Addy put a hand to her head. “I was afraid of that.”
“Don’t worry. The bastard owes me for putting up with his son for so long. Spending a little on my daughter was the least he could do.”
“So what are you doing next?”
She took a deep breath. “What I always do. Move on.”
“Have you ever really been in love?” Addy asked.
“I’m not sure I know what love is,” she said.
Addy was pretty sure she did. But she wasn’t convinced that made her position any better than Helen’s.
* * *
“You do realize what’s happening?”
Recognizing Derek’s voice, Kevin held the door for his wife and kids as they trooped into Any Way You Slice It to order a pizza. He stayed outside so he could talk on his phone without being overheard. “What are you talking about?”
“Adelaide’s seeing Noah.”
“I know.” He checked to make sure he was alone before continuing. “I’ve been watching her. I’ve put a couple of notes on her car, too, reminding her to keep her mouth shut and warning her to stay away from him. But...the one telling her to stay away hasn’t done any good. I found his truck at her house last night.”
“Maybe the other one hasn’t done any good, either. If she tells him we raped her—”
“Kevin? Aren’t you coming in?”
Kevin glanced up to see his wife poking her head out of the restaurant. “In a sec.”
“Who is it?” she asked.
“Just one of my players who can’t make practice on Monday. Go ahead and order. I’ll be right there.”
“That’s so important you have to take the call outside in the cold?” she grumbled, but disappeared inside.
“Addy won’t tell Noah,” he said to Derek.
“You can’t be sure. If he’s getting in her pants—”
“It won’t last. You know him. She’s just the flavor of the month.”
“It doesn’t have to last. If they get too close, she might decide to tell him despite your notes and the warning you gave her when you threw her back in the mine.”
“I told you, I didn’t throw her in the mine.”
“Then who did?”
“How the hell should I know? Maybe you. Or one of the others. It wasn’t me.”
“It wasn’t me, either,” he insisted.
“Then forget about that and listen.” He had no time to wrangle over who’d done what. If he didn’t get inside the restaurant soon, and help with the kids, his wife would be irritable for the rest of the evening. “She hasn’t said anything yet, so maybe she’s not going to.”
“That’s leaving a lot to chance, buddy. Because if she tells him—and he believes her—we’re screwed.”
Noah had a lot of credibility. Kevin felt the same fear, but he couldn’t go anywhere near Addy again. Not after Noah caught him there last night. And he couldn’t trust any of the others not to make the situation worse. “He won’t believe Cody was part of a rape any more than his old man believed it.”
“What are you talking about?”
Audrey kept craning her head to look out the window at him. He waved to let her know he’d just be another minute. “Someone sent the Rackhams an anonymous letter the summer we graduated, telling them what happened.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I’m guessing it was Tom. Had to be. Who else would do it? But no one knows for sure. The note wasn’t signed and had no postal markings.”
“Mr. Rackham asked you about it?”
“He came to see me, even showed it to me.”
“What’d you tell him?”
“That we had sex with her at the mine, but it was voluntary.”
“And he believed you?”
“Of course. In his mind, someone was trying to play a cruel trick on him. His son could never be guilty of something like that, which gives the rest of us a pass, too. Anyway, I told him she’d been following us around for a year. That she wanted to do the whole team to celebrate graduation but only some of us participated.”
“Why didn’t he contact me?”
“I don’t think he talked to anyone else. I told him what he wanted to hear, and he accepted it. He was already suffering because his son was dead. It wasn’t as if he wanted any doubts about Cody’s integrity. Brent Rackham’s a proud man. He prefers to believe he and his family are above question.”
“But if Noah saw that letter—”
Kevin could see Audrey giving the kids some quarters for the video games in the corner. “He didn’t. Brent said Mrs. Rackham found it under the doormat and brought it to him. If Noah knew about it, he would’ve asked us to confirm or deny. The only other person who knows is Shania.”
“You gotta be shitting me. How did she find out?”
“I thought whoever wrote that letter might send others. So I told her Addy got drunk and kept coming on to us and things got out of hand.”
“But why bring Shania into it?”
“Because she wouldn’t believe it of Cody, either. We need to ally ourselves with whoever will work hardest to protect him, because that means they’ll protect us, too.”
There was a slight pause as he absorbed this logic. “And? Did she buy it?”
“That Addy wanted to have sex with us? Hook, line and sinker. What was her alternative? To think Cody didn’t really care about her? That he’d cheat on her without a second thought? It’s always easier to blame the other woman.”
“Damn it, man. That was taking a risk. And you did it without even talking to the rest of us.”
Kevin ignored the sulky tone that had crept into Derek’s voice. “I knew what I was doing. I think strategy for a living. That’s what football is, right?”
“This is a little more serious than a game.”
“I was protecting myself, protecting all of us, in case the truth ever came out.”
“It was brilliant, actually. You’ve destroyed Addy’s reputation, at least with certain key people. Now they’ll never believe a word she says.”
“Exactly.” It wasn’t a lot on which to hang their hope, but it would certainly give them a better chance of avoiding prison. Addy had been gone for thirteen years. He didn’t know a soul, besides Milly, who’d be on her side.
Provided Noah stayed out of it, of course.