Pecan Pie and Deadly Lies (An Adams Grove Novel) Read online

  “She’s my daughter,” Arty said.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Your daughter?” Cody shook his head. “No. Stop screwing with me. That’s impossible.”

  Arty laughed. “Possible, and fact. I paid for that house with my money. Fifteen percent of your money, to be precise, that I earned by representing you. By making you the star you are today. I don’t need to steal from you. Look around. I’m just as rich as you are. She’s mine.”

  Cody cramped forward like he’d been sucker punched. “No.”

  “Yeah.”

  “No.” Cody stepped back. This can’t be happening.

  Arty pointed to his hair. “Amy’s hair is brown, and her eyes… brown just like mine. Not too likely you and Lou would have a brown-eyed daughter. And Lou even named her after me. A for ‘Arty,’ M for ‘Max,’ and Y for ‘Why the heck didn’t we use protection?’ A-M-Y. Amy.”

  “Uh-uh. No. She’d never have slept with a conniving shit like you.”

  Arty shook his head. “Watch it, Cody. I know you’re pissed, but we’ve got a long history. Don’t say something stupid.” He slid open his desk drawer and pulled out a picture and sat it on his desk.

  Cody snatched it up. Then looked back at Arty. She’s not my daughter. A much younger Amy sat next to Arty in the picture. With them side by side it was pretty clear there was a relation there. Arty wasn’t lying. Even he couldn’t make that corny crap up. Cody could see it in his face. “How could you, man? You knew how much I loved that girl. She was my whole life back then, as much as the music.” He threw the picture down on the desk.

  Arty stood and walked back around the desk. “She’d have dragged you down. If she’d been all that, she wouldn’t have fallen into my bed so easy.”

  “You slept with her while we were together. Man, that’s—”

  “I’m sorry, but frankly I probably saved you from a worse heartache than you got. Think about the earnings you’d have lost in a nasty divorce somewhere down the road.”

  Cody turned his back on Arty. I’m not sure which is worse. Thinking I had a daughter I didn’t know about, or finding out you slept with the woman I loved and fathered a child with her right under my nose.

  “I know it’s not what you wanted to hear. Trust me. She’s no good. I probably did deserve her, but thankfully we both dodged that bullet.”

  “You didn’t do me any damn favors.” Cody straightened and then turned and swung on Arty, landing his fist right in Arty’s gut and sending him ass over elbow to the floor. “Yeah. That’s one thing we agree on. You’re sorry.”

  “Fine, man. I deserved that one,” Arty said. “Now can we leave this mess in the past? Get the hell out of here before you do something we both regret.”

  The door of the office swung open.

  Why did I think I’d be the exception to your nasty underhanded ways? I was a fool. “I don’t regret one thing I’ve said or done. You deserve more than that. I ought to beat the hell out of you with my bare hands right here and now until you realize what an awful human being you are.” Anger singed the corners of his control.

  Cody took a lunge toward Arty just as three guys came running into the room.

  “You okay, Arty?” asked a beast of a man with biceps as big as bowling balls.

  Fists clenched, Cody kicked the trash can next to Arty’s desk clear across the room, sending a shower of papers that fluttered across the floor. “You’re not worth my damn time,” Cody said, then turned to the people at the door. “It’s fine. Nothing to see.”

  Arty stood and straightened his suit. “It’s fine, guys. We’re just finishing up. I’ll be out in a minute.”

  People in the main room gathered around the door, craning to see what was going on.

  Cody swept past them and then excused himself through the throng of people hanging around the door trying to catch a little bit of the drama he’d been doling out. He could barely absorb everything that Arty had just said. This time the guys with their cameras were armed and ready for him, peeking through the bushes and snapping as he walked by. Cody raised his arm to cover his face. “No story here, guys. Move along.”

  Kasey’s T-bird was still where he’d left it, just like he’d asked, when he got to the valet and pressed a hundred-dollar bill into his hand. “Thanks.”

  The young valet ran up to the car at Cody’s heels. “Thanks for the tip, but could you sign my hat too?”

