, her emotions more tangled than ever. When she cracked open the door, her confusion only grew.

Conley was sitting up in bed.

With his rumpled hair and unshaven jaw, he looked vulnerable, defenseless…and sexy, Lara realized with a pang. Conley had always been one of the most handsome men she’d ever known, but he’d gotten more so as he’d aged. His eyes, forever dark and intense, now held shadows in them that drew her even closer. The few threads of silver that gleamed in the hair at his temples only added to his attraction. In one of those strange twists that couldn’t be explained, the further apart they’d grown, the more appealing he’d become.

He lifted a hand to his forehead and touched his bandage. Then he threw off the sheets and started to get out of bed. Moving his right leg too quickly, he paled immediately, a sharp curse following the movement as he fell back against the pillows with a groan and pulled up the covers once more.

Lara couldn’t help herself; she hurried into the room and to the side of the bed. “Are you all right? Do you want me to call the nurse?”

Before he could answer, the door squeaked open again. Lara and Conley both turned at the sound, but under his sheets, Conley immediately tensed, his whole body going taut and rigid. She glanced down at him in surprise then faced the two men who stood in the doorway. The two cops who’d stopped by earlier looked back at her.

“So you finally woke up, eh, Mr. Harrison?” The taller of the two, Officer Margulies, Lara recalled, walked to Conley’s bed and held out his hand. He introduced himself and then turned to the shorter man beside him. The other one, Officer Fields, nodded at Conley.

“We came by earlier, but you were asleep. Your wife suggested we come back later.”

Conley’s mouth went tight. “She didn’t tell me you had come.”

“I didn’t have a chance yet.” Lara sent an apologetic smile to the officers, then a puzzled look to Conley. He was always short with his words, but he was rarely downright rude. “I was going to—”

“Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter,” Margulies dismissed her apology with a breezy wave of his hand. “We just wanted to talk to you about what happened, see if we can’t track down the son of a gun who put you here, that’s all.” His smile was friendly enough, but behind his demeanor, Lara caught an edge of determination. He pulled out a notebook and pen as a wave of tension rose from Conley’s bed. Lara was pretty sure the cops couldn’t tell, but she could. If he’d been able, Conley would have sprung from the bed and raced down the hall to get away from the men.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” he said. “I’m sure it was an accident. The guy just didn’t see me—”

“So it was a male driver?”

Conley tightened his mouth. “I couldn’t tell for sure. I just meant the driver. Whoever he—or she—was, they couldn’t see me. The snow was too bad and I was crossing the street against the light.”

The cop wrote something. “Car, van, truck?”

“It was a car,” Conley said, almost grudgingly. “A coupe, I think.”

Margulies looked up. “Didn’t get a plate number by any chance, did you?”

Conley shook his head.

“Color?”

“I don’t know.”

“Make?”

“No idea.”

Lara stood by in silence. She wasn’t surprised by Conley’s answers; he’d been focused on their argument and wouldn’t remember the details of the car. But why was he so nervous?

The other officer, who had said nothing up to this point, went to the opposite side of the room to lean against the wall. He spoke with his arms crossed, his face closed. “You own Harrison’s, right?”

“That’s right.” Conley’s voice sounded even tighter than it had before.

“Can’t you give us any details at all about the car that hit you? Any damage on it, for example? A broken headlight maybe?” Margulies tapped his pen against his notebook. “This isn’t much to work with.”

“I’ve told you everything I can.”

Fields spoke again, and despite her initial impressions, Lara realized he was the one in charge. “You have any enemies, Mr. Harrison?”

“Everyone has enemies, don’t they?”

The two cops looked at him and so did Lara. After a second, Conley shrugged. “None that would want to run over me,” he said finally. “At least none that I know of.”

Slapping his notebook closed, Margulies shook his head. “Well, I guess that’s it, unless you can think of—”

“Any problems at work?” Fields spoke as if the other man hadn’t. Then he shot a glance in Lara’s direction. “Any problems at home?”

“Everything’s fine.” Conley spoke quickly and Lara jerked her head in his direction. He smiled at her for the benefit of the watching policemen, but his eyes warned her not to call him on the lie.

Lara smiled back automatically. He was tighter than a watch spring, she thought in amazement. What on earth was wrong with him?

“I’d like to get home, though.” He looked at the cops. “If that’s all you need…”

“No problem,” Margulies said, sending a nod in Lara’s direction. “But you give us a call when you’re feeling better and maybe we’ll be able to do a little more. In the meantime, take care of yourself.”

The door closed behind them with a swish, and Lara turned immediately to Conley. “What’s going on?” she demanded without preamble. “You acted as if they were here to arrest you, for God’s sake!”

“Nothing’s going on.” His demeanor sharp once more, he eased to the side of the bed with a grimace and stood up, an audible groan escaping before he could stop it.

Her first thought was to help him but this time she stayed where she was. “Conley, come on! I know you! I know you’re hiding—”

Turning sharply, he cursed at her. “Dammit, Lara, I said nothing was going on. Would you believe me for once? Cut me some slack, for God’s sake. I’m in pain here!”

When he came out of the bathroom a few moments later, he was dressed in the clothes she’d brought him. “Let’s get out of here,” he said without looking at her. “I want to go home.”

CONLEY BROODED all the way home and Lara let him. It was pointless to try to get him to talk so she didn’t even make the effort.

They drove through the snow-locked town in silence, the beauty of the frozen landscape nonexistent to them both. The only thing Lara could think about were the two cops and their questions. At Mesa, she frequently dealt with the police about the various cases they were handling. Margulies and Fields were good but it would have taken better to pry anything out of Conley.

And he clearly had something to hide.

As she turned down their street and eased into the driveway, it hit Lara. Maybe Conley did have something to hide…but not from them. She’d been in the room, too. Maybe his reluctance to elaborate had more to do with her presence than theirs.

The idea upset her, but there was nothing she could do about it. If she had any sense, from now on she’d close her mind to thoughts like those. Their marriage was over. She’d declared it dead with her request. The only thing left to do was bury it. Getting hurt and wondering about what could have been made no difference now.

She pulled the SUV into the garage and parked, but by the time she got to the other side of the vehicle to help Conley out, he’d already managed to open his door and slide from the seat. Pale and clearly in pain, he stood stiffly as she rounded the truck’s fender.

“I would have helped you.” She stopped, her hand on the cold metal. “Couldn’t you have waited?”

“It’s okay,” he said from behind gritted teeth.