  Cody was in no mood, but he’d always promised he’d never be an ass to a fan. “Sure. You got a pen?”

  The boy took a marker out of his pocket and handed over his tan Stetson.

  “Under or over?” Cody asked.

  “Right on top!”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Jace. J-A-C-E.”

  Cody scribbled his signature on the guy’s hat and handed it back to him. “Here ya go, Jace. Thanks for your help.”

  “Thank you!”

  Cody gave Jace a nod as he turned the car around and headed back toward the main road. When he pulled onto the interstate, heavy raindrops began splattering against the windshield.

  “Could it get any worse?” But it did somehow seem appropriate for how he was feeling right now.

  What is it about my whole world crashing that gets the creativity going? He could already hear the melody of a new song forming in his mind.

  The rain came down so hard he could barely see, and rather than risk wrecking Kasey’s car, he got off at the next exit and went into a truck stop. He sat in a back booth and sipped a cup of coffee, replaying the day in his mind. He flipped over the paper place mat and began writing down the chords and the few phrases that were already coming to him rapid-fire. The piece of pie the waitress had talked him into sat there untouched. His stomach was in no shape for consuming anything tonight.

  “The biggest betrayal of all,” he wrote.

  How could she have slept with Arty? Another band member would have been bad, but my own agent? He was supposed to have my back.

  His phone rang. He glanced at the display. It was Lou, so he didn’t bother to answer. Shortly after, at a little after eleven, she texted, I’M SORRY.

  Arty must have called her. Lou must have figured he was a total idiot to have thought Amy was his child. Another text came through. CAN WE TALK?

  He turned off the phone and put it in his pocket.

  The waitress wandered over with a pot of coffee. “Top you off?”

  “Thanks.”

  She dropped two creamers on the table. “You look familiar. You been in here before?”

  “No. Just passing through.”

  She stepped back and turned her head. “I’m usually pretty good with faces.” She glanced down at the paper. “You some kind of writer?”

  “Yeah.” That wasn’t a total lie. He wrote songs.

  She grinned a big overwhitened smile. “I’m going to write a book someday. Fiction, but based on my life.”

  If she sat down and started telling him her story he was going to kill himself. “Good luck,” he said, trying not to encourage her. Thankfully, the bells on the door tinkled as a family of four came in. Saved by the bell, literally.

  “Holler if you need anything.” She scurried off to seat the customers.

  Cody stared out the window. The rain was finally starting to slow down. He took out the bills from his front pocket and placed some money on the table, then folded the place mat and tucked it into his pocket.

  He drove back to Adams Grove, but he wasn’t up to talking to the guys tonight and they’d have twenty questions if he showed up there now. He passed Nickel Creek Road and headed toward Main Street. It was peaceful. Nothing was open and only a few lights from the upstairs apartments over the shops gave any indication anyone was around at all. He pulled the car into the parking lot next to the market, and cranked down the window. The air had cooled down and the frogs were loud enough to be background to his vocals—which was really saying something. It was the loud kind of quiet that reminded him
of being home on his ranch in Nashville.

  He wondered if Kasey had been at Arty’s when he showed up. There had been so much going on in his head that he wasn’t thinking straight and now he regretted having shown up at the party, not only because of the scene he’d made, but the blow of the whole situation still had him reeling.

  How could you have done that, Lou? The people he’d trusted with the most important things in his life—his heart and his music—had both betrayed him.

  He took out his phone and deleted the messages from Lou. Old text messages from Kasey still littered the log. He hadn’t ever deleted them.

  Wonder if she’s home yet? The phone showed that it was just after one. Arty’s parties usually didn’t run long. They were like bottle rockets: big, hot, wild excitement, but fizzled out before anyone got bored.

  Flipping through the old texts between him and Kasey made him grin. He loved how she always ended each note with a smiley face.

  He pressed the key to start a message. His thumb hovered over the letters.

  It would be a lot easier to know where to start if he knew whether she’d still been at the party or not when he got there. Heck, for all he knew the altercation with Arty was already on the news. He wasn’t sure how much folks had heard or seen, but that didn’t matter. The press would make up a good story to fill in the blanks. He’d lived through that enough times in the past. Amazing how fast bad news traveled, but then again if that were the case he’d have already heard from Annette.

  He double-checked the messages. Nothing from Annette. That was good news. He looked at the Twitter feeds. Only a couple comments there. Maybe it would blow over.

  He typed into the keypad. HOPE YOUR NIGHT WAS BETTER THAN MINE. JUST WANTED YOU TO KNOW HOW MUCH I APPRECIATE YOUR FRIENDSHIP. He read it, then deleted the second sentence. No sense sounding like a complete sap.

  HOPE YOUR NIGHT WAS BETTER THAN MINE. Better. He clicked Send, then lowered his head into his hand against the door jamb.

  A chord sounded, alerting him of a reply.

  Kasey? He looked at the text. HAD TO BE. I DIDN’T FIGHT WITH ARTY. WHERE ARE YOU? she’d texted back.

  He typed, ADAMS GROVE. YOU?

  HOME. YOU OKAY? ARE YOU ON THE BUS?

  She knew. Well, he didn’t know what she knew, but she’d known it hadn’t gone well. No.

  NOT UP TO TALKING TO THE GUYS.

  His phone rang.

  “Why are we texting like teenagers?” she asked.

  That is kind of stupid. “I don’t know. I guess I started it. I thought you might be asleep.”

  “I’m not. I was worried. What happened?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “If you’re not up to talking to the guys, you can stay in my guest room. I won’t even ask any questions. Jake’s with Riley. I’m alone. The buses were dark when I came in. Just pull the car into the house garage. No one will even notice.”

  “You sure you don’t mind?”

  “Positive. I’ll put the garage door up for you.”

  “I’ll be there in a few minutes.” He started the car and drove back to Kasey’s house. She was right. The buses were dark, and if anyone noticed, they didn’t bother to come out to get an update. He pulled into the garage.

  Kasey stood in the doorway between the house and the garage holding a beer. She clicked the garage door remote and the door slowly began to close as Cody walked toward her.

  He shook his head and shrugged. She looked cute with her hair up in a ponytail and wearing sweatpants and an oversize T-shirt with CALL ME, DARLIN’ across the front.

  “Hey, darlin’,” he said, but even he recognized the lack of joy in his own voice.

  “Huh?”

  He nodded toward her chest.

  “Eyes up here, cowboy.” She pushed the door wider, then realized he was commenting on the words on her T-shirt. “I guess it’s a good sign that you still have your sense of humor.”

  “Thanks for taking me in,” he said as he climbed the steps.

  She handed him the beer. “Thought you might need this. You hungry?”

  He shook his head.

  “I made you a PBJ, no crust.”

  “You remembered?”

  “Of course I remember.” Why do I remember that? I couldn’t tell you what kind of sandwich Scott would want, and I spend a lot of time with him.

  He took his hat off and set it down on the counter.

  “Do you want to talk? Or just go to bed?”

  I’d like to take you to bed and do things to you that would make me forget I’d ever gone to see Lou or found out about the whole sordid past.

  Kasey cocked her head. “To sleep.”

  She’d read his mind. How’d she always seem to do that?

  “Come on,” she said. “Let’s go sit in the living room.”

  He followed her into the living room and sat on the couch in the dark. He set the beer on the table beside him.

  “Need a friendly hug?” She sat next to him not bothering to turn on the light.

  “Yeah.” He held his arm out. She scooched over next to him under the crook of his arm. He wrapped his other arm around her and held on tight.

  “You don’t have to say anything unless you want to,” she whispered.

  He laid his cheek on top of her head. They sat in the dark. It was quiet except for the soft echo from the buses’ generators outside.

  Cody squeezed her tight for a moment. “You were there. How much did you hear?”

  “I heard the fight in Arty’s office.”

  “What happened after I left?”

  “Arty played it off as a misunderstanding. He said y’all were cool, and encouraged everyone to forget about it.”

  “Humph. We’re far from cool.”

  “I left right after you did, and there were a lot of people waiting to get their cars from the valet.”

  “What a disaster.” He rubbed his eyes, then pushed his hand through his hair. “All in one day I went from trying to give an old relationship a second chance, to thinking I had a daughter, to finding out that I don’t have a child but my sleazeball agent and the girl who broke my heart do. Un-freakin’-believable.”

  She laid her hand on his arm.

  “I never knew. Never suspected a thing.”

  Kasey pulled her feet up on the couch. Cody hooked his arm under her knee and tugged her close. “I can barely get my head around this. I went over to Arty’s place mad as fire. I thought he’d kept my daughter a secret from me all these years. You can’t believe the emotions that were bouncing around. I was proud to be a father. Hurt I hadn’t been there. Worried that I hadn’t been there for my child. Embarrassed that I somehow didn’t know. Mad that Arty had kept it from me.”

  He reached over and took a sip of the beer. “Thinking I was a father. Thinking I’d missed out on one of the biggest gifts in life. Those feelings were swirling faster than the tires on that T-bird.”

  He sat quiet. She was a good listener. She hadn’t even said a word. Was she as shocked as he was? Did she think he was a fool? No. Her touch told him otherwise.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Kasey knew about betrayal in the worst kind of way, and she wouldn’t wish that feeling on anyone. The best she could do right now was listen. So she did.

  Finally, Cody shook his head and looked into her eyes. “How can this be how it’s supposed to be?” He looked away and took another sip of his beer.

  “I’ve lived for all these years believing that I was the reason Lou dumped me. That I hadn’t handled things right. That I’d done a disservice to her by not staying home and getting a regular job. That I followed my dreams at the price of leaving her behind. I’ve been so wary of trusting a relationship ever since then. And now. Now, I find out it’s all a lie?”

  “I’m sorry she hurt you.”

  “Again. She hurt me again, but Arty did too.”

  She shifted closer.

  “I was clueless. Even now, knowing the whole story
, I don’t see how it happened.”

  “Sometimes there aren’t logical explanations, Cody. You could rack your brain trying to figure it all out and it still won’t make you feel any better.”

  “I used to want a family. It was either-or back then, and I chose the music. Felt guilty for it too. Maybe I could’ve had both. If not then, why not now? I don’t have to work so much—maybe if I had a family I wouldn’t.”

  She sucked in a deep breath. It always sounded easier than it was. “Or you might. You love your music. You come alive on stage. You’d have to make some compromises. Raising a child isn’t easy, and it sure as heck isn’t a part-time gig.”

  “I used to think music was enough; anything else was a bonus. I was wrong. I want more.” He nodded. “I do. I want more.”

  “You can have more.” Even in the dim room he connected with her gaze. “You’re Cody Tuggle. You can have anything and anyone you want.”

  He laughed and shook his head. “That’s not true. That’s what people would like to believe, but it’s all smoke and mirrors. Besides, love isn’t like that. It doesn’t matter who you are or how much money you make, it has to be from the heart.”

  “You’ve really been thinking about this.”

  “Yeah, I have.” He took her hand in his and held it in his lap. “You’ve had that real love. You know.”

  She placed her hand on his heart. “I do know real love. Cody, I know you’re hurt, but for all of that to have happened, it couldn’t have been the real deal. You’ll have your one true love. It’ll happen for you.”

  “Man, I hope so.” He reached his hand to her cheek. She didn’t pull back, and his breath quickened. He leaned forward and placed his mouth gently over hers.

  Whoa. That’s just his emotions in overdrive. Don’t get sucked in. She placed her hands on his chest and slid away. “You’ve had a tough night.” She grabbed his beer can and headed to the kitchen.

  Kasey dropped the beer can in the trash and stood in the dark kitchen.

  Until that very moment she hadn’t admitted to herself that she’d felt a real attraction to Cody… but that kiss. Sure, Cody Tuggle was hot. Women all over the world swooned at the sight of him, but that kiss hadn’t just created a spark. That was an all-out sound-the-alarm blaze.